Events Pre-1600 421 – Constantius III becomes co-emperor of the Western Roman Empire. 1238 – The Mongols burn the Russian city of Vladimir. 1250 – Seventh Crusade: Crusaders engage Ayyubid forces in the Battle of Al Mansurah. 1347 – The Byzantine civil war of 1341–47 ends with a power-sharing agreement between John VI Kantakouzenos and John V Palaiologos. 1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots is executed on suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.
1601–1900 1601 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, unsuccessfully rebels against Queen Elizabeth I. 1693 – The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, the second-oldest institution of higher education in the Thirteen Colonies, is granted a charter by King William III and Queen Mary II. 1807 – Napoleon defeats the coalition forces of Russian General Bennigsen and Prussian General L'Estocq at the Battle of Eylau. 1817 – An army led by Grand Marshal Las Heras crosses the Andes to join San Martín in the liberation of Chile from Spain. 1837 – Richard Johnson becomes the first and only Vice President of the United States chosen by the Senate. 1865 – Delaware refuses to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, delaying the criminalization of slavery until the amendment's national adoption on December 6, 1865. The amendment is ultimately ratified by Delaware on February 12, 1901, the 92nd anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. 1879 – Sandford Fleming first proposes the adoption of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute. 1879 – England's cricket team, led by Lord Harris, is attacked in a riot during a match in Sydney. 1885 – The first Japanese immigrants arrive in Hawaii. 1887 – The Dawes Act is enacted, authorizing the U.S. President to divide Native American tribal land into individual allotments.
1901–present 1904 – Japanese forces launch a surprise attack against Russian-controlled Port Arthur, marking the start of the Russo-Japanese war. 1904 – The Dutch Colonial Army's Marechaussee regiment led by General G.C.E. van Daalen launch a military campaign in the Dutch East Indies' Northern Sumatra region, leading to the deaths of thousands of civilians. 1910 – The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated by William D. Boyce. 1924 – The first state execution in the United States by gas chamber takes place in Nevada. 1937 – Spanish Civil War: Republican forces establish the Interprovincial Council of Santander, Palencia and Burgos in Cantabria. 1942 – World War II: Japan invades Singapore. 1945 – World War II: British and Canadian forces commence Operation Veritable to occupy land between the Maas and Rhine rivers. 1945 – World War II: Mikhail Devyataev escapes with nine other Soviet POWs from a Nazi concentration camp in Peenemünde, Usedom. 1946 – The People's Republic of Korea is dissolved in the North and replaced by the communist-controlled Provisional People's Committee of North Korea. 1950 – The Stasi, the secret police of East Germany, is established. 1960 – Queen Elizabeth II issues an Order-in-Council, proclaiming the House of Windsor and declaring that her descendants will take the name Mountbatten-Windsor. 1962 – Nine protestors are killed at Charonne station, Paris, by French police under the command of ex-Vichy official and Parisian Prefect of Police Maurice Papon. 1963 – The regime of Prime Minister of Iraq Abd al-Karim Qasim is overthrown by the Ba'ath Party. 1965 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean and explodes, killing all 84 people on board. 1968 – American civil rights movement: An attack on Black students from South Carolina State University who are protesting racial segregation leaves three dead and 28 injured in Orangeburg, South Carolina. 1971 – South Vietnamese ground troops launch an incursion into Laos to try to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail and stop communist infiltration into the country. 1974 – The crew of Skylab 4, the last mission to visit the American space station Skylab, returns to Earth after 84 days in space. 1983 – A dust storm hits Melbourne, resulting in the worst drought on record and severe weather conditions in the city. 1986 – Twenty-three people are killed when a VIA Rail passenger train collides with a Canadian National freight train near the town of Hinton, Alberta, making it one of the worst rail accidents in Canada. 1989 – Independent Air Flight 1851 strikes Pico Alto mountain while on approach to Santa Maria Airport in the Azores, killing all 144 passengers on board. 1993 – An Iran Air Tours Tupolev Tu-154 and an Iranian Air Force Sukhoi Su-24 collide mid-air near Qods, Iran, killing all 133 people on board both aircraft. 2010 – Over of road are buried after a storm in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan triggers a series of avalanches, killing at least 172 people and trapping over 2,000 others. 2013 – A blizzard kills at least 18 and leaves hundreds of thousands of people without electricity in the northeastern United States and parts of Canada. 2014 – A hotel fire in Medina, Saudi Arabia, kills 15 Egyptian pilgrims with 130 others injured. 2020 – A soldier opens fire in a military camp and a shopping center in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, killing 29 people and injuring 58 others before being shot dead by police the next day. It is considered the deadliest mass shooting in the country's history. 2023 – Two children are killed and six others are injured when a bus crashes into a daycare centre in Laval, Quebec, Canada. The driver is arrested and charged with homicide and dangerous driving.
Births
Pre-1600 120 – Vettius Valens, Greek astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer (died ~175) 412 – Proclus, Greek mathematician and philosopher (died ~485) 882 – Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid, Egyptian commander and politician, Abbasid Governor of Egypt (died 946) 1191 – Yaroslav II of Vladimir (died 1246) 1291 – Afonso IV of Portugal, Portuguese king (died 1357) 1405 – Constantine XI Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (died 1453) 1487 – Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg, German duke (died 1550) 1514 – Daniele Barbaro, Venetian churchman, diplomat and scholar (died 1570) 1552 – Agrippa d'Aubigné, French poet and soldier (died 1630) 1577 – Robert Burton, English priest, physician, and scholar (died 1640) 1591 – Guercino, Italian painter (died 1666)
1601–1900 1685 – Charles-Jean-François Hénault, French historian and author (died 1770) 1700 – Daniel Bernoulli, Dutch-Swiss mathematician and physicist (died 1782) 1720 – Emperor Sakuramachi, Japanese emperor (died 1750) 1741 – André Grétry, Belgian-French organist and composer (died 1813) 1762 – Gia Long, Vietnamese emperor (died 1820) 1764 – Joseph Leopold Eybler, Austrian composer and conductor (died 1846) 1792 – Caroline Augusta of Bavaria, German princess (died 1873) 1798 – Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia, Russian grand duke (died 1849) 1807 – Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, English sculptor and zoologist (died 1889) 1817 – Richard S. Ewell, American general (died 1872) 1819 – John Ruskin, English author, critic, and academic (died 1900) 1820 – William Tecumseh Sherman, American general (died 1891) 1822 – Maxime Du Camp, French photographer and journalist (died 1894) 1825 – Henry Walter Bates, English geographer, biologist, and explorer (died 1892) 1828 – Jules Verne, French author, poet, and playwright (died 1905) 1829 – Vital-Justin Grandin, French-Canadian bishop and missionary (died 1902) 1834 – Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist and academic (died 1907) 1850 – Kate Chopin, American author (died 1904) 1860 – Adella Brown Bailey, American politician and suffragist (died 1937) 1866 – Moses Gomberg, Ukrainian-American chemist and academic (died 1947) 1876 – Paula Modersohn-Becker, German painter (died 1907) 1878 – Martin Buber, Austrian-Israeli philosopher and academic (died 1965) 1880 – Franz Marc, German soldier and painter (died 1916) 1880 – Viktor Schwanneke, German actor and director (died 1931) 1882 – Thomas Selfridge, American lieutenant and pilot (died 1908) 1883 – Isak Penttala, Finnish politician (died 1955) 1883 – Joseph Schumpeter, Czech-American economist and political scientist (died 1950) 1884 – Snowy Baker, Australian boxer, rugby player, and actor (died 1953) 1886 – Charlie Ruggles, American actor (died 1970) 1888 – Edith Evans, English actress (died 1976) 1890 – Claro M. Recto, Filipino lawyer, jurist, and politician (died 1960) 1893 – Ba Maw, Burmese lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Burma (died 1977) 1894 – King Vidor, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1982) 1895 – Khorloogiin Choibalsan, Prime Minister of Mongolia (died 1952) 1897 – Zakir Husain, Indian academic and politician, 3rd president of India (died 1969) 1899 – Lonnie Johnson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1970)
1901–present 1902 – Demchugdongrub, Mongol prince and politician, head of state of Mengjiang (died 1966) 1903 – Greta Keller, Austrian-American singer and actress (died 1977) 1903 – Tunku Abdul Rahman, 1st Prime Minister of Malaysia (died 1990) 1906 – Chester Carlson, American physicist and lawyer, invented Xerography (died 1968) 1909 – Elisabeth Murdoch, Australian philanthropist (died 2012) 1911 – Elizabeth Bishop, American poet and author (died 1979) 1913 – Betty Field, American actress (died 1973) 1913 – Danai Stratigopoulou, Greek singer-songwriter (died 2009) 1914 – Bill Finger, American author and screenwriter, co-created Batman (died 1974) 1915 – Georges Guétary, Egyptian-French singer, dancer, and actor (died 1997) 1918 – Freddie Blassie, American wrestler and manager (died 2003) 1921 – Barney Danson, Canadian colonel and politician, 21st Canadian Minister of National Defence (died 2011) 1921 – Nexhmije Hoxha, Albanian politician (died 2020) 1921 – Balram Singh Rai, Guyanese politician, 1st Minister of Home Affairs (died 2022) 1921 – Lana Turner, American actress (died 1995) 1922 – Audrey Meadows, American actress and banker (died 1996) 1925 – Jack Lemmon, American actor (died 2001) 1926 – Neal Cassady, American author and poet (died 1968) 1926 – Birgitte Reimer, Danish film actress (died 2021) 1930 – Alejandro Rey, Argentinian-American actor and director (died 1987) 1931 – James Dean, American actor (died 1955) 1931 – Shadia, Egyptian actress and singer (died 2017) 1932 – Cliff Allison, English racing driver and businessman (died 2005) 1932 – John Williams, American pianist, composer, and conductor 1933 – Elly Ameling, Dutch soprano 1937 – Joe Raposo, American pianist and composer (died 1989) 1937 – Harry Wu, Chinese human rights activist (died 2016) 1939 – Jose Maria Sison, Filipino activist and theorist (died 2022) 1940 – Sophie Lihau-Kanza, Congolese politician (died 1999) 1940 – Ted Koppel, English-American journalist 1941 – Nick Nolte, American actor and producer 1941 – Tom Rush, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer 1941 – Jagjit Singh, Indian singer-songwriter (died 2011) 1942 – Robert Klein, American comedian, actor, and singer 1942 – Terry Melcher, American singer-songwriter and producer (died 2004) 1943 – Creed Bratton, American actor and musician 1943 – Valerie Thomas, American scientist and inventor 1944 – Roger Lloyd-Pack, English actor (died 2014) 1944 – Sebastião Salgado, Brazilian photographer and journalist (died 2025) 1948 – Dan Seals, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2009) 1949 – Brooke Adams, American actress, producer, and screenwriter 1949 – Niels Arestrup, French actor, director, and screenwriter 1952 – Marinho Chagas, Brazilian footballer and coach (died 2014) 1953 – Mary Steenburgen, American actress 1955 – John Grisham, American lawyer and author 1955 – Jim Neidhart, American wrestler (died 2018) 1956 – Marques Johnson, American basketball player and sportscaster 1957 – Karine Chemla, French historian of mathematics and sinologist 1958 – Sherri Martel, American wrestler and manager (died 2007)