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

• 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.
• 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.
• 1631 – Roger Williams emigrates to Boston.
• 1778 – South Carolina becomes the second state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
• 1782 – Spanish defeat British forces and capture Minorca.
• 1783 – In Calabria a sequence of strong earthquakes begins.
• 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 – Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexandru Ioan Cuza as the United Principalities, an autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire, which ushered the birth of the modern Romanian state.
• 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.
• 1887 – Verdi's opera Otello is first performed in Teatro alla Scala.
• 1905 – in Mexico, the General Hospital of Mexico is inaugurated, started with four basic specialities.
• 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. Also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, it forbade immigration from nearly all of south and southeast Asia.
• 1918 – Stephen W. Thompson shoots down a German airplane. It 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 or the "BBC pips".
• 1933 – Mutiny on Royal Netherlands Navy warship HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën off the coast of Sumatra, Dutch East Indies.
• 1937 – United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes his Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937 in an attempt to reduce legal opposition to his New Deal.
• 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.
• 1946 – The Chondoist Chongu Party is founded in North Korea.
• 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.
• 1972 – Bob Douglas becomes the first African American elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
• 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.
• 1976 – The 1976 swine flu outbreak begins at Fort Dix, NJ.
• 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

• 1505 – Aegidius Tschudi, Swiss historian and author (d. 1572)
• 1519 – René of Châlon, (d. 1544)
• 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)
• 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)
• 1784 – Nancy Lincoln, American mother of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1818)
• 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)
• 1827 – Peter Lalor, Irish-Australian activist and politician (d. 1889)
• 1810 – Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist and composer (d. 1880)
• 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-English 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)
• 1848 – Belle Starr, American criminal (d. 1889)
• 1852 – Terauchi Masatake, Japanese field marshal and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1919)
• 1866 – Domhnall Ua Buachalla, Irish politician, 3rd Governor-General of the Irish Free State (d. 1963)
• 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)
• 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 – Sakari Momoi, Japanese super-centenarian (d. 2015)
• 1903 – Joan Whitney Payson, American businesswoman and philanthropist (d. 1975)
• 1906 – John Carradine, American actor and singer (d. 1988)
• 1907 – Pierre Pflimlin, French politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 2000)
• 1908 – Marie Baron, Dutch swimmer and diver (d. 1948)
• 1908 – Peg Entwistle, British-born American actress (d. 1932)
• 1908 – Daisy and Violet Hilton, English conjoined twins (d. 1969)
• 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 author and painter (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 – Ruth Mott, English chef and author (d. 2012)
• 1917 – Isuzu Yamada, Japanese actress (d. 2012)
• 1919 – Red Buttons, American comedian and actor (d. 2006)
• 1919 – Tim Holt, American actor (d. 1973)
• 1919 – Andreas Papandreou, Greek economist and politician, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1996)
• 1920 – Frank Muir, English actor and playwright (d. 1998)
• 1921 – Ken Adam, German-English production designer and art director
• 1923 – Fatmawati, Indonesian wife of Sukarno, 1st First Lady of Indonesia (d. 1980)
• 1923 – Claude King, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)
• 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 – 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
• 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)
• 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)
• 1940 – Dick Warlock, Canadian actor and stuntman
• 1941 – Stephen J. Cannell. American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2010)
• 1941 – David Selby, American actor and playwright
• 1941 – Kaspar Villiger, Swiss engineer and politician, 85th President of the Swiss Confederation
• 1941 – Cory Wells, American singer (Three Dog Night) (d. 2015)
• 1942 – Susan Hill, English author
• 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
• 1944 – Henfil, Brazilian journalist, author, and illustrator (d. 1988)
• 1944 – J. R. Cobb, American guitarist and songwriter (Classics IV and Atlanta Rhythm Section)
• 1944 – Al Kooper, American singer-songwriter and producer (Blues Project and Blood, Sweat & Tears)
• 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 – Mauro Pagani, Italian singer-songwriter and violinist (Premiata Forneria Marconi)
• 1946 – Charlotte Rampling, English-French actress and singer
• 1947 – Regina Duarte, Brazilian actress
• 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 soldier and politician
• 1949 – Yvon Vallières, Canadian educator and politician
• 1950 – Catherine Castel, French actress and makeup artist
• 1950 – Jonathan Freeman, American actor
• 1951 – Russell Grant, English astrologer and author
• 1951 – Nikolay Merkushkin, Mordovian engineer and politician, 1st Head of the Republic of Mordovia
• 1951 – Robin Sachs, English actor (d. 2013)
• 1951 – Elizabeth Swados, American composer and director (d. 2016)
• 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 (Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Dickies, and The Weirdos)
• 1954 – Frank Walker, Australian journalist and author
• 1955 – Mike Heath, American baseball player and manager
• 1955 – Kenji Ohba, Japanese actor
• 1956 – Héctor Rebaque, Mexican race car driver
• 1956 – David Wiesner, American author and illustrator
• 1957 – Jüri Tamm, Estonian hammer thrower and politician
• 1957 – Nick Laird-Clowes, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Dream Academy and Pink Floyd)
• 1959 – Sudip Chatterjee, Indian footballer and manager (d. 2006)
• 1959 – Jennifer Granholm Canadian-American lawyer and politician, 47th Governor of Michigan
• 1959 – Armando Husillos, Argentinian footballer and manager
• 1960 – Aris Christofellis, Greek soprano and musicologist
• 1960 – Bonnie Crombie, Canadian businesswoman and politician, 6th Mayor of Mississauga
• 1960 – Jane Geddes, American golfer
• 1961 – Albert Anderson, New Zealand rugby player
• 1961 – Savvas Kofidis, Greek footballer and manager
• 1961 – Tim Meadows, American actor and screenwriter
• 1961 – Hakan Peker, Turkish singer-songwriter and dancer
• 1962 – Jacqui Dankworth, English singer and actress
• 1962 – Jennifer Jason Leigh, American actress, producer, and screenwriter
• 1963 – Steven Shainberg, American director, producer, and screenwriter
• 1964 – Laura Linney, American actress
• 1964 – Duff McKagan, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver, Loaded, and Neurotic Outsiders)
• 1964 – Helena Bergström, Swedish actress, director, and screenwriter
• 1964 – Piotr Trzaskalski, Polish director and screenwriter
• 1964 – Alexia Vassiliou, Cypriot singer-songwriter
• 1965 – Tarik Benhabiles, Algerian-French tennis player and coach
• 1965 – Gheorghe Hagi, Romanian footballer and manager
• 1965 – Jeff Harding, Australian boxer
• 1965 – Keith Moseley, American bass player and songwriter (The String Cheese Incident)
• 1966 – Dean Nalder, Australian footballer and politician
• 1966 – José María Olazábal, Spanish golfer
• 1966 – Rok Petrovič, Slovenian skier (d. 1993)
• 1967 – Chris Parnell, American actor
• 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 (New Edition)
• 1969 – Michael Sheen, Welsh actor and director
• 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 singer-songwriter
• 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 – Juha Tapio, Finnish singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1975 – Brainpower, Belgian-Dutch rapper and actor
• 1975 – Adam Carson, American drummer (AFI and Tiger Army)
• 1975 – Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Dutch footballer and manager
• 1976 – John Aloisi, Australian footballer and manager
• 1976 – Abhishek Bachchan, Indian actor, singer, and producer
• 1976 – Tony Jaa, Thai actor and martial artist
• 1976 – Brian Moorman, American football player
• 1977 – Ben Ainslie, English sailor
• 1977 – Simone Cristicchi, Italian singer-songwriter
• 1977 – Adam Everett, American baseball player and coach
• 1977 – Andrew Baldwin, American soldier, physician, and triathlete
• 1977 – Adam Dykes, Australian rugby league player
• 1977 – Andrejs Prohorenkovs, Latvian footballer and manager
• 1977 – Elin Topuzakov, Bulgarian footballer and manager
• 1978 – Brian Russell, American football player
• 1980 – Brad Fitzpatrick, American programmer, created LiveJournal
• 1980 – Peter, Hereditary Prince of Yugoslavia
• 1980 – Tiwa Savage, Nigerian singer-songwriter and actress
• 1980 – Jo Swinson, English politician
• 1981 – Sara Michael Foster, American actress and producer
• 1981 – Mia Hansen-Løve, French director and screenwriter
• 1981 – Loukas Vyntra, Czech-Greek footballer
• 1982 – Wheesung, South Korean singer-songwriter and producer
• 1982 – Aidin Nikkhah Bahrami, Iranian basketball player (d. 2007)
• 1982 – Kevin Everett, American football player
• 1982 – Tomáš Kopecký, Slovak ice hockey player
• 1982 – Rodrigo Palacio, Argentinian footballer
• 1982 – Pablo Palacios, Ecuadorian footballer
• 1983 – Baby K, Singaporean-Italian singer-songwriter
• 1984 – Carlos Tevez, Argentinian footballer
• 1985 – Lindsey Cardinale, American singer
• 1985 – Constantinos Georgiades, Cypriot footballer
• 1985 – Lloyd Johansson, Australian rugby player
• 1985 – Julia Kova, Russian model and singer, Miss Universe Russia 2003
• 1985 – Laurence Maroney, American football player
• 1985 – Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese footballer
• 1985 – Tatiana Silva, Belgian model, Miss Belgium 2005
• 1986 – Vedran Ćorluka, Croatian footballer
• 1986 – Manuel Fernandes, Portuguese footballer
• 1986 – Gerardo Flores, Mexican footballer
• 1986 – Sekope Kepu, Australian-New Zealand rugby player
• 1986 – Roger Kluge, German cyclist
• 1986 – Sebastián Pinto, Chilean footballer
• 1986 – Madison Rayne, American wrestler
• 1986 – Billy Sharp, English footballer
• 1986 – Reed Sorenson, American race car driver
• 1986 – Carlos Villanueva, Chilean footballer
• 1987 – Darren Criss, American actor and singer
• 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 – Natalie Geisenberger, German luger
• 1988 – Štěpán Kodeda, Czech orienteering competitor (d. 2015)
• 1988 – Kevin J. Maclean, Scottish singer-songwriter
• 1988 – Karin Ontiveros, Mexican model and sportscaster
• 1989 – Marina Melnikova, Russian tennis player
• 1989 – Cristine Reyes, Filipino actress
• 1989 – Jeremy Sumpter, American actor
• 1990 – Dmitry Andreikin, Russian chess player
• 1990 – Lars Krogh Gerson, Luxembourgian-Norwegian footballer
• 1990 – Kim Ji-soo, South Korean singer-songwriter
• 1990 – Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Indian cricketer
• 1990 – Jordan Rhodes, Scottish footballer
• 1991 – Nabil Bahoui, Swedish footballer
• 1991 – Alba Riquelme, Paraguayan model, Miss Paraguay 2011
• 1991 – Gerald Tusha, Albanian footballer
• 1992 – Neymar, Brazilian footballer
• 1992 – Nabilla Benattia, French model
• 1992 – Stefan de Vrij, Dutch footballer
• 1993 – Aleksandr Ilyin, Russian footballer
• 1993 – Ty Rattie, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1994 – Arisa Komiya, Japanese actress and model
• 1994 – Saki Nakajima, Japanese singer and actress (Cute and Guardians 4)
• 1995 – Adnan Januzaj, Belgian-Albanian footballer
• 1995 – Trayvon Martin, American shooting victim (d. 2012)
• 1997 – Patrick Roberts, English footballer
• 1998 – Sara Tomic, Australian tennis player
• 2001 – Juan Karlos Labajo, Filipino singer and actor
• 2002 – Davis Cleveland, American actor

Deaths

• 523 – Avitus of Vienne, Latin archbishop and saint (b. 470)
• 806 – Kanmu, Japanese emperor (b. 737)
• 1578 – Giovanni Battista Moroni, Italian painter (b. 1520)
• 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)
• 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)
• 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)
• 1967 – Violeta Parra, Chilean singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1917)
• 1969 – Thelma Ritter, American actress and singer (b. 1902)
• 1970 – Rudy York, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1913)
• 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)
• 1984 – Santo, Mexican wrestler and actor (b. 1917)
• 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 and singer (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 (Slaughter) (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 actress (b. 1927)
• 2006 – Franklin Cover, American actor (b. 1928)
• 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 – Ian Carmichael, English actor (b. 1920)
• 2010 – Harry Schwarz, South African lawyer, politician, 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 – John Turner Sargent, Sr., American publisher (b. 1924)
• 2012 – Jo Zwaan, Dutch sprinter (b. 1922)
• 2013 – Stuart Freeborn, English make up artist (b. 1914)
• 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 – Suzanne Basso, American murderer (b. 1954)
• 2014 – Robert A. Dahl, American political scientist and academic (b. 1915)
• 2014 – Samantha Juste, English-American singer and television host (b. 1944)
• 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:
  • Agatha of Sicily
  • Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson (Episcopal Church)
  • Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan (in Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Anglican Church in Japan)
  • February 5 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Crown Princess Mary's birthday (Denmark)
• Kashmir Solidarity Day (Pakistan)
• Liberation Day (San Marino)
• National Weatherperson's Day (United States)
• 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