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1576 - Henry of Navarre converts to Roman Catholicism in order to ensure his right to the throne of France.

1597 - A group of early Japanese Christians are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society.

1631 - Roger Williams emigrates to Boston.

1778 - South Carolina becomes the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.

1782 - Spanish defeat British forces and capture Minorca.

1818 - Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway.

1846 - The Oregon Spectator becomes the first newspaper on the Pacific coast of the United States.

1859 - Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexander John Cuza as the United Principalities.

1881 - Phoenix, Arizona is incorporated.

1885 - King Léopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal possession.

1917 - The current constitution of Mexico is adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

1917 - The Congress of the United States passes a law, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, banning most Asian immigration to the United States.

1919 - Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists.

1922 - DeWitt and Lila Wallace publish the first issue of Reader's Digest. (Some sources say February 7.)

1924 - The Royal Greenwich Observatory begin broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the "BBC pips".

1936 - Charlie Chaplin releases the last movie of the silent film era, Modern Times.

1937 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a plan to enlarge the Supreme Court of the United States.

1945 - World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.

1946 - The Chondoist Chongu Party is founded in North Korea.

1958 - Gamel Abdel Nasser is nominated to be the first president of the United Arab Republic.

1958 - A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.

1961 - The Sunday Telegraph publishes its first issue.

1962 - French President Charles De Gaulle calls for allowing Algeria to be an independent nation.

1968 - Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh begins.

1971 - Project Apollo: Apollo 14 Mission - Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell aboard LM, Antares land on the Moon at Fra Mauro formation.

1972 - Bob Douglas becomes the first African American elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

1974 - John Murtha becomes the first Vietnam War veteran elected to the Congress of the United States.

1978 - The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor'easters ever to hit New England, forms.

1988 - Manuel Noriega is indicted on drug smuggling and money laundering charges.

1988 - Comic Relief hold the first "Red Nose Day", which raises £15 million in the United Kingdom for charity.

1991 - A Michigan court bars Dr. Jack Kevorkian from assisting in suicides.

1994 - Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.

1997 - The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families.

1997 - Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter investment banks announce a $10 billion merger.

2003 - U.S. plan to invade Iraq: Colin Powell addresses the UN Security Council on Iraq.

2004 - Twenty-three Chinese people drown when a group of 35 cockle-pickers are trapped by rising tides in Morecambe Bay, England. Twenty-one bodies are recovered.

2004 - Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion.

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976 - Sanjo, Emperor of Japan (d. 1017)

1505 - Aegidius Tschudi, Swiss historian (d. 1572)

1519 - René of Châlon, (d. 1544)

1534 - Giovanni de' Bardi, Italian writer (d. 1612)

1589 - Esteban Manuel de Villegas, Spanish poet (d. 1669)

1608 - Gaspar Schott, German mathematician (d. 1666)

1626 - Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, French author (d. 1696)

1650 - Anne-Jules, 2nd duc de Noailles, French general (d. 1708)

1703 - Gilbert Tennent, Irish-born religious leader (d. 1764)

1725 - James Otis, American lawyer and patriot (d. 1783)

1788 - Robert Peel, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1850)

1795 - Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger, Austrian mineralogist (d. 1871)

1804 - Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Finnish poet (d. 1877)

1808 - Carl Spitzweg, German painter (d. 1885)

1810 - Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist (d. 1880)

1837 - Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist (d. 1899)

1840 - John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish inventor (d. 1921)

1848 - Joris-Karl Huysmans, French author (d. 1907)

1848 - Belle Starr, American outlaw (d. 1889)

1878 - André Citroën, French automobile pioneer (d. 1935)

1880 - Gabriel Voisin, French aviation pioneer (d. 1973)

1889 - Ernest Tyldesley, British cricketer (d. 1962)

1900 - Adlai Stevenson, American politician (d. 1965)

1903 - Joan Whitney Payson, American heiress (d. 1975)

1906 - John Carradine, American actor (d. 1988)

1908 - Daisy and Violet Hilton, British conjoined twins (d. 1969)

1910 - Francisco Varallo, Argentine footballer

1911 - Jussi Björling, Swedish tenor (d. 1960)

1914 - William S. Burroughs, American author (d. 1997)

1914 - Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1998)

1915 - Robert Hofstadter, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1990)

1918 - Tim Holt, American actor (d. 1973)

1919 - Red Buttons, American actor (d. 2006)

1919 - Andreas Papandreou, Greek politician (d. 1996)

1920 - Frank Muir, British comedian (d. 1998)

1921 - John Pritchard, British conductor (d. 1989)

1923 - Claude King, American musician

1927 - Ruth Fertel, American entrepreneur (d. 2002)

1928 - Andrew Greeley, American priest and novelist

1929 - Luc Ferrari, French composer (d. 2005)

1929 - Fred Sinowatz, Austrian politician

1929 - Al Worthington, baseball player

1930 - John A. Gambling, American radio show host (d. 2004)

1933 - Jörn Donner, Finnish writer/director

1934 - Don Cherry, hockey commentator

1934 - Hank Aaron, baseball player

1937 - Stuart Damon, American actor

1937 - Wang Xuan, Chinese scientist

1940 - H.R. Giger, Swiss artist

1941 - Jane Bryant Quinn, American journalist

1941 - David Selby, American actor

1941 - Kaspar Villiger, Swiss Federal Councilor

1942 - Roger Staubach, American football player

1943 - Nolan Bushnell, American video game pioneer

1943 - Michael Mann, American film director

1943 - Craig Morton, American football player

1944 - Al Kooper, American musician

1945 - Charlotte Rampling, British actress

1947 - Darrell Waltrip, American race car driver

1948 - Sven-Göran Eriksson, Swedish Football Manager

1948 - Christopher Guest, American actor

1948 - Barbara Hershey, American actress

1948 - Errol Morris, American film director

1949 - Nigel Olsson, drummer

1953 - John Beilein, American basketball coach

1954 - Cliff Martinez, American musician

1955 - Mike Heath, baseball player

1956 - Hector Rebaque, Mexican racing driver

1962 - Jennifer Jason Leigh, American actress

1964 - Laura Linney, American actress

1964 - Duff McKagen, American musician

1965 - Gheorghe Hagi, Romanian footballer

1966 - Rok Petrovič, Slovenian skier (d. 1993)

1968 - Roberto Alomar, baseball player

1969 - Bobby Brown, American singer

1971 - Sara Evans, American singer

1972 - Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark

1972 - Koriki Choshu, Japanese comedian

1975 - Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Dutch footballer

1975 - Adam Carson, American musician

1976 - Tony Jaa, Thai actor

1976 - Abhishek Bachchan, Indian actor

1976 - John Aloisi, Australian footballer

1977 - Ben Ainslie, British sailor

1977 - Ahmad Merritt, American football player

1978 - Shawn Reaves, American actor

1980 - Brad Fitzpatrick, LiveJournal creator

1980 - Robin Vik, Czech tennis player

1980 - Jo Swinson, British politician

1981 - Nora Zehetner, American actress

1982 - Rodrigo Palacio, Argentine footballer

1984 - Carlos Tévez, Argentinine footballer

1985 - Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese footballer

1986 - Reed Sorenson, NASCAR driver

1986 - Billy Sharp, English footballer

1989 - Jeremy Sumpter, American actor

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995 - William IV, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 937)

1520 - Sten Sture the Younger, regent of Sweden (b. 1493)

1578 - Giambattista Moroni, Italian painter

1705 - Philipp Jakob Spener, German theologian (b. 1635)

1766 - Leopold Josef Graf Daun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1705)

1775 - Eusebius Amort, German Catholic theologian (b. 1692)

1790 - William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist (b. 1710)

1807 - Pasquale Paoli, Corsican patriot and military leader (b. 1725)

1881 - Thomas Carlyle, Scottish writer and historian (b. 1795)

1915 - Ross Barnes, baseball player (b. 1850)

1917 - Jaber II Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait (b. 1860 )

1922 - Slavoljub Eduard Penkala, Croatian inventor (b. 1871)

1922 - Christiaan De Wet, South African general

1937 - Lou Andreas-Salome, Russian-born writer (b. 1861)

1941 - Banjo Paterson, Australian poet, author of "Walzing Matilda" (b. 1864)

1946 - George Arliss, English actor (b. 1868))

1948 - Johannes Blaskowitz, German general (b. 1883)

1962 - Jacques Ibert, French composer (b. 1890)

1967 - Leon Leonwood Bean, American department store founder (b. 1872)

1970 - Rudy York, baseball player (b. 1913)

1972 - Marianne Moore, American poet (b. 1887)

1976 - Rudy Pompilli, American musician (Bill Haley and His Comets) (b. 1926)

1977 - Oskar Klein, Swedish physicist (b. 1894)

1981 - Ella Grasso, Governor of Connecticut (b. 1919)

1991 - Dean Jagger, American actor (b. 1903)

1992 - Miguel Rolando Covian, Brazilian physiologist (b. 1913)

1993 - Joseph L. Mankiewicz, American writer, producer, and director (b. 1909)

1995 - Doug McClure, American actor (b. 1935)

1997 - Pamela Harriman, English-born American diplomat (b. 1920)

1999 - Wassily Leontief, Russian economist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1906)

2003 - Helge Boes, American Central Intelligence Agency officer

2005 - Gnassingbe Eyadema, President of Togo (b. 1937)

2006 - Norma Candal, Puerto Rican actress and comedienne (b. 1930)

2006 - Franklin Cover, American actor (b. 1928)

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Kashmir Day observes as public holiday in Pakistan.

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Liturgical feasts

Catholicism - Feast day of Saint Agatha of Sicily, patron saint of firework makers and glass blowers.
Saint Bertolf