Important Events on 07 February in History

• 2024: Pakistan election offices are hit by twin bombings, killing at least 24 people a day before general elections. Read more
• 2021: The 2021 Uttarakhand flood begins. Read more
• 2016: North Korea launches Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4 into outer space violating multiple UN treaties and prompting condemnation from around the world. Read more
• 2014: Scientists announce that the Happisburgh footprints in Norfolk, England, date back to more than 800,000 years ago, making them the oldest known hominid footprints outside Africa. Read more
• 2013: The U.S. state of Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was formally ratified by Mississippi in 1995. Read more
• 2012: President Mohamed Nasheed of the Republic of Maldives resigns, after 23 days of anti-governmental protests calling for the release of the Chief Judge unlawfully arrested by the military. Read more
• 2009: Bushfires in Victoria leave 173 dead in the worst natural disaster in Australia’s history. Read more
• 2001: Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-98, carrying the Destiny laboratory module to the International Space Station. Read more
• 1999: Crown Prince Abdullah becomes the King of Jordan on the death of his father, King Hussein. Read more
• 1995: Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan. Read more
• 1992: The Maastricht Treaty is signed, leading to the creation of the European Union. Read more
• 1991: Haiti’s first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in. Read more
• 1991: The Troubles: The Provisional IRA launches a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street in London, the headquarters of the British government. Read more
• 1990: Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power. Read more
• 1986: Twenty-eight years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation. Read more
• 1984: Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B Mission: astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU). Read more
• 1981: A plane crash at Pushkin Airport kills 50 people, including 16 members of the Pacific Fleet. Read more
• 1979: Pluto moves inside Neptune’s orbit for the first time since either was discovered. Read more
• 1974: Grenada gains independence from the United Kingdom. Read more
• 1966: The Great Fire of Iloilo breaks out in a lumber yard in Iznart Street and burns for almost half a day destroying nearly three-quarters of the City Proper area and Php 50 million pesos in total properties’ damage. Read more
• 1964: The Beatles land in the United States for the first time, at the newly renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport. Read more
• 1962: The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports. Read more
• 1951: Korean War: More than 700 suspected communist sympathizers are massacred by South Korean forces. Read more
• 1944: World War II: In Anzio, Italy, German forces launch a counteroffensive during the Allied Operation Shingle. Read more
• 1943: World War II: Imperial Japanese Navy forces complete the evacuation of Imperial Japanese Army troops from Guadalcanal during Operation Ke, ending Japanese attempts to retake the island from Allied forces in the Guadalcanal campaign. Read more
• 1940: The second full-length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio, premieres. Read more
• 1904: The Great Baltimore Fire begins in Baltimore, Maryland; it destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours. Read more
• 1900: Second Boer War: British troops fail in their third attempt to lift the Siege of Ladysmith. Read more
• 1900: A Chinese immigrant in San Francisco falls ill to bubonic plague in the first plague epidemic in the continental United States. Read more
• 1898: Dreyfus affair: Émile Zola is brought to trial for libel for publishing J’Accuse…! Read more
• 1894: The Cripple Creek miner’s strike, led by the Western Federation of Miners, begins in Cripple Creek, Colorado, United States. Read more
• 1863: HMS Orpheus sinks off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand, killing 189. Read more
• 1854: A law is approved to found the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Lectures started October 16, 1855. Read more
• 1842: Battle of Debre Tabor: Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien. Read more
• 1819: Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles leaves Singapore after just taking it over, leaving it in the hands of William Farquhar. Read more
• 1813: In the action of 7 February 1813 near the Îles de Los, the frigates Aréthuse and Amelia batter each other, but neither can gain the upper hand. Read more
• 1812: The strongest in a series of earthquakes strikes New Madrid, Missouri. Read more
• 1807: Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon finds Bennigsen’s Russian forces taking a stand at Eylau. After bitter fighting, the French take the town, but the Russians resume the battle the next day. Read more

 Important Births on 07 February in History

• 2007: Diego Aguado, Spanish footballer Diego Aguado Facio is a Spanish footballer who plays as a defender for Real Madrid Castilla. Read more
• 2003: Alessandro Fontanarosa, Italian footballer Alessandro Fontanarosa is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Serie B club Avellino. Read more
• 2002: Shedeur Sanders, American football player Shedeur Deion Sanders is an American professional football quarterback for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Jackson State Tigers and Colorado Buffaloes, winning the Jerry Rice Award, Deacon Jones Trophy, and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award before being selected by the Browns in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL draft. Sanders is the son of Pro Football Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders and the younger brother of free agent safety Shilo Sanders. Read more
• 2001: R. J. Hampton, American basketball player Roderick Deon Hampton Jr. is an American professional basketball player for the Changsha Yongsheng of the National Basketball League in China. He was a five-star recruit at Little Elm High School in Little Elm, Texas. He was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks as the 24th overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft. Read more
• 2000: Jayden Campbell, Australian rugby league player Jayden Campbell is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a fullback, five-eighth or halfback for the Gold Coast Titans in the National Rugby League. Read more
• 1999: Omar Marmoush, Egyptian footballer Omar Khaled Mohamed Abdelsalam Marmoush is an Egyptian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Premier League club Manchester City and the Egypt national team. Read more
• 1997: Nicolò Barella, Italian footballer Nicolò Barella is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Serie A club Inter Milan and the Italy national team. Known for his technical ability, work rate, and creativity, he is often recognised as one of the best midfielders in the world. Read more
• 1997: Anhelina Kalinina, Ukrainian tennis player Anhelina Serhiyivna Kalinina is a Ukrainian professional tennis player. On 22 May 2023, she reached her career-high WTA singles ranking of No. 25. She peaked at No. 92 in the doubles rankings in January 2025. She has won two singles titles on the WTA Challenger Tour, as well as 15 titles in singles and three in doubles on the ITF Circuit. Read more
• 1996: Aaron Ekblad, Canadian ice hockey player Aaron Ekblad is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a defenceman and alternate captain for the Florida Panthers in the National Hockey League (NHL). Ekblad was selected first overall in the 2011 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) draft, and he was selected first overall by the Panthers in the 2014 NHL entry draft and made his NHL debut that year. In his first NHL season, Ekblad was selected for the 2015 NHL All-Star Game and earned the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league’s best rookie in the 2014–15. Ekblad won back-to-back Stanley Cup championships with the Panthers in 2024 and 2025. Read more
• 1996: Pierre Gasly, French racing driver Pierre Jean-Jacques Gasly is a French racing driver who competes in Formula One for Alpine. Gasly won the 2020 Italian Grand Prix with AlphaTauri. Read more
• 1995: Tom Glynn-Carney, English actor and musician Tom Glynn-Carney is an English actor. He appeared in Christopher Nolan’s war film Dunkirk (2017) and won a Drama Desk Award in 2019 for his performance in the play The Ferryman. He gained recognition for starring as Aegon II Targaryen in the fantasy drama series House of the Dragon (2022–present). Read more
• 1995: Roberto Osuna, Mexican baseball player Roberto Osuna Quintero Jr. is a Mexican professional baseball pitcher for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays and Houston Astros. Read more
• 1994: Riley Barber, American ice hockey player Riley Barber is a Canadian-American professional ice hockey forward who is currently playing under contract with ERC Ingolstadt of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). Barber was selected by the Washington Capitals in the sixth round of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. He is the son of former NHL player Don Barber. Read more
• 1994: Nathan Walker, Welsh-Australian ice hockey player Nathan Walker is an Australian professional ice hockey player who is a forward for the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League (NHL). Walker, who was born in Wales, grew up in Australia and first played ice hockey there. He moved to the Czech Republic in 2007 in order to further his career, and joined the junior program of HC Vítkovice, a member of the Czech Extraliga. He first played for the senior team in 2011, becoming the first Australian ice hockey player to play for a professional senior team in Europe. Along with HC Vítkovice, Walker was loaned to several lower-level Czech teams. Read more
• 1993: Javon Hargrave, American football player Javon DeAndre Hargrave is an American professional football defensive end for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the South Carolina State Bulldogs and he was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the third round of the 2016 NFL draft. Read more
• 1993: Chris Mears, English diver Christopher James Mears is a British diver and DJ/Producer from Burghfield Common, near Reading, Berkshire. He competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the synchronised 3m springboard event with Jack Laugher and won gold, the first Olympic gold medal for Britain in diving. Read more
• 1992: Sergi Roberto, Spanish footballer Sergi Roberto Carnicer is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for Serie A club Como. Mainly a central midfielder, he can also operate as a defensive midfielder, full-back or winger. Read more
• 1992: Ksenia Stolbova, Russian figure skater Ksenia Andreyevna Stolbova is a retired Russian pair skater who skated with Andrei Novoselov and Fedor Klimov. She is the 2014 Olympic silver medalist, the 2014 Olympic champion in the team event, the 2014 World silver medalist, a three-time European medalist, the 2015–16 Grand Prix Final champion, the 2013 Winter Universiade champion, a two-time World Junior medalist, and a three-time Russian national champion. Stolbova announced her retirement from competitions on 12 February 2020. Read more
• 1992: Maimi Yajima, Japanese singer and actress Maimi Yajima is a Japanese singer and actress. She was a member and the leader of Cute, a girl idol group within Hello! Project. Read more
• 1991: Gabbie Hanna, American Internet personality and singer-songwriter Gabrielle Jeannette Hanna Kroner, also known as Gabbie Hanna, is an American internet personality, singer-songwriter, author, and former YouTuber. She rose to prominence on the video platforms Vine and YouTube before releasing her debut single, “Out Loud”, in 2017. Her debut extended play, 2WayMirror, was released on May 31, 2019, and her second EP, Bad Karma, was released on May 15, 2020. Her debut album, Trauma Queen, was released on July 22, 2022, followed by her sophomore album, This Time Next Year, on December 23, 2022. Read more
• 1991: Ryan O’Reilly, Canadian ice hockey player Ryan O’Reilly is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a centre and alternate captain for the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League (NHL). He has previously played for the Colorado Avalanche, Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues and the Toronto Maple Leafs in the NHL. O’Reilly was drafted 33rd overall in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft by the Colorado Avalanche, with whom he spent the first six seasons of his NHL career. He is frequently referred to as one of the NHL’s best two-way forwards, winning the Frank J. Selke Trophy in 2019. Read more
• 1991: Richard Pánik, Slovak ice hockey player Richard Pánik is a Slovak professional ice hockey right winger for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Pánik was drafted in the second round, 52nd overall, in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft by the Tampa Bay Lightning. Read more
• 1990: Morris Claiborne, American football player Morris Lee Claiborne is an American former professional football cornerback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons. He played college football for the LSU Tigers, winning the Jim Thorpe Award as the best defensive back in the country and was recognized as a unanimous All-American. He was selected by the Dallas Cowboys sixth overall in the 2012 NFL draft. Read more
• 1990: Jacksepticeye, Irish YouTuber Seán William “Jack” McLoughlin, better known by his online pseudonym jacksepticeye, is an Irish YouTuber whose videos focus on gaming, comedy, and vlogging. Read more
• 1990: Gianluca Lapadula, Italian footballer Gianluca Lapadula Vargas is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for Serie B club Spezia. Born in Italy, he represents Peru at international level. Read more
• 1990: Dalilah Muhammad, American hurdler Dalilah Muhammad is a retired American track and field athlete who competed in the 400 meters hurdles. She is the 2016 Rio Olympics champion and 2020 Tokyo Olympics silver medalist, becoming at the latter the then-second-fastest woman of all time in the event with her personal best of 51.58 seconds. Muhammad was second at both the 2013 and 2017 World Championships to take her first gold in 2019, setting the former world record of 52.16 s. She was the second female 400 m hurdler in history, after Sally Gunnell, to have won the Olympic, World titles and broken the world record. At both the 2019 World Championships and Tokyo Games, she also took gold as part of women’s 4 × 400 metres relay team. Read more
• 1990: Steven Stamkos, Canadian ice hockey player Steven Stamkos is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a forward and alternate captain for the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League (NHL). Stamkos was selected first overall in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft by the Tampa Bay Lightning. Stamkos
  holds the Lightning franchise record for most goals and points scored and captained the Lightning to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021 as well as appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2015 and 2022. Read more
• 1989: Nick Calathes, American-Greek basketball player Nicholas William Calathes is a Greek American professional basketball player for Partizan Mozzart Bet of the Serbian League (KLS), the ABA League and the EuroLeague. He is widely considered as one of the best point guards in EuroLeague history. Read more
• 1989: Isaiah Thomas, American basketball player Isaiah Jamar Thomas is an American professional basketball player for the Salt Lake City Stars of the NBA G League. He most notably played with the Boston Celtics from 2015 through 2017, when he was a two-time NBA All-Star and named second-team All-NBA. Read more
• 1989: Elia Viviani, Italian cyclist Elia Viviani is an Italian former professional cyclist, who competed from 2010 to 2025 and last rode for UCI ProTeam Lotto. On 10 May 2015, Viviani won his first Grand Tour stage victory at the Giro d’Italia, winning stage 2 in a bunch sprint before Moreno Hofland and André Greipel. Read more
• 1988: Ai Kago, Japanese singer and actress Ai Kago is a Japanese actress and singer. In 2000, Kago debuted as a 4th-generation member of the idol girl group Morning Musume. During her time in Morning Musume, she was also part of its sub-groups Tanpopo, Mini-Moni, and Morning Musume Sakuragumi, as well as several Hello! Project Shuffle Units. In 2004, Kago departed from Morning Musume and became part of the duo W with Nozomi Tsuji. Read more
• 1988: Matthew Stafford, American football player John Matthew Stafford is an American professional football quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Georgia Bulldogs, receiving first-team All-American honors in 2008, and was selected first overall by the Detroit Lions in the 2009 NFL draft. Ranking in the top 10 of all time in pass attempts, pass completions, passing yards, and passing touchdowns, Stafford is currently sixth all time in passing yards per game and the fastest player in NFL history to have reached 40,000 career passing yards. Read more
• 1987: Joel Freeland, English basketball player Joel Daniel Freeland is a British former professional basketball player who last played for CSKA Moscow of the VTB United League. Standing at 2.10 m, he played at the power forward and center positions. He also represented the Great Britain national basketball team. Read more
• 1985: Josh Hennessy, American ice hockey player Joshua Hennessy is an American former professional ice hockey player. He most recently played for the Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League (AHL). Hennessy previously played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins. Read more
• 1985: Bernard James, American basketball player Bernard Ronald James is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Florida State Seminoles. James was selected in the 2012 NBA draft and spent three seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Dallas Mavericks. Read more
• 1985: Tina Majorino, American actress Albertina Marie Majorino is an American actress. She started her career as a child actress, starring in films such as When a Man Loves a Woman, Corrina, Corrina, Andre, Waterworld and Alice in Wonderland. Read more
• 1985: Deborah Ann Woll, American actress Deborah Ann Woll is an American actress. She played Jessica Hamby in the HBO drama series True Blood (2008–2014), which earned her a nomination for a Screen Actors Guild Award. She portrayed Karen Page in four television series of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including Daredevil (2015–2018) and Daredevil: Born Again (2025). Her film roles include Mother’s Day (2010), Seven Days in Utopia (2011), Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You (2011), Catch .44 (2011), Ruby Sparks (2012), Meet Me in Montenegro (2014), The Automatic Hate (2015), Escape Room (2019) and its sequel Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021), and Queen of the Ring (2024). Read more
• 1984: Trey Hardee, American decathlete James Edward “Trey” Hardee III is a retired American track and field athlete who specialized in the combined events. He is a former NCAA Champion, a two-time World Outdoor Champion, a member of the United States 2008 Olympic team, and the silver medalist in the decathlon at the London 2012 Olympics. Read more
• 1984: Jeremy Meeks, American model and actor Jeremy Ray Meeks is an American fashion model, actor, and convicted felon. A former member of the Crips street gang, Meeks was arrested in 2014 during a gang sweep called Operation Ceasefire in Stockton, California. Afterward, police posted his mugshot on Facebook, which went viral due to his physical attractiveness. He was convicted on federal charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and grand theft. Meeks’ mugshot was noticed by modeling agencies and, upon his release from Mendota Federal Correctional Institution in March 2016, he began a modeling career. Read more
• 1983: Scott Feldman, American baseball player Scott Wynne Feldman is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Texas Rangers, Chicago Cubs, Baltimore Orioles, Houston Astros, Toronto Blue Jays, and Cincinnati Reds. Read more
• 1983: Federico Marchetti, Italian footballer Federico Marchetti is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Maltese Premier League club Marsaxlokk. Read more
• 1982: Mohammed Bijeh, Iranian serial killer (died 2006) Mohammed Bijeh was an Iranian serial killer. He was convicted of raping and killing around 20 children, mostly boys, and was sentenced to 100 lashes followed by execution. All the boys were between 8 and 15 years old. The murder of children around Tehran was recognized as the largest criminal case in contemporary Iranian history and provoked national outrage. Bijeh’s execution, which was witnessed by over 5,000 people, including children, sparked debates on whether public executions should continue within the country. Read more
• 1982: Osamu Mukai, Japanese actor Osamu Mukai is a Japanese actor. He was born in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. He graduated from Meiji University. Read more
• 1982: Mickaël Piétrus, French basketball player Mickaël Marvin Soriano Piétrus is a French former professional basketball player. Listed at 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m), 215 lb (98 kg), he played both the small forward and shooting guard positions. Piétrus was drafted by the Golden State Warriors with the 11th pick of the 2003 NBA draft, and is originally from Guadeloupe, a Caribbean island that is a part of France. Read more
• 1981: Neto, Brazilian footballer Darcy Dolce Neto, or simply Neto, is a retired Brazilian football right-back. Read more
• 1981: Lee Ok-sung, South Korean boxer Lee Ok-Sung is a South Korean amateur boxer best known for winning the 2005 World Amateur Boxing Championships in the men’s flyweight division. Read more
• 1980: Dalibor Bagarić, Croatian basketball player Dalibor Bagarić is a Croatian former professional basketball player. He had a stint with the NBA’s Chicago Bulls from 2000 to 2003. Read more
• 1980: Mikey Erg, American drummer, guitarist, and vocalist Mikey Erg is a punk rock drummer, guitarist, and vocalist, from New Jersey. He has played in numerous bands, most famously The Ergs!, but also Star Fucking Hipsters, The Dopamines, The Unlovables, Dirtbike Annie, Parasites, and The LLC. In 2016, he released his first solo album, Tentative Decisions. Read more
• 1979: Daniel Bierofka, German footballer and coach Daniel Bierofka is a German football coach and former player. A former midfielder, his playing career was plagued by injuries which limited his chances of playing more matches for the Germany national team and forced him to retire after the 2013–14 season. Read more
• 1979: Tawakkol Karman, Yemeni journalist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Khalid Karman is a Yemeni journalist, politician, and human rights activist. She co-founded and leads ‘Women Journalists Without Chains’, a group established in 2005 to advocate for press freedom and human rights. She became the international public face of the 2011 Yemeni uprising that was part of the Arab Spring movement. She was often referred as the ‘Iron Woman’ and the ‘Mother of the Revolution” in Yemen. She is a co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for “non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work”. She became the first Yemeni, the first Arab woman, and the second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Prize. Read more
• 1979: Sam J. Miller, American author Sam J. Miller is an American science fiction, fantasy and horror short fiction author. His stories have appeared in publications such as Clarkesworld, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and Lightspeed, along with over 15 “year’s best” story collections. He was finalist for multiple Nebula Awards along with the World Fantasy and Theodore Sturgeon Awards. He won the 2013 Shirley Jackson Award for his short story “57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides.” His debut novel, The Art of Starving, was published in 2017 and his novel Blackfish City won the 2019 John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Read more
• 1978: David Aebischer, Swiss ice hockey player David Aebischer is a Swiss former professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League with the Colorado Avalanche, Montreal Canadiens and the Phoenix Coyotes. He was a member of the 2001 Stanley Cup champion Avalanche team, becoming the first Swiss native to achieve the feat. Aebischer also played several seasons in his native Switzerland with HC Fribourg-Gottéron, HC Lugano and the Rapperswil-Jona Lakers of the National League (NL). Read more
• 1978: Endy Chávez, Venezuelan baseball player Endy de Jesus Chávez Meza is a Venezuelan former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City Royals, Montreal Expos / Washington Nationals, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers, and Baltimore Orioles. Chávez is the older brother of Ender Chávez. Read more
• 1978: Ashton Kutcher, American model, actor, producer, and entrepreneur Christopher Ashton Kutcher is an American actor, film producer and businessman. His accolades include a People’s Choice Award and fifteen Teen Choice Awards, in addition to a nomination for a Screen Actors Guild Award. Read more
• 1978: Milt Palacio, American-Belizean basketball player and coach Milton Sigmund Palacio is a Belizean-American professional basketball coach and former player. Read more
• 1978: Daniel Van Buyten, Belgian footballer Daniel Van Buyten is a Belgian former footballer who played as a centre back. Nicknamed “Big Dan”, Van Buyten was known for his uncompromising style of play, exploiting both his physical strength and aerial ability. Read more
• 1977: Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Japanese footballer Tsuneyasu Miyamoto is a former Japanese football coach and former player who last coached Gamba Osaka. He played for Japan national team and is the current president of the Japan Football Association. Read more
• 1976: Chito Miranda, Filipino singer-songwriter Alfonso “Chito” Yanga Miranda Jr. is a Filipino singer and songwriter, best known as one of the founding members and lead singer for the band Parokya ni Edgar. Read more
• 1975: Wes Borland, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Wesley Louden Borland is an American rock musician, singer, and songwriter. He is the guitarist and backing vocalist of the nu metal band Limp Bizkit, the lead vocalist and guitarist of the alternative and industrial rock band Black Light Burns, and the co-founder of the experimental metal band Big Dumb Face. Read more
• 1975: Miriam Corowa, Australian journalist, television presenter and producer Miriam Corowa is an Australian journalist, presenter, producer, and director. Read more
• 1975: Alexandre Daigle, Canadian ice hockey player Alexandre Daigle is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. A highly touted junior prospect, Daigle was drafted first overall in the 1993 NHL entry draft by the Ottawa Senators. After recording a modest career high of 51 points in three separate National Hockey League (NHL) regular seasons, Daigle briefly retired from hockey at age 25 but returned to the NHL two years later. Although he played ten seasons in the NHL and four in the Swiss NL, he failed to live up to the high expectations put forth when he was drafted first overall and is therefore regarded by many to have been a draft bust. Read more
• 1975: Rémi Gaillard, French comedian and actor Rémi Gaillard is a French prankster, YouTuber and animal rights activist. Well known for his videos on YouTube, his channel is the 100th most subscribed comedy channel on YouTube with more than 7.4 million subscribers as of August 2024. Read more
• 1974: J Dilla, American rapper and producer (died 2006) James Dewitt Yancey, better known by the stage names J Dilla and Jay Dee, was an American record producer, rapper, and composer. He emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michigan, as a member of the group Slum Village. He was also a founding member of the Soulquarians, a musical collective active during the late 1990s and early 2000s. He and Madlib collaborated as the duo Jaylib, releasing the album Champion Sound. Yancey’s final album was Donuts, which was released three days before his death. He was also known for producing The Pharcyde album Labcabincalifornia. Read more
• 1974: Steve Nash, South African-Canadian basketball player Stephen John Nash is a Canadian former professional basketball player and coach. He played 18 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he was an eight-time All-Star, a seven-time All-NBA selection, and a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player. He ranks as one of the top players in NBA history in career three-point shooting, free-throw shooting, total assists, and assists per game. In 2018, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Read more
• 1974: Nujabes, Japanese record producer, DJ, composer and arranger (died 2010) Jun Seba , born Jun Yamada , better known by his stage name Nujabes, was a Japanese music producer best known for his atmospheric instrumental mixes sampling from hip-hop, soul, and jazz, as well as incorporating elements of trip hop, breakbeat, downtempo, and ambient music. Read more
• 1973: Juwan Howard, American basketball player and coach Juwan Antonio Howard is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Howard was a collegiate All-American, had a 19-year NBA career with eight different teams, and served as the head coach of the Michigan Wolverines men’s basketball team. Read more
• 1972: Essence Atkins, American actress Essence Uhura Atkins is an American actress. She began her career appearing on television sitcoms, before her regular role on the African-American prime-time drama Under One Roof. Read more
• 1972: Robyn Lively, American actress Robyn Elaine Lively Johnson is an American actress. She is known for her roles in the 1989 films Teen Witch and The Karate Kid Part III, as well as the TV shows Doogie Howser, M.D., Twin Peaks, Savannah, and Saving Grace. Read more
• 1971: Anita Tsoy, Russian singer-songwriter Anna Sergeyevna “Anita” Tsoy is a Russian singer-songwriter of Korean descent. She is a People’s Artist of Russia (2021). Read more
• 1969: Franz Jantscher, Austrian politician Franz Jantscher is an Austrian politician and member of the National Council. A member of the Social Democratic Party, he has represented Styria since October 2024. Read more
• 1969: Andrew Micallef, Maltese painter and musician Andrew Micallef is a Maltese painter and musician. He is known for his highly detailed paintings of Maltese flora and fauna, landscapes, seascapes and architecture. He has held numerous solo exhibitions, and has also illustrated books and designed stamps. He is also a professional chromatic button accordion player. Read more
• 1968: Peter Bondra, Ukrainian-Slovak ice hockey player and manager Peter Bondra is a Ukrainian-born Slovak former professional ice hockey player. He was the general manager of the Slovakia national team from 2007 to 2011. A two-time 50-goal scorer, Bondra became the 37th player in National Hockey League (NHL) history to score 500 NHL goals; he is one of four eligible 500-goal players not currently in the Hockey Hall of Fame. He has the fewest points among all players who reached that milestone, with 892, making him one of only two 500-goal scorers not on the list of NHL players with 1,000 points. Bondra scored the most goals in the NHL in two seasons, 1994–95 and 1997–98. He is one of the few players who scored five or more goals in one NHL game. He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2016. Read more
• 1968: Christian Drobits, Austrian politician Christian Drobits is an Austrian politician and member of the National Council. A member of the Social Democratic Party, he has represented Burgenland since October 2019. He was a member of the Landtag Burgenland from July 2015 to October 2019. Read more
• 1968: Sully Erna, American singer-songwriter and musician Salvatore Paul Erna Jr. is an American singer, musician, and songwriter, best known as the vocalist and rhythm guitarist for rock band Godsmack. He is also a harmonica player, drummer, and percussionist, performing these on albums and at live shows. He was ranked 47th in the Top 100 Heavy Metal Vocalists by Hit Parader. Read more
• 1968: Mark Tewksbury, Canadian swimmer and sportscaster Mark Roger Tewksbury, is a Canadian former competitive swimmer. He is best known for winning the gold medal in the 100-metre backstroke at the 1992 Summer Olympics. He also hosted the first season of How It’s Made, a Canadian documentary series, in 2001. Read more
• 1966: Kristin Otto, German swimmer Kristin Otto is a former East German swimmer, becoming Olympic, World and European champion, multiple times. She is most famous for being the first woman to win six gold medals at a single Olympic Games, doing so at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. In long course, she held the world records in the 100 meter and 200 meter freestyle events. Otto was also the first woman to swim the short course 100 meter backstroke in under a minute, doing so at an international short course meet at Indiana University in 1983. Read more
• 1965: Chris Rock, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Christopher Julius Rock is an American comedian, actor, and filmmaker. He first gained prominence for his stand-up routines in the 1980s in which he tackled subjects including race relations, human sexuality, and observational comedy. His success branched off into productions in film, television, and on-stage, having received multiple accolades including three Grammy Awards for Best Comedy Album, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award nomination. Rock was ranked No. 5 on Comedy Central’s list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time. He also ranked No. 5 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 50 Best Stand-Up Comics of All Time. Read more
• 1964: Ashok Banker, Indian journalist, author, and screenwriter Ashok Kumar Banker is an author and screenwriter. His writing spans crime thrillers, essays, literary criticism, fiction and Indian mythology. The author of several well-received novels including a trilogy billed as “India’s first crime novels in English”, he became widely known for his retellings of Indian mythological epics, starting with the internationally acclaimed and best-selling eight-volume Ramayana series. His books have sold over 2 million copies and have been published in 16 languages in 58 countries. His Epic India Library is an attempt at retelling all the myths, legends and itihasa of the Indian sub-continent in one story cycle comprising over 70 volumes. Read more
• 1963: Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, American Naval officer and astronaut Heidemarie Martha Stefanyshyn-Piper is an American Naval officer and former NASA astronaut. She has achieved the rank of Captain in the United States Navy. She is also a qualified and experienced salvage officer. Her major salvage projects include de-stranding the tanker Exxon Houston off the coast of Barbers Point, on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, and developing the plan for the Peruvian Navy salvage of the Peruvian submarine Pacocha. Read more
• 1962: Garth Brooks, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Troyal Garth Brooks is an American country singer and songwriter. His musical style blends traditional country with pop and rock elements, which has earned him his immense popularity, particularly in the United States, with success on the country music single and album charts, multi-platinum recordings and record-breaking live performances, while also crossing over into the mainstream pop arena. Read more
• 1962: David Bryan, American keyboard player and songwriter David Bryan Rashbaum is an American musician and singer-songwriter, best known as the keyboardist and one of the founding members of the rock band Bon Jovi, in which he also co-wrote songs and performs backing vocals. In 2018, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Bon Jovi. He is also known for writing the music and co-writing the lyrics with Joe DiPietro for the musical Memphis, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Original Score. Read more
• 1962: Eddie Izzard, English comedian, actor, and producer Suzy Eddie Izzard is a British stand-up comedian, actor and activist. Her comedic style takes the form of what appears to the audience as rambling whimsical monologues. Read more
• 1960: Robert Smigel, American actor, producer, and screenwriter Robert Smigel is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, producer, and puppeteer, known for his Saturday Night Live “TV Funhouse” cartoon shorts and as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. He also co-wrote the first two Hotel Transylvania films, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, and Leo, all starring Adam Sandler. Read more
• 1960: James Spader, American actor and producer James Todd Spader is an American actor. He is known for often portraying eccentric and morally ambiguous characters. He began his career in critically acclaimed independent films before transitioning into television, where he has received acclaim and many awards, including three Primetime Emmy Awards and nominations for three Golden Globe Awards, and ten Screen Actors Guild Awards. Read more
• 1959: Mick McCarthy, English footballer, manager, and sportscaster Michael Joseph McCarthy is a professional football manager, pundit and former footballer. He was most recently the head coach of Blackpool. Read more
• 1958: Giuseppe Baresi, Italian footballer and manager Giuseppe Baresi is an Italian football manager and former player, who played as a defender or as a defensive midfielder. He currently works as a technical assistant at Inter Milan. Baresi spent the majority of his 18-year career with Inter, before retiring in 1994 after two seasons with Modena. With Inter, he won two Serie A titles and the UEFA Cup, among other trophies, and also served as the team’s captain. At international level, he represented the Italy national team on 18 occasions between 1979 and 1986, taking part at UEFA Euro 1980, where they finished in fourth place, and at the 1986 FIFA World Cup. His younger brother, Franco Baresi, also a defender, served as captain for city rivals A.C. Milan and the Italy national side. Read more
• 1958: Terry Marsh, English boxer and politician Terry Marsh is an English former professional boxer who was an undefeated world champion in the light welterweight division. Read more
• 1958: Matt Ridley, English journalist, author, and politician Matthew White Ridley, 5th Viscount Ridley, commonly known as Matt Ridley, is a British science writer, journalist and businessman. He is known for his writings on science, the environment and economics, and has been a regular contributor to The Times newspaper. Ridley was chairman of the UK bank Northern Rock from 2004 to 2007, during which period it experienced the first run on a British bank in 130 years. He resigned, and the bank was bailed out by the UK government; this led to its nationalisation. Read more
• 1957: Dámaso García, Dominican baseball player and footballer (died 2020) Dámaso Domingo García Sánchez was a Dominican professional baseball second baseman, best known for his time spent with the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB), in the 1980s. Read more
• 1956: John Nielsen, Danish racing driver John Nielsen is a Danish former racing driver. He won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1990. Read more
• 1956: Mark St. John, American guitarist (died 2007) Mark Leslie Norton, better known as Mark St. John, was an American guitarist best known for his brief stint with the hard rock band Kiss from April to November 1984. His work can be heard on the band’s 1984 album Animalize and their 2023 live album Off the Soundboard: Poughkeepsie, NY. After leaving Kiss, he co-founded the band White Tiger. Read more
• 1955: Rolf Benirschke, American football player and game show host Rolf Joachim Benirschke is an American former professional football player who was a placekicker in the National Football League (NFL). He played for the San Diego Chargers from 1977 until 1986. He is probably most known for missing a potential 27-yard game-winning field goal in overtime of the playoff game known as the “Epic in Miami” but then getting a second chance and connecting from 29 yards fourteen minutes into overtime to win the game on January 2, 1982. Read more
• 1955: Miguel Ferrer, American actor and director (died 2017) Miguel José Ferrer was an American actor. His breakthrough role was as Bob Morton in the 1987 film RoboCop. Other film roles include Harbinger in Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993), Quigley in Blank Check, Eduardo Ruiz in Traffic (2000) and Vice President Rodriguez in Iron Man 3 (2013). Ferrer’s notable television roles include FBI Agent Albert Rosenfield on Twin Peaks, Dr. Garret Macy on Crossing Jordan (2001–2007) and NCIS Assistant Director Owen Granger on NCIS: Los Angeles (2012–2017). Read more
• 1954: Dieter Bohlen, German singer-songwriter and producer Dieter Bohlen is a German songwriter, producer, singer and television personality. He first achieved fame as a member of the pop duo Modern Talking in the 1980s, and has since produced numerous German and international artists. He is also a judge on casting shows Deutschland sucht den Superstar and Das Supertalent. Read more
• 1953: Robert Brazile, American football player Robert Lorenzo Brazile Jr., nicknamed “Dr. Doom”, is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL). Brazile played from 1975 to 1984 for the Houston Oilers and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018. Read more
• 1950: Karen Joy Fowler, American author Karen Joy Fowler is an American author of science fiction, fantasy, and literary fiction. Her work often centers on the nineteenth century, the lives of women, and social alienation. Read more
• 1949: Jacques Duchesneau, Canadian police officer and politician Jacques Duchesneau, is a Canadian politician, civil servant, former chief of police, and former president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority. Duchesneau was a member of the Quebec National Assembly for the riding of Saint-Jérôme from 2012 to 2014, elected under the Coalition Avenir Québec banner. Read more
• 1949: Alan Lancaster, English-Australian bass player singer and songwriter Status Quo (died 2022) Alan Charles “Nuff” Lancaster was an English musician, best known as a founding member and bassist of the rock band Status Quo, playing with the band from 1967 to 1985, with brief reunions in 2013 and 2014. As well as contributing to songwriting, he was also one of the lead vocalists on albums and live concerts, taking the lead on tracks such as “Backwater”, “Is There a Better Way”, “Bye Bye Johnny”, “High Flyer” and “Roadhouse Blues”. Read more
• 1946: Héctor Babenco, Argentinian-Brazilian director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2016) Héctor Eduardo Babenco was an Argentine-born Brazilian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor who worked in several countries including Brazil, Argentina, and the United States. He was one of the first Brazilian filmmakers to gain international critical acclaim, through his films which often dealt with social outcasts on the fringes of society. His best-known works include Pixote (1980), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), Ironweed (1987), At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1990) and Carandiru (2003). Read more
• 1946: Gérard Jean-Juste, Haitian priest and activist (died 2009) Gérard Jean-Juste was a Haitian Catholic priest who served as rector of Saint Claire’s Church for the Poor in Port-au-Prince. He was also a liberation theologian and a supporter of the Fanmi Lavalas political party, as well as heading the Miami, Florida-based Haitian Refugee Center from 1977 to 1990. Read more
• 1946: Pete Postlethwaite, English actor (died 2011) Peter William Postlethwaite was an English character actor. After various stage and minor television appearances, Postlethwaite’s first major success arose through the film Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), directed by Terence Davies. He had a breakthrough in Hollywood when he portrayed David in Alien 3 (1992), and his international reputation was further solidified when he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Giuseppe Conlon, father of Gerry Conlon, in In the Name of the Father (1993). Read more
• 1945: Gerald Davies, Welsh rugby player and journalist Sir Thomas Gerald Reames Davies is a Welsh former rugby union wing who played international rugby for Wales between 1966 and 1978 and was selected for two British Lions tours. He is one of a small group of Welsh players to have won three Grand Slams. Read more
• 1943: Eric Foner, American historian, author, and academic Eric Foner is an American historian. He writes extensively on American political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African American biography, the American Civil War, Reconstruction, and historiography, and has been a member of the faculty at the Columbia University Department of History since 1982. He is the author of several popular textbooks, such as the Give Me Liberty! series for high school classrooms. According to the Open Syllabus Project, Foner is the most frequently cited author on college syllabi for history courses. Read more
• 1942: Gareth Hunt, English actor (died 2007) Alan Leonard Hunt, known as Gareth Hunt, was a British television actor best remembered for playing footman Frederick Norton in Upstairs, Downstairs and Mike Gambit in The New Avengers. Read more
• 1940: Tony Tan, Singaporean academic and politician, 7th President of Singapore Tony Tan Keng Yam is a Singaporean banker and politician who served as the seventh president of Singapore between 2011 and 2017 after winning the 2011 presidential election. Read more
• 1937: Peter Jay, English economist, journalist, and diplomat, British Ambassador to the United States (died 2024) Peter Jay was an English journalist, broadcaster, and economist. He served as the British Ambassador to the United States from 1977 to 1979 in the government of his father-in-law, James Callaghan. Read more
• 1937: Juan Pizarro, Puerto Rican baseball player (died 2021) Juan Ramón Pizarro a.k.a. “Terín” was a Puerto Rican Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher. He played for 18 seasons on 9 teams, from 1957 through 1974. In 1964, he won 19 games (19–9) and pitched 4 shutouts for the Chicago White Sox. He was selected for the Major League All-Star Baseball game in 1963 and 1964. After his run in MLB, Pizarro played in the Dominican Republic and Mexico. Read more
• 1936: Jas Gawronski, Italian journalist and politician Jas Gawronski is an Italian journalist and politician. He was a member of the European Parliament for North-West with Forza Italia, member of the Bureau of the European People’s Party, and sits on the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs. Read more
• 1935: Cliff Jones, Welsh international footballer Clifford William Jones is a Welsh former footballer. During his career, he played as a winger and was a crucial member of Tottenham Hotspur’s 1960–61 double-winning side. He is now the last surviving player from the Welsh team in the 1958 World Cup. Read more
• 1935: Herb Kohl, American businessman and politician (died 2023) Herbert Hiken Kohl was an American businessman, philanthropist, and Democratic politician from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served 24 years as a U.S. senator from Wisconsin, from 1989 to 2013, and earlier served as chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party. Read more
• 1935: Jörg Schneider, Swiss actor and author (died 2015) Jörg Schneider was a Swiss stage and film actor starring usually in Swiss German-language cinema and television and stage productions. He gained great renownedness in the German-speaking area by numerous Kasperle, Pumuckl and fairytale-radio plays records and also adapted plays for the Swiss German language. Read more
• 1934: Eddie Fenech Adami, Maltese lawyer and politician, 7th President of Malta Edoardo “Eddie” Fenech Adami is a Maltese and Nationalist politician who served as the prime minister of Malta from 1987 until 1996, and again from 1998 until 2004. Subsequently, he was the seventh president of Malta from 2004 to 2009. He led his party to win four general elections, in 1987, 1992, 1998 and 2003, as well as the majority of votes in 1981. Staunchly pro-European, Fenech Adami was fundamental for Malta’s accession to the European Union. Read more
• 1934: King Curtis, American saxophonist and producer (died 1971) Curtis Ousley, known professionally as King Curtis, was an American saxophonist who played rhythm and blues, jazz, and rock and roll. A bandleader, band member, and session musician, he was also a musical director and record producer. A master of the instrument, he played tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone. He played riffs and solos on hit singles such as “Respect” by Aretha Franklin (1967), and “Yakety Yak” by the Coasters (1958) and his own “Soul Twist” (1962), “Soul Serenade” (1964), and “Memphis Soul Stew” (1967). Read more
• 1934: Earl King, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (died 2003) Earl Silas Johnson IV, known as Earl King, was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter, most active in blues music. A composer of blues standards such as “Come On” and “Big Chief”, he was an important figure in New Orleans R&B. Read more
• 1933: K. N. Choksy, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, Sri Lankan Minister of Finance (died 2015) Kairshasp Nariman Choksy, PC, MP was a Sri Lankan lawyer, politician and a former member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
  He was Cabinet Minister of Finance under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe. He had also served as Cabinet Minister of Constitutional & State Affairs from 1993 to 1994 under President D. B. Wijetunga and was a member of parliament from 1989 to 2010 continuously. Read more
• 1932: Gay Talese, American journalist and memoirist Gaetano “Gay” Talese is an American writer. As a journalist for The New York Times and Esquire magazine during the 1960s, he helped to define contemporary literary journalism and is considered, along with Joan Didion, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe, one of the pioneers of New Journalism. Talese’s most famous articles are about Joe DiMaggio and Frank Sinatra. Read more
• 1932: Alfred Worden, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (died 2020) Alfred Merrill Worden was an American test pilot, engineer and NASA astronaut who was command module pilot for the Apollo 15 lunar mission in 1971. One of 24 people to have flown to the Moon, he orbited it 74 times in the command module (CM) Endeavour. Read more
• 1929: Jim Langley, English international footballer and manager (died 2007) Ernest James Langley was an English footballer noted for his pacey, rampaging runs from the left full-back position and his long throw-ins. He is remembered particularly fondly by supporters of Fulham for his long service with the club during which he helped them achieve promotion to the First Division during the 1958–59 season; by Queens Park Rangers fans for featuring in the side which won the Third Division title and sensationally beat First Division West Bromwich Albion in the League Cup Final in the 1966–67 season and by non-league side Guildford City where he remains one of their most successful former players. Langley also enjoyed a short spell as an England international, playing three games for his country in 1958. Read more
• 1928: Lincoln D. Faurer, American general (died 2014) Lieutenant General Lincoln D. Faurer was United States Air Force officer who served as director of the National Security Agency and chief of the Central Security Service from 1981 to 1985. Read more
• 1927: Juliette Gréco, French singer and actress (died 2020) Juliette Gréco was a French singer and actress. Her best known songs are “Paris Canaille”, “La Javanaise” and “Déshabillez-moi” (1967). She often sang tracks with lyrics written by French poets such as Jacques Prévert and Boris Vian, as well as singers like Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour. Her 60-year career concluded with her final worldwide tour titled “Merci”, which began in 2015. Read more
• 1927: Vladimir Kuts, Ukrainian-Russian runner and coach (died 1975) Volodymyr Petrovych Kuts was a Soviet long-distance runner. He won the 5000 and 10000 m races at the 1956 Olympics, setting Olympic records in both events. Read more
• 1927: Lalo Ríos, Mexican actor (died 1973) Lalo Ríos was a Mexican-born American actor best known for his lead role in The Ring (1952) as Tommy. Read more
• 1926: Konstantin Feoktistov, Russian engineer and astronaut (died 2009) Konstantin Petrovich Feoktistov, was Russian engineer and a cosmonaut in the former Soviet space program. Read more
• 1925: Hans Schmidt, Canadian wrestler (died 2012) Guy Larose, better known by his ring name Hans Schmidt, was a Canadian professional wrestler famous in the 1950s and 1960s. His gimmick that of a German pseudo-Nazi heel, gained him considerable notoriety and popularized the proliferation of similar gimmicks through Canadian and American wrestling.
  Read more
• 1923: Dora Bryan, English actress and restaurateur (died 2014) Dora May Broadbent, known as Dora Bryan, was an English actress of stage, film and television. She won the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress for A Taste of Honey (1961) and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in 1995 for The Birthday Party. Read more
• 1922: Hattie Jacques, English actress (died 1980) Hattie Jacques was an English comedy actress of stage, radio and screen. She is best known as a regular of the Carry On films, where she typically played strict, no-nonsense characters, but was also a prolific television and radio performer. Read more
• 1921: Athol Rowan, South African cricketer (died 1998) Athol Matthew Burchell Rowan was a South African international cricketer who played in 15 Test matches between 1947 and 1951. Read more
• 1920: Oscar Brand, Canadian-American singer-songwriter and author (died 2016) Oscar Brand was a Canadian-born American folk singer-songwriter, radio and TV host, and author. In his career, spanning 70 years, he composed at least 300 songs and released nearly 100 albums, among them Canadian and American patriotic songs. Brand’s music ran the gamut from novelty songs to serious social commentary and spanned a number of genres. Brand also wrote a number of short stories. Read more
• 1920: An Wang, Chinese-American engineer and businessman, founded Wang Laboratories (died 1990) An Wang was a Chinese-American computer engineer and inventor, and cofounder of computer company Wang Laboratories, which was known primarily for its dedicated word processing machines. An Wang was an important contributor to the development of magnetic-core memory. Read more
• 1919: Desmond Doss, American army corporal and combat medic, Medal of Honor recipient (died 2006) Desmond Thomas Doss was a United States Army corporal who served as a combat medic with an infantry company in World War II. Due to his religious beliefs, he refused to carry a weapon. Read more
• 1919: Jock Mahoney, American actor and stuntman (died 1989) Jacques Joseph O’Mahoney, known professionally as Jock Mahoney, was an American actor and stuntman. He starred in two action/adventure television series, The Range Rider and Yancy Derringer. He played Tarzan in two feature films and was associated in various capacities with several other Tarzan productions. He was credited variously as Jacques O’Mahoney, Jock O’Mahoney, Jack Mahoney, and finally Jock Mahoney. Read more
• 1916: Frank Hyde, Australian rugby league player, coach, and sportscaster (died 2007) Francis Patrick Aloysius Hyde was an Australian rugby league footballer, coach and radio caller. A New South Wales representative three-quarter, Hyde played his club football in Sydney for NSWRFL Premiership clubs Newtown, Balmain and North Sydney. Following his playing career, Hyde enjoyed even greater success as a commentator, earning him membership in the Order of the British Empire and a place in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame and the Australian Commercial Radio Industry Hall of Fame.
  Hyde’s contribution to Rugby League is celebrated each year with the Frank Hyde Shield, a three match tournament played between the Newtown Jets and North Sydney Bears. Read more
• 1915: Teoctist Arăpașu, Romanian patriarch (died 2007) Teoctist was the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church from 1986 to 2007. Read more
• 1915: Eddie Bracken, American actor and singer (died 2002) Edward Vincent Bracken was an American actor. Bracken came to Hollywood prominence for his comedic lead performances in the films Hail the Conquering Hero and The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek both from 1944, both of which have been preserved by the National Film Registry. During this era, he also had success on Broadway, with performances in plays like Too Many Girls (1940). Read more
• 1912: Russell Drysdale, English-Australian painter (died 1981) Sir George Russell Drysdale, also known as Tass Drysdale, was an Australian artist. He won the prestigious Wynne Prize for Sofala in 1947, and represented Australia at the Venice Biennale in 1954. He was influenced by abstract and surrealist art, and “created a new vision of the Australian scene as revolutionary and influential as that of Tom Roberts”. Read more
• 1912: Roberta McCain, American socialite and oil heiress (died 2020) Roberta Wright McCain was an American socialite and oil heiress. She was the wife of Admiral John S. McCain Jr., with whom she had three children including U.S. Senator John S. McCain III and stage actor and journalist Joe McCain. McCain was active in the Navy Wives Clubs and her Capitol Hill home was a popular salon for lawmakers and politicians. In 2007 and 2008, she actively campaigned in support of her son John during his presidential bid. Read more
• 1909: Hélder Câmara, Brazilian archbishop (died 1999) Hélder Pessoa Câmara was a Brazilian Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Olinda and Recife from 1964 to 1985 during the military dictatorship in Brazil. He was declared a Servant of God in 2015. Read more
• 1909: Amedeo Guillet, Italian soldier (died 2010) Baron Amedeo Guillet was an officer of the Italian Army and an Italian Diplomat. Dying at the age of 101, he was one of the last men to have commanded cavalry in war. He was nicknamed Devil Commander and was famous during the Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia in 1941, 1942 and 1943 because of his courage. Read more
• 1908: Buster Crabbe, American swimmer and actor (died 1983) Clarence Linden “Buster” Crabbe II was an American two-time Olympic swimmer and film and television actor. He won the 1932 Olympic gold medal for 400-metre freestyle swimming event, which launched his career on the silver screen and later television. He starred in a variety of popular feature films and movie serials released between 1933 and the 1950s, portraying the top three syndicated comic-strip heroes of the 1930s: Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers. Read more
• 1908: Manmath Nath Gupta, Indian journalist and author (died 2000) Manmath Nath Gupta was an Indian Marxist revolutionary writer and author of autobiographical, historical and fictional books in Hindi, English and Bengali. He joined the Indian independence movement at the age of 13 and was an active member of the Hindustan Republican Association. He participated in the famous Kakori train robbery in 1925 and was imprisoned for 14 years. On release from jail in 1937, he started writing against the British government. He was sentenced again in 1939 and was released in 1946 just a year before India’s independence in 1947. He has written several books on the history of the Indian struggle for independence from a revolutionary’s point of view, including They Lived Dangerously – Reminiscences of a Revolutionary. He was also the editor of the Hindi literary magazine Aajkal. Read more
• 1906: Oleg Antonov, Soviet engineer, founded the Antonov Design Bureau (died 1984) Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov was a Soviet aeroplane designer. Read more
• 1906: Puyi, Chinese emperor (died 1967) Puyi was the last emperor of China, reigning as the eleventh monarch of the Qing dynasty from 1908 to 1912, and a brief return in 1917, when he was forced to abdicate. Later, he sided with Imperial Japan and was made ruler of Manchukuo—Japanese-occupied Manchuria—in hopes of regaining power as China’s emperor. After over 10 years of imprisonment for war crimes following the end of World War II, Puyi worked for four years as a gardener in Beijing, China. Read more
• 1905: Paul Nizan, French philosopher and author (died 1940) Paul-Yves Nizan was a French philosopher and writer. Read more
• 1905: Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1983) Ulf Svante von Euler was a Swedish physiologist and pharmacologist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1970 for his work on neurotransmitters. Read more
• 1904: Ernest E. Debs, American politician (died 2002) Ernest Eugene Debs was an American politician. He was a California State Assembly member from 1942 to 1947, a Los Angeles city councilman from 1947 to 1958 and a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors from 1958 to 1974. Read more
• 1901: Arnold Nordmeyer, New Zealand minister and politician, 30th New Zealand Minister of Finance (died 1989) Sir Arnold Henry Nordmeyer was a New Zealand politician and Presbyterian minister. As a member of Parliament (MP) he played a crucial role in the Labour Party, serving from 1935 to 1969. He served as minister of finance (1957–1960) and later as leader of the Labour Party and leader of the Opposition (1963–1965). Although he was a prominent statesman, Nordmeyer never ascended to the role of prime minister. Read more
• 1895: Anita Stewart, American actress (died 1961) Anita Stewart was an American actress and film producer of the early silent film era. Read more
• 1893: Joseph Algernon Pearce, Canadian astrophysicist and astronomer (died 1988) Joseph Algernon Pearce was a Canadian astrophysicist, who was notable for studies on the structure of Milky Way and O-type stars. Read more
• 1893: Nicanor Abelardo, Filipino pianist, composer and teacher (died 1934) Nicanor Santa Ana Abelardo was a Filipino composer known for his kundiman songs. Read more
• 1889: Harry Nyquist, Swedish-American engineer and theorist (died 1976) Harry Theodor Nyquist was a Swedish-American physicist and electronic engineer who made important contributions to communication theory. Read more
• 1887: Eubie Blake, American pianist and composer (died 1983) James Hubert “Eubie” Blake was an American pianist and composer of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. Blake began his career in 1912, and during World War I he worked in partnership with the singer, drummer, and comedian Broadway Jones. After the war he began a collaboration with Noble Sissle with whom he wrote Shuffle Along (1921), one of the first Broadway musicals written and directed by African Americans. When his collaboration with Sissle ended in 1927, he resumed a partnership with Jones which lasted until either 1932 or 1933. He reunited with Sissle briefly for Shuffle Along of 1933, and later the pair worked together in the United Service Organizations during World War II. Blake’s compositions included such hits as “Bandana Days”, “Charleston Rag”, “Love Will Find a Way”, “Memories of You” and “I’m Just Wild About Harry”. The 1978 Broadway musical Eubie! showcased his works, and in 1981, President Ronald Reagan awarded Blake the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Read more
• 1885: Sinclair Lewis, American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1951) Harry Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first author from the United States to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was awarded “for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters.” Lewis wrote six popular novels: Main Street (1920), Babbitt (1922), Arrowsmith (1925), Elmer Gantry (1927), Dodsworth (1929), and It Can’t Happen Here (1935). Read more
• 1885: Hugo Sperrle, German field marshal (died 1953) Hugo Wilhelm Sperrle was a German military aviator in World War I and a Generalfeldmarschall in the Luftwaffe during World War II. Read more
• 1878: Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Russian-American pianist and conductor (died 1936) Ossip Salomonovich Gabrilowitsch was a Russian-American pianist, conductor and composer. Read more
• 1877: G. H. Hardy, English mathematician and geneticist (died 1947) Godfrey Harold Hardy was an English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis. In biology, he is known for the Hardy–Weinberg principle, a basic principle of population genetics. Read more
• 1875: Erkki Melartin, Finnish composer (died 1937) Erkki Gustaf Melartin was a Finnish composer, conductor, and teacher of the late-Romantic and early-modern periods. Melartin is generally considered to be one of Finland’s most significant national Romantic composers, although his music—then and now—largely has been overshadowed by that of his contemporary, Jean Sibelius, the country’s most famous composer. The core of Melartin’s oeuvre consists of a set of six (completed) symphonies, as well as is his opera, Aino, based on a story from the Kalevala, Finland’s national epic, but nevertheless in the style of Richard Wagner. Read more
• 1873: Thomas Andrews, Irish shipbuilder and businessman, designed the RMS Titanic (died 1912) Thomas Andrews Jr. was a British businessman and shipbuilder, who was managing director and head of the drafting department of the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Ireland. He was the naval architect in charge of the plans for the ocean liner Titanic and perished along with more than 1,500 people when the ship sank on her maiden voyage. Read more
• 1871: Wilhelm Stenhammar, Swedish pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1927) Carl Wilhelm Eugen Stenhammar was a Swedish composer, conductor and pianist. He is considered to be one of Sweden’s most important composers at the turn of the 20th century, and one of the finest Swedish pianists of his time, with a reputation as a fine interpreter of the piano music of Beethoven. Read more
• 1870: Alfred Adler, Austrian-Scottish psychologist and therapist (died 1937) Alfred Adler was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology. His emphasis on the importance of feelings of belonging, relationships within the family, and birth order set him apart from Freud and others in their common circle. He proposed that contributing to others was how the individual feels a sense of worth and belonging in the family and society. His earlier work focused on inferiority, coining the term inferiority complex, an isolating element which he argued plays a key role in personality development. Alfred Adler considered a human being as an individual whole, and therefore he called his school of psychology “individual psychology”. Read more
• 1867: Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (died 1957) Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder was an American writer, teacher, and journalist. She is best known as the author of the children’s book series Little House on the Prairie, published between 1932 and 1943, which was based on her childhood in a settler and pioneer family. Read more
• 1864: Arthur Collins, American baritone singer (died 1933) Arthur Francis Collins was an American baritone and actor. One of the pioneer recording artists, regarded in his day as “king of the Ragtime Singers”, Collins was popular among late 1880s to late 1910s. Read more
• 1837: James Murray, Scottish lexicographer and philologist (died 1915) Sir James Augustus Henry Murray, FBA was a British lexicographer and philologist. He was the primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) from 1879 until his death. Read more
• 1834: Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe, French architect (died 1895) Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe was a French architect. Read more
• 1825: Karl Möbius, German zoologist and ecologist (died 1908) Karl August Möbius was a German zoologist who was a pioneer in the field of marine ecology, founder of the Hamburg zoo and aquarium, the zoological institute at Kiel, and served as an influential director of the Natural History Museum in Berlin. He introduced the idea of a separation of research collections from the public natural history museum. Read more
• 1812: Charles Dickens, English novelist and critic (died 1870) Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and social critic. He created some of literature’s best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today. Read more
• 1804: John Deere, American blacksmith and businessman, founded Deere & Company (died 1886) Read more
• 1802: Louisa Jane Hall, American poet, essayist, and literary critic (died 1892) Louisa Jane Hall was an American poet, essayist, and literary critic of the Romantic era. None of her poems appeared in print until after she was twenty; they were then published anonymously in the Literary Gazette, and other periodicals. Miriam, a Dramatic Sketch, her most notable work, was begun in the summer of 1826, finished the following summer, and published ten years later. Her other principal work is in prose, Joanna of Naples, an Historical Tale, published in 1838. Hannah, the Mother of Samuel the Prophet and Judge of Israel (1839) was, like Miriam, a verse play. She and her father moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1831, and they lived together until October 1840, when she married the Rev. E. B. Hall, of Providence, Rhode Island. Read more

 Important Deaths on 07 February in History

• 2025: Dafydd Elis-Thomas, Welsh academic and politician (born 1946) Dafydd Elis Elis-Thomas, Baron Elis-Thomas, was a Welsh politician who served as the leader of Plaid Cymru from 1984 to 1991 and represented the Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituency in the Senedd from 1999 to 2021. Read more
• 2025: Tony Roberts, American actor and singer (born 1939) David Anthony Roberts was an American actor known for his roles on stage and screen. He is best known for his collaborations with filmmaker Woody Allen, having acted in six of his films, most notably Annie Hall (1977). Read more
• 2020: Li Wenliang, Chinese ophthalmologist who initially warned about COVID-19 (born 1986) Li Wenliang was a Chinese ophthalmologist who warned his colleagues about early COVID-19 infections in Wuhan. Read more
• 2019: John Dingell, American politician (born 1926) John David Dingell Jr. was an American politician from the state of Michigan who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1955 until 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, Dingell holds the record as the longest-serving member of Congress in American history. Read more
• 2019: Albert Finney, English actor (born 1936) Albert Finney was an English actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked in the theatre before attaining fame for movie acting during the early 1960s, debuting with The Entertainer (1960), directed by Tony Richardson, who had previously directed him in theatre. He maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television. Read more
• 2019: Jan Olszewski, Polish politician, 3rd Prime Minister (born 1930) Jan Ferdynand Olszewski was a Polish conservative lawyer and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Poland for five months between December 1991 and early June 1992 and later became a leading figure of the conservative Movement for the Reconstruction of Poland. Read more
• 2019: Frank Robinson, American baseball player, coach, and manager (born 1935) Frank Robinson, nicknamed “the Judge”, was an American professional baseball outfielder and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for five teams over 21 seasons: the Cincinnati Reds (1956–1965), Baltimore Orioles (1966–1971), Los Angeles Dodgers (1972), California Angels (1973–1974), and Cleveland Indians (1974–1976). In 1975, Robinson became the first Black manager in big-league history, as the player-manager of the Indians. Read more
• 2017: Richard Hatch, American actor (born 1945) Richard Lawrence Hatch was an American actor and writer. He began his career as a stage actor before moving on to television work in the 1970s. Hatch is best known for his roles as Captain Apollo in the original Battlestar Galactica television series and Tom Zarek in the reimagined series. Read more
• 2017: Hans Rosling, Swedish academic (born 1948) Hans Rosling was a Swedish physician, academic and public speaker. He was a professor of international health at Karolinska Institute and was the co-founder and chairman of the Gapminder Foundation, which developed the Trendalyzer software system. Widely regarded as one of the most influential physicians and geographers in the modern world, he held presentations around the world, including several TED Talks in which he promoted the use of data to explore development issues. His posthumously published book Factfulness, coauthored with his daughter-in-law Anna Rosling Rönnlund and son Ola Rosling, became an international bestseller. Read more
• 2017: Tzvetan Todorov, Bulgarian philosopher (born 1939) Tzvetan Todorov was a Bulgarian-French historian, philosopher, structuralist literary critic, sociologist and essayist. He was the author of many books and essays, which have had a significant influence in anthropology, sociology, semiotics, literary theory, intellectual history and culture theory. Read more
• 2015: Billy Casper, American golfer (born 1931) William Earl Casper Jr. was an American professional golfer. He was one of the most prolific tournament winners on the PGA Tour from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. Read more
• 2015: Marshall Rosenberg, American psychologist and author (born 1934) Marshall Bertram Rosenberg was an American psychologist, mediator, author and teacher. Starting in the early 1960s, he developed nonviolent communication, a process for supporting partnership and resolving conflict within people, relationships, and society. He worked worldwide as a peacemaker, and in 1984 founded the Center for Nonviolent Communication, an international nonprofit organization for which he served as Director of Educational Services. Read more
• 2015: Dean Smith, American basketball player and coach (born 1931) Dean Edwards Smith was an American men’s college basketball head coach. Called a “coaching legend” by the Basketball Hall of Fame, he coached for 36 years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Smith coached from 1961 to 1997 and retired with 879 victories, which was the NCAA Division I men’s basketball record at that time.[a] Smith had the ninth-highest winning percentage of any men’s college basketball coach (77.6%). Smith’s career total of 879 wins lasted until 2005 when Pat Summitt surpassed him with her 880th victory. During his tenure as head coach, North Carolina won two national championships and appeared in 11 Final Fours. Smith played college basketball at the University of Kansas, where he won a national championship in 1952 playing for Hall of fame coach Phog Allen. Read more
• 2015: John C. Whitehead, American banker and politician, 9th United States Deputy Secretary of State (born 1922) John Cunningham Whitehead was an American banker and civil servant, a board member of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, and, until his resignation in May 2006, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. Read more
• 2014: Doug Mohns, Canadian-American ice hockey player (born 1933) Douglas Allen “Diesel” Mohns was a professional ice hockey player who played 22 seasons in the National Hockey League from 1953–54 until 1974–75. Mohns twice won the most coveted prize in junior hockey, the Memorial Cup. He played on the 1951 and 1953 Barrie Flyers teams. Read more
• 2013: Krsto Papić, Croatian director and screenwriter (born 1933) Krsto Papić was a Croatian screenwriter and film director whose career spanned over five decades. He is generally considered among the best directors of former Yugoslavia, and counted among the Yugoslav Black Wave. Read more
• 2012: Harry Keough, American soccer player and coach (born 1927) Harry Joseph Keough was an American soccer defender who played on the United States national team in their 1–0 upset of England at the 1950 FIFA World Cup. He spent most of his club career in his native St. Louis, winning a national junior championship, two National Challenge Cup and seven National Amateur Cup titles. He coached the Saint Louis University men’s soccer team to five NCAA Men’s Soccer Championships. The Keough Award, named after him, his brother Bill, and his son Ty Keough, is presented each year to the outstanding St. Louis–based male and female professional or college soccer player. Read more
• 2010: Franco Ballerini, Italian cyclist and coach (born 1964) Franco Ballerini was an Italian road racing cyclist. Read more
• 2009: Blossom Dearie, American singer and pianist (born 1924) Margrethe Blossom Dearie was an American jazz singer and pianist. She had a distinctive light and girlish voice. Dearie performed regular engagements in London and New York City over many years and collaborated with many musicians, including Johnny Mercer, Miles Davis, Jack Segal, Johnny Mandel, Duncan Lamont, Bob Dorough, Dave Frishberg, and Jay Berliner. Read more
• 2006: Princess Durru Shehvar of the Ottoman Empire (born 1914) Hatice Hayriye Ayşe Dürrüşehvar Sultan, after marriage named Durru Shehvar Durdana Begum Sahiba, Princess of Berar; was an Ottoman princess by birth and Hyderabad princess by marriage. She was the only daughter of the last caliph Abdulmejid II, who was the last heir apparent to the Ottoman Imperial throne and the last Caliph of the Ottoman Caliphate. Read more
• 2005: Atli Dam, Faroese engineer and politician, 5th Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (born 1932) Atli Pætursson Dam was a Faroese politician who served as prime minister of the Faroe Islands on three occasions. From 1970 to 1981, 1985 to 1989, and 1991 to 1993. To this date, he is the longest-serving prime minister in Faroese history, having served a total of 16 years. Read more
• 2003: Augusto Monterroso, Guatemalan author (born 1921) Augusto Monterroso Bonilla was a Honduran writer who adopted Guatemalan nationality, known for the ironical and humorous style of his short stories. He is considered an important figure in the Latin American “Boom” generation, and received several awards, including the Prince of Asturias Award in Literature (2000), Miguel Ángel Asturias National Prize in Literature (1997), and Juan Rulfo Award (1996).
  Monterroso was a member of the Honduran Academy of Language. Read more
• 2001: Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author and pilot (born 1906) Anne Spencer Morrow Lindbergh was an American writer and aviator. She was the wife of decorated pioneer aviator Charles Lindbergh, with whom she made many exploratory flights. Read more
• 2000: Doug Henning, Canadian magician and politician (born 1947) Douglas James Henning was a Canadian magician, illusionist, escape artist and politician. Read more
• 1999: King Hussein of Jordan (born 1935) Hussein bin Talal al-Hashimi was King of Jordan from 1952 until his death in 1999. A member of the House of Hashim, he is regarded as a 40th-generation direct descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Read more
• 1999: Bobby Troup, American actor, pianist, and composer (born 1918) Robert William Troup Jr. was an American actor, jazz pianist, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the composer of the rhythm and blues standard “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” and for portraying the role of Dr. Joe Early in the television program Emergency! co-starring with his wife Julie London, in the 1970s. Read more
• 1994: Witold Lutosławski, Polish composer and conductor (born 1913) Witold Roman Lutosławski was a Polish composer and conductor. Among the major composers of 20th-century classical music, he is “generally regarded as the most significant Polish composer since Szymanowski, and possibly the greatest Polish composer since Chopin”. His compositions—of which he was a notable conductor—include representatives of most traditional genres, aside from opera: symphonies, concertos, orchestral song cycles, other orchestral works, and chamber works. Among his best known works are his four symphonies, the Variations on a Theme by Paganini (1941), the Concerto for Orchestra (1954), and his cello concerto (1970). Read more
• 1991: Amos Yarkoni, Israeli colonel (born 1920) Amos Yarkoni, was an officer in the Israel Defense Forces and one of six Israeli Arabs to have received the IDF’s third highest decoration, the Medal of Distinguished Service. He was the first commander of the Shaked Reconnaissance Battalion of Israel’s Southern command. Read more
• 1990: Alan Perlis, American computer scientist and academic (born 1922) Alan Jay Perlis was an American computer scientist and professor at Purdue University, Carnegie Mellon University and Yale University. He is best known for his pioneering work in programming languages and in 1966 he became the first recipient of the ACM Turing Award. Read more
• 1990: Alfredo M. Santos, Filipino general (born 1905) Alfredo Manapat Santos was Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in 1962 to 1965, making him the first four-star general of the Philippines’ armed forces. Read more
• 1986: Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegalese historian, anthropologist, and physicist (born 1923) Cheikh Anta Diop was a Senegalese historian, anthropologist, physicist, and politician who studied the human race’s origins and pre-colonial African culture. Diop’s work is considered foundational to the theory of Afrocentricity, though he himself never described himself as an Afrocentrist. The questions he posed about cultural bias in scientific research contributed greatly to the postcolonial turn in the study of African civilizations. Read more
• 1979: Josef Mengele, German SS officer and physician (born 1911) Josef Mengele, often dubbed the “Angel of Death”, was a Nazi German Schutzstaffel (SS) officer and physician during World War II at the Soviet front and then at Auschwitz during the Holocaust. He conducted research and experiments on prisoners at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp, where he was a member of the team of doctors who selected victims to be murdered in the gas chambers. Read more
• 1972: Walter Lang, American director and screenwriter (born 1896) Walter Richard Lang was an American film director. Read more
• 1968: Nick Adams, American actor and screenwriter (born 1931) Nicholas Aloysius Adamshock, better known as Nick Adams, was an American film and television actor and screenwriter. He was noted for his roles in several Hollywood films during the 1950s and 1960s, including Rebel Without a Cause along with his starring role in the ABC television series The Rebel (1959–1961). He also led the cast of several Japanese productions, including Frankenstein Conquers the World, Invasion of Astro-Monster, and The Killing Bottle. Read more
• 1964: Sofoklis Venizelos, Greek captain and politician, 133rd Prime Minister of Greece (born 1894) Sofoklis Venizelos was a Greek politician who served three times as Prime Minister of Greece: in 1944, 1950 and 1950–1951. Read more
• 1963: Learco Guerra, Italian cyclist and manager (born 1902) Learco Guerra was an Italian professional road racing cyclist. The highlight of his career was his overall win in the 1934 Giro d’Italia. He was born in San Nicolò Po, a frazione of Bagnolo San Vito in Lombardy, gained the nickname of “Human Locomotive” for his enduring quality in plain stages. After mediocre attempts to play football, Guerra became a professional cyclist in 1928, at 26. The following year he became Italian champion, racing as an independent or semi-professional. Read more
• 1960: Igor Kurchatov, Russian physicist and academic (born 1903) Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov was a Soviet physicist who played a central role in organizing and directing the former Soviet program of nuclear weapons. He has been called the “father of the Russian atomic bomb”. Read more
• 1959: Nap Lajoie, American baseball player and manager (born 1874) Napoléon Lajoie, also known as Larry Lajoie, was an American professional baseball second baseman who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Nicknamed “the Frenchman”, he represented both Philadelphia franchises and the Cleveland Bronchos, which was renamed “the Naps” by fans after him, and which he led as its player-manager from 1905 through 1909. Read more
• 1959: Daniel François Malan, South African minister and politician, 5th Prime Minister of South Africa (born 1874) Daniël François Malan was a South African politician who served as the fourth prime minister of South Africa from 1948 to 1954. The National Party implemented the system of apartheid, which enforced racial segregation laws, during his tenure as prime minister. Read more
• 1959: Guitar Slim, American singer and guitarist (born 1926) Eddie Jones, known as Guitar Slim, was an American guitarist in the 1940s and 1950s, best known for the million-selling song “The Things That I Used to Do”, for Specialty Records. It is listed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. Slim had a major impact on rock and roll and experimented with distorted tones on the electric guitar a full decade before Jimi Hendrix. Read more
• 1944: Lina Cavalieri, Italian soprano and actress (born 1874) Natalina “Lina” Cavalieri was an Italian operatic dramatic soprano, actress, and monologist. Read more
• 1942: Ivan Bilibin, Russian illustrator and stage designer (born 1876) Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin was a Russian illustrator and stage designer who took part in the Mir iskusstva, contributed to the Ballets Russes, co-founded the Union of Russian Artists, and from 1937 was a member of the Artists’ Union of the USSR. Ivan Bilibin gained popularity with his illustrations of Russian folk tales and Slavic folklore. Throughout his career he was inspired by the art and culture of medieval Russia. Read more
• 1940: James McCormick (Irish republican), Executed Irish Republican (born 1910) James McCormick was born in Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland and joined the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Tullamore, County Offaly. He was executed for his role in the 1939 Coventry bombing, which killed five civilians and injured seventy others. Read more
• 1940: Peter Barnes (Irish republican), Executed Irish Republican (born 1907)
  Peter Barnes was an Irish republican. He was born in Banagher, King’s County (Offaly). As a young man Barnes joined Fianna Éireann and in 1924 became a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Read more
• 1939: Boris Grigoriev, Russian painter and illustrator (born 1886) Boris Grigoriev was a painter, graphic artist, and writer. Read more
• 1938: Harvey Samuel Firestone, American businessman, founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company (born 1868) Harvey Samuel Firestone Sr. was an American businessman, and the founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, one of the first global makers of automobile tires. Read more
• 1937: Elihu Root, American lawyer and politician, 38th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1845) Elihu Root was an American lawyer, Republican politician, and statesman who served as the 41st United States Secretary of War under presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt and the 38th United States Secretary of State, also under Roosevelt. In both positions as well as a long legal career, he pioneered the American practice of international law. Root is sometimes considered the prototype of the 20th-century political “wise man”, advising presidents on a range of foreign and domestic issues. He also served as a United States Senator from New York and received the 1912 Nobel Peace Prize. Read more
• 1921: John J. Gardner, American politician (born 1845) John James Gardner was an American Republican Party politician who represented New Jersey’s 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives for ten terms from 1893 to 1913, and was Mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Read more
• 1920: Alexander Kolchak, Russian admiral and explorer (born 1874) Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was a Russian navy officer and polar explorer who led the White movement in the Russian Civil War. When he assumed the title of Supreme Ruler of Russia in 1918, Kolchak headed a military dictatorship, which ruled over the territory of the former Russian Empire controlled by the Whites. He was a proponent of Russian nationalism and militarism, and opposed democracy as a principle which he believed was tied to pacifism, internationalism, and socialism. Read more
• 1920: Charles Langelier, Canadian journalist, judge, and politician (born 1850) Charles Langelier was a Canadian lawyer, politician, judge, journalist, and author. Read more
• 1919: William Halford, English-American lieutenant, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1841) William Halford was a sailor, and later an officer, in the United States Navy. He also received the Medal of Honor. Read more
• 1897: Galileo Ferraris, Italian physicist and engineer (born 1847) Galileo Ferraris was an Italian university professor, physicist and electrical engineer, one of the pioneers of AC power system and inventor of the induction motor although he never patented his work. Many newspapers touted that his work on the induction motor and power transmission systems were some of the greatest inventions of all ages. He published an extensive and complete monograph on the experimental results obtained with open-circuit transformers of the type designed by the power engineers Lucien Gaulard and John Dixon Gibbs. Read more
• 1891: Marie Louise Andrews, American story writer and journalist (born 1849) Marie Louise Andrews was an American author and editor from Indiana. She was a founder of the Western Association of Writers, and served as its secretary from its founding until June 1888, when she retired. She was prolific in both verse and prose, but she never published her works in book form, and little of her work has been preserved. Read more
• 1878: Pope Pius IX (born 1792) Pope Pius IX was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878. His reign of nearly 32 years is the longest verified of any pope in history and second only to Saint Peter according to Catholic tradition. He was notable for convoking the First Vatican Council in 1868 which defined the dogma of papal infallibility before taking a break in summer of 1870. The council never reconvened. At the same time, France started the Franco-Prussian War and removed the troops that protected the Papal States, which allowed the Capture of Rome by the Kingdom of Italy on 20 September 1870. Thereafter, he refused to leave Vatican City, declaring himself a “prisoner in the Vatican”. Read more
• 1873: Sheridan Le Fanu, Irish author (born 1814) Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu, often shortened to J. S. Le Fanu, was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He is considered by literary critics to be among the greatest ghost story writers of the Victorian era, as several of his works were central to the development of the genre. In addition to short stories, Le Fanu was also the author of novels such as Uncle Silas (1864), macabre poems, and the collection of five stories In a Glass Darkly (1872), in which the novella Carmilla (1872) is significant as a foundational work of vampire literature. Read more
• 1871: Henry E. Steinway, German-American businessman, founded Steinway & Sons (born 1797) Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg, anglicized name Henry Engelhard Steinway, was a German-American piano maker. He was the founder of the piano company Steinway & Sons. Read more
• 1864: Vuk Karadžić, Serbian philologist and linguist (born 1787) Vuk Stefanović Karadžić was a Serbian philologist, anthropologist and linguist. He was one of the most important reformers of the modern Serbian language. Vuk Karadžić was a versatile scholar and the founder of several Serbian academic disciplines, with a significant contribution to historiography. For his collection and preservation of Serbian folktales, Encyclopædia Britannica labelled Karadžić “the father of Serbian folk-literature scholarship.” He was also the author of the first Serbian dictionary in the new reformed language. In addition, he translated the New Testament into the reformed form of the Serbian spelling and language. Read more
• 1862: Francisco de Paula Martínez de la Rosa y Berdejo, Spanish playwright and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (born 1787) Francisco de Paula Martínez de la Rosa y Cornejo was a Spanish statesman and dramatist and the first prime minister of Spain to receive the title of President of the Council of Ministers. Read more
• 1849: Mariano Paredes, Mexican general and 16th president (1845–1846) (born 1797) José Mariano Epifanio Paredes y Arrillaga was a Mexican conservative general who served as president of Mexico between December 1845 and July 1846. He assumed office through a coup against the liberal administration led by José Joaquín de Herrera. He was the grandfather of 38th Mexican President Pedro Lascuráin Paredes. Read more
• 1837: Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden (born 1778) Gustav IV Adolf or Gustav IV Adolph was King of Sweden from 1792 until he was deposed in a coup in 1809. He was also the last Swedish monarch to be the ruler of Finland. Read more
• 1823: Ann Radcliffe, English author (born 1764) Ann Radcliffe was an English novelist who pioneered the Gothic novel, and a minor poet. Her fourth and most popular novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho, was published in 1794. She is also remembered for her third novel, The Romance of the Forest (1791) and her fifth novel, The Italian (1797). Her novels combine suspenseful narratives, exotic historical settings, and apparently-supernatural events. Read more
• 1819: August Wilhelm Hupel, German-Estonian linguist and author (born 1737) August Wilhelm Hupel was a Baltic German publicist, estophile and linguist. Read more
• 1801: Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish-German painter and academic (born 1726) Daniel Niklaus Chodowiecki was a German painter and printmaker of Huguenot and Polish ancestry, who is most famous as an etcher. He spent most of his life in Berlin, and became the director of the Berlin Academy of Art. Read more