Important events in history
on February 17 ^th

Events

2016
1. Military vehicles explode outside a Turkish Armed Forces barracks in Ankara, Turkey, killing at least 29 people and injuring 61 others.
  1. February 2016 Ankara bombing
    
    The February 2016 Ankara bombing killed at least 30 people and injured 60 in the capital of Turkey. According to Turkish authorities, the attack targeted a convoy of vehicles carrying both civilian and military personnel working at the military headquarters during the evening rush hour as the vehicles were stopped at traffic lights at an intersection with İsmet İnönü Boulevard close to Kızılay neighborhood. Several ministries, the headquarters of the army and the Turkish Parliament are located in the neighbourhood where the attack occurred. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) took responsibility for the attack and said they targeted security forces. Censorship monitoring organization Turkey Blocks reported nationwide internet restrictions beginning approximately one hour after the blast pursuant to an administrative order. The attack killed 14 military personnel, 14 civilian employees of the military, and a civilian.
  2. Turkish Armed Forces
    
    The Turkish Armed Forces are the military forces of the Republic of Turkey. Turkish Armed Forces consist of the General Staff, the Land Forces, the Naval Forces and the Air Forces. The current Chief of the General staff is General Yaşar Güler. The Chief of the General Staff is the Commander of the Armed Forces. In wartime, the Chief of the General Staff acts as the Commander-in-Chief on behalf of the President, who represents the Supreme Military Command of the TAF on behalf of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Coordinating the military relations of the TAF with other NATO member states and friendly states is the responsibility of the General Staff.
  3. Ankara
    
    Ankara, historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, making it Turkey's second-largest city after Istanbul.
2015
1. Eighteen people are killed and 78 injured in a stampede at a Mardi Gras parade in Haiti.
  1. 2015 Haiti Carnival stampede
    
    On February 17, 2015, starting at around 2:48 AM, a stampede occurred during the traditional Mardi Gras parade on Champ de Mars in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. Initial reports stated that at least 16 people had died in the accident. The number was revised to 18 dead according to the Haitian Minister of Communications, Rotchild François Junior. Nadia Lochard, of the Department of Civil Protection, stated that 20 people were killed in the accident. In addition, 78 people were injured, according to Haiti Prime Minister Evans Paul.
  2. Mardi Gras
    
    Mardi Gras refers to events of the Carnival celebration, beginning on or after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday, which is known as Shrove Tuesday. Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday", reflecting the practice of the last night of eating rich, fatty foods before the ritual Lenten sacrifices and fasting of the Lenten season.
  3. Haiti
    
    Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island which it shares with the Dominican Republic. To its south-west lies the small Navassa Island, which is claimed by Haiti but is disputed as a United States territory under federal administration. Haiti is 27,750 km2 (10,714 sq mi) in size, the third largest country in the Caribbean by area, and has an estimated population of 11.4 million, making it the most populous country in the Caribbean. The capital is Port-au-Prince.
2011
1. Arab Spring: Bahraini security forces killed four protesters in a pre-dawn raid at the Pearl Roundabout in Manama, while a "Day of Rage" took place in Libya with nationwide protests against Muammar Gaddafi's government.
  1. Arab Spring
    
    The Arab Spring was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and economic stagnation. From Tunisia, the protests then spread to five other countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. Rulers were deposed or major uprisings and social violence occurred including riots, civil wars, or insurgencies. Sustained street demonstrations took place in Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Sudan. Minor protests took place in Djibouti, Mauritania, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an-niẓām!.
  2. Bloody Thursday (Bahrain)
    
    Bloody Thursday is the name given by Bahraini protesters to 17 February 2011, the fourth day of the Bahraini uprising as part of the Arab Spring. Bahraini security forces launched a pre-dawn raid to clear Pearl Roundabout in Manama of the protesters camped there, most of whom were at the time asleep in tents; four were killed and about 300 injured. The event led some to demand even more political reform than they had been before, calling for an end to the reign of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
  3. Pearl Roundabout
    
    The GCC Roundabout, known as Pearl Roundabout or Lulu Roundabout (Arabic: دوار اللؤلؤ Dawwār al-luʾluʾ , "Roundabout of the pearl " was a roundabout located near the financial district of Manama, Bahrain. The roundabout was named after the pearl monument that previously stood on the site and was destroyed on 18 March 2011 by government forces as part of a crackdown on protesters during the Bahraini uprising of 2011.
  4. Manama
    
    Manama is the capital and largest city of Bahrain, with an approximate population of 200,000 people as of 2020. Long an important trading center in the Persian Gulf, Manama is home to a very diverse population. After periods of Portuguese and Persian control and invasions from the ruling dynasties of Saudi Arabia and Oman, Bahrain established itself as an independent nation in 1971 after a period of British hegemony.
  5. First Libyan Civil War
    
    The First Libyan Civil War was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya which was fought between forces which were loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were seeking to oust his government. It erupted with the Libyan Revolution, also known as the 17 February Revolution. The war was preceded by protests in Zawiya on 8 August 2009 and finally ignited by protests in Benghazi beginning on Tuesday, 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security forces that fired on the crowd. The protests escalated into a rebellion that spread across the country, with the forces opposing Gaddafi establishing an interim governing body, the National Transitional Council.
  6. Muammar Gaddafi
    
    Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi was a Libyan revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the de facto leader of Libya from 1969 to 2011, first as Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then as the Brotherly Leader of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011. Initially ideologically committed to Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, he later ruled according to his own Third International Theory.
2. Arab Spring: Libyan protests against Muammar Gaddafi's regime begin.
  1. Arab Spring
    
    The Arab Spring was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and economic stagnation. From Tunisia, the protests then spread to five other countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. Rulers were deposed or major uprisings and social violence occurred including riots, civil wars, or insurgencies. Sustained street demonstrations took place in Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Sudan. Minor protests took place in Djibouti, Mauritania, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an-niẓām!.
  2. First Libyan Civil War
    
    The First Libyan Civil War was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya which was fought between forces which were loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were seeking to oust his government. It erupted with the Libyan Revolution, also known as the 17 February Revolution. The war was preceded by protests in Zawiya on 8 August 2009 and finally ignited by protests in Benghazi beginning on Tuesday, 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security forces that fired on the crowd. The protests escalated into a rebellion that spread across the country, with the forces opposing Gaddafi establishing an interim governing body, the National Transitional Council.
  3. History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi
    
    Muammar Gaddafi became the de facto leader of Libya on 1 September 1969 after leading a group of young Libyan Army officers against King Idris I in a bloodless coup d'état. After the king had fled the country, the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) headed by Gaddafi abolished the monarchy and the old constitution and established the Libyan Arab Republic, with the motto "freedom, socialism and unity".
3. Arab Spring: In Bahrain, security forces launch a deadly pre-dawn raid on protesters in Pearl Roundabout in Manama; the day is locally known as Bloody Thursday.
  1. Bahrain
    
    Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island which makes up around 83 percent of the country's landmass. Bahrain is situated between Qatar and the northeastern coast of Saudi Arabia, to which it is connected by the King Fahd Causeway. According to the 2020 census, the country's population numbers 1,501,635, of which 712,362 are Bahraini nationals. Bahrain spans some 760 square kilometres (290 sq mi), and is the third-smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore. The capital and largest city is Manama.
  2. Special Security Force Command
    
    The Special Security Force Command (SSFC) is a paramilitary law enforcement body in Bahrain under the command of the Ministry of the Interior. The SSFC is more commonly referred to as the "Special Security Forces", the "Special Forces", "Bahrain Special Security Forces (BSSF) or as the "riot police".
  3. Police raid
    
    A police raid is an unexpected visit by police or other law-enforcement officers with the aim of using the element of surprise in order to seize evidence or arrest suspects believed to be likely to hide evidence, resist arrest, be politically sensitive, or simply be elsewhere during the day.
  4. Pearl Roundabout
    
    The GCC Roundabout, known as Pearl Roundabout or Lulu Roundabout (Arabic: دوار اللؤلؤ Dawwār al-luʾluʾ , "Roundabout of the pearl " was a roundabout located near the financial district of Manama, Bahrain. The roundabout was named after the pearl monument that previously stood on the site and was destroyed on 18 March 2011 by government forces as part of a crackdown on protesters during the Bahraini uprising of 2011.
  5. Manama
    
    Manama is the capital and largest city of Bahrain, with an approximate population of 200,000 people as of 2020. Long an important trading center in the Persian Gulf, Manama is home to a very diverse population. After periods of Portuguese and Persian control and invasions from the ruling dynasties of Saudi Arabia and Oman, Bahrain established itself as an independent nation in 1971 after a period of British hegemony.
  6. Bloody Thursday (Bahrain)
    
    Bloody Thursday is the name given by Bahraini protesters to 17 February 2011, the fourth day of the Bahraini uprising as part of the Arab Spring. Bahraini security forces launched a pre-dawn raid to clear Pearl Roundabout in Manama of the protesters camped there, most of whom were at the time asleep in tents; four were killed and about 300 injured. The event led some to demand even more political reform than they had been before, calling for an end to the reign of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
2008
1. Kosovo declares independence from Serbia.
  1. Kosovo
    
    Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a partially recognised state in Southeast Europe. It lies at the centre of the Balkans. Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008, and has since gained diplomatic recognition as a sovereign state by 101 member states of the United Nations. It is bordered by Serbia to the north and east, North Macedonia to the southeast, Albania to the southwest, and Montenegro to the west. Most of central Kosovo is dominated by the vast plains and fields of Dukagjini and Kosovo field. The Accursed Mountains and Šar Mountains rise in the southwest and southeast, respectively. Its capital and largest city is Pristina.
  2. 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence
    
    The 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence, which proclaimed the Republic of Kosovo to be a state independent from Serbia, was adopted at a meeting held on 17 February 2008 by 109 out of the 120 members of the Assembly of Kosovo, including the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi, and by the President of Kosovo, Fatmir Sejdiu. It was the second declaration of independence by Kosovo's Albanian-majority political institutions; the first was proclaimed on 7 September 1990.
  3. Serbia
    
    Serbia, officially the Republic of Serbia, is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungary to the north, Romania to the northeast, Bulgaria to the southeast, North Macedonia to the south, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the west, and Montenegro to the southwest, and claims a border with Albania through the disputed territory of Kosovo. Serbia with Kosovo has about 8.6 million inhabitants. Its capital Belgrade is also the largest city.
2006
1. A massive landslide in the Philippine province of Southern Leyte killed over 1,000 people.
  1. 2006 Southern Leyte mudslide
    
    On 17 February 2006, a massive rock slide-debris avalanche occurred in the Philippine province of Southern Leyte, causing widespread damage and loss of life. The deadly landslide followed a 10-day period of heavy rain and a minor earthquake. The official death toll was 1,126.
  2. Southern Leyte
    
    Southern Leyte is a province in the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas region. Its capital is the city of Maasin. Southern Leyte comprised the third congressional district Leyte until it was made into an independent province in 1959. Southern Leyte includes Limasawa, an island to the south where the first Roman Catholic Mass in Philippine soil is believed to have taken place and thus considered to be the birthplace of Roman Catholicism in the Philippines.
2. A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte, Philippines; the official death toll is set at 1,126.
  1. 2006 Southern Leyte mudslide
    
    On 17 February 2006, a massive rock slide-debris avalanche occurred in the Philippine province of Southern Leyte, causing widespread damage and loss of life. The deadly landslide followed a 10-day period of heavy rain and a minor earthquake. The official death toll was 1,126.
  2. Southern Leyte
    
    Southern Leyte is a province in the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas region. Its capital is the city of Maasin. Southern Leyte comprised the third congressional district Leyte until it was made into an independent province in 1959. Southern Leyte includes Limasawa, an island to the south where the first Roman Catholic Mass in Philippine soil is believed to have taken place and thus considered to be the birthplace of Roman Catholicism in the Philippines.
  3. Philippines
    
    The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It is situated in the western Pacific Ocean and consists of around 7,641 islands that are broadly categorized under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Philippines is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the southwest. It shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau to the east and southeast, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China to the northwest. The Philippines covers an area of 300,000 km2 (120,000 sq mi) and, as of 2021, it had a population of around 109 million people, making it the world's thirteenth-most populous country. The Philippines has diverse ethnicities and cultures throughout its islands. Manila is the country's capital, while the largest city is Quezon City; both lie within the urban area of Metro Manila.
1996
1. In Philadelphia, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match.
  1. Philadelphia
    
    Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since 1854, the city has been coextensive with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the Delaware Valley, the nation's seventh-largest and one of world's largest metropolitan regions, with 6.245 million residents as of 2020. The city's population as of the 2020 census was 1,603,797, and over 56 million people live within 250 mi (400 km) of Philadelphia.
  2. Garry Kasparov
    
    Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by Magnus Carlsen in 2013. From 1984 until his retirement in 2005, Kasparov was ranked world No. 1 for a record 255 months overall for his career, the most in history. Kasparov also holds records for the most consecutive professional tournament victories (15) and Chess Oscars (11).
  3. Deep Blue (chess computer)
    
    Deep Blue was a chess-playing expert system run on a unique purpose-built IBM supercomputer. It was the first computer to win a game, and the first to win a match, against a reigning world champion under regular time controls. Development began in 1985 at Carnegie Mellon University under the name ChipTest. It then moved to IBM, where it was first renamed Deep Thought, then again in 1989 to Deep Blue. It first played world champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match in 1996, where it lost four games to two. It was upgraded in 1997 and in a six-game re-match, it defeated Kasparov by winning three games and drawing one. Deep Blue's victory is considered a milestone in the history of artificial intelligence and has been the subject of several books and films.
  4. Supercomputer
    
    A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instructions per second (MIPS). Since 2017, there have existed supercomputers which can perform over 1017 FLOPS (a hundred quadrillion FLOPS, 100 petaFLOPS or 100 PFLOPS).
  5. Chess
    
    Chess is a board game between two players. It is sometimes called Western chess or international chess to distinguish it from related games, such as xiangqi and shogi. The current form of the game emerged in Spain and the rest of Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from chaturanga, a similar but much older game of Indian origin. Today, chess is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide.
2. NASA's Discovery Program begins as the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft lifts off on the first mission ever to orbit and land on an asteroid, 433 Eros.
  1. NASA
    
    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
  2. Discovery Program
    
    The Discovery Program is a series of Solar System exploration missions funded by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) through its Planetary Missions Program Office. The cost of each mission is capped at a lower level than missions from NASA's New Frontiers or Flagship Programs. As a result, Discovery missions tend to be more focused on a specific scientific goal rather than serving a general purpose.
  3. NEAR Shoemaker
    
    Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous – Shoemaker, renamed after its 1996 launch in honor of planetary scientist Eugene Shoemaker, was a robotic space probe designed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for NASA to study the near-Earth asteroid Eros from close orbit over a period of a year. It was the first spacecraft to successfully orbit an asteroid and also land on an asteroid. In February 2000, the mission succeeded in closing in with the asteroid and afterwards orbited it several times. On February 12, 2001, the mission succeeded in touching down on the asteroid. It was terminated just over two weeks later.
  4. 433 Eros
    
    Eros, provisional designation 1898 DQ, is a stony asteroid of the Amor group and the first discovered and second-largest near-Earth object with an elongated shape and a mean diameter of approximately 16.8 kilometers. Visited by the NEAR Shoemaker space probe in 1998, it became the first asteroid ever studied from orbit around the asteroid.
3. The 8.2 Mw  Biak earthquake shakes the Papua province of eastern Indonesia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). A large tsunami followed, leaving one-hundred sixty-six people dead or missing and 423 injured.
  1. 1996 Biak earthquake
    
    The 1996 Biak earthquake, or the Irian Jaya earthquake, occurred on 17 February at 14:59:30 local time near Biak Island, Indonesia. The earthquake, which occurred on the New Guinea Trench, had a moment magnitude of 8.2 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). The run-up height of the generated tsunami reached 7.7 m (25 ft). The disaster left at least 108 people dead, 423 injured, and 58 missing. It damaged or destroyed 5,043 houses which subsequently made another 10,000 homeless. At Korim, 187 houses were destroyed. Various countries and organizations provided aid and relief in the aftermath of the earthquake.
  2. Papua (province)
    
    Papua is a province of Indonesia, comprising the northern coast of Western New Guinea together with island groups in Cenderawasih Bay to the west. It roughly follows the borders of Papuan customary region of Tabi Saireri. It is bordered by the sovereign state of Papua New Guinea to the east, the Pacific Ocean to the north, Cenderawasih Bay to the west, and the provinces of Central Papua and Highland Papua to the south. The province also shares maritime boundaries with Palau in the Pacific. Following the splitting off of twenty regencies to create the three new provinces of Central Papua, Highland Papua, and South Papua on 30 June 2022, the residual province is divided into eight regencies (kabupaten) and one city (kota), the latter being the provincial capital of Jayapura. The province has a large potential in natural resources, such as gold, nickel, petroleum, etc. Papua, along with four other Papuan provinces, has a higher degree of autonomy level compared to other Indonesian provinces.
  3. Indonesia
    
    Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state and the 14th-largest country by area, at 1,904,569 square kilometres. With over 275 million people, Indonesia is the world's fourth-most populous country and the most populous Muslim-majority country. Java, the world's most populous island, is home to more than half of the country's population.
  4. Modified Mercalli intensity scale
    
    The Modified Mercalli intensity scale, developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the effects of an earthquake at a given location, distinguished from the earthquake's inherent force or strength as measured by seismic magnitude scales. While shaking is caused by the seismic energy released by an earthquake, earthquakes differ in how much of their energy is radiated as seismic waves. Deeper earthquakes also have less interaction with the surface, and their energy is spread out across a larger volume. Shaking intensity is localized, generally diminishing with distance from the earthquake's epicenter, but can be amplified in sedimentary basins and certain kinds of unconsolidated soils.
1995
1. The Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador ends on a ceasefire brokered by the UN.
  1. Cenepa War
    
    The Cenepa War, also known as the Alto Cenepa War, was a brief and localized military conflict between Ecuador and Peru, fought over control of an area in Peruvian territory near the border between the two countries. The two nations had signed a border treaty following the Ecuadorian–Peruvian War of 1941, but Ecuador later disagreed with the treaty as it applied to the Cenepa and Paquisha areas, and in 1960 Ecuador declared the treaty null and void.
  2. Peru
    
    Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pacific Ocean. Peru is a megadiverse country with habitats ranging from the arid plains of the Pacific coastal region in the west to the peaks of the Andes mountains extending from the north to the southeast of the country to the tropical Amazon basin rainforest in the east with the Amazon River. Peru has a population of 32 million, and its capital and largest city is Lima. At 1.28 million km2, Peru is the 19th largest country in the world, and the third largest in South America.
  3. Ecuador
    
    Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Ecuador also includes the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific, about 1,000 kilometers (621 mi) west of the mainland. The country's capital and largest city is Quito.
  4. Ceasefire
    
    A ceasefire, also spelled cease fire, is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be between state actors or involve non-state actors.
  5. United Nations
    
    The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations. It is the world's largest and most familiar international organization. The UN is headquartered on international territory in New York City, and has other main offices in Geneva, Nairobi, Vienna, and The Hague.
1992
1. First Nagorno-Karabakh War: Armenian troops massacre more than 20 Azerbaijani civilians during the Capture of Garadaghly.
  1. First Nagorno-Karabakh War
    
    The First Nagorno-Karabakh War was an ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan. As the war progressed, Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet Republics, entangled themselves in protracted, undeclared mountain warfare in the mountainous heights of Karabakh as Azerbaijan attempted to curb the secessionist movement in Nagorno-Karabakh. The enclave's parliament had voted in favor of uniting with Armenia and a referendum, boycotted by the Azerbaijani population of Nagorno-Karabakh, was held, in which a majority voted in favor of independence. The demand to unify with Armenia began in a relatively peaceful manner in 1988; in the following months, as the Soviet Union disintegrated, it gradually grew into an increasingly violent conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, resulting in ethnic cleansing, including the Sumgait (1988) and Baku (1990) pogroms directed against Armenians, and the Gugark pogrom (1988) and Khojaly Massacre (1992) directed against Azerbaijanis. Inter-ethnic clashes between the two broke out shortly after the parliament of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) in Azerbaijan voted to unite the region with Armenia on 20 February 1988. The declaration of secession from Azerbaijan was the culmination of a territorial conflict. As Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union and removed the powers held by the enclave's government, the Armenian majority voted to secede from Azerbaijan and in the process proclaimed the unrecognized Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh.
  2. Armenia
    
    Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region; and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, the Lachin corridor and Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan to the south. Yerevan is the capital, largest city and the financial center.
  3. Azerbaijanis
    
    Azerbaijanis, Azeris, or Azerbaijani Turks are a Turkic people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan. They are the second-most numerous ethnic group among the Turkic-speaking peoples after Turkish people and are predominantly Shia Muslims. They comprise the largest ethnic group in the Republic of Azerbaijan and the second-largest ethnic group in neighboring Iran and Georgia. They speak the Azerbaijani language, belonging to the Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages and carry a mixed heritage of Caucasian, Iranian, and Turkic elements.
  4. Capture of Garadaghly
    
    The Capture of Garadaghly was the seizure of Garadaghly, an Azerbaijani-populated village in Khojavend district of Nagorno-Karabakh by Armenian volunteer units on 17 February 1992, in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
1991
1. Ryan International Airlines Flight 590 crashes during takeoff from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, killing both pilots, the aircraft's only occupants.
  1. Ryan International Airlines Flight 590
    
    Ryan International Airlines Flight 590 was a cargo flight carrying mail for the United States Postal Service from Greater Buffalo International Airport (BUF) in Buffalo, New York, to Indianapolis International Airport (IND) in Indiana, with a stopover at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE) in Cleveland, Ohio. On February 17, 1991, the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-15RC operating the flight crashed on takeoff from Cleveland during icing conditions. Both pilots, the aircraft's only occupants, were killed. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the causes of the crash were the flight crew failing to deice their aircraft, and the inexperience of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), McDonnell Douglas, and Ryan International Airlines with icing condition on DC-9-10 aircraft.
  2. Cleveland Hopkins International Airport
    
    Cleveland Hopkins International Airport is an international airport in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is the primary airport serving Greater Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, the largest and busiest airport in the state, and the 43rd busiest airport in the U.S. by passenger numbers. Located in Cleveland's Hopkins neighborhood 9 miles (14 km) southwest of Downtown Cleveland, it is adjacent to the Glenn Research Center, one of NASA's ten major field centers.
1980
1. First winter ascent of Mount Everest by Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy.
  1. Mount Everest
    
    Mount Everest is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation of 8,848.86 m (29,031.7 ft) was most recently established in 2020 by the Chinese and Nepali authorities.
  2. Krzysztof Wielicki
    
    Krzysztof Jerzy Wielicki is a Polish alpine and high-altitude climber, regarded as one of the greatest Polish climbers in history. He is the fifth man to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders and the first ever to climb Mount Everest, Kangchenjunga, and Lhotse in winter. He is a member of The Explorers Club.
  3. Leszek Cichy
    
    Leszek Roman Cichy is a Polish mountaineer, geodesist, financier, and entrepreneur. He was born in Pruszków, Poland on November 14, 1951. He is best known for making the first winter ascent of Mount Everest together with Krzysztof Wielicki in 1980 which established the winter ascent record of 8,848 meters. He was also the first Polish climber to complete the Seven Summits and a number of other prestigious climbs.
1979
1. The Sino-Vietnamese War begins.
  1. Sino-Vietnamese War
    
    The Sino-Vietnamese War was a border war fought between China and Vietnam in early 1979. China launched an offensive in response to Vietnam's actions against the Khmer Rouge in 1978, which ended the rule of the Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge. Both China and Vietnam claimed victory in the last of the Indochina Wars.
1978
1. The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army carried out a bombing of a restaurant near Belfast, Northern Ireland, killing twelve people and injuring thirty others.
  1. The Troubles
    
    The Troubles were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "irregular war" or "low-level war". The conflict began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Although the Troubles mostly took place in Northern Ireland, at times violence spilled over into parts of the Republic of Ireland, England and mainland Europe.
  2. Provisional Irish Republican Army
    
    The Irish Republican Army, also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reunification and bring about an independent, socialist republic encompassing all of Ireland. It was the most active republican paramilitary group during the Troubles. It saw itself as the army of the all-island Irish Republic and as the sole legitimate successor to the original IRA from the Irish War of Independence. It was designated a terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom and an unlawful organisation in the Republic of Ireland, both of whose authority it rejected.
  3. La Mon restaurant bombing
    
    The La Mon restaurant bombing was an incendiary bomb attack by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 17 February 1978 and has been described as one of the worst atrocities of the Troubles. It took place at the La Mon House hotel and restaurant, near Belfast.
  4. Belfast
    
    Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom and the second-largest in Ireland. It had a population of 345,418 in 2021.
2. The Troubles: The Provisional IRA detonates an incendiary bomb at the La Mon restaurant, near Belfast, killing 12 and seriously injuring 30 others, all Protestants.
  1. The Troubles
    
    The Troubles were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "irregular war" or "low-level war". The conflict began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Although the Troubles mostly took place in Northern Ireland, at times violence spilled over into parts of the Republic of Ireland, England and mainland Europe.
  2. Provisional Irish Republican Army
    
    The Irish Republican Army, also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reunification and bring about an independent, socialist republic encompassing all of Ireland. It was the most active republican paramilitary group during the Troubles. It saw itself as the army of the all-island Irish Republic and as the sole legitimate successor to the original IRA from the Irish War of Independence. It was designated a terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom and an unlawful organisation in the Republic of Ireland, both of whose authority it rejected.
  3. Incendiary device
    
    Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using fire, that use materials such as napalm, thermite, magnesium powder, chlorine trifluoride, or white phosphorus. Though colloquially often known as bombs, they are not explosives but in fact are designed to slow the process of chemical reactions and use ignition rather than detonation to start or maintain the reaction. Napalm for example, is petroleum especially thickened with certain chemicals into a 'gel' to slow, but not stop, combustion, releasing energy over a longer time than an explosive device. In the case of napalm, the gel adheres to surfaces and resists suppression.
  4. La Mon restaurant bombing
    
    The La Mon restaurant bombing was an incendiary bomb attack by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 17 February 1978 and has been described as one of the worst atrocities of the Troubles. It took place at the La Mon House hotel and restaurant, near Belfast.
1974
1. A U.S. Army soldier stole a Bell UH-1 helicopter and landed it on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C.
  1. Bell UH-1 Iroquois
    
    The Bell UH-1 Iroquois is a utility military helicopter designed and produced by the American aerospace company Bell Helicopter. It is the first member of the prolific Huey family, as well as the first turbine-powered helicopter in service with the United States military.
  2. 1974 White House helicopter incident
    
    On February 17, 1974, United States Army Private Robert Kenneth Preston (1953–2009) took off in a stolen Bell UH-1B Iroquois "Huey" helicopter from Tipton Field, Maryland, and landed it on the South Lawn of the White House in a significant breach of security. Preston had enlisted in the Army to become a helicopter pilot. However, he did not graduate from the helicopter training course and lost his opportunity to attain the rank of warrant officer pilot. His enlistment bound him to serve four years in the Army, and he was sent to Fort Meade as a helicopter mechanic. Preston believed that this situation was unfair and later said that he stole the helicopter to show his skill as a pilot.
  3. South Lawn
    
    The South Lawn at the White House in Washington, D.C., is directly south of the house and is bordered on the east by East Executive Drive and the Treasury Building, on the west by West Executive Drive and the Old Executive Office Building, and along its curved southern perimeter by South Executive Drive and a large circular public lawn called The Ellipse. Since the address of the White House is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and the North Lawn faces Pennsylvania Avenue, the South Lawn is sometimes described as the back lawn of the White House.
  4. White House
    
    The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. The term "White House" is often used as a metonym for the president and his advisers.
2. Robert K. Preston, a disgruntled U.S. Army private, buzzes the White House in a stolen helicopter.
  1. 1974 White House helicopter incident
    
    On February 17, 1974, United States Army Private Robert Kenneth Preston (1953–2009) took off in a stolen Bell UH-1B Iroquois "Huey" helicopter from Tipton Field, Maryland, and landed it on the South Lawn of the White House in a significant breach of security. Preston had enlisted in the Army to become a helicopter pilot. However, he did not graduate from the helicopter training course and lost his opportunity to attain the rank of warrant officer pilot. His enlistment bound him to serve four years in the Army, and he was sent to Fort Meade as a helicopter mechanic. Preston believed that this situation was unfair and later said that he stole the helicopter to show his skill as a pilot.
  2. United States Army
    
    The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution. The oldest and most senior branch of the U.S. military in order of precedence, the modern U.S. Army has its roots in the Continental Army, which was formed 14 June 1775 to fight the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)—before the United States was established as a country. After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784 to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The United States Army considers itself to be a continuation of the Continental Army, and thus considers its institutional inception to be the origin of that armed force in 1775.
  3. White House
    
    The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. The term "White House" is often used as a metonym for the president and his advisers.
  4. Helicopter
    
    A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas where fixed-wing aircraft and many forms of STOL or STOVL aircraft cannot perform without a runway.
1972
1. Cumulative sales of the Volkswagen Beetle exceed those of the Ford Model T.
  1. Volkswagen Beetle
    
    The Volkswagen Beetle—officially the Volkswagen Type 1, informally in German der Käfer, in parts of the English-speaking world the Bug, and known by many other nicknames in other languages—is a two-door, rear-engine economy car, intended for five occupants, that was manufactured and marketed by German automaker Volkswagen (VW) from 1938 until 2003.
  2. Ford Model T
    
    The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relatively low price was partly the result of Ford's efficient fabrication, including assembly line production instead of individual handcrafting. It was mainly designed by an American and two Hungarian engineers. The Model T was colloquially known as the "Tin Lizzie", "Leaping Lena" or "flivver".
1970
1. Jeffrey R. MacDonald, United States Army captain, is charged with murder of his pregnant wife and two daughters.
  1. Jeffrey R. MacDonald
    
    Jeffrey Robert MacDonald is an American former medical doctor and United States Army captain who was convicted in August 1979 of murdering his pregnant wife and two daughters in February 1970 while serving as an Army Special Forces physician.
  2. United States Army
    
    The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution. The oldest and most senior branch of the U.S. military in order of precedence, the modern U.S. Army has its roots in the Continental Army, which was formed 14 June 1775 to fight the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)—before the United States was established as a country. After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784 to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The United States Army considers itself to be a continuation of the Continental Army, and thus considers its institutional inception to be the origin of that armed force in 1775.
1969
1. American aquanaut Berry L. Cannon dies of carbon dioxide poisoning while attempting to repair a leak in the SEALAB III underwater habitat. The SEALAB project was subsequently abandoned.
  1. Berry L. Cannon
    
    Berry Louis Cannon was an American aquanaut who served on the SEALAB II and III projects of the U.S. Navy. Cannon died of carbon dioxide poisoning while attempting to repair SEALAB III. It was later found that his diving rig's baralyme canister, which should have absorbed the carbon dioxide Cannon exhaled, was empty.
  2. SEALAB
    
    SEALAB I, II, and III were experimental underwater habitats developed by the United States Navy in the 1960s to prove the viability of saturation diving and humans living in isolation for extended periods of time. The knowledge gained from the SEALAB expeditions helped advance the science of deep sea diving and rescue, and contributed to the understanding of the psychological and physiological strains humans can endure.
1965
1. Project Ranger: The Ranger 8 probe launches on its mission to photograph the Mare Tranquillitatis region of the Moon in preparation for the manned Apollo missions. Mare Tranquillitatis or the "Sea of Tranquility" would become the site chosen for the Apollo 11 lunar landing.
  1. Ranger program
    
    The Ranger program was a series of unmanned space missions by the United States in the 1960s whose objective was to obtain the first close-up images of the surface of the Moon. The Ranger spacecraft were designed to take images of the lunar surface, transmitting those images to Earth until the spacecraft were destroyed upon impact. A series of mishaps, however, led to the failure of the first six flights. At one point, the program was called "shoot and hope". Congress launched an investigation into "problems of management" at NASA Headquarters and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. After two reorganizations of the agencies, Ranger 7 successfully returned images in July 1964, followed by two more successful missions.
  2. Ranger 8
    
    Ranger 8 was a lunar probe in the Ranger program, a robotic spacecraft series launched by NASA in the early-to-mid-1960s to obtain the first close-up images of the Moon's surface. These pictures helped select landing sites for Apollo missions and were used for scientific study. During its 1965 mission, Ranger 8 transmitted 7,137 lunar surface photographs before it crashed into the Moon as planned. This was the second successful mission in the Ranger series, following Ranger 7. Ranger 8's design and purpose were very similar to those of Ranger 7. It had six television vidicon cameras: two full-scan and four partial-scan. Its sole purpose was to document the Moon's surface.
  3. Mare Tranquillitatis
    
    Mare Tranquillitatis is a lunar mare that sits within the Tranquillitatis basin on the Moon. It is the first location on another world to be visited by humans.
  4. Apollo program
    
    The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the third United States human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which succeeded in preparing and landing the first humans on the Moon from 1968 to 1972. It was first conceived in 1960 during President Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration as a three-person spacecraft to follow the one-person Project Mercury, which put the first Americans in space. Apollo was later dedicated to President John F. Kennedy's national goal for the 1960s of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" in an address to Congress on May 25, 1961. It was the third US human spaceflight program to fly, preceded by the two-person Project Gemini conceived in 1961 to extend spaceflight capability in support of Apollo.
  5. Apollo 11
    
    Apollo 11 was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, and Armstrong became the first person to step onto the Moon's surface six hours and 39 minutes later, on July 21 at 02:56 UTC. Aldrin joined him 19 minutes later, and they spent about two and a quarter hours together exploring the site they had named Tranquility Base upon landing. Armstrong and Aldrin collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar material to bring back to Earth as pilot Michael Collins flew the Command Module Columbia in lunar orbit, and were on the Moon's surface for 21 hours, 36 minutes before lifting off to rejoin Columbia.
1964
1. Gabonese military officers overthrew President Léon M'ba, but French forces, honouring a 1960 treaty, forcibly reinstated him two days later.
  1. 1964 Gabonese coup d'état
    
    The 1964 Gabonese coup d'état was staged between 17 and 18 February 1964 by Gabonese military officers who rose against Gabonese President Léon M'ba. Before the coup, Gabon was seen as one of the most politically stable countries in Africa. The coup resulted from M'ba's dissolution of the Gabonese legislature on 21 January 1964, and during a takeover with few casualties 150 coup plotters arrested M'ba and a number of his government officials. Through Radio Libreville, they asked the people of Gabon to remain calm and assured them that the country's pro-France foreign policy would remain unchanged. A provisional government was formed, and the coup's leaders installed Deputy Jean-Hilaire Aubame, who was M'ba's primary political opponent and had been uninvolved in the coup, as president. Meanwhile, M'ba was sent to Lambaréné, 250 kilometres (155 mi) from Libreville. There was no major uprising or reaction by the Gabonese people when they received word of the coup, which the military interpreted as a sign of approval.
  2. Léon M'ba
    
    Gabriel Léon M'ba was a Gabonese politician who served as both the first Prime Minister (1959–1961) and President (1961–1967) of Gabon.
2. In Wesberry v. Sanders the Supreme Court of the United States rules that congressional districts have to be approximately equal in population.
  1. Wesberry v. Sanders
    
    Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1 (1964), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that districts in the United States House of Representatives must be approximately equal in population. Along with Baker v. Carr (1962) and Reynolds v. Sims (1964), it was part of a series of Warren Court cases that applied the principle of "one person, one vote" to U.S. legislative bodies.
  2. Supreme Court of the United States
    
    The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of federal law. It also has original jurisdiction over a narrow range of cases, specifically "all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party." The court holds the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution. It is also able to strike down presidential directives for violating either the Constitution or statutory law. However, it may act only within the context of a case in an area of law over which it has jurisdiction. The court may decide cases having political overtones, but has ruled that it does not have power to decide non-justiciable political questions.
  3. List of United States congressional districts
    
    Congressional districts in the United States are electoral divisions for the purpose of electing members of the United States House of Representatives. The number of voting seats in the House of Representatives is currently set at 435, with each one representing an average of 761,179 people following the 2020 United States census. The number of voting seats has applied since 1913, excluding a temporary increase to 437 after the admissions of Alaska and Hawaii. The total number of state members is capped by the Reapportionment Act of 1929. In addition, each of the five inhabited U.S. territories and the federal district of Washington, D. C., sends a non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives.
3. Gabonese president Léon M'ba is toppled by a coup and his rival, Jean-Hilaire Aubame, is installed in his place.
  1. Léon M'ba
    
    Gabriel Léon M'ba was a Gabonese politician who served as both the first Prime Minister (1959–1961) and President (1961–1967) of Gabon.
  2. 1964 Gabonese coup d'état
    
    The 1964 Gabonese coup d'état was staged between 17 and 18 February 1964 by Gabonese military officers who rose against Gabonese President Léon M'ba. Before the coup, Gabon was seen as one of the most politically stable countries in Africa. The coup resulted from M'ba's dissolution of the Gabonese legislature on 21 January 1964, and during a takeover with few casualties 150 coup plotters arrested M'ba and a number of his government officials. Through Radio Libreville, they asked the people of Gabon to remain calm and assured them that the country's pro-France foreign policy would remain unchanged. A provisional government was formed, and the coup's leaders installed Deputy Jean-Hilaire Aubame, who was M'ba's primary political opponent and had been uninvolved in the coup, as president. Meanwhile, M'ba was sent to Lambaréné, 250 kilometres (155 mi) from Libreville. There was no major uprising or reaction by the Gabonese people when they received word of the coup, which the military interpreted as a sign of approval.
  3. Jean-Hilaire Aubame
    
    Jean-Hilaire Aubame was a Gabonese politician active during both the colonial and independence periods. The French journalist Pierre Péan said that Aubame's training "as a practicing Catholic and a customs official helped to make him an integrated man, one of whom political power was not an end in itself."
1959
1. Vanguard 2 (model pictured), the first weather satellite, was launched to measure cloud cover distribution.
  1. Vanguard 2
    
    Vanguard 2 is an Earth-orbiting satellite launched 17 February 1959 at 15:55:02 GMT, aboard a Vanguard SLV-4 rocket as part of the United States Navy's Project Vanguard. The satellite was designed to measure cloud cover distribution over the daylight portion of its orbit, for a period of 19 days, and to provide information on the density of the atmosphere for the lifetime of its orbit. As the first weather satellite and one of the first orbital space missions, the launch of Vanguard 2 was an important milestone in the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Vanguard 2 remains in orbit.
  2. Weather satellite
    
    A weather satellite or meteorological satellite is a type of Earth observation satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites can be polar orbiting, or geostationary.
  3. Cloud cover
    
    Cloud cover refers to the fraction of the sky obscured by clouds on average when observed from a particular location. Okta is the usual unit for measurement of the cloud cover. The cloud cover is correlated to the sunshine duration as the least cloudy locales are the sunniest ones while the cloudiest areas are the least sunny places, as clouds can block sunlight, especially on sunrise and sunset where sunlight is already limited.
2. Project Vanguard: Vanguard 2: The first weather satellite is launched to measure cloud-cover distribution.
  1. Project Vanguard
    
    Project Vanguard was a program managed by the United States Navy Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), which intended to launch the first artificial satellite into low Earth orbit using a Vanguard rocket. as the launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral Missile Annex, Florida.
  2. Vanguard 2
    
    Vanguard 2 is an Earth-orbiting satellite launched 17 February 1959 at 15:55:02 GMT, aboard a Vanguard SLV-4 rocket as part of the United States Navy's Project Vanguard. The satellite was designed to measure cloud cover distribution over the daylight portion of its orbit, for a period of 19 days, and to provide information on the density of the atmosphere for the lifetime of its orbit. As the first weather satellite and one of the first orbital space missions, the launch of Vanguard 2 was an important milestone in the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Vanguard 2 remains in orbit.
  3. Weather satellite
    
    A weather satellite or meteorological satellite is a type of Earth observation satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites can be polar orbiting, or geostationary.
3. A Turkish Airlines Vickers Viscount crashes near Gatwick Airport, killing 14; Turkish prime minister Adnan Menderes survives the crash.
  1. Turkish Airlines
    
    Turkish Airlines is the national flag carrier airline of Turkey. As of 2022, it operates scheduled services to 340 destinations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, making it the largest mainline carrier in the world by number of passenger destinations. The airline serves more destinations non-stop from a single airport than any other airline in the world and flies to 126 countries, more than any other airline. With an operational fleet of 24 cargo aircraft, the airline's cargo division serves 82 destinations.
  2. Vickers Viscount
    
    The Vickers Viscount is a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs. A design requirement from the Brabazon Committee, it entered service in 1953 and was the first turboprop-powered airliner.
  3. 1959 Turkish Airlines Gatwick crash
    
    The 1959 Turkish Airlines Gatwick crash occurred on 17 February 1959, near London Gatwick Airport to a Turkish Airlines Vickers Viscount Type 793 on an international charter flight from Esenboğa International Airport in Ankara, Turkey, to London Heathrow Airport, however the Viscount diverted to London Gatwick Airport, United Kingdom due to heavy fog. It was carrying the Turkish prime minister and a party of government officials. The Viscount crashed in a wood 3 miles (4.8 km) from the threshold of Gatwick runway during its final approach to land in extensive fog. Five of the eight crew and nine of the 16 passengers died in the crash. The prime minister was among the ten survivors.
  4. Gatwick Airport
    
    Gatwick Airport, also known as London Gatwick, is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, 29.5 miles (47.5 km) south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after Heathrow and Stansted airports, and was the 36th-busiest in Europe by total passenger traffic. It covers a total area of 674 hectares.
  5. Prime Minister of Turkey
    
    The prime minister of the Republic of Turkey was the head of government of the Republic of Turkey from 1920 to 2018, who led a political coalition in the Turkish Parliament and presided over the cabinet. Throughout the political history of Turkey, functions and powers of the post have changed occasionally. Prior to its dissolution as a result of the 2017 Constitutional Referendum, the prime minister was generally the dominant figure in Turkish politics, outweighing the president.
  6. Adnan Menderes
    
    Adnan Menderes was a Turkish politician who served as Prime Minister of Turkey between 1950 and 1960. He was one of the founders of the Democrat Party (DP) in 1946, the fourth legal opposition party of Turkey. He was tried and hanged under the military junta after the 1960 coup d'état, along with two other cabinet members, Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Hasan Polatkan. One of the accusations brought against him was of him ordering the Istanbul pogrom against citizens of Greek ethnicity. He was the last Turkish political leader to be executed after a military coup and is also one of the four political leaders of the Turkish Republic to have had a mausoleum built in his honour.
1949
1. Chaim Weizmann begins his term as the first President of Israel.
  1. Chaim Weizmann
    
    Chaim Azriel Weizmann was a Russian-born biochemist, Zionist leader and Israeli statesman who served as president of the Zionist Organization and later as the first president of Israel. He was elected on 16 February 1949, and served until his death in 1952. Weizmann was fundamental in obtaining the Balfour Declaration and later convincing the United States government to recognize the newly formed State of Israel.
  2. President of Israel
    
    The president of the State of Israel is the head of state of Israel. The position is largely a ceremonial role, with executive power vested in the cabinet led by the prime minister. The incumbent president is Isaac Herzog, who took office on 7 July 2021. Presidents are elected by the Knesset for a single seven-year term.
1944
1. World War II: The U.S. Navy began Operation Hailstone, a massive naval air and surface attack against the Japanese naval and air base at Truk in the Caroline Islands.
  1. World War II
    
    World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries.
  2. United States Navy
    
    The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of its active battle fleet alone exceeding the next 13 navies combined, including 11 allies or partner nations of the United States as of 2015. It has the highest combined battle fleet tonnage and the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with eleven in service, two new carriers under construction, and five other carriers planned. With 336,978 personnel on active duty and 101,583 in the Ready Reserve, the United States Navy is the third largest of the United States military service branches in terms of personnel. It has 290 deployable combat vessels and more than 2,623 operational aircraft as of June 2019.
  3. Operation Hailstone
    
    Operation Hailstone, 17–18 February 1944, was a massive United States Navy air and surface attack on Truk Lagoon conducted as part of the American offensive drive against the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) through the Central Pacific Ocean during World War II.
  4. Chuuk Lagoon
    
    Chuuk Lagoon, previously Truk Atoll, is an atoll in the central Pacific. It lies about 1,800 kilometres northeast of New Guinea, and is part of Chuuk State within the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). A protective reef, 225 kilometres (140 mi) around, encloses a natural harbour 79 by 50 km, with an area of 2,130 km2 (820 sq mi). It has a land area of 93.07 square kilometres, with a population of 36,158 people and a maximal elevation of 443 metres (1,453 ft). Weno city on Moen Island functions as the atoll's capital and also as the state capital and is the largest city in the FSM with its 13,700 people.
  5. Caroline Islands
    
    The Caroline Islands are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically, they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the central and eastern parts of the group, and Palau at the extreme western end. Historically, this area was also called Nuevas Filipinas or New Philippines, because they were part of the Spanish East Indies and were governed from Manila in the Philippines.
2. World War II: The Battle of Eniwetok begins. The battle ends in an American victory on February 22.
  1. World War II
    
    World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries.
  2. Battle of Eniwetok
    
    The Battle of Eniwetok was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought between 17 February 1944 and 23 February 1944, on Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The invasion of Eniwetok followed the American success in the Battle of Kwajalein to the southeast. Capture of Eniwetok would provide an airfield and harbor to support attacks on the Mariana Islands to the northwest. The operation was officially known as "Operation Catchpole", and was a three-phase operation involving the invasion of the three main islands in the Enewetak Atoll.
3. World War II: Operation Hailstone begins: U.S. naval air, surface, and submarine attack against Truk Lagoon, Japan's main base in the central Pacific, in support of the Eniwetok invasion.
  1. Operation Hailstone
    
    Operation Hailstone, 17–18 February 1944, was a massive United States Navy air and surface attack on Truk Lagoon conducted as part of the American offensive drive against the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) through the Central Pacific Ocean during World War II.
  2. Chuuk Lagoon
    
    Chuuk Lagoon, previously Truk Atoll, is an atoll in the central Pacific. It lies about 1,800 kilometres northeast of New Guinea, and is part of Chuuk State within the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). A protective reef, 225 kilometres (140 mi) around, encloses a natural harbour 79 by 50 km, with an area of 2,130 km2 (820 sq mi). It has a land area of 93.07 square kilometres, with a population of 36,158 people and a maximal elevation of 443 metres (1,453 ft). Weno city on Moen Island functions as the atoll's capital and also as the state capital and is the largest city in the FSM with its 13,700 people.
  3. Battle of Eniwetok
    
    The Battle of Eniwetok was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought between 17 February 1944 and 23 February 1944, on Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The invasion of Eniwetok followed the American success in the Battle of Kwajalein to the southeast. Capture of Eniwetok would provide an airfield and harbor to support attacks on the Mariana Islands to the northwest. The operation was officially known as "Operation Catchpole", and was a three-phase operation involving the invasion of the three main islands in the Enewetak Atoll.
1919
1. The Ukrainian People's Republic asks the Entente and the US for help fighting the Bolsheviks.
  1. Ukrainian People's Republic
    
    The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR), or Ukrainian National Republic (UNR), was a country in Eastern Europe that existed between 1917 and 1920. It was declared following the February Revolution in Russia by the First Universal. In March 1917, the National Congress in Kyiv elected the Central Council composed of socialist parties on the same principles as throughout the rest of the Russian Republic. The republic's autonomy was recognized by the Russian Provisional Government. Following the October Revolution, it proclaimed its independence from the Russian Republic on 22 January 1918 by the Fourth Universal.
  2. Triple Entente
    
    The Triple Entente describes the informal understanding between the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as well as Romania which joined later on. It was built upon the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1894, the Entente Cordiale of 1904 between Paris and London, and the Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907. It formed a powerful counterweight to the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. The Triple Entente, unlike the Triple Alliance or the Franco-Russian Alliance itself, was not an alliance of mutual defence.
  3. Bolsheviks
    
    The Bolsheviks, also known in English as the Bolshevists, were a far-left, revolutionary Marxist faction founded by Vladimir Lenin that split with the Mensheviks from the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), a revolutionary socialist political party formed in 1898, at its Second Party Congress in 1903.
1913
1. The Armory Show, the first large modern-art exhibition in the United States, opened at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City.
  1. Armory Show
    
    The 1913 Armory Show, also known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, was a show organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors in 1913. It was the first large exhibition of modern art in America, as well as one of the many exhibitions that have been held in the vast spaces of U.S. National Guard armories.
  2. Modern art
    
    Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of experimentation. Modern artists experimented with new ways of seeing and with fresh ideas about the nature of materials and functions of art. A tendency away from the narrative, which was characteristic for the traditional arts, toward abstraction is characteristic of much modern art. More recent artistic production is often called contemporary art or postmodern art.
  3. 69th Regiment Armory
    
    The 69th Regiment Armory is a historic National Guard armory building located at 68 Lexington Avenue between East 25th and 26th Streets in the Rose Hill section of Manhattan, New York City. The building began construction in 1904 and was completed in 1906. The armory was designed by the firm of Hunt & Hunt, and was the first armory built in New York City to not be modeled on a medieval fortress; instead, it was designed in the Beaux-Arts style.
2. The Armory Show opens in New York City, displaying works of artists who are to become some of the most influential painters of the early 20th century.
  1. Armory Show
    
    The 1913 Armory Show, also known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, was a show organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors in 1913. It was the first large exhibition of modern art in America, as well as one of the many exhibitions that have been held in the vast spaces of U.S. National Guard armories.
1904
1. Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly (title character shown) premiered at La Scala in Milan to poor reviews, forcing him to revise the opera.
  1. Giacomo Puccini
    
    Giacomo Puccini was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long line of composers, stemming from the late-Baroque era. Though his early work was firmly rooted in traditional late-19th-century Romantic Italian opera he later developed his work in the realistic verismo style, of which he became one of the leading exponents.
  2. Madama Butterfly
    
    Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.
  3. La Scala
    
    La Scala is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the Nuovo Regio Ducale Teatro alla Scala. The premiere performance was Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta.
1894
1. Rudolf Diesel's first working diesel engine ran for one minute.
  1. Rudolf Diesel
    
    Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel was a German inventor and mechanical engineer who is famous for having invented the diesel engine, which burns diesel fuel; both are named after him.
  2. Diesel engine
    
    The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-called compression-ignition engine. This contrasts with engines using spark plug-ignition of the air-fuel mixture, such as a petrol engine or a gas engine.
1867
1. The first ship passes through the Suez Canal.
  1. Suez Canal
    
    The Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The 193.30 km (120.11 mi) long canal is a popular trade route between Europe and Asia.
1865
1. American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina, is burned as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces.
  1. Columbia, South Carolina
    
    Columbia is the capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 as of the 2020 U.S. Census, it is the second-largest city in South Carolina. The city serves as the county seat of Richland County, and a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. It is the center of the Columbia metropolitan statistical area, which had a population of 829,470 and is the 72nd-largest metropolitan statistical area in the nation. The name Columbia is a poetic term used for the United States, derived from the name of Christopher Columbus, who explored for the Spanish Crown. Columbia is often abbreviated as Cola, leading to its nickname as "Soda City."
  2. Capture of Columbia
    
    The capture of Columbia occurred February 17–18, 1865, during the Carolinas Campaign of the American Civil War. The state capital of Columbia, South Carolina, was captured by Union forces under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman. Much of the city was burned, although it is not clear which side caused the fires.
  3. Confederate States of America
    
    The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States, the Confederacy, or "the South", was an unrecognized breakaway republic in North America that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confederacy comprised U.S. states that declared secession and warred against the United States during the American Civil War. Eleven U.S. states, nicknamed Dixie, declared secession and formed the main part of the CSA. They were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Kentucky, and Missouri also had declarations of secession and full representation in the Confederate Congress during their Union army occupation.
  4. United States
    
    The United States of America, commonly known as the United States or informally America, is a country in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. It is the third-largest country by both land and total area. The United States shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south. It has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 331 million, it is the third most populous country in the world. The national capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city and financial center is New York City.
1864
1. American Civil War: The H. L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the USS Housatonic.
  1. American Civil War
    
    The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union and the Confederacy, the latter formed by states that had seceded. The central cause of the war was the dispute over whether slavery would be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prevented from doing so, which was widely believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction.
  2. H. L. Hunley (submarine)
    
    H. L. Hunley, often referred to as Hunley, CSS H. L. Hunley, or as CSS Hunley, was a submarine of the Confederate States of America that played a small part in the American Civil War. Hunley demonstrated the advantages and the dangers of undersea warfare. She was the first combat submarine to sink a warship (USS Housatonic), although Hunley was not completely submerged and, following her successful attack, was lost along with her crew before she could return to base. The Confederacy lost 21 crewmen in three sinkings of Hunley during her short career. She was named for her inventor, Horace Lawson Hunley, shortly after she was taken into government service under the control of the Confederate States Army at Charleston, South Carolina.
  3. Sinking of USS Housatonic
    
    The Sinking of USS Housatonic on 17 February 1864 during the American Civil War was an important turning point in naval warfare. The Confederate States Navy submarine, H.L. Hunley made her first and only attack on a Union Navy warship when she staged a clandestine night attack on USS Housatonic in Charleston harbor. H.L. Hunley approached just under the surface, avoiding detection until the last moments, then embedded and remotely detonated a spar torpedo that rapidly sank the 1,240 long tons (1,260 t) sloop-of-war with the loss of five Union sailors. H.L. Hunley became renowned as the first submarine to successfully sink an enemy vessel in combat, and was the direct progenitor of what would eventually become international submarine warfare, although the victory was Pyrrhic and short-lived, since the submarine did not survive the attack and was lost with all eight Confederate crewmen.
  4. USS Housatonic (1861)
    
    USS Housatonic was a screw sloop-of-war of the United States Navy, gaining its namesake from the Housatonic River of New England.
1863
1. A group of citizens of Geneva found an International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, which later became known as the International Committee of the Red Cross.
  1. Geneva
    
    Geneva is the second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situated in the south west of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic and Canton of Geneva.
  2. International Committee of the Red Cross
    
    The International Committee of the Red Cross is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signatories) to the Geneva Convention of 1949 and its Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005 have given the ICRC a mandate to protect victims of international and internal armed conflicts. Such victims include war wounded persons, prisoners, refugees, civilians, and other non-combatants.
1859
1. Cochinchina campaign: French Navy forces captured the Citadel of Saigon, defended by 1,000 Vietnamese soldiers of the Nguyễn dynasty.
  1. Cochinchina campaign
    
    The Cochinchina campaign was a series of military operations between 1858 and 1862, launched by a joint naval expedition force on behalf of the French Empire and the Kingdom of Spain against the Nguyễn period Vietnamese state. It was the opening conflict of the French conquest of Vietnam.
  2. French Navy
    
    The French Navy, informally La Royale, is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in the world, ranking seventh in combined fleet tonnage and fifth in number of naval vessels. The French Navy is one of eight naval forces currently operating fixed-wing aircraft carriers, with its flagship Charles de Gaulle being the only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier outside the United States Navy, and one of two non-American vessels to use catapults to launch aircraft.
  3. Citadel of Saigon
    
    The Citadel of Saigon also known as the Citadel of Gia Định was a late 18th-century fortress that stood in Saigon, Vietnam from its construction in 1790 until its destruction in February 1859. The citadel was only used once prior to its destruction, when it was captured by Lê Văn Khôi in 1833 and used in a revolt against Emperor Minh Mạng. It was destroyed in a French naval bombardment as part of the colonization of southern Vietnam which became the French colony of Cochinchina.
  4. Nguyễn dynasty
    
    The Nguyễn dynasty was the last Vietnamese dynasty, which ruled the unified Vietnamese state largely independently from 1802 to 1883. During its existence, the empire expanded into modern-day southern Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos through a continuation of the centuries-long Nam tiến and Siamese–Vietnamese wars. After 1883, the Nguyễn emperors ruled nominally as heads of state of the French protectorates of Annam and Tonkin until the final months of WWII; they later nominally ruled over the Empire of Vietnam until the August Revolution.
2. Cochinchina Campaign: The French Navy captures the Citadel of Saigon, a fortress manned by 1,000 Nguyễn dynasty soldiers, en route to conquering Saigon and other regions of southern Viet Nam.
  1. Cochinchina campaign
    
    The Cochinchina campaign was a series of military operations between 1858 and 1862, launched by a joint naval expedition force on behalf of the French Empire and the Kingdom of Spain against the Nguyễn period Vietnamese state. It was the opening conflict of the French conquest of Vietnam.
  2. French Navy
    
    The French Navy, informally La Royale, is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in the world, ranking seventh in combined fleet tonnage and fifth in number of naval vessels. The French Navy is one of eight naval forces currently operating fixed-wing aircraft carriers, with its flagship Charles de Gaulle being the only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier outside the United States Navy, and one of two non-American vessels to use catapults to launch aircraft.
  3. Citadel of Saigon
    
    The Citadel of Saigon also known as the Citadel of Gia Định was a late 18th-century fortress that stood in Saigon, Vietnam from its construction in 1790 until its destruction in February 1859. The citadel was only used once prior to its destruction, when it was captured by Lê Văn Khôi in 1833 and used in a revolt against Emperor Minh Mạng. It was destroyed in a French naval bombardment as part of the colonization of southern Vietnam which became the French colony of Cochinchina.
  4. Nguyễn dynasty
    
    The Nguyễn dynasty was the last Vietnamese dynasty, which ruled the unified Vietnamese state largely independently from 1802 to 1883. During its existence, the empire expanded into modern-day southern Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos through a continuation of the centuries-long Nam tiến and Siamese–Vietnamese wars. After 1883, the Nguyễn emperors ruled nominally as heads of state of the French protectorates of Annam and Tonkin until the final months of WWII; they later nominally ruled over the Empire of Vietnam until the August Revolution.
  5. Ho Chi Minh City
    
    Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, is the largest city in Vietnam, with a population of around 9 million in 2019. Situated in the southeast region of Vietnam, the city surrounds the Saigon River and covers about 2,061 km2 (796 sq mi).
1854
1. The United Kingdom recognizes the independence of the Orange Free State.
  1. Orange Free State
    
    The Orange Free State was an independent Boer sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the British Empire at the end of the Second Boer War in 1902. It is one of the three historical precursors to the present-day Free State province.
1838
1. Zulu impis massacred about 532 Voortrekkers, Khoekhoe, and Basuto near present-day Weenen, South Africa.
  1. Impi
    
    Impi is a Zulu word meaning war or combat and by association any body of men gathered for war, for example impi ya masosha is a term denoting an army. Impi were formed from regiments from amakhanda. In English impi is often used to refer to a Zulu regiment, which is called an ibutho in Zulu or the army.
  2. Weenen massacre
    
    The Weenen massacre was the massacre of Khoikhoi, Basuto and Voortrekkers by the Zulu Kingdom on 17 February 1838. The massacres occurred at Doringkop, Bloukrans River, Moordspruit, Rensburgspruit and other sites around the present day town of Weenen in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province.
  3. Great Trek
    
    The Great Trek was a Northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers who travelled by wagon trains from the Cape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa from 1836 onwards, seeking to live beyond the Cape's British colonial administration. The Great Trek resulted from the culmination of tensions between rural descendants of the Cape's original European settlers, known collectively as Boers, and the British Empire. It was also reflective of an increasingly common trend among individual Boer communities to pursue an isolationist and semi-nomadic lifestyle away from the developing administrative complexities in Cape Town. Boers who took part in the Great Trek identified themselves as voortrekkers, meaning "pioneers", "pathfinders" in Dutch and Afrikaans.
  4. Khoekhoe
    
    Khoekhoen are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of southwestern Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San peoples. The designation "Khoekhoe" is actually a kare or praise address, not an ethnic endonym, but it has been used in the literature as an ethnic term for Khoe-speaking peoples of Southern Africa, particularly pastoralist groups, such as the !Ora, !Gona, Nama, Xiri and ǂNūkhoe nations.
  5. Sotho people
    
    The Sotho people, also known as the Basuto or Basotho, are a Bantu nation native to southern Africa. They split into different ethnic groups over time, due to regional conflicts and colonialism, which resulted in the modern Basotho, who have inhabited the region of Lesotho, South Africa since around the fifth century CE.
  6. Weenen
    
    Weenen is the second oldest European settlement in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is situated on the banks of the Bushman River. The farms around the town grow vegetables, lucerne, groundnuts, and citrus fruit.
2. Weenen massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal are killed by Zulus.
  1. Weenen massacre
    
    The Weenen massacre was the massacre of Khoikhoi, Basuto and Voortrekkers by the Zulu Kingdom on 17 February 1838. The massacres occurred at Doringkop, Bloukrans River, Moordspruit, Rensburgspruit and other sites around the present day town of Weenen in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province.
  2. Great Trek
    
    The Great Trek was a Northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers who travelled by wagon trains from the Cape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa from 1836 onwards, seeking to live beyond the Cape's British colonial administration. The Great Trek resulted from the culmination of tensions between rural descendants of the Cape's original European settlers, known collectively as Boers, and the British Empire. It was also reflective of an increasingly common trend among individual Boer communities to pursue an isolationist and semi-nomadic lifestyle away from the developing administrative complexities in Cape Town. Boers who took part in the Great Trek identified themselves as voortrekkers, meaning "pioneers", "pathfinders" in Dutch and Afrikaans.
  3. KwaZulu-Natal
    
    KwaZulu-Natal is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu and Natal Province were merged. It is located in the southeast of the country, with a long shoreline on the Indian Ocean and sharing borders with three other provinces and the countries of Mozambique, Eswatini and Lesotho. Its capital is Pietermaritzburg, and its largest city is Durban. It is the second-most populous province in South Africa, with slightly fewer residents than Gauteng.
  4. Zulu people
    
    Zulu people are a Nguni ethnic group in Southern Africa. The Zulu people are the largest ethnic group and nation in South Africa, with an estimated 10–12 million people, living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
1819
1. The United States House of Representatives passes the Missouri Compromise for the first time.
  1. United States House of Representatives
    
    The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they comprise the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
  2. Missouri Compromise
    
    The Missouri Compromise was a federal legislation of the United States that balanced desires of northern states to prevent expansion of slavery in the country with those of southern states to expand it. It admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state and declared a policy of prohibiting slavery in the remaining Louisiana Purchase lands north of the 36°30′ parallel. The 16th United States Congress passed the legislation on March 3, 1820, and President James Monroe signed it on March 6, 1820.
1814
1. War of the Sixth Coalition: Napoleon led a French army to a crushing victory in the Battle of Mormant, nearly destroying a Russian division.
  1. War of the Sixth Coalition
    
    In the War of the Sixth Coalition, sometimes known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation, a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, and a number of German States defeated France and drove Napoleon into exile on Elba. After the disastrous French invasion of Russia of 1812 in which they had been forced to support France, Prussia and Austria joined Russia, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Portugal, and the rebels in Spain who were already at war with France.
  2. Napoleon
    
    Napoleon Bonaparte, later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars. He was the de facto leader of the French Republic as First Consul from 1799 to 1804, then Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814 and again in 1815. Napoleon's political and cultural legacy endures to this day, as a highly celebrated and controversial leader. He initiated many liberal reforms that have persisted in society, and is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history, but between three and six million civilians and soldiers perished in what became known as the Napoleonic Wars.
  3. Battle of Mormant
    
    The Battle of Mormant was fought during the War of the Sixth Coalition between an Imperial French army under Emperor Napoleon I and a division of Russians under Count Peter Petrovich Pahlen near the town of Mormant, some 50 km (31 mi) southeast of Paris. Enveloped by cavalry led by François Étienne de Kellermann and Édouard Jean-Baptiste Milhaud and infantry led by Étienne Maurice Gérard, Pahlen's outnumbered force was nearly destroyed, with only about a third of its soldiers escaping.
2. War of the Sixth Coalition: The Battle of Mormant.
  1. War of the Sixth Coalition
    
    In the War of the Sixth Coalition, sometimes known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation, a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, and a number of German States defeated France and drove Napoleon into exile on Elba. After the disastrous French invasion of Russia of 1812 in which they had been forced to support France, Prussia and Austria joined Russia, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Portugal, and the rebels in Spain who were already at war with France.
  2. Battle of Mormant
    
    The Battle of Mormant was fought during the War of the Sixth Coalition between an Imperial French army under Emperor Napoleon I and a division of Russians under Count Peter Petrovich Pahlen near the town of Mormant, some 50 km (31 mi) southeast of Paris. Enveloped by cavalry led by François Étienne de Kellermann and Édouard Jean-Baptiste Milhaud and infantry led by Étienne Maurice Gérard, Pahlen's outnumbered force was nearly destroyed, with only about a third of its soldiers escaping.
1801
1. 1800 United States presidential election: An tie in the Electoral College between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.
  1. 1800 United States presidential election
    
    The 1800 United States presidential election was the fourth quadrennial presidential election. It was held from October 31 to December 3, 1800. In what is sometimes called the "Revolution of 1800", Vice President Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican Party defeated incumbent president John Adams of the Federalist Party. The election was a political realignment that ushered in a generation of Democratic-Republican leadership.
  2. United States Electoral College
    
    The United States Electoral College is the group of presidential electors required by the Constitution to form every four years for the sole purpose of appointing the president and vice president. Each state and the District of Columbia appoints electors pursuant to the methods described by its legislature, equal in number to its congressional delegation. Federal office holders, including senators and representatives, cannot be electors. Of the current 538 electors, an absolute majority of 270 or more electoral votes is required to elect the president and vice president. If no candidate achieves an absolute majority there, a contingent election is held by the United States House of Representatives to elect the president, and by the United States Senate to elect the vice president.
  3. Thomas Jefferson
    
    Thomas Jefferson was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the nation's second vice president under John Adams and the first United States secretary of state under George Washington. The principal author of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson was a proponent of democracy, republicanism, and individual rights, motivating American colonists to break from the Kingdom of Great Britain and form a new nation. He produced formative documents and decisions at state, national, and international levels.
  4. Aaron Burr
    
    Aaron Burr Jr. was an American politician and lawyer who served as the third vice president of the United States from 1801 to 1805. Burr's legacy is defined by his famous personal conflict with Alexander Hamilton that culminated in Burr killing Hamilton in a duel in 1804, while Burr was vice president.
  5. President of the United States
    
    The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.
  6. Vice President of the United States
    
    The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice president is also an officer in the legislative branch, as the president of the Senate. In this capacity, the vice president is empowered to preside over Senate deliberations at any time, but may not vote except to cast a tie-breaking vote. The vice president is indirectly elected together with the president to a four-year term of office by the people of the United States through the Electoral College.
  7. United States House of Representatives
    
    The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they comprise the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
1753
1. In Sweden February 17 is followed by March 1 as the country moves from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar.
  1. Julian calendar
    
    The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on 1 January 45 BC, by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandria.
  2. Gregorian calendar
    
    The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years differently so as to make the average calendar year 365.2425 days long, more closely approximating the 365.2422-day 'tropical' or 'solar' year that is determined by the Earth's revolution around the Sun.
1739
1. The Battle of Vasai commences as the Marathas move to invade Portuguese-occupied territory.
  1. Battle of Vasai
    
    The Battle of Vasai or the Battle of Bassein was fought between the Marathas and the Portuguese rulers of Vasai, a town lying near Mumbai (Bombay) in the Konkan region of present-day state of Maharashtra, India. The Marathas were led by Chimaji Appa, a brother of Peshwa Baji Rao I.
  2. Maratha Empire
    
    The Maratha Empire, later referred as Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern Indian empire that came to dominate much of the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. Maratha rule formally began in 1674 with the coronation of Shivaji of the Bhonsle Dynasty as the Chhatrapati. Although Shivaji came from the Maratha caste, the Maratha empire also included warriors, administrators and other notables from Maratha and several other castes from Maharashtra.
1676
1. Sixteen men of Pascual de Iriate's expedition are lost at Evangelistas Islets at the western end of the Strait of Magellan.
  1. Antonio de Vea expedition
    
    The Antonio de Vea expedition of 1675–1676 was a Spanish naval expedition to the fjords and channels of Patagonia aimed to find whether rival colonial powers—specifically, the English—were active in the region. While this was not the first Spanish expedition to the region, it was the largest up to then, involving 256 men, one ocean-going ship, two long boats and nine dalcas. The expedition dispelled suspicion about English bases in Patagonia. Spanish authorities' knowledge of western Patagonia was greatly improved by the expedition, yet Spanish interest in the area waned thereafter until the 1740s.
  2. Evangelistas Islets
    
    The Evangelistas Islets comprise a group of four small, rocky islands lying on the Chilean continental shelf, some 30 km north-west of the western entrance to the Strait of Magellan, in the south-eastern Pacific Ocean, facing the full force of the "Furious Fifties". They come under the jurisdiction of the Chilean Navy which operates the Chilean Maritime Signalling Service and has maintained a presence there since the establishment of the Evangelistas Lighthouse in 1896 by Scottish engineer George Henry Slight.
  3. Strait of Magellan
    
    The Strait of Magellan, also called the Straits of Magellan, is a navigable sea route in southern Chile separating mainland South America to the north and Tierra del Fuego to the south. The strait is considered the most important natural passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It was discovered and first traversed by the Spanish expedition of Ferdinand Magellan in 1520, after whom it is named. Prior to this, the strait had been navigated by canoe-faring indigenous peoples including the Kawésqar.
1674
1. An earthquake strikes the Indonesian island of Ambon. It triggers a 100 m (330 ft) megatsunami which drowns over 2,300 people.
  1. 1674 Ambon earthquake and megatsunami
    
    The 1674 Ambon earthquake occurred on February 17 between 19:30 and 20:00 local time in the Maluku Islands. The resulting tsunami reached heights of up to 100 metres (330 ft) on Ambon Island killing over 2,000 individuals. It was the first detailed documentation of a tsunami in Indonesia and the largest ever recorded in the country. The exact fault which produced the earthquake has never been determined, but geologists postulate either a local fault, or a larger thrust fault offshore. The extreme tsunami was likely the result of a submarine landslide.
  2. Ambon Island
    
    Ambon Island is part of the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. The island has an area of 743.37 km2 (287.02 sq mi) and is mountainous, well watered, and fertile. Ambon Island consists of two territories: the city of Ambon to the south and various districts (kecamatan) of the Central Maluku Regency to the north. The main city and seaport is Ambon, which is also the capital of Maluku province, while those districts of Maluku Tengah Regency situated on Ambon Island had a 2020 Census population of 128,069. Ambon has an airport and is home to the Pattimura University and Open University, state universities, and a few private universities, which include Darussalam University and Universitas Kristen Indonesia Maluku (UKIM).
  3. Megatsunami
    
    A megatsunami is a very large wave created by a large, sudden displacement of material into a body of water.
1621
1. Myles Standish was elected the first commander of the militia of Plymouth Colony.
  1. Myles Standish
    
    Myles Standish was an English military officer and colonizer. He was hired as military adviser for Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts, United States by the Pilgrims. Standish accompanied the Pilgrims on the ship Mayflower and played a leading role in the administration and defense of Plymouth Colony from its foundation in 1620. On February 17, 1621, the Plymouth Colony militia elected him as its first commander and continued to re-elect him to that position for the remainder of his life. Standish served at various times as an agent of Plymouth Colony on a return trip to England, as assistant governor of the colony, and as its treasurer.
  2. Militia
    
    A militia is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of regular, full-time military personnel; or, historically, to members of a warrior-nobility class. Generally unable to hold ground against regular forces, militias commonly support regular troops by skirmishing, holding fortifications, or conducting irregular warfare, instead of undertaking offensive campaigns by themselves. Local civilian laws often limit militias to serve only in their home region, and to serve only for a limited time; this further reduces their use in long military campaigns.
  3. Plymouth Colony
    
    Plymouth Colony was, from 1620 to 1691, the first permanent English colony in New England and the second permanent English colony in North America, after the Jamestown Colony. It was first settled by the passengers on the Mayflower, at a location that had previously been surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement served as the capital of the colony and developed as the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. At its height, Plymouth Colony occupied most of the southeastern portion of Massachusetts. Many of the people and events surrounding Plymouth Colony have become part of American folklore, including the American tradition of Thanksgiving and the monument of Plymouth Rock.
2. Myles Standish is appointed as first military commander of the English Plymouth Colony in North America.
  1. Myles Standish
    
    Myles Standish was an English military officer and colonizer. He was hired as military adviser for Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts, United States by the Pilgrims. Standish accompanied the Pilgrims on the ship Mayflower and played a leading role in the administration and defense of Plymouth Colony from its foundation in 1620. On February 17, 1621, the Plymouth Colony militia elected him as its first commander and continued to re-elect him to that position for the remainder of his life. Standish served at various times as an agent of Plymouth Colony on a return trip to England, as assistant governor of the colony, and as its treasurer.
  2. Plymouth Colony
    
    Plymouth Colony was, from 1620 to 1691, the first permanent English colony in New England and the second permanent English colony in North America, after the Jamestown Colony. It was first settled by the passengers on the Mayflower, at a location that had previously been surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement served as the capital of the colony and developed as the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. At its height, Plymouth Colony occupied most of the southeastern portion of Massachusetts. Many of the people and events surrounding Plymouth Colony have become part of American folklore, including the American tradition of Thanksgiving and the monument of Plymouth Rock.
1600
1. On his way to be burned at the stake for heresy, at Campo de' Fiori in Rome, the philosopher Giordano Bruno has a wooden vise put on his tongue to prevent him continuing to speak.
  1. Campo de' Fiori
    
    Campo de' Fiori is a rectangular square south of Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy, at the border between rione Parione and rione Regola. It is diagonally southeast of the Palazzo della Cancelleria and one block northeast of the Palazzo Farnese. Campo de' Fiori, translated literally from Italian, means "field of flowers". The name dates to the Middle Ages when the area was a meadow.
  2. Giordano Bruno
    
    Giordano Bruno was an Italian philosopher, mathematician, poet, cosmological theorist, and Hermetic occultist. He is known for his cosmological theories, which conceptually extended the then novel Copernican model. He proposed that the stars were distant suns surrounded by their own planets, and he raised the possibility that these planets might foster life of their own, a cosmological position known as cosmic pluralism. He also insisted that the universe is infinite and could have no "center".
1500
1. Duke Friedrich and Duke Johann attempt to subdue the peasantry of Dithmarschen, Denmark, in the Battle of Hemmingstedt.
  1. Frederick I of Denmark
    
    Frederick I was King of Denmark and Norway. He was the last Roman Catholic monarch to reign over Denmark and Norway, when subsequent monarchs embraced Lutheranism after the Protestant Reformation. As king of Norway, Frederick is most remarkable in never having visited the country and was never crowned as such. Therefore, he was styled King of Denmark, the Vends and the Goths, elected King of Norway. Frederick's reign began the enduring tradition of calling kings of Denmark alternatively by the names Christian and Frederik, which has continued up to the reign of the current monarch, Margrethe II.
  2. John of Denmark
    
    John was a Scandinavian monarch under the Kalmar Union. He was king of Denmark (1481–1513), Norway (1483–1513) and as John II Sweden (1497–1501). From 1482 to 1513, he was concurrently duke of Schleswig and Holstein in joint rule with his brother Frederick.
  3. Peasant
    
    A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants existed: slave, serf, and free tenant. Peasants might hold title to land either in fee simple or by any of several forms of land tenure, among them socage, quit-rent, leasehold, and copyhold.
  4. Dithmarschen
    
    Dithmarschen is a district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Nordfriesland, Schleswig-Flensburg, Rendsburg-Eckernförde, and Steinburg, by the state of Lower Saxony, and by the North Sea. From the 13th century up to 1559 Dithmarschen was an independent peasant republic within the Holy Roman Empire and a member of the Hanseatic League.
  5. Battle of Hemmingstedt
    
    The Battle of Hemmingstedt took place on 17 February 1500 south of the village of Hemmingstedt, near the present village of Epenwöhrden, in the western part of present-day Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It was an attempt by King John of Denmark and his brother Duke Frederick, who were co-dukes of Schleswig and Holstein, to subdue the peasantry of Dithmarschen, who had established a peasants' republic on the coast of the North Sea. John was at the time also king of the Kalmar Union.
1411
1. Following the successful campaigns during the Ottoman Interregnum, Musa Çelebi, one of the sons of Bayezid I, becomes Sultan of the Ottoman Empire with the support of Mircea I of Wallachia.
  1. Ottoman Interregnum
    
    The Ottoman Interregnum, or the Ottoman Civil War, was a civil war in the Ottoman Empire between the sons of Sultan Bayezid I following the defeat of their father at the Battle of Ankara on 20 July 1402. Although Mehmed Çelebi was confirmed as sultan by Timur, his brothers İsa Çelebi, Musa Çelebi, Süleyman Çelebi, and later, Mustafa Çelebi, refused to recognize his authority, each claiming the throne for himself. Civil war was the result. The Interregnum lasted a little under 11 years, until the Battle of Çamurlu on 5 July 1413, when Mehmed Çelebi emerged as victor, crowned himself Sultan Mehmed I, and restored the empire.
  2. Musa Çelebi
    
    Musa Çelebi was an Ottoman prince and a co-ruler of the empire for three years during the Ottoman Interregnum.
  3. Bayezid I
    
    Bayezid I, also known as Bayezid the Thunderbolt was the Ottoman Sultan from 1389 to 1402. He adopted the title of Sultan-i Rûm, Rûm being an old Islamic name for the Roman Empire. He decisively defeated the Crusaders at Nicopolis in 1396. Bayezid unsuccessfully besieged Constantinople and later was defeated and captured by Timur at the Battle of Ankara in 1402 and died in captivity in March 1403, triggering the Ottoman Interregnum.
  4. Sultan
    
    Sultan is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun سلطة sulṭah, meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who claimed almost full sovereignty without claiming the overall caliphate, or to refer to a powerful governor of a province within the caliphate. The adjectival form of the word is "sultanic", and the state and territories ruled by a sultan, as well as his office, are referred to as a sultanate.
  5. Ottoman Empire
    
    The Ottoman Empire, also known as the Turkish Empire, was an empire that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt by the Turkoman tribal leader Osman I. After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe and, with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmed the Conqueror.
  6. Mircea the Elder
    
    Mircea the Elder was the Voivode of Wallachia from 1386 until his death in 1418. He was the son of Radu I of Wallachia and brother of Dan I of Wallachia, after whose death he inherited the throne.
1370
1. Northern Crusades: Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Teutonic Knights meet in the Battle of Rudau.
  1. Northern Crusades
    
    The Northern Crusades or Baltic Crusades were Christian colonization and Christianization campaigns undertaken by Catholic Christian military orders and kingdoms, primarily against the pagan Baltic, Finnic and West Slavic peoples around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, and to a lesser extent also against Orthodox Christian Slavs.
  2. Grand Duchy of Lithuania
    
    The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Lithuanians, who were at the time a polytheistic nation born from several united Baltic tribes from Aukštaitija.
  3. Teutonic Order
    
    The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society c. 1190 in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals. Its members have commonly been known as the Teutonic Knights, having a small voluntary and mercenary military membership, serving as a crusading military order for the protection of Christians in the Holy Land and the Baltics during the Middle Ages.
  4. Battle of Rudau
    
    The Battle of Rudau was a medieval pitched battle fought between the Teutonic Knights and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania on 17 or 18 February 1370 near Rudau village, north of Königsberg. According to the Teutonic chronicler Wigand of Marburg and the Livonian chronicle of Hermann de Wartberge, the Lithuanians suffered a great defeat.

Births & Deaths

2021
1. Rush Limbaugh, American talk show host and author (b. 1951) deaths
  1. Rush Limbaugh
    
    Rush Hudson Limbaugh III was an American conservative political commentator who was the host of The Rush Limbaugh Show, which first aired in 1984 and was nationally syndicated on AM and FM radio stations from 1988 until his death in 2021.
2. Seif Sharif Hamad, Tanzanian politician (b. 1943) deaths
  1. Seif Sharif Hamad
    
    Seif Sharif Hamad was a Tanzanian politician who served as the First Vice President of Zanzibar and as Party Chairman of ACT Wazalendo. He was the secretary-general of the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) party and First Vice President of Zanzibar until 18 March 2019 when he announced his resignation from CUF and joined Alliance for Change and Transparency. He was given an ACT Wazalendo card number One, and he also won the party nomination for the 2020 presidential candidate for Zanzibar.
2017
1. Robert H. Michel, American politician (b. 1923) deaths
  1. Robert H. Michel
    
    Robert Henry Michel was an American Republican Party politician who was a member of the United States House of Representatives for 38 years. He represented central Illinois' 18th congressional district, and was the GOP leader in the House, serving as House Minority Leader during his last 14 years in Congress (1981–1995).
2. Michael Novak, American Roman Catholic theologian (b. 1933) deaths
  1. Michael Novak
    
    Michael John Novak Jr. was an American Catholic philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat. The author of more than forty books on the philosophy and theology of culture, Novak is most widely known for his book The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism (1982). In 1993 Novak was honored with an honorary doctorate at Universidad Francisco Marroquín due to his commitment to the idea of liberty. In 1994 he was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, which included a million-dollar purse awarded at Buckingham Palace. He wrote books and articles focused on capitalism, religion, and the politics of democratization.
2016
1. Andy Ganteaume, Trinidadian cricketer (b. 1921) deaths
  1. Andy Ganteaume
    
    Andrew Gordon Ganteaume was a Trinidadian cricketer who played one Test match for the West Indies in 1948 as a batsman. He scored 112 in his only Test innings which left him with the highest Test batting average in history until it was surpassed by Kurtis Patterson. Ganteaume played for Trinidad from a young age and was chosen to play in a Test match against England following his good batting form in 1948. However, his slow scoring probably cost him his place and he never played another Test, although he toured England with the West Indies in 1957. At the time of his death, Ganteaume was the oldest surviving West Indies Test cricketer.
2. Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, Egyptian journalist (b. 1923) deaths
  1. Mohamed Hassanein Heikal
    
    Mohamed Hassanein Heikal was an Egyptian journalist. For 17 years (1957–1974), he was editor-in-chief of the Cairo newspaper Al-Ahram and was a commentator on Arab affairs for more than 50 years.
3. Claude Jeancolas, French historian, author, and journalist (b. 1949) deaths
  1. Claude Jeancolas
    
    Claude Jeancolas was a French writer, art historian and journalist. He is best known for his work on Arthur Rimbaud.
4. Tony Phillips, American baseball player (b. 1959) deaths
  1. Tony Phillips
    
    Keith Anthony Phillips was an American professional baseball utility player who had an 18-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career from 1982 to 1999. He played regularly at second base, but also had significant time as a shortstop and third baseman. In addition, Phillips showed his versatility with over 100 game appearances in the outfield corners and as a designated hitter.
5. Andrzej Żuławski, Polish film director (b. 1940) deaths
  1. Andrzej Żuławski
    
    Andrzej Żuławski was a Polish film director and writer. Żuławski often went against mainstream commercialism in his films, and enjoyed success mostly with European art-house audiences.
2015
1. John Barrow, American-Canadian football player and manager (b. 1935) deaths
  1. John Barrow (Canadian football)
    
    John B. Barrow was an American college and professional football player who was an offensive and defensive tackle in the Canadian Football League (CFL) for fourteen seasons in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Barrow played college football for the University of Florida, and was recognized as an All-American. Thereafter, he played professionally for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the CFL, and was later inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
2. Cathy Ubels-Veen, Dutch politician (b. 1928) deaths
  1. Cathy Ubels-Veen
    
    Catharina "Cathy" Ubels-Veen was a Dutch politician. She was a member of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands between 1982 and 1986 for the Evangelical People's Party.
3. Liu Yudi, Chinese general and pilot (b. 1923) deaths
  1. Liu Yudi
    
    Liu Yudi was a MiG-15 pilot of the People's Liberation Army Air Force of China, and a flying ace during the Korean War, with 6 victories. He later served as commander of the Beijing Military Region Air Force, and was awarded the rank of lieutenant general in 1988.
2014
1. Bob Casale, American guitarist, keyboard player, and producer (b. 1952) deaths
  1. Bob Casale
    
    Robert Edward Casale Jr., or "Bob 2", was an American musician, composer and record producer. He came to prominence in the late 1970s as the keyboardist and rhythm guitarist of the new wave band Devo, which released a Top 20 hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It". The band has maintained a cult following throughout its existence. He was the younger brother of their co-founder and bass guitarist Gerald Casale.
  2. 1952
    
    1952 (MCMLII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1952nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 952nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 52nd year of the 20th century, and the 3rd year of the 1950s decade.
2. Peter Florin, German politician and diplomat, President of the United Nations General Assembly (b. 1921) deaths
  1. Peter Florin
    
    Peter Florin was an East German politician and diplomat.
  2. President of the United Nations General Assembly
    
    The president of the United Nations General Assembly is a position voted by representatives in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on a yearly basis. The president is the chair and presiding officer of the General Assembly.
  3. 1921
    
    1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar, the 1921st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 921st year of the 2nd millennium, the 21st year of the 20th century, and the 2nd year of the 1920s decade. As of the start of 1921, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
3. Wayne Smith, Jamaican singer (b. 1965) deaths
  1. Wayne Smith (musician)
    
    Wayne Smith was a Jamaican reggae and dancehall musician best known for his 1985 hit "Under Me Sleng Teng", which is regarded as the track which initiated the digital era of reggae.
  2. 1965
    
    1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1965th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 965th year of the 2nd millennium, the 65th year of the 20th century, and the 6th year of the 1960s decade.
2013
1. Richard Briers, English actor (b. 1934) deaths
  1. Richard Briers
    
    Richard David Briers was an English actor whose five-decade career encompassed film, radio, stage and television.
  2. 1934
    
    1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1934th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 934th year of the 2nd millennium, the 34th year of the 20th century, and the 5th year of the 1930s decade.
2. Shmulik Kraus, Israeli singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1935) deaths
  1. Shmulik Kraus
    
    Shmuel "Shmulik" Kraus was an Israeli pop-rock singer, composer, and actor. Kraus, one of the pioneers of Israeli music, underwent various personal crises in the course of his career. He appeared in several films, including Rocking Horse and Hole in the Moon, and composed songs for other performers, such as Shalom Hanoch. He was also known for his music for children based on the lyrics of Miriam Yalan-Shteklis.
3. Sophie Kurys, American baseball player (b. 1925) deaths
  1. Sophie Kurys
    
    Sophie Kurys was a former second basewoman who played from 1943 through 1952 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m), 115 lb (52 kg), Kurys batted and threw right-handed.
  2. 1925
    
    1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1925th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 925th year of the 2nd millennium, the 25th year of the 20th century, and the 6th year of the 1920s decade.
4. Mindy McCready, American singer-songwriter (b. 1975) deaths
  1. Mindy McCready
    
    Malinda Gayle McCready was an American country music singer. Active from 1995 until her death in 2013, she recorded a total of five studio albums. Her debut album, 1996's Ten Thousand Angels, was released on BNA Records and was certified 2× Platinum by the RIAA, while 1997's If I Don't Stay the Night was certified Gold. 1999's I'm Not So Tough, her final album for BNA, was less successful, and she left the label. A self-titled fourth album followed in 2002 on Capitol Records. McCready's fifth and final studio album, I'm Still Here, was released in March 2010 on Iconic Records.
  2. 1975
    
    1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1975th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 975th year of the 2nd millennium, the 75th year of the 20th century, and the 6th year of the 1970s decade.
2012
1. Robert Carr, English engineer and politician, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1916) deaths
  1. Robert Carr
    
    Leonard Robert Carr, Baron Carr of Hadley, was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Home Secretary from 1972 to 1974. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for 26 years, and later served in the House of Lords as a life peer.
  2. Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
    
    The Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in the British Parliamentary system is the member of the Shadow Cabinet who is responsible for shadowing the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The title is given at the gift of the Leader of the Opposition and has no formal constitutional role, but is generally considered the second-most senior position on the opposition frontbench, after the Leader. Past Shadow Chancellors include Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, Ted Heath, Geoffrey Howe, Ken Clarke, Gordon Brown, and John McDonnell.
  3. 1916
    
    1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar, the 1916th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 916th year of the 2nd millennium, the 16th year of the 20th century, and the 7th year of the 1910s decade. As of the start of 1916, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
2. Michael Davis, American singer-songwriter and bass player (b. 1943) deaths
  1. Michael Davis (bassist)
    
    Michael Davis was an American bass guitarist, singer, songwriter and music producer, best known as a member of the MC5.
  2. 1943
    
    1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1943rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 943rd year of the 2nd millennium, the 43rd year of the 20th century, and the 4th year of the 1940s decade.
3. Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn, Dutch mathematician and theorist (b. 1918) deaths
  1. Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn
    
    Nicolaas Govert (Dick) de Bruijn was a Dutch mathematician, noted for his many contributions in the fields of analysis, number theory, combinatorics and logic.
  2. 1918
    
    1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar, the 1918th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 918th year of the 2nd millennium, the 18th year of the 20th century, and the 9th year of the 1910s decade. As of the start of 1918, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
4. Ulric Neisser, German-American psychologist and academic (b. 1928) deaths
  1. Ulric Neisser
    
    Ulric Richard Gustav Neisser (December 8, 1928 – February 17, 2012) was a German-American psychologist, Cornell University professor, and member of the US National Academy of Sciences. He has been referred to as the "father of cognitive psychology". Neisser researched and wrote about perception and memory. He posited that a person's mental processes could be measured and subsequently analyzed. In 1967, Neisser published Cognitive Psychology, which he later said was considered an attack on behaviorist psychological paradigms. Cognitive Psychology brought Neisser instant fame and recognition in the field of psychology. While Cognitive Psychology was considered unconventional, it was Neisser's Cognition and Reality that contained some of his most controversial ideas. A main theme in Cognition and Reality is Neisser's advocacy for experiments on perception occurring in natural settings. Neisser postulated that memory is, largely, reconstructed and not a snap shot of the moment. Neisser illustrated this during one of his highly publicized studies on people's memories of the Challenger explosion. In his later career, he summed up current research on human intelligence and edited the first major scholarly monograph on the Flynn effect. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Neisser as the 32nd most cited psychologist of the 20th century.
  2. 1928
    
    1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1928th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 928th year of the 2nd millennium, the 28th year of the 20th century, and the 9th year of the 1920s decade.
2010
1. Kathryn Grayson, American actress and singer (b. 1922) deaths
  1. Kathryn Grayson
    
    Kathryn Grayson was an American actress and coloratura soprano.
2009
1. Conchita Cintrón, Chilean bullfighter and journalist (b. 1922) deaths
  1. Conchita Cintrón
    
    Concepción Cintrón Verrill, also known as Conchita Cintrón or La Diosa de Oro, was a Chile-born Peruvian torera, perhaps the most famous in the history of bullfighting. In the ring Cintrón was said to display particular grace, style and bravado, a combination known as duende.
  2. 1922
    
    1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar, the 1922nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 922nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 22nd year of the 20th century, and the 3rd year of the 1920s decade. As of the start of 1922, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
2006
1. Ray Barretto, American drummer (b. 1929) deaths
  1. Ray Barretto
    
    Raymundo "Ray" Barretto Pagán was an American percussionist and bandleader of Puerto Rican descent. Throughout his career as a percussionist, he played a wide variety of Latin music styles, as well as Latin jazz. His first hit, "El Watusi," was recorded by his Charanga Moderna in 1962, becoming the most successful pachanga song in the United States. In the late 1960s, Barretto became one of the leading exponents of boogaloo and what would later be known as salsa. Nonetheless, many of Barretto's recordings would remain rooted in more traditional genres such as son cubano. A master of the descarga, Barretto was a long-time member of the Fania All-Stars. His success continued into the 1970s with songs such as "Cocinando" and "Indestructible." His last album for Fania Records, Soy dichoso, was released in 1990. He then formed the New World Spirit jazz ensemble and continued to tour and record until his death in 2006.
  2. 1929
    
    1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1929th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 929th year of the 2nd millennium, the 29th year of the 20th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1920s decade.
2. Bill Cowsill, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1948) deaths
  1. Bill Cowsill
    
    William Joseph Cowsill Jr. was an American singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. He was the lead singer and guitarist of The Cowsills, who had three top-10 singles in the late 1960s. From the mid-1970s until his death, he was a successful alt-country artist and producer in Canada.
  2. 1948
    
    1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1948th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 948th year of the 2nd millennium, the 48th year of the 20th century, and the 9th year of the 1940s decade.
2005
1. Dan O'Herlihy, Irish-American actor (b. 1919) deaths
  1. Dan O'Herlihy
    
    Daniel Peter O'Herlihy was an Irish actor of film, television, and radio. With a distinguished appearance and rich, resonant speaking voice, O'Herlihy's best known-roles included his Oscar-nominated portrayal of the lead character in Luis Buñuel's Robinson Crusoe (1954), Brigadier General Warren A. Black in Fail Safe (1964), Marshal Ney in Waterloo (1970), Conal Cochran in Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), Grig in The Last Starfighter in (1984), "The Old Man" in RoboCop (1987) and its 1990 sequel, and Andrew Packard in the television series Twin Peaks (1990–91).
  2. 1919
    
    1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar, the 1919th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 919th year of the 2nd millennium, the 19th year of the 20th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1910s decade. As of the start of 1919, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
2. Omar Sívori, Argentinian footballer and manager (b. 1935) deaths
  1. Omar Sívori
    
    Enrique Omar Sívori was an Italian-Argentine football player and manager who played as a forward. At club level, he is known for his successful time with Italian side Juventus during the late 1950s and early 1960s, where he won three Serie A titles among other trophies; he also played for River Plate in Argentina and Napoli in Italy.
  2. 1935
    
    1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1935th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 935th year of the 2nd millennium, the 35th year of the 20th century, and the 6th year of the 1930s decade.
2004
1. José López Portillo, Mexican lawyer and politician, 51st President of Mexico (b. 1920) deaths
  1. José López Portillo
    
    José Guillermo Abel López Portillo y Pacheco was a Mexican writer, lawyer and politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who served as the 58th president of Mexico from 1976 to 1982. López Portillo was the only official candidate in the 1976 presidential election, being the only president in recent Mexican history to win an election unopposed.
  2. President of Mexico
    
    The president of Mexico, officially the president of the United Mexican States, is the head of state and head of government of Mexico. Under the Constitution of Mexico, the president heads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the Mexican Armed Forces. The current president is Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who took office on 1 December 2018.
  3. 1920
    
    1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar, the 1920th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 920th year of the 2nd millennium, the 20th year of the 20th century, and the 1st year of the 1920s decade. As of the start of 1920, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
2003
1. Steve Bechler, American baseball player (b. 1979) deaths
  1. Steve Bechler
    
    Steven Scott Bechler was an American professional baseball pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Baltimore Orioles.
  2. 1979
    
    1979 (MCMLXXIX) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1979th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 979th year of the 2nd millennium, the 79th year of the 20th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1970s decade.
1998
1. Ernst Jünger, German soldier, philosopher, and author (b. 1895) deaths
  1. Ernst Jünger
    
    Ernst Jünger was a German author, highly decorated soldier, philosopher, and entomologist who became publicly known for his World War I memoir Storm of Steel.
  2. 1895
    
    1895 (MDCCCXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar, the 1895th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 895th year of the 2nd millennium, the 95th year of the 19th century, and the 6th year of the 1890s decade. As of the start of 1895, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
1997
1. Madison Keys, American tennis player births
  1. Madison Keys
    
    Madison Keys is an American professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 7 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), a ranking she first achieved in October 2016. Keys has played in one Grand Slam tournament final at the 2017 US Open, competed at the 2016 WTA Finals, and was a semifinalist at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She has won six WTA tournaments, five of which were at the Premier level, and she achieved her biggest title at the 2019 Cincinnati Open, a Premier 5 event.
1994
1. Randy Shilts, American journalist and author (b. 1951) deaths
  1. Randy Shilts
    
    Randy Shilts was an American journalist and author. After studying journalism at the University of Oregon, Shilts began working as a reporter for both The Advocate and the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as for San Francisco Bay Area television stations. In the 1980s, he was noted for being the first openly gay reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle.
1993
1. Nicola Leali, Italian footballer births
  1. Nicola Leali
    
    Nicola Leali is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Serie B club Ascoli.
2. Marc Márquez, Spanish motorcycle racer births
  1. Marc Márquez
    
    Marc Márquez Alentà is a Spanish professional Grand Prix motorcycle road racer, who has raced for Honda's factory team since his MotoGP debut in 2013. Born in Cervera, Catalonia, Spain, he is nicknamed the 'Ant of Cervera' worldwide, and 'el tro de Cervera' in his hometown, meaning the 'Thunder of Cervera'. He is one of four riders to have won world championship titles in three different categories, after Mike Hailwood, Phil Read and Valentino Rossi, and is one of the most successful motorcycle racers of all time, with eight Grand Prix World Championships to his name, six of which are in the premier class. Márquez became the third Spaniard after Àlex Crivillé and Jorge Lorenzo to win the premier class title, and is the most successful Spanish rider in MotoGP to date, with 59 wins. In 2013 he became the first rider since Kenny Roberts in 1978 to win the premier class title in his first season, and the youngest to win the title overall, at 20 years and 266 days of age.
1991
1. Ed Sheeran, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer births
  1. Ed Sheeran
    
    Edward Christopher Sheeran is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently released the extended play, No. 5 Collaborations Project. He signed with Asylum Records the same year.
1990
1. Marianne St-Gelais, Canadian speed skater births
  1. Marianne St-Gelais
    
    Marianne St-Gelais is a Canadian former short track speed skater. She won two silver medals in the 500 m and 3,000 m relay at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, and a third silver in the 3,000 m relay at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
2. Jean-Marc Boivin, French mountaineer, skier, and pilot (b. 1951) deaths
  1. Jean-Marc Boivin
    
    Jean-Marc Boivin was a French mountaineer, extreme skier, hang glider and paraglider pilot, speleologist, BASE jumper, film maker and author. The holder of several altitude records for hang gliding and paragliding, the creator of numerous first ascents and first ski descents in the Alps, a member of the team that broke the record for a sub-glacial dive and the first person to paraglide from the summit of Mount Everest, Boivin was a pioneer of extreme sports. He died from injuries incurred after BASE jumping off Angel Falls in Venezuela, the highest waterfall in the world.
  2. 1951
    
    1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1951st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 951st year of the 2nd millennium, the 51st year of the 20th century, and the 2nd year of the 1950s decade.
1989
1. Rebecca Adlington, English swimmer births
  1. Rebecca Adlington
    
    Rebecca Adlington is a British former competitive swimmer who specialised in freestyle events in international competition. She won two gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the 400-metre freestyle and 800-metre freestyle, breaking the 19-year-old world record of Janet Evans in the 800-metre final. Adlington was Britain's first Olympic swimming champion since 1988, and the first British swimmer to win two Olympic gold medals since 1908. After winning her first World Championship gold over 800 metres in 2011, along with silver in the 400 metres at the same meet, she won bronze medals in both the women's 400-metre and 800-metre freestyle events in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
2. Chord Overstreet, American actor and singer births
  1. Chord Overstreet
    
    Chord Paul Overstreet is an American actor and musician. He is best known for his role as Sam Evans on the Fox television series Glee (2009–2015). He has starred in the Apple TV+ comedy series Acapulco since 2021.
3. Lefty Gomez, American baseball player (b. 1908) deaths
  1. Lefty Gomez
    
    Vernon Louis "Lefty" Gomez was an American professional baseball player. A left-handed pitcher, Gomez played in Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1930 and 1943 for the New York Yankees and the Washington Senators. Gomez was a five-time World Series champion with the Yankees. He was also known for his colorful personality and humor throughout his career and life.
  2. 1908
    
    1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar, the 1908th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 908th year of the 2nd millennium, the 8th year of the 20th century, and the 9th year of the 1900s decade. As of the start of 1908, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
1988
1. Vasyl Lomachenko, Ukrainian boxer births
  1. Vasiliy Lomachenko
    
    Vasyl Anatoliyovych Lomachenko is a Ukrainian professional boxer. He is a former world champion in three weight classes, having held the WBO featherweight title from 2014 to 2015; the WBO junior lightweight title from 2016 to 2017; and the unified WBA (Super), WBC, WBO and Ring magazine lightweight titles between 2018 and 2020.
2. John M. Allegro, English archaeologist and scholar (b. 1923) deaths
  1. John M. Allegro
    
    John Marco Allegro was an English archaeologist and Dead Sea Scrolls scholar. He was a populariser of the Dead Sea Scrolls through his books and radio broadcasts. He was the editor of some of the most famous and controversial scrolls published, the pesharim. A number of Allegro's later books, including The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, brought him both popular fame and notoriety, and also complicated his career.
3. Karpoori Thakur, Indian educator and politician, 11th Chief Minister of Bihar (b. 1924) deaths
  1. Karpoori Thakur
    
    Karpoori Thakur was an Indian politician from the Bihar state. He was popularly known as Jan Nayak. He served as the Chief Minister of Bihar from December 1970 to June 1971, and from December 1977 to April 1979.
  2. List of chief ministers of Bihar
    
    The chief minister of Bihar is the chief executive of the Indian state of Bihar. As per the Constitution of India, the governor of Bihar is the state's de jure head, but de facto executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following elections to the Bihar Legislative Assembly, the governor usually invites the party with a majority of seats to form the government. The governor appoints the chief minister, whose council of ministers are collectively responsible to the assembly. Given that they have the confidence of the assembly, the chief minister's term is for five years and is subject to no term limits.
1986
1. Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian-American philosopher and author (b. 1895) deaths
  1. Jiddu Krishnamurti
    
    Jiddu Krishnamurti was a philosopher, speaker and writer. In his early life, he was groomed to be the new World Teacher, an advanced spiritual position in the theosophical tradition, but later rejected this mantle and withdrew from the organization behind it. His interests included psychological revolution, the nature of mind, meditation, holistic inquiry, human relationships, and bringing about radical change in society. He stressed the need for a revolution in the psyche of every human being and emphasised that such revolution cannot be brought about by any external entity, be it religious, political, or social.
1985
1. Anders Jacobsen, Norwegian ski jumper births
  1. Anders Jacobsen (ski jumper)
    
    Anders Jacobsen is a Norwegian former ski jumper. He competed at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics and won a team bronze medal in the large hill event in 2010. He is the youngest Norwegian winner of Four Hills Tournament.
1984
1. AB de Villiers, South African cricketer births
  1. AB de Villiers
    
    Abraham Benjamin de Villiers is a former South African international cricketer. AB de Villiers was named as the ICC ODI Player of the Year three times during his 15-year international career and was one of the five Wisden cricketers of the decade at the end of 2019. He is regarded as one of the greatest cricketers in the history of the sport.
2. Katie Hill, Australian 3.0 point wheelchair basketball player births
  1. Katie Hill (basketball)
    
    Katie Hill is an Australian 3.0 point wheelchair basketball player. She participated in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, where she won a bronze medal, and the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, where she won a silver medal. She has over 100 international caps playing for Australia.
  2. 3 point player
    
    3 point player is a disability sport classification for wheelchair basketball. People in this class have good forward and backward trunk movement but poor to no sideways trunk movement. The class includes people with L2-L4 paraplegia and amputations. Amputees are put into this class generally if they have hip disarticulations or hip abductions. Players in this class can generally rebound balls that are over their heads, but they can have some issues with balance during lateral rebounds.
  3. Wheelchair basketball
    
    Wheelchair basketball is basketball played by people with varying physical disabilities that disqualify them from playing a non-disabled sport. These include spina bifida, birth defects, cerebral palsy, paralysis due to accident, amputations, and many other disabilities. The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) is the governing body for this sport. It is recognized by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) as the sole competent authority in wheelchair basketball worldwide. FIBA has recognized IWBF under Article 53 of its General Statutes.
3. Marcin Gortat, Polish basketball player births
  1. Marcin Gortat
    
    Marcin Janusz Gortat is a Polish former professional basketball player. The 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m), 240 pounds (110 kg) center is the son of boxer Janusz Gortat. He was drafted in the second round by the Phoenix Suns in the 2005 NBA draft and played for the Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, Washington Wizards, and Los Angeles Clippers. He retired from professional basketball in 2020.
1983
1. Kevin Rudolf, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer births
  1. Kevin Rudolf
    
    Kevin Winston Rudolf is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, rapper, and multi-instrumentalist from New York City, New York. He is best known for his 2008 single "Let It Rock".
1982
1. Adriano, Brazilian footballer births
  1. Adriano (footballer, born February 1982)
    
    Adriano Leite Ribeiro, commonly known simply as Adriano, is a Brazilian former professional footballer. A striker known for his long range left footed strikes.
2. Brian Bruney, American baseball player births
  1. Brian Bruney
    
    Brian Anthony Bruney is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Yankees, Washington Nationals, and Chicago White Sox. He won the 2009 World Series with the Yankees, beating the Philadelphia Phillies.
3. Nestor Chylak, American baseball player and umpire (b. 1922) deaths
  1. Nestor Chylak
    
    Nestor George Chylak Jr. was an American umpire in Major League Baseball who worked in the American League from 1954 to 1978. He umpired in three ALCS, serving as crew chief in 1969 and 1973. He also called five World Series, serving as the crew chief in 1971 and 1977. He also worked in six All-Star Games: 1957, 1960, 1964, 1973 and 1978, working home plate in the second 1960 game and in 1973.
4. Thelonious Monk, American pianist and composer (b. 1917) deaths
  1. Thelonious Monk
    
    Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser", "Ruby, My Dear", "In Walked Bud", and "Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second-most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington.
5. Lee Strasberg, American actor and director (b. 1901) deaths
  1. Lee Strasberg
    
    Lee Strasberg was an American theatre director, actor and acting teacher. He co-founded, with theatre directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective". In 1951, he became director of the nonprofit Actors Studio in New York City, considered "the nation's most prestigious acting school," and, in 1966, was involved in the creation of Actors Studio West in Los Angeles.
1981
1. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, American actor, director, and producer births
  1. Joseph Gordon-Levitt
    
    Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received various accolades, including nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his leading performances in 500 Days of Summer (2009) and 50/50 (2011). He is the founder of the online media platform HitRecord whose projects such as HitRecord on TV (2014–15) and Create Together (2020) won him two Primetime Emmy Awards in the category of Outstanding Interactive Program.
2. Paris Hilton, American model, media personality, actress, singer, DJ, author and businesswoman births
  1. Paris Hilton
    
    Paris Whitney Hilton is an American media personality, businesswoman, model, entertainer, and socialite. Born in New York City, and raised there and in Beverly Hills, California, she is a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, the founder of Hilton Hotels. Hilton first attracted tabloid attention in the late 1990s, when she became a fixture in NYC's social scene, and ventured into modeling at age 19, signing with Donald Trump's agency Trump Model Management. After David LaChapelle photographed her and sister Nicky for the September 2000 issue of Vanity Fair, Hilton was proclaimed "New York's leading It Girl" in 2001. The reality television series The Simple Life (2003–2007), in which she starred with her friend Nicole Richie, and a leaked 2001 sex tape with her then-boyfriend Rick Salomon, later released as 1 Night in Paris (2004), catapulted her into global fame.
3. Pontus Segerström, Swedish footballer (d. 2014) births
  1. Pontus Segerström
    
    Pontus Segerström was a Swedish footballer who played as a defender.
1980
1. Al Harrington, American basketball player births
  1. Al Harrington
    
    Albert Harrington is an American former professional basketball player and current assistant coach for the Cape Town Tigers. Selected with the 25th overall pick in the 1998 NBA draft, Harrington played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Indiana Pacers, Atlanta Hawks, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks, Denver Nuggets, Orlando Magic and Washington Wizards. He also spent a short stint with the Fujian Sturgeons of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).
2. Klemi Saban, Israeli footballer births
  1. Klemi Saban
    
    Klemi Saban,, is a retired Israeli football defender. Saban is mostly known for playing at Maccabi Netanya, there he played 6 years, captained the club and won over 200 caps in all club competitions.
1979
1. William Gargan, American actor (b. 1905) deaths
  1. William Gargan
    
    William Dennis Gargan was an American film, television and radio actor. He was the 5th recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1967, and in 1941, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Joe in They Knew What They Wanted. He acted in decades of movies including parts in Follow the Leader, Rain, Night Flight, Three Sons, Isle of Destiny and many others. The role he was best known for was that of a private detective Martin Kane in the 1949–1952 radio-television series Martin Kane, Private Eye. In television, he was also in 39 episodes of The New Adventures of Martin Kane.
1978
1. Rory Kinnear, English actor and playwright births
  1. Rory Kinnear
    
    Rory Michael Kinnear is an English actor and playwright who has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. In 2014, he won the Olivier Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of William Shakespeare's villain Iago in the National Theatre production of Othello.
1977
1. Janani Luwum, Ugandan archbishop and saint (b. 1922) deaths
  1. Janani Luwum
    
    Janani Jakaliya Luwum was the archbishop of the Church of Uganda from 1974 to 1977 and one of the most influential leaders of the modern church in Africa. He was arrested in February 1977 and died shortly after. Although the official account describes a car crash, it is generally accepted that he was murdered on the orders of then-President Idi Amin.
1975
1. Václav Prospal, Czech ice hockey player births
  1. Václav Prospal
    
    Václav "Vinny" Prospal is a Czech former professional ice hockey player, currently a hockey coach. He played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Philadelphia Flyers, Ottawa Senators, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, New York Rangers and Columbus Blue Jackets. On January 24, 2014, he announced his retirement from professional hockey. He is currently serving as the manager of Motor České Budějovice in the Czech hockey league.
1974
1. Kaoru, Japanese guitarist, songwriter, and producer births
  1. Dir En Grey
    
    Dir En Grey is a Japanese heavy metal band formed in February 1997 and currently signed to Firewall Div., a sub-division of Free-Will. With a consistent lineup of guitarists Kaoru and Die, vocalist Kyo, drummer Shinya and bassist Toshiya, they have released eleven full-length records. Numerous stylistic changes have made the genre of their music difficult to determine, though it is generally considered to be a form of metal. Originally a visual kei band, the members later opted for more subtle attire, but have continued to maintain a dramatic image on stage.
2. Jerry O'Connell, American actor, director, and producer births
  1. Jerry O'Connell
    
    Jerry O'Connell is an American actor and television host. He is known for his roles as Quinn Mallory in the television series Sliders, Andrew Clements in My Secret Identity, Vern Tessio in the film Stand by Me (1986), Joe in Joe's Apartment (1996), Frank Cushman in Jerry Maguire (1996), Derek in Scream 2 (1997), Charlie Carbone in Kangaroo Jack (2003), and Detective Woody Hoyt on the drama Crossing Jordan. He starred as Pete Kaczmarek in the single 2010–2011 season of The Defenders. He also had a starring role in the comedy horror film Piranha 3D (2010). Currently, he voices Commander Jack Ransom on the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks, is co-host of The Talk, and hosts a version of Pictionary syndicated on Fox stations.
1973
1. Goran Bunjevčević, Serbian FR Yugoslavia international footballer (d. 2018) births
  1. Goran Bunjevčević
    
    Goran Bunjevčević was a Serbian footballer who played as a defender in Serbia, England and the Netherlands.
  2. Serbia and Montenegro
    
    Serbia and Montenegro was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which bordered Hungary to the north, Romania to the northeast, Bulgaria to the southeast, Macedonia to the south, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the west, and Albania to the southwest. The state was founded on 27 April 1992 as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, known as FR Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia which comprised the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Montenegro. In February 2003, FR Yugoslavia was transformed from a federal republic to a political union until Montenegro seceded from the union in June 2006, leading to the full independence of both Serbia and Montenegro.
2. Raphaël Ibañez, French rugby player births
  1. Raphaël Ibañez
    
    Raphaël Ibañez is a retired French rugby union footballer. A hooker, he represented the French national team 98 times, and as captain 41 times. After a career in club rugby management, he became Team Manager for France in 2020.
1972
1. Billie Joe Armstrong, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, and producer (Green Day) births
  1. Billie Joe Armstrong
    
    Billie Joe Armstrong is an American musician who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Green Day, which he co-founded with Mike Dirnt in 1987. He is also a guitarist and vocalist for the punk rock band Pinhead Gunpowder, and provides lead vocals for Green Day's side projects Foxboro Hot Tubs, The Network, The Longshot and The Coverups. Armstrong has been considered by critics as one of the greatest punk rock guitarists of all time.
  2. Green Day
    
    Green Day is an American rock band formed in the East Bay of California in 1987 by lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, together with bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt. For most of the band's career, they have been a power trio with drummer Tré Cool, who replaced John Kiffmeyer in 1990 before the recording of the band's second studio album, Kerplunk (1991). Touring guitarist Jason White became a full-time member in 2012, but returned to his touring role in 2016. Before taking its current name in 1989, Green Day was called Sweet Children, and they were part of the late 1980s/early 1990s Bay Area punk scene that emerged from the 924 Gilman Street club in Berkeley, California. The band's early releases were with the independent record label Lookout! Records. In 1994, their major-label debut Dookie, released through Reprise Records, became a breakout success and eventually shipped over 10 million copies in the U.S. Alongside fellow California punk bands Bad Religion, the Offspring, Rancid, and Social Distortion, Green Day is credited with popularizing mainstream interest in punk rock in the U.S.
2. Philippe Candeloro, French figure skater births
  1. Philippe Candeloro
    
    Philippe Candeloro is a French former competitive figure skater. He is a two-time Olympic bronze medalist, a two-time World medalist, a two-time European silver medalist, and a four-time French national champion (1994–97). He has been a commentator for French television during figure skating events at the Olympics. He also made special appearance as himself and a villain's victim named "Frozer" in Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir.
3. Taylor Hawkins, American singer-songwriter and drummer (Foo Fighters) (d. 2022) births
  1. Taylor Hawkins
    
    Oliver Taylor Hawkins was an American musician, best known as the drummer of the rock band Foo Fighters, with whom he recorded eight studio albums between 1999 and 2021. Before joining the band in 1997, he was the touring drummer for Sass Jordan and for Alanis Morissette, as well as the drummer in the progressive experimental band Sylvia.
  2. Foo Fighters
    
    Foo Fighters are an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1994. Foo Fighters was initially formed as a one-man project by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. Following the success of the eponymous debut album, Grohl recruited a band consisting of Nate Mendel, William Goldsmith (drums), and Pat Smear (guitar). After a succession of lineup changes, including the departures of Goldsmith and Smear, the band formed its core lineup in 1999 consisting of Grohl, Mendel, Chris Shiflett (guitar), and Taylor Hawkins (drums). In 2005 Smear returned to the band and in 2017 Rami Jaffee joined the band performing the keyboards and piano.
4. Valeria Mazza, Argentinian model and businesswoman births
  1. Valeria Mazza
    
    Valeria Raquel Mazza is an Argentine supermodel and businesswoman of Italian ancestry. Mazza rose to prominence in the 1990s and became a household name after appearing on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue of 1996 alongside Tyra Banks. Mazza worked for fashion designers such as Gianni Versace and Roberto Cavalli.
5. Lars-Göran Petrov, Swedish singer and drummer (d. 2021) births
  1. Lars-Göran Petrov
    
    Lars-Göran Petrov, often abbreviated as L-G or LG Petrov, was a Swedish singer. He is best known for his work with death metal band Entombed.
6. Friday Hassler, American race car driver (b. 1935) deaths
  1. Friday Hassler
    
    Raymond "Friday" Hassler was a NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup Series driver.
1971
1. Denise Richards, American model and actress births
  1. Denise Richards
    
    Denise Richards is an American actress, television personality, and former fashion model. Her most recognized roles are Carmen Ibanez in Starship Troopers (1997), Kelly Van Ryan in Wild Things (1998) and Bond girl Christmas Jones in The World Is Not Enough (1999). She has also appeared in films Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), Valentine (2001), Undercover Brother (2002), Scary Movie 3 (2003), Love Actually (2003), and Madea's Witness Protection (2012).
1970
1. Dominic Purcell, English-born Irish-Australian actor and producer births
  1. Dominic Purcell
    
    Dominic Haakon Myrtved Purcell is a British-Australian actor. He is best known for his portrayals of Lincoln Burrows in Fox's Prison Break and Mick Rory / Heat Wave in The CW's The Flash (2014–2016) and Legends of Tomorrow (2016–2021), as well as Drake / Dracula in Blade: Trinity (2004). He is also known for his role as Lewis "Lew" Brookbank in the 2004 film Three-Way.
2. Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Ukrainian-Israeli novelist, short story writer, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888) deaths
  1. Shmuel Yosef Agnon
    
    Shmuel Yosef Agnon was one of the central figures of modern Hebrew literature. In Hebrew, he is known by the acronym Shai Agnon. In English, his works are published under the name S. Y. Agnon.
  2. Nobel Prize in Literature
    
    The Nobel Prize in Literature is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in the field of literature, produced the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction". Though individual works are sometimes cited as being particularly noteworthy, the award is based on an author's body of work as a whole. The Swedish Academy decides who, if anyone, will receive the prize. The academy announces the name of the laureate in early October. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895. Literature is traditionally the final award presented at the Nobel Prize ceremony. On some occasions the award has been postponed to the following year, most recently in 2018 as of May 2022.
3. Alfred Newman, American composer and conductor (b. 1900) deaths
  1. Alfred Newman
    
    Alfred Newman was an American composer, arranger, and conductor of film music. From his start as a music prodigy, he came to be regarded as a respected figure in the history of film music. He won nine Academy Awards and was nominated 45 times, contributing to the extended Newman family being the most Academy Award-nominated family, with a collective 92 nominations in various music categories.
1969
1. David Douillet, French martial artist and politician births
  1. David Douillet
    
    David Donald Hubert Roger Douillet is a French politician and retired judoka.
2. Vasily Kudinov, Russian handball player (d. 2017) births
  1. Vasily Kudinov
    
    Vasily Kudinov was a Russian handball player, born in Ilyinka, Astrakhan Oblast, Russian SFSR.
3. Berry L. Cannon, American aquanaut (b. 1935) deaths
  1. Berry L. Cannon
    
    Berry Louis Cannon was an American aquanaut who served on the SEALAB II and III projects of the U.S. Navy. Cannon died of carbon dioxide poisoning while attempting to repair SEALAB III. It was later found that his diving rig's baralyme canister, which should have absorbed the carbon dioxide Cannon exhaled, was empty.
1968
1. Wu'erkaixi, Chinese journalist and activist births
  1. Wu'erkaixi
    
    Örkesh Dölet is a political commentator known for his leading role during the Tiananmen protests of 1989.
2. Giuseppe Signori, Italian footballer births
  1. Giuseppe Signori
    
    Giuseppe "Beppe" Signori is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a forward.
1966
1. Luc Robitaille, Canadian ice hockey player, manager, and actor births
  1. Luc Robitaille
    
    Luc Jean-Marie Robitaille is a Canadian–American professional ice hockey executive and former player. He currently serves as president of the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL).
2. Hans Hofmann, German-American painter (b. 1880) deaths
  1. Hans Hofmann
    
    Hans Hofmann was a German-born American painter, renowned as both an artist and teacher. His career spanned two generations and two continents, and is considered to have both preceded and influenced Abstract Expressionism. Born and educated near Munich, he was active in the early twentieth-century European avant-garde and brought a deep understanding and synthesis of Symbolism, Neo-impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism when he emigrated to the United States in 1932. Hofmann's painting is characterized by its rigorous concern with pictorial structure and unity, spatial illusionism, and use of bold color for expressive means. The influential critic Clement Greenberg considered Hofmann's first New York solo show at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century in 1944 as a breakthrough in painterly versus geometric abstraction that heralded abstract expressionism. In the decade that followed, Hofmann's recognition grew through numerous exhibitions, notably at the Kootz Gallery, culminating in major retrospectives at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1957) and Museum of Modern Art (1963), which traveled to venues throughout the United States, South America, and Europe. His works are in the permanent collections of major museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, National Gallery of Art, and Art Institute of Chicago.
1965
1. Michael Bay, American director and producer births
  1. Michael Bay
    
    Michael Benjamin Bay is an American film director and producer. He is best known for making big-budget, high-concept action films characterized by fast cutting, stylistic cinematography and visuals, and extensive use of special effects, including frequent depictions of explosions. The films he has produced and directed, which include Armageddon (1998), Pearl Harbor (2001) and the Transformers film series (2007–present), have grossed over US$7.8 billion worldwide, making him one of the most commercially successful directors in history.
2. Danny Lee, Australian rugby league player births
  1. Danny Lee (rugby league)
    
    Danny Lee is an Australian former rugby league footballer. He played most of his football at prop and was a member of the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks NRL team from 1988 to 1998. He also played a stint later in his career at Gateshead Thunder in England.
1964
1. Sherry Hawco, Canadian gymnast (d. 1991) births
  1. Sherry Hawco
    
    Sherry Hawco was a Canadian gymnast.
1963
1. Larry the Cable Guy, American comedian and voice actor births
  1. Larry the Cable Guy
    
    Daniel Lawrence Whitney, known professionally by his persona Larry the Cable Guy, is an American stand-up comedian, actor, producer, country music artist, and former radio personality.
2. Alison Hargreaves, English mountaineer (d. 1995) births
  1. Alison Hargreaves
    
    Alison Jane Hargreaves was a British mountain climber. Her accomplishments included scaling Mount Everest alone, without supplementary oxygen or support from a Sherpa team, in 1995. She soloed all the great north faces of the Alps in a single season—a first for any climber. This feat included climbing the difficult north face of the Eiger in the Alps. Hargreaves also climbed 6,812-metre (22,349 ft) Ama Dablam in Nepal.
3. Jen-Hsun Huang, Taiwanese-American businessman, co-founded Nvidia births
  1. Jensen Huang
    
    Jen-Hsun "Jensen" Huang is a Taiwanese-American billionaire business magnate, electrical engineer, and co-founder of Nvidia Corporation, and its president and CEO.
  2. Nvidia
    
    Nvidia Corporation is an American multinational technology company incorporated in Delaware and based in Santa Clara, California. It is a software and fabless company which designs graphics processing units (GPUs), application programming interface (APIs) for data science and high-performance computing as well as system on a chip units (SoCs) for the mobile computing and automotive market. Nvidia is a global leader in artificial intelligence hardware and software. Its professional line of GPUs are used in workstations for applications in such fields as architecture, engineering and construction, media and entertainment, automotive, scientific research, and manufacturing design.
4. Michael Jordan, American basketball player and actor births
  1. Michael Jordan
    
    Michael Jeffrey Jordan, also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. His biography on the official NBA website states: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time." He played fifteen seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), winning six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls. Jordan is the principal owner and chairman of the Charlotte Hornets of the NBA and of 23XI Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series. He was integral in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s, becoming a global cultural icon in the process.
1962
1. Lou Diamond Phillips, American actor and director births
  1. Lou Diamond Phillips
    
    Louis Diamond Phillips (born Upchurch; born February 17, 1962) is a Filipino - American actor and film director. His breakthrough came when he starred as Ritchie Valens in the biographical drama film La Bamba (1987). For Stand and Deliver (1988), Phillips was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won an Independent Spirit Award.
2. Joseph Kearns, American actor (b. 1907) deaths
  1. Joseph Kearns
    
    Joseph Sherrard Kearns was an American actor, who is best remembered for his role as George Wilson on the CBS television series Dennis the Menace from 1959 until his death in 1962. He was also a prolific radio actor, and provided the voice of the Doorknob in the 1951 animated Disney film, Alice in Wonderland.
3. Bruno Walter, German-American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1876) deaths
  1. Bruno Walter
    
    Bruno Walter was a German-born conductor, pianist and composer. Born in Berlin, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1933, was naturalised as a French citizen in 1938, and settled in the United States in 1939. He worked closely with Gustav Mahler, whose music he helped to establish in the repertory, held major positions with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Salzburg Festival, Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Staatsoper Unter den Linden and Deutsche Oper Berlin, among others, made recordings of historical and artistic significance, and is widely considered to be one of the great conductors of the 20th century.
1961
1. Angela Eagle, English politician, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons births
  1. Angela Eagle
    
    Dame Angela Eagle DBE is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wallasey since 1992. Eagle was born in Yorkshire and studied PPE at the University of Oxford, before working for the CBI and then a trade union.
  2. Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
    
    The Shadow Leader of the House of Commons is a member of the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet responsible for working with the Leader of the House in arranging Commons business and holding the Government to account in its overall management of the House. The Shadow Leader also responds to the Business Statement of Leader of House each Thursday, though the Leader of the Opposition exercised this role until the late 1980s. The office is roughly equivalent to the Shadow Leader of the House of Lords.
2. Maria Eagle, English politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Defence births
  1. Maria Eagle
    
    Maria Eagle is a British politician who served in the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. She later served in the Shadow Cabinets of Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Garston and Halewood, previously Liverpool Garston, since 1997.
  2. Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
    
    The Shadow Secretary of State for Defence is a member of the UK Shadow Cabinet responsible for the scrutiny of the Secretary of State for Defence and the department, the Ministry of Defence. The post is currently held by John Healey.
3. Andrey Korotayev, Russian anthropologist, historian, and sociologist births
  1. Andrey Korotayev
    
    Andrey Vitalievich Korotayev is a Russian anthropologist, economic historian, comparative political scientist, demographer and sociologist, with major contributions to world-systems theory, cross-cultural studies, Near Eastern history, Big History, and mathematical modelling of social and economic macrodynamics.
4. Lütfi Kırdar, Turkish physician and politician, Turkish Minister of Health (b. 1887) deaths
  1. Lütfi Kırdar
    
    Mehmet Lütfi Kırdar was a Turkish physician, civil servant, politician and Minister of Health and Social Security. He is best remembered for his long-term position as the Governor and Mayor of Istanbul.
  2. Ministry of Health (Turkey)
    
    The Ministry of Health is the ministry of the Government of Turkey responsible for proposing and executing the government policy on health, planning and providing healthcare and protecting consumers. Likewise, it is responsible for proposing and executing the government policy on social cohesion and inclusion, family, protection of minors, youth and of care for dependent or disabled persons. The Ministry is headquartered in the Bakanlıklar in Ankara.
5. Nita Naldi, American actress (b. 1894) deaths
  1. Nita Naldi
    
    Nita Naldi was an American stage performer and silent film actress. She was often cast in theatrical and screen productions as a vamp, a persona first popularized by actress Theda Bara.
1960
1. Lindy Ruff, Canadian hockey player and coach births
  1. Lindy Ruff
    
    Lindy Cameron Ruff is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach who is the head coach for the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL). Ruff was previously the head coach of the Dallas Stars of the NHL, and also the head coach of the Buffalo Sabres from 1997 to 2013, with whom he won the Jack Adams Award in 2006. During his playing career, Ruff played in the NHL for the Sabres and New York Rangers, the former of which he captained.
1959
1. Aryeh Deri, Moroccan-Israeli rabbi and politician, Israeli Minister of Internal Affairs births
  1. Aryeh Deri
    
    Aryeh Makhlouf Deri, also Arie Deri, Arye Deri, or Arieh Deri, is an Israeli politician. He is one of the founders of the Shas political party, and has served as Israel's Minister of the Interior, Minister of the Development of the Negev and Galilee, Minister of the Economy and as a member in the Security Cabinet of Israel. In 1999, Deri was convicted of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, and given a three-year jail sentence. At the end of 2012, ahead of the elections for the nineteenth Knesset, he returned to lead the Shas party. He was placed in the 2nd position, and was re-elected to the Knesset. In May 2013, he was re-appointed to the role of Shas chairman. In December 2021, it was reported that Deri will resign from the Knesset as part of a plea deal for tax offences.
  2. Ministry of Interior (Israel)
    
    The Ministry of Interior in the State of Israel is one of the government offices that is responsible for local government, citizenship and residency, identity cards, and student and entry visas. The current Minister is Ayelet Shaked.
2. Rowdy Gaines, American swimmer and sportscaster births
  1. Rowdy Gaines
    
    Ambrose "Rowdy" Gaines IV is an American former competitive swimmer, U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame member, three-time Olympic gold medalist, and member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. He is a swimming analyst for television network NBC. He has covered swimming at the Olympic Games since 1992 in Barcelona.
1957
1. Loreena McKennitt, Canadian singer-songwriter, accordion player, and pianist births
  1. Loreena McKennitt
    
    Loreena Isobel Irene McKennitt, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer who writes, records, and performs world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern influences. McKennitt is known for her refined and clear soprano vocals. She has sold more than 14 million records worldwide.
1956
1. Richard Karn, American actor and game show host births
  1. Richard Karn
    
    Richard Karn Wilson is an American actor, author and former game show host. He starred as Al Borland in the ABC series Home Improvement and as Fred Peters in the Hulu series Pen15. He was the fifth host of Family Feud from 2002 to 2006.
1955
1. Mo Yan, Chinese author and academic, Nobel Prize laureate births
  1. Mo Yan
    
    Guan Moye, better known by the pen name Mo Yan, is a Chinese novelist and short story writer. Donald Morrison of U.S. news magazine TIME referred to him as "one of the most famous, oft-banned and widely pirated of all Chinese writers", and Jim Leach called him the Chinese answer to Franz Kafka or Joseph Heller. In 2012, Mo was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work as a writer "who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary".
  2. Nobel Prize in Literature
    
    The Nobel Prize in Literature is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in the field of literature, produced the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction". Though individual works are sometimes cited as being particularly noteworthy, the award is based on an author's body of work as a whole. The Swedish Academy decides who, if anyone, will receive the prize. The academy announces the name of the laureate in early October. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895. Literature is traditionally the final award presented at the Nobel Prize ceremony. On some occasions the award has been postponed to the following year, most recently in 2018 as of May 2022.
1954
1. Lou Ann Barton, American blues singer-songwriter births
  1. Lou Ann Barton
    
    Lou Ann Barton is an American blues singer based in Austin, Texas since the 1970s. AllMusic noted that "The grace, poise, and confidence she projects on-stage is part of a long tradition for women blues singers".
2. Miki Berkovich, Israeli basketball player births
  1. Miki Berkovich
    
    Moshe "Miki" Berkovich is an Israeli former professional basketball player. A 193 cm shooting guard, he is considered to be one of the greatest Israeli basketball players of all time.
3. Rene Russo, American actress births
  1. Rene Russo
    
    Rene Marie Russo is an American actress and model. She began her career as a fashion model in the 1970s, appearing on magazine covers such as Vogue and Cosmopolitan. She made her film debut in the 1989 comedy Major League, and rose to international prominence in a number of thrillers and action films throughout the 1990s, including Lethal Weapon 3 (1992), In the Line of Fire (1993), Outbreak (1995), Get Shorty (1995), Ransom (1996), Lethal Weapon 4 (1998), and The Thomas Crown Affair (1999).
1952
1. Karin Büttner-Janz, German gymnast and physician births
  1. Karin Büttner-Janz
    
    Karin Büttner-Janz is a German medical doctor who won world and Olympic gold medals in artistic gymnastics for East Germany. From 1990 to 2012, she was chief physician of clinics in Berlin, Germany. She has a foundation named Spinefoundation.
2. Vladimír Padrůněk, Czech bass player (d. 1991) births
  1. Vladimír Padrůněk
    
    Vladimír Padrůněk was a Czech jazz and rock bass guitarist. He is known for his work with the groups Jazz Q, Energit, Etc..., Abraxas, and others.
1951
1. Rashid Minhas, Pakistani soldier and pilot (d. 1971) births
  1. Rashid Minhas
    
    Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas NH was a Pakistani pilot in the Pakistan Air Force. Minhas was the only PAF officer to receive the highest valour award, the Nishan-e-Haider. He was also the youngest person and the shortest-serving officer to have received this award. During the routine training mission in August 1971, Minhas attempted to gain control of his jet trainer when his superior officer Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman hijacked his plane and was trying to defect to India to join the Liberation war of Bangladesh which then crashed near the Thatta District, Sindh in Pakistan.
1949
1. Fred Frith, English guitarist and songwriter births
  1. Fred Frith
    
    Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser.
2. Dennis Green, American football player and coach (d. 2016) births
  1. Dennis Green
    
    Dennis Earl Green was an American football coach. During his National Football League (NFL) career, Green coached the Minnesota Vikings for 10 seasons. He coached the Vikings to eight playoff appearances in nine years, despite having seven different starting quarterbacks in those postseasons. He was posthumously inducted into the Minnesota Vikings Ring of Honor in 2018.
1948
1. José José, Mexican singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (d. 2019) births
  1. José José
    
    José Rómulo Sosa Ortiz, known professionally as José José, was a Mexican singer and actor. Born into a family of musicians, José began his musical career in his early teens playing guitar and singing in serenade. He later joined a jazz and bossa nova trio where he sang and played bass and double bass.
1946
1. Shahrnush Parsipur, Iranian-American author and academic births
  1. Shahrnush Parsipur
    
    Shahrnush Parsipur is an Iranian-born writer and translator.
2. Dorothy Gibson, American actress and singer (b. 1889) deaths
  1. Dorothy Gibson
    
    Dorothy Gibson was a pioneering American silent film actress, artist's model, and singer active in the early 20th century. She is best remembered as a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic and for starring in the first motion picture based on the disaster.
1945
1. Zina Bethune, American actress, dancer, and choreographer (d. 2012) births
  1. Zina Bethune
    
    Zina Bianca Bethune was an American actress, dancer, and choreographer.
2. Brenda Fricker, Irish actress births
  1. Brenda Fricker
    
    Brenda Fricker is an Irish actress, whose career has spanned six decades on stage and screen. She has appeared in more than 30 films and television roles. In 1990, she became the first Irish actress to win an Academy Award, earning the award for Best Supporting Actress for the biopic My Left Foot (1989). She also appeared in films such as The Field (1990), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), So I Married An Axe Murderer (1993), Angels in the Outfield (1994), A Time to Kill (1996), Veronica Guerin (2003), Inside I'm Dancing (2004) and Albert Nobbs (2011).
1944
1. Karl Jenkins, Welsh saxophonist, keyboard player, and composer births
  1. Karl Jenkins
    
    Sir Karl William Pamp Jenkins is a Welsh multi-instrumentalist and composer. His best known works include the song "Adiemus" and the Adiemus album series; Palladio; The Armed Man; and his Requiem.
1942
1. Huey P. Newton, American activist, co-founded the Black Panther Party (d. 1989) births
  1. Huey P. Newton
    
    Huey Percy Newton was an African-American revolutionary, notable as founder of the Black Panther Party. Newton crafted the Party's ten-point manifesto with Bobby Seale in 1966.
  2. Black Panther Party
    
    The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, California. The party was active in the United States between 1966 and 1982, with chapters in many major American cities, including San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Philadelphia. They were also active in many prisons and had international chapters in the United Kingdom and Algeria. Upon its inception, the party's core practice was its open carry patrols ("copwatching") designed to challenge the excessive force and misconduct of the Oakland Police Department. From 1969 onward, the party created social programs, including the Free Breakfast for Children Programs, education programs, and community health clinics. The Black Panther Party advocated for class struggle, claiming to represent the proletarian vanguard.
1941
1. Julia McKenzie, English actress, singer, and director births
  1. Julia McKenzie
    
    Julia Kathleen Nancy McKenzie is an English actress, singer, presenter, and theatre director. She has premièred leading roles written by both Alan Ayckbourn and Stephen Sondheim. On television, she is known for her BAFTA Award nominated role as Hester Fields in the sitcom Fresh Fields (1984–1986) and its sequel French Fields (1989–1991), and as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's Marple (2009–2013).
2. Gene Pitney, American singer-songwriter (d. 2006) births
  1. Gene Pitney
    
    Gene Francis Alan Pitney was an American singer-songwriter and musician.
1940
1. Vicente Fernández, Mexican singer-songwriter, actor, and producer (d. 2021) births
  1. Vicente Fernández
    
    Vicente Fernández Gómez was a Mexican singer, songwriter, actor, and film producer. Nicknamed "Chente", "El Charro de Huentitán", "El Ídolo de México", and "El Rey de la Música Ranchera", Fernández started his career as a busker, and went on to become a cultural icon, having recorded more than 100 albums and contributing to more than 30 films. His repertoire consisted of rancheras and other Mexican classics.
1939
1. Willy Hess, German violinist and educator (b. 1859) deaths
  1. Willy Hess (violinist)
    
    Willy Hess was a German violinist and violin teacher.
1937
1. Mary Ann Mobley, American model and actress, Miss America 1959 (d. 2014) births
  1. Mary Ann Mobley
    
    Mary Ann Mobley was an American actress, television personality, and Miss America 1959.
  2. Miss America 1959
    
    Miss America 1959, the 32nd Miss America pageant, was held at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 6, 1958 on CBS.
1936
1. Jim Brown, American football player and actor births
  1. Jim Brown
    
    James Nathaniel Brown is a former American football player, sports analyst and actor. He played as a fullback for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL) from 1957 through 1965. Considered to be one of the greatest running backs of all time, as well as one of the greatest players in NFL history, Brown was a Pro Bowl invitee every season he was in the league, was recognized as the AP NFL Most Valuable Player three times, and won an NFL championship with the Browns in 1964. He led the league in rushing yards in eight out of his nine seasons, and by the time he retired, he had shattered most major rushing records. In 2002, he was named by The Sporting News as the greatest professional football player ever.
1934
1. Sir Alan Bates, English actor (d. 2003) births
  1. Alan Bates
    
    Sir Alan Arthur Bates was an English actor who came to prominence in the 1960s, when he appeared in films ranging from the popular children's story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving.
2. Barry Humphries (Dame Edna Everage), Australian comedian, actor, and author births
  1. Barry Humphries
    
    John Barry Humphries is an Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist. He is best known for writing and playing his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. He is also a film producer and script writer, a star of London's West End musical theatre, a writer, and a landscape painter. For his delivery of dadaist and absurdist humour to millions, biographer Anne Pender described Humphries in 2010 as not only "the most significant theatrical figure of our time … [but] the most significant comedian to emerge since Charlie Chaplin".
  2. Dame Edna Everage
    
    Dame Edna Everage, often known simply as Dame Edna, is a character created and performed by Australian comedian Barry Humphries, known for her lilac-coloured hair and cat eye glasses ; her favourite flower, the gladiolus ("gladdies"); and her boisterous greeting "Hello, Possums!" As Dame Edna, Humphries has written several books, including an autobiography, My Gorgeous Life; appeared in several films; and hosted several television shows.
3. Albert I of Belgium (b. 1875) deaths
  1. Albert I of Belgium
    
    Albert I was King of the Belgians from 23 December 1909 until his death in 1934.
4. Siegbert Tarrasch, German chess player and theoretician (b. 1862) deaths
  1. Siegbert Tarrasch
    
    Siegbert Tarrasch was a German chess player, considered to have been among the strongest ones, and one of the most influential chess theoreticians of the late 19th and early 20th century.
1933
1. Craig L. Thomas, American captain and politician (d. 2007) births
  1. Craig L. Thomas
    
    Craig Lyle Thomas was an American politician who served as United States Senator from Wyoming from 1995 until his death in 2007. He was a member of the Republican Party. In the Senate, Thomas was considered an expert on agriculture and rural development. He had served in key positions in several state agencies, including a long tenure as Vice President of the Wyoming Farm Bureau from 1965 to 1974. Thomas resided in Casper for twenty-eight years. In 1984, he was elected from Casper to the Wyoming House of Representatives, in which he served until 1989.
1931
1. Jiřina Jirásková, Czech actress and singer (d. 2013) births
  1. Jiřina Jirásková
    
    Jiřina Jirásková was a Czech actress. She was born and died in Prague, Czech Republic.
2. Buddy Ryan, American football coach (d. 2016) births
  1. Buddy Ryan
    
    James David "Buddy" Ryan was an American football coach in the National Football League (NFL) and American Football League (AFL). During his 35-season coaching career, Ryan served as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals, as well as the defensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears and Houston Oilers of the NFL.
1930
1. Roger Craig, American baseball player, coach, and manager births
  1. Roger Craig (baseball)
    
    Roger Lee Craig is an American former pitcher, coach and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). Craig played for five National League teams over all or parts of 12 seasons (1955–1966)—most notably as a member of the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets—and then forged a successful post-playing career as a pitching coach and manager. As a player and coach, Craig was part of four World Series championship teams. As a manager, he led the 1989 San Francisco Giants to the team's first National League championship in 27 years. He was born in Durham, North Carolina, and attended North Carolina State University.
2. Benjamin Fain, Ukrainian-Israeli physicist and academic (d. 2013) births
  1. Benjamin Fain
    
    Benjamin Fain was an Israeli physicist, professor-emeritus, and former refusenik.
3. Ruth Rendell, English author (d. 2015) births
  1. Ruth Rendell
    
    Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, was an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries.
1929
1. Alejandro Jodorowsky, Chilean-French director and screenwriter births
  1. Alejandro Jodorowsky
    
    Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky is a Chilean-French avant-garde filmmaker. Best known for his 1970s films El Topo and The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky has been "venerated by cult cinema enthusiasts" for his work which "is filled with violently surreal images and a hybrid blend of mysticism and religious provocation".
2. Chaim Potok, American rabbi and author (d. 2002) births
  1. Chaim Potok
    
    Chaim Potok was an American author and rabbi. His first book The Chosen (1967), was listed on The New York Times’ best seller list for 39 weeks and sold more than 3,400,000 copies.
3. Nicholas Ridley, Baron Ridley of Liddesdale, English lieutenant and politician, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (d. 1993) births
  1. Nicholas Ridley, Baron Ridley of Liddesdale
    
    Nicholas Ridley, Baron Ridley of Liddesdale,, was a British Conservative Party politician and government minister. As President of the Selsdon Group, a free-market lobby within the Conservative Party, he was closely aligned with Margaret Thatcher, and became one of her Ministers of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1979. Responsible for the Falkland Islands, he tried to resolve the long-running sovereignty issue with Argentina, which detected Britain's reluctance to defend the territory, and later invaded it.
  2. Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
    
    The secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, tenth in the ministerial ranking.
4. Patricia Routledge, English actress and singer births
  1. Patricia Routledge
    
    Dame Katherine Patricia Routledge, is an English actress, singer and broadcaster. For her role as Hyacinth Bucket in the BBC sitcom Keeping Up Appearances (1990–1995), she was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance in 1992 and 1993. Her film appearances include To Sir, with Love (1967) and Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River (1968).
1928
1. Marta Romero, Puerto Rican actress and singer (d. 2013) births
  1. Marta Romero
    
    Marta Romero was a Puerto Rican actress and singer, and one of the pioneers in Puerto Rican television.
2. Michiaki Takahashi, Japanese virologist (d. 2013) births
  1. Michiaki Takahashi
    
    Michiaki Takahashi was a Japanese virologist, best known for inventing the first chickenpox vaccine. He developed the "Oka" vaccine by producing v-Oka, a live-attenuated virus strain of varicella zoster virus.
1925
1. Ron Goodwin, English composer and conductor (d. 2003) births
  1. Ron Goodwin
    
    Ronald Alfred Goodwin was an English composer and conductor known for his film music. He scored over 70 films in a career lasting over fifty years. His most famous works included Where Eagles Dare, Battle of Britain, 633 Squadron, Margaret Rutherford's Miss Marple films, and Frenzy.
2. Hal Holbrook, American actor and director (d. 2021) births
  1. Hal Holbrook
    
    Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. was an American actor, television director, and screenwriter. He first received critical acclaim in 1954 for a one-man stage show that he developed called Mark Twain Tonight! while studying at Denison University. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1966 for his portrayal of Twain. He continued to perform his signature role for over 60 years, only retiring the show in 2017 due to his failing health. Throughout his career, he also won five Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on television and was nominated for an Academy Award for his work in film.
1924
1. Margaret Truman, American singer and author (d. 2008) births
  1. Margaret Truman
    
    Mary Margaret Truman Daniel was an American classical soprano, actress, journalist, radio and television personality, writer, and New York socialite. She was the only child of President Harry S. Truman and First Lady Bess Truman. While her father was president during the years 1945 to 1953, Margaret regularly accompanied him on campaign trips, such as the 1948 countrywide whistle-stop campaign lasting several weeks. She also appeared at important White House and political events during those years, being a favorite with the media.
2. Oskar Merikanto, Finnish composer (b. 1868) deaths
  1. Oskar Merikanto
    
    Oskar Merikanto was a Finnish composer, music critic, pianist, and organist.
1923
1. Buddy DeFranco, American clarinet player and bandleader (d. 2014) births
  1. Buddy DeFranco
    
    Boniface Ferdinand Leonard "Buddy" DeFranco was an Italian-American jazz clarinetist. In addition to his work as a bandleader, DeFranco led the Glenn Miller Orchestra for almost a decade in the 1960s and 1970s.
1922
1. Tommy Edwards, American R&B singer-songwriter (d. 1969) births
  1. Tommy Edwards
    
    Thomas Jefferson Edwards was an American singer and songwriter. His most successful record was the multi-million-selling song "It's All in the Game", becoming the first African-American to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
1921
1. Duane Gish, American biochemist and academic (d. 2013) births
  1. Duane Gish
    
    Duane Tolbert Gish was an American biochemist and a prominent member of the creationist movement. A young Earth creationist, Gish was a former vice-president of the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) and the author of numerous publications about creation science. Gish was called "creationism's T. H. Huxley" for the way he "relished the confrontations" of formal debates with prominent evolutionary biologists, usually held on university campuses, while abandoning formal debating principles. A creationist publication noted in his obituary that "it was perhaps his personal presentation that carried the day. In short, the audiences liked him."
1920
1. Ivo Caprino, Norwegian director and screenwriter (d. 2001) births
  1. Ivo Caprino
    
    Ivo Caprino was a Norwegian film director and writer, best known for his puppet films. His most noted film, Flåklypa Grand Prix, was made in 1975.
2. Annie Castor, American disability and communication disorder advocate (d. 2020) births
  1. Annie Glenn
    
    Anna Margaret Glenn was an American advocate for people with disabilities and communication disorders and the wife of astronaut and senator John Glenn. A stutterer from an early age, Glenn was notable for raising awareness of stuttering among children and adults as well as other disabilities.
3. Curt Swan, American illustrator (d. 1996) births
  1. Curt Swan
    
    Douglas Curtis Swan was an American comics artist. The artist most associated with Superman during the period fans call the Bronze Age of Comic Books, Swan produced hundreds of covers and stories from the 1950s through the 1980s.
1919
1. J. M. S. Careless, Canadian historian and academic (d. 2009) births
  1. J. M. S. Careless
    
    James Maurice Stockford Careless was a Canadian historian.
2. Kathleen Freeman, American actress and singer (d. 2001) births
  1. Kathleen Freeman
    
    Kathleen Freeman was an American actress. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, she portrayed acerbic maids, secretaries, teachers, busybodies, nurses, and battle-axe neighbors and relatives, almost invariably to comic effect. In film, she is perhaps best remembered for appearing in 11 Jerry Lewis comedies in the 1950s and 1960s, The Blues Brothers (1980) and its sequel, and Naked Gun 33+1⁄3: The Final Insult (1994).
3. Joe Hunt, American tennis player (d. 1945) births
  1. Joe Hunt
    
    Joseph Raphael Hunt was an American tennis player of the late 1930s and early 1940s from Southern California. He was the number one ranked American in 1943 and won the US singles championship in his final match. He died off the coast of Florida in an airplane crash during World War II. To date he is the only man to win the U.S. boys', junior, collegiate, and men's singles championship.
4. Wilfrid Laurier, Canadian lawyer and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1841) deaths
  1. Wilfrid Laurier
    
    Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier, was a Canadian lawyer, statesman, and politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. The first French Canadian prime minister, his 15-year tenure remains the longest unbroken term of office among Canadian prime ministers and his nearly 45 years of service in the House of Commons is a record for the House. Laurier is best known for his compromises between English and French Canada.
  2. Prime Minister of Canada
    
    The prime minister of Canada is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the confidence of a majority the elected House of Commons; as such, the prime minister typically sits as a member of Parliament (MP) and leads the largest party or a coalition of parties. As first minister, the prime minister selects ministers to form the Cabinet, and serves as its chair. Constitutionally, the Crown exercises executive power on the advice of the Cabinet, which is collectively responsible to the House of Commons.
1918
1. William Bronk, American poet and academic (d. 1999) births
  1. William Bronk
    
    William Bronk was an American poet. For his book, Life Supports (1981), he won the National Book Award for Poetry.
2. Jacqueline Ferrand, French mathematician (d. 2014) births
  1. Jacqueline Ferrand
    
    Jacqueline Lelong-Ferrand was a French mathematician who worked on conformal representation theory, potential theory, and Riemannian manifolds. She taught at universities in Caen, Lille, and Paris.
1916
1. Alexander Obolensky, Russian rugby player and pilot (d. 1940) births
  1. Alexander Obolensky
    
    Prince Alexander Sergeevich Obolensky was a Rurikid prince of Russian origin who became a naturalised Briton, having spent most of his life in England, and who went on to represent England in international rugby union. He was, and remains, popularly known as "The Flying Prince", "The Flying Slav", or simply as "Obo" to many sports fans.
2. Don Tallon, Australian cricketer (d. 1984) births
  1. Don Tallon
    
    Donald Tallon was an Australian cricketer who played 21 Test matches as a wicket-keeper between 1946 and 1953. He was widely regarded by his contemporaries as Australia's finest ever wicket-keeper and one of the best in Test history, with an understated style, an ability to anticipate the flight, length and spin of the ball and an efficient stumping technique. Tallon toured England as part of Don Bradman's Invincibles of 1948 and was recognised as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1949 for his performances during that season. During his Test career, Tallon made 58 dismissals comprising 50 catches and 8 stumpings.
3. Raf Vallone, Italian footballer and actor (d. 2002) births
  1. Raf Vallone
    
    Raffaele Vallone was an Italian actor and footballer. One of the top male Italian stars of the 1950s and '60s, he first became known for his association with the neorealist movement, and found success in several international productions. On stage, he was closely associated with the works of Arthur Miller. He played the role of Eddie Carbone in A View from the Bridge several times, notably in Sidney Lumet's 1962 film adaptation, for which he won the David di Donatello for Best Actor.
1914
1. Arthur Kennedy, American actor (d. 1990) births
  1. Arthur Kennedy
    
    John Arthur Kennedy was an American stage and film actor known for his versatility in supporting film roles and his ability to create "an exceptional honesty and naturalness on stage", especially in the original casts of Arthur Miller plays on Broadway. He won the 1949 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for Miller's Death of a Salesman. He also won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for the 1955 film Trial, and was a five-time Academy Award nominee.
1912
1. Andre Norton, American author (d. 2005) births
  1. Andre Norton
    
    Andre Alice Norton was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name Andre Norton, but also under Andrew North and Allen Weston. She was the first woman to be Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy, to be SFWA Grand Master, and to be inducted by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
2. Edgar Evans, Welsh sailor and explorer (b. 1876) deaths
  1. Edgar Evans
    
    Petty Officer Edgar Evans was a Royal Navy officer and member of the "Polar Party" in Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole in 1911–1912. This group of five men, personally selected for the final expedition push, attained the Pole on 17 January 1912. The party perished as they attempted to return to the base camp.
1911
1. Oskar Seidlin, German-American author, poet, and scholar (d. 1984) births
  1. Oskar Seidlin
    
    Oskar Seidlin was a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany who fled first to Switzerland and then to the U.S. He taught German language and literature as a professor at Smith College, Middlebury College, Ohio State University, and Indiana University from 1939 to 1979. He authored a number of fictional and non-fictional works.
1910
1. Marc Lawrence, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2005) births
  1. Marc Lawrence
    
    Marc Lawrence was an American character actor who specialized in underworld types. He has also been credited as F. A. Foss, Marc Laurence and Marc C. Lawrence.
1909
1. Geronimo, American tribal leader (b. 1829) deaths
  1. Geronimo
    
    Geronimo was a prominent leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people. From 1850 to 1886, Geronimo joined with members of three other Central Apache bands – the Tchihende, the Tsokanende and the Nednhi – to carry out numerous raids, as well as fight against Mexican and U.S. military campaigns in the northern Mexico states of Chihuahua and Sonora and in the southwestern American territories of New Mexico and Arizona.
1908
1. Bo Yibo, Chinese general and politician, Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China (d. 2007) births
  1. Bo Yibo
    
    Bo Yibo (Chinese: 薄一波; pinyin: Bó Yībō; Wade–Giles: Po2 I1-po1; 17 February 1908 – 15 January 2007) was a Chinese politician. He was one of the most senior political figures in China during the 1980s and 1990s.
  2. Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China
    
    The vice premiers of the State Council of the People's Republic of China are high-ranking officials under the premier and above the state councillors and ministers. Generally, the title is held by multiple individuals at any given time, with each vice-premier holding a broad portfolio of responsibilities. The first vice-premier takes over duties of the premier at the time of the latter's incapacity. The incumbent vice premiers, in order of rank, are Han Zheng, Sun Chunlan, Hu Chunhua and Liu He.
1906
1. Mary Brian, American actress (d. 2002) births
  1. Mary Brian
    
    Mary Brian was an American actress who made the transition from silent films to sound films.
1905
1. Ruth Baldwin, British socialite (d. 1937) births
  1. Ruth Baldwin (died 1937)
    
    Catherine Ruth Baldwin was an American-born English socialite, part of the Bright Young Things crowd. She was the first important lover of American heiress Joe Carstairs.
2. Rózsa Politzer, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1977) births
  1. Rózsa Péter
    
    Rózsa Péter, born Rózsa Politzer, was a Hungarian mathematician and logician. She is best known as the "founding mother of recursion theory".
3. William Bickerton, English-American religious leader, leader in the Latter Day Saint movement (b. 1815) deaths
  1. William Bickerton
    
    William Bickerton was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement after the 1844 succession crisis. In 1862, Bickerton became the founding president of the church now known as The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite), which is one of many churches that claim to be a continuation of the Church of Christ founded by Joseph Smith in 1830.
  2. Latter Day Saint movement
    
    The Latter Day Saint movement is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by Joseph Smith in the late 1820s.
1904
1. Hans Morgenthau, German-American political scientist, philosopher, and academic (d. 1980) births
  1. Hans Morgenthau
    
    Hans Joachim Morgenthau was a German-American jurist and political scientist who was one of the major 20th-century figures in the study of international relations. Morgenthau's works belong to the tradition of realism in international relations theory; he is usually considered among the most influential realists of the post-World War II period. Morgenthau made landmark contributions to international relations theory and the study of international law. His Politics Among Nations, first published in 1948, went through five editions during his lifetime and was widely adopted as a textbook in U.S. universities. While Morgenthau emphasized the centrality of power and "the national interest", the subtitle of Politics Among Nations—"the struggle for power and peace"—indicates his concern not only with the struggle for power but the ways in which it is limited by ethics, norms and law.
1903
1. Sadegh Hedayat, Iranian-French author and translator (d. 1951) births
  1. Sadegh Hedayat
    
    Sadegh Hedayat was an Iranian writer and translator. Best known for his novel The Blind Owl, he was one of the earliest Iranian writers to adopt literary modernism in their career.
1900
1. Ruth Clifford, American actress (d. 1998) births
  1. Ruth Clifford
    
    Ruth Clifford was an American actress of leading roles in silent films, whose career lasted from that era into the television era.
1899
1. Jibanananda Das, Bangladeshi-Indian poet and author (d. 1954) births
  1. Jibanananda Das
    
    Jibanananda Das was an Indian poet, writer, novelist and essayist in the Bengali language. Popularly called "Rupashi Banglar Kabi'', Das is the most read poet after Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam in Bangladesh and West Bengal. While not particularly well recognised during his lifetime, today Das is acknowledged as one of the greatest poets in the Bengali language.
1893
1. Wally Pipp, American baseball player and journalist (d. 1965) births
  1. Wally Pipp
    
    Walter Clement Pipp was an American professional baseball player. A first baseman, Pipp played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, and Cincinnati Reds between 1913 and 1928.
1891
1. Abraham Fraenkel, German-Israeli mathematician and academic (d. 1965) births
  1. Abraham Fraenkel
    
    Abraham Fraenkel was a German-born Israeli mathematician. He was an early Zionist and the first Dean of Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is known for his contributions to axiomatic set theory, especially his additions to Ernst Zermelo's axioms, which resulted in the Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory.
1890
1. Ronald Fisher, English-Australian statistician, biologist, and geneticist (d. 1962) births
  1. Ronald Fisher
    
    Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher was a British polymath who was active as a mathematician, statistician, biologist, geneticist, and academic. For his work in statistics, he has been described as "a genius who almost single-handedly created the foundations for modern statistical science" and "the single most important figure in 20th century statistics". In genetics, his work used mathematics to combine Mendelian genetics and natural selection; this contributed to the revival of Darwinism in the early 20th-century revision of the theory of evolution known as the modern synthesis. For his contributions to biology, Fisher has been called "the greatest of Darwin’s successors".
2. Christopher Latham Sholes, American publisher and politician (b. 1819) deaths
  1. Christopher Latham Sholes
    
    Christopher Latham Sholes was an American inventor who invented the QWERTY keyboard, and, along with Samuel W. Soule, Carlos Glidden and John Pratt, has been contended to be one of the inventors of the first typewriter in the United States. He was also a newspaper publisher and Wisconsin politician. In his time, Sholes went by the names C. Latham Sholes, Latham Sholes, or C. L. Sholes, but never "Christopher Sholes" or "Christopher L. Sholes".
1888
1. Otto Stern, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1969) births
  1. Otto Stern
    
    Otto Stern was a German-American physicist and Nobel laureate in physics. He was the second most nominated person for a Nobel Prize with 82 nominations in the years 1925–1945, ultimately winning in 1943.
  2. Nobel Prize in Physics
    
    The Nobel Prize in Physics is a yearly award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions for humankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901, the others being the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Physics is traditionally the first award presented in the Nobel Prize ceremony.
1887
1. Joseph Bech, Luxembourgian lawyer and politician, 15th Prime Minister of Luxembourg (d. 1975) births
  1. Joseph Bech
    
    Joseph Bech was a Luxembourgish politician and lawyer. He was the 15th Prime Minister of Luxembourg, serving for eleven years, from 16 July 1926 to 5 November 1937. He returned to the position after World War II, and served for another four years, from 29 December 1953 until 29 March 1958. The 1982–1983 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour.
  2. List of prime ministers of Luxembourg
    
    The prime minister of Luxembourg is the head of government of Luxembourg. The prime minister leads the executive branch, chairs the Cabinet and appoints its ministers.
2. Leevi Madetoja, Finnish composer and critic (d. 1947) births
  1. Leevi Madetoja
    
    Leevi Antti Madetoja was a Finnish composer, music critic, conductor, and teacher of the late-Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely recognized as one of the most significant Finnish contemporaries of Jean Sibelius, under whom he studied privately from 1908 to 1910.
1881
1. Mary Carson Breckinridge, American nurse midwife, founded Frontier Nursing Service (d. 1965) births
  1. Mary Carson Breckinridge
    
    Mary Carson Breckinridge was an American nurse midwife and the founder of the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS), which provided comprehensive family medical care to the mountain people of rural Kentucky. FNS served remote and impoverished areas off the road and rail system but accessible by horseback. She modeled her services on European practices and sought to professionalize American nurse-midwives to practice autonomously in homes and decentralized clinics. Although Breckinridge's work demonstrated efficacy by dramatically reducing infant and maternal mortality in Appalachia, at a comparatively low cost, her model of nurse-midwifery never took root in the United States.
  2. Nurse midwife
    
    A nurse midwife is both a nurse and a midwife, having completed nursing and midwifery education leading to practice as a nurse midwife and sometimes credentialed in the specialty. Nurse midwives provide care of women across the lifespan, including during pregnancy and the postpartum period, and well woman care and birth control.
  3. Frontier Nursing Service
    
    The Frontier Nursing Service was founded in 1925 by Mary Breckinridge and provides healthcare services to rural, underserved populations and educates nurse-midwives.
1879
1. Dorothy Canfield Fisher, American educational reformer, social activist and author (d. 1958) births
  1. Dorothy Canfield Fisher
    
    Dorothy Canfield Fisher was an educational reformer, social activist, and best-selling American author in the early 20th century. She strongly supported women's rights, racial equality, and lifelong education. Eleanor Roosevelt named her one of the ten most influential women in the United States. In addition to bringing the Montessori method of child-rearing to the U.S., she presided over the country's first adult education program and shaped literary tastes by serving as a member of the Book of the Month Club selection committee from 1925 to 1951.
1877
1. Isabelle Eberhardt, Swiss explorer and author (d. 1904) births
  1. Isabelle Eberhardt
    
    Isabelle Wilhelmine Marie Eberhardt was a Swiss explorer and author. As a teenager, Eberhardt, educated in Switzerland by her father, published short stories under a male pseudonym. She became interested in North Africa, and was considered a proficient writer on the subject despite learning about the region only through correspondence. After an invitation from photographer Louis David, Eberhardt moved to Algeria in May 1897. She dressed as a man and converted to Islam, eventually adopting the name Si Mahmoud Saadi. Eberhardt's unorthodox behaviour made her an outcast among European settlers in Algeria and the French administration.
2. André Maginot, French sergeant and politician (d. 1932) births
  1. André Maginot
    
    André Maginot was a French civil servant, soldier, and Member of Parliament. He is best known for his advocacy of the string of forts known as the Maginot Line.
1874
1. Thomas J. Watson, American businessman (d. 1956) births
  1. Thomas J. Watson
    
    Thomas John Watson Sr. was an American businessman who served as the chairman and CEO of IBM. He oversaw the company's growth into an international force from 1914 to 1956. Watson developed IBM's management style and corporate culture from John Henry Patterson's training at NCR. He turned the company into a highly effective selling organization, based largely on punched card tabulating machines. A leading self-made industrialist, he was one of the richest men of his time and was called the world's greatest salesman when he died in 1956.
2. Adolphe Quetelet, Belgian astronomer, mathematician, and sociologist (b. 1796) deaths
  1. Adolphe Quetelet
    
    Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet FRSF or FRSE was a Belgian astronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociologist who founded and directed the Brussels Observatory and was influential in introducing statistical methods to the social sciences. His name is sometimes spelled with an accent as Quételet.
1864
1. Jozef Murgaš, Slovak priest, botanist, and painter (d. 1929) births
  1. Jozef Murgaš
    
    Jozef Murgaš was a Slovak inventor, architect, botanist, painter and Roman Catholic priest. He contributed to wireless telegraphy and helped in the development of mobile communications and the wireless transmission of information and the human voice.
2. Banjo Paterson, Australian journalist, author, and poet (d. 1941) births
  1. Banjo Paterson
    
    Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales, where he spent much of his childhood. Paterson's more notable poems include "Clancy of the Overflow" (1889), "The Man from Snowy River" (1890) and "Waltzing Matilda" (1895), regarded widely as Australia's unofficial national anthem.
1862
1. Mori Ōgai, Japanese general, author, and poet (d. 1922) births
  1. Mori Ōgai
    
    Lieutenant-General Mori Rintarō , known by his pen name Mori Ōgai , was a Japanese Army Surgeon general officer, translator, novelist, poet and father of famed author Mari Mori. He obtained his medical license at a very young age and introduced translated German language literary works to the Japanese public. Mori Ōgai also was considered the first to successfully express the art of western poetry in Japanese. He wrote many works and created many writing styles. The Wild Geese (1911–1913) is considered his major work. After his death, he was considered one of the leading writers who modernized Japanese literature.
1861
1. Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont, duchess of Albany (d. 1922) births
  1. Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont
    
    Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont was a member of the British royal family by marriage. She was the fifth daughter and child of George Victor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, and his first wife, Princess Helena of Nassau.
1856
1. Heinrich Heine, German journalist and poet (b. 1797) deaths
  1. Heinrich Heine
    
    Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert. Heine's later verse and prose are distinguished by their satirical wit and irony. He is considered a member of the Young Germany movement. His radical political views led to many of his works being banned by German authorities—which, however, only added to his fame. He spent the last 25 years of his life as an expatriate in Paris.
1854
1. Friedrich Alfred Krupp, German businessman (d. 1902) births
  1. Friedrich Alfred Krupp
    
    Friedrich Alfred Krupp was a German steel manufacturer and head of the company Krupp. He was the son of Alfred Krupp and inherited the family business when his father died in 1887. Whereas his father had largely supplied iron and steel, Friedrich shifted his company's production back to arms manufacturing. Friedrich greatly expanded Krupp and acquired the Germaniawerft in 1896 which gave him control of warship manufacturing in Germany. He oversaw the development of nickel steel, U-boats, the diesel engine, and much more. He died, possibly by suicide, in 1902 after being accused of homosexuality. His daughter Bertha inherited the company.
2. John Martin, English painter, engraver, and illustrator (b. 1789) deaths
  1. John Martin (painter)
    
    John Martin was an English Romantic painter, engraver and illustrator. He was celebrated for his typically vast and dramatic paintings of religious subjects and fantastic compositions, populated with minute figures placed in imposing landscapes. Martin's paintings, and the prints made from them, enjoyed great success with the general public—in 1821 Thomas Lawrence referred to him as "the most popular painter of his day"—but were lambasted by John Ruskin and other critics.
1849
1. María de las Mercedes Barbudo, Puerto Rican political activist, the first woman Independentista in the island (b. 1773) deaths
  1. María de las Mercedes Barbudo
    
    María de las Mercedes Barbudo was a Puerto Rican political activist, the first woman Independentista in the island, and a "Freedom Fighter". At the time, the Puerto Rican independence movement had ties with the Venezuelan rebels led by Simón Bolívar.
1848
1. Louisa Lawson, Australian poet and publisher (d. 1920) births
  1. Louisa Lawson
    
    Louisa Lawson was an Australian poet, writer, publisher, suffragist, and feminist. She was the mother of the poet and author Henry Lawson.
1843
1. Aaron Montgomery Ward, American businessman, founded Montgomery Ward (d. 1913) births
  1. Aaron Montgomery Ward
    
    Aaron Montgomery Ward was an American entrepreneur based in Chicago who made his fortune through the use of mail order for retail sales of general merchandise to rural customers. In 1872 he founded Montgomery Ward & Company, which became nationally known.
  2. Montgomery Ward
    
    Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The current Montgomery Ward Inc. is a national online shopping and mail-order catalog retailer that started several years after the original Montgomery Ward shut down.
1841
1. Ferdinando Carulli, Italian guitarist and composer (b. 1770) deaths
  1. Ferdinando Carulli
    
    Ferdinando Maria Meinrado Francesco Pascale Rosario Carulli was an Italian composer for classical guitar and the author of the influential Méthode complète pour guitare ou lyre, op. 27 (1810), which contains music still used by student guitarists today. He wrote a variety of works for classical guitar, including numerous solo and chamber works and several concertos. He was an extremely prolific writer, composing over 400 works for the instrument.
1836
1. Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Spanish author, poet, and playwright (d. 1870) births
  1. Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
    
    Gustavo Adolfo Claudio Domínguez Bastida, better known as Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, was a Spanish Romantic poet and writer, also a playwright, literary columnist, and talented in drawing. Today he is considered one of the most important figures in Spanish literature, and is considered by some as the most read writer after Miguel de Cervantes. He adopted the alias of Bécquer as his brother Valeriano Bécquer, a painter, had done earlier. He was associated with the romanticism and post-romanticism movements and wrote while realism was enjoying success in Spain. He was moderately well known during his life, but it was after his death that most of his works were published. His best known works are the Rhymes and the Legends, usually published together as Rimas y leyendas. These poems and tales are essential to the study of Spanish literature and common reading for high-school students in Spanish-speaking countries.
1832
1. Richard Henry Park, American sculptor (d. 1902) births
  1. Richard Henry Park
    
    Richard Henry Park was an American sculptor who worked in marble and bronze. He was commissioned to do work by the wealthy of the nineteenth century. He did a marble bust of John Plankinton, an astute businessman who founded the meat industry in Wisconsin and was "Milwaukee's foremost citizen."
1821
1. Lola Montez, Irish-American actress and dancer (d. 1861) births
  1. Lola Montez
    
    Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, Countess of Landsfeld, better known by the stage name Lola Montez, was an Irish dancer and actress who became famous as a Spanish dancer, courtesan, and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who made her Gräfin von Landsfeld. At the start of the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states, she was forced to flee. She proceeded to the United States via Austria, Switzerland, France and London, returning to her work as an entertainer and lecturer.
1820
1. Henri Vieuxtemps, Belgian violinist and composer (d. 1881) births
  1. Henri Vieuxtemps
    
    Henri François Joseph Vieuxtemps was a Belgian composer and violinist. He occupies an important place in the history of the violin as a prominent exponent of the Franco-Belgian violin school during the mid-19th century. He is also known for playing what is now known as the Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù, a violin of superior workmanship.
1817
1. Édouard Thilges, Luxembourgian jurist and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Luxembourg (d. 1904) births
  1. Édouard Thilges
    
    Jules Georges Édouard Thilges was a Luxembourgish politician. He was the seventh Prime Minister of Luxembourg, serving for over three years, from 20 February 1885 until 22 September 1888.
  2. List of prime ministers of Luxembourg
    
    The prime minister of Luxembourg is the head of government of Luxembourg. The prime minister leads the executive branch, chairs the Cabinet and appoints its ministers.
1799
1. Carl Julian (von) Graba, German lawyer and ornithologist who visited and studied the Faroe Islands (d. 1874) births
  1. Carl Julian (von) Graba
    
    Carl Julian (von) Graba was a German lawyer and Royal Danish judicial councillor, and was also a keen ornithologist and one of the first modern researchers to visit and study the Faroe Islands, where he described the local puffin which was subsequently named Fratercula arctica grabae after him. Graba's findings were mentioned in 1872 by Charles Darwin in his book On the Origin of Species.
1796
1. Philipp Franz von Siebold, German physician and botanist (d. 1866) births
  1. Philipp Franz von Siebold
    
    Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold was a German physician, botanist and traveler. He achieved prominence by his studies of Japanese flora and fauna and the introduction of Western medicine in Japan. He was the father of the first female Japanese doctor educated in Western medicine, Kusumoto Ine.
1781
1. René Laennec, French physician, invented the stethoscope (d. 1826) births
  1. René Laennec
    
    René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec was a French physician and musician. His skill at carving his own wooden flutes led him to invent the stethoscope in 1816, while working at the Hôpital Necker. He pioneered its use in diagnosing various chest conditions. He became a lecturer at the Collège de France in 1822 and professor of medicine in 1823. His final appointments were that of head of the medical clinic at the Hôpital de la Charité and professor at the Collège de France. He went into a coma and subsequently died of tuberculosis on August 13, 1826 at age 45.
  2. Stethoscope
    
    The stethoscope is a medical device for auscultation, or listening to internal sounds of an animal or human body. It typically has a small disc-shaped resonator that is placed against the skin, and one or two tubes connected to two earpieces. A stethoscope can be used to listen to the sounds made by the heart, lungs or intestines, as well as blood flow in arteries and veins. In combination with a manual sphygmomanometer, it is commonly used when measuring blood pressure.
1768
1. Arthur Onslow, English lawyer and politician, Speaker of the House of Commons (b. 1691) deaths
  1. Arthur Onslow
    
    Arthur Onslow was an English politician. He set a record for length of service when repeatedly elected to serve as Speaker of the House of Commons, where he was known for his integrity.
  2. Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)
    
    The speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the lower house and primary chamber of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The current speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, was elected Speaker on 4 November 2019, following the retirement of John Bercow. Hoyle began his first full parliamentary term in the role on 17 December 2019, having been unanimously re-elected after the 2019 general election.
1762
1. John Cooke, English captain (d. 1805) births
  1. John Cooke (Royal Navy officer)
    
    John Cooke was an experienced and highly regarded officer of the Royal Navy during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars and the first years of the Napoleonic Wars. Cooke is best known for his death in hand-to-hand combat with French forces during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. During the action, his ship HMS Bellerophon was badly damaged and boarded by sailors and marines from the French ship of the line Aigle. Cooke was killed in the ensuing melee, but his crew successfully drove off their opponents and ultimately forced the surrender of Aigle.
1758
1. John Pinkerton, Scottish antiquarian, cartographer, author, numismatist and historian (d. 1826) births
  1. John Pinkerton
    
    John Pinkerton was a Scottish antiquarian, cartographer, author, numismatist, historian, and early advocate of Germanic racial supremacy theory.
1754
1. Nicolas Baudin, French cartographer and explorer (d. 1803) births
  1. Nicolas Baudin
    
    Nicolas Thomas Baudin was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer, most notable for his explorations in Australia and the southern Pacific.
1752
1. Friedrich Maximilian Klinger, German author and playwright (d. 1831) births
  1. Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger
    
    Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger was a German dramatist and novelist. His play Sturm und Drang (1776) gave its name to the Sturm und Drang artistic epoch. He was a childhood friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and is often closely associated with Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz. Klinger worked as a playwright for the Seylersche Schauspiel-Gesellschaft for two years, but eventually left the Kingdom of Prussia to become a General in the Imperial Russian Army.
1740
1. Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, Swiss physicist and meteorologist (d. 1799) births
  1. Horace Bénédict de Saussure
    
    Horace Bénédict de Saussure was a Genevan geologist, meteorologist, physicist, mountaineer and Alpine explorer, often called the founder of alpinism and modern meteorology, and considered to be the first person to build a successful solar oven.
1732
1. Louis Marchand, French organist and composer (b. 1669) deaths
  1. Louis Marchand
    
    Louis Marchand was a French Baroque organist, harpsichordist, and composer. Born into an organist's family, Marchand was a child prodigy and quickly established himself as one of the best known French virtuosos of his time. He worked as organist of numerous churches and, for a few years, as one of the four organistes du roy. Marchand had a violent temperament and an arrogant personality, and his life was filled with scandals, publicized and widely discussed both during his lifetime and after his death. Despite his fame, few of his works survive to this day, and those that do almost all date from his early years. Nevertheless, a few pieces of his, such as the organ pieces Grand dialogue and Fond d'orgue have been lauded as classic works of the French organ school.
1723
1. Tobias Mayer, German astronomer and academic (d. 1762) births
  1. Tobias Mayer
    
    Tobias Mayer was a German astronomer famous for his studies of the Moon.
1715
1. Antoine Galland, French orientalist and archaeologist (b. 1646) deaths
  1. Antoine Galland
    
    Antoine Galland was a French orientalist and archaeologist, most famous as the first European translator of One Thousand and One Nights, which he called Les mille et une nuits. His version of the tales appeared in twelve volumes between 1704 and 1717 and exerted a significant influence on subsequent European literature and attitudes to the Islamic world. Jorge Luis Borges has suggested that Romanticism began when his translation was first read.
1680
1. Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles, English politician (b. 1599) deaths
  1. Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles
    
    Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles PC was an English statesman, best remembered as one of the Five Members whose attempted arrest by Charles I in January 1642 sparked the First English Civil War.
2. Jan Swammerdam, Dutch biologist, zoologist, and entomologist (b. 1637) deaths
  1. Jan Swammerdam
    
    Jan Swammerdam was a Dutch biologist and microscopist. His work on insects demonstrated that the various phases during the life of an insect—egg, larva, pupa, and adult—are different forms of the same animal. As part of his anatomical research, he carried out experiments on muscle contraction. In 1658, he was the first to observe and describe red blood cells. He was one of the first people to use the microscope in dissections, and his techniques remained useful for hundreds of years.
1673
1. Molière, French actor and playwright (b. 1622) deaths
  1. Molière
    
    Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world literature. His extant works include comedies, farces, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets, and more. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed at the Comédie-Française more often than those of any other playwright today. His influence is such that the French language is often referred to as the "language of Molière".
1659
1. Abel Servien, French politician, French Minister of Finance (b. 1593) deaths
  1. Abel Servien
    
    Abel Servien, marquis de Sablé et de Boisdauphin and comte de La Roche des Aubiers was a French diplomat who served Cardinal Mazarin and signed for the French the Treaty of Westphalia. He was an early member of the noblesse de robe in the service of the French state.
  2. Ministry of Economics and Finance (France)
    
    The Ministry of Economics, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, informally referred to as Bercy, is one of the most important ministries in the Government of France. Its minister is one of the most prominent cabinet members after the prime minister. The name of the ministry has changed over time; it has included the terms "economics", "industry", "finance" and "employment" through history.
1653
1. Arcangelo Corelli, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1713) births
  1. Arcangelo Corelli
    
    Arcangelo Corelli was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era. His music was key in the development of the modern genres of sonata and concerto, in establishing the preeminence of the violin, and as the first coalescing of modern tonality and functional harmony.
1646
1. Pierre Le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert, French economist (d. 1714) births
  1. Pierre Le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert
    
    Pierre le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert or Boisguillebert was a French lawmaker and a Jansenist, one of the inventors of the notion of an economic market.
1624
1. Juan de Mariana, Spanish priest and historian (b. 1536) deaths
  1. Juan de Mariana
    
    Juan de Mariana,, also known as Father Mariana, was a Spanish Jesuit priest, Scholastic, historian, and member of the Monarchomachs.
1609
1. Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1549) deaths
  1. Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
    
    Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1587 to 1609, having succeeded his older brother Francesco I.
1600
1. Giordano Bruno, Italian mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher (b. 1548) deaths
  1. Giordano Bruno
    
    Giordano Bruno was an Italian philosopher, mathematician, poet, cosmological theorist, and Hermetic occultist. He is known for his cosmological theories, which conceptually extended the then novel Copernican model. He proposed that the stars were distant suns surrounded by their own planets, and he raised the possibility that these planets might foster life of their own, a cosmological position known as cosmic pluralism. He also insisted that the universe is infinite and could have no "center".
1524
1. Charles de Lorraine, French cardinal (d. 1574) births
  1. Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine
    
    Charles de Lorraine, Duke of Chevreuse, was a French Cardinal, a member of the powerful House of Guise. He was known at first as the Cardinal of Guise, and then as the second Cardinal of Lorraine, after the death of his uncle, Jean, Cardinal of Lorraine (1550). He was the protector of François Rabelais and Pierre de Ronsard and founded Reims University. He is sometimes known as the Cardinal de Lorraine.
1519
1. Francis, French Grand Chamberlain (d. 1563) births
  1. Francis, Duke of Guise
    
    Francis de Lorraine II, the first Prince of Joinville, also Duke of Guise and Duke of Aumale, was a French general and politician. A prominent leader during the Italian War of 1551–1559 and French Wars of Religion, he was assassinated during the siege of Orleans in 1563.
1500
1. Adolph, Count of Oldenburg-Delmenhorst, German noble (b. before 1463) deaths
  1. Adolph, Count of Oldenburg-Delmenhorst
    
    Adolph, Count of Oldenburg-Delmenhorst was a Count of Oldenburg from 1482 until his death.
1490
1. Charles III, duke of Bourbon (d. 1527) births
  1. Charles III, Duke of Bourbon
    
    Charles III, Duke of Bourbon was a French military leader, the count of Montpensier, Clermont and Auvergne, and dauphin of Auvergne from 1501 to 1523, then duke of Bourbon and Auvergne, count of Clermont-en-Beauvaisis, Forez and La Marche, and lord of Beaujeu from 1505 to 1521. He was also the constable of France from 1515 to 1521. Also known as the Constable of Bourbon, he was the last of the great feudal lords to oppose the king of France. He commanded the troops of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in what became known as the Sack of Rome in 1527, where he was killed.
1371
1. Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria deaths
  1. Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria
    
    Ivan Alexander, also sometimes Anglicized as John Alexander, ruled as Emperor (Tsar) of Bulgaria from 1331 to 1371, during the Second Bulgarian Empire. The date of his birth is unknown. He died on 17 February 1371. The long reign of Ivan Alexander is considered a transitional period in Bulgarian medieval history. Ivan Alexander began his rule by dealing with internal problems and external threats from Bulgaria's neighbours, the Byzantine Empire and Serbia, as well as leading his empire into a period of economic recovery and cultural and religious renaissance.
1339
1. Otto, Duke of Austria (b. 1301) deaths
  1. Otto, Duke of Austria
    
    Otto, the Merry, a member of the House of Habsburg, was Duke of Austria and Styria from 1330, as well as Duke of Carinthia from 1335 until his death. He ruled jointly with his elder brother Duke Albert II.
1220
1. Theobald I, Duke of Lorraine deaths
  1. Theobald I, Duke of Lorraine
    
    Theobald I was the duke of Lorraine from 1213 to his death. He was the son and successor of Frederick II and Agnes of Bar.
1178
1. Evermode of Ratzeburg, bishop of Ratzeburg deaths
  1. Evermode of Ratzeburg
    
    Evermode, or Evermod, was one of the first Premonstratensian canons regular, and became the lifelong companion of Norbert of Xanten, who founded the order in France in 1120.
  2. Diocese of Ratzeburg
    
    The Diocese of Ratzeburg is a former diocese of the Catholic Church. It was erected from the Diocese of Oldenburg c. 1050 and was suppressed in 1554. The diocese was originally a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Hamburg; in 1072 it became a suffragan of the merged entity — the "Archdiocese of Hamburg and the Diocese of Bremen". The territory of the diocese was located in what is today the states of Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany. The cathedral church of the diocese — dedicated to Ss. Mary and John — is still extant in the city of Ratzeburg. Following its suppression as part of the Protestant Reformation, the remaining Catholic adherents were only represented by the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Germany. The whole territory of the diocese is today included in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hamburg.
1028
1. Al-Juwayni, Persian scholar and imam (d. 1085) births
  1. Al-Juwayni
    
    Dhia' ul-Dīn 'Abd al-Malik ibn Yūsuf al-Juwaynī al-Shafi'ī was a Persian Sunni Shafi'i jurist and mutakallim theologian. His name is commonly abbreviated as Al-Juwayni; he is also commonly referred to as Imam al Haramayn, meaning "leading master of the two holy cities", that is, Mecca and Medina.
923
1. Al-Tabari, Persian scholar (b. 839) deaths
  1. Al-Tabari
    
    Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr ibn Yazīd al-Ṭabarī, more commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (الطبري), was a Muslim historian and scholar from Amol, Tabaristan. Among the most prominent figures of the Islamic Golden Age, al-Tabari is known for his historical works and his expertise in Qur'anic exegesis, but he has also been described as "an impressively prolific polymath". He wrote works on a diverse range of subjects, including world history, poetry, lexicography, grammar, ethics, mathematics, and medicine.
624
1. Wu Zetian, Chinese empress consort (d. 705) births
  1. Wu Zetian
    
    Wu Zetian, also known as Wu Zhao or Wu Hou, and during the later Tang dynasty as Tian Hou, was the de facto ruler of China from 665 to 705, ruling first through others and then in her own right. From 665 to 690, she was first empress consort of the Tang dynasty and then, after his death, empress dowager, which had occurred before in China. Unprecedented in Chinese history, she subsequently ruled as empress regnant of the Wu Zhou dynasty of China from 690 to 705. She was the only legitimate female sovereign in the history of China. Under her 40-year reign, China grew larger becoming one of the great powers of the world, its culture and economy were revitalized, and corruption in the court was reduced.
440
1. Mesrop Mashtots, Armenian monk, linguist, and theologian (b. 360) deaths
  1. Mesrop Mashtots
    
    Mesrop Mashtots was an early Medieval Armenian linguist, composer, theologian, statesman, and hymnologist in the Sasanian Empire. He is venerated as a saint in the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. He is best known for inventing the Armenian alphabet c. 405 AD, which was a fundamental step in strengthening Armenian national identity. He is also considered to be the creator of the Caucasian Albanian and Georgian alphabets by some scholars.
364
1. Jovian, Roman emperor (b. 331) deaths
  1. Jovian (emperor)
    
    Jovian was Roman emperor from June 363 to February 364. As part of the imperial bodyguard, he accompanied Emperor Julian on his campaign against the Sasanian Empire and following the latter's death, Jovian was hastily declared emperor by his soldiers. With the army exhausted, provisions running low, and unable to cross the Tigris, he sought peace with the Sasanids on humiliating terms. After his arrival at Edessa, Jovian was petitioned by bishops over doctrinal issues concerning Christianity. His return to Constantinople would be cut short by his death at Dadastana. Jovian reigned eight months.

Holidays

Christian feast day: Seven Founders of the Servite Order Alexis Falconieri
1. Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order
  
  The Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order, by name Bonfilius, Alexis, Manettus, Amideus, Hugh, Sostene and Buonagiunta of Florence, were seven holy men of the town of Florence whom became bound to each other in a spiritual friendship that were eventually called by the Virgin Mother of God in a vision that they reportedly all shared in one and the same moment, whom they practised an intense devotion towards, to 'Leave the World, the Better to Serve Almighty God'.
Christian feast day: Constabilis
1. Constabilis
  
  Constabilis was an Italian abbot and saint. He was abbot of La Trinità della Cava, located at Cava de' Tirreni, from 1122 to 1124.
Christian feast day: Donatus, Romulus, Secundian, and Companions
1. Donatus, Romulus, Secundian, and 86 Companions
  
  Donatus, Romulus, Secundian, and 86 Companions were a group of Christians who were martyred at Concordia Sagittaria, near Venice, during the Diocletian persecution. Their feast day is celebrated on February 17.
Christian feast day: Fintan of Clonenagh
1. Fintan of Clonenagh
  
  Saint Fintan of Clonenagh was an Irish hermit and monk. He was an Abbot and disciple of Columba of Terryglass.
Christian feast day: Janani Luwum (Anglican Communion)
1. Janani Luwum
  
  Janani Jakaliya Luwum was the archbishop of the Church of Uganda from 1974 to 1977 and one of the most influential leaders of the modern church in Africa. He was arrested in February 1977 and died shortly after. Although the official account describes a car crash, it is generally accepted that he was murdered on the orders of then-President Idi Amin.
2. Anglican Communion
  
  The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other autocephalous national and regional churches in full communion. The traditional origins of Anglican doctrine are summarised in the Thirty-nine Articles (1571). The Archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity, recognised as primus inter parescode: lat promoted to code: la , but does not exercise authority in Anglican provinces outside of the Church of England. Most, but not all, member churches of the communion are the historic national or regional Anglican churches.
Christian feast day: Lommán of Trim
1. Lommán of Trim
  
  Lommán mac Dalláin was a saint and patron of Trim, County Meath in Ireland.
Christian feast day: February 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
1. February 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  
  February 16 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - February 18
Independence Day, celebrates the independence declaration of Kosovo in 2008, still partially recognized.
1. Public holidays in Kosovo
  
  This is a list of public holidays in Kosovo.
2. Kosovo
  
  Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a partially recognised state in Southeast Europe. It lies at the centre of the Balkans. Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008, and has since gained diplomatic recognition as a sovereign state by 101 member states of the United Nations. It is bordered by Serbia to the north and east, North Macedonia to the southeast, Albania to the southwest, and Montenegro to the west. Most of central Kosovo is dominated by the vast plains and fields of Dukagjini and Kosovo field. The Accursed Mountains and Šar Mountains rise in the southwest and southeast, respectively. Its capital and largest city is Pristina.
3. Advisory opinion on Kosovo's declaration of independence
  
  Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Respect of Kosovo was a request in 2008 for an advisory opinion referred to the International Court of Justice by the United Nations General Assembly regarding the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence. The territory of Kosovo is the subject of a dispute between Serbia and the Republic of Kosovo established by the declaration. This was the first case regarding a unilateral declaration of independence to be brought before the court.
Revolution Day (Libya)
1. Public holidays in Libya
  
  This is a list of public holidays in Libya.

Important events in history on February 17 th

Events

February 2016 Ankara bombing

Turkish Armed Forces

Ankara

2015 Haiti Carnival stampede

Mardi Gras

Haiti

Arab Spring

Bloody Thursday (Bahrain)

Pearl Roundabout

Manama

First Libyan Civil War

Muammar Gaddafi

Arab Spring

First Libyan Civil War

History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi

Bahrain

Special Security Force Command

Police raid

Pearl Roundabout

Manama

Bloody Thursday (Bahrain)

Kosovo

2008 Kosovo declaration of independence

Serbia

2006 Southern Leyte mudslide

Southern Leyte

2006 Southern Leyte mudslide

Southern Leyte

Philippines

Philadelphia

Garry Kasparov

Deep Blue (chess computer)

Supercomputer

Chess

NASA

Discovery Program

NEAR Shoemaker

433 Eros

1996 Biak earthquake

Papua (province)

Indonesia

Modified Mercalli intensity scale

Cenepa War

Peru

Ecuador

Ceasefire

United Nations

First Nagorno-Karabakh War

Armenia

Azerbaijanis

Capture of Garadaghly

Ryan International Airlines Flight 590

Cleveland Hopkins International Airport

Mount Everest

Krzysztof Wielicki

Leszek Cichy

Sino-Vietnamese War

The Troubles

Provisional Irish Republican Army

La Mon restaurant bombing

Belfast

The Troubles

Provisional Irish Republican Army

Incendiary device

La Mon restaurant bombing

Bell UH-1 Iroquois

1974 White House helicopter incident

South Lawn

White House

1974 White House helicopter incident

United States Army

White House

Helicopter

Volkswagen Beetle

Ford Model T

Jeffrey R. MacDonald

United States Army

Berry L. Cannon

Important events in history
on February 17 ^th