Important Events on 04 February in History

• 2025: Ten people are killed in a mass shooting at an adult education centre in Örebro, Sweden. Read more
• 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic causes all casinos in Macau to be closed down for 15 days. Read more
• 2015: TransAsia Airways Flight 235, with 58 people on board, en route from the Taiwanese capital Taipei to Kinmen, crashes into the Keelung River just after takeoff, killing 43 people. Read more
• 2008: Civic mobilizations in Colombia against FARC, under the name A million voices against the FARC. Read more
• 2004: Facebook, a mainstream online social networking site, is founded by Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin. Read more
• 2003: The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia adopts a new constitution, becoming a loose confederacy between Montenegro and Serbia. Read more
• 2000: The World Summit Against Cancer for the New Millennium, Charter of Paris is signed by the President of France, Jacques Chirac and the Director General of UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura, initiating World Cancer Day which is held on February 4 every year. Read more
• 1999: Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot 41 times by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race relations in the city. Read more
• 1998: The 5.9 Mw  Afghanistan earthquake shakes the Takhar Province with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). With 2,323 killed, and 818 injured, damage is considered extreme. Read more
• 1997: En route to Lebanon, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 troop-transport helicopters collide in mid-air over northern Galilee, Israel, killing 73. Read more
• 1997: The Bojnurd earthquake measuring Mw  6.5 strikes Iran. With a Mercalli intensity of VIII, it kills at least 88 and damages 173 villages. Read more
• 1992: A coup d’état is led by Hugo Chávez against Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez. Read more
• 1977: A Chicago Transit Authority elevated train rear-ends another and derails, killing 11 and injuring 180, the worst accident in the agency’s history. Read more
• 1976: In Guatemala and Honduras an earthquake kills more than 22,000. Read more
• 1975: Haicheng earthquake (magnitude 7.3 on the Richter scale) occurs in Haicheng, Liaoning, China. Read more
• 1974: The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patty Hearst in Berkeley, California. Read more
• 1974: M62 coach bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) explodes a bomb on a bus carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel in Yorkshire, England. Nine soldiers and three civilians are killed. Read more
• 1967: Lunar Orbiter program: Lunar Orbiter 3 lifts off from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 13 on its mission to identify possible landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo spacecraft. Read more
• 1966: All Nippon Airways Flight 60 plunges into Tokyo Bay, killing 133. Read more
• 1961: The Angolan War of Independence and the greater Portuguese Colonial War begin. Read more
• 1948: Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth. Read more
• 1945: World War II: Santo Tomas Internment Camp is liberated from Japanese authority. Read more
• 1945: World War II: The Yalta Conference between the “Big Three” (Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin) opens at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea. Read more
• 1945: World War II: The British Indian Army and Imperial Japanese Army begin a series of battles known as the Battle of Pokoku and Irrawaddy River operations. Read more
• 1941: The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops. Read more
• 1938: Adolf Hitler appoints himself as head of the Armed Forces High Command. Read more
• 1932: Second Sino-Japanese War: Harbin, Manchuria, falls to Japan. Read more
• 1899: The Philippine–American War begins when four Filipino soldiers enter the “American Zone” in Manila, igniting the Battle of Manila. Read more
• 1861: American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama, delegates from six breakaway U.S. states meet and initiate the process that would form the Confederate States of America on February 8. Read more
• 1859: The Codex Sinaiticus is discovered in Egypt. Read more
• 1846: The first Mormon pioneers make their exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, westward towards Salt Lake Valley. Read more
• 1825: The Ohio Legislature authorizes the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the Miami and Erie Canal. Read more
• 1820: The Chilean Navy under the command of Lord Cochrane completes the two-day long Capture of Valdivia with just 300 men and two ships. Read more
• 1810: Napoleonic Wars: Britain seizes Guadeloupe. Read more
• 1801: John Marshall is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States. Read more

 Important Births on 04 February in History

• 2003: Kyla Kenedy, American actress Kyla Kenedy is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Izzie on the television film Raising Izzie, and Mika Samuels on AMC horror series The Walking Dead. In 2016, she began playing Dylan DiMeo on the ABC sitcom Speechless, which ran for three seasons through 2019. In 2021, Kenedy was cast as Orly Bremer in the NBC sitcom Mr. Mayor. Kyla is set to star opposite Charlie Gillespie in the upcoming feature film Shatterd Ice Read more
• 2003: Rasmus Højlund, Danish footballer Rasmus Winther Højlund is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club Napoli, on loan from Premier League club Manchester United, and the Denmark national team. Read more
• 1999: MJ Lenderman, American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mark Jacob Lenderman, also known as MJ Lenderman and Jake Lenderman, is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His style has been described as indie rock and alternative country. Read more
• 1998: Malik Monk, American basketball player Malik Ahmad Monk is an American professional basketball player for the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played one season of college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats, earning consensus second-team All-American honors in 2017. Monk was selected in the first round of the 2017 NBA draft by the Charlotte Hornets with the 11th overall pick. He has also played for the Los Angeles Lakers. Read more
• 1998: Maximilian Wöber, Austrian footballer Maximilian Wöber is an Austrian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back or left-back for German Bundesliga club Werder Bremen, on loan from Premier League club Leeds United, and the Austria national team. Read more
• 1996: Mohamed Sherif, Egyptian footballer Mohamed Sherif Mohamed Ragaei Bakr is an Egyptian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Egyptian Premier League club Al Ahly and the Egypt national team. Read more
• 1989: Lavoy Allen, American basketball player Lavoy Allen is an American former professional basketball player. He was selected in the second round, 50th overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft by the Philadelphia 76ers. Allen is the son of a truck driver, and did not play much basketball until eighth grade. He attended Pennsbury High School, where he was coached by Oliver Aaron. Rivals.com ranked him the 14th best center in his class, and Scout.com named him the 110th overall prospect. Allen committed to Temple University and coach Fran Dunphy. Read more
• 1988: Charlie Barnett, American actor Charlie Barnett is an American actor. He is known for starring as firefighter/paramedic Peter Mills on the NBC drama Chicago Fire from 2012 to 2015 and Yord Fandar in The Acolyte on Disney+. Among his other starring roles are Alan Zaveri on the Netflix comedy series Russian Doll, Ben Marshall on the Netflix series Tales of the City, and Gabe Miranda in the Netflix thriller series You. Read more
• 1988: Carly Patterson, American gymnast and singer Carly Rae Patterson is an American singer, songwriter and former artistic gymnast. She was the all-around champion at the 2004 Olympics, the first all-around champion for the United States at a non-boycotted Olympics, and is a member of the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame. Patterson frequently joins radio segments on 1310 AM and 96.7 FM The Ticket in Dallas Fort-Worth. Read more
• 1987: Darren O’Dea, Irish footballer Darren O’Dea is an Irish professional football coach and former player. He played as a centre back for clubs in Scotland, England, Canada, Ukraine and India, and represented the Republic of Ireland internationally. Read more
• 1987: Lucie Šafářová, Czech tennis player Lucie Šafářová is a Czech professional tennis player who was ranked world No. 1 in doubles, and No. 5 in singles. Read more
• 1986: Maximilian Götz, German racing driver Maximilian “Maxi” Götz is a German racing driver. He has competed in such series as International Formula Master and the Formula 3 Euro Series. He won the 2003 Formula BMW ADAC season, taking six victories. He also won the 2021 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, in a highly controversial fashion, by finishing three points ahead of Liam Lawson in the drivers’ championship. Read more
• 1986: Mahmudullah Riyad, Bangladeshi cricketer Mohammad Mahmudullah, also known as Riyad, is a former Bangladeshi international cricketer who captained the national side. He plays for Dhaka Division and has represented the national team in all formats. An all-rounder, he is a lower or middle-order batter as well as an off spin bowler. He has scored more than 10,000 runs and taken 150+ wickets in international cricket. He is renowned for his ability to finish a close limited-over game. He is the first Bangladeshi to score a World Cup hundred. Mahmudullah started his career as a bowler and then converted into a batsman who could bowl off-breaks. Read more
• 1984: Doug Fister, American baseball player Douglas Wildes Fister is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Seattle Mariners, Detroit Tigers, Washington Nationals, Houston Astros, Boston Red Sox, and Texas Rangers from 2009 through 2018. Read more
• 1984: Mauricio Pinilla, Chilean footballer Mauricio Ricardo Pinilla Ferrera is a Chilean former professional footballer who played as a striker. Read more
• 1983: Hannibal Buress, American comedian and actor Hannibal Amir Buress is an American comedian, actor, producer, writer, musician, and venue owner. He started performing comedy in 2002 while attending Southern Illinois University. He starred on Adult Swim’s The Eric Andre Show from 2012 to 2020, and was featured on Comedy Central’s Broad City from 2014 to 2019. He is also known for his October 16, 2014 stand-up routine, which brought the sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby to public attention and outcry, for which he was lauded. Read more
• 1983: Rebecca White, Australian politician Rebecca Peta White is an Australian politician. She was elected to the House of Representatives at the 2025 federal election, representing the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the Tasmanian seat of Lyons. She was previously leader of the Tasmanian Labor Party from 2017 to 2021 and 2021 to 2024, leading the party to three state elections. She is an assistant minister of Australia in 3 portfolios of the second Albanese ministry. Read more
• 1982: Ivars Timermanis, Latvian basketball player Ivars Timermanis is a retired Latvian professional basketball player who played the Small forward position. Read more
• 1981: Jason Kapono, American basketball player Jason Alan Kapono is an American former professional basketball player. He was the first National Basketball Association (NBA) player to lead the league in three-point field goal percentage in two consecutive seasons, and also won the Three-Point Contest twice. He won an NBA championship with the Miami Heat in 2006. Read more
• 1981: Johan Vansummeren, Belgian cyclist Johan Vansummeren is a Belgian former professional road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2004 and 2016 for the Relax–Bodysol, Silence–Lotto, Garmin–Sharp and AG2R La Mondiale teams. Read more
• 1980: Raimonds Vaikulis, Latvian basketball player Raimonds Vaikulis is a Latvian former professional basketball player. Read more
• 1979: Giorgio Pantano, Italian racing driver Giorgio Pantano is an Italian former professional racing driver who drove for the Jordan Formula One team for much of the 2004 season before being replaced by Timo Glock. He also raced in Formula 3000. He retired from racing at the end of 2014. Read more
• 1977: Gavin DeGraw, American singer-songwriter Gavin Shane DeGraw is an American singer-songwriter. DeGraw rose to fame with his song “I Don’t Want to Be” from his debut album Chariot (2003); the song became the main theme song for The WB/CW drama series One Tree Hill. Other notable singles from his debut album were the title track and “Follow Through”. Read more
• 1976: Cam’ron, American rapper and actor Cameron Giles, known mononymously as Cam’ron, is an American rapper. Beginning his career in the early 1990s as Killa Cam, Giles signed with Lance “Un” Rivera’s Untertainment, an imprint of Epic Records to release his first two studio albums Confessions of Fire (1998) and S.D.E. (2000); the former received gold certification by the RIAA. After leaving Epic, Giles signed with Roc-A-Fella Records in 2001 to release his third studio album, Come Home with Me, the following year. It received platinum certification by the RIAA and spawned the singles “Oh Boy” and “Hey Ma”, which peaked at numbers four and three on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively. His fourth studio album, Purple Haze (2004) was met with similar success and likewise received gold certification by the RIAA. Read more
• 1975: Natalie Imbruglia, Australian singer-songwriter and actress Natalie Jane Imbruglia is an Australian and British singer and actress. Read more
• 1973: Oscar De La Hoya, American boxer Oscar De La Hoya is a Mexican-American boxing promoter and former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2008. His accolades include winning 11 world titles in six weight classes, including lineal championships in three weight classes. De La Hoya was nicknamed “The Golden Boy of Boxing” by the media when he represented the United States at the 1992 Summer Olympics where, shortly after having graduated from James A. Garfield High School, he won a gold medal in the lightweight division. He is regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time and is ranked the 16th greatest boxer by BoxRec. Read more
• 1972: Giovanni, Brazilian footballer and manager Giovanni Silva de Oliveira, better known as Giovanni, is a Brazilian football manager and former player. He played as either an attacking midfielder or a forward. Read more
• 1972: Dara Ó Briain, Irish comedian and television host Dara Ó Briain is an Irish comedian and television presenter based in the United Kingdom. He is noted for performing stand-up comedy shows all over the world and for hosting topical panel shows such as Mock the Week, The Panel, and The Apprentice: You’re Fired!. In 2009, the Irish Independent described Ó Briain as “Terry Wogan’s heir apparent as Britain’s ‘favourite Irishman'”. Read more
• 1971: Rob Corddry, American actor, producer, and screenwriter Robert William Corddry is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his work as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (2002–2006) and for his starring role in the film Hot Tub Time Machine. He is the creator and star of Adult Swim’s Childrens Hospital and has been awarded four Primetime Emmy Awards. He previously starred in the HBO series Ballers and the CBS comedy The Unicorn. Read more
• 1971: Michael A. Goorjian, American actor, director, and writer Michael A. Goorjian is an American actor, filmmaker, and writer. Goorjian won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Special for his role as David Goodson in the television film David’s Mother (1994). He is also known for his role as Justin, Neve Campbell’s love interest on the series Party of Five (1994–2000), as well as Heroin Bob in the film SLC Punk! (1998) and its sequel, Punk’s Dead (2016). As a director, Goorjian achieved recognition for his first major independent film, Illusion (2004), which he wrote, directed and starred in alongside Kirk Douglas. In 2022, Goorjian wrote, directed, and starred in Amerikatsi, an Armenian-language feature that premiered to strong critical acclaim and was selected as Armenia’s submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the 96th Academy Awards. Read more
• 1970: Gabrielle Anwar, English-American actress Gabrielle Anwar is a British-American actress. She is known for her television roles as Sam Black in the second series of Press Gang, as Margaret Tudor in the first season of The Tudors, as Lady Tremaine in the seventh season of Once Upon a Time, and for her starring role as Fiona Glenanne on the USA network television series Burn Notice (2007–2013). Anwar is also known for the 1991 film Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken, for dancing tango with Al Pacino in the 1992 film Scent of a Woman, and for the 1993 films Body Snatchers and For Love or Money. Read more
• 1970: Hunter Biden, American attorney and lobbyist Robert Hunter Biden is an American attorney and businessman. He is the second son of former president Joe Biden and his first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden was a founding board member of BHR Partners, a Chinese investment company, in 2013, and later served on the board of Burisma Holdings, one of the largest private natural gas producers in Ukraine, from 2014 until his term expired in April 2019. He has worked as a lobbyist and legal representative for lobbying firms, a hedge fund principal, and a venture capital and private equity fund investor. Read more
• 1967: Sergei Grinkov, Russian figure skater (died 1995) Sergei Mikhailovich Grinkov was a Soviet and Russian pair skater. Together with his wife Ekaterina Gordeeva, he was the 1988 and 1994 Olympic Champion and a four-time World Champion. Read more
• 1966: Viatcheslav Ekimov, Russian cyclist Viatcheslav Vladimirovich Ekimov is a Russian former professional racing cyclist. A triple Olympic gold medalist, he was awarded the title of Russian Cyclist of the Century in 2001. Read more
• 1965: Jerome Brown, American football player (died 1992) Willie Jerome Brown III was an American professional football defensive tackle who played for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He played his entire five-year NFL career with the Eagles from 1987 to 1991, before his death just before the 1992 season. He was selected to two Pro Bowls in 1990 and 1991. He played college football for the Miami Hurricanes. Read more
• 1964: Elke Philipp, German Paralympic equestrian Elke Philipp is a German Paralympic equestrian. Read more
• 1963: Noodles, American musician and songwriter Kevin John Wasserman, better known as Noodles, is an American musician who serves as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist for the Offspring. He earned the nickname “Noodles” for his frequent noodling (improvising) on the guitar. Read more
• 1963: Pirmin Zurbriggen, Swiss skier Pirmin Zurbriggen is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Switzerland. One of the most successful ski racers ever, he won the overall World Cup title four times, an Olympic gold medal in 1988 in Downhill, and nine World Championships medals. Read more
• 1962: Clint Black, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer Clint Patrick Black is an American country music singer, songwriter, musician, actor, and record producer. Signed to RCA Nashville in 1989, Black’s debut album Killin’ Time produced four straight number one singles on the US Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. Although his momentum gradually slowed throughout the 1990s, Black consistently charted hit songs into the 2000s. He has had more than thirty singles on the US Billboard country charts, thirteen of which have reached number one, in addition to having released twelve studio albums and several compilation albums. In 2003, Black founded his own record label, Equity Music Group. Black has also ventured into acting, having made appearances in a 1993 episode of the TV series Wings and in the 1994 film Maverick, as well as a starring role in 1998’s Still Holding On: The Legend of Cadillac Jack. Read more
• 1962: Vern Fleming, American basketball player Vern Fleming is an American former professional basketball player who played twelve seasons in the NBA from 1984 until 1996 for the Indiana Pacers and New Jersey Nets. He played college basketball for the Georgia Bulldogs. Read more
• 1961: Denis Savard, Canadian ice hockey player and coach Denis Joseph Savard is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1980 to 1997, and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2000. In 2017, Savard was named one of the ‘100 Greatest NHL Players’ in history. Savard was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks and became the forefront of the team during the 1980s. He led the Blackhawks to the Conference Finals four times, losing each time, twice to Wayne Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers. Savard is known for the spin’ o rama move, a tactic in hockey used to create distance between the puck carrier and opponent. Savard won one Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens in 1993. Savard also played with the Tampa Bay Lightning for two seasons before returning to the Chicago Blackhawks in 1994, and then retiring there in 1997. He has also served as head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL, and now serves as an ambassador for the Blackhawks’ organization. Savard was born in Pointe Gatineau but grew up in Montreal. Read more
• 1960: Siobhan Dowd, English author and activist (died 2007) Siobhan Dowd was a British writer and activist. The last book she completed, Bog Child, posthumously won the 2009 Carnegie Medal from the professional librarians, recognising the year’s best book for children or young adults published in the UK. Read more
• 1960: Jonathan Larson, American lyricist, composer, and playwright (died 1996) Jonathan David Larson was an American composer, lyricist and playwright, most famous for writing the musicals Rent and Tick, Tick… Boom!, which explored the social issues of multiculturalism, substance use disorder, and homophobia. Read more
• 1959: Christian Schreier, German footballer and manager Christian Schreier is a German former professional footballer and the general manager of SC Paderborn. He played as a midfielder, most notably with VfL Bochum and Bayer Leverkusen, and won one cap for West Germany, in 1984. His biggest successes came in 1988, when he won the UEFA Cup and an Olympic bronze Medal. Read more
• 1959: Lawrence Taylor, American football player Lawrence Julius Taylor, nicknamed “L.T.”, is an American former professional football linebacker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons with the New York Giants. He is widely regarded as the greatest defensive player of all time – and considered by some as the best football player ever. Read more
• 1958: Tomasz Pacyński, Polish journalist and author (died 2005) Tomasz Pacyński was a Polish fantasy and science fiction writer, born in Warsaw. He was one of the creators and, from 2004, the chief editor of Fahrenheit, the first Polish Internet science fiction fanzine. He published short stories in such magazines as Science Fiction, SFera, and Fantasy, and in Internet fanzines such as Fahrenheit, Esensja, Fantazin and Srebrny Glob. He also wrote articles published in SFera and Science Fiction. Read more
• 1957: Matthew Cobb, British zoologist and author Matthew John Cobb is a British zoologist and Emeritus professor of zoology at the University of Manchester. He is known for his popular science books The Egg & Sperm Race: The Seventeenth-Century Scientists Who Unravelled the Secrets of Sex, Life and Growth; Life’s Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code; and The Idea of the Brain: A History. Cobb has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage, The Life Scientific, Start the Week and The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry, as well as on BBC Radio 3 and the BBC World Service. Read more
• 1955: Mikuláš Dzurinda, Slovak politician, Prime Minister of Slovakia Mikuláš Dzurinda is a Slovak politician who was the prime minister of Slovakia from 30 October 1998 to 4 July 2006. Dzurinda is the founder and leader of the Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK) and then the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ–DS). From 2002 to 2006, his party formed a coalition government with the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), the Alliance of the New Citizen (ANO), and the Party of the Hungarian Coalition (SMK–MKP). Read more
• 1952: Lisa Eichhorn, American actress, writer, and producer Lisa Eichhorn is an American actress, writer and producer. She made her film debut in 1979 in the John Schlesinger film Yanks, for which she received two Golden Globe nominations. Her international career has included film, theatre and television. Read more
• 1952: Jenny Shipley, New Zealand politician, Prime Minister of New Zealand Dame Jennifer Mary Shipley is a New Zealand former politician who served as the 36th prime minister of New Zealand from 1997 to 1999. She was the first female prime minister of New Zealand, and the first woman to lead the National Party. Read more
• 1952: Thomas Silverstein, American criminal and prisoner (died 2019) Thomas Edward Silverstein was an American criminal who spent the last 42 years of his life in prison after being convicted of three separate murders, with a fourth murder conviction being overturned and Silverstein being implicated in a fifth, while imprisoned for armed robbery. Silverstein spent the last 36 years of his life in solitary confinement for killing corrections officer Merle Clutts at the Marion Penitentiary in Illinois. Prison authorities described him as a brutal killer and a former leader of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. Silverstein maintained that the dehumanizing conditions inside the prison system contributed to the three murders he committed. He was the longest-held prisoner in solitary confinement within the Bureau of Prisons at the time of his death. Correctional officers refused to talk to Silverstein out of respect for Clutts. Read more
• 1951: Patrick Bergin, Irish actor Patrick Connolly Bergin is an Irish actor and singer. In 1991, he starred opposite Julia Roberts in Sleeping with the Enemy and played the title character in Robin Hood. His other roles include terrorist Kevin O’Donnell in Patriot Games (1992) and the villainous Aidan Maguire in the BBC soap opera EastEnders (2017–2018). Read more
• 1949: Michael Beck, American actor Michael Beck is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Swan in The Warriors (1979) as Sonny Malone in Xanadu (1980), and as Koda in Triumphs of a Man Called Horse (1983). Read more
• 1949: Rasim Delić, Bosnian general (died 2010) Rasim Delić was the chief of staff of the Bosnian Army. He was a career officer in the Yugoslav Army but left it during the breakup of Yugoslavia and was convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for failing to prevent and punish crimes committed by the El Mujahid unit under his command. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison. Read more
• 1948: Alice Cooper, American singer-songwriter Alice Cooper is an American singer and songwriter. With a career spanning more than five decades, Cooper is known for his raspy singing voice and theatrical stage shows that feature numerous props and illusions. He is considered by music journalists and peers to be “The Godfather of Shock Rock”. He has drawn from horror films, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a macabre and theatrical brand of rock designed to shock audiences. Read more
• 1948: Mienoumi Tsuyoshi, Japanese sumo wrestler Mienoumi Tsuyoshi is a Japanese former professional sumo wrestler from Matsusaka, Mie. He was the 57th yokozuna of the sport. After retiring he founded the Musashigawa stable and was a chairman of the Japan Sumo Association. He was the first rikishi in history who was demoted from the rank of Ozeki but still managed the promotion to Yokozuna. Read more
• 1947: Dennis C. Blair, American admiral and politician, third Director of National Intelligence Dennis Cutler Blair is the former United States Director of National Intelligence and a retired United States Navy admiral who was the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific region. Blair was a career officer in the U.S. Navy and served in the White House during the presidencies of both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Blair retired from the Navy in 2002 as an Admiral. In 2009, Blair was selected as President Barack Obama’s first Director of National Intelligence, but after a series of bureaucratic battles, he resigned on May 20, 2010. Read more
• 1947: Dan Quayle, American sergeant, lawyer, and politician, 44th Vice President of the United States James Danforth Quayle is an American retired politician and US Army National guard veteran who served as the 44th vice president of the United States from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush. A member of the Republican Party, Quayle represented Indiana in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1981 and in the U.S. Senate from 1981 to 1989. Read more
• 1944: Florence LaRue, American singer and actress Florence LaRue is an American singer and actress, best known as an original member of the 5th Dimension. Read more
• 1944: Alan Shields, American artist and ship captain (died 2005) Alan J. Shields was an American painter, and for a time during the 1980s, had a secondary career as a commercial boat operator, including as ferryboat captain. Read more
• 1943: Alberto João Jardim, Portuguese journalist and politician, second President of the Regional Government of Madeira Alberto João Cardoso Gonçalves Jardim, GCC, GCIH is a Portuguese politician who was the President of the Regional Government of Madeira, Portugal, from 1978 to 2015. Read more
• 1943: Wanda Rutkiewicz, Lithuanian-Polish mountaineer (died 1992) Wanda Rutkiewicz was a Polish mountaineer and computer engineer. She was the first woman to reach the summit of K2 and the third woman to summit Mount Everest. Read more
• 1943: Ken Thompson, American computer scientist and programmer, co-developed the B programming language Kenneth Lane Thompson is an American pioneer of computer science. Thompson worked at Bell Labs for most of his career where he designed and implemented the original Unix operating system. He also invented the B programming language, the direct predecessor to the C language, and was one of the creators and early developers of the Plan 9 operating system. Other notable contributions included his work on regular expressions and early computer text editors QED and ed, the definition of the UTF-8 encoding, and his work on computer chess that included the creation of endgame tablebases and the chess machine Belle. Read more
• 1941: Russell Cooper, Australian politician, 33rd Premier of Queensland Theo Russell Cooper is an Australian retired National Party politician.
  He was Premier of Queensland for a period of 73 days, from 25 September 1989 to 7 December 1989. His loss at the state election of 1989 ended 32 years of continuous National Party rule over Queensland. Read more
• 1941: Ron Rangi, New Zealand rugby player (died 1988) Ronald Edward Rangi was a New Zealand rugby union player. A centre three-quarter, Rangi represented Auckland at a provincial level, and was a member of the New Zealand national side, the All Blacks, from 1964 to 1966. He made 10 appearances for the All Blacks, all of them in test matches, scoring three tries. Of Māori descent, Rangi played for the New Zealand Māori side between 1963 and 1965, and was awarded the Tom French Cup for the Māori player of the year in 1964 and 1965. Read more
• 1941: Jiří Raška, Czech skier and coach (died 2012) Jiří Raška was a Czechoslovakian ski jumper. He is regarded as the most famous Czech ski jumper in the 20th century. Read more
• 1941: John Steel, English musician and songwriter John Steel is an English musician who is the long-serving drummer for the British rock band the Animals. Having served as the band’s drummer at its inception in 1963, he is the only original band member playing in the current incarnation of the Animals. He was inducted with the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Read more
• 1940: George A. Romero, American director and producer (died 2017) George Andrew Romero was an American-Canadian filmmaker, writer, editor and actor. Regarded as an influential pioneer of the horror film genre and in particular zombie films, he has been called an “icon” and the “father of the zombie film”. The first half of his Night of the Living Dead series—Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978), and Day of the Dead (1985)—are considered three of the best and most influential horror films ever made, and were major contributors to the image of the zombie in modern culture. Read more
• 1940: John Schuck, American actor Conrad John Schuck Jr. is an American film, stage, and television actor. He is best known for his role as Sergeant Charles Enright in the 1970s crime drama McMillan & Wife. He also played Herman Munster in the late-1980s – early 1990s sitcom The Munsters Today, playing the role originated by Fred Gwynne in the 1960s sitcom The Munsters. Read more
• 1939: Stan Lundine, American lawyer and politician, Lieutenant Governor of New York Stanley Nelson Lundine is an American politician from Jamestown, New York who served as the mayor of Jamestown, a United States representative, and the lieutenant governor of New York. Read more
• 1938: Frank J. Dodd, American businessman and politician, president of the New Jersey Senate (died 2010) Frank J. “Pat” Dodd was an American businessman and Democratic Party politician who served as President of the New Jersey Senate from 1974 to 1975. Read more
• 1937: Birju Maharaj, Indian dancer, composer, singer and exponent of the Lucknow “Kalka-Bindadin” Gharana of Kathak dance (died 2022) Birju Maharaj was an Indian dancer, composer, singer, and exponent of the Lucknow “Kalka-Bindadin” Gharana of Kathak dance in India. He was a descendant of the Maharaj family of Kathak dancers, which includes his two uncles, Shambhu Maharaj and Lachhu Maharaj, and his father and guru, Acchan Maharaj. He also practised Hindustani classical music and was a vocalist. After working along with his uncle, Shambhu Maharaj at Bhartiya Kala Kendra, later the Kathak Kendra, New Delhi, he remained head of the latter, for several years, until his retirement in 1998 when he opened his own dance school, Kalashram, also in Delhi. Read more
• 1937: David Newman, American director and screenwriter (died 2003) David Newman was an American screenwriter. From the late 1960s through the early 1980s he frequently collaborated with Robert Benton. He was married to fellow writer Leslie Newman, with whom he had two children, until his death in 2003 from a stroke. Read more
• 1936: David Brenner, American comedian, actor, and author (died 2014) David Norris Brenner was an American stand-up comedian, actor and author. The most frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in the 1970s and 1980s, Brenner “was a pioneer of observational comedy.” His friend, comedian Richard Lewis, described Brenner as “the king of hip, observational comedy.” Read more
• 1936: Gary Conway, American actor Gary Conway is an American actor and screenwriter. His notable credits include a co-starring role with Gene Barry in the detective series Burke’s Law from 1963 to 1965. In addition, he starred in the Irwin Allen sci-fi series Land of the Giants from 1968 to 1970. Read more
• 1936: Claude Nobs, Swiss businessman, founded the Montreux Jazz Festival (died 2013) Claude Nobs was the founder and general manager of the Montreux Jazz Festival. Read more
• 1935: Wallis Mathias, Pakistani cricketer (died 1994) Wallis Mathias was a Pakistani cricketer who played in 21 Test matches from 1955 to 1962. A Catholic, he was the first non-Muslim cricketer to play for Pakistan. He belonged to Karachi’s Goan community. Read more
• 1935: Martti Talvela, Finnish opera singer (died 1989) Martti Olavi Talvela was a Finnish operatic bass. Read more
• 1935: Collin Wilcox, American actress (died 2009) Collin Randall Wilcox was an American film, stage and television actress. Over her career, she was also credited as Collin Wilcox-Horne or Collin Wilcox-Paxton. Wilcox may be best known for her role in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), in which she played Mayella Violet Ewell, whose father falsely claimed she had been raped by a black man, which sparks the trial at the center of the film. Read more
• 1932: Robert Coover, American novelist (died 2024) Robert Lowell Coover was an American novelist, short story writer, and T. B. Stowell Professor Emeritus in Literary Arts at Brown University. He is generally considered a writer of fabulation and metafiction. He became a proponent of electronic literature and was a founder of the Electronic Literature Organization. Read more
• 1931: Isabel Perón, Argentinian dancer and politician, 41st President of Argentina Isabel Martínez de Perón is an Argentine politician who served as the president of Argentina from 1974 to 1976. She was one of the first female republican heads of state in the world, and the first woman to serve as president of a country. Perón was the third wife of President Juan Perón. During her husband’s third term as president from 1973 to 1974, she served as both the vice president and first lady of Argentina. From 1974 until her resignation in 1985, she was also the second President of the Justicialist Party. Isabel Perón’s politics exemplify right-wing Peronism and Orthodox Peronism. Ideologically, she was considered close to corporate neo-fascism. Read more
• 1930: Tibor Antalpéter, Hungarian volleyball player and diplomat, Hungarian Ambassador to the United Kingdom (died 2012) Tibor Antalpéter was a Hungarian volleyball player who played for Csepel SC and the Hungarian national team. He served as Hungarian Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1990 to 1995. Read more
• 1930: Arthur E. Chase, American businessman and politician (died 2015) Arthur E. Chase was an American businessman and politician who represented the Worcester District in the Massachusetts Senate from 1991 to 1995. He co-founded the Central Massachusetts Legislative Caucus. In 1991 he designed the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science at WPI and in 1992 sponsored legislation to create it. He was the Republican nominee for Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1994, but lost in the general election to William F. Galvin. Read more
• 1930: Jim Loscutoff, American basketball player and coach (died 2015) James Loscutoff Jr. was a professional basketball player for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A forward, Loscutoff played on seven Celtics championship teams between 1956 and 1964. Read more
• 1929: Jerry Adler, American actor, director, and producer (died 2025) Jerome Elliott Adler was an American actor, theatrical producer, and director. He was known for his films Manhattan Murder Mystery, The Public Eye, In Her Shoes, and Prime, and for his television work as Herman “Hesh” Rabkin on The Sopranos, Howard Lyman on The Good Wife and The Good Fight, building maintenance man Mr. Wicker on Mad About You, Bob Saget’s father Sam Stewart on Raising Dad, Fire Chief Sidney Feinberg on Rescue Me, Moshe Pfefferman on Transparent, Saul Horowitz on Broad City, and Hillston on Living with Yourself with Paul Rudd. Read more
• 1929: Paul Burlison, American musician (died 2003) Paul Burlison was an American rockabilly guitarist and a founding member of The Rock and Roll Trio. Read more
• 1929: Neil Johnston, American basketball player (died 1978) Donald Neil Johnston was an American basketball player and coach. A center, Johnston played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1951 to 1959. He was a member of the Philadelphia Warriors for his entire career. Known for his hook shot, Johnston was a six-time NBA All-Star; he led the NBA in scoring three times and led the league in rebounding once. He won an NBA championship with the Warriors in 1956. After his playing career ended due to a knee injury, Johnston coached in the NBA, in other professional basketball leagues, and at the collegiate level. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1990. Read more
• 1928: Oscar Cabalén, Argentinian racing driver (died 1967) Oscar Cabalén, was an Argentine racing driver, mainly active in the Turismo Carretera series. He also took part in the Carrera Panamericana and the Mille Miglia, and was a reserve driver for the Formula One Argentine Grand Prix in 1960. Read more
• 1928: Osmo Antero Wiio, Finnish journalist, academic, and politician (died 2013) Osmo Antero Wiio was a Finnish academic, journalist, author and member of the Finnish Parliament. He is best known for his somewhat facetious Wiio’s laws around communication, succinctly summarized as “Communication usually fails, except by accident”. Read more
• 1927: Rolf Landauer, German-American physicist and academic (died 1999) Rolf William Landauer was a German-American physicist who made important contributions in diverse areas of the thermodynamics of information processing, condensed matter physics, and the conductivity of disordered media. Born in Germany, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1938, obtained a Ph.D. in physics from Harvard in 1950, and then spent most of his career at IBM. Read more
• 1926: Gyula Grosics, Hungarian footballer and manager (died 2014) Gyula Grosics was a Hungarian football goalkeeper who played 86 times for the Hungary national football team and was part of the “Golden Team” of the 1950s. Regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he was thought to be the first goalkeeper to play as the sweeper-keeper. Grosics was nicknamed “Black Panther”, because he wore black clothing while playing. He won a gold medal in football at the 1952 Summer Olympics. Read more
• 1925: Russell Hoban, American author and illustrator (died 2011) Russell Conwell Hoban was an American writer. His works span many genres, including fantasy, science fiction, mainstream fiction, magical realism, poetry, and children’s books.
  He lived in London from 1969 until his death. Read more
• 1925: Stanley Karnow, American journalist and historian (died 2013) Stanley Abram Karnow was an American journalist and historian. He is best known for his writings on East Asia and the Vietnam War. Read more
• 1925: Christopher Zeeman, English mathematician and academic (died 2016) Sir Erik Christopher Zeeman FRS, was a British mathematician, known for his work in geometric topology and singularity theory. Read more
• 1923: Conrad Bain, Canadian-American actor (died 2013) Conrad Stafford Bain was a Canadian-American actor. His television credits include a leading role as Phillip Drummond in the sitcom Diff’rent Strokes (1978–1986), as Dr. Arthur Harmon on Maude (1972–1978), and as Charlie Ross in Mr. President (1987–1988). Read more
• 1922: Bhimsen Joshi, Indian vocalist of the Hindustani classical music tradition (died 2011) Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi, also known by the honorific prefix Pandit, was one of the greatest Indian vocalists in the Hindustani classical tradition from the Indian subcontinent. He is known for the khayal form of singing, as well as for his popular renditions of devotional music. Joshi belongs to the Kirana gharana tradition of Hindustani Classical Music. He is noted for his concerts, and between 1964 and 1982 Joshi toured Afghanistan, Italy, France, Canada and USA. He was the first musician from India whose concerts were advertised through posters in New York City. Joshi was instrumental in organising the Sawai Gandharva Music Festival annually, as homage to his guru, Sawai Gandharva. Read more
• 1921: Betty Friedan, American author and feminist (died 2006) Betty Friedan was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women’s movement in the United States, her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking the second wave of American feminism in the 20th century. In 1966, Friedan co-founded and was elected the first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), which aimed to bring women “into the mainstream of American society now [in] fully equal partnership with men.” Read more
• 1921: Lotfi Zadeh, Iranian-American mathematician and computer scientist and founder of fuzzy logic (died 2017) Lotfi Aliasger Zadeh was a mathematician, computer scientist, electrical engineer, artificial intelligence researcher, and professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley.
  Zadeh is best known for proposing fuzzy mathematics, consisting of several fuzzy-related concepts: fuzzy sets, fuzzy logic, fuzzy algorithms, fuzzy semantics, fuzzy languages, fuzzy control, fuzzy systems, fuzzy probabilities, fuzzy events, and fuzzy information.
  Zadeh was a founding member of the Eurasian Academy. Read more
• 1920: Janet Waldo, American actress and voice artist (died 2016) Janet Waldo was an American radio and voice actress. In animation, she voiced Judy Jetson in various Hanna-Barbera media, Nancy in Shazzan, Penelope Pitstop, Princess from Battle of the Planets, and Josie in Josie and the Pussycats. On radio, she was the title character in Meet Corliss Archer. Read more
• 1918: Ida Lupino, English-American actress and director (died 1995) Ida Lupino was a British actress, director, writer, and producer. Throughout her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed eight, working primarily in the United States, where she became a citizen in 1948. She is widely regarded as the most prominent female filmmaker working in the 1950s during the Hollywood studio system. With her independent production company, she co-wrote and co-produced several social-message films and became the first woman to direct a film noir, The Hitch-Hiker, in 1953. Read more
• 1918: Luigi Pareyson, Italian philosopher and author (died 1991) Luigi Pareysón was an Italian philosopher, best known for challenging the positivist and idealist aesthetics of Benedetto Croce in his 1954 monograph, Estetica. Teoria della formatività. Read more
• 1917: Yahya Khan, Pakistan general and politician, third President of Pakistan (died 1980) Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan was a Pakistani general who served as the third president of Pakistan from 1969 to 1971, under martial law. His presidency oversaw a civil war and genocide in East Pakistan, resulting in the Bangladesh’s secession. He also served as the fifth commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Army from 1966 to 1971. Read more
• 1915: William Talman, American actor and screenwriter (died 1968) William Whitney Talman Jr. was an American television and movie actor, best known for playing Los Angeles District Attorney Hamilton Burger in the television series Perry Mason. Read more
• 1915: Norman Wisdom, English comedian, actor and singer-songwriter (died 2010) Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom was an English actor, comedian, musician, and singer best known for his series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966, in which he portrayed the endearingly inept character Norman Pitkin. He rose to prominence with his first leading film role in Trouble in Store (1953), which earned him the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles. Read more
• 1914: Alfred Andersch, German-Swiss author and publisher (died 1980) Alfred Hellmuth Andersch was a German writer, publisher, and radio editor. The son of a conservative East Prussian army officer, he was born in Munich, Germany, and died in Berzona, Ticino, Switzerland. Martin Andersch, his brother, was also a writer. Read more
• 1913: Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist (died 2005) Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an American civil rights activist. She is best known for her 1955 refusal to move from her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in defiance of Jim Crow racial segregation laws, which sparked the Montgomery bus boycott. She is sometimes known as the “mother of the civil rights movement”. Read more
• 1912: Ola Skjåk Bræk, Norwegian banker and politician, Norwegian Minister of Industry (died 1999) Ola Skjåk Bræk was a Norwegian banker and politician for the Liberal Party. He was Minister of Industry in 1972–1973. Read more
• 1912: Erich Leinsdorf, Austrian-American conductor (died 1993) Erich Leinsdorf was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality. He also published books and essays on musical matters. Read more
• 1912: Byron Nelson, American golfer and sportscaster (died 2006) John Byron Nelson Jr. was an American professional golfer between 1935 and 1946, widely considered one of the greatest golfers of all time. Read more
• 1908: Julian Bell, English poet and academic (died 1937) Julian Heward Bell was an English poet, and the son of Clive and Vanessa Bell. The writer Quentin Bell was his younger brother and the writer and painter Angelica Garnett was his half-sister. Read more
• 1906: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor and theologian (died 1945) Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, neo-orthodox theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity’s role in the secular world have become widely influential; his 1937 book The Cost of Discipleship is described as a modern classic. Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Nazi euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of Jews. He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel Prison for a year and a half. Later, he was transferred to Flossenbürg concentration camp. Read more
• 1906: Letitia Dunbar-Harrison, Irish librarian (died 1994) Letitia Dunbar-Harrison was an Irish librarian who became the subject of a controversy over her appointment. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, she is the subject of the 2009 book by Pat Walsh, The Curious Case of the Mayo Librarian, and a RTÉ documentary of the same name. Read more
• 1906: Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer and academic, discovered Pluto (died 1997) Clyde William Tombaugh was an American astronomer and telescope maker, best known for discovering Pluto in 1930, marking the first detection of what would eventually be recognized as the Kuiper belt. At the time, Pluto was referred to as the ninth planet in the Solar System, a classification that stood for over seven decades. Read more
• 1905: Hylda Baker, English comedian, actress and music hall performer (died 1986) Hylda Baker was an English comedian, actress and music hall performer. Born and brought up in Farnworth, Lancashire, she is perhaps best remembered for her role as Nellie Pledge in the Granada ITV sitcom Nearest and Dearest (1968–1973) and for her role in the 1960 film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Read more
• 1904: MacKinlay Kantor, American author and screenwriter (died 1977) MacKinlay Kantor, born Benjamin McKinlay Kantor, was an American journalist, novelist and screenwriter. He wrote more than 30 novels, several set during the American Civil War, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1956 for his 1955 novel, Andersonville. Read more
• 1904: Deng Yingchao, Chinese politician, Chairwoman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (died 1968) Deng Yingchao was a prominent Chinese revolutionary, politician, and women’s rights advocate who played a significant role in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for over six decades. She served as Chairwoman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference from 1983 to 1988 and was the wife of Zhou Enlai, the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China. Read more
• 1903: Alexander Imich, Polish-American chemist, parapsychologist, and academic (died 2014) Alexander Imich was a Polish-American chemist, parapsychologist, zoologist and writer who was the president of the Anomalous Phenomena Research Center in New York City. He was born in 1903 in Częstochowa, Poland to a Jewish family. Read more
• 1902: Charles Lindbergh, American pilot and explorer (died 1974) Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, military officer, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris, a distance of 3,600 miles (5,800 km), flying alone for over 33 hours. His aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis, was built to compete for the $25,000 Orteig Prize for the first flight between the two cities. Although not the first transatlantic flight, it was the first solo crossing of the Atlantic and the longest at the time by nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 km), setting a new flight distance world record. The achievement garnered Lindbergh worldwide fame and stands as one of the most consequential flights in history, signalling a new era of air transportation between parts of the globe. Read more
• 1902: Hartley Shawcross, Baron Shawcross, German-English lawyer and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (died 2003) Hartley William Shawcross, Baron Shawcross,, known from 1945 to 1959 as Sir Hartley Shawcross, was an English barrister and Labour politician who served as the lead British prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes tribunal. He also served as Britain’s principal delegate to the United Nations immediately after the Second World War and as Attorney General for England. Read more
• 1900: Jacques Prévert, French poet and screenwriter (died 1977) Jacques Prévert was a French poet and screenwriter. His poems became and remain popular in the French-speaking world, particularly in schools. His best-regarded films formed part of the poetic realist movement, and include Les Enfants du Paradis (1945). He published his first book in 1946. Read more
• 1899: Virginia M. Alexander, American physician and founder of the Aspiranto Health Home (died 1949) Virginia Margaret Alexander was an American physician, public health researcher, and the founder of the Aspiranto Health Home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Read more
• 1897: Ludwig Erhard, German soldier and politician, second Chancellor of West Germany (died 1977) Ludwig Wilhelm Erhard was a German politician and economist who served as the second chancellor of West Germany from 1963 until 1966. Affiliated with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he is known for leading the West German postwar economic reforms and economic recovery in his role as Minister of Economic Affairs under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer from 1949 to 1963. During that period he promoted the concept of the social market economy, on which Germany’s economic policy in the 21st century continues to be based. Read more
• 1896: Friedrich Glauser, Austrian-Swiss author (died 1938) Friedrich Glauser was a German-language Swiss writer. Read more
• 1896: Friedrich Hund, German physicist and academic (died 1997) Friedrich Hermann Hund was a German physicist from Karlsruhe known for his work on atoms and molecules. He is known for the Hund’s rules to predict the electron configuration of chemical elements. His work on Hund’s cases and molecular orbital theory furthered the understanding of molecular structure. Read more
• 1895: Nigel Bruce, English actor (died 1953) William Nigel Ernle Bruce was a British character actor on stage and screen. He was best known for his portrayal of Dr. Watson in a series of films and in the radio series The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring alongside Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes in both. Bruce is also remembered for his roles in the Alfred Hitchcock films Rebecca and Suspicion, as well as Charlie Chaplin’s Limelight and the original Lassie film Lassie Come Home. Read more
• 1893: Raymond Dart, Australian paleoanthropologist (died 1988) Raymond Arthur Dart was an Australian anatomist and anthropologist, best known for his involvement in the 1924 discovery of the first fossil found of Australopithecus africanus, an extinct hominin closely related to humans, at Taung in the North of South Africa in the Northwest province. Read more
• 1892: E. J. Pratt, Canadian poet and academic (died 1964) Edwin John Dove Pratt, who published as E. J. Pratt, was a Canadian poet. Originally from Newfoundland, Pratt lived most of his life in Toronto, Ontario. A three-time winner of the country’s Governor General’s Award for poetry, he has been called “the foremost Canadian poet of the first half of the century.” Read more
• 1891: M. A. Ayyangar, Indian lawyer and politician, second Speaker of the Lok Sabha (died 1978) Madabhushi Ananthasayanam Ayyangar was the first Deputy Speaker and then Speaker of the Lok Sabha in the Indian Parliament. He also served as the 5th Governor of Bihar. Read more
• 1883: Reinhold Rudenberg, German-American inventor and a pioneer of electron microscopy (died 1961) Reinhold Rudenberg was a German-American electrical engineer and inventor, credited with many innovations in the electric power and related fields. Aside from improvements in electric power equipment, especially large alternating current generators, among others were the electrostatic-lens electron microscope, carrier-current communications on power lines, a form of phased array radar, an explanation of power blackouts, preferred number series, and the number prefix “Giga-“. Read more
• 1881: Eulalio Gutiérrez, Mexican general and politician, President of Mexico (died 1939) Eulalio Gutiérrez Ortiz was a Mexican general and politician in the Mexican Revolution from state of Coahuila. He is most notable for his election as provisional president of Mexico during the Aguascalientes Convention and led the country for a few months between 6 November 1914 and 16 January 1915. The Convention was convened by revolutionaries who had successfully ousted the regime of Victoriano Huerta after more than a year of conflict. Gutiérrez rather than “First Chief” Venustiano Carranza was chosen president of Mexico and a new round of violence broke out as revolutionary factions previously united turned against each other. “The high point of Gutiérrez’s career occurred when he moved with the Conventionist army to shoulder the responsibilities of his new office [of president].” Gutiérrez’s government was weak and he could not control the two main generals of the Army of the Convention, Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. Gutiérrez moved the capital of his government from Mexico City to San Luis Potosí. He resigned as president and made peace with Carranza. He went into exile in the United States, but later returned to Mexico. He died in 1939, outliving many other major figures of the Mexican Revolution. Read more
• 1881: Fernand Léger, French painter and sculptor (died 1955) Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style. His boldly simplified treatment of modern subject matter has caused him to be regarded as a forerunner of pop art. Read more
• 1881: Kliment Voroshilov, Soviet politician and Marshal of the Soviet Union, People’s Commissar for Defence (died 1969) Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov, popularly known as Klim Voroshilov, was a prominent Soviet military officer and politician during the Stalin era (1924–1953). He was one of the original five Marshals of the Soviet Union, the second highest military rank of the Soviet Union, and served as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal Soviet head of state, from 1953 to 1960. Read more
• 1879: Varia Kipiani, Georgian scientist Barbare “Varia” Kipiani was the first Georgian trained as a psychophysiologist and is recognized as a pioneering woman scholar of Georgia. Born into a noble family, Kipiani and her sisters were raised by her father after her parents’ divorce. After graduating from St. Nino’s School in Tbilisi in 1899, she taught in a school in Khoni for two years. Moving to Belgium, where her father had relocated, she entered the medical faculty of the Free University of Brussels in 1902. Unable to afford her tuition, Kipiani was mentored by Polish academic, Józefa Joteyko, who paid her school fees and allowed her to work in a laboratory. She wrote a paper titled “L’ergographie du sucre”, which evaluated the use of sugar in alleviating fatigue. Her study won a silver medal from the Association des chimistes de France et des colonies in 1906. After completing her coursework in the medical faculty in 1907, Kipiani lectured at various universities and continued research with Joteyko on nutrition and fatigue. They jointly were awarded the Vernois Prize of the French Académie Nationale de Médecine in 1908 for their work on vegetarianism. Read more
• 1877: Eddie Cochems, American football player and coach (died 1953) Edward Bulwer Cochems was an American football player and coach. He played football for the University of Wisconsin from 1898 to 1901 and was the head football coach at North Dakota Agricultural College—now known as North Dakota State University (1902–1903), Clemson University (1905), Saint Louis University (1906–1908), and the University of Maine (1914). During his three years at Saint Louis, he was the first football coach to build an offense around the forward pass, which became a legal play in the 1906 college football season. Using the forward pass, Cochems’ 1906 team compiled an undefeated 11–0 record, led the nation in scoring, and outscored opponents by a combined score of 407 to 11. He is considered by some to be the “father of the forward pass” in American football. Read more
• 1875: Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist and engineer (died 1953) Ludwig Prandtl was a German fluid dynamicist, physicist and aerospace scientist. He was a pioneer in the development of rigorous systematic mathematical analyses which he used for underlying the science of aerodynamics, which have come to form the basis of the applied science of aeronautical engineering. In the 1920s, he developed the mathematical basis for the fundamental principles of subsonic aerodynamics in particular; and in general up to and including transonic velocities. His studies identified the boundary layer, thin-airfoils, and lifting-line theories. The Prandtl number was named after him. Read more
• 1873: Étienne Desmarteau, Canadian shot putter and discus thrower (died 1905) Joseph-Étienne Desmarteau was a Canadian athlete, winner of the weight throwing event at the 1904 Summer Olympics. Read more
• 1872: Gotse Delchev, Bulgarian and Macedonian revolutionary activist (died 1903) Georgi Nikolov Delchev, known as Gotse Delchev or Goce Delčev, was a prominent Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary (komitadji) and one of the most important leaders of what is commonly known as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). He was active in the Ottoman-ruled Macedonia and Adrianople regions, as well as in Bulgaria, at the turn of the 20th century. Delchev was IMRO’s foreign representative in Sofia, the capital of the Principality of Bulgaria. As such, he was also a member of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC) for a period, participating in the work of its governing body. He was killed in a skirmish with an Ottoman unit on the eve of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising. Read more
• 1871: Friedrich Ebert, German lawyer and politician, first President of Germany (died 1925) Friedrich Ebert was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as the first president of Germany from 1919 until his death in 1925. Read more
• 1869: Bill Haywood, American labor organizer (died 1928) William Dudley Haywood, nicknamed “Big Bill”, was an American labor organizer and founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and a member of the executive committee of the Socialist Party of America. During the first two decades of the 20th century, Haywood was involved in several important labor battles, including the Colorado Labor Wars, the Lawrence Textile Strike, and other textile strikes in Massachusetts and New Jersey. Read more
• 1868: Constance Markievicz, Irish revolutionary and first woman elected to the UK House of Commons (died 1927) Constance Georgine Markievicz, also known as Countess Markievicz and Madame Markievicz, was an Irish revolutionary nationalist politician, suffragist and socialist who was the first woman elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Born in London, she came from the upper class Anglo-Irish Protestant landowning elite, which she abandoned in favour of Irish independence and social reform. Read more
• 1865: Abe Isoo, Japanese minister and politician (died 1949) Abe Isoo was a Japanese Christian socialist, parliamentarian and pacifist. He largely contributed to development of baseball in Japan, and was called “Father of Japanese baseball.” He created a baseball club of Waseda University. Read more
• 1862: Édouard Estaunié, French novelist (died 1942) Édouard Estaunié was a French novelist. Estaunié trained as a scientist and engineer, working at the Post and Telegraph service and training further in Holland, before turning to the novel in 1891. In 1904, he devised the word “telecommunication” in his Traité pratique de télécommunication électrique. He was elected to the Académie française in 1923. He was also a reviewer, critic, and homme de lettres as well as a novelist. Read more
• 1849: Jean Richepin, French poet, author, and playwright (died 1926) Jean Richepin was a French poet, novelist and dramatist. Read more
• 1848: Jean Aicard, French poet, author, and playwright (died 1921) Jean François Victor Aicard was a French poet, dramatist, and novelist. Read more
• 1831: Oliver Ames, American financier and politician, 35th Governor of Massachusetts (died 1895) Oliver Ames was an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and Republican politician who served as the 35th governor of Massachusetts from 1887 to 1890. Read more
• 1818: Emperor Norton, San Francisco eccentric and visionary (died 1880) Joshua Abraham Norton was a resident of San Francisco, California, who in 1859 declared himself “Emperor of these United States” in a proclamation that he signed “Norton I., Emperor of the United States”. Commonly known as Emperor Norton, he took the secondary title “Protector of Mexico” in 1866. Read more
• 1803: Antonija Höffern, Slovenian noblewoman (died 1871) Antonija Höffern was a Slovenian noblewoman and educator who is credited as being the first Slovenian woman to immigrate to the United States, doing so in 1837. After spending two years working as a missionary with the Ojibwe, she moved to Philadelphia, where she established an elite girls’ school. Read more

 Important Deaths on 04 February in History

• 2025: Aga Khan IV, 49th Imam of the Nizari Isma’ili community (born 1936) Shah Karim al-Hussaini, known simply as Aga Khan IV, was the 49th Imam of Nizari Isma’ili Shia Islam from 1957 until his death in 2025. He inherited the Nizari imamate and the title of Aga Khan at the age of 20 upon the death of his grandfather, the Aga Khan III. During his Imamate, he was also known by the religious title Mawlānā Hazar Imam by his Isma’ili followers. Read more
• 2024: Barry John, Welsh rugby player (born 1945) Barry John was a Welsh rugby union fly-half who played in the 1960s and early 1970s during the amateur era of the sport. John began his rugby career as a schoolboy playing for his local team Cefneithin RFC before switching to the first-class west Wales team Llanelli RFC in 1964. Whilst at Llanelli, John was selected for the Wales national team—as a replacement for David Watkins—to face a touring Australian team. Read more
• 2023: Vani Jairam, Indian playback singer (born 1945) Vani Jairam was an Indian playback singer in Indian cinema. She is fondly referred to as the “Meera of modern India” Vani’s career started in 1971 and has spanned over five decades. She did playback for over one thousand Indian movies recording over 20,000 songs. In addition, she recorded thousands of devotionals and private albums and also participated in numerous solo concerts in India and abroad. Read more
• 2023: Sherif Ismail, 53rd Prime Minister of Egypt (born 1955) Sherif Ismail was an Egyptian engineer and politician who served as the 53rd prime minister of Egypt from 2015 to 2018. He was also the minister of petroleum and mineral resources from 2013 to 2015. Read more
• 2022: Kim In-hyeok, South Korean volleyball player (born 1995) Kim In-hyeok was a South Korean indoor volleyball player. He played as an outside hitter for Suwon KEPCO Vixtorm from 2017 to 2020 and Daejeon Samsung Fire Bluefangs from 2020 until his death in 2022. Read more
• 2021: Millie Hughes-Fulford, American astronaut, molecular biologist and NASA payload specialist (born 1945) Millie Elizabeth Hughes-Fulford was an American medical investigator, molecular biologist, and payload specialist who flew aboard the NASA Space Shuttle Columbia in June 1991. Read more
• 2020: Daniel arap Moi, Former President of Kenya (born 1924) Daniel Toroitich arap Moi was a Kenyan politician who served as the second president of Kenya from 1978 to 2002. He is the country’s longest-serving president to date. Moi previously served as the third vice president of Kenya from 1967 to 1978 under President Jomo Kenyatta, becoming the president following the latter’s death. Read more
• 2019: Matti Nykänen, Finnish Olympic-winning ski jumper and singer (born 1963) Matti Ensio Nykänen was a Finnish ski jumper who competed from 1981 to 1991. Known as “The Flying Finn”, he is one of the most successful ski jumpers of all time, having won five Winter Olympic medals, nine World Championship medals, and 22 Finnish Championship medals. Most notably, he won three gold medals at the 1988 Winter Olympics, becoming, along with Yvonne van Gennip of the Netherlands, the most medaled athlete that winter. Read more
• 2018: John Mahoney, English-American actor, voice artist, and comedian (born 1940) Charles John Mahoney was an English-born American actor. He played retired police officer Martin Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier from 1993 to 2004, receiving nominations for two Golden Globe Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Read more
• 2017: Steve Lang, Canadian bass player (born 1949) Stephen Keith Lang was a Canadian bassist best known for his time and work with the rock band April Wine from 1976 to 1984 during the band’s most successful years. Read more
• 2017: Bano Qudsia, Pakistani writer (born 1928) Bano Qudsia, also known as Bano Aapa, was a Pakistani novelist, playwright and spiritualist. She wrote literature in Urdu, producing novels, dramas plays and short stories. Qudsia is best recognized for her novel Raja Gidh. Qudsia also wrote for television and stage in both Urdu and Punjabi languages. Her play Aadhi Baat has been called “a classic play.” Bano Qudsia died in Lahore on 4 February 2017. Read more
• 2016: Edgar Mitchell, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (born 1930) Edgar Dean Mitchell was a United States Navy officer and aviator, test pilot, aeronautical engineer, ufologist, and NASA astronaut. As the Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 14 in 1971 he spent nine hours working on the lunar surface in the Fra Mauro Highlands region, and was the sixth person to walk on the Moon. He was the second Freemason to set foot on the Moon, after Buzz Aldrin. Read more
• 2015: Fitzhugh L. Fulton, American colonel and pilot (born 1925) Fitzhugh L. “Fitz” Fulton, Jr., , was a civilian research pilot at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, from August 1, 1966, until July 3, 1986, following 23 years of distinguished service as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. Read more
• 2014: Keith Allen, Canadian-American ice hockey player, coach, and manager (born 1923) Courtney Keith “Bingo” Allen was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman and National Hockey League (NHL) head coach and general manager. He played 28 games in the NHL for the Detroit Red Wings during the 1953–54 and 1954–55 seasons. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1941 to 1957, was spent in various minor leagues. Read more
• 2014: Eugenio Corti, Italian soldier, author, and playwright (born 1921)
  Eugenio Corti was an Italian writer born in Besana in Brianza. After participating in the Italian retreat from Russia in World War II, and a period of recovery, he joined the regular Italian army in southern Italy, to fight the Germans along with the Allies. Based on these experiences, he wrote Few Returned and The Last Soldiers of the King. His seminal work, however, is The Red Horse, a 1000-page novel again based on his experiences and those of his fellow Italians during and after the Second World War. It was voted the best book of the 1980s in a public survey in Italy and has been translated into eight languages, including Japanese. It has had thirty-four editions since it was first published in May 1983. Read more
• 2014: Dennis Lota, Zambian footballer (born 1973) Dennis Lota was a Zambian football striker. Read more
• 2013: Donald Byrd, American trumpet player (born 1932) Donaldson Toussaint L’Ouverture Byrd II was an American jazz and rhythm & blues trumpeter, composer and vocalist. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was one of the few hard bop musicians who successfully explored funk and soul while remaining a jazz artist. As a bandleader, Byrd was an influence on the early career of Herbie Hancock and many others. Read more
• 2013: Reg Presley, English singer-songwriter (born 1941) Reginald Maurice Ball, known professionally as Reg Presley, was an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer with the 1960s rock and roll band the Troggs, whose hits included “Wild Thing” and “With a Girl Like You”. He wrote the song “Love Is All Around”, which was featured in the films Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually. Read more
• 2012: István Csurka, Hungarian journalist and politician (born 1934) István Csurka was a Hungarian nationalist politician, journalist and writer. He was the founder and inaugural leader of the Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIÉP) from 1993 until his death. He was also a Member of Parliament from 1990 to 1994 and from 1998 to 2002. Read more
• 2012: Florence Green, English soldier (born 1901) Florence Beatrice Green was an English woman who is thought to have been the last surviving veteran of the First World War from any country. She was a member of the Women’s Royal Air Force. Read more
• 2012: Robert Daniel, American farmer, soldier, and politician (born 1936) Robert Williams Daniel, Jr. was an American farmer, businessman, teacher, and politician from Virginia who served five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican. He was first elected in 1972 and served until 1983. Read more
• 2012: Mike deGruy, American director, producer, and cinematographer (born 1951) Michael V. deGruy was an American documentary filmmaker specializing in underwater cinematography. His credits include Life in the Freezer, Trials of Life, The Blue Planet and Pacific Abyss. He was also known for his storytelling, including a passionate TED talk about his love of the ocean on the Mission Blue Voyage. His company, Film Crew Inc., specialized in underwater cinematography, filming for the BBC, PBS, National Geographic, and the Discovery Channel. His notable accomplishments include diving beneath thermal vents in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He was a member of many deep sea expeditions and was a part of the team that first filmed the vampire squid and the nautilus. Read more
• 2012: Susanne Suba, Hungarian-born watercolorist and illustrator, active in the United States (born 1913) Susanne Suba (1913–2012) was a Hungarian-born watercolorist and illustrator, active in the United States. Read more
• 2011: Martial Célestin, Haitian lawyer and politician, first Prime Minister of Haiti (born 1913) Martial Lavaud Célestin was named Prime Minister of Haïti by President Leslie Manigat in February 1988 under the provisions of the 1987 Constitution, and was approved by the Parliament that formed as a result of the January 17, 1988 elections. He was deposed by the June 20, 1988 coup d’état. He was born in Ganthier and was a lawyer by profession. Célestin died on February 4, 2011, at the age of 97. Read more
• 2010: Kostas Axelos, Greek-French philosopher and author (born 1924) Kostas Axelos was a Greek-French philosopher. Read more
• 2010: Helen Tobias-Duesberg, Estonian-American composer (born 1919) Helen Tobias-Duesberg was an Estonian-American composer. Read more
• 2008: Augusta Dabney, American actress (born 1918) Augusta Keith Dabney was an American actress known for her roles on many soap operas, such as the wealthy but kindly matriarch Isabelle Alden on the daytime series Loving. She played the role from 1983 to 1987, from 1988 to 1991, and again from 1994 to 1995. Read more
• 2008: Stefan Meller, Polish academic and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland (born 1942) Stefan Meller was a Polish diplomat and academician. He served as foreign minister of Poland from 31 October 2005, to 9 May 2006, in the cabinet of Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz. Read more
• 2007: José Carlos Bauer, Brazilian footballer and manager (born 1925) José Carlos Bauer, commonly known as Bauer, was a Brazilian football player and manager who played as a midfielder. Read more
• 2007: Ilya Kormiltsev, Russian-English poet and translator (born 1959) Ilya Valeryevich Kormiltsev was a Russian poet, translator, and publisher. Kormiltsev is most famous for working during the 1980s and the 1990s as a songwriter in Nautilus Pompilius, one of the most popular rock bands in the Soviet Union and, later, Russia. He was also a prominent literary translator and publisher. Since 1997, he translated into Russian many important pieces of modern prose, such as Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, or Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting. In 2003, he established Ultra.Kultura publishing house, which immediately gained a scandalous reputation and was closed by the authorities in 2007. Through its brief history, Ultra.Kultura published numerous counter-culture books in a wide range from ultra-right to radical left authors. Read more
• 2007: Barbara McNair, American singer and actress (born 1934) Barbara Jean McNair
  (March 4, 1934 – February 4, 2007) was an American singer and theater, television, and film actress. McNair’s career spanned over five decades in television, film, and stage. McNair’s professional career began in music during the late 1950s, singing in the nightclub circuit. In 1958, McNair released “Till There Was You”, her debut single for Coral Records, which was a commercial success. McNair performed all around the world, touring with Nat King Cole and later appearing in his Broadway stage shows I’m with You and The Merry World of Nat King Cole in the early 1960s. Read more
• 2007: Jules Olitski, Ukrainian-American painter and sculptor (born 1922) Jevel Demikovski, known professionally as Jules Olitski, was an American painter, printmaker, and sculptor. Read more
• 2007: Alfred Worm, Austrian journalist, author, and academic (born 1945) Alfred Worm was an Austrian journalist, author and vocational high school teacher. Read more
• 2006: Betty Friedan, American author and activist (born 1921) Betty Friedan was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women’s movement in the United States, her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking the second wave of American feminism in the 20th century. In 1966, Friedan co-founded and was elected the first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), which aimed to bring women “into the mainstream of American society now [in] fully equal partnership with men.” Read more
• 2005: Ossie Davis, American actor, director, and playwright (born 1917) Ossie Davis was an American actor, director, writer, and activist. He was married to Ruby Dee, with whom he frequently performed, from 1948 until his death. He received numerous accolades including an Emmy, a Grammy and a Writers Guild of America Award as well as nominations for four additional Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and Tony Award. Davis was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1994 and received the National Medal of Arts in 1995, Kennedy Center Honors in 2004. Read more
• 2004: Hilda Hilst, Brazilian poet, novelist, and playwright (born 1930) Hilda de Almeida Prado Hilst was a Brazilian poet, novelist, and playwright. Her work touches on the themes of mysticism, insanity, the body, eroticism, and female sexual liberation. Hilst greatly revered the work of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, and the influence of their styles—like stream of consciousness and fractured reality—is evident in her own work. Read more
• 2003: Benyoucef Benkhedda, Algerian pharmacist and politician (born 1920) Benyoucef Benkhedda was an Algerian politician. He headed the third GPRA exile government of the National Liberation Front (FLN), acting as a leader during the Algerian War (1954–62). At the end of the war, he was briefly the de jure leader of the country, however he was quickly sidelined by more conservative figures. Read more
• 2002: Count Sigvard Bernadotte of Wisborg (born 1907) Sigvard Oscar Fredrik, Prince Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg born as, and until 1934 known as, Prince Sigvard of Sweden, Duke of Uppland, was a member of the Swedish Royal Family and a successful industrial designer. Read more
• 2000: Carl Albert, American lawyer and politician, 54th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (born 1908) Carl Bert Albert was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 46th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1971 to 1977 and represented Oklahoma’s 3rd congressional district as a Democrat from 1947 to 1977. Read more
• 1995: Patricia Highsmith, American novelist and short story writer (born 1921) Patricia Highsmith was an American novelist and short story writer widely known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley. She wrote 22 novels and numerous short stories in a career spanning nearly five decades, and her work has led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her writing was influenced by existentialist literature and questioned notions of identity and popular morality. She was dubbed “the poet of apprehension” by novelist Graham Greene. Read more
• 1992: John Dehner, American actor (born 1915) John Dehner, also credited Dehner Forkum, was an American stage, radio, film, and television character actor. Read more
• 1990: Whipper Billy Watson, Canadian-American wrestler and trainer (born 1915) William John Potts, was a Canadian professional wrestler best known by his ring name “Whipper” Billy Watson. He was a two-time world champion, having held both the National Wrestling Association title and the National Wrestling Alliance title. On February 21, 1947, he became the first man to win a world heavyweight wrestling championship on TV. Read more
• 1987: Liberace, American singer-songwriter and pianist, (born 1919) Władziu Valentino Liberace was an American pianist, singer and actor. He was born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin and enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordings, television, motion pictures and endorsements. At the height of his fame from the 1950s to 1970s, he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world with established concert residencies in Las Vegas and an international touring schedule. Read more
• 1987: Meena Keshwar Kamal, Afghan activist, founded the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (born 1956) Meena Keshwar Kamal, commonly known as Meena, was an Afghan revolutionary political activist, women’s rights activist, and founder of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). She was assassinated in 1987. Read more
• 1987: Carl Rogers, American psychologist and academic (born 1902) Carl Ransom Rogers was an American psychologist who was one of the founders of humanistic psychology and was known especially for his person-centered psychotherapy. Rogers is widely considered one of the founding fathers of psychotherapy research and was honored for his research with the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1956. Read more
• 1983: Karen Carpenter, American singer (born 1950) Karen Anne Carpenter was an American musician who was the lead vocalist and drummer of the highly successful duo the Carpenters, formed with her older brother Richard. With a distinctive three-octave contralto range, she was praised by her peers for her vocal skills. Carpenter appeared on Rolling Stone’s 2010 list of the 100 greatest singers of all time. Read more
• 1982: Alex Harvey, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1935) Alexander James Harvey was a Scottish rock and blues musician. Although his career spanned almost three decades, he is best remembered as the frontman of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, with whom he built a reputation as an exciting live performer during the era of glam rock in the 1970s. Read more
• 1982: Georg Konrad Morgen, German lawyer and judge (born 1909) Georg Konrad Morgen was a German SS Investigating Judge and Reich Police Official who investigated members of the SS for corruption and murder, especially in the Nazi concentration and extermination camps. He rose to the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer (major). After the war, Morgen served as witness at several anti-Nazi trials and continued his legal career in Frankfurt. Read more
• 1975: Louis Jordan, American singer-songwriter and saxophonist (born 1908) Louis Thomas Jordan was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as “the King of the Jukebox”, he earned his highest profile towards the end of the swing era. Read more
• 1974: Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian physicist, mathematician, and academic (born 1894) Satyendra Nath Bose was an Indian theoretical physicist and mathematician. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, in developing the foundation for Bose–Einstein statistics, and the theory of the Bose–Einstein condensate. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he was awarded India’s second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1954 by the Government of India. Read more
• 1970: Louise Bogan, American poet and critic (born 1897) Louise Bogan was an American poet. She was appointed the fourth Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress in 1945, and was the first woman to hold this title. Throughout her life she wrote poetry, fiction, and criticism, and became the regular poetry reviewer for The New Yorker. Read more
• 1968: Neal Cassady, American novelist and poet (born 1926) Neal Leon Cassady was an American writer who was a major figure of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the psychedelic and counterculture movements of the 1960s. Read more
• 1959: Una O’Connor, Irish-American actress (born 1880) Una O’Connor was an Irish-born American actress who worked extensively in theatre before becoming a character actress in film and in television. She often portrayed comical wives, housekeepers and servants. In 2020, she was listed at number 19 on The Irish Times list of Ireland’s greatest film actors. Read more
• 1958: Henry Kuttner, American author and screenwriter (born 1915) Henry Kuttner was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and horror. Read more
• 1956: Savielly Tartakower, Russian-French chess player, journalist, and author (born 1887) Savielly Tartakower was a Austro-Hungarian by birth, then Polish, later naturalised French chess player. He was awarded the title of International Grandmaster in its inaugural year, 1950. Tartakower was also a leading chess journalist and author of the 1920s and 1930s and is noted for his many witticisms. Read more
• 1944: Arsen Kotsoyev, Russian author and translator (born 1872) Arsen Kotsoyev was one of the founders of Ossetic prose, who had a large influence on the formation of the modern Ossetic language and its functional styles. He participated in all of the first Ossetic periodicals, and was one of the most notable Ossetian publicists. Read more
• 1943: Frank Calder, English-Canadian ice hockey player and journalist (born 1877) Frank Sellick Calder was a British-born Canadian ice hockey executive, journalist, and athlete. Read more
• 1940: Nikolai Yezhov, Russian police officer and politician (born 1895) Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov, also spelt Ezhov, was a Soviet secret police official under Joseph Stalin who was head of the NKVD from 1936 to 1938, at the height of the Great Purge. Yezhov organized mass arrests, torture, and executions during the Great Purge, but he fell out of favour with Stalin and was arrested, subsequently admitting in a confession to a range of anti-Soviet activity including “unfounded arrests” during the Purge. He was executed in 1940 along with others who were blamed for the Purge. Read more
• 1936: Wilhelm Gustloff, German-Swiss soldier, founded Swiss NSDAP/AO (born 1895) Wilhelm Gustloff was a German politician and meteorologist who founded the Swiss branch of the Nazi Party/Foreign Organization (NSDAP/AO) at Davos in 1932. The NSDAP/AO was formed as the wing of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) for German citizens living outside Germany. Gustloff continued to lead the Swiss branch of the NSDAP/AO until 1936, when he was assassinated by David Frankfurter, a Croatian Jew who was outraged by the growth of the Nazi Party. After killing Gustloff, Frankfurter immediately surrendered to the authorities and confessed to the Swiss police that “I fired the shots because I am a Jew.” Read more
• 1933: Archibald Sayce, English linguist and educator (born 1846) Archibald Henry Sayce was a pioneer British Assyriologist and linguist, who held a chair as Professor of Assyriology at the University of Oxford from 1891 to 1919. He was able to write in at least twenty ancient and modern languages, and was known for his emphasis on the importance of archaeological and monumental evidence in linguistic research. He was a contributor to articles in the 9th, 10th and 11th editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Read more
• 1928: Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1853) Hendrik Antoon Lorentz was a Dutch theoretical physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pieter Zeeman for their discovery and theoretical explanation of the Zeeman effect. He derived the Lorentz transformation of the special theory of relativity, as well as the Lorentz force, which describes the force acting on a charged particle in an electromagnetic field. He was also responsible for the Lorentz oscillator model, a classical model used to describe the anomalous dispersion observed in dielectric materials when the driving frequency of the electric field was near the resonant frequency of the material, resulting in abnormal refractive indices. Read more
• 1926: İskilipli Âtıf Hodja, Turkish author and scholar (born 1875) Mehmed Âtıf Hoca was a Turkish Islamist. He was born in the village of Toyhane, in the district of Bayat, Çorum Province, in the Ottoman Empire and went to school there. After a couple of years as an imam in İskilip in 1893 he went to Istanbul to continue his education, first at a medrese and from 1902 at Darü’l-fünun Faculty of Divinity. He graduated in 1903 and took a job teaching as Ders-i Amm (Ulama), at the madrasah in the Fatih Mosque, Istanbul. He was later arrested and jailed several times, but freed. He and Mustafa Sabri were the founding members of Cemiyet-i Müderrisin. They were fiercely against the national government in Ankara which led the Turks to the Turkish War of Independence. His father was a Turk from the Akkoyunlu Bayındır tribe, while his mother was an Arab originally from Hijaz. Read more
• 1912: Franz Reichelt, French tailor and inventor (born 1878) Franz Reichelt, also known as Frantz Reichelt or François Reichelt, was an Austro-Hungarian-born French tailor, inventor and parachuting pioneer, now sometimes referred to as the Flying Tailor. He is remembered for jumping to his death from the Eiffel Tower while testing a wearable parachute of his own design, a device that today might be called a wingsuit. Reichelt had become fixated on developing a suit for aviators that would convert into a parachute and allow them to survive a fall should they be forced to leave their aircraft in mid-air. Initial experiments conducted with dummies dropped from the fifth floor of his apartment building had been successful, but he was unable to replicate those early successes with any of his subsequent designs. Read more
• 1905: Louis-Ernest Barrias, French sculptor and academic (born 1841) Louis-Ernest Barrias was a French sculptor of the Beaux-Arts school. In 1865 Barrias won the Prix de Rome for study at the French Academy in Rome. Read more
• 1891: Pelagio Antonio de Labastida y Dávalos, Roman Catholic archbishop and Mexican politician who served as regent during the Second Mexican Empire (born 1816) Pelagio Antonio de Labastida y Dávalos was a Mexican Roman Catholic prelate, lawyer and doctor of canon law, and politician. He was a member of the imperial regency that invited Maximilian of Austria to accept the throne of Mexico. Read more
• 1843: Theodoros Kolokotronis, Greek general (born 1770) Theodoros Kolokotronis was a Greek general and the pre-eminent leader of the Greek War of Independence (1821–1829) against the Ottoman Empire. Read more