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1602 - The Dutch East India Company is established.

1739 - Nadir Shah occupies Delhi in India and sacks the city, stealing the jewels of the Peacock Throne.

1760 - The "Great Fire" of Boston destroys 349 buildings.

1815 - Napoleon enters Paris after escaping from Elba with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, beginning his "Hundred Days" rule.

1848 - Revolutions of 1848 in the German states: King Ludwig I of Bavaria abdicates.

1852 - Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is published.

1856 - Costa Rican troops rout Walker's soldiers.

1861 - An earthquake completely destroys Mendoza, a city on western Argentina.

1883 - Signature of Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.

1899 - At Sing Sing prison, Martha M. Place becomes the first woman executed in an electric chair.

1913 - Sung Chiao-jen, a founder of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) (KMT), is wounded in an assassination attempt and dies 2 days later.

1914 - In New Haven, Connecticut, the first international figure skating championship takes place.

1916 - Albert Einstein publishes his theory of relativity.

1922 - The USS ''Langley'' is commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft carrier.

1933 - Giuseppe Zangara is executed in Florida's electric chair for fatally shooting Anton Cermak in an assassination attempt against Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

1942 - In Zgierz, Poland, 100 Poles are taken from a labor camp and shot by the Germans.

1942 - in Rohatyn, western Ukraine, on Friday, German SS murder 3000 Jews, including 600 Jewish children, annihalating 70 % of Rohatyn's Jewish ghetto. The entire action took one day, from early morning to five o'clock in the evening. All the dead were buried in a mass grave behind the railroad station in Rohatyn.

1942 - General Douglas MacArthur, at Terowie, South Australia, makes his famous speech regarding the fall of the Philippines, in which he says: "I came out of Bataan and I shall return".

1948 - With a Musicians Union ban lifted, the first telecasts of classical music in the United States, under Eugene Ormandy and Arturo Toscanini, are given on CBS and NBC.

1952 - The United States Senate ratifies a peace treaty with Japan.

1956 - Tunisia gains independence from France.

1964 - The precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organization) is established per an agreement signed on June 14, 1962.

1965 - In Naples, Italy, France Gall wins the tenth Eurovision Song Contest for Luxembourg singing "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" (Wax doll, bran doll).

1966 - The football World Cup is stolen from an exhibition at Central Hall, Westminster, London

1969 - In Gibraltar, John Lennon and Yoko Ono get married.

1974 - A failed kidnap attempt is made on Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips in The Mall, outside Buckingham Palace, London.

1985 - Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

1986 - Jacques Chirac becomes Prime Minister of France.

1987 - The Food and Drug Administration approves anti-AIDS drug AZT.

1990 - Ferdinand Marcos's widow, Imelda Marcos, goes on trial for bribery, embezzlement, and racketeering.

1993 - A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb explodes in Warrington, northwest England, killing two children.

1995 - Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway killing 12 and wounding 1300 persons.

2000 - Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a former Black Panther once known as H. Rap Brown, is captured after a gun battle that leaves a Georgia sheriff's deputy dead.

2003 - 2003 invasion of Iraq: In the early hours of the morning, the United States and three other countries begin military operations in Iraq.

2004 - Stephen Harper wins the leadership of the newly created Conservative Party of Canada, thus becoming the first leader in the party's history.

2005 - A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits Fukuoka, Japan, its first major quake in over 100 years. One person is killed, hundreds are injured and evacuated.

2006 - Cyclone Larry makes landfall in eastern Australia.

2006 - Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in eastern Chad by members of the rebel UFDC. The growing rebel movement seeks to overthrow Chadian president Idriss Deby.

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43 BC - Ovid, Roman poet (d. 17)

1477 - Jerome Emser, German theologian (d. 1527)

1502 - Pierino Belli, Italian soldier and jurist (d. 1575)

1725 - Abdul Hamid I, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1789)

1735 - Torbern Bergman, Swedish chemist (d. 1784)

1737 - Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke, King of Thailand (d. 1809)

1741 - Jean Antoine Houdon, French sculptor (d. 1828)

1770 - Friedrich Hölderlin, German writer (d. 1843)

1799 - Karl August Nicander, Swedish poet (d. 1839)

1811 - Napoleon II of France, (d. 1832)

1823 - Ned Buntline, American publisher (d. 1886)

1828 - Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian writer (d. 1906)

1831 - Solomon L. Spink, U.S. Congressman (d. 1881)

1834 - Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University (d. 1926)

1836 - Sir Edward Poynter, British painter (d. 1919)

1840 - Illarion Pryanishnikov, Russian painter (d. 1894)

1856 - Sir John Lavery, Irish artist (d. 1941)

1856 - Frederick Winslow Taylor, American inventor (d. 1915)

1870 - Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, German general (d. 1964)

1873 - Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian composer (d. 1943)

1874 - Börries von Münchhausen, German poet (d. 1945)

1876 - Payne Whitney, American businessman (d. 1927)

1890 - Beniamino Gigli, Italian tenor (d. 1957)

1890 - Lauritz Melchior, Danish tenor (d. 1973)

1895 - Fredric Wertham, German-born psychologist (d. 1981)

1897 - Ruby Muhammad, American matriarch of Black Islam

1903 - Edgar Buchanan, American actor (d. 1979)

1904 - B. F. Skinner, American psychologist (d. 1990)

1906 - Abraham Beame, American politician (d. 2001)

1906 - Ozzie Nelson, American actor (d. 1975)

1908 - Michael Redgrave, English actor (d. 1985)

1911 - Alfonso García Robles, Nobel laureate (d. 1991)

1915 - Rudolf Kirchschläger, President of Austria (d. 2000)

1915 - Sviatoslav Richter, Ukrainian pianist (d. 1997)

1917 - Vera Lynn, English actress and singer

1918 - Jack Barry, American TV host (d. 1984)

1918 - Marian McPartland, British jazz musician

1920 - Pamela Harriman, British-American diplomat (d. 1997)

1921 - Sister Rosetta Tharpe, American singer (d. 1973)

1922 - Ray Goulding, American comedian (d. 1990)

1922 - Carl Reiner, American director

1925 - John Ehrlichman, American political figure (d. 1999)

1928 - Fred Rogers, American TV host (d. 2003)

1931 - Hal Linden, American actor

1933 - Alexander Gorodnitsky, Russian geologist and poet

1933 - George Altman, Baseball player

1934 - Willie Brown, American politician

1935 - Ted Bessell, American actor (d. 1996)

1936 - Vaughn Meader, American comedian (d. 2004)

1937 - Jerry Reed, American musician

1939 - Brian Mulroney, former Prime Minister of Canada

1941 - Pat Corrales, baseball player

1943 - Naima Neidre, Estonian graphic artist

1943 - Paul Junger Witt, American TV producer

1945 - Henry Bartholomay, American fighter pilot

1945 - Pat Riley, American basketball player and coach

1945 - Jay Ingram, Canadian television host and author

1945 - Rick Berman, American TV and film producer

1948 - John de Lancie, American actor

1948 - Bobby Orr, Canadian hockey player

1949 - Marcia Ball, American singer

1950 - William Hurt, American actor

1950 - Carl Palmer, British drummer (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)

1951 - Jimmie Vaughan, American blues guitarist

1957 - Vanessa Bell Calloway, American actress

1957 - Spike Lee, American film director

1958 - Holly Hunter, American actress

1958 - Phil Anderson, Australian cyclist

1959 - Sting, American professional wrestler

1959 - Steve McFadden, British actor

1961 - Slim Jim Phantom, American musician (Stray Cats)

1962 - Stephen Sommers, American film director

1963 - Paul Annacone, American tennis player

1963 - Kathy Ireland, American model

1964 - Natacha Atlas, Belgian singer

1969 - Mannie Fresh, American producer

1971 - Touré, American Writer

1971 - Manny Alexander, Baseball player

1972 - Alexander Kapranos, British musician (Franz Ferdinand (band))

1974 - Paula Garces, Colombian actress

1974 - Andrzej Pilipiuk, Polish writer

1976 - Chester Bennington, American musician (Linkin Park)

1979 - Bianca Lawson, American actress

1980 - Jamal Crawford, American basketball player

1982 - Nick Wheeler, American guitarist (The All-American Rejects)

1982 - Terrence Duffin, Zimbabwean cricketer

1984 - Marcus Vick, American football player

1984 - Fernando Torres, Spanish footballer

1984 - Christy Carlson Romano, American actress

1984 - Winta, Norwegian musician

1985 - Chris Beattie, British actor

1987 - Rollo Weeks, British actor

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1191 - Frederick VI, Duke of Swabia (b. 1167)

1239 - Hermann von Salza, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights (c. 1179)

1413 - King Henry IV of England (b. 1367)

1568 - Duke Albert of Prussia (b. 1490)

1586 - Richard Maitland, Scottish statesman and historian (b. 1496)

1619 - Mathias, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1557)

1673 - Augustyn Kordecki, Polish prior (b. 1603)

1727 O.S. - Sir Isaac Newton, English physicist (b. 1642)

1730 - Adrienne Lecouvreur, French actress (b. 1692)

1732 - Johann Ernst Hanxleden, German philologist (b. 1681)

1746 - Nicolas de Largillière, French painter (b. 1656)

1793 - William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, Scottish judge and politician (b. 1705)

1835 - Louis-Leopold Robert, French painter (b. 1794)

1855 - Joseph Aspdin, English mason and inventor (b. 1788)

1865 - Keisuke Yamanami, Japanese samurai (b. 1833)

1874 - Hans Christian Lumbye, Danish composer (b. 1810)

1878 - Julius Robert von Mayer, German physician and physicist (b. 1814)

1890 - Alexander F. Mozhaiski, aviation pioneer (b. 1825)

1897 - Apollon Maykov, Russian poet (b. 1821)

1899 - Franz Ritter von Hauer, Austrian geologist (b. 1822)

1918 - Lewis A. Grant, American Civil War General (b. 1828)

1925 - George Nathaniel Curzon, British statesman (b. 1859)

1929 - Ferdinand Foch, French commander of allied forces in World War I (b. 1851)

1931 - Hermann Müller, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1876)

1934 - Queen Emma of the Netherlands (b. 1858)

1940 - Alfred Ploetz, German physician, biologist, and eugenicist (b. 1860)

1974 - Chet Huntley, American television journalist (b. 1911)

1983 - Ivan Matveyevich Vinogradov, Russian mathematician (b. 1891)

1990 - Lev Yashin, Soviet footballer (b. 1929)

1991 - Conor Clapton, son of Eric Clapton (b. 1986)

1993 - Polykarp Kusch, German-born American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)

1994 - Lewis Grizzard, American journalist, comedian, and actor (b. 1946)

1995 - Big John Studd, American professional wrestler (b. 1948)

1997 - Tony Zale, American boxer (b. 1913)

2000 - Gene Eugene, Canadian actor and singer (b. 1961)

2001 - Luis Alvarado, Puerto Rican baseball player (b. 1949)

2003 - Sailor Art Thomas, American professional wrestler (b. 1924)

2004 - Queen Juliana of the Netherlands (b. 1909)

2005 - Armand Lohikoski, Finnish director (b. 1912)

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The vernal equinox usually occurs on this day.

The second day of Quinquatria in ancient Rome, held in honor of Minerva.

New Year of Iranian Calendar: Norouz occurs on the vernal equinox.

International Astrology Day

Meat Out Day

Canberra Day

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Liturgical feasts

Feast of St. Cuthbert, patron saint of Northumbria (died 704)
Saint Herbert (died 687)
Saint Wulfram (d.704)
Saint Alexandra