Events Pre-1600 904 – Sergius III is elected pope, after coming out of retirement to take over the papacy from the deposed antipope Christopher. 946 – Caliph al-Mustakfi is blinded and deposed by Mu'izz al-Dawla, ruler of the Buyid Empire. He is succeeded by al-Muti as caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate.
1601–1900 1814 – War of the Sixth Coalition: France engages Russia and Prussia in the Battle of Brienne. 1819 – Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore. 1845 – "The Raven" is published in The Evening Mirror in New York, the first publication with the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe. 1850 – Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress. 1856 – Queen Victoria issues a Warrant under the Royal sign-manual that establishes the Victoria Cross to recognise acts of valour by British military personnel during the Crimean War. 1861 – Kansas is admitted as the 34th U.S. state. 1863 – The Bear River Massacre: A detachment of California Volunteers led by Colonel Patrick Edward Connor engage the Shoshone at Bear River, Washington Territory, killing hundreds of men, women and children. 1886 – Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile. 1891 – Liliuokalani is proclaimed the last monarch and only queen regnant of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
1901–present 1907 – Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator. 1911 – Mexican Revolution: Mexicali is captured by the Mexican Liberal Party, igniting the Magonista rebellion of 1911. 1918 – Ukrainian–Soviet War: The Bolshevik Red Army, on its way to besiege Kyiv, is met by a small group of military students at the Battle of Kruty. 1918 – Ukrainian–Soviet War: An armed uprising organized by the Bolsheviks in anticipation of the encroaching Red Army begins at the Kiev Arsenal, which will be put down six days later. 1936 – The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced. 1940 – Three trains on the Nishinari Line; present Sakurajima Line, in Osaka, Japan, collide and explode while approaching Ajikawaguchi Station. One hundred and eighty-one people are killed. 1943 – World War II: The first day of the Battle of Rennell Island, is torpedoed and heavily damaged by Japanese bombers. 1944 – World War II: Approximately 38 people are killed and about a dozen injured when the Polish village of Koniuchy (present-day Kaniūkai, Lithuania) is attacked by Soviet partisan units. 1944 – World War II: In Bologna, Italy, the Anatomical theatre of the Archiginnasio is completely destroyed in an air-raid. 1959 – The first Melodifestivalen is held at Cirkus in Stockholm, Sweden.Leif Thorsson. Melodifestivalen genom tiderna (1999, second edition 2006). Pg. 19. Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB. 1971 – The last of its many UFO sightings is made at Pudasjärvi, Finland. 1973 – EgyptAir Flight 741 crashes into the Kyrenia Mountains in Cyprus, killing 37 people. 1983 – Singapore cable car crash: Panamanian-registered oil rig, Eniwetok, strikes the cables of the Singapore Cable Car system linking the mainland and Sentosa Island, causing two cabins to fall into the water and killing seven people and leaving thirteen others trapped for hours. 1989 – Cold War: Hungary establishes diplomatic relations with South Korea, making it the first Eastern Bloc nation to do so. 1991 – Gulf War: The Battle of Khafji, the first major ground engagement of the war, as well as its deadliest, begins between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. 1996 – President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear weapons testing. 2001 – Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals. 2002 – In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush describes "regimes that sponsor terror" as an Axis of evil, in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea. 2005 – The first direct commercial flights from mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines flight lands in Beijing. 2008 – An Egyptian court rules that people who do not adhere to one of the three government-recognised religions, while not allowed to list any belief outside of those three, are still eligible to receive government identity documents. 2009 – Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is removed from office following his conviction of several corruption charges, including solicitation of personal benefit in exchange for an appointment to the United States Senate as a replacement for then-U.S. president-elect Barack Obama. 2013 – SCAT Airlines Flight 760 crashes near the Kazakh city of Almaty, killing 21 people. 2014 – Rojava conflict: The Afrin Canton declares its autonomy from the Syrian Arab Republic. 2017 – A gunman opens fire at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City, killing six people and wounding 19 others in a spree shooting. 2020 - A plinth breaks between Coral Edge and Riviera in Singapore, Coral Edge closes one platform.https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/punggol-east-lrt-platform-closes-early-for-urgent-maintenance-works-after-crack 2022 – Canadian truck drivers and pedestrians gathered to rally and protest on Parliament Hill against Canadian COVID-19 restrictions, which caused traffic and closures around the city. 2025 – American Eagle Flight 5342 collided mid-air with a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk operated by the United States Army and crashed into the Potomac River, killing all 67 people on board both aircraft. 2025 – A chartered Beechcraft 1900 crashes near the Unity oilfield in South Sudan, killing 20 people.
Births Pre-1600 1455 – Johann Reuchlin, German-born humanist and scholar (died 1522) 1475 – Giuliano Bugiardini, Italian painter (died 1555) 1499 – Katharina von Bora, wife of Martin Luther; formerly a Roman Catholic nun (died 1552) 1525 – Lelio Sozzini, Italian humanist and reformer (died 1562) 1584 – Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (died 1647) 1591 – Franciscus Junius, German pioneer philologist (died 1677)
1601–1900 1602 – Countess Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Münzenberg (died 1651) 1632 – Johann Georg Graevius, German scholar and critic (died 1703) 1688 – Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish astronomer, philosopher, and theologian (died 1772) 1711 – Giuseppe Bonno, Austrian composer (died 1788) 1715 – Georg Christoph Wagenseil, Austrian organist and composer (died 1777) 1717 – Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, English field marshal and politician, 19th Governor General of Canada (died 1797) 1718 – Paul Rabaut, French pastor (died 1794) 1737 – Thomas Paine, English-American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary (died 1809) 1749 – Christian VII of Denmark (died 1808) 1754 – Moses Cleaveland, American general, lawyer, and politician, founded Cleveland, Ohio (died 1806) 1756 – Henry Lee III, American general and politician, 9th Governor of Virginia (died 1818) 1761 – Albert Gallatin, Swiss-American ethnologist, linguist, and politician, 4th United States Secretary of the Treasury (died 1849) 1782 – Daniel Auber, French composer (died 1871) 1792 – Lemuel H. Arnold, American politician (died 1852) 1801 – Johannes Bernardus van Bree, Dutch violinist, composer, and conductor (died 1857) 1810 – Ernst Kummer, Polish-German mathematician and academic (died 1893) 1810 – Mary Whitwell Hale, American teacher, school founder, and hymnwriter (died 1862) 1843 – William McKinley, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 25th President of the United States (died 1901) 1846 – Karol Olszewski, Polish chemist, mathematician and physicist (died 1915) 1852 – Frederic Hymen Cowen, Jamaican-English pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1935) 1858 – Henry Ward Ranger, American painter and academic (died 1916) 1860 – Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright and short story writer (died 1904) 1861 – Florida Ruffin Ridley, American civil rights activist, teacher, editor, and writer (died 1943) 1862 – Frederick Delius, English composer (died 1934) 1864 – Richard Arman Gregory, British astronomer (died 1952) 1866 – Romain Rolland, French historian, author, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1944) 1867 – Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Spanish journalist and author (died 1928) 1874 – John D. Rockefeller Jr., American businessman and philanthropist (died 1960) 1876 – Havergal Brian, English composer (died 1972) 1880 – W. C. Fields, American actor, comedian, and screenwriter (died 1946) 1881 – Alice Catherine Evans, American microbiologist (died 1975) 1884 – Juhan Aavik, Estonian-Swedish composer and conductor (died 1982) 1886 – Karl Freudenberg, German chemist (died 1983) 1888 – Sydney Chapman, English mathematician and geophysicist (died 1970) 1888 – Wellington Koo, Chinese statesman (died 1985) 1892 – Ernst Lubitsch, German American film director, producer, writer, and actor (died 1947). 1895 – Muna Lee, American poet and author (died 1965)
1901–present 1901 – Allen B. DuMont, American engineer and broadcaster, founded the DuMont Television Network (died 1965) 1901 – E. P. Taylor, Canadian businessman and horse breeder (died 1989) 1905 – Barnett Newman, American painter and etcher (died 1970) 1913 – Victor Mature, American actor (died 1999) 1915 – Bill Peet, American author and illustrator (died 2002) 1915 – John Serry Sr., Italian-American concert accordionist and composer (died 2003) 1916 – Roy Markham, British plant virologist (died 1979) 1917 – John Raitt, American actor and singer (died 2005) 1918 – John Forsythe, American actor (died 2010) 1920 – Paul Gayten, American R&B pianist, songwriter, producer, and record company executive (died 1991) 1923 – Paddy Chayefsky, American author and screenwriter (died 1981) 1923 – Eddie Taylor, American electric blues guitarist and singer (died 1985) 1926 – Abdus Salam, Pakistani-British physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1996) 1927 – Edward Abbey, American environmentalist and author (died 1989) 1928 – Joseph Kruskal, American mathematician and computer scientist (died 2010) 1928 – Lee Shau-kee, Hong Kong real estate billionaire (died 2025) 1929 – Elio Petri, Italian director and screenwriter (died 1982) 1931 – Leslie Bricusse, English playwright and composer (died 2021) 1931 – Ferenc Mádl, Hungarian academic and politician, 2nd President of Hungary (died 2011) 1932 – Raman Subba Row, English cricketer and referee (died 2024) 1933 – Sacha Distel, French singer and guitarist (died 2004) 1934 – Alan Cowley, British chemist (died 2020) 1936 – James Jamerson, American bass player (died 1983) 1936 – Veturi, Indian poet and songwriter (died 2010) 1937 – Jeff Clyne, British musician (died 2009) 1939 – Germaine Greer, Australian journalist and author 1939 – Jeanne Lee, American jazz singer, poet and composer (died 2000) 1940 – Justino Díaz, Puerto Rican opera singer 1940 – Katharine Ross, American actress and author 1941 – Robin Morgan, American actress, journalist, and author (died 2026) 1941 – Gamini Jayawickrama Perera, Sri Lankan politician (died 2024) 1942 – Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, Cuban military officer, legislator and cosmonaut 1943 – Tony Blackburn, English radio and television host 1943 – Pat Quinn, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 2014) 1943 – Mark Wynter, English singer and actor 1945 – Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, Malian academic and politician, Prime Minister of Mali (died 2022) 1945 – Tom Selleck, American actor and businessman 1946 – Geater Davis, American singer-songwriter (died 1984) 1946 – Bettye LaVette, American singer-songwriter 1947 – Linda B. Buck, American biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate 1947 – David Byron, English singer-songwriter (died 1985) 1947 – Marián Varga, Slovak organist and composer (died 2017) 1948 – Raymond Keene, English chess player and author 1948 – Cristina Saralegui, Cuban-American journalist, actress and talk show host 1948 – Marc Singer, Canadian-American actor