[Edit]

top

1258 - Battle of Baghdad - Mongols overrun Baghdad, burning it to the ground and killing large numbers of citizens (estimates range from 10,000 to 800,000).

1355 - The St. Scholastica's Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days.

1542 - Queen Catherine Howard of England is confined in the Tower of London to be executed three days later for treason (adultery).

1763 - French and Indian War: The 1763 Treaty of Paris ends the war and France cedes Canada to Great Britain.

1798 - Louis Alexandre Berthier invades Rome and removes Pope Pius VI from power.

1814 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Champaubert

1840 - Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

1846 - First Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Sobraon - British defeat Sikhs in final battle the war

1863 - The world-famous dwarfs General Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren get married in New York City.

1870 - The YWCA is founded (New York City).

1897 - Freedom of religion in Madagascar

1920 - Jozef Haller de Hallenburg performs symbolic engagement of Poland with the sea, celebrating restitution of Polish access to open sea.

1929 - Msgr. Stephen Alencastre, SS.CC., dedicates the beautiful Romanesque church of Saint Patrick in Honolulu.

1931 - New Delhi becomes the capital of India.

1933 - The New York City-based Postal Telegraph Company introduces the first singing telegram.

1933 - In round 13 of a boxing match at New York City's Madison Square Garden, Primo Carnera knocks out Ernie Schaaf, killing him.

1947 - Italy cedes most of Venezia Giulia to Yugoslavia.

1949 - Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman premiered in New York City.

1954 - President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam.

1962 - Captured American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.

1964 - The aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne collides with the destroyer HMAS Voyager off the south coast of New South Wales, Australia.

1967 - The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified.

1981 - A fire at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino kills eight and injures 198.

1989 - Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party.

1990 - James "Buster" Douglas KO's Mike Tyson In what perhaps was one of the greatest upsets in sports history .

1996 - The IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time.

1997 - The United States Army suspends CSM Gene C. McKinney, its top-ranking enlisted soldier, after hearing allegations of sexual misconduct.

1998 - A college dropout becomes the first person to be convicted of a hate crime committed in cyberspace.

1998 - Voters in Maine repeal a gay rights law passed in 1997 becoming the first U.S. state to abandon such a law.

1999 - Avalanches in the French Alps near Geneva kill at least 10.

2001 - The Southerner train service between Christchurch and Invercargill is axed after the New Zealand Government and Tranz Scenic fail to support the service.

2003 - France and Belgium break the NATO procedure of silent approval concerning the timing of protective measures for Turkey in case of a possible war with Iraq.

2005 - North Korea suspends participation in multi-nation talks to discuss its arms program and officially admits to developing nuclear weapons.

2006 - The XX Olympic Winter Games open in Turin, Italy.

top

1499 - Thomas Platter, Swiss humanist (d. 1582)

1524 - Albrecht Giese IV, German politician and diplomat (d. 1580)

1609 - John Suckling, English poet (d. 1642)

1685 - Aaron Hill, English writer (d. 1750)

1783 - Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy, Russian painter (d. 1873)

1785 - Claude-Louis Navier, French physicist (d. 1936)

1795 - Ary Scheffer, French painter (d. 1858)

1846 - Charles Beresford, British admiral and politician (d. 1919)

1846 - Ira Remsen, American chemist (d. 1927)

1887 - John Franklin Enders, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1985)

1890 - Boris Pasternak, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1960)

1892 - Alan Hale Sr., American actor (d. 1950)

1893 - Jimmy Durante, American actor/comedian (d. 1980)

1893 - Bill Tilden, American tennis player (d. 1953)

1894 - Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1986)

1897 - Judith Anderson, Australian actress (d. 1992)

1898 - Bertolt Brecht, German author (d. 1956)

1901 - Stella Adler, American actress (d. 1992)

1902 - Walter Houser Brattain, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1987)

1904 - John Farrow, American film director (d. 1963)

1906 - Lon Chaney Jr., American actor (d. 1973)

1906 - Erik Rhodes, American actor (d. 1990)

1910 - Georges Pire, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1969)

1914 - Larry Adler, American musician (d. 2001)

1920 - Alex Comfort, physician and writer (d. 2000)

1926 - Danny Blanchflower, Northern Irish footballer (d. 1993)

1927 - Leontyne Price, American soprano

1929 - Jerry Goldsmith, American composer (d. 2004)

1930 - Robert Wagner, American actor

1931 - Thomas Bernhard, Austrian author (d. 1989)

1933 - Richard Schickel, American film critic

1934 - Fleur Adcock, New Zealand poet

1939 - Adrienne Clarkson, 26th Governor General of Canada

1939 - Roberta Flack, American singer

1941 - Michael Apted, British director

1944 - Peter Allen, Australian singer and actor (d. 1992)

1944 - Rufus Reid, American musician

1944 - Frank Keating, American politician

1944 - Vernor Vinge, American novelist

1947 - Louise Arbour, Canadian judge

1948 - Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexican politician (d. 1994)

1949 - Maxime Le Forestier, French singer

1949 - Harold Sylvester, American actor

1950 - Mark Spitz, American swimmer

1951 - Roxanne Pulitzer, American model

1951 - Robert Iger, President/CEO of The Walt Disney Company

1954 - Larry McWilliams, baseball player

1955 - Christopher Adams, British judoka (d. 2001)

1955 - Greg Norman, Australian golfer

1955 - James Cramer, American Television personality

1959 - Dennis Gentry, American Football Player

1960 - Robert Addie, British actor (d. 2003)

1961 - Alexander Payne, American film director

1961 - George Stephanopoulos, American political commentator

1962 - Cliff Burton, American musician (d. 1986)

1962 - Bobby Czyz, American boxer

1963 - Lenny Dykstra, baseball player

1967 - Jacky Durand, French cyclist

1967 - Nick Nyseth, American Businessman / Entrepreneur

1968 - Atika Suri, Indonesian television newscaster

1969 - Joe Mangrum, American artist

1970 - Noureddine Naybet, Moroccan footballer

1970 - Alberto Castillo, baseball player

1971 - Lisa Marie Varon, American professional wrestler

1971 - Louie Spicolli, American wrestler

1974 - Ty Law, American football player

1976 - Lance Berkman, baseball player

1977 - Salif Diao, Senegalese footballer

1978 - Lorna Bailey, English ceramic designer

1978 - Don Omar, Puerto Rican singer

1979 - Daryl Palumbo, American musician

1979 - Ross Powers, American snowboarder

1980 - César Izturis, baseball player

1980 - Steve Tully, English footballer

1981 - Natasha St-Pier, Canadian singer

1981 - The Reverend Tholomew Plague, American musician

1981 - Andy Johnson, English Footballer

1982 - Justin Gatlin, American sprinter

1985 - Anette Sagen, Norwegian ski jumper

1991 - Emma Roberts, American actress

1994 - Makenzie Vega, American actress

1997 - Chloe Moretz, American actress

top

1126 - William IX, Duke of Aquitaine, poet (b. 1071)

1162 - King Baldwin III of Jerusalem (b. 1130)

1242 - Emperor Shijo of Japan (b. 1231)

1278 - Margaret II of Flanders (b. 1202)

1576 - Guilielmus Xylander, German classical scholar (b. 1532)

1686 - William Dugdale, English antiquarian (b. 1605)

1722 - Bartholomew Roberts, Welsh pirate (b. 1682)

1755 - Montesquieu, French writer (b. 1689)

1758 - Thomas Ripley, English architect

1782 - Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, German theologian (b. 1702)

1829 - Pope Leo XII (b. 1760)

1837 - Aleksandr Pushkin, Russian poet and novelist (b. 1799)

1857 - David Thompson, Canadian explorer (b. 1770)

1865 - Heinrich Lenz, German physicist (b. 1804)

1891 - Sofia Kovalevskaya, Russian mathematician (b. 1850)

1904 - John A. Roche, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1844)

1912 - Joseph Lister, British surgeon (b. 1827)

1917 - John William Waterhouse, Italian-born artist (b. 1849)

1918 - Abdul Hamid II Ottoman Sultan (b. 1842)

1918 - Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Italian pacifist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1833)

1923 - Wilhelm Röntgen, German physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1845)

1932 - Edgar Wallace, English novelist and screenwriter (b. 1875)

1939 - Pope Pius XI (b. 1857)

1950 - Marcel Mauss, French sociologist (b. 1872)

1957 - Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (b. 1867)

1960 - Aloysius Stepinac, Croatian cardinal (b. 1898)

1964 - Eugen Sänger, Austrian aerospace engineer (b. 1905)

1966 - Billy Rose, American composer and band leader (b. 1899)

1984 - David Von Erich, professional wrestler (b. 1958)

1985 - Johnny Mokan, baseball player (b. 1895)

1987 - Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi, Pakistani painter, calligrapher and artist (b. 1930)

1992 - Alex Haley, American author (b. 1921)

1993 - Fred Hollows, Australian ophthalmologist (b. 1929)

2000 - Jim Varney, American actor (b. 1949)

2001 - Abraham Beame, Mayor of New York City (b. 1906)

2002 - Traudl Junge, Hitler's secretary (b. 1920)

2003 - Edgar de Evia, American photographer (b. 1910)

2003 - Curt Hennig, American professional wrestler (b. 1958)

2003 - Clark MacGregor, United States Congressman from Minnesota (b. 1922)

2003 - Al Ruffo, Mayor of San Jose, California (b. 1908)

2003 - Ron Ziegler, American press secretary to Richard Nixon (b. 1939)

2005 - Arthur Miller, American playwright (b. 1915)

2006 - J Dilla, Rapper/Producer, former member of Slum Village (b. 1974)

top

Italy - National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe to commemorate Italian Istrian and Dalmatian exiles and Foibe massacres.

top

Saint Scholastica

St. Paul's shipwreck day; birth of Catholicism in Malta

Saint Silvanus

Saint Charalampe

Saint Austreberta

Blessed Arnaud

Blessed Hugo