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1541 - Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham are executed for having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VII.

1609 - Biblioteca Ambrosiana opens its reading room, the second public library of Europe.

1854 - Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogma of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Virgin Mary was born free of original sin.

1869 - Timothy Eaton founds T. Eaton Co. Limited in Toronto, Canada.

1886 - The American Federation of Labor is founded by Samuel Gompers in Columbus, Ohio.

1904 - Konservativ Ungdom (Young Conservatives) in Denmark is founded by Carl F. Herman von Rosen. Still existing today, it is the oldest youth political organisation in Denmark and believed to be one of the oldest remaining in the world.

1907 - King Gustaf V of Sweden accedes to the Swedish throne.

1914 - World War I: Battle of the Falkland Islands - The Kaiserliche Marine under the command of Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee is engaged by the Royal Navy.

1941 - World War II: Pacific War - After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the U.S. Congress passes a declaration of war against Japan.

1941 - World War II: Pacific War - the Republic of China officially declares war against Japan, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

1941 - World War II: Pacific War - The Netherlands issues a proclamation in which it declares war against Japan, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

1941 - World War II: Pacific War - The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in China issues a proclamation which declared war against Japan and Germany on behalf of Korean people, who were under Japanese occupation since 1910.

1941 - World War II: Battle of Hong Kong - The Japanese invade the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong less than 8 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbour.

1941 - Holocaust: Gas vans are first used as a means of execution, at the Chelmno extermination camp near Łódź in Poland.

1942 - Holocaust: in Ternopil, western Ukraine, German SS organise the last deportation of Ternopil Jews to death camp in Belzec, when 1,400 Jews were sent there. The chief of the Gestapo, SS-Sturmbannführer Hermann Müller, bore overall responsibility for the mass murder of the Jews of Ternopil and Berezhany county.

1949 - Chinese Civil War: The capital of the Republic of China is moved from Nanjing to Taipei, Taiwan.

1959 - President of the United States, Eisenhower watches Pakistan vs Australia cricket test match at Karachi.

1966 - The Greek ferry Heraklion sinks in a storm in the Aegean Sea, killing over 200.

1968 - NLS (a system for which hypertext and the computer mouse were developed) is publicly demonstrated for the first time in San Francisco.

1969 - An Olympic Airways DC-6B crashes near Athens during a storm, killing 93 people.

1972 - United Airlines Flight 533 crashes near Chicago Midway Airport, killing 45 people.

1976 - The Eagles release the album Hotel California.

1980 - John Lennon is murdered by Mark David Chapman in New York City.

1981 - No. 21 Mine explosion in Whitwell, Tennessee kills 13.

1987 - The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed.

1987 - The Queen Street Massacre: Frank Vitkovic shoots and kills 8 people at the offices of Australia Post in Melbourne, Australia before being killed himself.

1987 - Alianza Lima air disaster

1991 - The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine sign an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.

1991 - The Romanian Constitution is adopted in a referendum.

1993 - The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is signed into law by US President Bill Clinton.

1994 - US President Bill Clinton signs a bill enacting United States participation in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

1995 - Jean-Dominique Bauby suffers a stroke

1998 - Tadjena massacre: 81 people are killed by armed groups in Algeria.

2004 - The Cuzco Declaration is signed in Cuzco, Peru, establishing the South American Community of Nations.

2004 - Guitarist Dimebag Darrell Abbott is murdered onstage by Nathan Gale at a Damageplan concert in Columbus, Ohio.

2004 - The population of the Australian state of Victoria reaches 5 million for the first time.

2005 - Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 slides off the runway at Chicago Midway Airport, killing a 6-year-old boy and injuring 11 other people.

2005 - Ante Gotovina, Croatian army general accused of war crimes, was captured in the Playa de las Américas, Tenerife by the Spanish police

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65 BC - Horace, Roman poet (d. 8 BC)

1542 - Mary Queen of Scots (d. 1587)

1626 - Queen Christina of Sweden (d. 1689)

1678 - Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole of Wolterton, English diplomat (d. 1757)

1708 - Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1765)

1730 - Jan Ingenhousz, Dutch-born British physiologist and botanist (d. 1799)

1765 - Eli Whitney, American inventor (d. 1825)

1795 - Peter Andreas Hansen, Danish astronomer (d. 1874)

1815 - Adolph Menzel, German painter and graphic artist (d. 1905)

1816 - August Belmont, Sr., Prussian-born American financier (d. 1890)

1832 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian author and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1910)

1848 - Joel Chandler Harris, American author and folklorist (d. 1908)

1861 - William C. Durant, American automobile pioneer (d. 1947)

1861 - Aristide Maillol, French sculptor (d. 1944)

1862 - Georges Feydeau, French playwright (d. 1921)

1864 - Camille Claudel, French graphic artist and sculptor (d. 1943)

1865 - Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer (d. 1957)

1865 - Jacques Hadamard, French mathematician (d. 1963)

1874 - Ernst Moro, Austrian physician (d. 1951)

1886 - Diego Rivera, Mexican painter (d. 1957)

1890 - Bohuslav Martinů, Czech composer (d. 1959)

1894 - James Thurber, American writer (d. 1961)

1911 - Lee J. Cobb, American actor (d. 1976)

1913 - Delmore Schwartz, American Poet (d. 1966)

1915 - Ernest Lehman, American screenwriter (d. 2005)

1918 - Gérard Souzay, French baritone (d. 2004)

1919 - Peter Tali Coleman, American politician (d. 1997)

1923 - Rudolph Pariser, Chinese-born American chemist

1925 - Sammy Davis Jr., American actor and singer (d. 1990)

1927 - Vladimir Shatalov, Soviet Union-born cosmonaut

1930 - Maximilian Schell, Austrian-born Swiss actor, film director, and author

1933 - Flip Wilson, American comedian (d. 1998)

1936 - David Carradine, American actor

1937 - James MacArthur, American actor

1937 - Arne Næss Jr., Norwegian mountain climber and businessman (d. 2004)

1939 - Sir James Galway, Northern Irish flautist

1940 - Brant Alyea, Baseball player

1941 - Sir Geoff Hurst, Ex-English footballer

1941 - Ed Brinkman, Baseball player

1943 - Jim Morrison, American singer (The Doors) (d. 1971)

1943 - Mary Woronov, American actress

1946 - John Rubinstein, American actor, composer, director

1947 - Gregg Allman, American musician

1947 - Thomas R. Cech, American chemist and Nobel Prize laureate

1949 - Robert Sternberg, Proposed the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

1950 - Richard A. Baker, American film makeup artist

1951 - Jan Eggum, Norwegian singer-songwriter

1951 - Bill Bryson, American author

1953 - Kim Basinger, American actress

1956 - Warren Cuccurullo, American musician

1957 - Phil Collen, British guitarist (Def Leppard)

1961 - Ann Coulter, American author, political commentator, and attorney

1962 - Marty Friedman, American guitarist

1964 - Sandy Burnett, British record producer

1964 - Teri Hatcher, American actress

1965 - Carina Lau, Hong Kong actress

1966 - Sinéad O'Connor, Irish musician

1966 - Michael Cole, American professional wrestling commentator

1967 - Jeff George, American football player

1967 - Kotono Mitsuishi, Japanese seiyu (voice actress)

1968 - Mike Mussina, American baseball player

1972 - Marco Abreu, Angolan footballer

1972 - Frank Shamrock, American MMA-Fighter and younger brother of MMA-Fighter Ken Shamrock

1973 - Corey Taylor, American singer (Slipknot, Stone Sour)

1975 - Kevin Harvick, American NASCAR driver

1976 - Dominic Monaghan, German-born British actor

1976 - Naimee Coleman, Irish singer and songwriter

1976 - Reed Johnson, American Baseball Player

1977 - Ryan Newman, American NASCAR driver

1977 - Elsa Benítez, Mexican supermodel

1978 - Ian Somerhalder, American actor

1978 - Vernon Wells, American baseball player

1981 - Jeremy Accardo, American baseball player

1981 - Philip Rivers, American football player

1982 - Michael Essien, Ghanaian international footballer

1982 - James Guffey, American professional wrestler

1985 - Dwight Howard, American basketball player

1986 - Amir Khan, British boxer

1993 - AnnaSophia Robb, American child actress

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899 - Arnulf of Carinthia (b. 850)

1626 - John Davies, English poet (b. 1569)

1632 - Philippe van Lansberge, Flemish astronomer (b. 1561)

1638 - Ivan Gundulic, Croatian poet (b. 1589)

1643 - John Pym, English statesman (b. 1583)

1649 - Noël Chabanel, French Jesuit missionary (b. 1613)

1680 - Henry Pierrepont, 1st Marquess of Dorchester, English politician (b. 1606)

1691 - Richard Baxter, English clergyman (b. 1615)

1695 - Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville, French orientalist (b. 1625)

1709 - Thomas Corneille, French dramatist (b. 1625)

1722 - Liselotte von der Pfalz, Duchess of Orléans (b. 1652)

1744 - Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle duchess de Châteauroux, mistress of King Louis XV of France (b. 1717)

1745 - Etienne Fourmont, French orientalist (b. 1683)

1746 - Charles Radclyffe, British politician (b. 1693)

1756 - William Stanhope, 1st Earl of Harrington, British statesman and diplomat

1768 - Jean Denis Attiret, French Jesuit missionary (b. 1702)

1830 - Benjamin Constant, Swiss writer (b. 1767)

1859 - Thomas de Quincey, British author (b. 1785)

1864 - George Boole, British inventor of Boolean algebra (b. 1815)

1885 - William Henry Vanderbilt, member of the Vanderbilt family (b. 1821)

1894 - Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician (b. 1821)

1907 - Oscar II of Sweden (b. 1829)

1914 - Maximilian von Spee, German naval officer (b. 1861)

1917 - Mendele Moykher Sforim, Russian writer (b. 1836)

1938 - Friedrich Glauser, German-language Swiss writer (b. 1896)

1952 - Charles Lightoller, British second officer on the Titanic (b. 1874)

1955 - Hermann Weyl, German mathematician (b. 1885)

1958 - Tris Speaker, American baseball player (b. 1888)

1963 - Field Marshal Sarit Dhanarajata, Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1908)

1975 - Gary Thain, New Zealand bassist (Uriah Heep) (b. 1948)

1978 - Golda Meir, Russian-born Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1898)

1980 - John Lennon, British musician and activist (b. 1940)

1982 - Bram Behr, Surinamese journalist (b. 1951)

1982 - Marty Robbins, American singer (b. 1925)

1983 - Slim Pickens, American actor (b. 1919)

1984 - Luther Adler, American actor (b. 1903

1984 - Robert Jay Mathews, White Nationalist (b. 1953)

1992 - William Shawn, American magazine editor (b. 1917)

1994 - Tom Jobim, Brazilian composer and arranger (b. 1927)

1999 - Kuczka Péter, Hungarian writer (b. 1923)

2001 - Don Tennant, American advertising executive (b. 1922)

2003 - Rubén González, Cuban pianist (Buena Vista Social Club)

2003 - Hans Hotter, German bass-baritone (b. 1909)

2004 - Dimebag Darrell (Darrell Abbott), American guitarist (b. 1966)

2004 - Nathan Gale American murderer (b. 1979)

2005 - Georgiy Zhzhonov Russian actor and author (b. 1915)

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Buddhism - The Enlightenment of Gautama Buddha

R.C. Saints - The solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary: a Holy Day of Obligation

Bulgaria - Day of the Student (studentski praznik)

Italy - In Milan, the opera season starts.

Austria - Public Holiday.

Malta - Public Holiday.

Romania - Constitution Day

Afflux (50 Aftermath) (Discordianism)

Panama - Mother's Day