Events Pre-1600 1249 – Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khagan of the Mongol Empire. 1270 – The Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeats the Livonian Order in the Battle of Karuse.
1601–1900 1630 – Dutch forces led by Hendrick Lonck capture Olinda in what was to become part of Dutch Brazil. 1646 – Battle of Torrington, Devon: The last major battle of the First English Civil War. 1699 – First Leopoldine Diploma is issued by the Holy Roman Emperor, recognizing the Greek Catholic clergy enjoyed the same privileges as Roman Catholic priests in the Principality of Transylvania. 1742 – Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes British Prime Minister. 1796 – Colombo in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) falls to the British, completing their invasion of Ceylon. 1804 – First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate . 1862 – American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant captures Fort Donelson, Tennessee. 1866 – Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington becomes British Secretary of State for War. 1881 – The Canadian Pacific Railway is incorporated by Act of Parliament at Ottawa (44th Vic., c.1). 1899 – Iceland's first football club, Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur, is founded. 1900 – The Southern Cross expedition led by Carsten Borchgrevink achieves a new Farthest South of 78° 50'S, making the first landing at the Great Ice Barrier.
1901–present 1918 – The Council of Lithuania unanimously adopts the Act of Independence, declaring Lithuania an independent state. 1923 – Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. 1930 – The Romanian Football Federation joins FIFA. 1934 – The Austrian Civil War ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republikanischer Schutzbund. 1934 – The Commission of Government is officially sworn in; ending 79 years of responsible government in Newfoundland. 1936 – The Popular Front wins the 1936 Spanish general election. 1937 – Wallace H. Carothers receives a United States patent for nylon. 1940 – World War II: Altmark incident: The German tanker Altmark is boarded by sailors from the British destroyer . A total of 299 British prisoners are freed. 1942 – World War II: In Athens, the Greek People's Liberation Army is established 1942 – World War II: Attack on Aruba, first World War II German shots fired on a land based object in the Americas. 1943 – World War II: In the early phases of the Third Battle of Kharkov, Red Army troops re-enter the city. 1945 – World War II: American forces land on Corregidor Island in the Philippines. 1945 – The Alaska Equal Rights Act of 1945, the first anti-discrimination law in the United States, was signed into law. 1959 – Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1. 1960 – The U.S. Navy submarine begins Operation Sandblast, setting sail from New London, Connecticut, to begin the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe. 1961 – Explorer program: Explorer 9 (S-56a) is launched. 1962 – The Great Sheffield Gale impacts the United Kingdom, killing nine people; the city of Sheffield is devastated, with 150,000 homes damaged. 1962 – Flooding in the coastal areas of West Germany kills 315 and destroys the homes of about 60,000 people. 1968 – In Haleyville, Alabama, the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service. 1968 – Civil Air Transport Flight 010 crashes near Shongshan Airport in Taiwan, killing 21 of the 63 people on board and one more on the ground. 1978 – The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago). 1983 – The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia kill 75. 1984 – Iran launches Operation Dawn 5, a major offensive during the Iran–Iraq War targeting the Basra–Baghdad highway, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides. 1985 – Hezbollah is founded. 1986 – The Soviet liner runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand. 1986 – China Airlines Flight 2265 crashes into the Pacific Ocean near Penghu Airport in Taiwan, killing all 13 aboard. 1991 – Nicaraguan Contras leader Enrique Bermúdez is assassinated in Managua. 1996 – A Chicago-bound Amtrak train, the Capitol Limited, collides with a MARC commuter train bound for Washington, D.C., killing 11 people. 1998 – China Airlines Flight 676 crashes into a road and residential area near Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taiwan, killing all 196 aboard and six more on the ground. 2000 – Emery Worldwide Airlines Flight 17 crashes near Sacramento Mather Airport in Rancho Cordova, California, killing all three aboard. 2005 – The Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia. 2005 – The National Hockey League cancels the entire 2004–05 regular season and playoffs. 2006 – The last Mobile army surgical hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army. 2013 – A bomb blast at a market in Hazara Town, Quetta, Pakistan kills more than 80 people and injures 190 others. 2021 – Five thousand people gathered in the town of Kherrata, Bejaia Province to mark the second anniversary of the Hirak protest movement. Demonstrations had been suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic in Algeria.
Births Pre-1600 1222 – Nichiren, founder of Nichiren Buddhism (died 1282) 1304 – Jayaatu Khan Tugh Temür, Chinese emperor (died 1332) 1331 – Coluccio Salutati, Italian political leader (died 1406) 1419 – John I, Duke of Cleves (died 1481) 1470 – Eric I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (died 1540) 1471 – Krishnadevaraya, emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire (died 1529) 1497 – Philip Melanchthon, German astronomer, theologian, and academic (died 1560) 1514 – Georg Joachim Rheticus, Austrian cartographer and instrument maker (died 1574) 1519 – Gaspard II de Coligny, French admiral (died 1572) 1543 – Kanō Eitoku, Japanese painter and educator (died 1590)
1601–1900 1620 – Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg (died 1688) 1643 – John Sharp, English archbishop (died 1714) 1698 – Pierre Bouguer, French mathematician, geophysicist, and astronomer (died 1758) 1727 – Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, Austrian botanist, chemist, and mycologist (died 1817) 1740 – Giambattista Bodoni, Italian publisher and engraver (died 1813) 1761 – Jean-Charles Pichegru, French general (died 1804) 1774 – Pierre Rode, French violinist and composer (died 1830) 1786 – Maria Pavlovna, Russian Grand Duchess (died 1859) 1802 – Phineas Quimby, American mystic and philosopher (died 1866) 1804 – Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, German physiologist and zoologist (died 1885) 1812 – Henry Wilson, American colonel and politician, 18th Vice President of the United States (died 1875) 1821 – Heinrich Barth, German explorer and scholar (died 1865) 1822 – Francis Galton, English biologist and statistician (died 1911) 1824 – Peter Kosler, Slovenian lawyer, geographer, and cartographer (died 1879) 1826 – Joseph Victor von Scheffel, German poet and author (died 1886) 1830 – Lars Hertervig, Norwegian painter (died 1902) 1831 – Nikolai Leskov, Russian author, playwright, and journalist (died 1895) 1834 – Ernst Haeckel, German biologist, physician, and philosopher (died 1919) 1838 – Henry Adams, American journalist, historian, and author (died 1918) 1841 – Armand Guillaumin, French painter (died 1927) 1843 – Henry M. Leland, American engineer and businessman, founded Cadillac and Lincoln (died 1932) 1845 – George Kennan, American journalist and explorer (died 1924) 1848 – Hugo de Vries, Dutch botanist, geneticist, and academic (died 1935) 1848 – Octave Mirbeau, French journalist, novelist, and playwright (died 1917) 1856 – Ossian Everett Mills, American academic, founded Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (died 1920) 1866 – Billy Hamilton, American baseball player and manager (died 1940) 1873 – Radoje Domanović, Serbian journalist and author (died 1908) 1876 – G. M. Trevelyan, English historian and academic (died 1962) 1877 – Tom Crean, Irish seaman and Antarctic explorer (died 1938) 1878 – Pamela Colman Smith, English occultist and illustrator (died 1951) 1878 – James Colosimo, Italian-American mob boss (died 1920) 1884 – Robert J. Flaherty, American director and producer (died 1951) 1887 – Kathleen Clifford, American actress (died 1962) 1891 – Hans F. K. Günther, German eugenicist and academic (died 1968) 1893 – Katharine Cornell, American actress and producer (died 1974) 1896 – Eugénie Blanchard, French super-centenarian (died 2010)
1901–present 1901 – Wayne King, American singer-songwriter and conductor (died 1985) 1901 – Chester Morris, American actor (died 1970) 1902 – Cyril Vincent, South African cricketer (died 1968) 1903 – Edgar Bergen, American ventriloquist and actor (died 1978) 1904 – James Baskett, American actor and singer (died 1948) 1904 – George F. Kennan, American historian and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union (died 2005) 1905 – Henrietta Barnett, English Women's Royal Air Force officer (died 1985) 1906 – Vera Menchik, Russian-Czechoslovak-British chess player (died 1944) 1909 – Hugh Beaumont, American actor and director (died 1982) 1909 – Richard McDonald, American businessman, co-founded McDonald's (died 1998) 1914 – Jimmy Wakely, American country music singer-songwriter and actor (died 1982) 1916 – Bill Doggett, American pianist and composer (died 1996) 1919 – Georges Ulmer, Danish-French actor and composer (died 1989) 1920 – Anna Mae Hays, American general (died 2018) 1921 – Jean Behra, French race car driver (died 1959) 1921 – John Galbraith Graham, English priest and academic (died 2013) 1921 – Vera-Ellen, German-American actress, singer, and dancer (died 1981) 1922 – Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, German soldier and pilot (died 1950) 1923 – Samuel Willenberg, Polish-Israeli sculptor and painter (died 2016) 1925 – Ed Emshwiller, American illustrator and experiment film maker (died 1990) 1926 – Margot Frank, German-Dutch holocaust victim (died 1945) 1926 – John Schlesinger, English actor and director (died 2003) 1927 – June Brown, English actress (died 2022) 1929 – Gerhard Hanappi, Austrian footballer and architect (died 1980) 1929 – Peter Porter, Australian-English poet and educator (died 2010) 1931 – Otis Blackwell, American singer-songwriter and pianist (died 2002) 1931 – Bernie Geoffrion, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 2006) 1931 – Ken Takakura, Japanese actor and singer (died 2014) 1932 – Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, Sierra Leonean economist, lawyer, and politician, 3rd President of Sierra Leone (died 2014) 1932 – Gretchen Wyler, American actress, singer, and dancer (died 2007) 1934 – Ken Brown, English footballer and manager 1934 – August Coppola, American author and academic (died 2009) 1934 – Marlene Hagge, American golfer (died 2023) 1935 – Brian Bedford, English-American actor and director (died 2016) 1935 – Sonny Bono, American actor, singer, and politician (died 1998) 1935 – Stephen Gaskin, American activist, co-founded The Farm (died 2014) 1935 – Bradford Parkinson, American colonel and engineer 1935 – Kenneth Price, American painter and sculptor (died 2012) 1936 – Carl Icahn, American businessman and investor 1937 – Paul Bailey, British novelist, critic, and biographer 1937 – Valentin Bondarenko, Soviet aviator and cosmonaut (died 1961) 1937 – Yuri Manin, Russian-German mathematician and academic (died 2023) 1938 – John Corigliano, American composer and academic 1939 – Adolfo Azcuna, Filipino lawyer and judge 1940 – Hannelore Schmatz, German mountaineer (died 1979) 1941 – Kim Jong Il, North Korean commander and politician, 2nd Supreme Leader of North Korea (died 2011) 1942 – Yang Jen-fu, Taiwanese politician (died 2024)前立委楊仁福病逝享壽83歲 生前致力原民事務 1944 – Glyn Davies, Welsh farmer and politician 1944 – Richard Ford, American novelist and short story writer 1944 – António Mascarenhas Monteiro, Cape Verdean politician, 2nd President of Cape Verde (died 2016) 1947 – Jaroslav Kubera, Czech politician (died 2020)