On this day in History - Feb. 4

• 0211 - Septimius Severus dies (b. 0146), leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons, Caracalla and Geta.
• 0362 - Roman Emperor Julian promulgates an edict that recognizes equal rights to all the religions in the Roman Empire.
• 0708 - Pope Sisinnius dies.
• 0784 - Hrabanus Maurus dies. German poet.
• 0856 - Rabanus Maurus dies (b. 0780). Bishop of Mainz.
• 0869 - Saint Cyril, after whom the Cyrillic alphabet is named, dies .
• 0960 - The coronation of Zhao Kuangyin as Emperor Taizu of Song, initiating the Song Dynasty period of China that would last more than three centuries.
• 1454 - In the Thirteen Years' War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederacy sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master.
• 1508 - Conrad Celtes dies (b. 1459). German humanist scholar.
• 1524 - Luis de Camões was born (d. 10 Jun 1580). Portugal's greatest poet. / Luís Vaz de Camões, nasce em Lisboa, poeta épico e soldado português († 1580). Um dos maiores poetas portugueses de sempre. Autor de "Os Lusíadas" e de diversos sonetos, entre os quais o célebre "Amor é um fogo que arde sem se ver...". (data incerta, se nem o ano do nascimento é seguro, quanto mais o dia? Mas que importa? Uma boa ocasião para relembrar a boa poesia)
• 1575 - Pierre de Bérulle was born (d. 1629). French cardinal and statesman.
• 1590 - Gioseffo Zarlino dies (b. 1517). Italian composer.
• 1615 - Dom Justo Takayama dies (b. 1552). Japanese warlord.
• 1615 - Giovanni Battista della Porta dies (b. 1535). Italian physicist.
• 1617 - Louis Elsevier dies (b. 1546). Dutch publisher.
• 1620 - Gustaf Bonde was born (d. 1667). Swedish statesman.
• 1646 - Hans Erasmus Aßmann, Freiherr von Abschatz was born (d. 1699). German statesman and poet.
• 1677 - Johann Ludwig Bach was born (d. 1731). German composer.
• 1688 - Pierre de Marivaux was born (d. 1763). French writer.
• 1693 - S. João de Brito dies in India (b. 1 Mar 1647). Portuguese martyr.
• 1694 - Nataliya Kyrillovna Naryshkina dies (b. 1651). Tsaritsa of Russia.
• 1703 - In Edo (now Tokyo), 46 of the Forty-Seven Ronin commit seppuku (ritual suicide) as recompense for avenging their master's death.
• 1713 - Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury dies (b. 1671).
• 1725 - Dru Drury was born (d. 1804). English entomologist.
• 1746 - Tadeusz Kościuszko was born (d. 1817). Polish national hero.
• 1774 - Charles Marie de La Condamine dies (b. 1701). French mathematician and geographer.
• 1778 - Augustin Pyrame de Candolle was born (d. 1841). Swiss botanist.
• 1781 - Josef Myslivecek dies (b. 1737). Czech composer.
• 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.
• 1790 - John Bachman was born (d. 24 Feb 1874). Naturalist and Lutheran minister who published studies of southern animals and works on botany and agriculture.
• 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.
• 1797 - Un terremoto destruye con grandes estragos y muchas víctimas la ciudad de Quito.
• 1799 - Almeida Garrett (João Baptista da Silva Leitão) was born in Porto († 1851). Portuguese writer.
• 1799 - Étienne-Louis Boullée dies (b. 1728). French architect.
• 1801 - John Marshall sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States.
• 1808 - Josef Kajetán Tyl was born (d. 1856). Czech playwright, author of the Czech national anthem.
• 1810 - Royal Navy seizes Guadeloupe.
• 1817 - Las tropas del general San Martín derrotan a las españolas en el desfiladero de Achupallas, Chile.
• 1819 - Nace en Inglaterra Joshua Abraham Norton, quien en 1859 se proclamó emperador de los EE.UU.
• 1824 - J.W. Goodrich presenta las galochas de goma.
• 1825 - The Ohio Legislature authorizes the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the Miami and Erie Canal.
• 1831 - Oliver Ames was born (d. 1895). 35^th Governor of Massachusetts.
• 1836 - Dade County, Florida is formed.
• 1840 - Hiram Stevens Maxim was born (d. 1916). American inventor of the Maxim Gun.
• 1841 - Clément Ader was born (d. 5 Mar 1926). Self-taught French engineer and inventor, best known as a pioneer of flight before the Wright brothers. In 1890 he constructed a steam-powered aircraft with bat-shaped wings. Cabral, que falha por falta de apoio popular e do exército.
• 1846 - Nikolay Umov was born (d. 1915). Russian physicist.
• 1848 - Jean Aicard was born (d. 1921). French poet.
• 1849 - Jean Richepin was born (d. 1926). French poet.
• 1859 - The Codex Sinaiticus discovered in Egypt.
• 1859 - Timofei Mikhailov was born. Russian revolutionary, member of Narodnaya Volya.
• 1861 - American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama the Confederate States of America is formed by delegates from six break-away United States.
• 1862 - Bacardi, one of the world's largest spirits company, was founded as a small distillery in Santiago de Cuba in eastern Cuba.
• 1863 - Alfred Lacroix was born ( d. 12 Mar 1948). French mineralogist and geologist whose Minéraux des roches (1888; "The Minerals of Rocks"), written with the geologist Albert Michel-Lévy, was a pioneer study of the optical properties of rock-forming minerals .
• 1867 - Tropas del emperador Maximiliano vencen a los patriotas mexicanos en La Quemada.
• 1871 - Friedrich Ebert was born (d. 1925). President of the Weimar Republic.
• 1872 - Gotse Delchev was born (d. 1903). Great Macedonian revolutionary.
• 1873 - Étienne Desmarteau was born (d. 1905). Canadian athlete.
• 1875 - Ludwig Prandtl was born (d. 15 Aug 1953). German physicist who is remembered for his studies of both aerodynamics and hydrodynamics.
• 1877 - Eddie Cochems was born (d. 1953). Father of the Forward Pass in American football.
• 1881 - Fernand Léger was born (d. 1955). French painter.
• 1881 - João de Barros was born. Portuguese poet and pedagogue.
• 1882 - E. J. Pratt was born (d. 1964). Canadian poet.
• 1884 - Alexander Watson Hutton funda la English High School, pieza clave en la historia fundacional del fútbol argentino.
• 1884 - Ecuador promulga una nueva Constitución y es elegido presidente José Caamaño.
• 1891 - Madabhushi Ananthasayanam Ayyangar was born (d. 1978). Speaker of Lok Sabha.
• 1892 - Andreu Nin was born (d. 1937). Catalan politician.
  
• 1892 - E. J. Pratt was born (d. 1964). Canadian poet.
  
• 1892 - Prince George I was born (d. 1971). Duke of Westrogothia.
• 1893 - Raymond Arthur Dart was born (d. 22 Nov 1988). Australian-born South African physical anthropologist and paleontologist whose discoveries of fossil hominids led to significant insights into the evolutionary origins of human beings.
• 1894 - Adolphe Sax dies (b. 1814). Belgian instrument maker, inventor of the saxophone.
• 1895 - the first rolling lift bridge opened over the Chicago River at Van Buren Street, Chicago. This type was popular around 1900, designed and patented by William Scherzer of Chicago.
• 1895 - Henrique Galvão was born. Portuguese politician and writer.
• 1895 - Nigel Bruce was born (d. 1953). English actor.
• 1896 - Friedrich Glauser was born (d. 1938). German-language Swiss writer.
  
• 1895 - James Owen Dorsey dies (b. 31 Oct 1848). American ethnologist known principally for his linguistic and ethnographic studies of the Siouan Indians.
• 1896 - Friedrich Hund was born (d. 31 Mar 1997). German physicist known for his work on the electronic structure of atoms and molecules.
• 1897 - Ludwig Erhard was born (d. 1977). German Bundeskanzler (Federal Chancellor).
• 1897 - El Gobierno español, presidido por Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, promulga un decreto de autonomía para Cuba y Puerto Rico .
• 1899 - The Philippine-American War begins.
• 1900 - Jacques Prévert was born (d. 1977). French poet and lyricist.
• 1901 - Jascha Heifetz was born (d. 1987). Lithuanian violinist.
• 1902 - Charles Augustus Lindbergh was born (d. 26 Aug 1974). American aviator, one of the best-known figures in aeronautical history, remembered for the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic.
• 1902 - Hartley Shawcross was born (d. 2003). British lawyer and politician.
• 1904 - Um grande número de trabalhadores portuários e metalúrgicos junta-se ao movimento grevista dos metalúrgicos, começado em 7 de Dezembro do ano anterior. O movimento fracassa completamente.
• 1904 - Tem início a Guerra Russo-Japonesa.
• 1904 - MacKinlay Kantor was born (d. 1977). American writer.
• 1905 - Hylda Baker was born (d. 1986). English comedy actress.
• 1905 - Louis-Ernest Barrias dies (b. 1841). French sculptor.
• 1906 - Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born (d. 1945). German theologian.
• 1906 - Clyde Tombaugh was born (d. 17 Jan 1997). American astronomer who discovered the planet Pluto in 1930, the only planet discovered in the twentieth century, after a systematic search instigated by the predictions of other astronomers.
• 1906 - Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born (d. 1945). German theologian.
  
• 1908 - Julian Bell was born (d. 1937). British poet.
• 1912 - Byron Nelson was born (d. 2006). American golfer.
• 1912 - Erich Leinsdorf was born (d. 1993). Austrian conductor.
• 1912 - Louis-Albert Cardinal Vachon was born (d. 2006). Archbishop of Quebec.
  
• 1912 - Ola Skjåk Bræk was born (d. 1999). Norwegian politician.
  
• 1913 - Rosa Parks was born (d. 2005). American civil rights activist.
• 1914 - Alfred Andersch was born (d. 1980). German narrator and author of radio drama.
• 1914 - EE.UU. concede amplia libertad para exportar a México armas y municiones.
• 1915 - Germany establishes a submarine blockade around the UK and declares any vessel in it a legitimate target.
• 1915 - Experiments began to find the cause of the disease, pellegra. In 1915 more than 10,000 people died of pellagra in the United States alone. The work is conducted by Dr. Joseph Goldberger upon a dozen vounteers from the inmates of a Mississippi state prison at Jackson.
• 1915 - Ray Evans was born (d. 2007). American songwriter with Jay Livingston.
• 1915 - Norman Wisdom was born. English actor and comedian.
• 1915 - William Talman was born (d. 1968). American actor.
• 1916 - Shah Maghsoud Sadegh Angha was born (d. 1980). 41st master of the Oveyssi-Shahmaghsoudi Sufi Order.
• 1917 - Yahya Khan was born (d. 1980). President of Pakistan.
• 1918 - Ida Lupino was born (d. 1995). English film actress and director.
• 1918 - Janet Waldo was born. American actress.
• 1918 - Luigi Pareyson was born (d. 1991). Italian philosopher.
  
• 1921 - Betty Friedan was born (d. 2006). American feminist.
• 1921 - K. R. Narayanan was born (d. 2005). President of India.
• 1922 - Pandit Bhimsen Joshi was born. Indian Classical Singer.
• 1923 - Conrad Bain was born. Canadian-born actor.
• 1923 - Belisario Betancur dies. President of Colombia.
• 1924 - Mahatma Gandhi es liberado de la prisión en la India.
• 1925 - Russell Hoban was born. American writer.
• 1925 - Robert Koldewey dies (b. 10 Sep 1855). German architect and archaeologist who revealed the semilegendary Babylon of the Bible as a geographic and historical reality.
• 1927 - The first talkie is released - The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson.
• 1927 - El Gobierno mexicano levanta a clérigos extranjeros, excepto a españoles, la prohibición de residir en el país.
• 1927 - Rolf William Landauer was born (d. 27 Apr 1999). German-born American physicist whose discovery of what came to be known as Landauer's principle (that the erasing of computer information causes a loss of energy) led to the development of more efficient computers.
• 1928 - Hendrik Antoon Lorentz dies (b. 18 July 1853). Dutch physicist and joint winner (with Pieter Zeeman) of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1902 for his theory of the influence of magnetism upon electromagnetic radiation phenomena.
• 1929 - Carlos Alonso was born. Argentinean paintor, ilustrator y dibujantem VER.
• 1929 - Jerry Adler was born. American actor.
• 1931 - Isabel Martínez de Perón was born. Third wife of Argentine dictator Juan Perón and President of Argentine .
• 1932 - Comienzan en Lake Placid, NY, EE.UU., los I Juegos Olímpicos de Invierno.
• 1932 - World War II: Japan occupies Harbin, China.
• 1932 - 1932 Winter Olympics open in Lake Placid, New York.
• 1932 - Asteroid 1239 Queteleta discovered by Eugène Joseph Delporte.
• 1933 - 50 mil pessoas fazem uma manifestação contra o desemprego, no Hyde Park, em Londres.
• 1933 - Archibald Sayce dies (b. 1846). English educator.
• 1934 - Asteroid 2824 Franke discovered by Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth.
• 1934 - Ernesto Júlio Nazareth was born. Brazilian musician.
• 1935 - Martti Talvela was born (d. 1989). Finnish bass.
• 1936 - Radium E becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.
• 1936 - David Brenner was born. American comedian.
• 1936 - Gary Conway was born. American actor.
• 1936 - Wilhelm Gustloff dies (b. 1895). German leader of the Swiss Nazi party.
• 1937 - David Newman was born (d. 2003). American filmmaker.
• 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.
• 1939 - Edward Sapir dies (born 26 Jan 1884). American linguist and anthropologist, one of the foremost of his time, who is most widely known for his contributions to the study of North American Indian languages.
• 1940 - George Romero was born. American horror movie writer, producer, director.
• 1940 - John Schuck was born. American actor.
• 1940 - Nikolai Yezhov dies (b. 1895). Head of Soviet NKVD.
  
• 1941 - Roy Plunkett received a U.S. patent for "Tetrafluoro-ethylene Polymers" - Teflon.
• 1941 - World War II: The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
• 1941 - John Steel was born. British musician (The Animals).
• 1942 - José Cid was born. Portuguses musician and singer.
• 1943 - World War II: Battle of Stalingrad ends.
• 1943 - Alberto João Jardim was born. Portuguese politician.
• 1943 - Ken Thompson was born. American computer scientist.
• 1943 - Frank Calder dies (b. 1877). First NHL President.
  
• 1944 - Florence LaRue was born. American singer (The Fifth Dimension).
• 1944 - Arsen Kotsoyev dies (b. 1872). Russian writer.
  
• 1944 - Yvette Guilbert dies (b. 1867). French singer and actress.
• 1945 - World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin begin the Yalta Conference.
• 1945 - Maria João Avillez was born. Portuguese journalist.
• 1947 - Dan Quayle was born. 44th Vice President of the United States.
  
• 1948 - Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth.
• 1948 - Alice Cooper was born. American rock musician.
• 1949 - João de Melo was born in Achadinha, Nordeste, São Miguel, Azores. Portuguese poet and essayst.
• 1949 - Michael Beck was born. American actor.
• 1950 - Pamela Franklin was born. British actress.
• 1951 - Dariush Eghbali was born. Iranian singer and musician.
• 1951 - Patrick Bergin was born. Irish actor.
• 1951 - Phil Ehart was born. American musician (Kansas).
• 1951 - Stan Papi was born. American baseball player.
• 1952 - Abdala Bucaram was born. President of Ecuador.
• 1952 - Jerry Shirley was born. Drummer of rock band Humble Pie.
• 1952 - Li Yinhe was born. Chinese sexologist.
• 1952 - Lisa Eichhorn was born. American actress.
• 1953 - Kitaro was born. Japanese composer.
• 1955 - Mikuláš Dzurinda was born. Slovak Prime minister.
• 1957 - Don Davis was born. American composer.
• 1957 - Evan Wolfson was born. American attorney and activist.
• 1957 - Miguel Covarrubias dies. Mexican ilustrator.
• 1957 - USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, logged her 60,000th nautical mile, matching the endurance of the fictional Nautilus described in Jules Verne's novel "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".
• 1957 - Don Davis was born. American composer.
• 1957 - Evan Wolfson was born. Prominent attorney and activist.
• 1958 - Tomasz Pacyński was born. Polish writer.
• 1958 - Henry Kuttner dies (b. 1915). American author.
• 1959 - Lawrence Taylor was born. American football player.
• 1959 - Pamelyn Ferdin was born. American actress.
• 1959 - Una O'Connor dies (b. 1880). Irish actress.
• 1960 - Lorraine, Quebec is founded.
• 1960 - Jenette Goldstein was born. American actress.
• 1960 - Jonathan Larson was born (d. 1996). American composer.
• 1960 - Siobhan Dowd was born (d. 2007). Irish author.
• 1960 - Tim Booth was born. British singer (James).
• 1960 - Jenette Goldstein was born. American actress.
• 1961 - Tem início a Guerra de Libertação de Angola, com o ataque do MPLA à Casa de Reclusão Militar, ao quartel da PSP e à delegação da Emissora Nacional em Luanda e da UPA no Norte da província.
• 1961 - Denis Savard was born. Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1961 - Stewart O'Nan was born. American author.
• 1962 - Ian Fleming's The Living Daylights first published.
• 1962 - Francisco Orlich Bolmarich is elected President of Costa Rica.
• 1962 - Alfred Twardecki was born. Polish historian.
• 1962 - Clint Black was born. American musician.
• 1962 - Michael Riley was born. Canadian actor.
• 1963 - Pirmin Zurbriggen was born. Swiss skier.
• 1964 - Noodles was born. American guitarist (The Offspring) .
• 1965 - Jerome Brown was born (d. 1992). American football player.
• 1966 - All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 jet plunges into Tokyo Bay killing 133 .
• 1966 - Kyoko Koizumi was born. Japanese actress and singer.
• 1966 - Viatcheslav Ekimov was born. Russian cyclist.
• 1966 - Gilbert H. Grosvenor dies (b. 1875). American president of the National Geographic Society.
• 1967 - Lunar Orbiter program: Lunar Orbiter 3 lifts off from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 13 on it's mission to identify possible landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo spacecrafts.
• 1967 - Sergei Grinkov was born (d. 1995). Russian figure skater.
• 1967 - Albert Orsborn dies (b. 1886). 6th General of The Salvation Army.
• 1968 - Bowie Kuhn becomes the fifth commissioner of Major League Baseball, replacing William Eckert.
• 1968 - Wilt Chamberlain accomplishes the only double-triple-double to date, totalling 22 points, 25 rebounds, and 21 assists.
• 1968 - Marko Matvere was born. Estonian actor.
• 1968 - Neal Cassady dies (b. 1926). American writer.
• 1969 - Yasser Arafat takes over as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
• 1969 - Brandy Ledford was born. American actress and model.
• 1969 - Dallas Drake was born. Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1969 - Duncan Coutts was born. Canadian bassist (Our Lady Peace).
• 1969 - Thelma Ritter dies (b. 1905). American actress.
• 1970 - Gabrielle Anwar was born. English actress.
• 1971 - Michael Goorjian was born. American actor.
• 1971 - Rob Corddry was born. American actor and comedian.
• 1972 - Giovanni Silva De Oliveira was born. Brazilian footballer.
• 1972 - La sonda estadounidense "Mariner IX" transmite fotos desde Marte.
• 1973 - Manny Legacé was born. Canadian ice hockey goaltender.
• 1973 - Oscar De La Hoya was born. Mexican-American boxing champion.
• 1974 - The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patty Hearst in Berkeley, California.
• 1974 - Eric Townsend was born. American musician and record producer.
• 1974 - Mijntje Donners was born. Dutch hockey international.
• 1974 - Satyendra Nath Bose dies (b. 1 Jan 1894). Indian mathematician and physicist who collaborated with Albert Einstein to develop a theory of statistical quantum mechanics, now called Bose-Einstein statistics.
• 1974 - Secuestro de Patricia Hearst, hija del magnate de la Prensa estadounidense, que después se unió a sus captores.
• 1975 - Haicheng earthquake M 7.3, occurred in Haicheng, Liaoning, China.
• 1975 - Konstantinos Nebegleras was born. Greek footballer.
• 1975 - Natalie Imbruglia was born. Australian musician .
• 1975 - Howard Hill dies (b. 1899). American archer.
  
• 1975 - Louis Jordan dies (b. 1908). American musician.
• 1976 - In Guatemala and Honduras an earthquake 7,5º kills more than 22,000.
• 1976 - 1976 Winter Olympics open in Innsbruck, Austria.
• 1976 - Cam'ron was born. American rapper
• 1977 - Fleetwood Mac releases one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, Rumours.
• 1977 - Gavin DeGraw was born. American musician.
• 1977 - Mitra Hajjar was born. Iranian actress.
• 1977 - Brett Halliday dies (b. 1904). American writer.
• 1978 - Elecciones municipales en Nicaragua. Los sandinistas anuncian la guerra civil.
• 1978 - Danna Garcia was born. Colombian actress.
• 1978 - Bergen Evans dies. Television host.
• 1979 - Andrei Arlovski was born. Russian mixed martial artist.
• 1979 - Giorgio Pantano was born. Italian racing car driver.
• 1980 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini names Abolhassan Banisadr as president of Iran.
• 1981 - Ben Hendrickson was born. American baseball player.
• 1981 - Jason Kapono was born. American professional basketball player.
• 1981 - Johan Van Summeren was born. Belgian cyclist.
• 1981 - Sabrina Sato was born. Brazilian model, humourist and TV presenter.
• 1981 - Tom Mastny was born. Indonesian baseball player.
• 1982 - Chris Sabin was born. American professional wrestler.
• 1982 - Kimberly Wyatt was born. American singer and dancer (Pussycat Dolls).
• 1982 - Tomas Vaitkus was born. Lithuanian professional road racing cyclist.
• 1982 - O PCP apresenta na Assembleia da República três projectos de diplomas: protecção e defesa da maternidade, garantia do direito ao planeamento familiar e educação sexual, interrupção voluntária da gravidez. A Lei de do Aborto será aprovada em 14 de Fevereiro de 1984.
• 1982 - Alex Harvey dies (b. 1935). Scottish musician.
• 1982 - Efraim Huerta Romo dies. Mexican poet.
• 1982 - Georg Konrad Morgen dies (b. 1909). German judge.
• 1983 - Jarrad Waite was born. Australian rules footballer.
• 1983 - Karen Carpenter dies (b. 1950). American singer, musician (The Carpenters).
• 1984 - Una mujer estéril da a luz tras la implantación de un óvulo fertilizado en otra mujer, en Long Beach (California, EEUU).
• 1984 - The Youth of the Left Socialists (VSU) founded in Denmark.
• 1984 - Mauricio Pinilla was born. Chilean footballer.
• 1984 - Anna Anderson dies (b. 1896). Claimant to the throne of Russia.
• 1985 - Bug Hall was born. American actor.
• 1986 - Mohammad Mahmudullah was born. Bangladeshi cricketer.
• 1987 - Lucie Safarová was born. Czech tennis player.
• 1987 - Carl Rogers dies (b. 8 Jan 1902). American psychologist who founded humanistic psychology.
• 1987 - Liberace dies (b. 1919). American musician.
• 1987 - Meena Keshwar Kamal dies (b. 1956). Afghan feminist and founder of RAWA.
  
• 1988 - Carly Patterson was born. American artistic gymnast.
• 1988 - Eoin McDowell was born. Irish rugby player.
• 1988 - Alexandros Pagalis was born. Greek footballer.
• 1990 - Haruka Tomatsu was born. Japanese Seiyū.
• 1990 - Whipper Billy Watson dies (b. 1917). Canadian professional wrestler.
• 1991 - The Baseball Hall of Fame votes to ban Pete Rose.
• 1992 - A Coup d'état is led by Hugo Chávez Frías, against Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez.
• 1992 - Lisa Fonssagrives dies (b. 1911). Swedish model.
• 1993 – Tim McGrath was born. American musician.
• 1994 - Fred De Bruyne dies (b. 1930). Belgian cyclist.
• 1995 - Godfrey Brown dies (b. 1915). British athlete and teacher.
• 1995 - Patricia Highsmith dies (b. 1921). American author.
• 1996 - Major snowstorm paralyzes Midwestern United States, Milwaukee, Wisconsin ties all-time record low temperature at -26°F. (-32°C) .
• 1996 - El presidente guatemalteco, Álvaro Arzú, sale ileso de un atentado en Antigua Guatemala.
• 1997 - O. J. Simpson is found to be civilly liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
• 1997 - Enroute 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 Milosevic 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.
• 1998 - While in Belgium, Bill Gates is assaulted by a Belgian man and hit in the face with a cream pie.
• 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, enflaming race-relations in the city.
• 1999 - The New Carissa runs aground near Coos Bay, Oregon
• 2000 - German extortionist Klaus-Peter Sabotta is jailed for life for attempted murder and extortion in connection with sabotage of German railway lines.
• 2000 - USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) launched.
• 2000 - Australian backpacker Kelvin Bourke murdered in Thailand.
• 2000 - Carl Albert dies (b. 1908). American politician, 54th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
• 2000 - Doris Coley dies (b. 1941). American singer (Shirelles).
  
• 2000 - Phil Tonken dies (b. 1919). American radio and television announcer.
• 2001 - Iannis Xenakis dies (b. 1922). Greek composer and architect.
• 2001 - J. J. Johnson dies (b. 1924). American jazz trombonist and composer.
• 2002 - George Nader dies (b. 1921). American film and television actor.
• 2003 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is officially renamed to Serbia and Montenegro and adopts a new constitution.
• 2003 - André Noyelle dies (b. 1931). Belgian cyclist.
  
• 2003 - Benyoucef Ben Khedda dies (b. 1920). Algerian politician.
• 2003 - Charlie Biddle dies (b. 1926). Canadian jazz bassist.
  
• 2004 - Facebook, a mainstream online social network is founded by Mark Zuckerberg.
• 2004 - Hilda Hilst dies (b. 1930). Brazilian poet, writer and dramatist.
• 2005 - Ossie Davis dies (b. 1917). American actor.
• 2006 - A stampede occurs in the ULTRA Stadium near Manila killing at least 74.
• 2006 - Betty Friedan dies (b. 1921). American feminist.
• 2006 - Myron Waldman dies (b. 1908). American animator.
• 2007 - Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith are the first African American head coaches in the National Football League's Super Bowl.
• 2007 - Barbara McNair dies (b. 1934). American singer and actress.
  
• 2007 - Ilya Kormiltsev dies (b. 1959). Russian poet and translator.
• 2007 - José Carlos Bauer dies (b. 1925). Brazilian World Cup footballer.
• 2007 - Jules Olitski dies (b. 1922). Ukrainian-born American abstract painter and sculptor.
• 2007 - Steve Barber dies (b. 1938). American baseball pitcher.
• 2008 – The London Low Emission Zone (LEZ) scheme begins to operate in the UK.
• 2008 - Stefan Meller dies (b. 1942). Polish foreign minister.
• 2009 – Lux Interior dies (b. 1946). Frontman of the garage rock band The Cramps.
  
• World Cancer Day.
• Ancient Latvia - Biezputras Diena observed.
• Independence Day in Sri Lanka (1948).
• Angolan Anniversary of the Outbreak of Armed Struggle against Portuguese Colonialism.
• Across the Universe Day.
• In the Roman Catholic Church: Saint Gilbert (d. 1189) , Saint John de Britto, Saint Rembert of Torhout, Saint Veronica, patron saint of photographers.