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3102 BC - Epoch (origin) of the Kali Yuga- Lord Krishna is believed by Hare Krishnas and Hindus to have left the planet on this day.

1229 - The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy.

1332 (or 1329) - Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces.

1478 - George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is privately executed in the Tower of London.

1685 - Fort St. Louis is established by a Frenchman at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France's claim to Texas.

1797 - Trinidad is surrendered to a British fleet under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby.

1814 - Battle of Montereau occurs.

1841 - The first ongoing filibuster in the United States Senate begins and lasts until March 11.

1856 - The American Party (Know-Nothings) convene in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.

1861 - In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.

1861 - With the Italian unification almost complete, King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumes the title of King of Italy.

1865 - In the U.S., Delaware voters reject the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and vote to continue the practice of slavery. (Delaware finally ratifies the amendment on February 12, 1901.)

1878 - The Lincoln County War begins in Lincoln County, New Mexico.

1885 - Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published for the first time.

1901 - Winston Churchill makes his maiden speech in the British House of Commons.

1911 - The first official flight with air mail takes place in Allahabad, British India, when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 km away.

1913 - Raymond Poincaré becomes President of France.

1929 - First Academy Awards are announced.

1930 - While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.

1930 - Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.

1932 - The Empire of Japan declares Manzhouguo (obsolete Chinese name for Manchuria) independent from the Republic of China.

1936 - The United States Patent Office grants design patent 98,617 to Frank A. Redford for the design of the Wigwam Motel.

1943 - The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.

1943 - Joseph Goebbels delivers the Sportpalast speech.

1948 - Eamon de Valera resigns as Taoiseach of Ireland.

1953 - The first 3D film, Bwana Devil, opens.

1953 - Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz sign an $8,000,000 contract to continue the I Love Lucy television series through 1955.

1965 - The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

1969 - Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708 disaster kills all on board.

1970 - The Chicago Eight are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic Party national convention.

1972 - The California Supreme Court invalidates the state's death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life in prison.

1977 - The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle goes on its maiden "flight" while sitting on top of a Boeing 747.

1983 - Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee Massacre in Seattle, Washington, said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in American history.

1991 - The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at both Paddington station and Victoria station in London.

1998 - Two white separatists are arrested in Nevada and accused of plotting a biological attack on New York City subways.

2001 - NASCAR legend Ralph Dale Earnhardt is killed in a crash during the last lap of the Daytona 500

2003 - Nearly 200 people die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea

2004 - Up to 295 people, including nearly 200 rescue workers, die near Neyshabur in Iran when a run-away freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertiliser catches fire and explodes.

2005 - The United Kingdom law banning fox hunting, hare coursing and other sports which kill wild mammals is enforced from this date.

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1486 - Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Bengali saint, bhakti yoga developer

1516 - Queen Mary I of England (d. 1558)

1530 - Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese samurai and warlord (d. 1578)

1559 - Isaac Casaubon, French classical scholar (d. 1614)

1602 - Per Brahe (the younger), Swedish soldier (d. 1680)

1609 - Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English historian (d. 1674)

1635 - Johan Göransson Gyllenstierna, Swedish statesman (d. 1680)

1642 - Marie Champmeslé, French actress (d. 1698)

1658 - Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, French writer (d. 1743)

1745 - Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist (d. 1827)

1835 - César Cui, Lithuanian composer (d. 1918)

1838 - Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist (d. 1916)

1846 - Wilson Barrett, English playwright (d. 1904)

1848 - Louis Comfort Tiffany, American glass artist (d. 1933)

1849 - Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author (d. 1906)

1859 - Sholom Aleichem, Russian Yiddish humorist (d. 1916)

1871 - Harry Brearley, English inventor (d. 1948)

1883 - Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer (d. 1957)

1884 - Andrew Watson Myles, Canadian politician (d. 1970)

1890 - Edward Arnold, American actor (d. 1956)

1890 - Adolphe Menjou, American actor (d. 1963)

1892 - Wendell Willkie, American politician (d. 1944)

1896 - Andre Breton, French writer (d. 1966)

1898 - Enzo Ferrari, Italian race car driver (d. 1988)

1898 - Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican poet (d. 1980)

1901 - Reginald Sheffield, British actor (d. 1957)

1903 - Nikolai Podgorny, President of the Soviet Union (d. 1983)

1905 - Jan Gies, Dutch resistance fighter (d. 1993)

1906 - Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician (d. 1980)

1907 - Oscar Brodney, American Screenwriter

1909 - Wallace Stegner, American writer (d. 1993)

1915 - Phyllis Calvert, British actress (d. 2002)

1919 - Jack Palance, American actor

1920 - Bill Cullen, American game show host (d. 1990)

1920 - Eric Gairy, Grenadan politician (d. 1997)

1922 - Helen Gurley Brown, American editor

1922 - Allan Melvin, American actor

1924 - Humberto Fernández Morán, Venezuelan scientist (d. 1999)

1925 - George Kennedy, American actor

1927 - John Warner, American politician

1927 - Luis Arroyo, Baseball player

1929 - Len Deighton, British author

1930 - Gahan Wilson, American cartoonist

1931 - Johnny Hart, American cartoonist

1931 - Toni Morrison, American writer, Nobel laureate

1931 - Bob St. Clair, American football player

1932 - Miloš Forman, Czech film director

1933 - Yoko Ono, Japanese-born singer

1933 - Bobby Robson, English football manager

1933 - Mary Ure, Scottish actress (d. 1975)

1936 - Jean Auel, American writer

1938 - István Szabó, Hungarian film director

1939 - Dal Maxvill, baseball player

1943 - Graeme Garden, Scottish writer

1944 - Pat Bowlen, owner of the Denver Broncos

1945 - Judy Rankin, American golfer

1947 - Dennis DeYoung, American musician (STYX)

1947 - Princess Christina of the Netherlands

1947 - Carlos Lopes, Portuguese athlete

1948 - Sinéad Cusack, Irish actress

1949 - Gary Ridgway, American serial killer

1950 - John Hughes, American director

1950 - Cybill Shepherd, American actress

1951 - Isabel Preysler, Spanish fashion designer

1952 - Maurice Lucas, American basketball player

1952 - Juice Newton, American country singer

1953 - Robbie Bachman, Canadian drummer (Bachman-Turner Overdrive)

1954 - John Travolta, American actor

1955 - Miles Tredinnick, English playwright

1956 - Ted Gärdestad, Swedish singer (d. 1997)

1957 - Marita Koch, German athlete

1957 - Vanna White, American game show presenter

1958 - Giovanni Lavaggi, Italian racing driver

1960 - Greta Scacchi, Australian actress

1962 - Julie Strain, American actress

1964 - Matt Dillon, American actor

1965 - Dr. Dre, American rapper

1965 - Gregory Scott Johnson, American murderer (d. 2005)

1967 - Roberto Baggio, Italian footballer

1968 - Molly Ringwald, American actress

1968 - Tommy Scott, British musician (Space)

1969 - Alexander Mogilny, Russian ice hockey player

1970 - Raine Maida, Canadian musician (Our Lady Peace)

1970 - Susan Egan, American musical actress

1973 - Claude Makélélé, French footballer

1974 - Jamey Carroll, baseball player

1975 - Keith Gillespie, Northern Irish footballer

1975 - Gary Neville, English footballer (Manchester United)

1977 - Sean Watkins, American guitarist and songwrite

1978 - Josip Simunic, Croatian footballer

1980 - Regina Spektor, Russian-born American singer-songwriter

1981 - Andrei Kirilenko, Russian basketball player

1981 - Buddy Nielsen, American singer (Senses Fail)

1981 - Ivan Sproule, Northern Irish footballer

1983 - Juelz Santana, American rapper

1983 - Jermaine Jenas, English footballer

1985 - Lee Boyd Malvo, American serial killer

1985 - Anton Ferdinand, English footballer

1991 - Malese Jow, American actress

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806 - Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople (b. 1866)

814 - Angilbert, Frankish monk and confidant of Charlemagne

901 - Thabit ibn Qurra, Arab astronomer and mathematician (b. 826)

999 - Pope Gregory V

1139 - Prince Yaropolk II of Kiev (b. 1082)

1294 - Kublai Khan, Mongol Emperor (b. 1215)

1379 - Albert II of Mecklenburg

1405 - Tamerlane, Mongol Emperor

1455 - Fra Angelico, Italian artist (b. 1395)

1478 - George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Kings Edward IV of England and Richard III of England (executed) (b. 1449)

1535 - Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, astrologer and alchemist (b. 1486)

1546 - Martin Luther, German religious reformer (b. 1483)

1564 - Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian artist (b. 1475)

1583 - Antonio Francesco Grazzini, Italian writer (b. 1503)

1654 - Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, French writer (b. 1594)

1683 - Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, Dutch painter (b. 1620)

1712 - Louis, Duke of Burgundy, heir to the throne of France (b. 1682)

1718 - Pierre Antoine Motteux, French-born English dramatist (b. 1663)

1743 - Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, last of the Medicis (b. 1667)

1748 - Otto Ferdinand Graf von Abensperg und Traun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1677)

1772 - Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count von Bernstorff, Danish statesman (b. 1712)

1778 - Joseph Marie Terray, French statesman (b. 1715)

1780 - Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian poet (b. 1714)

1788 - John Whitehurst, English clockmaker and scientist (b. 1713)

1803 - Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, German poet (b. 1719)

1851 - Carl Gustav Jakob Jacobi, German mathematician (b. 1804)

1895 - Karl Abs, German professional wrestler

1931 - Milan Šufflay, Croatian politician (b. 1879)

1933 - James J. Corbett, American boxer (b. 1866)

1938 - David King Udall, American politician (b. 1851)

1942 - Albert Payson Terhune, American author (b. 1872)

1945 - Ivan Chernyakhovsky, Russian general (b. 1906)

1956 - Gustave Charpentier, French composer (b. 1860)

1957 - Henry Norris Russell, American astronomer (b. 1877)

1966 - Robert Rossen, American screenwriter, producer, and director (d. 1908

1967 - J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1904)

1973 - Frank Costello, Italian-born gangster (b. 1891)

1977 - Andy Devine, American actor (b. 1905)

1978 - Maggie McNamara, American actress (b. 1928)

1981 - John Knudsen Northrop, American aircraft manufacturer (b. 1895)

1982 - Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand author (b. 1895)

1993 - Kerry Von Erich, American professional wrestler (b. 1960)

1993 - Jacqueline Hill, British actress (b. 1929)

1995 - "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert, Wrestler

1997 - Emily Hahn, American writer (b. 1905)

1998 - Harry Caray, baseball broadcaster (b. 1914)

1999 - Noam Pitlik, American actor and director (b. 1932)

2001 - Balthus, Polish-born painter (b. 1908)

2001 - Dale Earnhardt, American race car driver (b. 1951)

2001 - Eddie Mathews, baseball player (b. 1931)

2001 - Charles Trenet, French singer (b. 1913)

2003 - Isser Harel, Israeli Mossad leader (b. 1912)

2004 - Jean Rouch, French filmmaker and ethnologist (b. 1917)

2006 - Richard Bright, American actor (b. 1937)

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Independence Day in The Gambia (1965)