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1506 - The cornerstone of the current St. Peter's Basilica is laid.

1518 - Bona Sforza is crowned as queen consort of Poland.

1775 - Two lanterns were hung from the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston, Massachusetts. Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott ride to warn of impending arrests of Samuel Adams and John Hancock and seizure of weapons. Only Prescott finishes the ride.

1797 - Battle of Neuwied resulted in the victory of French under General Louis Lazare Hoche against Austrians under General Wermecek.

1880 - A F4 tornado strikes Marshfield, Missouri, killing 99 people and injuring 200.

1899 - St. Andrew's Ambulance Association is granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria.

1906 - An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.9, destroys much of San Francisco, California. (See 1906 San Francisco earthquake)

1906 - The Los Angeles Times runs a front-page story on the Azusa Street Revival, launching Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.

1915 - Early French aviator and a fighter aircraft pilot Roland Garros was shot down and glided to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I.

1923 - Yankee Stadium, "The House that Ruth Built", opens.

1942 - World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo occurs.

1942 - Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of Vichy France.

1943 - Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his transport aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighers over Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.

1945 - World War II: Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany, leaving nothing standing.

1946 - The League of Nations is dissolved.

1949 - The Republic of Ireland Act comes into force.

1954 - Gamal Abdal Nasser seizes power in Egypt.

1958 - A U.S. federal court rules that poet Ezra Pound be released from an insane asylum.

1961 - CONCP is founded in Casablanca as a united front of African movements opposing Portuguese colonial rule.

1974 - Prime Minister Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto inaugurates Lahore Dry port.

1974 - Italian prosecutor Mario Sossi is kidnapped by the Red Brigades.

1980 - The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) comes into being, with Canaan Banana as the country's first President.

1983 - A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.

1988 - U.S. launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in retaliation for the April 14 mining of the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will. The one-day action is the world's largest naval battle since World War II.

1992 - General Abdul Rashid Dostum revolted against President Mohammad Najibullah of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and allied with Ahmed Shah Massoud to capture Kabul.

1993 - President of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan dissolves the National Assembly and dismisses Cabinet.

1996 - In Lebanon, at least 106 Lebanese civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces shell the UN compound at Qana (see Qana Massacre).

2005 - Adobe Systems announced an agreement to acquire Macromedia in a stock swap valued at about $3.4 billion on the last trading day before the announcement.

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1480 - Lucrezia Borgia, Florentine ruler and daughter of Pope Alexander VI (d. 1519)

1580 - Thomas Middleton, English dramatist (d. 1627)

1590 - Ahmed I, Ottoman Emperor (d. 1617)

1605 - Giacomo Carissimi, Italian composer (d. 1674)

1771 - Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg, Austrian field marshal (d. 1820)

1772 - David Ricardo, English economist (d. 1823)

1797 - Adolphe Thiers, French statesman (d. 1877)

1819 - Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer (d. 1895)

1838 - Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, French scientist (d. 1912)

1857 - Clarence Darrow, American attorney (d. 1938)

1863 - Leopold Graf Berchtold, Austro-Hungarian foreign minister (d. 1942)

1864 - Richard Harding Davis, American author (d. 1916)

1874 - Oskar Ernst Bernhardt, German author (d. 1941)

1875 - Ivana Brlic-Mazuranic, Croatian writer (d. 1938)

1880 - Sam Crawford, baseball player (d. 1968)

1882 - Leopold Stokowski, Polish conductor (d. 1977)

1888 - Duffy Lewis, baseball player (d. 1979)

1893 - Violette Morris, French athlete (d. 1944)

1897 - Ardito Desio, Italian topographer (d. 2001)

1902 - Giuseppe Pella, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1981)

1902 - Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Hasidic Judaism leader (d. 1994)

1904 - Pigmeat Markham, American comedian (d. 1981)

1905 - George H. Hitchings, American scientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1998)

1907 - Miklós Rózsa, Hungarian-born composer (d. 1995)

1915 - Joy Gresham, American writer (d. 1960)

1917 - Ty LaForest, Canadian baseball player (d. 1947)

1918 - Cliff Hillegass, American publisher (d. 2001)

1921 - Jean Richard, French actor (d. 2001)

1924 - Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, American musician (d. 2005)

1924 - Henry Hyde, American politician

1927 - Samuel P. Huntington, American political scientist

1936 - Tommy Ivo, American race car driver

1939 - Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran

1939 - Thomas J. Moyer, American judge

1940 - Joseph L. Goldstein, American scientist, Nobel laureate

1945 - Margaret Hassan, Irish-born aid worker (d. 2004)

1946 - Hayley Mills, English actress

1947 - Kathy Acker, American author (d. 1997)

1947 - Dorothy Lyman, American actress

1947 - Cindy Pickett, American actress

1947 - James Woods, American actor

1947 - Herbert Mullin, American serial killer

1949 - Geoff Bodine, American race car driver

1951 - Ricardo Fortaleza, Australian-Filipino retired boxer

1954 - Rick Moranis, Canadian comedian

1956 - Anna Kathryn Holbrook, American actress

1956 - Eric Roberts, American actor

1956 - Melody Thomas Scott, American actress

1958 - Malcolm Marshall, West Indian cricketer (d. 1999)

1961 - Jane Leeves, British actress

1961 - Steve Lombardi, Wrestler better known as "Brooklyn Brawler" and "Kim Chee"

1963 - Eric McCormack, Canadian actor

1963 - Conan O'Brien, American comedian

1964 - Niall Ferguson, British historian

1964 - Rithy Panh, Cambodian film director

1966 - Trine Hattestad, Norwegian athlete

1967 - Maria Bello, American actress

1968 - David Hewlett, Canadian actor

1969 - Princess Sayako of Japan

1969 - Keith R.A. DeCandido, American author

1970 - Greg Eklund, American musician (Everclear)

1971 - Tamara Braun, American actress

1971 - David Tennant, Scottish actor

1971 - Oleg Petrov, Russian ice hockey player

1972 - Eli Roth, American film director

1973 - Derrick Brooks, American football player

1973 - Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopian athlete

1974 - Mark Tremonti, American Musician

1976 - Melissa Joan Hart, American actress

1976 - Fayray, Japanese singer

1979 - Vahid Rahbani, Iranian actor and director

1979 - Michael Bradley, American basketball player

1979 - Matthew Upson, English footballer

1979 - Kourtney Kardashian, American reality series star

1979 - Anthony Davidson, British formula 1 driver

1980 - Robyn Regehr, Canadian hockey player

1981 - Audrey Tang, Taiwanese software programmer

1983 - Miguel Cabrera, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player

1984 - America Ferrera, American actress

1985 - Łukasz Fabiański, Polish football player

1986 - Denice Klarskov, Danish Porn Star

1989 - Alia Shawkat, American actress

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1161 - Theobald of Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury

1552 - John Leland, English antiquarian (b. 1502)

1556 - Luigi Alamanni, Italian poet (b. 1495)

1567 - Wilhelm von Grumbach, German adventurer (b. 1503)

1558 - Roxelana, wife of Suleiman the Magnificent

1636 - Julius Caesar, English judge

1650 - Simonds d'Ewes, English antiquarian (b. 1602)

1674 - John Graunt, English statistician (b. 1620)

1689 - George Jeffreys, British Chief Justice (b. 1648)

1690 - Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, general of the Holy Roman Empire (b. 1643)

1794 - Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1714)

1796 - Johan Wilcke, Swedish physicist (b. 1732)

1802 - Erasmus Darwin, English physician and botanist (b. 1731)

1873 - Justus von Liebig, German chemist (b. 1803)

1898 - Gustave Moreau, French painter (b. 1826)

1906 - Luis Martín, Spanish Superior-General of the Society of Jesus (b. 1846)

1935 - Panait Istrati, Romanian writer (b. 1884)

1936 - Ottorino Respighi, Italian composer (b. 1879)

1942 - Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, American socalite (b. 1875)

1943 - Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese admiral. (b. 1884)

1945 - John Ambrose Fleming, English physicist and engineer (b. 1849)

1945 - Ernie Pyle, American journalist (b. 1900)

1947 - Josef Tiso, Slovakian leader (b. 1887)

1955 - Albert Einstein, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)

1964 - Ben Hecht, American writer (b. 1894)

1967 - Karl Miller, German footballer (b. 1913)

1990 - Gory Guerrero, wrestler (b. 1921)

1993 - Masahiko Kimura, Famous Judoka (b. 1917)

1995 - Arturo Frondizi, President of Argentina (b. 1908)

1996 - Piet Hein, Danish mathematician (b. 1905)

1996 - Bernard Edwards, American record producer (b. 1952)

1998 - Terry Sanford, American politician (b. 1917)

2002 - Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer (b. 1914)

2002 - Wahoo McDaniel, American football player and wrestler (b. 1938)

2003 - Edgar F. Codd, English computer scientist (b. 1923)

2003 - Daijiro Kato, Japanese motorcycle racer (b. 1976)

2004 - Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, first Prime Minister of Fiji and President of Fiji (b. 1920)

2005 - Sam Mills, American football linebacker (b. 1959)

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Iran - Army Day

Zimbabwe – Independence Day.

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Date of Winston Smith's journal entry in 1956 movie version of Orwell's 1984

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Saint Apollonius (d. 185/6)

Saint Eusebius (d. 526)

Saint Galdino (d. 1176)

Saint Perfecto (d. 850)

Saint Timon

Saint Ursmarus (d. 713)

Saint Werner (d. 1287)

Blessed Idesbald van der Gracht (d. 1167), patron saint of fishermen and Flemish nobility

Saint Agia (Aya) (d. 707)

Saint Emma

Marie de l'Incarnation (1566 – 1618)