Events Pre-1600 1258 – The Siege of Baghdad ends with the surrender of the last Abbasid caliph to Hulegu Khan, a prince of the Mongol Empire. 1306 – In front of the high altar of Greyfriars Church in Dumfries, Robert the Bruce murders John Comyn, sparking the revolution in the Wars of Scottish Independence. 1355 – The St Scholastica Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days. 1392 – Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos marries Helena Dragaš, daughter of the Serbian Prince Constantine Dragaš. She is crowned as empress the following day. 1502 – Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on his second voyage to India. 1567 – Lord Darnley, second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, is found strangled following an explosion at the Kirk o' Field house in Edinburgh, Scotland, a suspected assassination.
1601–1900 1712 – Huilliches in Chiloé rebel against Spanish encomenderos. 1763 – French and Indian War: The Treaty of Paris ends the war and France cedes Quebec to Great Britain. 1814 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Champaubert ends in French victory over the Russians and the Prussians. 1840 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. 1846 – First Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Sobraon: British defeat Sikhs in the final battle of the war. 1861 – Jefferson Davis is notified by telegraph that he has been chosen as provisional President of the Confederate States of America. 1862 – American Civil War: A Union naval flotilla destroys the bulk of the Confederate Mosquito Fleet in the Battle of Elizabeth City on the Pasquotank River in North Carolina.
1901–present 1906 – , the first of a revolutionary new breed of battleships, is christened. 1920 – Józef Haller de Hallenburg performs the symbolic wedding of Poland to the sea, celebrating restitution of Polish access to open sea. 1920 – About 75% of the population in Zone I votes to join Denmark in the 1920 Schleswig plebiscites. 1923 – Texas Tech University is founded as Texas Technological College in Lubbock, Texas. 1930 – The Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng launches the failed Yên Bái mutiny in hope of overthrowing French protectorate over Vietnam. 1933 – In round 13 of a boxing match at New York City's Madison Square Garden, Primo Carnera knocks out Ernie Schaaf. Schaaf dies four days later. 1936 – Second Italo-Abyssinian War: Italian troops launch the Battle of Amba Aradam against Ethiopian defenders. 1939 – Spanish Civil War: The Nationalists conclude their conquest of Catalonia and seal the border with France. 1940 – The Soviet Union begins mass deportations of Polish citizens from occupied eastern Poland to Siberia. 1943 – World War II: Attempting to completely lift the Siege of Leningrad, the Soviet Red Army engages German troops and Spanish volunteers in the Battle of Krasny Bor. 1947 – The Paris Peace Treaties are signed by Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Finland and the Allies of World War II. 1954 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam. 1962 – Cold War: Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. 1964 – Melbourne–Voyager collision: The aircraft carrier collides with and sinks the destroyer off the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, killing 82. 1967 – The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified. 1972 – Ras Al Khaimah joins the United Arab Emirates, now making up seven emirates. 1984 – Kenyan soldiers kill an estimated 5,000 ethnic Somali Kenyans in the Wagalla massacre. 1989 – Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party. 1996 – IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in chess for the first time. 2003 – France and Belgium break the NATO procedure of silent approval concerning the timing of protective measures for Turkey in case of a possible war with Iraq. 2004 – Forty-three people are killed and three are injured when a Fokker 50 crashes near Sharjah International Airport. 2009 – The communications satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251 collide in orbit, destroying both. 2013 – Thirty-six people are killed and 39 others are injured in a stampede in Allahabad, India, during the Kumbh Mela festival. 2016 – South Korea decides to stop the operation of the Kaesong joint industrial complex with North Korea in response to the launch of Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4. 2018 – Nineteen people are killed and 66 injured when a Kowloon Motor Bus double decker on route 872 in Hong Kong overturns. 2021 – The traditional Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is canceled for the first time because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 2021 – Texas' worst energy infrastructure failure, the 2021 Texas power crisis, starts. 2026 – Shootings at a residence and a school in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Canada, leave nine people dead and 27 injured.
Births Pre-1600 1486 – George of the Palatinate, German bishop (died 1529) 1499 – Thomas Platter, Swiss author and scholar (died 1582) 1514 – Domenico Bollani, Bishop of Brescia (died 1579)
1601–1900 1606 – Christine of France, Duchess of Savoy (died 1663) 1609 – John Suckling, English poet and playwright (died 1642) 1627 – Cornelis de Bie, Flemish poet and jurist (died 1715) 1685 – Aaron Hill, English poet and playwright (died 1750) 1696 – Johann Melchior Molter, German violinist and composer (died 1765) 1766 – Benjamin Smith Barton, American botanist and physician (died 1815) 1775 – Charles Lamb, English poet and essayist (died 1834) 1785 – Claude-Louis Navier, French physicist and engineer (died 1836) 1795 – Ary Scheffer, Dutch-French painter and academic (died 1858) 1797 – George Chichester, 3rd Marquess of Donegall (died 1883) 1821 – Roberto Bompiani, Italian painter and sculptor (died 1908) 1824 – Samuel Plimsoll, English merchant and politician (died 1898) 1829 – Julius von Szymanowski, Russian surgeon of Polish-German origin (died 1868) 1842 – Agnes Mary Clerke, Irish astronomer and author (died 1907) 1843 – Adelina Patti, Italian-French opera singer (died 1919) 1846 – Lord Charles Beresford, Irish admiral and politician (died 1919) 1846 – Ira Remsen, American chemist and academic (died 1927) 1847 – Nabinchandra Sen, Bangladeshi poet and author (died 1909) 1856 – Fredericus van Rossum du Chattel, Dutch painter (died 1917) 1859 – Alexandre Millerand, French lawyer and politician, 12th President of France (died 1943) 1867 – Robert Garran, Australian lawyer and public servant (died 1957) 1868 – Prince Waldemar of Prussia (died 1879) 1868 – William Allen White, American journalist and author (died 1944) 1869 – Royal Cortissoz, American art critic (died 1948) 1879 – Ernst Põdder, Estonian general (died 1932) 1881 – Pauline Brunius, Swedish actress and director (died 1954) 1883 – Edith Clarke, American electrical engineer (died 1959) 1883 – H. V. Hordern, Australian cricketer (died 1938) 1888 – Giuseppe Ungaretti, Egyptian-Italian soldier, journalist, and poet (died 1970) 1890 – Fanny Kaplan, Ukrainian-Russian activist (died 1918) 1890 – Boris Pasternak, Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator Nobel Prize laureate (died 1960) 1892 – Alan Hale Sr., American actor and director (died 1950) 1893 – Jimmy Durante, American actor, singer, and pianist (died 1980) 1893 – Bill Tilden, American tennis player and coach (died 1953) 1894 – Harold Macmillan, English captain and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1986) 1897 – Judith Anderson, Australian actress (died 1992) 1897 – John Franklin Enders, American virologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1985) 1898 – Bertolt Brecht, German director, playwright, and poet (died 1956) 1898 – Joseph Kessel, French journalist and author (died 1979) 1899 – Cevdet Sunay, Turkish general and politician, 5th President of Turkey (died 1982)
1901–present 1901 – Stella Adler, American actress and educator (died 1992) 1902 – Walter Houser Brattain, Chinese-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1987) 1903 – Waldemar Hoven, German physician (died 1948) 1903 – Matthias Sindelar, Austrian footballer and manager (died 1939) 1904 – John Farrow, Australian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1963) 1905 – Walter A. Brown, American businessman, founded the Boston Celtics (died 1964) 1905 – Chick Webb, American drummer and bandleader (died 1939) 1906 – Lon Chaney Jr., American actor (died 1973) 1907 – Anthony Cottrell, New Zealand rugby player (died 1988) 1908 – Jean Coulthard, Canadian composer and educator (died 2000) 1909 – Min Thu Wun, Burmese poet, scholar, and politician (died 2004) 1910 – Dominique Pire, Belgian friar, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1969) 1914 – Larry Adler, American harmonica player, composer, and actor (died 2001) 1915 – Vladimir Zeldin, Russian actor (died 2016) 1919 – Ioannis Charalambopoulos, Greek colonel and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Greece (died 2014) 1920 – José Manuel Castañón, Spanish lawyer and author (died 2001) 1920 – Alex Comfort, English physician and author (died 2000) 1920 – Neva Patterson, American actress (died 2010) 1922 – Árpád Göncz, Hungarian author, playwright, and politician, 1st President of Hungary (died 2015) 1922 – José Gabriel da Costa, Brazilian spiritual leader, founder of the União do Vegetal (died 1971) 1923 – Allie Sherman, American football player and coach (died 2015) 1924 – Max Ferguson, Canadian radio host and actor (died 2013) 1924 – Bud Poile, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 2005) 1925 – Pierre Mondy, French actor and director (died 2012) 1926 – Sidney Bryan Berry, American general (died 2013) 1926 – Danny Blanchflower, Northern Irish soldier, footballer and manager (died 1993) 1927 – Leontyne Price, American operatic soprano 1929 – Jerry Goldsmith, American composer and conductor (died 2004) 1929 – Jim Whittaker, American mountaineer 1929 – Lou Whittaker, American mountaineer (died 2024) 1930 – E. L. Konigsburg, American author and illustrator (died 2013) 1930 – Robert Wagner, American actor and producer 1931 – James West, American inventor and acoustician 1932 – Barrie Ingham, English-American actor (died 2015) 1933 – Faramarz Payvar, Iranian musician and composer (died 2009) 1933 – Richard Schickel, American journalist, author, and critic (died 2017) 1934 – Fleur Adcock, New Zealand poet (died 2024) 1935 – Theodore Antoniou, Greek composer and conductor (died 2018) 1935 – Barbara Maier Gustern, American vocal coach and singer (died 2022) 1937 – Anne Anderson, Scottish physiologist and academic (died 1983) 1937 – Roberta Flack, American singer-songwriter and pianist (died 2025) 1939 – Adrienne Clarkson, Hong Kong-Canadian journalist and politician, 26th Governor General of Canada 1939 – Deolinda Rodríguez de Almeida, Angolan nationalist (died 1967) 1940 – Mary Rand, English sprinter and long jumper (died 2026) 1940 – Kenny Rankin, American singer-songwriter (died 2009) 1941 – Michael Apted, English director and producer (died 2021) 1941 – Dick Carlson, American journalist and diplomat (died 2025) 1944 – Peter Allen, Australian singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor (died 1992) 1944 – Frank Keating, American lawyer and politician, 25th Governor of Oklahoma 1944 – Frances Moore Lappé, American author and activist 1944 – Rufus Reid, American bassist and composer 1945 – Delma S. Arrigoitia, Puerto Rican historian, author, educator and lawyer (died 2023) 1945 – Glynn Saulters, American basketball player 1946 – Dick Anderson, American football player 1947 – Louise Arbour, Canadian lawyer and jurist 1947 – Butch Morris, American cornet player, composer, and conductor (died 2013) 1947 – Nicholas Owen, English journalist 1949 – Nigel Olsson, English rock drummer and singer-songwriter 1950 – Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, Mexican economist and politician (died 1994)