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1489 - The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice.

1492 - Queen Isabella of Castille orders her 150,000 Jewish subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion.

1590 - Battle of Ivry: Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots defeat the forces of the Catholic League under the Duc de Mayenne during the French Wars of Religion.

1647 - Thirty Years' War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm.

1757 - On-board the HMS Monarch, Admiral John Byng is executed by firing squad for neglecting his duty.

1794 - Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin.

1800 - Cardinal Barnaba Chiaramonti is elected Pope Pius VII.

1869 - Defeat of Titokowaru.

1900 - The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing United States currency on the gold standard.

1903 - The Hay-Herran Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian Senate would later reject the treaty.

1903 - Theodore Roosevelt issues an executive order making Pelican Island, in Florida, a “preserve and breeding ground for native birds,” marking the birth of the National Wildlife Refuge System.

1905 - Chelsea F.C founded at The Rising Sun pub (now The Butcher's Hook) opposite Stamford Bridge.

1910 - Lakeview Gusher, the largest U.S. oil well gusher near Bakersfield, California, vented to atmosphere.

1915 - World War I: Cornered off the coast of Chile by the Royal Navy after fleeing the disastrous Battle of the Falkland Islands, the German light cruiser SMS Dresden is abandoned and scuttled by her crew.

1939 - German troops fully occupy the Czechoslovak provinces of Bohemia and Moravia.

1943 - World War II - The Krakow Ghetto is liquidated.

1950 - FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives was formed.

1951 - Korean War: For the second time, United Nations troops recapture Seoul.

1959 - J.R.D.A.C.I. founded at a congress in Treichville, Côte d'Ivoire.

1964 - A jury in Dallas, Texas finds Jack Ruby guilty of killing John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

1967 - The body of President John F. Kennedy is moved to a permanent burial place at Arlington National Cemetery.

1978 - The Israeli Defense Force, invades and occupies southern Lebanon, in Operation Litani

1979 - In China, a Hawker-Siddeley Trident crashes into a factory near Beijing, killing at least 200.

1980 - In Poland, a plane crashes during an emergency landing near Warsaw, killing 87 people, including a 14-man American boxing team.

1984 - Gerry Adams, head of Sinn Féin, is seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in central Belfast.

1989 - Gun control: President George H. W. Bush bans the importation of certain guns deemed assault weapons into the United States.

1991 - After 16 years in prison for allegedly bombing a pub in an Irish Republican Army attack, the "Birmingham Six" are freed when a court determines that the police fabricated evidence.

1994 - Timeline of Linux development: Linux kernel version 1.0.0 is released.

1995 - Manned space mission: Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American astronaut to ride to space on-board a Russian launch vehicle.

1997 - The Chinese city of Chongqing (formerly Chunking) is upgraded to a centrally administered municipality

1998 - An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale hits southeastern Iran.

2002 - 125 vehicles are involved in a massive pile up on Interstate 75 in Ringgold, Georgia.

2004 - Pope John Paul II becomes the second-longest serving pope in history.

2004 - Vladimir Putin is re-elected president of Russia, while the PSOE wins elections in Spain just days after terrorist attacks in Madrid.

2005 - The online statistics service SOTKAnet is opened for the public in Finland.

2005 - Mass Protest against Syrian influence in Lebanon takes place in Beirut as part of the Cedar Revolution.

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1638 - Johann Georg Gichtel, German mystic (d. 1710)

1681 - Georg Philipp Telemann, German composer (d. 1767)

1804 - Johann Strauß, Sr., Austrian composer (d. 1849)

1813 - Joseph Philo Bradley, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1892)

1823 - Théodore de Banville, French writer (d. 1891)

1835 - Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italian astronomer (d. 1910)

1844 - King Umberto I of Italy (d. 1900)

1853 - Ferdinand Hodler, Swiss painter (d. 1918)

1854 - Paul Ehrlich, German scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1915)

1862 - Vilhelm Bjerknes, Norwegian physicist (d. 1961)

1864 - Casey Jones, railroad engineer (d. 1900)

1869 - Algernon Blackwood, British writer (d. 1951)

1879 - Albert Einstein, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955)

1882 - Waclaw Sierpinski, Polish mathematician (d. 1969)

1885 - Raoul Lufbery, American World War I pilot (d. 1918)

1886 - Firmin Lambot, Belgian cyclist (d. 1964)

1887 - Sylvia Beach, American publisher (d. 1962)

1898 - Arnold Chikobava, Georgian linguist (d. 1985)

1903 - Mustafa Barzani, Kurdish politician (d. 1979)

1903 - Adolph Gottlieb American abstract expressionist painter (d. 1974)

1904 - Doris Eaton Travis, American actress Ziegfeld girl

1912 - Les Brown, American band leader (d. 2001)

1914 - Lee Elhardt Hays, American folksinger (d. 1981)

1914 - Bill Owen, British actor (d. 1999)

1914 - Lee Petty, American race car driver (d. 2000)

1915 - Alexander Brott, Canadian conductor and composer (d. 2005)

1916 - Horton Foote, American writer

1920 - Hank Ketcham, American cartoonist (d. 2001)

1922 - Les Baxter, American musician and composer (d. 1996)

1923 - Diane Arbus, American photographer (d. 1971)

1925 - Francis A. Marzen, American Catholic prelate

1925 - William Clay Ford, Sr., Ford Motor Co. Director Emeritus, Detroit Lions Football Franchise Owner

1928 - Frank Borman, astronaut and airline executive

1933 - Michael Caine, British actor

1933 - Quincy Jones, American music producer and composer

1933 - René Felber, member of the Swiss Federal Council from 1987 to 1993

1934 - Eugene Cernan, American astronaut

1934 - Paul Rader, the 15th General of The Salvation Army

1938 - Angus Maclise, American mystic, shaman, musician, and composer (d. 1979)

1941 - Wolfgang Petersen, German director

1945 - Jasper Carrott, British comedian

1946 - Steve Kanaly, American actor

1947 - Billy Crystal, American actor and comedian

1947 - Pam Ayres, British poet

1950 - Rick Dees, American disc jockey

1951 - Jerry Greenfield, founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream

1956 - Jonathan Bowen, British computer scientist

1957 - Andrew Robinson, British editor and author

1958 - Albert II, Prince of Monaco

1960 - Kirby Puckett, baseball player (d. 2006)

1961 - Penny Johnson Jerald, American actress

1963 - Bruce Reid, Australian cricketer

1965 - Aamir Khan, Indian actor

1965 - Catherine Dent, American actress

1965 - Kevin Brown, baseball player

1965 - Kevin Williamson, American screenwriter

1969 - Larry Johnson, former NBA basketball player

1975 - Johan Paulik (aka Daniel Ferenčík), Slovak pornographic actor

1976 - Merlin Santana, American actor (d. 2002)

1978 - Pieter van den Hoogenband, Dutch swimmer

1978 - Matt Kata, Professional baseball player

1979 - Chris Klein, American actor

1979 - Nicolas Anelka, French footballer

1979 - Love, Angolan footballer

1979 - Shawn Morrissey, Canadian author and naturalist; Korean Mountaineering League founder

1980 - Aaron Brown, English footballer

1981 - Mei-Ting Sun, Chinese-born pianist

1981 - Bobby Jenks, baseball player

1983 - Bakhtiyar Artayev, Kazakh boxer

1983 - Taylor Hanson, American musician (Hanson)

1985 - Eva Angelina, Porn actress

1986 - Jamie Bell, British actor

1986 - Elton Chigumbura, Zimbabwean cricketer

1994 - Frankie Ryan Manriquez, American actor

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752 - Pope Zachary

1457 - Jingtai Emperor of China (b. 1428)

1471 - Sir Thomas Malory, English author (c. 1705)

1647 - Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (b. 1584)

1648 - Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, English general (b. 1584)

1680 - René Le Bossu, French critic (b. 1631)

1682 - Jacob Isaakszoon van Ruysdael, Dutch painter (c. 1628)

1696 - Jean Domat, French jurist (b. 1625)

1698 - Claes Rålamb, Swedish statesman (b. 1622)

1748 - George Wade, British military leader (b. 1673)

1757 - John Byng, British admiral (executed) (b. 1704)

1791 - Johann Salomo Semler, German historian and Bible commentator (b. 1725)

1803 - Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German writer (b. 1724)

1805 - Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki, Russian general (b. 1753)

1811 - Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1735)

1823 - Charles François Dumouriez, French general (b. 1739)

1883 - Karl Marx, German political theorist (b. 1818)

1884 - Quintino Sella, Italian statesman (b. 1827)

1932 - George Eastman, American inventor (b. 1854)

1946 - Werner von Blomberg, German field marshal (b. 1878)

1949 - John Callan O'Laughlin, American political and military figure and journalist (b. 1873)

1973 - Rafael Godoy, Colombian composer (b. 1907)

1973 - Chic Young, American cartoonist (b. 1901)

1975 - Susan Hayward, American actress (b. 1917)

1976 - Busby Berkeley, American choreographer and director (b. 1895)

1977 - Fannie Lou Hamer, American civil rights activist (b. 1917)

1980 - Mohammad Hatta, Indonesian politician (b. 1902)

1986 - Elio de Angelis, Italian race car driver (b. 1958)

1989 - Edward Abbey, American author (b. 1927)

1991 - Howard Ashman, American lyricist (b. 1950)

1991 - Doc Pomus, American composer (b. 1925)

1991 - Margery Sharp, children's author (b. 1905)

1995 - William Alfred Fowler, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)

1997 - Fred Zinnemann, Austrian-born director (b. 1907)

2002 - Cherry Wilder, New Zealand-born author (b. 1930)

2003 - Jack Goldstein, Canadian-born artist (b. 1945)

2003 - Jean-Luc Lagardère, French publisher (b. 1928)

2006 - Lennart Meri, former president of Estonia (b. 1929)

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Albania - Summer Day: Albanian holiday Summer is celebrated in this day in Elbasan and its surroundings.

Japan and Korea - White Day: Japanese holiday similar to Valentine's Day (men give gifts to women).

Pi Day - unofficial mathematics holiday.

Roman Empire - Equirria, horse races in honor of Mars were held.

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Liturgical feasts

Saint Mathildis
Saint Paulina
Blessed Eve of Liege