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211 - Roman Emperor Septimius Severus dies, leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons, Caracalla and Geta.

362 - Roman Emperor Julian promulgates an edict that recognizes equal rights to all the religions in the Roman Empire.

1454 - In the Thirteen Years' War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederation sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master.

1703 - In Edo (now Tokyo), 46 of the Forty-Seven Ronin commit seppuku (ritual suicide) as recompense for avenging their master's death.

1783 - American Revolutionary War: The United Kingdom formally declares that it will cease hostilities with the United States of America.

1789 - George Washington is unanimously elected to be the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.

1792 - George Washington is unanimously elected to a second term as President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.

1794 - The French legislature abolishes slavery throughout all territories of the French Republic.

1801 - John Marshall is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States.

1810 - British Navy seizes Guadeloupe.

1825 - The Ohio Legislature authorizes the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the Miami and Erie Canal.

1836 - Dade County, Florida is formed.

1859 - Codex Sinaiticus discovered in Egypt.

1861 - American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama, Delegates from six break-away U.S. states meet and form The Confederate States of America.

1862 - Bacardi, one of the world's largest spirits company, is founded as a small distillery in Santiago de Cuba in eastern Cuba.

1899 - The Philippine-American War begins.

1915 - Germany establishes a submarine blockade around the UK and declares any vessel in it a legitimate target.

1927 - The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson is released.

1932 - World War II: Japan occupies Harbin, China.

1932 - Olympic Games: Winter Olympic Games - III Olympic Winter Games open in Lake Placid, New York.

1936 - Radium E. becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.

1938 - Thornton Wilder's play Our Town opens (New York City).

1938 - Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released, and it went on to become a major box-office success, making more money than any other motion picture in 1938.

1941 - World War II: The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.

1943 - World War II: Battle of Stalingrad ends.

1945 - World War II: The Yalta Conference begin .

1948 - Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth.

1957 - USS ''Nautilus'', the first nuclear-powered submarine, logs her 60,000th nautical mile, matching the endurance of the fictional ''Nautilus'' described in Jules Verne's novel "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".

1960 - Lorraine, Quebec is founded.

1962 - Ian Fleming's The Living Daylights first published.

1966 - All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 jet plunges into Tokyo Bay, killing 133.

1968 - Bowie Kuhn becomes the fifth commissioner of Major League Baseball, replacing William Eckert.

1969 - Yasser Arafat takes over as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

1974 - The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patty Hearst in Berkeley, California.

1976 - In Guatemala and Honduras an earthquake kills more than 22,000.

1976 - Olympic Games: Winter Olympic Games - XII Olympic Winter Games open in Innsbruck, Austria.

1977 - Fleetwood Mac releases one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, Rumours.

1980 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini names Abolhassan Banisadr as president of Iran.

1984 - The Youth of the Left Socialists (VSU) founded in Denmark.

1991 - The Baseball Hall of Fame votes to ban Pete Rose.

1996 - Major snowstorm paralyzes Midwestern United States, Milwaukee, Wisconsin ties all-time record low temperature at -26°F. (-32°C)

1997 - O. J. Simpson is found to be civilly liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

1997 - En route to Lebanon, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 troop-transport helicopters collide in mid-air over northern Galilee, Israel killing 73.

1997 - After at first contesting the results, Serbian President Slobodan Milošević recognizes opposition victories in the November 1996 elections.

1998 - An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale in northeast Afghanistan kills more than 5,000.

1999 - Hugo Chávez Frías, Venezuelan military and politician, is elected President of Venezuela.

1999 - Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot dead by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race-relations in the city.

2000 - German extortionist Klaus-Peter Sabotta is jailed for life for attempted murder and extortion in connection with sabotage of German railway lines.

2003 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is officially renamed to Serbia and Montenegro and adopts a new constitution.

2006 - A stampede occurs in the ULTRA Stadium near Manila killing at least 74.

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1575 - Pierre de Bérulle, French cardinal and statesman (d. 1629)

1620 - Gustaf Bonde, Swedish statesman (d. 1667)

1646 - Hans Erasmus Aßmann, Freiherr von Abschatz, German statesman and poet (d. 1699)

1677 - Johann Ludwig Bach, German composer (d. 1731)

1688 - Pierre de Marivaux, French writer (d. 1763)

1725 - Dru Drury, English entomologist (d. 1804)

1746 - Tadeusz Kościuszko, Polish national hero (d. 1817)

1778 - A. P. de Candolle, Swiss botanist (d. 1841)

1799 - Almeida Garrett, Poruguese writer (d. 1854)

1840 - Hiram Stevens Maxim, American weapons inventor (d. 1916)

1841 - Clément Ader, French aviation pioneer (d. 1926)

1846 - Nikolay Umov, Russian physicist (d. 1915)

1849 - Jean Richepin, French poet (d. 1926)

1871 - Friedrich Ebert, German politician, 1st Reichspräsident of the Weimar Republic (d. 1925)

1873 - Étienne Desmarteau, Canadian athlete (d. 1905)

1875 - Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist (d. 1953)

1881 - Fernand Léger, French painter (d. 1955)

1882 - E. J. Pratt, Canadian poet (d. 1964)

1892 - Andreu Nin, Catalan politician (d. 1937)

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

1897 - Ludwig Erhard, 2nd Bundeskanzler of Germany (d. 1977)

1902 - Charles Lindbergh, American pilot (d. 1974)

1902 - Hartley Shawcross, British lawyer and politician (d. 2003)

1904 - MacKinlay Kantor, American writer (d. 1977)

1906 - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian (d. 1945)

1906 - Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer (d. 1997)

1908 - Julian Bell, British poet (d. 1937)

1912 - Erich Leinsdorf, Austrian conductor (d. 1993)

1912 - Byron Nelson, American golfer (d. 2006)

1913 - Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist (d. 2005)

1914 - Alfred Andersch, German writer (d. 1980)

1915 - William Talman, American actor (1968)

1915 - Norman Wisdom, English actor and comedian

1916 - Sadegh Angha, 41st Master of the Oveyssi-Shahmaghsoudi Sufi Order (d. 1980)

1917 - Yahya Khan, President of Pakistan (d. 1980)

1918 - Janet Waldo, American actress

1918 - Ida Lupino, English film actress and director (d. 1995)

1921 - Betty Friedan, American feminist (d. 2006)

1921 - K. R. Narayanan, President of India (d. 2005)

1923 - Conrad Bain, Canadian-born actor

1925 - Russell Hoban, American writer

1931 - Isabel Martínez de Perón, third wife of Argentine dictator Juan Perón

1935 - Martti Talvela, Finnish bass (d. 1989)

1936 - David Brenner, American comedian

1936 - Gary Conway, American actor

1940 - George Romero, American screenwriter, producer, and director

1940 - John Schuck, American actor

1941 - John Steel, British musician (The Animals)

1943 - Ken Thompson, American computer scientist

1943 - Alberto João Jardim, Portuguese president of the regional government of Madeira

1947 - Dan Quayle, 44th Vice President of the United States

1948 - Alice Cooper, American musician

1949 - Michael Beck, American actor

1950 - Pamela Franklin, British actress

1951 - Patrick Bergin, Irish actor

1951 - Phil Ehart, American musician (Kansas (band))

1951 - Dariush Eghbali, Iranian singer and musician

1953 - Kitaro, Japanese composer

1957 - Don Davis, American composer

1957 - Evan Wolfson, prominent attorney and activist

1958 - Tomasz Pacyński, Polish writer

1959 - Pamelyn Ferdin, American actress

1959 - Lawrence Taylor, American football player

1960 - Jonathan Larson, American composer of "RENT" and others (d. 1996)

1961 - Stewart O'Nan, American author

1961 - Denis Savard, Canadian ice hockey player

1962 - Clint Black, American musician

1963 - Pirmin Zurbriggen, Swiss skier

1964 - Noodles, American guitarist (The Offspring)

1965 - Jerome Brown, American football player (d. 1992)

1966 - Viatcheslav Ekimov, Russian cyclist

1966 - Kyoko Koizumi, Japanese actress and singer

1967 - Sergei Grinkov, Russian figure skater (d. 1995)

1968 - Marko Matvere, Estonian actor

1969 - Duncan Coutts, Canadian bassist (Our Lady Peace)

1969 - Dallas Drake, Ice Hockey Player

1970 - Gabrielle Anwar, English actress

1971 - Rob Corddry, American actor and comedian

1971 - Michael Goorjian, American actor

1972 - Giovanni Silva De Oliveira, Brazilian footballer

1973 - Oscar De La Hoya, Mexican-born boxer

1975 - Natalie Imbruglia, Australian musician and actress

1976 - Cam'ron, American rapper

1977 - Gavin DeGraw, American musician

1979 - Giorgio Pantano, Italian racing car driver

1982 - Chris Sabin, American professional wrestler

1982 - Tomas Vaitkus, Lithuanian professional road racing cyclist

1987 - Lucie Šafářová, Czech tennis player

1988 - Carly Patterson, American gymnast

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211 - Septimius Severus, Emperor of Rome (b. 146)

708 - Pope Sisinnius

856 - Rabanus Maurus, Bishop of Mainz

869 - Saint Cyril, Greek missionary to the Slavs (b. 827)

1508 - Conrad Celtes, German humanist scholar (b. 1459)

1590 - Gioseffo Zarlino, Italian composer (b. 1517)

1615 - Dom Justo Takayama, Japanese warlord (b. 1552)

1615 - Giovanni Battista della Porta, Italian physicist (b. 1535)

1694 - Nataliya Kyrillovna Naryshkina, Tsaritsa of Russia (b. 1651)

1713 - Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, English politician and philosopher (b. 1671)

1774 - Charles Marie de La Condamine, French mathematician and geographer (b. 1701)

1799 - Étienne-Louis Boullée, French architect (b. 1728)

1781 - Josef Mysliveček, Czech composer (b. 1737)

1894 - Adolphe Sax, Belgian instrument maker (b. 1814)

1905 - Louis-Ernest Barrias, French sculptor (b. 1841)

1928 - Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1853)

1933 - Archibald Sayce, English educator (b. 1846)

1936 - Wilhelm Gustloff, German leader of the Swiss Nazi party (b. 1895)

1940 - Nikolai Yezhov, Head of Soviet NKVD (b. 1895)

1944 - Yvette Guilbert, French singer and actress (b. 1867)

1944 - Arsen Kotsoyev, Russian writer (b. 1872)

1958 - Henry Kuttner, American author (b. 1915)

1959 - Una O'Connor, Irish actress (b. 1880)

1967 - Albert Orsborn, 6th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1886)

1968 - Neal Cassady, American writer (b. 1926)

1968 - Gilbert H. Grosvenor, American president of the National Geographic Society (b. 1875)

1969 - Thelma Ritter, American actress (b. 1905)

1974 - Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian physicist (b. 1894)

1975 - Louis Jordan, American musician (b. 1908)

1977 - Brett Halliday, American writer (b. 1904)

1982 - Alex Harvey, Scottish musician (b. 1935)

1983 - Karen Carpenter, American singer and musician (Carpenters) (anorexia) (b. 1950)

1984 - Anna Anderson, claimant to the throne of Russia

1987 - Liberace, American musician (b. 1919)

1987 - Carl Rogers, American psychologist (b. 1902)

1990 - Whipper Billy Watson, Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1917)

1992 - Lisa Fonssagrives, Swedish model (b. 1911)

1995 - Godfrey Brown, British athlete and teacher (b. 1915)

1995 - Patricia Highsmith, American author (b. 1921)

2000 - Carl Albert, American politician, 54th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1908)

2000 - Doris Coley, American singer (Shirelles) (b. 1941)

2001 - J. J. Johnson, American jazz trombonist and composer (b. 1924)

2001 - Iannis Xenakis, Greek-born composer (b. 1922)

2005 - Ossie Davis, American actor (b. 1917)

2006 - Betty Friedan, American feminist (b. 1921)

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Ancient Latvia - Biezputras Diena observed.

Independence Day in Sri Lanka (1948).

Angolan Anniversary of the Outbreak of Armed Struggle against Portuguese Colonialism.

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Liturgical feasts in the Roman Catholic church

Saint Gilbert (d. 1189)
Saint John de Britto
Saint Rembert of Torhout
Saint Veronica, patron saint of photographers