February 5

February 5 in recent years

2024 (Monday)

2023 (Sunday)

2022 (Saturday)

2021 (Friday)

2020 (Wednesday)

2019 (Tuesday)

2018 (Monday)

2017 (Sunday)

2016 (Friday)

2015 (Thursday)

February 5 is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 329 days remain until the end of the year (330 in leap years).

Events

• AD 62 – Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy.
• 756 – An Lushan, leader of a revolt against the Tang Dynasty, declares himself emperor and establishes the state of Yan.
• 789 – Idris I reaches Volubilis and founds the Idrisid dynasty, ceding Morocco from the Abbasid caliphate and founding the first Moroccan state.
• 1576 – Henry of Navarre abjures Catholicism at Tours and rejoins the Protestant forces in the French Wars of Religion.
• 1597 – A group of early Japanese Christians are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society.
• 1649 – Charles Stuart, the son of King Charles I, is declared King Charles II of England and Scotland by the Scottish Parliament.
• 1778 – South Carolina becomes the second state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
• 1782 – Spanish defeat British forces and capture Menorca.
• 1783 – In Calabria, a sequence of strong earthquakes begins.
• 1807 – HMS Blenheim (1761) and HMS Java disappear off the coast of Rodrigues.
• 1810 – Peninsular War: Siege of Cádiz begins.
• 1818 – Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway.
• 1849 – University of Wisconsin–Madison's first class meets at Madison Female Academy.
• 1852 – The New Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, opens to the public.
• 1859 – Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Prince of Moldavia, is also elected as prince of Wallachia, joining the two principalities as a personal union called the United Principalities, an autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire, which ushered the birth of the modern Romanian state.
• 1862 – Moldavia and Wallachia formally unite to create the Romanian United Principalities.
• 1869 – The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the "Welcome Stranger", is found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia.
• 1885 – King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal possession.
• 1905 – In Mexico, the General Hospital of Mexico is inaugurated, started with four basic specialties.
• 1909 – Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic.
• 1913 – Greek military aviators, Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis perform the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane.
• 1917 – The current constitution of Mexico is adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
• 1917 – The Congress of the United States passes the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.
• 1918 – Stephen W. Thompson shoots down a German airplane; this is the first aerial victory by the U.S. military.
• 1918 – SS Tuscania is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland; it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.
• 1919 – Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith launch United Artists.
• 1924 – The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal.
• 1933 – Mutiny on Royal Netherlands Navy warship HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën off the coast of Sumatra, Dutch East Indies.
• 1939 – Generalísimo Francisco Franco becomes the 68th "Caudillo de España", or Leader of Spain.
• 1941 – World War II: Allied forces begin the Battle of Keren to capture Keren, Eritrea.
• 1945 – World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.
• 1958 – Gamal Abdel Nasser is nominated to be the first president of the United Arab Republic.
• 1958 – A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.
• 1962 – French President Charles de Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence.
• 1963 – The European Court of Justice's ruling in Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen establishes the principle of direct effect, one of the most important, if not the most important, decisions in the development of European Union law.
• 1971 – Astronauts land on the moon in the Apollo 14 mission.
• 1975 – Riots break in Lima, Peru after the police forces go on strike the day before. The uprising (locally known as the Limazo) is bloodily suppressed by the military dictatorship.
• 1985 – Ugo Vetere, then the mayor of Rome, and Chedli Klibi, then the mayor of Carthage meet in Tunis to sign a treaty of friendship officially ending the Third Punic War which lasted 2,131 years.
• 1988 – Manuel Noriega is indicted on drug smuggling and money laundering charges.
• 1994 – Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
• 1994 – Markale massacres, more than 60 people are killed and some 200 wounded as a mortar shell explodes in a downtown marketplace in Sarajevo.
• 1997 – The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families.
• 2000 – Russian forces massacre at least 60 civilians in the Novye Aldi suburb of Grozny, Chechnya.
• 2004 – Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion.
• 2008 – A major tornado outbreak across the Southern United States kills 57.

Births

• 976 – Sanjō, emperor of Japan (d. 1017)
• 1321 – John II, marquess of Montferrat (d. 1372)
• 1438 – Philip II, duke of Savoy (d. 1497)
• 1505 – Aegidius Tschudi, Swiss statesman and historian (d. 1572)
• 1519 – René of Châlon, prince of Orange (d. 1544)
• 1525 – Juraj Drašković, Croatian Catholic cardinal (d. 1587)
• 1533 – Andreas Dudith, Croatian-Hungarian nobleman and diplomat (d. 1589)
• 1534 – Giovanni de' Bardi, Italian soldier, composer, and critic (d. 1612)
• 1589 – Esteban Manuel de Villegas, Spanish poet and educator (d. 1669)
• 1594 – Biagio Marini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1663)
• 1605 – Bernard of Corleone, Italian saint (d. 1667)
• 1608 – Gaspar Schott, German mathematician and physicist (d. 1666)
• 1626 – Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, French author (d. 1696)
• 1650 – Anne Jules de Noailles, French general (d. 1708)
• 1703 – Gilbert Tennent, Irish-American minister (d. 1764)
• 1723 – John Witherspoon, Scottish-American minister and academic (d. 1794)
• 1725 – James Otis, Jr., American lawyer and politician (d. 1783)
• 1748 – Christian Gottlob Neefe, German composer and conductor (d. 1798)
• 1788 – Robert Peel, English lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1850)
• 1795 – Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger, Austrian mineralogist, geologist, and physicist (d. 1871)
• 1804 – Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Finnish poet and hymn-writer (d. 1877)
• 1808 – Carl Spitzweg, German painter and poet (d. 1885)
• 1810 – Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist and composer (d. 1880)
• 1827 – Peter Lalor, Irish-Australian activist and politician (d. 1889)
• 1837 – Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist and publisher, founded Moody Church, Moody Bible Institute, and Moody Publishers (d. 1899)
• 1840 – John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish businessman, co-founded Dunlop Rubber (d. 1921)
• 1840 – Hiram Maxim, American engineer, invented the Maxim gun (d. 1916)
• 1847 – Eduard Magnus Jakobson, Estonian missionary and engraver (d. 1903)
• 1848 – Joris-Karl Huysmans, French author and critic (d. 1907)
• 1848 – Ignacio Carrera Pinto, Chilean lieutenant (d. 1882)
• 1852 – Terauchi Masatake, Japanese field marshal and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1919)
• 1866 – Domhnall Ua Buachalla, Irish politician, 3rd and last Governor-General of the Irish Free State (d. 1963)
• 1870 – Charles Edmund Brock, British painter and book illustrator (d. 1938)
• 1876 – Ernie McLea, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1931)
• 1878 – André Citroën, French engineer and businessman, founded Citroën (d. 1935)
• 1880 – Gabriel Voisin, French pilot and engineer (d. 1973)
• 1889 – Patsy Hendren, English cricketer and footballer (d. 1962)
• 1889 – Ernest Tyldesley, English cricketer (d. 1962)
• 1889 – Recep Peker, Turkish officer and politician (d. 1950)
• 1891 – Renato Petronio, Italian rower (d. 1976)
• 1892 – Elizabeth Ryan, American tennis player (d. 1979)
• 1897 – Dirk Stikker, Dutch businessman and politician, 3rd Secretary General of NATO (d. 1979)
• 1900 – Adlai Stevenson II, American soldier, politician, and diplomat, 5th United States Ambassador to the United Nations (d. 1965)
• 1903 – Koto Matsudaira, Japanese diplomat, ambassador to the United Nations (d. 1994)
• 1903 – Joan Whitney Payson, American businesswoman and philanthropist (d. 1975)
• 1906 – John Carradine, American actor (d. 1988)
• 1907 – Birgit Dalland, Norwegian politician (d. 2007)
• 1907 – Pierre Pflimlin, French politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 2000)
• 1908 – Marie Baron, Dutch swimmer and diver (d. 1948)
• 1908 – Peg Entwistle, Welsh-American actress (d. 1932)
• 1908 – Daisy and Violet Hilton, English conjoined twins (d. 1969)
• 1908 – Eugen Weidmann, German criminal (d. 1939)
• 1909 – Grażyna Bacewicz, Polish violinist and composer (d. 1969)
• 1910 – Charles Philippe Leblond, French-Canadian biologist and academic (d. 2007)
• 1910 – Francisco Varallo, Argentinian footballer (d. 2010)
• 1911 – Jussi Björling, Swedish tenor (d. 1960)
• 1914 – William S. Burroughs, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (d. 1997)
• 1914 – Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, English physiologist, biophysicist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
• 1915 – Robert Hofstadter, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
• 1917 – Isuzu Yamada, Japanese actress (d. 2012)
• 1919 – Red Buttons, American actor (d. 2006)
• 1919 – Tim Holt, American actor (d. 1973)
• 1919 – Andreas Papandreou, Greek economist and politician, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1996)
• 1921 – Ken Adam, German-born English production designer and art director (d. 2016)
• 1923 – Claude King, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)
• 1923 – James E. Bowman, American physician and academic (d. 2011)
• 1924 – Duraisamy Simon Lourdusamy, Indian cardinal (d. 2014)
• 1927 – Robert Allen, American pianist and composer (d. 2000)
• 1927 – Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten, Dutch captain and pilot (d. 1977)
• 1928 – Tage Danielsson, Swedish author, actor, and director (d. 1985)
• 1928 – Andrew Greeley, American priest, sociologist, and author (d. 2013)
• 1928 – P. J. Vatikiotis, Israeli-American historian and political scientist (d. 1997)
• 1929 – Hal Blaine, American session drummer
• 1929 – Luc Ferrari, French pianist and composer (d. 2005)
• 1929 – Fred Sinowatz, Austrian politician, 19th Chancellor of Austria (d. 2008)
• 1932 – Cesare Maldini, Italian footballer and manager (d. 2016)
• 1933 – Jörn Donner, Finnish director and screenwriter
• 1933 – B. S. Johnson, English author, poet, and critic (d. 1973)
• 1934 – Hank Aaron, American baseball player
• 1934 – Don Cherry, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and sportscaster
• 1935 – Alex Harvey, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1982)
• 1935 – Johannes Geldenhuys, South African military commander (d. 2018)
• 1936 – K. S. Nissar Ahmed, Indian poet and academic
• 1937 – Stuart Damon, American actor and singer
• 1937 – Larry Hillman, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
• 1937 – Gaston Roelants, Belgian runner
• 1937 – Alar Toomre, Estonian-American astronomer and mathematician
• 1937 – Wang Xuan, Chinese computer scientist and academic (d. 2006)
• 1938 – Rafael Nieto Navia, Colombian lawyer, jurist, and diplomat
• 1939 – Brian Luckhurst, English cricketer (d. 2005)
• 1940 – H. R. Giger, Swiss painter, sculptor, and set designer (d. 2014)
• 1940 – Luke Graham, American wrestler (d. 2006)
• 1941 – Stephen J. Cannell, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2010)
• 1941 – Henson Cargill, American country music singer (d. 2007)
• 1941 – David Selby, American actor and playwright
• 1941 – Barrett Strong, American soul singer-songwriter and pianist
• 1941 – Kaspar Villiger, Swiss engineer and politician, 85th President of the Swiss Confederation
• 1941 – Cory Wells, American pop-rock singer (Three Dog Night) (d. 2015)
• 1942 – Roger Staubach, American football player, sportscaster, and businessman
• 1943 – Nolan Bushnell, American engineer and businessman, founded Atari, Inc.
• 1943 – Michael Mann, American director, producer, and screenwriter
• 1943 – Craig Morton, American football player and sportscaster
• 1943 – Dušan Uhrin, Czech and Slovak footballer and manager
• 1944 – J. R. Cobb, American guitarist and songwriter
• 1944 – Henfil, Brazilian journalist, author, and illustrator (d. 1988)
• 1944 – Al Kooper, American singer-songwriter and producer
• 1944 – Tamanoumi Masahiro, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 51st Yokozuna (d. 1971)
• 1945 – Douglas Hogg, English lawyer and politician, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
• 1946 – Amnon Dankner, Israeli journalist and author (d. 2013)
• 1946 – Charlotte Rampling, English actress
• 1947 – Mary L. Cleave, American engineer and astronaut
• 1947 – Clemente Mastella, Italian politician, Italian Minister of Justice
• 1947 – Darrell Waltrip, American race car driver and sportscaster
• 1948 – Sven-Göran Eriksson, Swedish footballer and manager
• 1948 – Christopher Guest, American actor and director
• 1948 – Barbara Hershey, American actress
• 1948 – Errol Morris, American director and producer
• 1948 – Tom Wilkinson, English actor
• 1949 – Kurt Beck, German politician
• 1949 – Yvon Vallières, Canadian educator and politician
• 1950 – Jonathan Freeman, American actor and singer
• 1950 – Rafael Puente, Mexican footballer
• 1951 – Nikolay Merkushkin, Mordovian engineer and politician, 1st Head of the Republic of Mordovia
• 1952 – Daniel Balavoine, French singer-songwriter and producer (d. 1986)
• 1952 – Vladimir Moskovkin, Ukrainian-Russian geographer, economist, and academic
• 1953 – Freddie Aguilar, Filipino singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1953 – John Beilein, American basketball player and coach
• 1953 – Gustavo Benítez, Paraguayan footballer and manager
• 1954 – Cliff Martinez, American drummer and songwriter
• 1954 – Frank Walker, Australian journalist and author
• 1955 – Mike Heath, American baseball player and manager
• 1956 – Vinnie Colaiuta, American drummer
• 1956 – Héctor Rebaque, Mexican race car driver
• 1956 – David Wiesner, American author and illustrator
• 1956 – Mao Daichi, Japanese actress
• 1957 – Jüri Tamm, Estonian hammer thrower and politician
• 1959 – Jennifer Granholm, Canadian-American lawyer and politician, 47th Governor of Michigan
• 1960 – Aris Christofellis, Greek soprano and musicologist
• 1960 – Bonnie Crombie, Canadian businesswoman and politician, 6th Mayor of Mississauga
• 1961 – Savvas Kofidis, Greek footballer and manager
• 1961 – Tim Meadows, American actor and screenwriter
• 1962 – Jennifer Jason Leigh, American actress, screenwriter, producer and director
• 1963 – Steven Shainberg, American film director and producer
• 1964 – Laura Linney, American actress
• 1964 – Ha Seungmoo, Korean Poet, Pastor, Historical theologian
• 1964 – Duff McKagan, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
• 1965 – Tarik Benhabiles, Algerian-French tennis player and coach
• 1965 – Gheorghe Hagi, Romanian footballer and manager
• 1965 – Keith Moseley, American bass player and songwriter
• 1965 – Quique Sánchez Flores, Spanish footballer and manager
• 1966 – José María Olazábal, Spanish golfer
• 1966 – Rok Petrovič, Slovenian skier (d. 1993)
• 1967 – Chris Parnell, American actor and comedian
• 1968 – Roberto Alomar, Puerto Rican-American baseball player and coach
• 1968 – Marcus Grönholm, Finnish race car driver
• 1969 – Bobby Brown, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor
• 1969 – Michael Sheen, Welsh actor and director
• 1969 – Derek Stephen Prince, American voice actor
• 1970 – Jean-Marc Jaumin, Belgian basketball player and coach
• 1970 – Darren Lehmann, Australian cricketer and coach
• 1971 – Michel Breistroff, French ice hockey player (d. 1996)
• 1971 – Sara Evans, American country singer
• 1972 – Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark
• 1972 – Brad Fittler, Australian rugby league player, coach, and sportscaster
• 1973 – Richard Matvichuk, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
• 1973 – Trijntje Oosterhuis, Dutch singer-songwriter
• 1973 – Luke Ricketson, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster
• 1974 – Michael Maguire, Australian rugby league player and coach
• 1975 – Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Dutch footballer and manager
• 1976 – John Aloisi, Australian footballer and manager
• 1976 – Abishek Bachchan, Indian actor
• 1977 – Ben Ainslie, English sailor
• 1977 – Adam Dykes, Australian rugby league player
• 1977 – Adam Everett, American baseball player and coach
• 1978 – Brian Russell, American football player
• 1978 – Samuel Sánchez, Spanish cyclist
• 1979 – Nate Holzapfel, American entrepreneur and television personality
• 1980 – Brad Fitzpatrick, American programmer, created LiveJournal
• 1980 – Jo Swinson, English politician
• 1981 – Mia Hansen-Løve, French director and screenwriter
• 1981 – Loukas Vyntra, Czech-Greek footballer
• 1982 – Laura del Rio, Spanish footballer
• 1982 – Kevin Everett, American football player
• 1982 – Tomáš Kopecký, Slovak ice hockey player
• 1982 – Rodrigo Palacio, Argentinian footballer
• 1983 – Anja Hammerseng-Edin, Norwegian handball player
• 1984 – Carlos Tevez, Argentinian footballer
• 1985 – Lloyd Johansson, Australian rugby player
• 1985 – Laurence Maroney, American football player
• 1985 – Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese footballer
• 1986 – Vedran Ćorluka, Croatian footballer
• 1986 – Sekope Kepu, Australian rugby player
• 1986 – Billy Sharp, English footballer
• 1986 – Reed Sorenson, American race car driver
• 1986 – Carlos Villanueva, Chilean footballer
• 1987 – Darren Criss, American actor, singer, and entrepreneur
• 1987 – Curtis Jerrells, American basketball player
• 1987 – Alex Kuznetsov, Ukrainian-American tennis player
• 1987 – Linus Omark, Swedish ice hockey player
• 1987 – Donald Sanford, American-Israeli sprinter
• 1988 – Karin Ontiveros, Mexican model
• 1989 – Marina Melnikova, Russian tennis player
• 1990 – Dmitry Andreikin, Russian chess player
• 1990 – Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Indian cricketer
• 1990 – Jordan Rhodes, Scottish footballer
• 1991 – Nabil Bahoui, Swedish footballer
• 1991 – Gerald Tusha, Albanian footballer
• 1992 – Stefan de Vrij, Dutch footballer
• 1992 – Neymar, Brazilian footballer
• 1993 – Leilani Latu, Australian rugby league player
• 1993 – Ty Rattie, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1995 – Adnan Januzaj, Belgian-Albanian footballer
• 1996 – Stina Blackstenius, Swedish footballer
• 1997 – Patrick Roberts, English footballer
• 2016 – Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck, Bhutanese prince

Deaths

• 523 – Avitus of Vienne, Gallo-Roman bishop
• 806 – Kanmu, emperor of Japan (b. 736)
• 994 – William IV, duke of Aquitaine (b. 937)
• 1015 – Adelaide, German abbess and saint
• 1036 – Alfred Aetheling, Anglo-Saxon prince
• 1146 – Zafadola, Arab emir of Zaragoza
• 1578 – Giovanni Battista Moroni, Italian painter (b. 1520)
• 1661 – Shunzhi, Chinese emperor of the Qing Dynasty (b. 1638)
• 1705 – Philipp Spener, German theologian and author (b. 1635)
• 1751 – Henri François d'Aguesseau, French jurist and politician, Chancellor of France (b. 1668)
• 1754 – Nicolaas Kruik, Dutch astronomer and cartographer (b. 1678)
• 1766 – Count Leopold Joseph von Daun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1705)
• 1775 – Eusebius Amort, German theologian and academic (b. 1692)
• 1790 – William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist (b. 1710)
• 1807 – Pasquale Paoli, Corsican commander and politician (b. 1725)
• 1818 – Charles XIII, king of Sweden (b. 1748)
• 1881 – Thomas Carlyle, Scottish philosopher, historian, and academic (b. 1795)
• 1882 – Adolfo Rivadeneyra, Spanish orientalist and diplomat (b. 1841)
• 1892 – Emilie Flygare-Carlén, Swedish author (b. 1807)
• 1915 – Ross Barnes, American baseball player and manager (b. 1850)
• 1917 – Jaber II Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti ruler (b. 1860)
• 1922 – Christiaan de Wet, South African general and politician, State President of the Orange Free State (b. 1854)
• 1922 – Slavoljub Eduard Penkala, Croatian engineer, invented the mechanical pencil (b. 1871)
• 1927 – Inayat Khan, Indian mystic and educator (b. 1882)
• 1931 – Athanasios Eftaxias, Greek politician, 118th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1849)
• 1933 – Josiah Thomas, English-Australian miner and politician (b. 1863)
• 1937 – Lou Andreas-Salomé, Russian-German psychoanalyst and author (b. 1861)
• 1938 – Hans Litten, German lawyer and jurist (b. 1903)
• 1941 – Banjo Paterson, Australian journalist, author, and poet (b. 1864)
• 1941 – Otto Strandman, Estonian lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Estonia (b. 1875)
• 1946 – George Arliss, English actor and playwright (b. 1868)
• 1948 – Johannes Blaskowitz, German general (b. 1883)
• 1952 – Adela Verne, English pianist and composer (b. 1877)
• 1954 – Hossein Sami'i, Iranian politician, diplomat, writer and poet (b. 1876)
• 1955 – Victor Houteff, Bulgarian religious reformer and author (b. 1885)
• 1957 – Sami Ibrahim Haddad, Lebanese surgeon and author (b. 1890)
• 1962 – Jacques Ibert, French-Swiss composer (b. 1890)
• 1967 – Leon Leonwood Bean, American businessman, founded L.L.Bean (b. 1872)
• 1969 – Thelma Ritter, American actress (b. 1902)
• 1970 – Rudy York, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1913)
• 1971 – Lew "Sneaky Pete" Robinson, drag racer (b. 1933)
• 1972 – Marianne Moore, American poet, author, critic, and translator (b. 1887)
• 1976 – Rudy Pompilli, American saxophonist (Bill Haley & His Comets) (b. 1926)
• 1977 – Oskar Klein, Swedish physicist and academic (b. 1894)
• 1981 – Ella T. Grasso, American politician, 83rd Governor of Connecticut (b. 1919)
• 1982 – Neil Aggett, Kenyan-South African physician and union leader (b. 1953)
• 1983 – Margaret Oakley Dayhoff, American chemist and academic (b. 1925)
• 1987 – William Collier, Jr., American actor and producer (b. 1902)
• 1989 – Joe Raposo, American pianist and composer (b. 1937)
• 1991 – Dean Jagger, American actor (b. 1903)
• 1992 – Miguel Rolando Covian, Argentinian-Brazilian physiologist and academic (b. 1913)
• 1993 – Seán Flanagan, Irish footballer and politician, 7th Irish Minister for Health (b. 1922)
• 1993 – Joseph L. Mankiewicz, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1909)
• 1993 – William Pène du Bois, American author and illustrator (b. 1916)
• 1995 – Doug McClure, American actor (b. 1935)
• 1997 – Pamela Harriman, English-American diplomat, 58th United States Ambassador to France (b. 1920)
• 1997 – René Huyghe, French historian and author (b. 1906)
• 1998 – Tim Kelly, American guitarist (b. 1963)
• 1999 – Wassily Leontief, Russian-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
• 2000 – Claude Autant-Lara, French director and screenwriter (b. 1901)
• 2004 – John Hench, American animator (b. 1908)
• 2005 – Gnassingbé Eyadéma, Togolese general and politician, President of Togo (b. 1937)
• 2005 – Michalina Wisłocka, Polish gynecologist and sexologist (b. 1921)
• 2006 – Norma Candal, Puerto Rican-American actress (b. 1927)
• 2007 – Leo T. McCarthy, New Zealand-American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 43rd Lieutenant Governor of California (b. 1930)
• 2007 – Alfred Worm, Austrian journalist, author, and academic (b. 1945)
• 2008 – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian guru, founded Transcendental Meditation (b. 1918)
• 2010 – Brendan Burke, Canadian ice hockey player and activist (b. 1988)
• 2010 – Harry Schwarz, South African lawyer, anti-apartheid leader, and diplomat, 13th South Africa Ambassador to United States (b. 1924)
• 2011 – Brian Jacques, English author and radio host (b. 1939)
• 2011 – Peggy Rea, American actress and casting director (b. 1921)
• 2012 – Sam Coppola, American actor (b. 1932)
• 2012 – Al De Lory, American keyboard player, conductor, and producer (b. 1930)
• 2012 – John Turner Sargent, Sr., American publisher (b. 1924)
• 2012 – Jo Zwaan, Dutch sprinter (b. 1922)
• 2013 – Reinaldo Gargano, Uruguayan journalist and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Uruguay (b. 1934)
• 2013 – Egil Hovland, Norwegian composer and conductor (b. 1924)
• 2013 – Tom McGuigan, New Zealand soldier and politician, 23rd New Zealand Minister of Health (b. 1921)
• 2014 – Robert A. Dahl, American political scientist and academic (b. 1915)
• 2015 – K. N. Choksy, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, Minister of Finance of Sri Lanka (b. 1933)
• 2015 – Marisa Del Frate, Italian actress and singer (b. 1931)
• 2015 – Val Logsdon Fitch, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1923)
• 2015 – Herman Rosenblat, Polish-American author (b. 1929)
• 2016 – Ciriaco Cañete, Filipino martial artist (b. 1919)

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day:
  • Adelaide of Vilich
  • Agatha of Sicily
  • Avitus of Vienne
  • Bertulf (Bertoul) of Renty
  • Ingenuinus (Jenewein)
  • Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson (Episcopal Church (USA))
  • Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan (in Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Anglican Church in Japan)
  • February 5 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Constitution Day (Mexico)
• Crown Princess Mary's birthday (Denmark)
• Kashmir Solidarity Day (Pakistan)
• Liberation Day (San Marino)
• Runeberg's Birthday (Finland)
• Unity Day (Burundi)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada