Important events in history
on February 4 ^th

Events

2020
1. The COVID-19 pandemic causes all casinos in Macau to be closed down for 15 days.
  1. COVID-19 pandemic
    
    The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified from an outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Attempts to contain failed, allowing the virus to spread to other areas of Asia and later worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020 and a pandemic on 11 March 2020. As of 1 December 2022, the pandemic had caused more than 643 million cases and 6.63 million confirmed deaths, making it one of the deadliest in history.
  2. Macau
    
    Macau or Macao, officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a population of about 680,000 and an area of 32.9 km2 (12.7 sq mi), it is the most densely populated region in the world.
2015
1. Shortly after takeoff from Taipei Songshan Airport, the crew of TransAsia Airways Flight 235 shut down the wrong engine in response to a flameout, leading to a crash that resulted in 43 deaths.
  1. Songshan Airport
    
    Taipei Songshan Airport is a regional airport and military airbase located in Songshan District, Taipei, Taiwan. The airport covers an area of 182 hectares.
  2. TransAsia Airways Flight 235
    
    TransAsia Airways Flight 235 was a TransAsia Airways domestic flight from Taipei to Kinmen (Quemoy), Taiwan. On 4 February 2015, the aircraft serving the flight, a 10-month-old ATR 72-600, crashed into the Keelung River shortly after takeoff from Taipei Songshan Airport, 5.4 km to the east of Songshan in Taiwan. The aircraft had 53 passengers and five crew on board; 15 of them survived.
  3. Flameout
    
    In aviation, a flameout is the run-down of a jet engine or other turbine engine due to the extinction of the flame in its combustor. The loss of flame can have a variety of causes, such as fuel starvation, excessive altitude, compressor stall, foreign object damage deriving from birds, hail, or volcanic ash, severe precipitation, mechanical failure, or very low ambient temperatures.
2. TransAsia Airways Flight 235, with 58 people on board, en route from the Taiwanese capital Taipei to Kinmen, crashes into the Keelung River just after takeoff, killing 43 people.
  1. TransAsia Airways Flight 235
    
    TransAsia Airways Flight 235 was a TransAsia Airways domestic flight from Taipei to Kinmen (Quemoy), Taiwan. On 4 February 2015, the aircraft serving the flight, a 10-month-old ATR 72-600, crashed into the Keelung River shortly after takeoff from Taipei Songshan Airport, 5.4 km to the east of Songshan in Taiwan. The aircraft had 53 passengers and five crew on board; 15 of them survived.
  2. Taipei
    
    Taipei, officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about 25 km (16 mi) southwest of the northern port city of Keelung. Most of the city rests on the Taipei Basin, an ancient lakebed. The basin is bounded by the relatively narrow valleys of the Keelung and Xindian rivers, which join to form the Tamsui River along the city's western border.
  3. Kinmen
    
    Kinmen, alternatively known as Quemoy, is a group of islands governed as a county by Taiwan, off the southeastern coast of mainland China. It lies roughly 10 km (6.2 mi) east of the city of Xiamen in Fujian, from which it is separated by Xiamen Bay. Kinmen is located 187 km (116 mi) west from the shoreline of the island of Taiwan across the Taiwan Strait.
  4. Keelung River
    
    The Keelung River (Chinese: 基隆河; pinyin: Jīlóng Hé; Wade–Giles: Chi1-lung2 Ho2; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Ke-lâng-hô) is a river in northern Taiwan.
2008
1. The London low emission zone, governing what types of vehicles may enter Greater London, came into operation.
  1. London low emission zone
    
    The London Low Emission Zone (LEZ) is a traffic pollution charge scheme with the aim of reducing the exhaust gas emissions of diesel-powered vehicles in London. The scheme applies London-wide to commercial vehicles, and should not be confused with the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), introduced in April 2019, which applies to all vehicles in Central London. Vehicles that do not conform to various emission standards are charged; the others may enter the controlled zone free of charge. The low emission zone started operating on 4 February 2008 with phased introduction of an increasingly stricter regime until 3 January 2012. The scheme is administered by the Transport for London executive agency within the Greater London Authority.
  2. Greater London
    
    Greater London is an administrative area in England governed by the Greater London Authority. It is organised into 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs and the City of London. Greater London is one of the regions of England, also known as the London Region. The Greater London Authority, based in Newham as of the start of 2022, is responsible for strategic local government across the area and consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
2004
1. Facebook, a mainstream online social networking site, is founded by Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin.
  1. Facebook
    
    Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, its name comes from the face book directories often given to American university students. Membership was initially limited to Harvard students, gradually expanding to other North American universities and, since 2006, anyone over 13 years old. As of July 2022, Facebook claimed 2.93 billion monthly active users, and ranked third worldwide among the most visited websites as of July 2022. It was the most downloaded mobile app of the 2010s.
  2. Social networking service
    
    A social networking service or SNS is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections.
  3. Mark Zuckerberg
    
    Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is an American business magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is known for co-founding the social media website Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms, of which he is the chairman, chief executive officer, and controlling shareholder.
  4. Eduardo Saverin
    
    Eduardo Luiz Saverin is a Brazilian billionaire entrepreneur and angel investor based in Singapore. Saverin is one of the co-founders of Facebook. In 2012, he owned 53 million Facebook shares, valued at approximately $2 billion at the time. He also invested in early-stage startups such as Qwiki and Jumio.
2003
1. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia adopts a new constitution, becoming a loose confederacy between Montenegro and Serbia.
  1. 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.
2000
1. The World Summit Against Cancer for the New Millennium, Charter of Paris is signed by the President of France, Jacques Chirac and the Director General of UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura, initiating World Cancer Day which is held on February 4 every year.
  1. Jacques Chirac
    
    Jacques René Chirac was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.
  2. UNESCO
    
    The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It has 193 member states and 12 associate members, as well as partners in the non-governmental, intergovernmental and private sector. Headquartered at the World Heritage Centre in Paris, France, UNESCO has 53 regional field offices and 199 national commissions that facilitate its global mandate.
  3. Kōichirō Matsuura
    
    Kōichirō Matsuura is a Japanese diplomat. He is the former Director-General of UNESCO. He was first elected in 1999 to a six-year term and reelected on 12 October 2005 for four years, following a reform instituted by the 29th session of the General Conference. In November 2009, he was replaced by Irina Bokova.
  4. World Cancer Day
    
    World Cancer Day is an international day marked on 4 February to raise awareness of cancer and to encourage its prevention, detection, and treatment. World Cancer Day is led by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) to support the goals of the World Cancer Declaration, written in 2008. The primary goal of World Cancer Day is to significantly reduce illness and death caused by cancer and is an opportunity to rally the international community to end the injustice of preventable suffering from cancer. The day is observed by the United Nations.
1999
1. The Panamanian-flagged freighter New Carissa ran aground near Coos Bay, Oregon, causing one of the worst oil spills in the state's history.
  1. Flag of convenience
    
    Flag of convenience (FOC) is a business practice whereby a ship's owners register a merchant ship in a ship register of a country other than that of the ship's owners, and the ship flies the civil ensign of that country, called the flag state. The term is often used pejoratively, and although common, the practice is sometimes regarded as contentious.
  2. New Carissa
    
    MV New Carissa was a freighter that ran aground on a beach near Coos Bay, Oregon, United States during a storm in February 1999 and broke apart. An attempt to tow the bow section of the ship out to sea failed when the tow line broke, and the bow was grounded again. Eventually, the bow was successfully towed out to sea and sunk. The stern section remained on the beach near Coos Bay. Fuel on board the ship was burned off in situ with napalm, but a significant amount was also spilled from the wreckage, causing ecological damage to the coast.
  3. Coos Bay, Oregon
    
    Coos Bay is a city located in Coos County, Oregon, United States, where the Coos River enters Coos Bay on the Pacific Ocean. The city borders the city of North Bend, and together they are often referred to as one entity called either Coos Bay-North Bend or Oregon's Bay Area. Coos Bay's population as of the 2020 census was 15,985 residents, making it the most populous city on the Oregon Coast. Oregon's Bay Area is estimated to be home to 32,308.
  4. Oil spill
    
    An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into the ocean or coastal waters, but spills may also occur on land. Oil spills may be due to releases of crude oil from tankers, offshore platforms, drilling rigs and wells, as well as spills of refined petroleum products and their by-products, heavier fuels used by large ships such as bunker fuel, or the spill of any oily refuse or waste oil.
2. Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot 41 times by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race relations in the city.
  1. Killing of Amadou Diallo
    
    In the early hours of February 4, 1999, an unarmed 23-year-old Guinean student named Amadou Diallo was fired upon with 41 rounds and shot a total of 19 times by four New York City Police Department plainclothes officers: Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon, and Kenneth Boss. Carroll would later claim to have mistaken him for a rape suspect from one year earlier.
1998
1. An earthquake registering 5.9 MW struck northern Afghanistan, triggering landslides that killed over 2,300 people and destroyed around 15,000 homes.
  1. February 1998 Afghanistan earthquake
    
    The February 1998 Afghanistan earthquake occurred at 19:03 local time near the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border. The strike-slip shock had a moment magnitude of 5.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII. With several thousand dead and hundreds injured, the event's effects were considered extreme by the National Geophysical Data Center. It was felt at Tashkent and Dushanbe, and aftershocks continued for the next seven days.
  2. Moment magnitude scale
    
    The moment magnitude scale is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 paper by Thomas C. Hanks and Hiroo Kanamori. Similar to the local magnitude scale (ML ) defined by Charles Francis Richter in 1935, it uses a logarithmic scale; small earthquakes have approximately the same magnitudes on both scales.
  3. Landslide
    
    Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environments, characterized by either steep or gentle slope gradients, from mountain ranges to coastal cliffs or even underwater, in which case they are called submarine landslides. Gravity is the primary driving force for a landslide to occur, but there are other factors affecting slope stability that produce specific conditions that make a slope prone to failure. In many cases, the landslide is triggered by a specific event, although this is not always identifiable.
2. The 5.9 Mw  Afghanistan earthquake shakes the Takhar Province with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). With 2,323 killed, and 818 injured, damage is considered extreme.
  1. February 1998 Afghanistan earthquake
    
    The February 1998 Afghanistan earthquake occurred at 19:03 local time near the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border. The strike-slip shock had a moment magnitude of 5.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII. With several thousand dead and hundreds injured, the event's effects were considered extreme by the National Geophysical Data Center. It was felt at Tashkent and Dushanbe, and aftershocks continued for the next seven days.
  2. Takhar Province
    
    Takhar is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northeast of the country next to Tajikistan. It is surrounded by Badakhshan in the east, Panjshir in the south, and Baghlan and Kunduz in the west. The city of Taloqan serves as its capital.
  3. 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.
1997
1. En route to Lebanon, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 troop-transport helicopters collide in mid-air over northern Galilee, Israel, killing 73.
  1. Lebanon
    
    Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus lies to its west across the Mediterranean Sea; its location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland has contributed to its rich history and shaped a cultural identity of religious diversity. It is part of the Levant region of the Middle East. Lebanon is home to roughly six million people and covers an area of 10,452 square kilometres (4,036 sq mi), making it the second smallest country in continental Asia. The official language of the state is Arabic, while French is also formally recognized; the Lebanese dialect of Arabic is used alongside Modern Standard Arabic throughout the country.
  2. Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion
    
    The CH-53 Sea Stallion is an American family of heavy-lift transport helicopters designed and built by the American manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft.
  3. 1997 Israeli helicopter disaster
    
    The 1997 Israeli helicopter disaster occurred on February 4, 1997, when two Israeli Air Force transport helicopters ferrying Israeli soldiers into Israel's security zone in southern Lebanon collided in mid-air, killing all 73 Israeli military personnel on board. The crash brought about widespread national mourning and is considered a leading factor in Israel's decision to withdraw from southern Lebanon in 2000.
2. The Bojnurd earthquake measuring Mw  6.5 strikes Iran. With a Mercalli intensity of VIII, it kills at least 88 and damages 173 villages.
  1. 1997 Bojnurd earthquake
    
    The 1997 Bojnurd earthquake occurred on February 4 at 14:07 IRST in Iran. The epicenter of the Mw  6.5 earthquake was in the Kopet Dag mountains of North Khorasan, near the Iran–Turkmenistan border, ~579 km (360 mi) northeast of Tehran. The earthquake is characterized by shallow strike-slip faulting in a zone of seismically active faults. Seismic activity is present as the Kopet Dag is actively accommodating tectonic processes through faulting. At least 88 fatalities and 1,948 injuries were reported. One-hundred and seventy-three villages were affected, including four which were destroyed. Damage also occurred in Shirvan and Bojnord. The total cost of damage was estimated to be over US$ 30 million.
1992
1. A coup d'état is led by Hugo Chávez against Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez.
  1. February 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt
    
    The Venezuelan coup attempt of February 1992 was an attempt to seize control of the government of Venezuela by the Hugo Chávez-led Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200) that took place on 4 February 1992. The coup was directed against President Carlos Andrés Pérez and occurred in a period marked by economic liberalization reforms, which were attempted in order to decrease the country's level of indebtedness and had caused major protests and social unrest. Despite their failure to depose the government of Carlos Andrés, the February coup attempts brought Chávez into the national spotlight. Fighting during the coup resulted in the deaths of at least 143 people and possibly as many as several hundred.
  2. Hugo Chávez
    
    Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when it merged with several other parties to form the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which he led until 2012.
  3. Venezuela
    
    Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It has a territorial extension of 916,445 km2 (353,841 sq mi), and its population was estimated at 29 million in 2022. The capital and largest urban agglomeration is the city of Caracas.
  4. Carlos Andrés Pérez
    
    Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez also known as CAP and often referred to as El Gocho, was a Venezuelan politician and the president of Venezuela from 12 March 1974 to 12 March 1979 and again from 2 February 1989 to 21 May 1993. He was one of the founders of Acción Democrática, the dominant political party in Venezuela during the second half of the twentieth century. His first presidency was known as the Saudi Venezuela due to its economic and social prosperity thanks to enormous income from petroleum exportation. However, his second presidency saw a continuation of the economic crisis of the 1980s, a series of social crises, widespread riots known as Caracazo and two coup attempts in 1992. In May 1993 he became the first Venezuelan president to be forced out of office by the Supreme Court on charges for the embezzlement of 250 million bolívars belonging to a presidential discretionary fund, whose money was used to support the electoral process in Nicaragua and hire bodyguards for President Violeta Chamorro.
1977
1. A Chicago Transit Authority elevated train rear-ends another and derails, killing 11 and injuring 180, the worst accident in the agency's history.
  1. Chicago Transit Authority
    
    The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the operator of mass transit in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and some of its surrounding suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago 'L' and CTA bus service. In 2021, the system had a ridership of 195,980,600, or about 774,800 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2022.
  2. Elevated railway
    
    An elevated railway or elevated train is a rapid transit railway with the tracks above street level on a viaduct or other elevated structure. The railway may be broad-gauge, standard-gauge or narrow-gauge railway, light rail, monorail, or a suspension railway. Elevated railways are normally found in urban areas where there would otherwise be multiple level crossings. Usually, the tracks of elevated railways that run on steel viaducts can be seen from street level.
  3. 1977 Chicago Loop derailment
    
    The 1977 Chicago Loop derailment occurred on February 4, 1977, when a Chicago Transit Authority elevated train rear-ended another on the northeast corner of the Loop at Wabash Avenue and Lake Street during the evening rush hour. The collision forced the first four cars of the rear train off the elevated tracks, killing 11 people and injuring at least 268 as the cars fell onto the street below.
1976
1. In Guatemala and Honduras an earthquake kills more than 22,000.
  1. Guatemala
    
    Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. Guatemala is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by Honduras; to the southeast by El Salvador and to the south by the Pacific Ocean, respectively. With an estimated population of around 17.6 million, it is the most populous country in Central America and is the 11th most populous country in the Americas. Guatemala is a representative democracy; its capital and largest city is Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción, also known as Guatemala City, the largest city in Central America.
  2. Honduras
    
    Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, and to the north by the Gulf of Honduras, a large inlet of the Caribbean Sea. Its capital and largest city is Tegucigalpa.
  3. 1976 Guatemala earthquake
    
    The 1976 Guatemala earthquake struck on February 4 at 03:01:43 local time with a moment magnitude of 7.5. The shock was centered on the Motagua Fault, about 160 km northeast of Guatemala City at a depth of 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) near the town of Los Amates in the department of Izabal.
1975
1. Haicheng earthquake (magnitude 7.3 on the Richter scale) occurs in Haicheng, Liaoning, China.
  1. 1975 Haicheng earthquake
    
    On February 4, 1975 at 19:36 CST, an earthquake of Ms 7.5 and intensity (MMI) IX hit the city of Haicheng, Liaoning, China. Much of the city was evacuated before the earthquake, so few died from building collapse, however, many died from fire and hypothermia in the subsequent days. The evacuees lived during the deep winter in self-made tents made of tree branches, bed sheets, tarps and straw, 372 froze to death and 6,578 suffered frostbite, while a fire burned 341 to death and 980 suffered non-fatal burns. The fire was one of the most notable earthquake-induced fires in China, triggered from a combination of cooking, winter heating and lighting.
  2. Richter magnitude scale
    
    The Richter scale —also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale—is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Francis Richter and presented in his landmark 1935 paper, where he called it the "magnitude scale". This was later revised and renamed the local magnitude scale, denoted as ML or ML .
  3. Haicheng, Liaoning
    
    Haicheng is a county-level city in central Liaoning Province, People's Republic of China, located about 120 kilometres (75 mi) southwest of the provincial capital Shenyang. It is under the administration of Anshan City, the seat of which lies 36 kilometres (22 mi) to the northeast.
1974
1. American newspaper heiress and socialite Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, which she later joined, in one of the most well-known cases of Stockholm syndrome.
  1. Patty Hearst
    
    Patricia Campbell Hearst is the granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. She first became known for the events following her 1974 kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army. She was found and arrested 19 months after being abducted, by which time she was a fugitive wanted for serious crimes committed with members of the group. She was held in custody, and there was speculation before trial that her family's resources would enable her to avoid time in prison.
  2. Symbionese Liberation Army
    
    The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was a small, American far-left organization active between 1973 and 1975; it claimed to be a vanguard movement. The FBI and American law enforcement considered the SLA to be the first terrorist organization to rise from the American left. Six members died in a May 1974 shootout with police in Los Angeles. The three remaining fugitives recruited a few new members, but nearly all of them were apprehended in 1975 and prosecuted.
  3. Stockholm syndrome
    
    Stockholm syndrome is a theorized condition in which hostages develop a psychological bond with their captors during captivity. It is supposed to result from a rather specific set of circumstances, namely the power imbalances contained in hostage-taking, kidnapping, and abusive relationships. Therefore, it is difficult to find a large number of people who experience Stockholm syndrome to conduct studies with any sort of power. This makes it hard to determine trends in the development and effects of the condition— and, in fact, it is a "contested illness" due to doubts about the legitimacy of the condition.
2. The Provisional Irish Republican Army bombed a motor coach carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel and their family members, killing twelve people.
  1. 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.
  2. M62 coach bombing
    
    The M62 coach bombing, sometimes referred to as the M62 Massacre, occurred on 4 February 1974 on the M62 motorway in northern England, when a 25-pound (11 kg) Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb hidden inside the luggage locker of a coach carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel and their family members exploded, killing twelve people and injuring thirty-eight others aboard the vehicle.
  3. British Armed Forces
    
    The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, support international peacekeeping efforts and provide humanitarian aid.
3. The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patty Hearst in Berkeley, California.
  1. Symbionese Liberation Army
    
    The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was a small, American far-left organization active between 1973 and 1975; it claimed to be a vanguard movement. The FBI and American law enforcement considered the SLA to be the first terrorist organization to rise from the American left. Six members died in a May 1974 shootout with police in Los Angeles. The three remaining fugitives recruited a few new members, but nearly all of them were apprehended in 1975 and prosecuted.
  2. Patty Hearst
    
    Patricia Campbell Hearst is the granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. She first became known for the events following her 1974 kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army. She was found and arrested 19 months after being abducted, by which time she was a fugitive wanted for serious crimes committed with members of the group. She was held in custody, and there was speculation before trial that her family's resources would enable her to avoid time in prison.
  3. Berkeley, California
    
    Berkeley is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emeryville to the south and the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington to the north. Its eastern border with Contra Costa County generally follows the ridge of the Berkeley Hills. The 2020 census recorded a population of 124,321.
4. M62 coach bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) explodes a bomb on a bus carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel in Yorkshire, England. Nine soldiers and three civilians are killed.
  1. M62 coach bombing
    
    The M62 coach bombing, sometimes referred to as the M62 Massacre, occurred on 4 February 1974 on the M62 motorway in northern England, when a 25-pound (11 kg) Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb hidden inside the luggage locker of a coach carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel and their family members exploded, killing twelve people and injuring thirty-eight others aboard the vehicle.
  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. British Armed Forces
    
    The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, support international peacekeeping efforts and provide humanitarian aid.
  4. Yorkshire
    
    Yorkshire, formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have been undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as a geographic territory and cultural region. The name is familiar and well understood across the United Kingdom and is in common use in the media and the military, and also features in the titles of current areas of civil administration such as North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire.
1969
1. Yasser Arafat was elected chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
  1. Yasser Arafat
    
    Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini, popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004 and President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) from 1994 to 2004. Ideologically an Arab nationalist and a socialist, he was a founding member of the Fatah political party, which he led from 1959 until 2004.
  2. Palestine Liberation Organization
    
    The Palestine Liberation Organization is a Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establishing Arab unity and statehood over the territory of former Mandatory Palestine, in opposition to the State of Israel. In 1993, alongside the Oslo I Accord, the PLO's aspiration for Arab statehood was revised to be specifically for the Palestinian territories under an Israeli occupation since the 1967 Arab–Israeli War. It is headquartered in the city of Al-Bireh in the West Bank, and is recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people by over 100 countries that it has diplomatic relations with. As the official recognized government of the de jure State of Palestine, it has enjoyed observer status at the United Nations (UN) since 1974. Due to its militant activities, including acts of violence primarily aimed at Israeli civilians, the PLO was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States in 1987, although a later presidential waiver has permitted American contact with the organization since 1988. In 1993, the PLO recognized Israel's right to exist in peace, accepted Resolution 242 of the United Nations Security Council, and rejected "violence and terrorism". In response, Israel officially recognized the PLO as a legitimate authority representing the Palestinian people. However, despite its participation in the Oslo Accords, the PLO continued to employ tactics of violence in the following years, particularly during the Second Intifada of 2000–2005. On 29 October 2018, the Palestinian Central Council suspended the Palestinian recognition of Israel, and subsequently halted all forms of security and economic cooperation with it.
1967
1. Lunar Orbiter program: Lunar Orbiter 3 lifts off from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 13 on its mission to identify possible landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo spacecraft.
  1. Lunar Orbiter program
    
    The Lunar Orbiter program was a series of five uncrewed lunar orbiter missions launched by the United States from 1966 through 1967. Intended to help select Apollo landing sites by mapping the Moon's surface, they provided the first photographs from lunar orbit and photographed both the Moon and Earth.
  2. Lunar Orbiter 3
    
    The Lunar Orbiter 3 was a spacecraft launched by NASA in 1967 as part of the Lunar Orbiter Program. It was designed primarily to photograph areas of the lunar surface for confirmation of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions. It was also equipped to collect selenodetic, radiation intensity, and micrometeoroid impact data.
  3. Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
    
    Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida.
  4. Surveyor program
    
    The Surveyor program was a NASA program that, from June 1966 through January 1968, sent seven robotic spacecraft to the surface of the Moon. Its primary goal was to demonstrate the feasibility of soft landings on the Moon. The Surveyor craft were the first American spacecraft to achieve soft landing on an extraterrestrial body. The missions called for the craft to travel directly to the Moon on an impact trajectory, a journey that lasted 63 to 65 hours, and ended with a deceleration of just over three minutes to a soft landing.
  5. 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.
1966
1. All Nippon Airways Flight 60 plunges into Tokyo Bay, killing 133.
  1. All Nippon Airways Flight 60
    
    All Nippon Airways (ANA) Flight 60 was a Boeing 727-81 aircraft making a domestic commercial flight from Sapporo Chitose Airport to Tokyo Haneda International Airport. On February 4, 1966, all 133 people on board died when the plane mysteriously crashed into Tokyo Bay about 10.4 km from Haneda in clear weather conditions while on a night approach. The accident was the worst involving a single aircraft and was also the deadliest accident in Japan at that time until Japan Air Lines Flight 123 crashed 19 years later which killed 520.
  2. Tokyo Bay
    
    Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan, and spans the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. The Tokyo Bay region is both the most populous and largest industrialized area in Japan.
1961
1. The Angolan War of Independence and the greater Portuguese Colonial War begin.
  1. Angolan War of Independence
    
    The Angolan War of Independence, called in Angola the Luta Armada de Libertação Nacional, began as an uprising against forced cultivation of cotton, and it became a multi-faction struggle for the control of Portugal's overseas province of Angola among three nationalist movements and a separatist movement. The war ended when a leftist military coup in Lisbon in April 1974 overthrew Portugal's Estado Novo dictatorship, and the new regime immediately stopped all military action in the African colonies, declaring its intention to grant them independence without delay.
  2. Portuguese Colonial War
    
    The Portuguese Colonial War, also known in Portugal as the Overseas War or in the former colonies as the War of Liberation, and also known as the Angolan, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambican War of Independence, was a 13-year-long conflict fought between Portugal's military and the emerging nationalist movements in Portugal's African colonies between 1961 and 1974. The Portuguese ultraconservative regime at the time, the Estado Novo, was overthrown by a military coup in 1974, and the change in government brought the conflict to an end. The war was a decisive ideological struggle in Lusophone Africa, surrounding nations, and mainland Portugal.
1948
1. Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth.
  1. Dominion of Ceylon
    
    Between 1948 and 1972, Ceylon was an independent country in the Commonwealth of Nations, that shared a monarch with other dominions of the Commonwealth. In 1948, the British Colony of Ceylon was granted independence as Ceylon. In 1972, the country became a republic within the Commonwealth, and its name was changed to Sri Lanka.
  2. Sri Lanka
    
    Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, and southeast of the Arabian Sea; it is separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. Sri Lanka shares a maritime border with India and the Maldives. Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is its legislative capital, and Colombo is its largest city and financial centre.
  3. Commonwealth of Nations
    
    The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Commonwealth Secretariat, which focuses on intergovernmental aspects, and the Commonwealth Foundation, which focuses on non-governmental relations amongst member states. Numerous organisations are associated with and operate within the Commonwealth.
1945
1. World War II: U.S. forces liberated the Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila, the largest Japanese internment camp in the Philippines.
  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. Santo Tomas Internment Camp
    
    Santo Tomas Internment Camp, also known as the Manila Internment Camp, was the largest of several camps in the Philippines in which the Japanese interned enemy civilians, mostly Americans, in World War II. The campus of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila was utilized for the camp, which housed more than 3,000 internees from January 1942 until February 1945. Conditions for the internees deteriorated during the war and by the time of the liberation of the camp by the U.S. Army many of the internees were near death from lack of food.
  3. List of Japanese-run internment camps during World War II
    
    This is an incomplete list of Japanese-run military prisoner-of-war and civilian internment and concentration camps during World War II. Some of these camps were for prisoners of war (POW) only. Some also held a mixture of POWs and civilian internees, while others held solely civilian internees.
2. World War II: Santo Tomas Internment Camp is liberated from Japanese authority.
  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. Santo Tomas Internment Camp
    
    Santo Tomas Internment Camp, also known as the Manila Internment Camp, was the largest of several camps in the Philippines in which the Japanese interned enemy civilians, mostly Americans, in World War II. The campus of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila was utilized for the camp, which housed more than 3,000 internees from January 1942 until February 1945. Conditions for the internees deteriorated during the war and by the time of the liberation of the camp by the U.S. Army many of the internees were near death from lack of food.
3. World War II: The Yalta Conference between the "Big Three" (Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin) opens at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea.
  1. Yalta Conference
    
    The Yalta Conference, also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the postwar reorganization of Germany and Europe. The three states were represented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and General Secretary Joseph Stalin, respectively. The conference was held near Yalta in Crimea, Soviet Union, within the Livadia, Yusupov, and Vorontsov palaces.
  2. Winston Churchill
    
    Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, he was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.
  3. Franklin D. Roosevelt
    
    Franklin Delano Roosevelt, often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the leader of the Democratic Party, he won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th century. Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. He built the New Deal Coalition, which defined modern liberalism in the United States throughout the middle third of the 20th century. His third and fourth terms were dominated by World War II, which ended in victory shortly after he died in office.
  4. Joseph Stalin
    
    Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–1952) and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (1941–1953). Initially governing the country as part of a collective leadership, he consolidated power to become a dictator by the 1930s. Ideologically adhering to the Leninist interpretation of Marxism, he formalised these ideas as Marxism–Leninism, while his own policies are called Stalinism.
  5. Livadia Palace
    
    Livadia Palace is a former summer retreat of the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II, and his family in Livadiya, Crimea. The Yalta Conference was held there in 1945, when the palace housed the apartments of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and other members of the American delegation – the Soviet delegation was housed in the Yusupov Palace, and the British in the Vorontsov Palace some five miles distant. Today the palace houses a museum, but it is sometimes used for international summits.
  6. Crimea
    
    Crimea is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea. It has a population of 2.4 million. The peninsula is almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukraine. To the east, the Crimean Bridge, constructed in 2018, spans the Strait of Kerch, linking the peninsula with Krasnodar Krai in Russia. The Arabat Spit, located to the northeast, is a narrow strip of land that separates the Sivash lagoons from the Sea of Azov. Across the Black Sea to the west lies Romania and to the south is Turkey.
4. World War II: The British Indian Army and Imperial Japanese Army begin a series of battles known as the Battle of Pokoku and Irrawaddy River operations.
  1. British Indian Army
    
    The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which could also have their own armies. As quoted in the Imperial Gazetteer of India, "The British Government has undertaken to protect the dominions of the Native princes from invasion and even from rebellion within: its army is organized for the defence not merely of British India, but of all possessions under the suzerainty of the King-Emperor." The Indian Army was an important part of the British Empire's forces, both in India and abroad, particularly during the First World War and the Second World War.
  2. Imperial Japanese Army
    
    The Imperial Japanese Army was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor of Japan as supreme commander of the army and the Imperial Japanese Navy. Later an Inspectorate General of Aviation became the third agency with oversight of the army. During wartime or national emergencies, the nominal command functions of the emperor would be centralized in an Imperial General Headquarters (IGHQ), an ad hoc body consisting of the chief and vice chief of the Army General Staff, the Minister of the Army, the chief and vice chief of the Naval General Staff, the Inspector General of Aviation, and the Inspector General of Military Training.
  3. Battle of Pokoku and Irrawaddy River operations
    
    The Battle of Pakokku and Irrawaddy River operations were a series of battles fought between the British Indian Army and the Imperial Japanese Army and allied forces over the successful Allied Burma campaign on the China Burma India Theater during World War II. The battles and operations were instrumental in facilitating the eventual capture of Rangoon in summer 1945.
1941
1. The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
  1. United Service Organizations
    
    The United Service Organizations Inc. (USO) is an American nonprofit-charitable corporation that provides live entertainment, such as comedians, actors and musicians, social facilities, and other programs to members of the United States Armed Forces and their families. Since 1941, it has worked in partnership with the Department of War, and later with the Department of Defense (DoD), relying heavily on private contributions and on funds, goods, and services from various corporate and individual donors. Although it is congressionally chartered, it is not a government agency.
1938
1. Adolf Hitler appoints himself as head of the Armed Forces High Command.
  1. Oberkommando der Wehrmacht
    
    The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht was the High Command of the armed forces of Nazi Germany. Created in 1938, the OKW replaced the Reich War Ministry and had oversight over the individual High Commands of the country's armed forces: the Army, the Navy, and the Air force.
1932
1. Second Sino-Japanese War: Harbin, Manchuria, falls to Japan.
  1. Second Sino-Japanese War
    
    The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Theater of the Second World War. The beginning of the war is conventionally dated to the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on 7 July 1937, when a dispute between Japanese and Chinese troops in Peking escalated into a full-scale invasion. Some Chinese historians believe that the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 18 September 1931 marks the start of the war. This full-scale war between the Chinese and the Empire of Japan is often regarded as the beginning of World War II in Asia.
  2. Harbin
    
    Harbin is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest city by metropolitan population in Northeast China. Harbin has direct jurisdiction over nine metropolitan districts, two county-level cities and seven counties, and is the eighth most populous Chinese city according to the 2020 census. The built-up area of Harbin had 5,841,929 inhabitants, while the total metropolitan population was up to 10,009,854, making it one of the 50 largest urban areas in the world.
  3. Manchuria
    
    Manchuria is an exonym for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China and parts of the Russian Far East. Its meaning may vary depending on the context:Historical polities and geographical regions usually referred to as Manchuria: The Later Jin (1616–1636), the Manchu-led dynasty which renamed itself from "Jin" to "Qing", and the ethnicity from "Jurchen" to "Manchu" in 1636 the subsequent duration of the Qing dynasty prior to its conquest of China proper (1644) the northeastern region of Qing dynasty China, the homeland of Manchus, known as "Guandong" or "Guanwai" during the Qing dynasty The region of Northeast Asia that served as the historical homeland of the Jurchens and later their descendants Manchus Qing control of Dauria was contested in 1643 when Russians entered; the ensuing Sino-Russian border conflicts ended when Russia agreed to withdraw in the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk controlled in whole by Qing Dynasty China until the Amur Annexation of Outer Manchuria by Russia in 1858-1860 controlled as a whole by the Russian Empire after the Russian invasion of Manchuria in 1900 until the Russo-Japanese War and the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905, which required Russian withdrawal. controlled by Qing China again, and reorganised in 1907 under the Viceroy of the Three Northeast Provinces controlled by the Republic of China (1912–1949) after the 1911 revolution controlled by the Fengtian clique lead by Zhang Zuolin from 1917-1928, until the military Northern Expedition and the Northeast Flag Replacement brought it under control the Republic of China (1912–1949) again controlled by Imperial Japan as the puppet state of Manchukuo, often translated as "Manchuria", (1932–1945). Formed after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, it included the entire Northeast China, the northern fringes of present-day Hebei Province, and the eastern part of Inner Mongolia. briefly entirely controlled by the USSR after the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in 1945, but then divided with China Modern Northeast China, specifically the three provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning, but broadly also including the eastern Inner Mongolian prefectures of Hulunbuir, Hinggan, Tongliao, and Chifeng, and sometimes Xilin Gol Areas of the modern Russian Federation also known as "Outer Northeast China" or "Outer Manchuria". The two areas involved are Priamurye between the Amur River and the Stanovoy Range to the north, and Primorye which runs down the coast from the Amur mouth to the Korean border, including the island of Sakhalin
  4. Defense of Harbin
    
    The Defense of Harbin occurred during the early Second Sino-Japanese War, as part of the campaign of the Invasion of Manchuria by forces of the Empire of Japan from 25 January to 4 February 1932.
  5. Empire of Japan
    
    The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent formation of modern Japan. It encompassed the Japanese archipelago and several colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories.
1899
1. The Philippine–American War began when an American soldier, under orders to keep insurgents away from his unit's encampment, fired on a Filipino soldier in Manila.
  1. Philippine–American War
    
    The Philippine–American War or the Filipino–American War, previously referred to as the Philippine Insurrection or the Tagalog Insurgency by the United States, was an armed conflict between the First Philippine Republic and the United States that started on February 4, 1899, and ended on July 2, 1902. The conflict arose in 1898 when the United States, rather than acknowledging the Philippines' declaration of independence, annexed the Philippines under the Treaty of Paris at the conclusion of the Spanish–American War. The war can be seen as a continuation of the Philippine struggle for independence that began in 1896 with the Philippine Revolution against Spanish rule.
  2. Battle of Manila (1899)
    
    The Battle of Manila, the first and largest battle of the Philippine–American War, was fought on February 4–5, 1899, between 19,000 American soldiers and 15,000 Filipino armed militiamen. Armed conflict broke out when American troops, under orders to turn away insurgents from their encampment, fired upon an encroaching group of Filipinos. Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo attempted to broker a ceasefire, but American General Elwell Stephen Otis rejected it and fighting escalated the next day. It ended in an American victory, although minor skirmishes continued for several days afterward.
2. The Philippine–American War begins with the Battle of Manila.
  1. Philippine–American War
    
    The Philippine–American War or the Filipino–American War, previously referred to as the Philippine Insurrection or the Tagalog Insurgency by the United States, was an armed conflict between the First Philippine Republic and the United States that started on February 4, 1899, and ended on July 2, 1902. The conflict arose in 1898 when the United States, rather than acknowledging the Philippines' declaration of independence, annexed the Philippines under the Treaty of Paris at the conclusion of the Spanish–American War. The war can be seen as a continuation of the Philippine struggle for independence that began in 1896 with the Philippine Revolution against Spanish rule.
  2. Battle of Manila (1899)
    
    The Battle of Manila, the first and largest battle of the Philippine–American War, was fought on February 4–5, 1899, between 19,000 American soldiers and 15,000 Filipino armed militiamen. Armed conflict broke out when American troops, under orders to turn away insurgents from their encampment, fired upon an encroaching group of Filipinos. Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo attempted to broker a ceasefire, but American General Elwell Stephen Otis rejected it and fighting escalated the next day. It ended in an American victory, although minor skirmishes continued for several days afterward.
1861
1. American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama, delegates from six breakaway U.S. states meet and initiate the process that would form the Confederate States of America on February 8
  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. Montgomery, Alabama
    
    Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 2020 Census, Montgomery's population was 200,603. It is the second most populous city in Alabama, after Huntsville, and is the 119th most populous in the United States. The Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area's population in 2020 was 386,047; it is the fourth largest in the state and 142nd among United States metropolitan areas.
  3. U.S. state
    
    In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sovereignty with the federal government. Due to this shared sovereignty, Americans are citizens both of the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons restricted by certain types of court orders.
  4. 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.
1859
1. Constantin von Tischendorf rediscovered the Codex Sinaiticus, a 4th-century great uncial codex of the Bible in Greek, in Saint Catherine's Monastery, Egypt.
  1. Constantin von Tischendorf
    
    Lobegott Friedrich Constantin (von) Tischendorf was a German biblical scholar. In 1844, he discovered the world's oldest and most complete Bible dated to around the mid-4th century and called Codex Sinaiticus after Saint Catherine's Monastery at Mount Sinai, where Tischendorf discovered it.
  2. Codex Sinaiticus
    
    The Codex Sinaiticus, designated by siglum א‎ [Aleph] or 01, δ 2, or "Sinai Bible". It is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old Testament, including the Apocrypha, and the Greek New Testament, with both the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas included. It is written in uncial letters on parchment. It is one of the four great uncial codices. Along with Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Vaticanus, it is one of the earliest and most complete manuscripts of the Bible, and contains the oldest complete copy of the New Testament. It is a historical treasure, and using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeography), it has been dated to the mid-4th century.
  3. Great uncial codices
    
    The great uncial codices or four great uncials are the only remaining uncial codices that contain the entire text of the Bible in Greek. They are the Codex Vaticanus in the Vatican Library, the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Alexandrinus in the British Library, and the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris.
  4. Saint Catherine's Monastery
    
    Saint Catherine's Monastery, officially the Sacred Autonomous Royal Monastery of Saint Katherine of the Holy and God-Trodden Mount Sinai, is an Eastern Orthodox monastery located on the Sinai Peninsula. It lies at the mouth of a gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai, near the town of Saint Catherine, in Egypt. The monastery is named after Catherine of Alexandria.
2. The Codex Sinaiticus is discovered in Egypt.
  1. Codex Sinaiticus
    
    The Codex Sinaiticus, designated by siglum א‎ [Aleph] or 01, δ 2, or "Sinai Bible". It is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old Testament, including the Apocrypha, and the Greek New Testament, with both the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas included. It is written in uncial letters on parchment. It is one of the four great uncial codices. Along with Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Vaticanus, it is one of the earliest and most complete manuscripts of the Bible, and contains the oldest complete copy of the New Testament. It is a historical treasure, and using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeography), it has been dated to the mid-4th century.
  2. Egypt
    
    Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip of Palestine and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. The Gulf of Aqaba in the northeast separates Egypt from Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt, while Alexandria, the second-largest city, is an important industrial and tourist hub at the Mediterranean coast. At approximately 100 million inhabitants, Egypt is the 14th-most populated country in the world.
1846
1. The first Mormon pioneers make their exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, westward towards Salt Lake Valley.
  1. Mormon pioneers
    
    The Mormon pioneers were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as Latter Day Saints, who migrated beginning in the mid-1840s until the late-1860s across the United States from the Midwest to the Salt Lake Valley in what is today the U.S. state of Utah. At the time of the planning of the exodus in 1846, the territory was part of the Republic of Mexico, with which the U.S. soon went to war over a border dispute left unresolved after the annexation of Texas. The Salt Lake Valley became American territory as a result of this war.
  2. Nauvoo, Illinois
    
    Nauvoo is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States, on the Mississippi River near Fort Madison, Iowa. The population of Nauvoo was 950 at the 2020 census. Nauvoo attracts visitors for its historic importance and its religious significance to members of several groups: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; the Community of Christ, formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS); other groups stemming from the Latter Day Saint movement; and the Icarians. The city and its immediate surrounding area are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Nauvoo Historic District.
  3. Salt Lake Valley
    
    Salt Lake Valley is a 500-square-mile (1,300 km2) valley in Salt Lake County in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Utah. It contains Salt Lake City and many of its suburbs, notably Murray, Sandy, South Jordan, West Jordan, and West Valley City; its total population is 1,029,655 as of 2010. Brigham Young said, "this is the right place," when he and his fellow Mormon settlers moved into Utah after being driven out of several states.
1825
1. The Ohio Legislature authorizes the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the Miami and Erie Canal.
  1. Ohio General Assembly
    
    The Ohio General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio. It consists of the 99-member Ohio House of Representatives and the 33-member Ohio Senate. Both houses of the General Assembly meet at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.
  2. Ohio and Erie Canal
    
    The Ohio and Erie Canal was a canal constructed during the 1820s and early 1830s in Ohio. It connected Akron with the Cuyahoga River near its outlet on Lake Erie in Cleveland, and a few years later, with the Ohio River near Portsmouth. It also had connections to other canal systems in Pennsylvania.
  3. Miami and Erie Canal
    
    The Miami and Erie Canal was a 274-mile (441 km) canal that ran from Cincinnati to Toledo, Ohio, creating a water route between the Ohio River and Lake Erie. Construction on the canal began in 1825 and was completed in 1845 at a cost to the state government of $8,062,680.07. At its peak, it included 19 aqueducts, three guard locks, 103 canal locks, multiple feeder canals, and a few man-made water reservoirs. The canal climbed 395 feet (120 m) above Lake Erie and 513 feet (156 m) above the Ohio River to reach a topographical peak called the Loramie Summit, which extended 19 miles (31 km) between New Bremen, Ohio to lock 1-S in Lockington, north of Piqua, Ohio. Boats up to 80 feet long were towed along the canal by mules, horses, or oxen walking on a prepared towpath along the bank, at a rate of four to five miles per hour.
1820
1. Chilean War of Independence: Chilean forces captured the city of Valdivia and its harbour, depriving the Spanish Empire of an important naval base.
  1. Chilean War of Independence
    
    The Chilean War of Independence was a military and political event that allowed the emancipation of Chile from the Spanish Monarchy, ending the colonial period and initiating the formation of an independent republic.
  2. Capture of Valdivia
    
    The Capture of Valdivia was a battle in the Chilean War of Independence between Royalist forces commanded by Colonel Manuel Montoya and Fausto del Hoyo and the Patriot forces under the command of Thomas Cochrane and Jorge Beauchef, held on 3 and 4 February 1820. The battle was fought over the control of the city Valdivia and its strategic and heavily fortified harbour. In the battle Patriots gained control of the southwestern part of the Valdivian Fort System after an audacious assault aided by deception and the darkness of the night. The following day the demoralised Spanish evacuated the remaining forts, looted local Patriot property in Valdivia and withdrew to Osorno and Chiloé. Thereafter, Patriot mobs looted the property of local Royalists until the Patriot army arrived to the city restoring order.
  3. Spanish Empire
    
    The Spanish Empire, also known as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predecessor states between 1492 and 1976. One of the largest empires in history, it was, in conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, the first to usher the European Age of Discovery and achieve a global scale, controlling vast portions of the Americas, territories in Western Europe, Africa, and various islands in Oceania and Asia. It was one of the most powerful empires of the early modern period, becoming the first empire known as "the empire on which the sun never sets", and reached its maximum extent in the 18th century.
2. The Chilean Navy under the command of Lord Cochrane completes the two-day long Capture of Valdivia with just 300 men and two ships.
  1. Chilean Navy
    
    The Chilean Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the Chilean Armed Forces. It is under the Ministry of National Defense. Its headquarters are at Edificio Armada de Chile, Valparaiso.
  2. Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald
    
    Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, Marquess of Maranhão, styled Lord Cochrane between 1778 and 1831, was a British naval flag officer of the Royal Navy, mercenary and Radical politician. He was a successful captain of the Napoleonic Wars, leading Napoleon to nickname him le Loup des Mers, 'the Sea Wolf'. He was successful in virtually all of his naval actions.
  3. Capture of Valdivia
    
    The Capture of Valdivia was a battle in the Chilean War of Independence between Royalist forces commanded by Colonel Manuel Montoya and Fausto del Hoyo and the Patriot forces under the command of Thomas Cochrane and Jorge Beauchef, held on 3 and 4 February 1820. The battle was fought over the control of the city Valdivia and its strategic and heavily fortified harbour. In the battle Patriots gained control of the southwestern part of the Valdivian Fort System after an audacious assault aided by deception and the darkness of the night. The following day the demoralised Spanish evacuated the remaining forts, looted local Patriot property in Valdivia and withdrew to Osorno and Chiloé. Thereafter, Patriot mobs looted the property of local Royalists until the Patriot army arrived to the city restoring order.
1810
1. Napoleonic Wars: Britain seizes Guadeloupe.
  1. Invasion of Guadeloupe (1810)
    
    The Invasion of Guadeloupe was a British amphibious operation fought between 28 January and 6 February 1810 over control of the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe during the Napoleonic Wars. The island was the final remaining French colony in the Americas, following the systematic invasion and capture of the others during 1809 by British forces. During the Napoleonic Wars, the French colonies had provided protected harbours for French privateers and warships, which could prey on the numerous British trade routes in the Caribbean and then return to the colonies before British warships could react. In response, the British instituted a blockade of the islands, stationing ships off every port and seizing any vessel that tried to enter or leave. With trade and communication made dangerous by the British blockade squadrons, the economies and morale of the French colonies began to collapse, and in the summer of 1808 desperate messages were sent to France requesting help.
1801
1. John Marshall, whose court opinions helped lay the basis for U.S. constitutional law and made the Supreme Court a coequal branch of government, took office as chief justice.
  1. John Marshall
    
    John Marshall was an American politician and lawyer who served as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 until his death in 1835. He remains the longest-serving chief justice and fourth-longest serving justice in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential justices ever to serve. Prior to joining the Court, Marshall served as the fourth U.S. Secretary of State under President John Adams.
  2. Constitutional law of the United States
    
    The constitutional law of the United States is the body of law governing the interpretation and implementation of the United States Constitution. The subject concerns the scope of power of the United States federal government compared to the individual states and the fundamental rights of individuals. The ultimate authority upon the interpretation of the Constitution and the constitutionality of statutes, state and federal, lies with the Supreme Court of the United States.
  3. 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.
  4. Separation of powers under the United States Constitution
    
    Separation of powers is a political doctrine originating in the writings of Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu in The Spirit of the Laws, in which he argued for a constitutional government with three separate branches, each of which would have defined abilities to check the powers of the others. This philosophy heavily influenced the drafting of the United States Constitution, according to which the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches of the United States government are kept distinct in order to prevent abuse of power. The American form of separation of powers is associated with a system of checks and balances.
  5. Chief Justice of the United States
    
    The chief justice of the United States is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States and the highest-ranking officer of the U.S. federal judiciary. Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution grants plenary power to the president of the United States to nominate, and with the advice and consent of the United States Senate, appoint "Judges of the supreme Court", who serve until they resign, retire, are impeached and convicted, or die. The existence of a chief justice is explicit in Article One, Section 3, Clause 6 which states that the chief justice shall preside on the impeachment trial of the president.
2. John Marshall is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States.
  1. John Marshall
    
    John Marshall was an American politician and lawyer who served as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 until his death in 1835. He remains the longest-serving chief justice and fourth-longest serving justice in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential justices ever to serve. Prior to joining the Court, Marshall served as the fourth U.S. Secretary of State under President John Adams.
  2. Chief Justice of the United States
    
    The chief justice of the United States is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States and the highest-ranking officer of the U.S. federal judiciary. Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution grants plenary power to the president of the United States to nominate, and with the advice and consent of the United States Senate, appoint "Judges of the supreme Court", who serve until they resign, retire, are impeached and convicted, or die. The existence of a chief justice is explicit in Article One, Section 3, Clause 6 which states that the chief justice shall preside on the impeachment trial of the president.
1797
1. The Riobamba earthquake, the most powerful in Ecuador's history, devastated Riobamba and many other cities, causing at least 6,000 casualties.
  1. 1797 Riobamba earthquake
    
    The 1797 Riobamba earthquake occurred at 12:30 UTC on 4 February. It devastated the city of Riobamba and many other cities in the Interandean valley, causing between 6,000–40,000 casualties. It is estimated that seismic intensities in the epicentral area reached at least XI (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale, and that the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.6–8.3, the most powerful historical event known in Ecuador. The earthquake was studied by Prussian geographer Alexander von Humboldt, when he visited the area in 1801–1802.
  2. Riobamba
    
    Riobamba is the capital of Chimborazo Province in central Ecuador, and is located in the Chambo River Valley of the Andes. It is 200 km (120 mi) south of Ecuador's capital Quito and located at an elevation of 2,754 m.
2. The Riobamba earthquake strikes Ecuador, causing up to 40,000 casualties.
  1. 1797 Riobamba earthquake
    
    The 1797 Riobamba earthquake occurred at 12:30 UTC on 4 February. It devastated the city of Riobamba and many other cities in the Interandean valley, causing between 6,000–40,000 casualties. It is estimated that seismic intensities in the epicentral area reached at least XI (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale, and that the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.6–8.3, the most powerful historical event known in Ecuador. The earthquake was studied by Prussian geographer Alexander von Humboldt, when he visited the area in 1801–1802.
  2. 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.
1794
1. The French legislature abolishes slavery throughout all territories of the French First Republic. It would be reestablished in the French West Indies in 1802.
  1. Slavery
    
    Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave, who is someone forbidden to quit their service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as their property. Slavery typically involves the enslaved person being made to perform some form of work while also having their location or residence dictated by the enslaver. Many historical cases of enslavement occurred when the enslaved broke the law, became indebted, or suffered a military defeat; other forms of slavery were instituted along demographic lines such as race. The duration of a person's enslavement might be for life, or for a fixed period of time, after which freedom would be granted. Although most forms of slavery are explicitly involuntary and involve the coercion of the enslaved, there also exists voluntary slavery, entered into by the enslaved to pay a debt or obtain money because of poverty. In the course of human history, slavery was a typical feature of civilization, legal in most societies, but it is now outlawed in most countries of the world, except as a punishment for a crime.
  2. French First Republic
    
    In the history of France, the First Republic, sometimes referred to in historiography as Revolutionary France, and officially the French Republic, was founded on 21 September 1792 during the French Revolution. The First Republic lasted until the declaration of the First Empire on 18 May 1804 under Napoléon Bonaparte, although the form of the government changed several times.
  3. French West Indies
    
    The term French West Indies or French Antilles refers to the parts of France located in the Antilles islands of the Caribbean:The two overseas departments of: Guadeloupe, including the islands of Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Les Saintes, Marie-Galante, and La Désirade. Martinique The two overseas collectivities of: Saint Martin, the northern half of the island with the same name, the southern half is Sint Maarten, a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Saint Barthélemy
1789
1. George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.
  1. George Washington
    
    George Washington was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of the Continental Army, Washington led the Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War and served as the president of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which created the Constitution of the United States and the American federal government. Washington has been called the "Father of his Country" for his manifold leadership in the formative days of the country.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
1758
1. The city of Macapá in Brazil is founded by Sebastião Veiga Cabral.
  1. Macapá
    
    Macapá is a city in Brazil with a population of 512,902. It is the capital of Amapá state in the country's North Region. It is located on the northern channel of the Amazon River near its mouth on the Atlantic Ocean. The city is on a small plateau on the Amazon in the southeast of the state of Amapá. The only access by road from outside the province is from the overseas French department of French Guiana, although there are regular ferries to Belem, Brazil. Macapá is linked by road with some other cities in Amapá. The equator runs through the middle of the city, leading residents to refer to Macapá as "The capital of the middle of the world." It covers 6,407.12 square kilometres (2,473.80 sq mi) and is located northwest of the large inland island of Marajó and south of the border with French Guiana.
1703
1. In Edo (now Tokyo), all but one of the Forty-seven Ronin commit seppuku (ritual suicide) as recompense for avenging their master's death.
  1. Edo
    
    Edo, also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo.
  2. Forty-seven rōnin
    
    The revenge of the forty-seven rōnin , also known as the Akō incident or Akō vendetta, is a historical 18th-century event in Japan in which a band of rōnin avenged the death of their master. The incident has since become legendary. It is one of the three major adauchi vendetta incidents in Japan, alongside the Revenge of the Soga Brothers and the Igagoe vendetta.
  3. Seppuku
    
    Seppuku , sometimes referred to as 'the only way to commit ritual suicide', is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese people during the Shōwa period to restore honour for themselves or for their families. As a samurai practice, seppuku was used voluntarily by samurai to die with honour rather than fall into the hands of their enemies, as a form of capital punishment for samurai who had committed serious offences, or performed because they had brought shame to themselves. The ceremonial disembowelment, which is usually part of a more elaborate ritual and performed in front of spectators, consists of plunging a short blade, traditionally a tantō, into the belly and drawing the blade from left to right, slicing the belly open. If the cut is deep enough, it can sever the abdominal aorta, causing a rapid death by blood loss.
1555
1. John Rogers is burned at the stake, becoming the first English Protestant martyr under Mary I of England.
  1. John Rogers (Bible editor and martyr)
    
    John Rogers was an English clergyman, Bible translator and commentator. He guided the development of the Matthew Bible in vernacular English during the reign of Henry VIII and was the first English Protestant executed as a heretic under Mary I of England, who was determined to restore Roman Catholicism.
  2. Death by burning
    
    Death by burning is an execution and murder method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment, and many societies have employed it as a punishment for and warning against crimes such as treason, heresy, and witchcraft. The best-known execution of this type is burning at the stake, where the condemned is bound to a large wooden stake and a fire lit beneath.
  3. Protestantism
    
    Protestantism is a form of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation: a movement within Western Christianity that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to be errors, abuses, innovations, discrepancies, and theological novums developing within the Catholic Church.
  4. Martyr
    
    A martyr is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In the martyrdom narrative of the remembering community, this refusal to comply with the presented demands results in the punishment or execution of an actor by an alleged oppressor. Accordingly, the status of the 'martyr' can be considered a posthumous title as a reward for those who are considered worthy of the concept of martyrdom by the living, regardless of any attempts by the deceased to control how they will be remembered in advance. Insofar, the martyr is a relational figure of a society's boundary work that is produced by collective memory. Originally applied only to those who suffered for their religious beliefs, the term has come to be used in connection with people killed for a political cause.
  5. Mary I of England
    
    Mary I, also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death in 1558. She is best known for her vigorous attempt to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, Henry VIII. Her attempt to restore to the Church the property confiscated in the previous two reigns was largely thwarted by Parliament, but during her five-year reign, Mary had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions.
1454
1. Thirteen Years' War: The Secret Council of the Prussian Confederation sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, sparking the Thirteen Years' War.
  1. Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466)
    
    The Thirteen Years' War, also called the War of the Cities, was a conflict fought in 1454–1466 between the Prussian Confederation, allied with the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, and the State of the Teutonic Order.
  2. Prussian Confederation
    
    The Prussian Confederation was an organization formed on 21 February 1440 at Kwidzyn by a group of 53 nobles and clergy and 19 cities in Prussia, to oppose the arbitrariness of the Teutonic Knights. It was based on an earlier similar organization, the Lizard Union established in 1397 by the nobles of Chełmno Land.
  3. Grand Master of the Teutonic Order
    
    The Grand Master of the Teutonic Order is the supreme head of the Teutonic Order. It is equivalent to the grand master of other military orders and the superior general in non-military Roman Catholic religious orders. Hochmeister, literally "high master", is only used in reference to the Teutonic Order, as Großmeister is used in German to refer to the leaders of other orders of knighthood.
  4. 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.
1169
1. A strong earthquake struck the eastern coast of Sicily, causing at least 15,000 deaths.
  1. 1169 Sicily earthquake
    
    The 1169 Sicily earthquake occurred on 4 February 1169 at 08:00 local time on the eve of the feast of St. Agatha of Sicily. It had an estimated magnitude of between 6.4 and 7.3 and an estimated maximum perceived intensity of X (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale. The cities of Catania, Lentini and Modica were severely damaged, and the earthquake also triggered a tsunami. Overall, the earthquake is estimated to have caused the deaths of at least 15,000 people.
  2. Sicily
    
    Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 20 regions of Italy. The Strait of Messina divides it from the region of Calabria in Southern Italy. It is one of the five Italian autonomous regions and is officially referred to as Regione Siciliana. The region has 5 million inhabitants. Its capital city is Palermo.
2. A strong earthquake strikes the Ionian coast of Sicily, causing tens of thousands of injuries and deaths, especially in Catania.
  1. 1169 Sicily earthquake
    
    The 1169 Sicily earthquake occurred on 4 February 1169 at 08:00 local time on the eve of the feast of St. Agatha of Sicily. It had an estimated magnitude of between 6.4 and 7.3 and an estimated maximum perceived intensity of X (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale. The cities of Catania, Lentini and Modica were severely damaged, and the earthquake also triggered a tsunami. Overall, the earthquake is estimated to have caused the deaths of at least 15,000 people.
  2. Catania
    
    Catania is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by the presence of important road and rail transport infrastructures as well as by the main airport in Sicily, fifth in Italy. It is located on Sicily's east coast, at the base of the active volcano, Mount Etna, and it faces the Ionian Sea. It is the capital of the 58-municipality region known as the Metropolitan City of Catania, which is the seventh-largest metropolitan city in Italy. The population of the city proper is 311,584, while the population of the Metropolitan City of Catania is 1,107,702.
960
1. Emperor Taizu (pictured) came to power, initiating the Song dynasty of China that eventually lasted for more than three centuries.
  1. Emperor Taizu of Song
    
    Emperor Taizu of Song, personal name Zhao Kuangyin, courtesy name Yuanlang, was the founder and first emperor of the Song dynasty of China. He reigned from 960 until his death in 976. Formerly a distinguished military general of the Later Zhou dynasty, Emperor Taizu came to power after staging a coup d'état and forcing Emperor Gong, the last Later Zhou ruler, to abdicate the throne in his favour.
  2. Song dynasty
    
    The Song dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest of the Ten Kingdoms, ending the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The Song often came into conflict with the contemporaneous Liao, Western Xia and Jin dynasties in northern China. After retreating to southern China, the Song was eventually conquered by the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty.
2. The coronation of Zhao Kuangyin as Emperor Taizu of Song, initiating the Song dynasty period of China that would last more than three centuries.
  1. Emperor Taizu of Song
    
    Emperor Taizu of Song, personal name Zhao Kuangyin, courtesy name Yuanlang, was the founder and first emperor of the Song dynasty of China. He reigned from 960 until his death in 976. Formerly a distinguished military general of the Later Zhou dynasty, Emperor Taizu came to power after staging a coup d'état and forcing Emperor Gong, the last Later Zhou ruler, to abdicate the throne in his favour.
  2. Song dynasty
    
    The Song dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest of the Ten Kingdoms, ending the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The Song often came into conflict with the contemporaneous Liao, Western Xia and Jin dynasties in northern China. After retreating to southern China, the Song was eventually conquered by the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty.
211
1. Following the death of the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus at Eboracum (modern York, England) while preparing to lead a campaign against the Caledonians, the empire is left in the control of his two quarrelling sons, Caracalla and Geta, whom he had instructed to make peace.
  1. Septimius Severus
    
    Lucius Septimius Severus was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succession of offices under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Severus seized power after the death of the emperor Pertinax in 193 during the Year of the Five Emperors.
  2. Caledonians
    
    The Caledonians or the Caledonian Confederacy were a Brittonic-speaking (Celtic) tribal confederacy in what is now Scotland during the Iron Age and Roman eras. The Greek form of the tribal name gave rise to the name Caledonia for their territory. The Caledonians were considered to be a group of Britons, but later, after the Roman conquest of the southern half of Britain, the northern inhabitants were distinguished as Picts, thought to be a related people who would have also spoken a Brittonic language. The Caledonian Britons were thus enemies of the Roman Empire, which was the state then administering most of Great Britain as the Roman province of Britannia.
  3. Caracalla
    
    Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, better known by his nickname "Caracalla" was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. He was a member of the Severan dynasty, the elder son of Emperor Septimius Severus and Empress Julia Domna. Proclaimed co-ruler by his father in 198, he reigned jointly with his brother Geta, co-emperor from 209, after their father's death in 211. His brother was murdered by the Praetorian Guard later that year, under orders from Caracalla himself, who then reigned afterwards as sole ruler of the Roman Empire. Caracalla found administration to be mundane, leaving those responsibilities to his mother. Caracalla's reign featured domestic instability and external invasions by the Germanic peoples.
  4. Geta (emperor)
    
    Publius Septimius Geta was Roman emperor with his father Septimius Severus and older brother Caracalla from 209, when he was named Augustus like his brother, who had held the title from 198. Severus died in 211, and although he intended for his sons to rule together, they proved incapable of sharing power, culminating with the murder of Geta in December of that year.

Births & Deaths

2020
1. Daniel arap Moi, Former President of Kenya (b. 1924) deaths
  1. Daniel arap Moi
    
    Daniel Toroitich arap Moi was a Kenyan politician who served as the second president of Kenya from 1978 to 2002. He was the country's longest-serving president. Moi previously served as the third vice president of Kenya from 1967 to 1978 under President Jomo Kenyatta, becoming president following the latter's death.
  2. President of Kenya
    
    The president of the Republic of Kenya is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Kenya. The President is also the head of the executive branch of the Government of Kenya and is the commander-in-chief of the Kenya Defence Forces.
2019
1. Matti Nykänen, Finnish Olympic-winning ski jumper and singer (b. 1963) deaths
  1. Matti Nykänen
    
    Matti Ensio Nykänen was a Finnish ski jumper who competed from 1981 to 1991. Widely considered to be the greatest male ski jumper of all time, he won five Winter Olympic medals, nine World Championship medals, and 22 Finnish Championship medals. Most notably, he won three gold medals at the 1988 Winter Olympics, becoming, along with Yvonne van Gennip of the Netherlands, the most medaled athlete that winter.
2018
1. John Mahoney, English-American actor, voice artist, and comedian (b. 1940) deaths
  1. John Mahoney
    
    Charles John Mahoney was an English-born American actor. He was known for playing Martin Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier (1993–2004), and won a Screen Actors Guild Award for the role in 2000. Mahoney started his career in Chicago as a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company alongside John Malkovich, Gary Sinise, and Laurie Metcalf. He received the Clarence Derwent Award as Most Promising Male Newcomer in 1986. Later that year, his performance in the Broadway revival of John Guare's The House of Blue Leaves earned him a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.
2017
1. Steve Lang, Canadian bass player (b. 1949) deaths
  1. Steve Lang
    
    Stephen Keith Lang was a Canadian bassist best known for his time and work with the rock band April Wine from 1976 to 1984 during the band's most successful years.
2. Bano Qudsia, Pakistani writer (b. 1928) deaths
  1. Bano Qudsia
    
    Bano Qudsia, also known as Bano Aapa, was a Pakistani novelist, playwright and spiritualist. She wrote literature in Urdu, producing novels, dramas plays and short stories. Qudsia is best recognized for her novel Raja Gidh. Qudsia also wrote for television and stage in both Urdu and Punjabi languages. Her play Aadhi Baat has been called "a classic play". Bano Qudsia died in Lahore on 4 February 2017.
2016
1. Edgar Mitchell, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1930) deaths
  1. Edgar Mitchell
    
    Edgar Dean Mitchell was a United States Navy officer and aviator, test pilot, aeronautical engineer, ufologist and NASA astronaut. As the Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 14 in 1971 he spent nine hours working on the lunar surface in the Fra Mauro Highlands region, and was the sixth person to walk on the Moon.
2015
1. Fitzhugh L. Fulton, American colonel and pilot (b. 1925) deaths
  1. Fitzhugh L. Fulton
    
    Fitzhugh L. "Fitz" Fulton, Jr., , was a civilian research pilot at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, from August 1, 1966, until July 3, 1986, following 23 years of distinguished service as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force.
2014
1. Keith Allen, Canadian-American ice hockey player, coach, and manager (b. 1923) deaths
  1. Keith Allen (ice hockey)
    
    Courtney Keith "Bingo" Allen was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman and National Hockey League (NHL) head coach and general manager. He was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He played 28 games in the NHL for the Detroit Red Wings during the 1953–54 and 1954–55 seasons, though the rest of his career, which lasted from 1941 to 1957, was spent in various minor leagues. After his playing career he turned to coaching and managing, first in the minor Western Hockey League before returning to the NHL in 1967 as the first coach and general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers. He coach the Flyers' from 1967 to 1969, and stayed as manager until 1983. He was the executive vice-president of the Philadelphia Flyers, a position he held from 1980 for the rest of his life.
2. Eugenio Corti, Italian soldier, author, and playwright (b. 1921) deaths
  1. Eugenio Corti
    
    Eugenio Corti was an Italian writer born in Besana in Brianza. After participating in the Italian retreat from Russia in World War II, and a period of recovery, he joined the regular Italian army in southern Italia, to fight the German along with the Allies. Based on these experiences, he wrote Few Returned and The Last Soldiers of the King. His seminal work, however, is The Red Horse, a 1000-page novel again based on his experiences and those of his fellow Italians during and after the Second World War. It was voted the best book of the 1980s in a public survey in Italy and has been translated into eight languages, including Japanese. It has had thirty-four editions since it was first published in May 1983.
3. Dennis Lota, Zambian footballer (b. 1973) deaths
  1. Dennis Lota
    
    Dennis Lota was a Zambian football striker.
2013
1. Donald Byrd, American trumpet player (b. 1932) deaths
  1. Donald Byrd
    
    Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II was an American jazz and rhythm & blues trumpeter and vocalist. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was one of the few hard bop musicians who successfully explored funk and soul while remaining a jazz artist. As a bandleader, Byrd was an influence on the early career of Herbie Hancock.
2. Reg Presley, English singer-songwriter (b. 1941) deaths
  1. Reg Presley
    
    Reginald Maurice Ball, known professionally as Reg Presley, was an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer with the 1960s rock and roll band the Troggs, whose hits included "Wild Thing" and "With a Girl Like You". He wrote the song "Love Is All Around", which was featured in the films Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually.
2012
1. István Csurka, Hungarian journalist and politician (b. 1934) deaths
  1. István Csurka
    
    István Csurka was a Hungarian nationalist politician, journalist and writer. He was the founder and inaugural leader of the Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIÉP) from 1993 until his death. He was also a Member of Parliament from 1990 to 1994 and from 1998 to 2002.
2. Florence Green, English soldier (b. 1901) deaths
  1. Florence Green
    
    Florence Beatrice Green was an English woman who at the time of her death was thought to have been the last surviving veteran of the First World War from any country. She was a member of the Women's Royal Air Force.
3. Robert Daniel, American farmer, soldier, and politician (b. 1936) deaths
  1. Robert Daniel
    
    Robert Williams Daniel, Jr. was an American farmer, businessman, teacher, and politician from Virginia who served five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican. He was first elected in 1972 and served until 1983.
4. Mike deGruy, American director, producer, and cinematographer (b. 1951) deaths
  1. Mike deGruy
    
    Mike deGruy was an American documentary filmmaker specialising in underwater cinematography. His credits include Life in the Freezer, Trials of Life, The Blue Planet and Pacific Abyss. He was also known for his storytelling, including a passionate TED talk about his love of the ocean on the Mission Blue Voyage. His company, Film Crew Inc., specialized in underwater cinematography, filming for BBC, PBS, National Geographic, and The Discovery Channel. His notable accomplishments include diving beneath thermal vents in both the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean. He was a member of many deep sea expeditions and was a part of the team that first filmed the vampire squid and the nautilus.
2011
1. Martial Célestin, Haitian lawyer and politician, first Prime Minister of Haiti (b. 1913) deaths
  1. Martial Célestin
    
    Martial Lavaud Célestin was named Prime Minister of Haïti by President Leslie Manigat in February 1988 under the provisions of the 1987 Constitution, and was approved by the Parliament that formed as a result of the January 17, 1988 elections. He was deposed by the coup that took place on June 20. He was born in Ganthier and was a lawyer by profession. Célestin died on February 4, 2011 at the age of 97.
  2. Prime Minister of Haiti
    
    The prime minister of Haiti is the head of government of Haiti. The office was created under the 1987 Constitution; previously, all executive power was held by the president or head of state, who appointed and chaired the Council of Ministers. The current prime minister of Haiti is Ariel Henry, who was sworn into office on 20 July 2021.
2010
1. Kostas Axelos, Greek-French philosopher and author (b. 1924) deaths
  1. Kostas Axelos
    
    Kostas Axelos was a Greek-French philosopher.
2. Helen Tobias-Duesberg, Estonian-American composer (b. 1919) deaths
  1. Helen Tobias-Duesberg
    
    Helen Tobias-Duesberg was an Estonian-American composer.
2008
1. Augusta Dabney, American actress (b. 1918) deaths
  1. Augusta Dabney
    
    Augusta Keith Dabney was an American actress known for her roles on many soap operas, such as the wealthy but kindly matriarch Isabelle Alden on the daytime series Loving. She played the role from 1983 to 1987, from 1988 to 1991, and again from 1994 to 1995.
2. Stefan Meller, Polish academic and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland (b. 1942) deaths
  1. Stefan Meller
    
    Stefan Meller (listen) was a Polish diplomat and academician. He served as foreign minister of Poland from 31 October 2005, to 9 May 2006, in the cabinet of Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz.
  2. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Poland)
    
    The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the Polish government department tasked with maintaining Poland's international relations and coordinating its participation in international and regional supra-national political organisations such as the European Union and United Nations. The head of the ministry holds a place in the Council of Ministers.
2007
1. José Carlos Bauer, Brazilian footballer and manager (b. 1925) deaths
  1. Bauer (footballer)
    
    José Carlos Bauer, commonly known as Bauer, was a Brazilian football player and manager.
2. Ilya Kormiltsev, Russian-English poet and translator (b. 1959) deaths
  1. Ilya Kormiltsev
    
    Ilya Valeryevich Kormiltsev was a Russian poet, translator, and publisher. Kormiltsev is most famous for working during the 1980s and the 1990s as a songwriter in Nautilus Pompilius, one of the most popular rock bands in the Soviet Union and, later, Russia. He was also a prominent literary translator and publisher. Since 1997, he translated into Russian many important pieces of modern prose, such as Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club, or Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. In 2003, he established Ultra.Kultura publishing house, which immediately gained a scandalous reputation and was closed by the authorities in 2007. Through its brief history, Ultra.Kultura published numerous counter-culture books in a wide range from ultra-right to radical left authors.
3. Barbara McNair, American singer and actress (b. 1934) deaths
  1. Barbara McNair
    
    Barbara Jean McNair (March 4, 1934 – February 4, 2007) was an American singer and theater, television, and film actress. McNair's career spanned over five decades in television, film, and stage. McNair's professional career began in music during the late 1950s, singing in the nightclub circuit. In 1958, McNair released her debut single "Till There Was You" from Coral Records which was a commercial success. McNair performed all across the world, touring with Nat King Cole and later appearing in his Broadway stage shows I'm with You and The Merry World of Nat King Cole in the early 1960s.
4. Jules Olitski, Ukrainian-American painter and sculptor (b. 1922) deaths
  1. Jules Olitski
    
    Jevel Demikovski, known professionally as Jules Olitski, was an American painter, printmaker, and sculptor.
5. Alfred Worm, Austrian journalist, author, and academic (b. 1945) deaths
  1. Alfred Worm
    
    Alfred Worm was an Austrian journalist, author and university professor.
2006
1. Betty Friedan, American author and activist (b. 1921) deaths
  1. Betty Friedan
    
    Betty Friedan was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking the second wave of American feminism in the 20th century. In 1966, Friedan co-founded and was elected the first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), which aimed to bring women "into the mainstream of American society now [in] fully equal partnership with men".
2005
1. Ossie Davis, American actor, director, and playwright (b. 1917) deaths
  1. Ossie Davis
    
    Raiford Chatman "Ossie" Davis was an American actor, director, writer, and activist. He was married to Ruby Dee, with whom he frequently performed, until his death. He and his wife were named to the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame; were awarded the National Medal of Arts and were recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1994.
2003
1. Benyoucef Benkhedda, Algerian pharmacist and politician (b. 1920) deaths
  1. Benyoucef Benkhedda
    
    Benyoucef Benkhedda was an Algerian politician. He headed the third GPRA exile government of the National Liberation Front (FLN), acting as a leader during the Algerian War (1954–62). At the end of the war, he was briefly the de jure leader of the country, however he was quickly sidelined by more conservative figures.
2002
1. Count Sigvard Bernadotte of Wisborg (b. 1907) deaths
  1. Sigvard Bernadotte
    
    Sigvard Oscar Fredrik, Prince Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg born as, and until 1934 known as, Prince Sigvard of Sweden, Duke of Uppland, was a member of the Swedish Royal Family and a successful industrial designer by profession.
2000
1. Carl Albert, American lawyer and politician, 54th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1908) deaths
  1. Carl Albert
    
    Carl Bert Albert was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 46th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1971 to 1977 and represented Oklahoma's 3rd congressional district as a Democrat from 1947 to 1977.
  2. Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
    
    The speaker of the United States House of Representatives, commonly known as the speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The office was established in 1789 by Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. The speaker is the political and parliamentary leader of the House and is simultaneously its presiding officer, de facto leader of the body's majority party, and the institution's administrative head. Speakers also perform various other administrative and procedural functions. Given these several roles and responsibilities, the speaker usually does not personally preside over debates. That duty is instead delegated to members of the House from the majority party. Nor does the speaker regularly participate in floor debates.
1998
1. Maximilian Wöber, Austrian footballer births
  1. Maximilian Wöber
    
    Maximilian Wöber is an Austrian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Austrian Bundesliga club Red Bull Salzburg and the Austria national team.
1995
1. Patricia Highsmith, American novelist and short story writer (b. 1921) deaths
  1. Patricia Highsmith
    
    Patricia Highsmith was an American novelist and short story writer widely known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley.
1992
1. John Dehner, American actor (b. 1915) deaths
  1. John Dehner
    
    John Dehner (DAY-ner) was an American stage, radio, film, and television actor. From the late 1930s to the late 1980s, he amassed a long list of performance credits, often in roles as sophisticated con men, shady authority figures, and other smooth-talking villains. His credits just in feature films, televised series, and in made-for-TV movies number almost 300 productions. Dehner worked extensively as an actor radio during the latter half of that medium's "golden age", accumulating hundreds of additional credits on nationally broadcast series. His most notable starring role was as Paladin on the radio version of the television Western Have Gun – Will Travel, which aired for 106 episodes on CBS from 1958 to 1960. He continued to work as a voice actor in film, such as narrating the film The Hallelujah Trail. Earlier in his career, Dehner also worked briefly for Walt Disney Studios, serving as an assistant animator from 1940 to March 1941 at the company's facilities in Burbank, California.
1990
1. Whipper Billy Watson, Canadian-American wrestler and trainer (b. 1915) deaths
  1. Whipper Billy Watson
    
    William John Potts, was a Canadian professional wrestler best known by his ring name "Whipper" Billy Watson. He was a two-time world champion, having held both the National Wrestling Association title and the National Wrestling Alliance title.
1988
1. Carly Patterson, American gymnast and singer births
  1. Carly Patterson
    
    Carly Rae Patterson is an American singer, songwriter and former artistic gymnast. She was the all-around champion at the 2004 Olympics, the first all-around champion for the United States at a non-boycotted Olympics, and is a member of the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame.
1987
1. Darren O'Dea, Irish footballer births
  1. Darren O'Dea
    
    Darren O'Dea is an Irish retired professional football player, who is currently the coach of Celtic B team. O'Dea has played as a centre back for clubs in Scotland, England, Canada, Ukraine and India, and represented the Republic of Ireland internationally.
2. Lucie Šafářová, Czech tennis player births
  1. Lucie Šafářová
    
    Lucie Šafářová is a Czech former professional tennis player who was ranked world No. 1 in doubles, and No. 5 in singles.
3. Liberace, American singer-songwriter and pianist, (b. 1919) deaths
  1. Liberace
    
    Władziu Valentino Liberace was an American pianist, singer, and actor. A child prodigy born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin, he enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordings, television, motion pictures, and endorsements. At the height of his fame from the 1950s to 1970s, he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world with established concert residencies in Las Vegas and an international touring schedule. He embraced a lifestyle of flamboyant excess both on and off stage.
4. Meena Keshwar Kamal, Afghan activist, founded the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (b. 1956) deaths
  1. Meena Keshwar Kamal
    
    Meena Keshwar Kamal, commonly known as Meena, was an Afghan revolutionary political activist, feminist, women's rights activist and founder of Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), who was assassinated in 1987.
  2. Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
    
    The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) is a women's organization based in Kabul, Afghanistan, that promotes women's rights and secular democracy. It was founded in 1977 by Meena Keshwar Kamal, an Afghan student activist who was assassinated in February 1987 for her political activities. The group, which supports non-violent strategies, had its initial office in Kabul, Afghanistan, but then moved to Pakistan in the early 1980s.
5. Carl Rogers, American psychologist and academic (b. 1902) deaths
  1. Carl Rogers
    
    Carl Ransom Rogers was an American psychologist and among the founders of the humanistic approach in psychology. Rogers is widely considered one of the founding fathers of psychotherapy research and was honored for his pioneering research with the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1956.
1986
1. Maximilian Götz, German racing driver births
  1. Maximilian Götz
    
    Maximilian Götz is a German racing driver. He has competed in such series as International Formula Master and the Formula 3 Euro Series. He won the 2003 Formula BMW ADAC season, taking six victories. He also won the 2021 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters by finishing three points ahead of Liam Lawson in the drivers' championship.
2. Mahmudullah Riyad, Bangladeshi cricketer births
  1. Mahmudullah
    
    Mohammad Mahmudullah, also known as Riyad, is a Bangladeshi cricketer and former captain of the Bangladesh national cricket team in T20I. He has played First-class and List A cricket for Dhaka Division and has represented Bangladesh in all forms of the game. An all-rounder, he is a lower or middle-order batsman as well as an off spin bowler. He has almost 10,000 runs and 150+ wickets. He is prominent for his ability to finish a close limited over game. He is the first Bangladeshi to score a World Cup hundred .Like Sanath Jayasuriya, Kevin Pietersen, Shoaib Malik, Steve Smith and many more, Mahmudullah started his career as a bowler and then converted into a batsman who could bowl handy off-breaks.
1984
1. Sandeep Acharya, Indian singer (d. 2013) births
  1. Sandeep Acharya
    
    Sandeep Acharya was an Indian singer. He won the second season of the popular reality television show Indian Idol in 2006. Acharya was from to Bikaner, Rajasthan. He died on 15 December 2013 in Gurgaon's Medanta Hospital.
2. Mauricio Pinilla, Chilean footballer births
  1. Mauricio Pinilla
    
    Mauricio Ricardo Pinilla Ferrera is a Chilean former professional footballer who played as a striker.
1983
1. Lee Stempniak, American ice hockey player births
  1. Lee Stempniak
    
    Lee Edward Stempniak is an American former professional ice hockey forward who played the National Hockey League (NHL). He played for the St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs, Phoenix Coyotes, Calgary Flames, Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Rangers, Winnipeg Jets, New Jersey Devils, Boston Bruins and Carolina Hurricanes.
2. Rebecca White, Australian politician births
  1. Rebecca White
    
    Rebecca Peta White is an Australian politician. She has been the Leader of the Opposition in Tasmania and Leader of the Parliamentary Labor Party in Tasmania since July 2021, having previously served in that role from March 2017 until May 2021. She has been a member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly in the electorate of Lyons since the 2010 state election. Before she was leader, White served as Shadow Minister for Health and Human Services, and Opposition Spokesperson for Children.
3. Karen Carpenter, American singer (b. 1950) deaths
  1. Karen Carpenter
    
    Karen Anne Carpenter was an American singer and drummer who with her older brother Richard performed as the duo the Carpenters who were one of the biggest-selling American pop groups of all time. With a distinctive three-octave contralto vocal range, she was praised by her peers as a great vocalist. Her struggle with and eventual death of heart failure related to her years-long struggle with anorexia would later raise awareness of eating disorders and body dysmorphia and their possible causes.
1982
1. Ivars Timermanis, Latvian basketball player births
  1. Ivars Timermanis
    
    Ivars Timermanis is a retired Latvian professional basketball player who played the Small forward position.
2. Tomas Vaitkus, Lithuanian cyclist births
  1. Tomas Vaitkus
    
    Tomas Vaitkus is a Lithuanian professional road racing cyclist riding for UCI Continental team Rietumu Banka–Riga. Vaitkus, nicknamed Tomas the Tank Engine, made his Tour de France debut in the 2007 edition but had to abandon after a serious crash at the end of stage two. Team RadioShack announced that he would be joining the team in 2010. He rejoined Astana in 2011. On 29 August 2011, it was announced that Vaitkus would join GreenEDGE for its inaugural season in 2012.
3. Alex Harvey, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1935) deaths
  1. Alex Harvey (musician)
    
    Alexander James Harvey was a Scottish rock and blues musician. Although his career spanned almost three decades, he is best remembered as the frontman of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, with whom he built a reputation as an exciting live performer during the era of glam rock in the 1970s.
4. Georg Konrad Morgen, German lawyer and judge (b. 1909) deaths
  1. Georg Konrad Morgen
    
    Georg Konrad Morgen was an SS judge and lawyer who investigated crimes committed in Nazi concentration camps. He rose to the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer (major). After the war, Morgen served as witness at several anti-Nazi trials and continued his legal career in Frankfurt.
1981
1. Jason Kapono, American basketball player births
  1. Jason Kapono
    
    Jason Alan Kapono is an American former professional basketball player. He was the first National Basketball Association (NBA) player to lead the league in three-point field goal percentage in two consecutive seasons, and he also won the Three-Point Contest twice. He won an NBA championship with the Miami Heat in 2006.
2. Johan Vansummeren, Belgian cyclist births
  1. Johan Vansummeren
    
    Johan Vansummeren is a Belgian former professional road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2004 and 2016 for the Relax–Bodysol, Silence–Lotto, Garmin–Sharp and AG2R La Mondiale teams.
1980
1. Raimonds Vaikulis, Latvian basketball player births
  1. Raimonds Vaikulis
    
    Raimonds Vaikulis is a Latvian former professional basketball player.
1979
1. Giorgio Pantano, Italian racing driver births
  1. Giorgio Pantano
    
    Giorgio Pantano is an Italian professional racing driver who drove for the Jordan Formula One team for much of the 2004 season before being replaced by Timo Glock. He also raced in Formula 3000. He retired from racing at the end of 2014.
1977
1. Gavin DeGraw, American singer-songwriter births
  1. Gavin DeGraw
    
    Gavin Shane DeGraw is an American singer-songwriter. DeGraw rose to fame with his song "I Don't Want to Be" from his debut album Chariot (2003); the song became the main theme song for The WB drama series One Tree Hill. Other notable singles from his debut album were "Chariot" and "Follow Through".
1975
1. Natalie Imbruglia, Australian singer-songwriter and actress births
  1. Natalie Imbruglia
    
    Natalie Jane Imbruglia is an Australian singer and actress. In the early 1990s, she played Beth Brennan in the Australian soap opera Neighbours. Three years after leaving the programme, she began a singing career with her chart-topping cover of Ednaswap's song "Torn". Her debut album, Left of the Middle (1997), sold seven million copies worldwide. Imbruglia's five subsequent albums have combined sales of three million copies worldwide, and her accolades include eight ARIA Awards, two Brit Awards, one Billboard Music Award, and three Grammy nominations.
2. Louis Jordan, American singer-songwriter and saxophonist (b. 1908) deaths
  1. Louis Jordan
    
    Louis Thomas Jordan was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "the King of the Jukebox", he earned his highest profile towards the end of the swing era. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an "early influence" in 1987.
1974
1. Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian physicist, mathematician, and academic (b. 1894) deaths
  1. Satyendra Nath Bose
    
    Satyendra Nath Bose was an Indian mathematician and physicist specializing in theoretical physics. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, in developing the foundation for Bose statistics and the theory of the Bose condensate. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he was awarded India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1954 by the Government of India.
1973
1. Oscar De La Hoya, American boxer births
  1. Oscar De La Hoya
    
    Oscar De La Hoya is an American boxing promoter and former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2008. His accolades include winning 11 world titles in six weight classes, including the lineal championship in three weight classes. He is ranked as the 38th best boxer of all time, pound for pound, by BoxRec. De La Hoya was nicknamed "The Golden Boy of boxing" by the media when he represented the United States at the 1992 Summer Olympics where, shortly after having graduated from James A. Garfield High School, he won a gold medal in the lightweight division, and reportedly "set a sport back on its feet."
2. James Hird, Australian footballer and coach births
  1. James Hird
    
    James Albert Hird is a former professional Australian rules football player and past senior coach of the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
3. Manny Legace, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster births
  1. Manny Legace
    
    Emmanuel Legace is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender, who played most notably in the National Hockey League for the Detroit Red Wings, and later the St. Louis Blues. Legace also enjoyed spells with the Los Angeles Kings, Carolina Hurricanes, and Iserlohn Roosters of the DEL. He finished his playing career for the Springfield Falcons of the American Hockey League, for whom he is the career leader in goaltending wins. Legace currently serves as the goaltending coach for the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets.
1972
1. Dara Ó Briain, Irish comedian and television host births
  1. Dara Ó Briain
    
    Dara Ó Briain is an Irish comedian and television presenter based in the United Kingdom. He is noted for performing stand-up comedy shows all over the world and for hosting topical panel shows such as Mock the Week, The Panel, and The Apprentice: You're Fired!. For his work on Mock the Week, he was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance in 2012.
2. Giovanni Silva de Oliveira, Brazilian footballer and manager births
  1. Giovanni (footballer, born 1972)
    
    Giovanni Silva de Oliveira, better known as Giovanni, is a Brazilian football manager and former player. He played as either an attacking midfielder or a forward.
1971
1. Rob Corddry, American actor, producer, and screenwriter births
  1. Rob Corddry
    
    Robert William Corddry is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his work as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (2002–2006) and for his starring role in the film Hot Tub Time Machine. He is the creator and star of Adult Swim's Childrens Hospital and has been awarded four Primetime Emmy Awards. He previously starred in the HBO series Ballers and the CBS comedy The Unicorn.
1970
1. Louise Bogan, American poet and critic (b. 1897) deaths
  1. Louise Bogan
    
    Louise Bogan was an American poet. She was appointed the fourth Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress in 1945, and was the first woman to hold this title. Throughout her life she wrote poetry, fiction, and criticism, and became the regular poetry reviewer for The New Yorker.
1968
1. Neal Cassady, American novelist and poet (b. 1926) deaths
  1. Neal Cassady
    
    Neal Leon Cassady was a major figure of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the psychedelic and counterculture movements of the 1960s.
1967
1. Sergei Grinkov, Russian figure skater (d. 1995) births
  1. Sergei Grinkov
    
    Sergei Mikhailovich Grinkov was a Russian pair skater. Together with his wife Ekaterina Gordeeva, he was the 1988 and 1994 Olympic Champion and a four-time World Champion.
1966
1. Viatcheslav Ekimov, Russian cyclist births
  1. Viatcheslav Ekimov
    
    Viatcheslav Vladimirovich Ekimov, nicknamed Eki, is a Russian former professional racing cyclist. A triple Olympic gold medalist, he was awarded the title of Russian Cyclist of the Century in 2001.
1965
1. Jerome Brown, American football player (d. 1992) births
  1. Jerome Brown
    
    Willie Jerome Brown III was an American football defensive tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He played his entire five-year NFL career with the Eagles from 1987 to 1991, before his death just before the 1992 season. He was selected to two Pro Bowls in 1990 and 1991. He played college football at the University of Miami.
1964
1. Elke Philipp, German Paralympic equestrian births
  1. Elke Philipp
    
    Elke Philipp is a German Paralympic equestrian.
1963
1. Pirmin Zurbriggen, Swiss skier births
  1. Pirmin Zurbriggen
    
    Pirmin Zurbriggen is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Switzerland. One of the most successful ski racers ever, he won the overall World Cup title four times, an Olympic gold medal in 1988 in Downhill, and nine World Championships medals.
1962
1. Clint Black, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer births
  1. Clint Black
    
    Clint Patrick Black is an American country music singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Signed to RCA Nashville in 1989, Black's debut album Killin' Time produced four straight number one singles on the US Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. Although his momentum gradually slowed throughout the 1990s, Black consistently charted hit songs into the 2000s. He has had more than 30 singles on the US Billboard country charts, twenty-two of which have reached number one, in addition to having released twelve studio albums and several compilation albums. In 2003, Black founded his own record label, Equity Music Group. Black has also ventured into acting, having made appearances in a 1993 episode of the TV series Wings and in the 1994 film Maverick, as well as a starring role in 1998's Still Holding On: The Legend of Cadillac Jack.
1961
1. Denis Savard, Canadian ice hockey player and coach births
  1. Denis Savard
    
    Denis Joseph Savard is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1980 to 1997, and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2000. In 2017 Savard was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history. Savard was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks and became the forefront of the team during the 1980s. He led the Blackhawks to the Conference Finals four times, losing each time, twice being to Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers. Savard is known for the spin' o rama move, a tactic in Hockey used to create distance between the puck carrier and opponent. Savard won one Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens in 1993. Savard also played with the Tampa Bay Lighting for two seasons before returning to the Chicago Blackhawks in 1994, and then retiring there in 1997. He has also served as head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL, and now serves as an ambassador for the Blackhawks' organization. Savard was born in Gatineau, Quebec, but grew up in Montreal.
1960
1. Siobhan Dowd, English author and activist (d. 2007) births
  1. Siobhan Dowd
    
    Siobhan Dowd was a British writer and activist. The last book she completed, Bog Child, posthumously won the 2009 Carnegie Medal from the professional librarians, recognising the year's best book for children or young adults published in the UK.
2. Jonathan Larson, American composer and playwright (d. 1996) births
  1. Jonathan Larson
    
    Jonathan David Larson was an American composer, lyricist and playwright most famous for writing the musicals Rent and Tick, Tick... Boom!, which explored the social issues of multiculturalism, substance use disorder, and homophobia. He received three posthumous Tony Awards and a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Rent.
1959
1. Christian Schreier, German footballer and manager births
  1. Christian Schreier
    
    Christian Schreier is a German former professional footballer who is the general manager of SC Paderborn. He played as an midfielder, most notably with VfL Bochum and Bayer Leverkusen, and won one cap for West Germany, in 1984. His biggest successes came in 1988, when he won the UEFA Cup and an Olympic bronze Medal.
2. Una O'Connor, Irish-American actress (b. 1880) deaths
  1. Una O'Connor (actress)
    
    Una O'Connor was an Irish-born American actress who worked extensively in theatre before becoming a character actress in film and in television. She often portrayed comical wives, housekeepers and servants. In 2020, she was listed at number 19 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
1958
1. Tomasz Pacyński, Polish journalist and author (d. 2005) births
  1. Tomasz Pacyński
    
    Tomasz Pacyński was a Polish fantasy and science fiction writer. He was one of the creators and since 2004 the chief editor of Fahrenheit, the first Polish Internet science fiction fanzine. He published short stories in such magazines as Science Fiction, SFera, and Fantasy, and in Internet fanzines such as Fahrenheit, Esensja, Fantazin and Srebrny Glob. He also wrote articles published in SFera and Science Fiction.
2. Henry Kuttner, American author and screenwriter (b. 1915) deaths
  1. Henry Kuttner
    
    Henry Kuttner was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and horror.
1957
1. Matthew Cobb, British zoologist and author births
  1. Matthew Cobb
    
    Matthew Cobb is a British zoologist and professor of zoology at the University of Manchester. He is known for his popular science books The Egg & Sperm Race: The Seventeenth-Century Scientists Who Unravelled the Secrets of Sex, Life and Growth; Life's Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code; and The Idea of the Brain: A History. Cobb has appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Infinite Monkey Cage, The Life Scientific, and The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry, as well as on BBC Radio 3 and the BBC World Service.
1956
1. Savielly Tartakower, Russian-French chess player, journalist, and author (b. 1887) deaths
  1. Savielly Tartakower
    
    Savielly Tartakower was a Polish and French chess player. He was awarded the title of International Grandmaster in its inaugural year, 1950. Tartakower was also a leading chess journalist and author of the 1920s and 1930s.
1955
1. Mikuláš Dzurinda, Slovak politician, Prime Minister of Slovakia births
  1. Mikuláš Dzurinda
    
    Mikuláš Dzurinda is a Slovak politician who was the prime minister of Slovakia from 30 October 1998 to 4 July 2006. He is the founder and leader of the Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK) and then the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union. From 2002 to 2006, his party formed a coalition government with the Christian Democratic Movement, the Alliance of the New Citizen and the Party of the Hungarian Coalition.
  2. Prime Minister of Slovakia
    
    The prime minister of Slovakia, officially the Chairman of the government of the Slovak Republic, commonly referred to in Slovakia as Predseda vlády or informally as Premiér, is the head of the government of the Slovak Republic. Officially, the officeholder is the third highest constitutional official in Slovakia after the President of the republic (appointer) and Chairman of the National Council; in practice, the appointee is the country's leading political figure.
1952
1. Jenny Shipley, New Zealand politician, Prime Minister of New Zealand births
  1. Jenny Shipley
    
    Dame Jennifer Mary Shipley is a New Zealand former politician who served as the 36th prime minister of New Zealand from 1997 to 1999. She was the first female prime minister of New Zealand, and the first woman to have led the National Party.
  2. Prime Minister of New Zealand
    
    The prime minister of New Zealand is the head of government of New Zealand. The incumbent prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, took office on 26 October 2017.
2. Thomas Silverstein, American criminal and prisoner (d. 2019) births
  1. Thomas Silverstein
    
    Thomas Edward Silverstein was an American criminal who spent the last 42 years of his life in prison after being convicted of four separate murders while imprisoned for armed robbery, one of which was overturned. Silverstein spent the last 36 years of his life in solitary confinement for killing Corrections Officer Merle Clutts at the Marion Penitentiary in Illinois. Prison authorities described him as a brutal killer and a former leader of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. Silverstein maintained that the dehumanizing conditions inside the prison system contributed to the three murders he committed. He was held "in a specially designed cell" in what is called "Range 13" at ADX Florence federal penitentiary in Colorado. He was the longest-held prisoner in solitary confinement within the Bureau of Prisons at the time of his death. Many prison guards refused to talk to Silverstein out of respect for Clutts.
1951
1. Patrick Bergin, Irish actor births
  1. Patrick Bergin
    
    Patrick Connolly Bergin is an Irish actor and singer perhaps best known for his leading role opposite Julia Roberts in Sleeping with the Enemy (1991), the title character in Robin Hood, terrorist Kevin O'Donnell in Patriot Games and for playing the villainous Aidan Maguire in the BBC soap EastEnders in 2017–2018.
1949
1. Rasim Delić, Bosnian general (d. 2010) births
  1. Rasim Delić
    
    Rasim Delić was the chief of staff of the Bosnian Army. He was a career officer in the Yugoslav Army but left it during the breakup of Yugoslavia and was convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, being sentenced to 3 years in prison.
1948
1. Alice Cooper, American singer-songwriter births
  1. Alice Cooper
    
    Alice Cooper is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, reptiles, baby dolls, and dueling swords, Cooper is considered by many music journalists and peers to be "The Godfather of Shock Rock". He has drawn equally from horror films, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a macabre and theatrical brand of rock designed to shock audiences.
2. Mienoumi Tsuyoshi, Japanese sumo wrestler births
  1. Mienoumi Tsuyoshi
    
    Mienoumi Tsuyoshi is a Japanese former professional sumo wrestler from Matsusaka, Mie. He was the 57th yokozuna of the sport. After retiring he founded the Musashigawa stable and was a chairman of the Japan Sumo Association. He was the first rikishi in history who was demoted from the rank of Ozeki but still managed the promotion to Yokozuna.
1947
1. Dennis C. Blair, American admiral and politician, third Director of National Intelligence births
  1. Dennis C. Blair
    
    Dennis Cutler Blair is the former United States Director of National Intelligence and is a retired United States Navy admiral who was the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific region. Blair was a career officer in the U.S. Navy and served in the White House during the presidencies of both President Jimmy Carter and President Ronald Reagan. Blair retired from the Navy in 2002 as an Admiral. In 2009, Blair was selected as President Barack Obama’s first Director of National Intelligence, but after a series of bureaucratic battles, he resigned on May 20, 2010.
  2. Director of National Intelligence
    
    The director of national intelligence (DNI) is a senior, cabinet-level United States government official, required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to serve as executive head of the United States Intelligence Community (IC) and to direct and oversee the National Intelligence Program (NIP). All IC agencies report directly to the DNI. The DNI also serves, upon invitation, as an advisor to the president of the United States, the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council on all intelligence matters. The DNI, supported by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), produces the President's Daily Brief (PDB), a top-secret document including intelligence from all IC agencies, handed each morning to the president of the United States.
2. Dan Quayle, American sergeant, lawyer, and politician, 44th Vice President of the United States births
  1. Dan Quayle
    
    James Danforth Quayle is an American politician who served as the 44th vice president of the United States from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush. Before that, Quayle served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Indiana's 4th district from 1977 to 1981 and as a U.S. senator from Indiana from 1981 to 1989. Quayle unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for president in 2000.
  2. 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.
1944
1. Florence LaRue, American singer and actress births
  1. Florence LaRue
    
    Florence LaRue is an American singer and actress, best known as an original member of the 5th Dimension.
2. Alan Shields, American artist and ship captain (d. 2005) births
  1. Alan Shields
    
    Alan J. Shields was born in Herington, Kansas. He had a long career as a painter, and for a time during the 1980s, had a secondary career as a commercial boat operator, including as ferryboat captain.
3. Arsen Kotsoyev, Russian author and translator (b. 1872) deaths
  1. Arsen Kotsoyev
    
    Arsen Kotsoyev is one of the founders of Ossetic prose, who had a large influence on the formation of the modern Ossetic language and its functional styles. He participated in all of the first Ossetic periodicals, and was one of the most notable Ossetian publicists.
1943
1. Alberto João Jardim, Portuguese journalist and politician, second President of the Regional Government of Madeira births
  1. Alberto João Jardim
    
    Alberto João Cardoso Gonçalves Jardim, GCC, GCIH is a Portuguese politician who was the President of the Regional Government of Madeira, Portugal, from 1978 to 2015. He is a controversial political figure in Portugal.
  2. Presidents of the Regional Government of Madeira
    
    Presidents of the Regional Government of Madeira are the heads of government for the autonomous local authority of Madeira, since the Carnation Revolution that installed the democratic Third Portuguese Republic. The list below includes the leaders of the transitional regimes and those presidents designated after the institutionalization of the autonomy statute that provided archipelago with its laws and democratic rights.
2. Wanda Rutkiewicz, Lithuanian-Polish mountaineer (d. 1992) births
  1. Wanda Rutkiewicz
    
    Wanda Rutkiewicz was a Polish mountain climber and computer engineer. She was the first woman to reach the summit of K2 and the third woman to summit Mount Everest.
3. Ken Thompson, American computer scientist and programmer, co-developed the B programming language births
  1. Ken Thompson
    
    Kenneth Lane Thompson is an American pioneer of computer science. Thompson worked at Bell Labs for most of his career where he designed and implemented the original Unix operating system. He also invented the B programming language, the direct predecessor to the C programming language, and was one of the creators and early developers of the Plan 9 operating system. Since 2006, Thompson has worked at Google, where he co-developed the Go programming language.
  2. B (programming language)
    
    B is a programming language developed at Bell Labs circa 1969 by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie.
4. Frank Calder, English-Canadian ice hockey player and journalist (b. 1877) deaths
  1. Frank Calder
    
    Frank Sellick Calder was a British-born Canadian ice hockey executive, journalist, and athlete.
1941
1. Russell Cooper, Australian politician, 33rd Premier of Queensland births
  1. Russell Cooper
    
    Theo Russell Cooper is a former Australian National Party politician. He was Premier of Queensland for a period of 73 days, from 25 September 1989 to 7 December 1989. His loss at the state election of 1989 ended 32 years of continuous National Party rule over Queensland.
  2. Premier of Queensland
    
    The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland.
2. Ron Rangi, New Zealand rugby player (d. 1988) births
  1. Ron Rangi
    
    Ronald Edward Rangi was a New Zealand rugby union player. A centre three-quarter, Rangi represented Auckland at a provincial level, and was a member of the New Zealand national side, the All Blacks, from 1964 to 1966. He made 10 appearances for the All Blacks, all of them in test matches, scoring three tries. Of Māori descent, Rangi played for the New Zealand Māori side between 1963 and 1965, and was awarded the Tom French Cup for the Māori player of the year in 1964 and 1965.
3. Jiří Raška, Czech skier and coach (d. 2012) births
  1. Jiří Raška
    
    Jiří Raška was a Czechoslovakian ski jumper. He is regarded as the most famous Czech ski jumper of the 20th century.
1940
1. George A. Romero, American director and producer (d. 2017) births
  1. George A. Romero
    
    George Andrew Romero was an American filmmaker, writer, and editor. His Night of the Living Dead series of films about an imagined zombie apocalypse began with the 1968 film of the same name, and is often considered a major contributor to the image of the zombie in modern culture. Other films in the series include Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985). Aside from this series, his works include The Crazies (1973), Martin (1978), Knightriders (1981), Creepshow (1982), Monkey Shines (1988), The Dark Half (1993), and Bruiser (2000). He also created and executive-produced the television series Tales from the Darkside, from 1983 to 1988.
2. Nikolai Yezhov, Russian police officer and politician (b. 1895) deaths
  1. Nikolai Yezhov
    
    Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov was a Soviet secret police official under Joseph Stalin who was head of the NKVD from 1936 to 1938, during the height of the Great Purge. Yezhov organized mass arrests, torture and executions during the Great Purge, but he fell from Stalin's favour and was arrested, subsequently admitting in a confession to a range of anti-Soviet activity including "unfounded arrests" during the Purge. He was executed in 1940 along with others who were blamed for the Purge.
1939
1. Stan Lundine, American lawyer and politician, Lieutenant Governor of New York births
  1. Stan Lundine
    
    Stanley Nelson Lundine is an American politician from Jamestown, New York who served as Mayor of Jamestown, a United States representative, and Lieutenant Governor of New York.
  2. Lieutenant Governor of New York
    
    The lieutenant governor of New York is a constitutional office in the executive branch of the Government of the State of New York. It is the second highest-ranking official in state government. The lieutenant governor is elected on a ticket with the governor for a four-year term. Official duties dictated to the lieutenant governor under the present New York Constitution are to serve as president of the state senate, serve as acting governor in the absence of the governor from the state or the disability of the governor, or to become governor in the event of the governor's death, resignation or removal from office via impeachment. Additional statutory duties of the lieutenant governor are to serve on the New York Court for the Trial of Impeachments, the State Defense Council, and on the board of trustees of the College of Environmental Science and Forestry. The lieutenant governor of New York is the highest-paid lieutenant governor in the country.
1938
1. Frank J. Dodd, American businessman and politician, president of the New Jersey Senate (d. 2010) births
  1. Frank J. Dodd
    
    Frank J. "Pat" Dodd was an American businessman and Democratic Party politician who served as President of the New Jersey Senate from 1974 to 1975.
  2. New Jersey Senate
    
    The New Jersey Senate was established as the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the Legislative Council. There are 40 legislative districts, representing districts with average populations of 232,225. Each district has one senator and two members of the New Jersey General Assembly, the lower house of the legislature. Prior to the election in which they are chosen, senators must be a minimum of 30 years old and a resident of the state for four years to be eligible to serve in office.
1937
1. David Newman, American director and screenwriter (d. 2003) births
  1. David Newman (screenwriter)
    
    David Newman was an American screenwriter. From the late 1960s through the early 1980s he frequently collaborated with Robert Benton. He was married to fellow writer Leslie Newman, with whom he had two children, until his death in 2003 from a stroke.
2. Birju Maharaj, Indian dancer, composer, singer and exponent of the Lucknow "Kalka-Bindadin" Gharana of Kathak dance (d. 2022) births
  1. Birju Maharaj
    
    Pandit Birju Maharaj was an Indian dancer, composer, singer and exponent of the Lucknow "Kalka-Bindadin" Gharana of Kathak dance in India. He was a descendant of the Maharaj family of Kathak dancers, which includes his two uncles, Shambhu Maharaj and Lachhu Maharaj, and his father and guru, Acchan Maharaj. He also practised Hindustani classical music and was a vocalist. After working along with his uncle, Shambhu Maharaj at Bhartiya Kala Kendra, later the Kathak Kendra, New Delhi, he remained head of the latter, for several years, until his retirement in 1998 when he opened his own dance school, Kalashram, also in Delhi.
  2. Lucknow gharana
    
    The Lucknow Gharānā, also known as "Purab Gharâna" for tabla, is a discipleship tradition ("gharana") with a tabla legacy and Kathak legacy. These two traditions are known for being one of the six major gharanas of tabla and three gharanas of kathak.
  3. Kathak
    
    Kathak is one of the eight major forms of Indian classical dance. It is the classical dance form of Uttar Pradesh. The origin of Kathak is traditionally attributed to the traveling bards in ancient northern India known as Kathakars or storytellers. The term Kathak is derived from the Vedic Sanskrit word Katha which means "story", and Kathakar which means "the one who tells a story", or "to do with stories". Wandering Kathakars communicated stories from the great epics and ancient mythology through dance, songs and music. Kathak dancers tell various stories through their hand movements and extensive footwork, their body movements and flexibility but most importantly through their facial expressions. Kathak evolved during the Bhakti movement, particularly by incorporating the childhood and stories of the Hindu god Krishna, as well as independently in the courts of north Indian kingdoms. During the period of Mughal rule, the emperors were patrons of Kathak dance and actively promoted it in their royal courts. Kathak performances include Urdu Ghazals and commonly used instruments brought during the Mughal period. As a result, it is the only Indian classical dance form to feature Persian elements.
1936
1. David Brenner, American comedian, actor, and author (d. 2014) births
  1. David Brenner
    
    David Norris Brenner was an American stand-up comedian, actor and author. The most frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in the 1970s and 1980s, Brenner "was a pioneer of observational comedy." His friend, comedian Richard Lewis, described Brenner as "the king of hip, observational comedy."
2. Claude Nobs, Swiss businessman, founded the Montreux Jazz Festival (d. 2013) births
  1. Claude Nobs
    
    Claude Nobs was the founder and general manager of the Montreux Jazz Festival.
  2. Montreux Jazz Festival
    
    The Montreux Jazz Festival is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annual jazz festival in the world after Canada's Montreal International Jazz Festival.
1935
1. Wallis Mathias, Pakistani cricketer (d. 1994) births
  1. Wallis Mathias
    
    Wallis Mathias was a Pakistani cricketer who played in 21 Tests from 1955 to 1962. A Catholic, he was the first non-Muslim cricketer to play for Pakistan. He belonged to Karachi's Goan community.
2. Martti Talvela, Finnish opera singer (d. 1989) births
  1. Martti Talvela
    
    Martti Olavi Talvela was a Finnish operatic bass.
3. Collin Wilcox, American actress (d. 2009) births
  1. Collin Wilcox (actress)
    
    Collin Randall Wilcox was an American film, stage and television actress. Over her career, she was also credited as Collin Wilcox-Horne or Collin Wilcox-Paxton. Wilcox may be best known for her role in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), in which she played Mayella Violet Ewell, whose father falsely claimed she had been raped by a Black man, which sparks the trial at the center of the film.
1933
1. Archibald Sayce, English linguist and educator (b. 1846) deaths
  1. Archibald Sayce
    
    The Rev. Archibald Henry Sayce was a pioneer British Assyriologist and linguist, who held a chair as Professor of Assyriology at the University of Oxford from 1891 to 1919. He was able to write in at least twenty ancient and modern languages, and was known for his emphasis on the importance of archaeological and monumental evidence in linguistic research. He was a contributor to articles in the 9th, 10th and 11th editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
1931
1. Isabel Perón, Argentinian dancer and politician, 41st President of Argentina births
  1. Isabel Perón
    
    Isabel Martínez de Perón, also known as Isabelita, is an Argentine politician who served as President of Argentina from 1974 to 1976. She was one of the first female republican heads of state in the world, and the first woman to serve as president of a country.
  2. President of Argentina
    
    The president of Argentina, officially known as the president of the Argentine Nation, is both head of state and head of government of Argentina. Under the national constitution, the president is also the chief executive of the federal government and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
1930
1. Tibor Antalpéter, Hungarian volleyball player and diplomat, Hungarian Ambassador to the United Kingdom (d. 2012) births
  1. Tibor Antalpéter
    
    Tibor Antalpéter was a Hungarian volleyball player who played for Csepel SC and the Hungarian national team. He served as Hungarian Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1990 to 1995.
  2. List of ambassadors of Hungary to the United Kingdom
    
    This is a list of the heads of mission from Hungary to the Court of St James's in London.
2. Arthur E. Chase, American businessman and politician (d. 2015) births
  1. Arthur E. Chase
    
    Arthur E. Chase was an American businessman and politician who represented the Worcester District in the Massachusetts Senate from 1991 to 1995. He co-founded the Central Massachusetts Legislative Caucus. In 1991 he designed the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science at WPI and in 1992 sponsored legislation to create it. He was the Republican nominee for Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1994, but lost in the general election to William F. Galvin.
3. Jim Loscutoff, American basketball player (d. 2015) births
  1. Jim Loscutoff
    
    James Loscutoff Jr. was a professional basketball player for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A forward, Loscutoff played on seven Celtics championship teams between 1956 and 1964.
1929
1. Paul Burlison, American rockabilly guitarist (d. 2003) births
  1. Paul Burlison
    
    Paul Burlison was an American pioneer rockabilly guitarist and a founding member of The Rock and Roll Trio. Burlison was born in Brownsville, Tennessee, where he was exposed to music at an early age. After a stint in the United States Military, Burlison teamed up with Johnny and Dorsey Burnette to form The Rock and Roll Trio. The band released several singles, but failed to attain chart success. Paul is sometimes credited with being the first guitarist to intentionally record with a distorted electric guitar on the 1956 recordings, "Lonesome Train on a Lonesome Track" and "Honey Hush." The Trio disbanded in the fall of 1957 and Burlison moved back to Tennessee to start a family. There he started his own electrical subcontracting business which he ran faithfully for twenty years, taking a break when the Trio reunited in the early 1980s. He released his only solo album in 1997, which received positive reviews. Burlison remained active in the music scene until his death in 2003.
2. Neil Johnston, American basketball player (d. 1978) births
  1. Neil Johnston
    
    Donald Neil Johnston was an American basketball player and coach. A center, Johnston played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1951 to 1959. He was a member of the Philadelphia Warriors for his entire career. Known for his hook shot, Johnston was a six-time NBA All-Star; he led the NBA in scoring three times and led the league in rebounding once. He won an NBA championship with the Warriors in 1956. After his playing career ended due to a knee injury, Johnston coached in the NBA, in other professional basketball leagues, and at the collegiate level. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1990.
1928
1. Oscar Cabalén, Argentinian racing driver (d. 1967) births
  1. Oscar Cabalén
    
    Oscar Cabalén, was an Argentine racing driver, mainly active in the Turismo Carretera series. He also took part in the Carrera Panamericana and the Mille Miglia, and was a reserve driver for the Formula One Argentine Grand Prix in 1960.
2. Osmo Antero Wiio, Finnish journalist, academic, and politician (d. 2013) births
  1. Osmo Antero Wiio
    
    Osmo Antero Wiio was a Finnish academic, journalist, author and member of the Finnish Parliament. He is best known for his somewhat facetious Wiio's laws around communication, succinctly summarized as "Communication usually fails, except by accident".
3. Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853) deaths
  1. Hendrik Lorentz
    
    Hendrik Antoon Lorentz was a Dutch physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pieter Zeeman for the discovery and theoretical explanation of the Zeeman effect. He also derived the Lorentz transformation underpinning Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity, as well as the Lorentz force, which describes the combined electric and magnetic forces acting on a charged particle in an electromagnetic field. Lorentz was also responsible for the Lorentz oscillator model, a classical model used to describe the anomalous dispersion observed in dielectric materials when the driving frequency of the electric field was near the resonant frequency, resulting in abnormal refractive indices.
  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.
1927
1. Rolf Landauer, German-American physicist and academic (d. 1999) births
  1. Rolf Landauer
    
    Rolf William Landauer was a German-American physicist who made important contributions in diverse areas of the thermodynamics of information processing, condensed matter physics, and the conductivity of disordered media. In 1961 he discovered Landauer's principle, that in any logically irreversible operation that manipulates information, such as erasing a bit of memory, entropy increases and an associated amount of energy is dissipated as heat. This principle is relevant to reversible computing, quantum information and quantum computing. He also is responsible for the Landauer formula relating the electrical resistance of a conductor to its scattering properties. He won the Stuart Ballantine Medal of the Franklin Institute, the Oliver Buckley Prize of the American Physical Society and the IEEE Edison Medal, among many other honors.
1926
1. Gyula Grosics, Hungarian footballer and manager (d. 2014) births
  1. Gyula Grosics
    
    Gyula Grosics was a Hungarian football goalkeeper who played 86 times for the Hungary national football team and was part of the "Golden Team" of the 1950s. Regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he was thought to be the first goalkeeper to play as the sweeper-keeper. Grosics was nicknamed "Black Panther", because he wore black clothing while playing. He won a gold medal in football at the 1952 Summer Olympics.
2. İskilipli Âtıf Hodja, Turkish author and scholar (b. 1875) deaths
  1. İskilipli Mehmed Atıf Hoca
    
    Mehmed Âtıf Hoca was an Islamist. He was born in the village of Toyhane, in the district of Bayat, Çorum Province, in the Ottoman Empire and went to school there. After a couple of years as a imam in İskilip in 1893 he went to Istanbul to continue his education, first at a madrasah and from 1902 at Darü'l-fünun Faculty of Divinity. He graduated in 1903 and took a job teaching as Ders-i Amm (Ulama), at the madrasah in the Fatih Mosque, Istanbul. He was later arrested and jailed several times, but freed. He and Mustafa Sabri were the founding members of Cemiyet-i Müderrisin, an Islamic group that supported the government of Damat Ferid Pasha and advocated the British mandate for Turkey and the Greek invasion of Turkey. They were fiercely against the national government in Ankara which led the Turks to the Turkish War of Independence.
1925
1. Russell Hoban, American author and illustrator (d. 2011) births
  1. Russell Hoban
    
    Russell Conwell Hoban was an American expatriate writer. His works span many genres, including fantasy, science fiction, mainstream fiction, magical realism, poetry, and children's books. He lived in London from 1969 until his death.
2. Stanley Karnow, American journalist and historian (d. 2013) births
  1. Stanley Karnow
    
    Stanley Abram Karnow was an American journalist and historian. He is best known for his writings on the Vietnam War.
3. Christopher Zeeman, English mathematician and academic (d. 2016) births
  1. Christopher Zeeman
    
    Sir Erik Christopher Zeeman FRS, was a British mathematician, known for his work in geometric topology and singularity theory.
1923
1. Conrad Bain, Canadian-American actor (d. 2013) births
  1. Conrad Bain
    
    Conrad Stafford Bain was a Canadian-American comedian and actor. His television credits include a leading role as Phillip Drummond in the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, as Dr. Arthur Harmon on Maude, and as Charlie Ross in Mr. President (1987–1988).
1922
1. Bhimsen Joshi, Indian vocalist of the Hindustani classical music tradition (d. 2011) births
  1. Bhimsen Joshi
    
    Pandit Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi, also known by the honorific prefix Pandit, was one of the greatest Indian vocalists from Karnataka, in the Hindustani classical tradition. He is known for the khayal form of singing, as well as for his popular renditions of devotional music. Joshi belongs to the Kirana gharana tradition of Hindustani Classical Music. He is noted for his concerts, and between 1964 to 1982 Joshi toured Afghanistan, Italy, France, Canada and USA. He was the first musician from India whose concerts were advertised through posters in New York City. Joshi was instrumental in organising the Sawai Gandharva Music Festival annually, as homage to his guru, Sawai Gandharva.
1921
1. Betty Friedan, American author and feminist (d. 2006) births
  1. Betty Friedan
    
    Betty Friedan was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking the second wave of American feminism in the 20th century. In 1966, Friedan co-founded and was elected the first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), which aimed to bring women "into the mainstream of American society now [in] fully equal partnership with men".
2. Lotfi Zadeh, Iranian-American mathematician and computer scientist and founder of fuzzy logic (d. 2017) births
  1. Lotfi A. Zadeh
    
    Lotfi Aliasker Zadeh was a mathematician, computer scientist, electrical engineer, artificial intelligence researcher, and professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. Zadeh is best known for proposing fuzzy mathematics, consisting of several fuzzy-related concepts: fuzzy sets, fuzzy logic, fuzzy algorithms, fuzzy semantics, fuzzy languages, fuzzy control, fuzzy systems, fuzzy probabilities, fuzzy events, and fuzzy information. Zadeh was a founding member of the Eurasian Academy.
  2. Fuzzy logic
    
    Fuzzy logic is a form of many-valued logic in which the truth value of variables may be any real number between 0 and 1. It is employed to handle the concept of partial truth, where the truth value may range between completely true and completely false. By contrast, in Boolean logic, the truth values of variables may only be the integer values 0 or 1.
1920
1. Janet Waldo, American actress and voice artist (d. 2016) births
  1. Janet Waldo
    
    Janet Waldo was an American radio and voice actress. In animation, she voiced Judy Jetson in various Hanna-Barbera media, Nancy in Shazzan, Penelope Pitstop, Princess from Battle of the Planets, and Josie in Josie and the Pussycats. On radio, she was the title character in Meet Corliss Archer.
1918
1. Ida Lupino, English-American actress and director (d. 1995) births
  1. Ida Lupino
    
    Ida Lupino was an English-American actress, singer, director, writer, and producer. Throughout her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed eight, working primarily in the United States, where she became a citizen in 1948.
2. Luigi Pareyson, Italian philosopher and author (d. 1991) births
  1. Luigi Pareyson
    
    Luigi Pareysón was an Italian philosopher, best known for challenging the positivist and idealist aesthetics of Benedetto Croce in his 1954 monograph, Estetica. Teoria della formatività, which builds on the hermeneutics of the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.
1917
1. Yahya Khan, Pakistan general and politician, third President of Pakistan (d. 1980) births
  1. Yahya Khan
    
    Yahya Khan was a Pakistani military general who served as the third President of Pakistan and Chief Martial Law Administrator following his predecessor Ayub Khan's resignation from 25 March 1969 until his resignation on 20 December 1971. Under his presidency, East Pakistan seceded following a nine month civil war.
  2. President of Pakistan
    
    The president of Pakistan, officially the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is the ceremonial head of state of Pakistan and the commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Armed Forces.
1915
1. William Talman, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1968) births
  1. William Talman (actor)
    
    William Whitney Talman Jr., was an American television and movie actor, best known for playing Los Angeles District Attorney Hamilton Burger in the television series Perry Mason.
2. Norman Wisdom, English comedian, actor and singer-songwriter (d. 2010) births
  1. Norman Wisdom
    
    Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom, was an English actor, comedian, musician and singer best known for a series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966 featuring a hapless onscreen character often called Norman Pitkin. He was awarded the 1953 BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles following the release of Trouble in Store, his first film in a lead role.
1914
1. Alfred Andersch, German-Swiss author and publisher (d. 1980) births
  1. Alfred Andersch
    
    Alfred Hellmuth Andersch was a German writer, publisher, and radio editor. The son of a conservative East Prussian army officer, he was born in Munich, Germany and died in Berzona, Ticino, Switzerland. Martin Andersch, his brother, was also a writer.
1913
1. Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist (d. 2005) births
  1. Rosa Parks
    
    Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".
1912
1. Ola Skjåk Bræk, Norwegian banker and politician, Norwegian Minister of Industry (d. 1999) births
  1. Ola Skjåk Bræk
    
    Ola Skjåk Bræk was a Norwegian banker and politician for the Liberal Party. He was Minister of Industry in 1972–1973.
  2. Ministry of Trade and Industry (Norway)
    
    The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry was a Norwegian ministry responsible for business, trade and industry. On 1 January 2014 it was merged into Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries. From 2013 it was led by Monica Mæland, who continued as minister of trade, industry and fisheries from 2014 to 2018.
2. Erich Leinsdorf, Austrian-American conductor (d. 1993) births
  1. Erich Leinsdorf
    
    Erich Leinsdorf was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality. He also published books and essays on musical matters.
3. Byron Nelson, American golfer and sportscaster (d. 2006) births
  1. Byron Nelson
    
    John Byron Nelson Jr. was an American professional golfer between 1935 and 1946, widely considered one of the greatest golfers of all time.
1908
1. Julian Bell, English poet and academic (d. 1937) births
  1. Julian Bell
    
    Julian Heward Bell was an English poet, and the son of Clive and Vanessa Bell. The writer Quentin Bell was his younger brother and the writer and painter Angelica Garnett was his half-sister. His relationship with his mother is explored in Susan Sellers' novel Vanessa and Virginia.
1906
1. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor and theologian (d. 1945) births
  1. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
    
    Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential; his 1937 book The Cost of Discipleship is described as a modern classic. Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews. He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel prison for one and a half years. Later, he was transferred to Flossenbürg concentration camp.
2. Letitia Dunbar-Harrison, Irish librarian (d. 1994) births
  1. Letitia Dunbar-Harrison
    
    Letitia Dunbar-Harrison was an Irish librarian who became the subject of a controversy over her appointment. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, she is the subject of the 2009 book by Pat Walsh, The Curious Case of the Mayo Librarian, and a RTÉ documentary of the same name.
3. Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer and academic, discovered Pluto (d. 1997) births
  1. Clyde Tombaugh
    
    Clyde William Tombaugh was an American astronomer. He discovered Pluto in 1930, the first object to be discovered in what would later be identified as the Kuiper belt. At the time of discovery, Pluto was considered a planet, but was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. Tombaugh also discovered many asteroids, and called for the serious scientific research of unidentified flying objects.
  2. Pluto
    
    Pluto is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest known trans-Neptunian object by volume, by a small margin, but is slightly less massive than Eris. Like other Kuiper belt objects, Pluto is made primarily of ice and rock and is much smaller than the inner planets. Compared to Earth's moon, Pluto has only one sixth its mass and one third its volume.
1905
1. Hylda Baker, English comedian, actress and music hall performer (d. 1986) births
  1. Hylda Baker
    
    Hylda Baker was an English comedian, actress and music hall performer. Born and brought up in Farnworth, Lancashire, she is perhaps best remembered for her role as Nellie Pledge in the Granada ITV sitcom Nearest and Dearest (1968–1973) and for her role in the 1960 film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.
2. Louis-Ernest Barrias, French sculptor and academic (b. 1841) deaths
  1. Louis-Ernest Barrias
    
    Louis-Ernest Barrias was a French sculptor of the Beaux-Arts school. In 1865 Barrias won the Prix de Rome for study at the French Academy in Rome.
1904
1. MacKinlay Kantor, American author and screenwriter (d. 1977) births
  1. MacKinlay Kantor
    
    MacKinlay Kantor, born Benjamin McKinlay Kantor, was an American journalist, novelist and screenwriter. He wrote more than 30 novels, several set during the American Civil War, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1956 for his 1955 novel, Andersonville. He also wrote the novel Gettysburg, set during the Civil War.
1903
1. Alexander Imich, Polish-American chemist, parapsychologist, and academic (d. 2014) births
  1. Alexander Imich
    
    Dr. Alexander Herbert Imich was a Polish-American chemist, parapsychologist, zoologist and writer who was the president of the Anomalous Phenomena Research Center in New York City. He was born in 1903 in Częstochowa, Poland to a Jewish family.
1902
1. Charles Lindbergh, American pilot and explorer (d. 1974) births
  1. Charles Lindbergh
    
    Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance of 3,600 miles (5,800 km), flying alone for 33.5 hours. His aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis, was designed and built by the Ryan Airline Company specifically to compete for the Orteig Prize for the first flight between the two cities. Although not the first transatlantic flight, it was the first solo transatlantic flight, the first nonstop transatlantic flight between two major city hubs, and the longest by over 1,900 miles (3,000 km). It is known as one of the most consequential flights in history and ushered in a new era of air transportation between parts of the globe.
2. Hartley Shawcross, Baron Shawcross, German-English lawyer and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (d. 2003) births
  1. Hartley Shawcross
    
    Hartley William Shawcross, Baron Shawcross,, known from 1945 to 1959 as Sir Hartley Shawcross, was an English barrister and Labour politician who served as the lead British prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes tribunal. He also served as Britain's principal delegate to the United Nations immediately after the Second World War and as Attorney General for England and Wales.
  2. Attorney General for England and Wales
    
    His Majesty's Attorney General for England and Wales is one of the law officers of the Crown and the principal legal adviser to sovereign and Government in affairs pertaining to England and Wales. The attorney general maintains the Attorney General's Office and currently attends Cabinet. Unlike in other countries employing the common law legal system, the attorney general does not govern the administration of justice; that function is carried out by the secretary of state for justice and lord chancellor. The incumbent is also concurrently advocate general for Northern Ireland.
1900
1. Jacques Prévert, French poet and screenwriter (d. 1977) births
  1. Jacques Prévert
    
    Jacques Prévert was a French poet and screenwriter. His poems became and remain popular in the French-speaking world, particularly in schools. His best-regarded films formed part of the poetic realist movement, and include Les Enfants du Paradis (1945). He published his first book in 1946.
1899
1. Virginia M. Alexander, American physician and founder of the Aspiranto Health Home (d. 1949) births
  1. Virginia M. Alexander
    
    Virginia M. Alexander was an American physician, public health researcher, and the founder of the Aspiranto Health Home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1897
1. Ludwig Erhard, German soldier and politician, second Chancellor of West Germany (d. 1977) births
  1. Ludwig Erhard
    
    Ludwig Wilhelm Erhard was a German politician affiliated with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and chancellor of West Germany from 1963 until 1966. He is known for leading the West German postwar economic reforms and economic recovery in his role as Minister of Economic Affairs under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer from 1949 to 1963. During that period he promoted the concept of the social market economy, on which Germany's economic policy in the 21st century continues to be based. In his tenure as Chancellor, however, Erhard lacked support from Adenauer, who remained chairman of the party until 1966, and failed to win the public's confidence in his handling of a budget deficit and his direction of foreign policy. His popularity waned, and he resigned his chancellorship on 30 November 1966.
  2. Chancellor of Germany
    
    The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, is the head of the federal government of Germany and the commander in chief of the German Armed Forces during wartime. The chancellor is the chief executive of the Federal Cabinet and heads the executive branch. The chancellor is elected by the Bundestag on the proposal of the federal president and without debate.
1896
1. Friedrich Glauser, Austrian-Swiss author (d. 1938) births
  1. Friedrich Glauser
    
    Friedrich Glauser was a German-language Swiss writer. He was a morphine and opium addict for most of his life. In his first novel Gourrama, written between 1928 and 1930, he treated his own experiences at the French Foreign Legion. The evening before his wedding day, he suffered a stroke caused by cerebral infarction, and died two days later. Friedrich Glauser's literary estate is archived in the Swiss Literary Archives in Bern.
2. Friedrich Hund, German physicist and academic (d. 1997) births
  1. Friedrich Hund
    
    Friedrich Hermann Hund was a German physicist from Karlsruhe known for his work on atoms and molecules.
1895
1. Nigel Bruce, English actor (d. 1953) births
  1. Nigel Bruce
    
    William Nigel Ernle Bruce was a British character actor on stage and screen. He was best known for his portrayal of Dr. Watson in a series of films and in the radio series The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Bruce is also remembered for his roles in the Alfred Hitchcock films Rebecca and Suspicion, as well as the Charlie Chaplin film Limelight.
1892
1. E. J. Pratt, Canadian poet and academic (d. 1964) births
  1. E. J. Pratt
    
    Edwin John Dove Pratt, who published as E. J. Pratt, was "the leading Canadian poet of his time." He was a Canadian poet from Newfoundland who lived most of his life in Toronto, Ontario. A three-time winner of the country's Governor General's Award for poetry, he has been called "the foremost Canadian poet of the first half of the century."
1891
1. M. A. Ayyangar, Indian lawyer and politician, second Speaker of the Lok Sabha (d. 1978) births
  1. M. A. Ayyangar
    
    Madabhushi Ananthasayanam Ayyangar was the first Deputy Speaker and then Speaker of the Lok Sabha in the Indian Parliament. He was Governor of Bihar also.
  2. Speaker of the Lok Sabha
    
    The speaker of the Lok Sabha is the presiding officer and the highest authority of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India. The speaker is elected generally in the first meeting of the Lok Sabha following general elections. Serving for a term of five years, the speaker chosen from sitting members of the Lok Sabha.
2. Pelagio Antonio de Labastida y Dávalos, Roman Catholic archbishop and Mexican politician who served as regent during the Second Mexican Empire (b. 1816) deaths
  1. Pelagio Antonio de Labastida y Dávalos
    
    Pelagio Antonio de Labastida y Dávalos was a Mexican Roman Catholic prelate, lawyer and doctor of canon law, and politician. He was a member of the imperial regency that invited Maximilian of Austria to accept the throne of Mexico.
  2. Archbishop
    
    In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdiocese, or are otherwise granted a titular archbishopric. In others, such as the Lutheran Church of Sweden and the Church of England, the title is borne by the leader of the denomination.
  3. Regent
    
    A regent is a person appointed to govern a state pro tempore because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy, or the throne is vacant and the new monarch has not yet been determined. One variation is in the Monarchy of Liechtenstein, where a competent monarch may chose to assign regency to their of-age heir, handing over the majority of their responsibilities to prepare the heir for future succession. The rule of a regent or regents is called a regency. A regent or regency council may be formed ad hoc or in accordance with a constitutional rule. Regent is sometimes a formal title granted to a monarch's most trusted advisor or personal assistant. If the regent is holding their position due to their position in the line of succession, the compound term prince regent is often used; if the regent of a minor is their mother, she would be referred to as queen regent.
  4. Second Mexican Empire
    
    The Second Mexican Empire, officially the Mexican Empire, was a constitutional monarchy established in Mexico by Mexican monarchists with support mainly from the Second French Empire referred to as the Second French intervention in Mexico. Emperor Napoleon III of France, with the support of the Mexican conservatives, clergy, and nobility, established a monarchist ally in the Americas intended as a restraint upon the growing power of the United States. It has been viewed as both an independent monarchy and as a client state of France. Elected as the emperor of Mexico was Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, whose ancestors had previously ruled Mexico. His wife and empress consort of Mexico was the Belgian princess Charlotte of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, known as ‘Carlota’.
1883
1. Reinhold Rudenberg, German-American inventor and a pioneer of electron microscopy (d. 1961) births
  1. Reinhold Rudenberg
    
    Reinhold Rudenberg was a German-American electrical engineer and inventor, credited with many innovations in the electric power and related fields. Aside from improvements in electric power equipment, especially large alternating current generators, among others were the electrostatic-lens electron microscope, carrier-current communications on power lines, a form of phased array radar, an explanation of power blackouts, preferred number series, and the number prefix "Giga-".
  2. Electron microscope
    
    An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of accelerated electrons as a source of illumination. As the wavelength of an electron can be up to 100,000 times shorter than that of visible light photons, electron microscopes have a higher resolving power than light microscopes and can reveal the structure of smaller objects. A scanning transmission electron microscope has achieved better than 50 pm resolution in annular dark-field imaging mode and magnifications of up to about 10,000,000× whereas most light microscopes are limited by diffraction to about 200 nm resolution and useful magnifications below 2000×.
1881
1. Eulalio Gutiérrez, Mexican general and politician, President of Mexico (d. 1939) births
  1. Eulalio Gutiérrez
    
    Eulalio Gutiérrez Ortiz was a general in the Mexican Revolution from state of Coahuila. He is most notable for his election as provisional president of Mexico during the Aguascalientes Convention and led the country for a few months between November 6, 1914, and January 16, 1915. The Convention was convened by revolutionaries who had successfully ousted the regime of Victoriano Huerta after more than a year of conflict. Gutiérrez rather than "First Chief" Venustiano Carranza was chosen president of Mexico and a new round of violence broke out as revolutionary factions previously united turned against each other. "The high point of Gutiérrez's career occurred when he moved with the Conventionist army to shoulder the responsibilities of his new office [of president]." Gutiérrez's government was weak and he could not control the two main generals of the Army of the Convention, Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. Gutiérrez moved the capital of his government from Mexico City to San Luis Potosí. He resigned as president and made peace with Carranza. He went into exile in the United States, but later returned to Mexico. He died in 1939, outliving many other major figures of the Mexican Revolution.
  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.
2. Fernand Léger, French painter and sculptor (d. 1955) births
  1. Fernand Léger
    
    Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style. His boldly simplified treatment of modern subject matter has caused him to be regarded as a forerunner of pop art.
1877
1. Eddie Cochems, American football player and coach (d. 1953) births
  1. Eddie Cochems
    
    Edward Bulwer Cochems was an American football player and coach. He played football for the University of Wisconsin from 1898 to 1901 and was the head football coach at North Dakota Agricultural College—now known as North Dakota State University (1902–1903), Clemson University (1905), Saint Louis University (1906–1908), and the University of Maine (1914). During his three years at Saint Louis, he was the first football coach to build an offense around the forward pass, which became a legal play in the 1906 college football season. Using the forward pass, Cochems' 1906 team compiled an undefeated 11–0 record, led the nation in scoring, and outscored opponents by a combined score of 407 to 11. He is considered by some to be the "father of the forward pass" in American football.
1875
1. Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist and engineer (d. 1953) births
  1. Ludwig Prandtl
    
    Ludwig Prandtl was a German fluid dynamicist, physicist and aerospace scientist. He was a pioneer in the development of rigorous systematic mathematical analyses which he used for underlying the science of aerodynamics, which have come to form the basis of the applied science of aeronautical engineering. In the 1920s he developed the mathematical basis for the fundamental principles of subsonic aerodynamics in particular; and in general up to and including transonic velocities. His studies identified the boundary layer, thin-airfoils, and lifting-line theories. The Prandtl number was named after him.
1873
1. Étienne Desmarteau, Canadian shot putter and discus thrower (d. 1905) births
  1. Étienne Desmarteau
    
    Joseph-Étienne Desmarteau was a Canadian athlete, winner of the weight throwing event at the 1904 Summer Olympics.
1872
1. Gotse Delchev, Bulgarian and Macedonian revolutionary activist (d. 1903) births
  1. Gotse Delchev
    
    Georgi Nikolov Delchev, known as Gotse Delchev or Goce Delčev, was an important Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary (komitadji), active in the Ottoman-ruled Macedonia and Adrianople regions at the turn of the 20th century. He was the most prominent leader of what is known today as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), a secret revolutionary society that was active in Ottoman territories in the Balkans at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Delchev was its representative in Sofia, the capital of the Principality of Bulgaria. As such, he was also elected a member of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC), participating in the work of its governing body. He was killed in a battle with an Ottoman unit on the eve of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie uprising.
1871
1. Friedrich Ebert, German lawyer and politician, first President of Germany (d. 1925) births
  1. Friedrich Ebert
    
    Friedrich Ebert was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the first president of Germany from 1919 until his death in office in 1925.
  2. President of Germany (1919–1945)
    
    The president of the Reich was the German head of state under the Weimar constitution, which was officially in force from 1919 to 1945. In English he was usually simply referred to as the president of Germany.
1869
1. Bill Haywood, American labor organizer (d. 1928) births
  1. Bill Haywood
    
    William Dudley "Big Bill" Haywood was an American labor organizer and founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and a member of the executive committee of the Socialist Party of America. During the first two decades of the 20th century, Haywood was involved in several important labor battles, including the Colorado Labor Wars, the Lawrence Textile Strike, and other textile strikes in Massachusetts and New Jersey.
1868
1. Constance Markievicz, Irish revolutionary and first woman elected to the UK House of Commons (d. 1927) births
  1. Constance Markievicz
    
    Constance Georgine Markievicz, also known as Countess Markievicz and Madame Markievicz, was an Irish politician, revolutionary, nationalist, suffragist, socialist, and the first woman elected to the Westminster Parliament, and was elected Minister for Labour in the First Dáil, becoming the first female cabinet minister in Europe. She served as a Teachta Dála for the Dublin South constituency from 1921 to 1922 and 1923 to 1927. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Dublin St Patrick's from 1918 to 1922.
  2. House of Commons
    
    The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. The leader of the majority party in the House of Commons by convention becomes the prime minister. Other parliaments have also had a lower house called a "House of Commons".
1865
1. Abe Isoo, Japanese minister and politician (d. 1949) births
  1. Abe Isoo
    
    Abe Isoo was a Japanese Christian socialist, parliamentarian and pacifist. He largely contributed to development of baseball in Japan, and was called "Father of Japanese baseball." He created a baseball club of Waseda University.
1862
1. Édouard Estaunié, French novelist (d. 1942) births
  1. Édouard Estaunié
    
    Édouard Estaunié was a French novelist. Estaunié trained as a scientist and engineer, working at the Post and Telepgraph service and training further in Holland, before turning to the novel in 1891. In 1904, he devised the word "telecommunication". He was elected to the Académie française in 1923. He was also a reviewer, critic, and homme de lettres as well as a novelist.
1849
1. Jean Richepin, French poet, author, and playwright (d. 1926) births
  1. Jean Richepin
    
    Jean Richepin was a French poet, novelist and dramatist.
1848
1. Jean Aicard, French poet, author, and playwright (d. 1921) births
  1. Jean Aicard
    
    Jean François Victor Aicard was a French poet, dramatist, and novelist.
1843
1. Theodoros Kolokotronis, Greek general (b. 1770) deaths
  1. Theodoros Kolokotronis
    
    Theodoros Kolokotronis was a Greek general and the pre-eminent leader of the Greek War of Independence (1821–1829) against the Ottoman Empire. Kolokotronis's greatest success was the defeat of the Ottoman army under Mahmud Dramali Pasha at the Battle of Dervenakia in 1822. In 1825, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Greek forces in Peloponnese. Today, Kolokotronis ranks among the most prominent figures in Greece's War of Independence.
1831
1. Oliver Ames, American financier and politician, 35th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1895) births
  1. Oliver Ames (governor)
    
    Oliver Ames was an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and Republican politician who served as the 35th Governor of Massachusetts from 1887 to 1890.
  2. Governor of Massachusetts
    
    The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the chief executive officer of the government of Massachusetts. The governor is the head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonwealth's military forces.
1818
1. Emperor Norton, San Francisco eccentric and visionary (d. 1880) births
  1. Emperor Norton
    
    Joshua Abraham Norton, known as Emperor Norton, was a resident of San Francisco, California who, in 1859, proclaimed himself "Norton I., Emperor of the United States". In 1863, after Napoleon III invaded Mexico, he took the secondary title of "Protector of Mexico".
1799
1. Almeida Garrett, Portuguese journalist and author (d. 1854) births
  1. Almeida Garrett
    
    João Baptista da Silva Leitão de Almeida Garrett, 1st Viscount of Almeida Garrett was a Portuguese poet, orator, playwright, novelist, journalist, politician, and a peer of the realm. A major promoter of theater in Portugal he is considered the greatest figure of Portuguese Romanticism and a true revolutionary and humanist. He proposed the construction of the D. Maria II National Theatre and the creation of the Conservatory of Dramatic Art.
2. Étienne-Louis Boullée, French architect and educator (b. 1728) deaths
  1. Étienne-Louis Boullée
    
    Étienne-Louis Boullée was a visionary French neoclassical architect whose work greatly influenced contemporary architects.
1781
1. Josef Mysliveček, Czech composer (b. 1737) deaths
  1. Josef Mysliveček
    
    Josef Mysliveček was a Czech composer who contributed to the formation of late eighteenth-century classicism in music. Mysliveček provided his younger friend Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with significant compositional models in the genres of symphony, Italian serious opera, and violin concerto; both Wolfgang and his father Leopold Mozart considered him an intimate friend from the time of their first meetings in Bologna in 1770 until he betrayed their trust over the promise of an operatic commission for Wolfgang to be arranged with the management of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. His closeness to the Mozart family resulted in frequent references to him in the Mozart correspondence.
1778
1. Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, Swiss botanist, mycologist, and academic (d. 1841) births
  1. Augustin Pyramus de Candolle
    
    Augustin Pyramus de Candolle was a Swiss botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple of years de Candolle had established a new genus, and he went on to document hundreds of plant families and create a new natural plant classification system. Although de Candolle's main focus was botany, he also contributed to related fields such as phytogeography, agronomy, paleontology, medical botany, and economic botany.
1774
1. Charles Marie de La Condamine, French mathematician and geographer (b. 1701) deaths
  1. Charles Marie de La Condamine
    
    Charles Marie de La Condamine was a French explorer, geographer, and mathematician. He spent ten years in territory which is now Ecuador, measuring the length of a degree of latitude at the equator and preparing the first map of the Amazon region based on astro-geodetic observations. Furthermore he was a contributor to the Encyclopédie.
1740
1. Carl Michael Bellman, Swedish poet and composer (d. 1795) births
  1. Carl Michael Bellman
    
    Carl Michael Bellman was a Swedish songwriter, composer, musician, poet and entertainer. He is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition and remains a powerful influence in Swedish music, as well as in Scandinavian literature, to this day. He has been compared to Shakespeare, Beethoven, Mozart, and Hogarth, but his gift, using elegantly rococo classical references in comic contrast to sordid drinking and prostitution—at once regretted and celebrated in song—is unique.
1725
1. Dru Drury, English entomologist and author (d. 1804) births
  1. Dru Drury
    
    Dru Drury was a British collector of natural history specimens and an entomologist. He had specimens collected from across the world through a network of ship's officers and collectors including Henry Smeathman. His collections were utilized by many entomologists of his time to describe and name new species and is best known for his book Illustrations of natural history which includes the names and descriptions of many insects, published in parts from 1770 to 1782 with copperplate engravings by Moses Harris.
1713
1. Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, English philosopher and politician (b. 1671) deaths
  1. Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury
    
    Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury was an English politician, philosopher, and writer.
1688
1. Pierre de Marivaux, French author and playwright (d. 1763) births
  1. Pierre de Marivaux
    
    Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux, commonly referred to as Marivaux, was a French playwright and novelist.
1677
1. Johann Ludwig Bach, German violinist and composer (d. 1731) births
  1. Johann Ludwig Bach
    
    Johann Ludwig Bach was a German composer and violinist.
1676
1. Giacomo Facco, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1753) births
  1. Giacomo Facco
    
    Giacomo Facco was an Italian Baroque violinist, conductor and composer. One of the most famous Italian composers of his day, he was completely forgotten until 1962, when his work was discovered by composer, conductor, and musicologist Uberto Zanolli.
1646
1. Hans Erasmus Aßmann, German poet and politician (d. 1699) births
  1. Hans Erasmus Aßmann
    
    Hans Erasmus Aßmann, Freiherr von Abschatz was a German statesman and poet from the second Silesian school.
1617
1. Lodewijk Elzevir, Dutch publisher, co-founded the House of Elzevir (b. 1546) deaths
  1. Lodewijk Elzevir
    
    Lodewijk Elzevir, originally Lodewijk or Louis Elsevier or Elzevier, was a printer, born in the city of Leuven. He was the founder of the House of Elzevir, which printed, for example, "Two New Sciences", a work of Galileo, at a time when his work was suppressed for religious reasons. Although the House of Elzevir ceased publishing in 1712, the modern Dutch Elsevier company was founded in 1880 and took its name from the historic Dutch publishing house.
  2. House of Elzevir
    
    Elzevir is the name of a celebrated family of Dutch booksellers, publishers, and printers of the 17th and early 18th centuries. The duodecimo series of "Elzevirs" became very famous and very desirable among bibliophiles, who sought to obtain the tallest and freshest copies of these tiny books.
1615
1. Giambattista della Porta, Italian playwright and scholar (b. 1535) deaths
  1. Giambattista della Porta
    
    Giambattista della Porta, also known as Giovanni Battista Della Porta, was an Italian scholar, polymath and playwright who lived in Naples at the time of the Renaissance, Scientific Revolution and Reformation.
1590
1. Gioseffo Zarlino, Italian composer and theorist (b. 1517) deaths
  1. Gioseffo Zarlino
    
    Gioseffo Zarlino was an Italian music theorist and composer of the Renaissance. He made a large contribution to the theory of counterpoint as well as to musical tuning.
1575
1. Pierre de Bérulle, French cardinal and theologian, founded the French school of spirituality (d. 1629) births
  1. Pierre de Bérulle
    
    Pierre de Bérulle was a French Catholic priest, cardinal and statesman, one of the most important mystics of the 17th century in France. He was the founder of the French school of spirituality, who could count among his friends and disciples Vincent de Paul and Francis de Sales.
  2. French school of spirituality
    
    The French School of spirituality was the principal devotional influence within the Catholic Church from the mid-17th century through the mid-20th century, not only in France but throughout the church in most of the world. A development of the Catholic Reformation like the Spanish mystics and the Society of Jesus, it focused the devotional life of the Catholic faithful on a personal experience of the person of Jesus and the quest for personal holiness. It was perhaps more concrete than the Iberian example and thus easier to teach, but it shared with the Spanish saints their focus on the Divine Person. This movement in Catholic spirituality had many important figures over the centuries, the first being its founder, Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle (1575–1629).
1555
1. John Rogers, English clergyman and translator (b. 1505) deaths
  1. John Rogers (Bible editor and martyr)
    
    John Rogers was an English clergyman, Bible translator and commentator. He guided the development of the Matthew Bible in vernacular English during the reign of Henry VIII and was the first English Protestant executed as a heretic under Mary I of England, who was determined to restore Roman Catholicism.
1508
1. Conrad Celtes, German poet and scholar (b. 1459) deaths
  1. Conrad Celtes
    
    Conrad Celtes was a German Renaissance humanist scholar and poet of the German Renaissance born in Franconia. He led the theatrical performances at the Viennese court and reformed the syllabi.
1505
1. Mikołaj Rej, Polish poet and author (d. 1580) births
  1. Mikołaj Rej
    
    Mikołaj Rej or Mikołaj Rey of Nagłowice was a Polish poet and prose writer of the emerging Renaissance in Poland as it succeeded the Middle Ages, as well as a politician and musician. He was the first Polish author to write exclusively in the Polish language, and is considered, to be one of the founders of Polish literary language and literature.
2. Jeanne de Valois, daughter of Louis XI of France (b. 1464) deaths
  1. Joan of France, Duchess of Berry
    
    Joan of France, was briefly Queen of France as wife of King Louis XII, in between the death of her brother, King Charles VIII, and the annulment of her marriage. After that, she retired to her domain, where she soon founded the monastic Order of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where she served as abbess. From this Order later sprang the religious congregation of the Apostolic Sisters of the Annunciation, founded in 1787 to teach the children of the poor. She was canonized on 28 May 1950.
1498
1. Antonio del Pollaiuolo, Italian artist (b. 1429/1433) deaths
  1. Antonio del Pollaiuolo
    
    Antonio del Pollaiuolo, also known as Antonio di Jacopo Pollaiuolo or Antonio Pollaiuolo, was an Italian painter, sculptor, engraver, and goldsmith during the Italian Renaissance.
1495
1. Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan (d. 1535) births
  1. Francesco II Sforza
    
    Francesco II Sforza was Duke of Milan from 1521 until his death. He was the last member of the Sforza family to rule Milan.
2. Jean Parisot de Valette, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller (d. 1568) births
  1. Jean Parisot de Valette
    
    Fra' Jean "Parisot" de la Valette was a French nobleman and 49th Grand Master of the Order of Malta, from 21 August 1557 to his death in 1568. As a Knight Hospitaller, joining the order in the Langue de Provence, he fought with distinction against the Turks at Rhodes. As Grand Master, Valette became the Order's hero and most illustrious leader, commanding the resistance against the Ottomans at the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, sometimes regarded as one of the greatest sieges of all time.
1447
1. Lodovico Lazzarelli, Italian poet (d. 1500) births
  1. Lodovico Lazzarelli
    
    Ludovico Lazzarelli was an Italian poet, philosopher, courtier, hermeticist and (likely) magician and diviner of the early Renaissance.
1169
1. John of Ajello, Bishop of Catania deaths
  1. John of Ajello
    
    John of Ajello was the Bishop of Catania from November 1167 until his death. He was a brother of the chancellor Matthew of Ajello.
870
1. Ceolnoth, archbishop of Canterbury deaths
  1. Ceolnoth
    
    Ceolnoth or Ceolnoþ was a medieval English Archbishop of Canterbury. Although later chroniclers stated he had previously held ecclesiastical office in Canterbury, there is no contemporary evidence of this, and his first appearance in history is when he became archbishop in 833. Ceolnoth faced two problems as archbishop – raids and invasions by the Vikings and a new political situation resulting from a change in overlordship from one kingdom to another during the early part of his archiepiscopate. Ceolnoth attempted to solve both problems by coming to an agreement with his new overlords for protection in 838. Ceolnoth's later years in office were marked by more Viking raids and a decline in monastic life in his archbishopric.
  2. Diocese of Canterbury
    
    The Diocese of Canterbury is a Church of England diocese covering eastern Kent which was founded by St. Augustine of Canterbury in 597. The diocese is centred on Canterbury Cathedral and is the oldest see of the Church of England.
856
1. Rabanus Maurus, Frankish archbishop and theologian (b. 780) deaths
  1. Rabanus Maurus
    
    Rabanus Maurus Magnentius, also known as Hrabanus or Rhabanus, was a Frankish Benedictine monk, theologian, poet, encyclopedist and military writer who became archbishop of Mainz in East Francia. He was the author of the encyclopaedia De rerum naturis. He also wrote treatises on education and grammar and commentaries on the Bible. He was one of the most prominent teachers and writers of the Carolingian age, and was called "Praeceptor Germaniae", or "the teacher of Germany". In the most recent edition of the Roman Martyrology, his feast is given as 4 February and he is qualified as a Saint ('sanctus').
708
1. Pope Sisinnius (b. 650) deaths
  1. Pope Sisinnius
    
    Pope Sisinnius was the bishop of Rome from 15 January 708 to his death.
211
1. Septimius Severus, Roman emperor (b. 145) deaths
  1. Septimius Severus
    
    Lucius Septimius Severus was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succession of offices under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Severus seized power after the death of the emperor Pertinax in 193 during the Year of the Five Emperors.

Holidays

Christian feast day: Andrew Corsini
1. Andrew Corsini
  
  Andrea Corsini was an Italian Catholic prelate and professed member from the Carmelites who served as the Bishop of Fiesole from 1349 until his death.
Christian feast day: Gilbert of Sempringham
1. Gilbert of Sempringham
  
  Gilbert of Sempringham the founder of the Gilbertine Order, was the only Medieval Englishman to found a conventual order, mainly because the Abbot of Cîteaux declined his request to assist him in organising a group of women who wanted to live as nuns, living with lay brothers and sisters, in 1148. He founded a double monastery of canons regular and nuns in spite of such a foundation being contrary to canonical practice.
Christian feast day: John de Brito
1. John de Britto
  
  John de Britto, also known as Arul Anandar, was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary and martyr, often called 'the Portuguese St Francis Xavier' by Indian Catholics. He can be called the John the Baptist of India.
Christian feast day: Goldrofe of Arganil
1. Goldrofe of Arganil
  
  Goldrofe of Arganil, C.R.S.A. was a Portuguese Augustinian prior in what is today central Portugal. He is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.
Christian feast day: Blessed Rabanus Maurus
1. Rabanus Maurus
  
  Rabanus Maurus Magnentius, also known as Hrabanus or Rhabanus, was a Frankish Benedictine monk, theologian, poet, encyclopedist and military writer who became archbishop of Mainz in East Francia. He was the author of the encyclopaedia De rerum naturis. He also wrote treatises on education and grammar and commentaries on the Bible. He was one of the most prominent teachers and writers of the Carolingian age, and was called "Praeceptor Germaniae", or "the teacher of Germany". In the most recent edition of the Roman Martyrology, his feast is given as 4 February and he is qualified as a Saint ('sanctus').
Christian feast day: Rimbert
1. Rimbert
  
  Saint Rimbert was archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, in the northern part of the Kingdom of East Frankia from 865 until his death in 888. He most famously wrote the hagiography about the life Ansgar, the Vita Ansgari, one of the most popular hagiographies of middle ages.
Christian feast day: February 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
1. February 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  
  February 3 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - February 5
Day of the Armed Struggle (Angola)
1. Public holidays in Angola
  
  Angola has twelve public holidays that can be increased by bridge holidays if a holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday. 2022 has fifteen national holidays.
2. Angola
  
  Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country located on the west coast of central-southern Africa. It is the second-largest Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) country in both total area and population, and is the seventh-largest country in Africa. It is bordered by Namibia to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Zambia to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Angola has an exclave province, the province of Cabinda, that borders the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The capital and most populous city is Luanda.
Earliest day on which Ash Wednesday can fall, while March 10 is the latest; celebrated on the first day of Lent (Christianity)
1. Ash Wednesday
  
  Ash Wednesday is a holy day of prayer and fasting in many Western Christian denominations. It is preceded by Shrove Tuesday and falls on the first day of Lent. It is observed by Catholics in the Roman Rite, Lutherans, Moravians, Anglicans, Methodists, Nazarenes, as well as by some churches in the Reformed tradition.
2. Lent
  
  Lent is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, before beginning his public ministry. Lent is observed in the Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Methodist, Moravian, Oriental Orthodox, Persian, United Protestant and Roman Catholic traditions. Some Anabaptist, Baptist, Reformed, and nondenominational Christian churches also observe Lent, although many churches in these traditions do not.
Independence Day (Sri Lanka)
1. Independence Day (Sri Lanka)
  
  National Day, also known as Independence Day, is a Sri Lankan national holiday celebrated annually on 4 February to commemorate the country’s political independence from British rule in 1948. It is celebrated all over the country through a flag-hoisting ceremony, dances, parades and performances. Usually, the main celebration takes place in Colombo, where the President raises the national flag and delivers a nationally televised speech.
Rosa Parks Day (California and Missouri, United States)
1. Rosa Parks Day
  
  Rosa Parks Day is a holiday in honor of the civil rights leader Rosa Parks, celebrated in the U.S. states of California and Missouri on her birthday, February 4, in Michigan on the first Monday after her birthday, and in Ohio and Oregon on the day she was arrested, December 1.
2. California
  
  California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2 million residents across a total area of approximately 163,696 square miles (423,970 km2), it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the most populated subnational entity in North America and the 34th most populous in the world. The Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions respectively, with the former having more than 18.7 million residents and the latter having over 9.6 million. Sacramento is the state's capital, while Los Angeles is the most populous city in the state and the second most populous city in the country. San Francisco is the second most densely populated major city in the country. Los Angeles County is the country's most populous, while San Bernardino County is the largest county by area in the country. California borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, the Mexican state of Baja California to the south; and has a coastline along the Pacific Ocean to the west.
3. Missouri
  
  Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states : Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas to the south and Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska to the west. In the south are the Ozarks, a forested highland, providing timber, minerals, and recreation. The Missouri River, after which the state is named, flows through the center into the Mississippi River, which makes up the eastern border. With more than six million residents, it is the 19th-most populous state of the country. The largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield and Columbia; the capital is Jefferson City.
World Cancer Day
1. World Cancer Day
  
  World Cancer Day is an international day marked on 4 February to raise awareness of cancer and to encourage its prevention, detection, and treatment. World Cancer Day is led by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) to support the goals of the World Cancer Declaration, written in 2008. The primary goal of World Cancer Day is to significantly reduce illness and death caused by cancer and is an opportunity to rally the international community to end the injustice of preventable suffering from cancer. The day is observed by the United Nations.
International Day of Human Fraternity
1. International Day of Human Fraternity
  
  The International Day of Human Fraternity was established by the United Nations General Assembly on December 21, 2020, with resolution 75/200 as a way to promote greater cultural and religious tolerance. With this resolution, which was co-facilitated by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, the United Nations invited all its member states and other international organizations to observe the International Day of Human Fraternity annually on February 4.

Important events in history on February 4 th

Events

COVID-19 pandemic

Macau

Songshan Airport

TransAsia Airways Flight 235

Flameout

TransAsia Airways Flight 235

Taipei

Kinmen

Keelung River

London low emission zone

Greater London

Facebook

Social networking service

Mark Zuckerberg

Eduardo Saverin

Serbia and Montenegro

Jacques Chirac

UNESCO

Kōichirō Matsuura

World Cancer Day

Flag of convenience

New Carissa

Coos Bay, Oregon

Oil spill

Killing of Amadou Diallo

February 1998 Afghanistan earthquake

Moment magnitude scale

Landslide

February 1998 Afghanistan earthquake

Takhar Province

Modified Mercalli intensity scale

Lebanon

Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion

1997 Israeli helicopter disaster

1997 Bojnurd earthquake

February 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt

Hugo Chávez

Venezuela

Carlos Andrés Pérez

Chicago Transit Authority

Elevated railway

1977 Chicago Loop derailment

Guatemala

Honduras

1976 Guatemala earthquake

1975 Haicheng earthquake

Richter magnitude scale

Haicheng, Liaoning

Patty Hearst

Symbionese Liberation Army

Stockholm syndrome

Provisional Irish Republican Army

M62 coach bombing

British Armed Forces

Symbionese Liberation Army

Patty Hearst

Berkeley, California

M62 coach bombing

Provisional Irish Republican Army

British Armed Forces

Yorkshire

Yasser Arafat

Palestine Liberation Organization

Lunar Orbiter program

Lunar Orbiter 3

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

Surveyor program

Apollo program

All Nippon Airways Flight 60

Tokyo Bay

Angolan War of Independence

Portuguese Colonial War

Dominion of Ceylon

Sri Lanka

Commonwealth of Nations

World War II

Santo Tomas Internment Camp

List of Japanese-run internment camps during World War II

Important events in history
on February 4 ^th