Thursday, 5th February 2026 in Lisbon

5th February in the Stars – Star Sign Aquarius

Today, the zodiac sign Aquarius celebrates its birthday.

Personality Profile

Personality Those born on February 5th embody the visionary thinker archetype. They combine Uranian originality with analytical sharpness, often functioning as intellectual pioneers in their environments who question conventions and open new perspectives.

Strengths & Weaknesses Their strengths lie in innovative thinking, independence, and humanitarian consciousness. Weaknesses include emotional distance, stubbornness, and a tendency toward isolation when becoming too absorbed in abstract ideals.

Love In relationships, Aquarians born on this day seek intellectual stimulation and freedom. Partners should respect their unconventionality; genuine emotional bonds form through shared ideals and mutual space for individuality.

Caree & Finance Careers in technology, science, reform movements, or creative fields suit them ideally. Financial security comes through innovative projects; however, lack of practical execution can jeopardize goals.

Health These individuals need mental stimulation for physical well-being. Regular movement and breaks from excessive mental strain are important; mindfulness helps balance nervous tendencies.

That night, the moon was in its waxing crescent phase.

Chinese year of the Snake (Wood).

Fun Facts About 5th February

Name Days in Your Language: Agatha, Chanel, Chanelle, Chantel, Phoenix, Shantel

Someone born on this day would be just 124 days old today — roughly 2,988 hours, 179,314 minutes, or 10,758,860 seconds spent on Earth so far.

It's the 36. day of the year. In 2026, 5th February falls on a Thursday.

There are 329 days still to come.

We’re currently in Week 6 — the year marches on.

Famous Birthdays on 4th February

On this day, 216 notable people were born on 4th February — spanning from 976 to 2016. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

05/02/2016

Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck, Bhutanese prince

Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck is the heir apparent to the Bhutanese throne. He is the first child of King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Queen Jetsun Pema.

05/02/2002

Jisung, South Korean rapper

Park Ji-sung, also known mononymously as Jisung is a South Korean rapper, singer, songwriter, dancer and actor. He began his career as a child actor, model and dancer, as part of the Nam Hyun-Joon and Kids dance crew. He debuted as cameo actor with "Tree with Deep Roots" in 2011 and made more screentime as supporting role in "Go, Stop Murder" in 2013. After that, he became a trainee under SM Entertainment in 2013 and was part of its pre-debut trainee team SM Rookies. Jisung made his idol debut in August 2016 as a member of South Korean boy group NCT through the sub-unit NCT Dream.

Taehyun, South Korean singer-songwriter

Kang Tae-hyun, known mononymously as Taehyun, is a South Korean singer and songwriter. He is a member of the South Korean boy band Tomorrow X Together, formed by Big Hit Entertainment in 2019.

05/02/2001

Kim Min-ju, South Korean actress

Kim Min-ju is a South Korean actress and former singer. She is best known as a former member of the South Korean–Japanese girl group Iz*One, having finished 11th in Mnet's girl group survival show Produce 48, representing Urban Works. As an actress, she is represented by Management Soop and has appeared in Tempted (2018), The Fault Is Not Yours (2019), The Forbidden Marriage (2022–2023), Hear Me: Our Summer (2024), and Still Shining (2026).

05/02/1997

Patrick Roberts, English footballer

Patrick John Joseph Roberts is an English professional footballer who plays as a winger for EFL Championship club Birmingham City.

05/02/1996

Stina Blackstenius, Swedish footballer

Emma Stina Blackstenius is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a forward for Arsenal in the English Women's Super League and the Sweden national team.

05/02/1995

Adnan Januzaj, Belgian-Albanian footballer

Adnan Januzaj is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a winger.

05/02/1993

Leilani Latu, Australian rugby league player

Leilani Latu is a Tonga international rugby league footballer who played as a prop most recently for the Warrington Wolves in the Super League.

Ty Rattie, Canadian ice hockey player

Ty Rattie is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who is currently playing for Linköping HC of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL).

05/02/1992

Stefan de Vrij, Dutch footballer

Stefan de Vrij is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Serie A club Inter Milan and the Netherlands national team.

Neymar, Brazilian footballer

Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, simply known as Neymar Júnior or mononymously as Neymar, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or a forward for Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Santos, which he captains, and the Brazil national team. Known for his dribbling, technical ability, playmaking, and finishing, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. He is one of only five players to have scored 100 goals with three different clubs, both the all-time Brazilian top goalscorer (43) and assist provider (33) in the UEFA Champions League, ranks second for the all-time South American men's top goalscorers in international football (79), and was the all-time top assist provider in international football (59) from 2023 to 2025.

05/02/1991

Nabil Bahoui, Swedish footballer

Nabil Bahoui is a Swedish former professional footballer who last played as a forward for Allsvenskan club IF Brommapojkarna.

Gerald Tusha, Albanian footballer

Gerald Tusha is an Albanian professional footballer who plays as a left midfielder for KF Vora.

05/02/1990

Dmitry Andreikin, Russian chess player

Dmitry Vladimirovich Andreikin is a Russian chess grandmaster, World Junior Chess Champion in 2010 and two-time Russian Chess Champion. He won the Tashkent leg of FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15 and finished runners-up in Chess World Cup 2013 and Belgrade leg of FIDE Grand Prix 2022. He is also currently the second-highest rated chess player from Russia, only behind Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Indian cricketer

Bhuvneshwar Kumar Singh is an Indian cricketer who has played for the Indian cricket team in all three formats of the game. He plays for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League and Uttar Pradesh in domestic cricket. A right-arm medium bowler, he is known for his ability to effectively swing the ball both ways at will. Kumar was a member of the India team that won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. He is the first bowler to win the IPL Purple Cap in two consecutive seasons.

Jordan Rhodes, Scottish footballer

Jordan Luke Rhodes is a former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is currently the loans manager at Blackburn Rovers. Born in England, he represented the Scotland national team.

05/02/1989

Jeremy Sumpter, American actor

Jeremy Robert Myron Sumpter is an American actor. His prominent roles include the title role in the 2003 fantasy adventure film Peter Pan, Jacob in the 2014 disaster film Into the Storm, and the recurring role of J. D. McCoy in the NBC television series Friday Night Lights (2008–2010).

05/02/1987

Alex Brightman, American actor, singer, and voice actor

Alexander Michael Brightman is an American actor and writer, best known for his work in musical theatre, especially in the Broadway musical, Beetlejuice.

05/02/1986

Vedran Ćorluka, Croatian footballer

Vedran Ćorluka is a Croatian football coach and former player who played as a centre-back or right-back. He is an assistant to Zlatko Dalić in the Croatia national team.

Kevin Gates, American rapper, singer, and entrepreneur

Kevin Jerome Gilyard, known professionally as Kevin Gates, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is currently signed to Bread Winners' Association with a partnership with Atlantic Records. His debut studio album, Islah, released in January 2016 and peaked at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. Prior to Islah, Gates also released a number of mixtapes, including Stranger Than Fiction (2013), By Any Means (2014), and Luca Brasi 2 (2014), all of which peaked in the top 40 on the Billboard 200 chart.

05/02/1985

Lloyd Johansson, Australian rugby player

Lloyd Johansson is an Australian rugby union professional player of Tongan and Swedish descent. He plays for the Melbourne Rising in the National Rugby Championship, and his usual position is centre.

Laurence Maroney, American football player

Laurence Maroney is an American former professional football player who was a running back for five seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Minnesota Golden Gophers and was selected by the New England Patriots with the 21st overall pick in the 2006 NFL draft. He also played a season for the Denver Broncos.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese footballer

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, nicknamed CR7, is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr and the Portugal national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in history, he has won numerous individual accolades throughout his career, including five Ballon d'Ors, a record three UEFA Men's Player of the Year Awards, and four European Golden Shoes. He was also named the world's best player five times by FIFA.

05/02/1984

Carlos Tevez, Argentinian footballer

Carlos Alberto Tevez is an Argentine professional football manager and former player. A dynamic forward in his prime, Tevez was capable of playing as a striker, as a winger, as a supporting forward, or as an attacking midfielder.

05/02/1983

Anja Hammerseng-Edin, Norwegian handball player

Anja Hammerseng-Edin is a Norwegian former handball player. She previously played for Larvik HK and for the Norwegian national team.

05/02/1982

Laura del Río, Spanish footballer

Laura del Río García is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a forward. She last managed men's club Flat Earth FC.

Kevin Everett, American football player

Kevin Everett is an American former professional football player who was a tight end for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Bills in the third round of the 2005 NFL draft. He played college football for the Miami Hurricanes after transferring from Kilgore College, where he played on an undefeated team in 2001 under head coach Jimmy Rieves.

Tomáš Kopecký, Slovak ice hockey player

Tomáš Kopecký is a Slovak former professional ice hockey forward. He played in the National Hockey League with the Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks and Florida Panthers.

Rodrigo Palacio, Argentinian footballer

Rodrigo Sebastián Palacio Alcalde is a former professional footballer who played as a second striker. He is the son of José Ramón Palacio, a historic player of Club Olimpo during the 1980s. Palacio holds a Spanish passport, allowing him to be counted as an EU player.

05/02/1981

Mia Hansen-Løve, French director and screenwriter

Mia Hansen-Løve is a French film director, screenwriter, and former actress. She has won several accolades for her work. Her first feature film, All Is Forgiven, won the Louis Delluc Prize for Best First Film in 2007 along with Céline Sciamma's Water Lilies. Hansen-Løve's film Father of My Children won the Special Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. In 2014, Hansen-Løve was awarded the status of Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2016, she won the Silver Bear for Best Director for her film Things to Come at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival, as well as becoming a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Loukas Vyntra, Czech-Greek footballer

Loukas Vyntra is a Greek former professional footballer. Mainly a central defender, he could also play as a right back, left back, or a defensive midfielder.

05/02/1980

Brad Fitzpatrick, American programmer, created LiveJournal

Bradley Joseph Fitzpatrick is an American programmer. He is best known as the creator of LiveJournal and is the author of a variety of free software projects such as memcached, WebSub, OpenID, and Perkeep.

Jo Swinson, Scottish politician

Joanne Kate Swinson is a British former politician who was Leader of the Liberal Democrats from July to December 2019. Swinson was Member of Parliament (MP) for East Dunbartonshire from 2005 to 2015 and 2017 to 2019. In September 2020, Swinson became Director of Partners for a New Economy (P4NE).

05/02/1979

Nate Holzapfel, American entrepreneur and television personality

Nate Holzapfel is an American entrepreneur and convicted fraudster known for his appearance on ABC's Shark Tank, where he pitched as a representative of the Mission Belt Co. He then pursued a career in consulting and public speaking.

05/02/1978

Brian Russell, American football player

Brian William Russell is an American former professional football player who was a safety for nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL) from 2001 to 2009. He was signed by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2001 and last played for the Houston Texans. He played college football for the Penn Quakers and San Diego State Aztecs.

Samuel Sánchez, Spanish cyclist

Samuel "Samu" Sánchez González is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally in the sport between 2000 and 2017 for the Euskaltel–Euskadi and BMC Racing Team squads. He was the gold medal winner in the road race at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In the following years Sánchez proved himself in hilly classics and stage races as one of the most important riders in the peloton. He was also known as one of the best descenders in the peloton. He finished in the top 6 of the Tour de France three times and in the top 10 of the Vuelta a España 6 times. Other notable achievements include winning the Vuelta a Burgos in 2010, the 2012 Tour of the Basque Country and five stages of the Vuelta a España.

05/02/1977

Ben Ainslie, English sailor

Sir Charles Benedict Ainslie is a British competitive sailor. Ainslie is the most successful sailor in Olympic history. He won medals at five consecutive Olympics from 1996 onwards, including gold at four consecutive Games from 2000 to 2012.

Adam Dykes, Australian rugby league player

Adam Dykes is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He played in the National Rugby League for Sydney clubs, the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks and the Parramatta Eels, and in the Super League for English club Hull FC. Dykes' usual position was five-eighth, though he has also been shuffled around the backs during his career, playing minor parts of it at both lock and in the halfback role. He is the father of Kade Dykes.

Adam Everett, American baseball player and coach

Jeffery Adam Everett is an American former professional baseball shortstop and third baseman. He played college baseball for both the NC State Wolfpack and South Carolina Gamecocks. He was drafted in the first round of the 1998 Major League Baseball draft and established himself for his defensive prowess as the starting shortstop for the Houston Astros in 2003. Everett continued his involvement in baseball as a roving infield instructor for the Astros minor league system, and was named bench coach for the Astros on September 1, 2014.

05/02/1976

John Aloisi, Australian footballer and manager

John Aloisi is an Australian soccer coach and former player who is head coach of Chinese Super League club Chengdu Rongcheng. In a playing career that spanned 20 seasons, he was the first Australian ever to play and score in La Liga, the Premier League and Serie A.

Abhishek Bachchan, Indian actor

Abhishek Amitabh Bachchan is an Indian actor and film producer known for his work in Hindi films. Part of the Bachchan family, he is the son of actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan. From 2012 to 2016, Bachchan appeared in Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list, based on his income and popularity.

05/02/1975

Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Dutch footballer and manager

Giovanni Christiaan van Bronckhorst is a Dutch football manager and former player. Originally a midfielder, he moved to left-back later in his career. He is currently an assistant coach for Premier League club Liverpool.

05/02/1974

Michael Maguire, Australian rugby league player and coach

Michael "Madge" Maguire is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and former player who is the head coach of the Brisbane Broncos in the National Rugby League, whom he coached to victory in the 2025 NRL Grand Final. Previously, he coached New South Wales and New Zealand at international level. In the 1990s, Maguire played as a fullback, winger and centre.

05/02/1973

Richard Matvichuk, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

Richard Dorian Matvichuk is a Canadian former ice hockey defenceman. He played 14 seasons in the National Hockey League with the Minnesota North Stars/Dallas Stars, and the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League.

Trijntje Oosterhuis, Dutch singer-songwriter

Judith Katrijntje "Trijntje" Oosterhuis is a Dutch singer and songwriter. She formed the band Total Touch in 1990 with her brother Tjeerd Oosterhuis before she started as a solo singer. She represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "Walk Along", placing fourteen in the first semi-final with 33 points and winning the Barbara Dex Award of the year.

Luke Ricketson, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster

Luke Ricketson is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. An Australian and Ireland international, and New South Wales State of Origin representative back-row forward, he played his entire club football career for the Sydney Roosters of the National Rugby League (NRL).

05/02/1972

Queen Mary of Denmark

Mary is Queen of Denmark as the wife of King Frederik X.

Brad Fittler, Australian rugby league player, coach, and sportscaster

Bradley Scott Fittler, also known by the nickname of "Freddy", is an Australian rugby league commentator, television presenter, and former player.

05/02/1971

Michel Breistroff, French ice hockey player (died 1996)

Michel Breistroff was a French professional ice hockey defenceman.

Sara Evans, American country singer

Sara Lynn Evans is an American country music singer and songwriter. She had five songs reach the number one spot on the Billboard country songs chart and has sold over six million albums. Nine additional singles have reached the top ten of the Billboard country chart, including "I Could Not Ask for More", "I Keep Looking", and "Cheatin'". Among her top 20 charting singles are "Saints & Angels", "Backseat of a Greyhound Bus", and "As If". She has won accolades from the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association. She has also been nominated for several more accolades from both associations, including Female Vocalist of the Year and Single of the Year.

05/02/1970

Jean-Marc Jaumin, Belgian basketball player and coach

Jean-Marc Jaumin is a Belgian professional basketball coach and former basketball player. He was most recently the head coach of Landstede Hammers of the BNXT League.

Darren Lehmann, Australian cricketer and coach

Darren Scott Lehmann is an Australian cricket coach and former cricketer who coached the Australian national team. He is currently head coach at Northamptonshire County Cricket Club. Lehmann made his ODI debut in 1996 and Test debut in 1998. He was on the fringes of national selection for the entirety of the 1990s, and only became a regular in the ODI team in 2001 and Test team in late 2002, before being dropped in early 2005. Primarily an aggressive left-handed batsman, Lehmann was also a part-time left arm orthodox bowler, and gained renown for his disregard for physical fitness and modern dietary regimes. He announced his retirement from first-class cricket in November 2007. Lehmann was a member of the Australian team that won the 1999 Cricket World Cup and the 2003 Cricket World Cup, where in the 1999 final, he scored the winning boundary, and took the winning catch in the 2003 final.

Jeremy Rockliff, Australian politician, 47th Premier of Tasmania

Jeremy Page Rockliff MP is an Australian politician currently serving as the 47th premier of Tasmania. Rockliff's premiership began in 2022 following the resignation of Peter Gutwein. He previously served as deputy premier from 2014 to 2022.

05/02/1969

Bobby Brown, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor

Robert Barisford Brown Sr. is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and dancer best known for being the husband of Whitney Houston. Alongside frequent collaborator Teddy Riley, he is recognized as a pioneer of new jack swing: a fusion of hip-hop and R&B. Brown rose to fame as a founding member of the R&B/pop vocal group New Edition, contributing to hits like "Candy Girl", "Cool It Now", and "Mr. Telephone Man". He left the group in 1985 to pursue a solo career but later reunited with them for their Billboard 200 number-one album Home Again (1996).

Michael Sheen, Welsh actor and director

Michael Christopher Sheen is a Welsh actor. After training at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), he worked mainly in theatre throughout the 1990s with stage roles in Romeo and Juliet (1992), Don't Fool with Love (1993), Peer Gynt (1994), The Seagull (1995), The Homecoming (1997), and Henry V (1997). He received Olivier Awards nominations for his performances in Amadeus (1998) at the Old Vic, Look Back in Anger (1999) at the National Theatre and Caligula (2003) at the Donmar Warehouse.

Derek Stephen Prince, American voice actor

Steve Prince is an American voice actor who provided the voice of Elgar in the live-action Power Rangers Turbo and Power Rangers in Space series, along with various characters in the Digimon series.

05/02/1968

Roberto Alomar, Puerto Rican-American baseball player and coach

Roberto Alomar Velázquez is a Puerto Rican former second baseman who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for seventeen seasons. He is regarded as one of the greatest second basemen in baseball history and overall players of his generation. During his career, the 12-time All-Star won more Gold Glove Awards (10) than any other second baseman in baseball history, in addition to winning four Silver Slugger Awards for his hitting. Among second basemen, he ranks third in games played (2,320), fifth in stolen bases (474), sixth in plate appearances (10,400), seventh in doubles (504) and assists (6,524), and eighth in hits (2,724), runs (1,508), at-bats (9,073), and double plays turned (1,407). In 2011, Alomar was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Chris Barron, American rock singer

Christopher Barron Gross, best known as Chris Barron is an American singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer of the Spin Doctors.

Marcus Grönholm, Finnish race car driver

Marcus Ulf Johan "Bosse" Grönholm is a Finnish former rally and rallycross driver, being part of a family of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland lineage. His son, Niclas Grönholm, is an upcoming FIA World Rallycross Championship driver. Grönholm's nicknames are either "Bosse" or "Magic Marcus". Grönholm is one of the most successful WRC drivers of all time, ranking third in rally wins (30), and winning two championships, in 2000 and 2002. After Peugeot withdrew from the World Rally Championship, Grönholm moved to Ford for the 2006 season and placed second in the drivers' world championship, losing out to Sébastien Loeb by one point. The next year, he again placed second, four points behind Loeb. He and his co-driver Timo Rautiainen retired from rallying after the 2007 season but returned to the championship in 2009 driving a private Subaru for a short period of time, and in the 2019 World Rally Championship where he competed in a Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT-maintained Toyota Yaris under the GRX Team banner.

05/02/1967

Chris Parnell, American actor and comedian

Thomas Christopher Parnell is an American actor and comedian. First breaking through as a performer with the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings, Parnell found wider success during his tenure as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1998 to 2006. After leaving SNL, he played the role of Dr. Leo Spaceman on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock (2006–2013). Parnell is also a prominent voice actor known for his deep and distinctive voice. In animation, he voices the narrator on the PBS Kids series WordGirl (2007–2015), Cyril Figgis on the FX series Archer (2009–2023), Jerry Smith on Adult Swim's Rick and Morty (2013–present), and Doug on Fox's Family Guy (2019–2022). His work also extends into commercials, having voiced the Hamburger Helper mascot "Lefty", appeared in advertisements as "America's Dad" for Orbit Gum, and voiced "The Progressive Box" in a series of advertisements by the Progressive Corporation.

05/02/1966

José María Olazábal, Spanish golfer

José María Olazábal Manterola is a Spanish professional golfer from the Basque Country, Spain who has enjoyed success on both the European Tour and the PGA Tour. He has won 30 professional tournaments, including two major championships, both the 1994 and 1999 Masters Tournaments.

Rok Petrovič, Slovenian skier (died 1993)

Rok Petrovič was a Yugoslav and Slovenian alpine skier.

05/02/1965

Tarik Benhabiles, Algerian-French tennis player and coach

Tarik Benhabiles is an Algerian-born French former tennis player. He achieved his highest ATP-ranking on 8 June 1987, when the right-hander was listed as the number 22 player in the world.

Gheorghe Hagi, Romanian footballer and manager

Gheorghe Hagi is a Romanian football manager and former player, who is currently the head coach of Romania national team. Deployed as an attacking midfielder, Hagi was considered one of the best players in the world during the 1980s and 1990s. Fans of Turkish club Galatasaray, with whom Hagi ended his career, called him Comandante, while he was known as Regele to Romanian supporters. Nicknamed "The Maradona of the Carpathians", he was a creative advanced playmaker renowned for his dribbling, technique, vision, passing and shooting.

Keith Moseley, American bass player and songwriter

Keith Moseley is an American musician and songwriter, who plays bass guitar among other instruments for The String Cheese Incident, a jam band from Boulder, Colorado, of which he is a founding member.

Quique Sánchez Flores, Spanish footballer and manager

Enrique "Quique" Sánchez Flores is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a right-back. He is the head coach of La Liga club Alavés.

Jon Spencer, American singer, guitarist, and bandleader

Jon Spencer is an American singer, guitarist, and bandleader known for his work in the noise- and garage-rock scenes with Pussy Galore, Boss Hog, and especially Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. In the mid-1990s he collaborated with Mississippi hill country blues musician R. L. Burnside on the album A Ass Pocket of Whiskey (1996), a crossover that drew wider attention to Burnside beyond blues audiences. After announcing in 2022 that the Blues Explosion had ended, Spencer issued new music and toured with Jon Spencer & the Hitmakers, featuring Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss, and later formed a trio with Kendall Wind and Macky “Spider” Bowman of The Bobby Lees.

05/02/1964

Laura Linney, American actress

Laura Leggett Linney is an American actress and director. She is the recipient of several awards, including four Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards, five Tony Awards, and a BAFTA.

Ha Seung-moo, Korean poet, pastor, historical theologian

Ha Seung-moo is a South Korean poet, Presbyterian minister, seminary professor, and theologian.

Duff McKagan, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer

Michael Andrew "Duff" McKagan is an American musician. He was the bassist of hard rock band Guns N' Roses for twelve years, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. McKagan rejoined the band in 2016, following their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

05/02/1963

Steven Shainberg, American film director and producer

Steven Shainberg is an American film director and producer. He is the nephew of author Lawrence Shainberg. Both are part of the Shainberg family of Memphis, Tennessee, founder of the Shainberg's chain of stores, which is now part of Dollar General.

05/02/1962

Jennifer Jason Leigh, American actress, screenwriter, producer and director

Jennifer Jason Leigh is an American actress. She began her career on television during the 1970s before making her film breakthrough in the teen film Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). She received critical praise for her performances in Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989), Miami Blues (1990), Backdraft (1991), Single White Female (1992), and The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of Dorothy Parker in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994). For her role as fugitive Daisy Domergue in The Hateful Eight (2015), she was nominated for the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

05/02/1961

Savvas Kofidis, Greek footballer and manager

Savvas Kofidis is a Greek professional football manager and former player. He is regarded as one of the best football players of his generation in Greece, and is most famous for his successful partnership with Vasilis Hatzipanagis at Iraklis and his flamboyant haircuts which he has kept to this day. He also appeared 67 times for the Greece national team, scoring once and being a vital part of the team's qualification to the 1994 World Cup in the United States.

Tim Meadows, American actor and screenwriter

Tim Meadows is an American actor and comedian. He was one of the longest-running cast members on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, where he appeared for 10 seasons from 1991 to 2000. For his work on SNL, he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series in 1993. He played main character John Glascott on the ABC sitcom Schooled for its two-season run after playing the same character in a recurring role for six seasons on The Goldbergs. Meadows is also known for his role as Principal Duvall in the 2004 teen comedy film Mean Girls, a role he then reprised in Mean Girls 2 and in the film's 2024 musical adaptation.

05/02/1960

Aris Christofellis, Greek soprano and musicologist

Aris Christofellis is a Greek sopranist and musicologist.

Bonnie Crombie, Canadian businesswoman and politician, 6th Mayor of Mississauga

Bonnie-Michelle Teresa Bernadette Stack Sawarna Crombie is a Canadian politician and businesswoman who was the sixth mayor of Mississauga from 2014 to 2024 and the leader of the Ontario Liberal Party from 2023 to 2026.

Micky Hazard, English footballer

Michael Hazard is an English football coach and former professional footballer.

05/02/1959

Jennifer Granholm, Canadian-American lawyer and politician, 47th Governor of Michigan

Jennifer Mulhern Granholm is a Canadian-born American politician who was the 16th United States secretary of energy from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as the 47th governor of Michigan from 2003 to 2011 and as the 51st attorney general of Michigan from 1999 to 2003, the first woman to hold either office.

05/02/1957

Jüri Tamm, Estonian hammer thrower and politician (died 2021)

Jüri Tamm was an Estonian hammer thrower and politician. In his sporting career Tamm represented the Soviet Union, he won a bronze medal in the 1980 and 1988 Summer Olympics and a silver medal at the 1987 World Championships in Athletics. He set the world record for the hammer in 1980. Tamm was member of Estonian parliament Riigikogu from 2007 to 2011 as a member of the Social Democratic Party.

05/02/1956

Vinnie Colaiuta, American drummer

Vincent Peter "Vinnie" Colaiuta is an American drummer known for his technical mastery who has worked as a session musician in many genres. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2014. Colaiuta has won one Grammy Award and has been nominated twice. Since the late 1970s, he has recorded and toured with Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, and Sting, among many other appearances in the studio and in concert.

Héctor Rebaque, Mexican race car driver

Héctor Alonso Rebaque is a Mexican former racing driver and businessman, who competed in Formula One from 1977 to 1981.

David Wiesner, American author and illustrator

David Wiesner is an American illustrator and writer of children's books, known best for picture books including some that tell stories without words. As an illustrator he has won three Caldecott Medals recognizing the year's "most distinguished American picture book for children" and he was one of five finalists in 2008 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest recognition available for creators of children's books.

Mao Daichi, Japanese actress

Mayumi Morita , better known as Mao Daichi , is a Japanese actress and former Top Star otokoyaku of the Japanese Takarazuka Revue's Moon Troupe.

05/02/1955

Mike Heath, American baseball player and manager

Michael Thomas Heath is an American former professional baseball catcher. He played 14 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the New York Yankees (1978), Oakland Athletics (1979–1985), St. Louis Cardinals (1986), Detroit Tigers (1986–1990), and Atlanta Braves (1991).

05/02/1954

Cliff Martinez, American drummer and songwriter

Cliff Robert Martinez is an American musician and composer. Early in his career, Martinez was known as a drummer notably with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. Since the 1990s, he has worked primarily as a film score composer, writing music for Spring Breakers (2012), The Foreigner (2017), and multiple films by Steven Soderbergh, Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), Solaris (2002), Contagion (2011) and Traffic (2000) and Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive (2011), Only God Forgives (2013), The Neon Demon (2016) and the miniseries Too Old to Die Young (2019).

Frank Walker, Australian journalist and author

Frank William Walker is an Australian journalist and non-fiction writer. He writes non-fiction books, mostly on military history including about the British nuclear tests at Maralinga, in South Australia.

05/02/1953

Freddie Aguilar, Filipino singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2025)

Ferdinand "Freddie" Pascual Aguilar, also known by his Muslim name Abdul Farid, was a Filipino musician regarded as one of the pillars and icons of Original Pilipino Music (OPM). He was best known for his international hit "Anak" (1978), which became the best-selling Philippine music record of all time, selling 33 million copies worldwide. His rendition of "Bayan Ko" became the anthem of the opposition against the regime of Ferdinand Marcos during the 1986 People Power Revolution. He was heavily associated with Pinoy rock.

John Beilein, American basketball player and coach

John Patrick Beilein is an American former basketball coach, currently a college basketball analyst for the Big Ten Network. Before being hired as an analyst, he was a coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a senior advisor of player development for the Detroit Pistons (2021–2023) and as the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers (2019–2020). Prior to Cleveland, he was an NCAA Division I head coach at the University of Michigan (2007–2019), West Virginia University (2002–2007), University of Richmond (1997–2002), and Canisius University (1992–1997). As well as at Le Moyne College (1983–1992), Nazareth College (1982–1983), and Erie Community College (1978–1982). Beilein won 754 career games in the NCAA and 829 college games altogether, including the NJCAA. Beilein's overall career wins, including college and NBA, is 843 games.

Gustavo Benítez, Paraguayan footballer and manager

Gustavo Benítez is a retired Paraguayan football defender and coach.

05/02/1952

Daniel Balavoine, French singer-songwriter and producer (died 1986)

Daniel Xavier-Marie Balavoine was a French singer and songwriter. He was popular in the French-speaking world in the early 1980s; he inspired many singers of his generation such as Jean-Jacques Goldman, Michel Berger, who was his closest friend, as well as the Japanese pop-rock group Crystal King. Balavoine was a part of the original cast of the rock opera Starmania in 1978, which was written by Berger.

Vladimir Moskovkin, Ukrainian-Russian geographer, economist, and academic

Vladimir Mikhailovich Moskovkin is a Post-Soviet and Ukrainian geographer, economist, scientometrist, teacher, publicist. Doctor of Geographical Sciences, professor.

05/02/1951

Nikolay Merkushkin, Mordovian engineer and politician, 1st Head of the Republic of Mordovia

Nikolay Ivanovich Merkushkin is a Russian politician who served as Governor of Samara Oblast from 2012 to 2017 and as Head of the Republic of Mordovia from 1995 to 2012. From 24 January to 22 September 1995, he served as Chairman of the State Assembly of Mordovia.

05/02/1950

Jonathan Freeman, American actor and singer

Jonathan Freeman is an American actor and puppeteer. He is known for voicing Jafar in Disney's Aladdin franchise, as well as the Kingdom Hearts franchise and the 2011 Aladdin musical.

Rafael Puente, Mexican footballer

Rafael Puente Suárez is a Mexican former professional footballer and manager. He currently works as an analyst for ESPN Deportes and ESPN Mexico.

05/02/1949

Kurt Beck, German politician

Kurt Beck is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), who served as the 7th Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1994 to 2013 and as the 55th President of the Bundesrat in 2000–01. In May 2006, he succeeded Matthias Platzeck as chairman of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). He resigned from that post in September 2008.

Maidarjavyn Ganzorig, Mongolian cosmonaut and academic (died 2021)

Maidarjavyn Ganzorig was a Mongolian cosmonaut and academic.

Yvon Vallières, Canadian educator and politician

Yvon Vallières is a retired Canadian politician and teacher. He was a member of National Assembly of Quebec for the riding of Richmond in the Estrie region from 1973 to 1976 and from 1981 to 2012. Formerly the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 2003 to 2007, he is the current chair of the Government Caucus. He was a member of the Quebec Liberal Party.

05/02/1948

Sven-Göran Eriksson, Swedish footballer and manager (died 2024)

Sven-Göran Eriksson was a Swedish football player and manager. After a playing career as a right-back, Eriksson went on to experience major success in club management between 1977 and 2001, winning 18 trophies with a variety of league clubs in Sweden, Portugal, and Italy. In European competition, he won the UEFA Cup in 1982, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1999, the last edition of the tournament before its abolition, the UEFA Super Cup in 1999, and reached the European Cup final in 1990.

Christopher Guest, British-American actor and director

Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest, known professionally as Christopher Guest, is an American and British actor, comedian, screenwriter and director. Guest has written, directed, and starred in his series of comedy films shot in mockumentary style. He co-wrote and acted in the rock satire This Is Spinal Tap (1984), and later directed a string of satirical mockumentary films such as Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), For Your Consideration (2006), and Mascots (2016). He also acted in the films Death Wish (1974), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), The Princess Bride (1987), and A Few Good Men (1992); and was a regular cast member on the 10th season of Saturday Night Live.

Barbara Hershey, American actress

Barbara Lynn Herzstein, better known as Barbara Hershey, is an American actress. In a career spanning more than 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema in several genres, including Westerns, horrors, and comedies. She began acting at age 17 in 1965, but did not achieve widespread critical acclaim until the 1980s. By that time, the Chicago Tribune referred to her as "one of America's finest actresses".

Errol Morris, American director and producer

Errol Mark Morris is an American film director known for documentaries that interrogate the epistemology of their subjects, and the invention of the Interrotron. In 2003, his The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. His film The Thin Blue Line placed fifth on a Sight & Sound poll of the greatest documentaries ever made. Morris is known for making films about unusual subjects; Fast, Cheap & Out of Control interweaves the stories of an animal trainer, a topiary gardener, a robot scientist, and a naked mole-rat specialist.

Tom Wilkinson, English actor (died 2023)

Thomas Geoffrey Wilkinson was an English actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, he received numerous accolades including a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards. In 2005, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

05/02/1947

Mary L. Cleave, American engineer and astronaut (died 2023)

Mary Louise Cleave was an American engineer and NASA astronaut. She also served from 2005 to 2007 as NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate.

Clemente Mastella, Italian politician, Italian Minister of Justice

Mario Clemente Mastella is an Italian politician who has been the mayor of Benevento since 20 June 2016. He also served as leader of the Union of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR), a minor centrist and Christian-democratic Italian party. Mastella, who began his career in the Christian Democracy (DC) party, being elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1976, is known for his trasformismo, changing over his career many political parties and affiliations.

Darrell Waltrip, American race car driver and sportscaster

Darrell Lee Waltrip is an American motorsports analyst, author as well as a former national television broadcaster and stock car driver. He raced from 1972 to 2000 in the NASCAR Cup Series, most notably driving the No. 11 Chevrolet for Junior Johnson. Waltrip is a three-time Cup Series champion.

05/02/1946

Amnon Dankner, Israeli journalist and author (died 2013)

Amnon Dankner was an Israeli newspaper editor and author. He was the editor of the mass-circulation daily Maariv for six years.

Charlotte Rampling, English actress

Tessa Charlotte Rampling is an English actress. An icon of the Swinging Sixties, she began her career as a model. She was cast in the role of Meredith in the 1966 film Georgy Girl, which starred Lynn Redgrave. She soon began making French and Italian arthouse films, notably Luchino Visconti's The Damned (1969) and Liliana Cavani's The Night Porter (1974). She went on to star in many European and English-language films, including Stardust Memories (1980), The Verdict (1982), Long Live Life (1984), and The Wings of the Dove (1997). In the 2000s, she became the muse of French director François Ozon, appearing in several of his films, notably Under the Sand (2000), Swimming Pool (2003) and Young & Beautiful (2013). On television, she is known for her role as Dr. Evelyn Vogel in Dexter (2013).

05/02/1945

Douglas Hogg, English lawyer and politician, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

Douglas Martin Hogg, 3rd Viscount Hailsham, Baron Hailsham of Kettlethorpe, is a British politician and barrister. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in John Major's second government as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1995 to 1997, and was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1979 to 2010.

05/02/1944

J. R. Cobb, American guitarist and songwriter (died 2019)

James Barney Cobb Jr. was an American guitarist and songwriter, most notable for co-writing "Spooky", "Stormy" and "Traces", among others, as a member of the Classics IV, plus "Champagne Jam" and "Do It Or Die", among others, as a member of the Atlanta Rhythm Section.

Henfil, Brazilian journalist, author, and illustrator (died 1988)

Henrique de Souza Filho, commonly known as Henfil, was a Brazilian cartoonist, caricaturist, journalist and writer, born in Ribeirão das Neves, Minas Gerais.

Al Kooper, American singer-songwriter and producer

Al Kooper is an American songwriter, record producer, and musician. Throughout much of the 1960s and 1970s he was a prolific studio musician, including playing organ on the Bob Dylan song "Like a Rolling Stone", French horn and piano on the Rolling Stones song "You Can't Always Get What You Want", and lead guitar on Rita Coolidge's "The Lady's Not for Sale". He also formed and named Blood, Sweat & Tears, though he did not stay with the group long enough to share in its subsequent popularity. Kooper produced a number of one-off collaboration albums, such as the Super Session album that saw him work separately with guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills.

Tamanoumi Masahiro, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 51st Yokozuna (died 1971)

Tamanoumi Masahiro was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Aichi. He was the sport's 51st yokozuna. Making his professional debut in 1959, he reached the top makuuchi division in 1964. He won six tournament championships and was runner-up in 12 others. Earlier in his career he also earned six special prizes and four gold stars. He was promoted to yokozuna simultaneously with his friend and rival Kitanofuji in January 1970 and the two men represented the dawning of a new era after the dominance of Taihō. He died suddenly in October 1971 after a delayed appendectomy.

05/02/1943

Nolan Bushnell, American engineer and businessman, founded Atari, Inc.

Nolan Kay Bushnell is an American businessman and electrical engineer. He established Atari, Inc., and the Chuck E. Cheese chain. He has been inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame and the Consumer Electronics Association Hall of Fame, received the BAFTA Fellowship and the Nations Restaurant News "Innovator of the Year" award and was named one of Newsweek's "50 Men Who Changed America". He has started more than 20 companies and is one of the founding fathers of the video game industry. He is on the board of Anti-Aging Games. In 2012, he founded an educational software company called Brainrush that uses video game technology in educational software.

Michael Mann, American director, producer, and screenwriter

Michael Kenneth Mann is an American film director, screenwriter, author and producer. Best known for his stylized crime dramas, he has won two Primetime Emmy Awards, as well as earned nominations for four Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a BAFTA Award. His most acclaimed works include the films The Jericho Mile (1979), Thief (1981), The Keep (1983), Manhunter (1986), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Heat (1995), The Insider (1999), Ali (2001), Collateral (2004), Public Enemies (2009), Blackhat (2015), and Ferrari (2023). He was executive producer on the popular TV series Miami Vice (1984–90), which he adapted into a 2006 feature film.

Craig Morton, American football player and sportscaster

Larry Craig Morton was an American professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos. He played college football for the California Golden Bears, earning the Pop Warner Trophy and first-team All-American honors in 1964.

Dušan Uhrin, Czech and Slovak footballer and manager

Dušan Uhrin is a Czech and Slovak football coach and former player. He was the coach of Slovan Bratislava. Born in the Nitra District in the Slovak part of Czechoslovakia, he has lived in Prague since the age of 16.

05/02/1942

Roger Staubach, American football player, sportscaster, and businessman

Roger Thomas Staubach, nicknamed "Roger the Dodger", "Captain America", and "Captain Comeback", is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy, where he played college football for the Navy Midshipmen and won the 1963 Heisman Trophy. After graduation, he served in the U.S. Navy, including a tour of duty in Vietnam.

05/02/1941

Stephen J. Cannell, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (died 2010)

Stephen Joseph Cannell was an American television producer, writer, novelist, actor, and founder of Cannell Entertainment and The Cannell Studios.

Henson Cargill, American country music singer (died 2007)

Henson Cargill was an American country music singer best known for the socially controversial 1968 country number-one hit "Skip a Rope". His music career began in Oklahoma in clubs around Oklahoma City and Tulsa. He earned national recognition after getting a Nashville producer to agree to produce "Skip a Rope".

David Selby, American actor and playwright

David Lynn Selby is an American film, television, and stage actor and writer. He played Quentin Collins on the daytime soap Dark Shadows (1968–1971) and Richard Channing on the prime-time soap Falcon Crest (1982–1990). Selby also had prominent roles in the television series Flamingo Road (1981–1982) and the feature film Raise the Titanic (1980).

Barrett Strong, American soul singer-songwriter and pianist (died 2023)

Barrett Strong Jr. was an American singer and songwriter known for his recording of "Money ", which was the first hit single for the Motown record label. He is also known for his songwriting work in association with producer Norman Whitfield; together, they penned such songs as "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", "War", "Just My Imagination ", and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone".

Kaspar Villiger, Swiss engineer and politician, 85th President of the Swiss Confederation

Kaspar Villiger is a Swiss businessman, former tobacco manufacturer and politician. He served as a member of the Federal Council (Switzerland) since 1 February 1989 for The Liberals. Villiger served two terms as President of the Swiss Confederation in 1995 and again in 2002. He previously served on the Council of States (Switzerland) from 1987 to 1989 and on the National Council (Switzerland) from 1982 to 1987.

05/02/1940

H. R. Giger, Swiss painter, sculptor, and set designer (died 2014)

Hans Ruedi Giger was a Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as "biomechanical". He was part of the special effects team that won an Academy Award for the visual design of Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi horror film Alien, and was responsible for creating the xenomorph alien itself. His work is on permanent display at the H. R. Giger Museum in Gruyères, Switzerland. His style has been adapted to many forms of media, including album covers, furniture, and music videos.

Luke Graham, American wrestler (died 2006)

James Grady Johnson was an American professional wrestler, best known by his ring name, "Crazy" Luke Graham. As Luke Graham, Johnson was part of the Graham family, a stable of wrestlers. All members were billed as kayfabe brothers. He worked extensively for various National Wrestling Alliance territories as well as the World Wide Wrestling Federation, where he was a three-time tag-team champion and the inaugural WWWF World Tag Team Champion.

05/02/1939

Brian Luckhurst, English cricketer (died 2005)

Brian William Luckhurst was an English cricketer, who played his entire county career for Kent County Cricket Club. He played for Kent from 1958 to 1976, usually opening the batting, then in 1985, in an emergency, played in one more match against the Australians. He was cricket manager from 1981 to 1986, then became cricket administrator. He went on to become president of the club, and held that position until his death. He played 355 matches for Kent and represented England in 21 Test matches and three one day internationals.

Jane Bryant Quinn, American financial journalist

Jane Bryant Quinn is an American financial journalist. Her columns talk about financial topics such as investor protection, health insurance, Social Security, and the sufficiency of retirement plans.

05/02/1938

Rafael Nieto Navia, Colombian lawyer, jurist, and diplomat (died 2024)

Rafael Nieto Navia was a Colombian jurist and political scientist.

05/02/1937

Stuart Damon, American actor and singer (died 2021)

Stuart Damon was an American actor. He was best known for his 30-year portrayal of Dr. Alan Quartermaine on the American soap opera General Hospital, for which he won an Emmy Award in 1999. Outside the United States, he was known for the role of Craig Stirling in The Champions.

Larry Hillman, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 2022)

Lawrence Morley Hillman was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman and coach. One of the most travelled players in hockey history, he played for 15 different teams in his 22 professional seasons. He played in the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1955 and 1973, and then in the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1973 to 1976. After retiring he spent parts of three seasons as a coach in the WHA. Hillman had his name engraved on the Stanley Cup six times during his playing career.

Gaston Roelants, Belgian runner

Gaston, Baron Roelants, is a Belgian former elite steeplechaser and cross country runner. He won the 1962 European and 1964 Olympic titles in the 3000 m steeplechase and twice broke the world record.

Alar Toomre, Estonian-American astronomer and mathematician

Alar Toomre is an American astronomer and mathematician. He is a professor of applied mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Toomre's research is focused on the dynamics of galaxies. He is a 1984 MacArthur Fellow.

Wang Xuan, Chinese computer scientist and academic (died 2006)

Wang Xuan was a Chinese computer scientist. He was a computer application specialist and innovator of the Chinese printing industry, as well as an academician at both the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He was the vice-president of the CPPCC and founder of the major technology conglomerate company Founder Group in 1986.

05/02/1936

K. S. Nissar Ahmed, Indian poet and academic (died 2020)

Kokkare Hosahalli Shekh Haider Nissar Ahmed was an Indian poet and writer in the Kannada language. He was awarded the Padma Shri (2008), the Rajyotsava Award (1981) and the Pampa award for his work (2017). He became a household name for his work Nityotsava, which is a poem about Karnataka, a piece he composed after seeing Jog falls. He has numerous poems, translations and children's books to his credit. He is known for using simple words that resonate deeply with the public in his literary work.

05/02/1935

Alex Harvey, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1982)

Alexander James Harvey was a Scottish rock and blues musician. Although his career spanned almost three decades, he is best remembered as the frontman of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, with whom he built a reputation as an exciting live performer during the era of glam rock in the 1970s.

Johannes Geldenhuys, South African military commander (died 2018)

General Johannes Jacobus (Jannie) Geldenhuys was a South African military commander who served as Chief of the South African Defence Force from 1985 to 1990.

05/02/1934

Hank Aaron, American baseball player (died 2021)

Henry Louis Aaron, nicknamed "Hammer" or "Hammerin' Hank", was an American professional baseball right fielder who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1954 through 1976. Considered one of the greatest baseball players in history, he spent 21 seasons with the Milwaukee / Atlanta Braves in the National League (NL) and two seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers in the American League (AL). At the time of his retirement, Aaron held most of the game's key career power-hitting records. He broke the long-standing MLB record for career home runs held by Babe Ruth and remained the career leader for 33 years, until Barry Bonds surpassed his famous total of 755 in 2007. He hit 24 or more home runs every year from 1955 through 1973 and is one of only two players to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least 15 times.

Don Cherry, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and sportscaster

Donald Stewart Cherry is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. He played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins. After concluding a playing career in the American Hockey League, he coached the Bruins for five seasons leading the team to four division titles and two appearances in the Stanley Cup Final.

05/02/1933

Jörn Donner, Finnish director and screenwriter (died 2020)

Jörn Johan Donner was a Finnish writer, film director, actor, producer, politician and founder of Finnish Film Archive. He was also a publisher, editor, and a prominent literary and film critic. He produced Ingmar Bergman's film Fanny and Alexander, which won four Academy Awards in 1984. Donner also served in the Finnish parliament and the European Parliament, making significant contributions to both cinema and politics.

B. S. Johnson, English author, poet, and critic (died 1973)

Bryan Stanley William Johnson was an English experimental novelist, poet and literary critic. He also produced television programmes and made films.

05/02/1932

Cesare Maldini, Italian footballer and manager (died 2016)

Cesare Maldini was an Italian professional football manager and player who played as a defender.

05/02/1929

Hal Blaine, American session drummer (died 2019)

Hal Blaine was an American drummer and session musician, thought to be among the most recorded studio drummers in the music industry, claiming over 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles. His drumming is featured on 150 US top 10 hits, 40 of which went to number one.

Luc Ferrari, French pianist and composer (died 2005)

Luc Ferrari was a French composer of Italian heritage and a pioneer in musique concrète and electroacoustic music. He was a founding member of RTF's Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRMC), working alongside composers such as Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry.

Fred Sinowatz, Austrian politician, 19th Chancellor of Austria (died 2008)

Alfred Sinowatz was an Austrian historian and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), who served as Chancellor of Austria from 1983 to 1986. Prior to becoming Chancellor, he had served as Minister of Education from 1971 to 1983 and Vice-Chancellor from 1981 to 1983.

05/02/1928

Hristu Cândroveanu, Romanian editor, literary critic and writer (died 2013)

Hristu Cândroveanu was a Romanian editor, literary critic, poet, prose writer and translator of Aromanian ethnicity. He published several works related to the Aromanians, led several Aromanian magazines and was involved in some Aromanian organizations.

Tage Danielsson, Swedish author, actor, and director (died 1985)

Tage Ivar Roland Danielsson was a Swedish author, actor, comedian, poet and film director. He worked together with Hans Alfredson in the comedy duo Hasse & Tage.

Andrew Greeley, American priest, sociologist, and author (died 2013)

Andrew Moran Greeley was an American Catholic priest, sociologist, journalist and novelist. He was a professor of sociology at the University of Arizona and the University of Chicago, and a research associate with the National Opinion Research Center (NORC). For many years, Greeley wrote a weekly column for the Chicago Sun-Times and contributed regularly to The New York Times, the National Catholic Reporter, America and Commonweal.

P. J. Vatikiotis, Israeli-American historian and political scientist (died 1997)

Panayiotis Jerasimof Vatikiotis was a Greek-American political scientist and historian of the Middle East. He was Professor of Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, in London.

05/02/1927

Robert Allen, American pianist and composer (died 2000)

Robert Allen Deitcher was an American pianist and an arranger and writer of music for popular songs.

Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten, Dutch captain and pilot (died 1977)

Jacob Louis "Jaap" Veldhuyzen van Zanten was a Dutch aircraft captain and flight instructor. He was the captain of the KLM plane involved in the Tenerife airport disaster and died in the collision, which is the deadliest accident in aviation history. He was KLM's chief instructor and commonly appeared on advertising.

05/02/1924

Duraisamy Simon Lourdusamy, Indian cardinal (died 2014)

Duraisamy Simon Lourdusamy was an Indian cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was the Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches in the Roman Curia and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1985. His episcopical motto was Aedificare domum Dei which means "To build the house of God". He was the fourth cardinal from India and the first curial cardinal of Asia outside of the Middle East.

05/02/1923

Claude King, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2013)

Claude King was an American country music singer and songwriter. He is best known for his 1962 million-selling hit, "Wolverton Mountain".

James E. Bowman, American physician and academic (died 2011)

James Edward Bowman Jr. was an American physician and specialist in pathology, hematology, and genetics. He was a professor of pathology and genetics at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago. He published more than ninety works across the fields of human genetics; population genetics; and ethical, legal and public policy issues in human genetics. He received many awards, including the Chicago African American History Makers Award and recognition from the Hastings Center and Stanford’s Kaiser Family Foundation, and Howard University.

05/02/1921

Ken Adam, German-born English production designer and art director (died 2016)

Sir Kenneth Adam was a German-British movie production designer, best known for his set designs for the James Bond films of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as for Dr. Strangelove and Salon Kitty.

05/02/1919

Red Buttons, American actor (died 2006)

Red Buttons was an American actor and comedian. He won an Oscar, a Golden Globe Award, and a Laurel Award for his performance as United States Air Force crew chief Joe Kelly in the film Sayonara. During his career he was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Saturn Award, and two Photoplay Awards. In 1960, Buttons received a Hollywood Walk of Fame Star.

Tim Holt, American actor (died 1973)

Charles John "Tim" Holt III was an American actor. He was a popular Western star during the 1940s and early 1950s, appearing in forty-six B westerns released by RKO Pictures.

Andreas Papandreou, Greek economist and politician, Prime Minister of Greece (died 1996)

Andreas Georgiou Papandreou was a Greek academic and economist who was prime minister of Greece from 1981 to 1989 and again from 1993 to 1996. He founded PASOK, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement.

05/02/1917

Edward J. Mortola, American academic and president of Pace University (died 2002)

Edward Joseph Mortola was an American academic and education executive who served as president of New York's Pace University from 1960 to 1984, when he became chancellor. He was the university's third president and oversaw its growth from a Lower Manhattan business school to one of the largest independent universities in the U.S., with a centrally located campus at One Pace Plaza, across from City Hall.

Isuzu Yamada, Japanese actress (died 2012)

Isuzu Yamada was a Japanese stage and screen actress whose career spanned seven decades.

05/02/1915

Robert Hofstadter, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1990)

Robert Hofstadter was an American physicist. He was the joint winner of the 1961 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his consequent discoveries concerning the structure of nucleons".

05/02/1914

William S. Burroughs, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (died 1997)

William Seward Burroughs II was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced both underground and popular culture and literature. Much of Burroughs's work is highly experimental and features unreliable narrators. Also noted as semi-autobiographical, his work often drew from his experiences with drug addiction, and featured his various places of residence as settings in much of his work. With Brion Gysin, Burroughs popularized the cut-up, an aleatory literary technique. His writing also engaged frequent mystical, occult, or otherwise magical themes, constant preoccupations in both his fiction and real life.

Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, English physiologist, biophysicist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1998)

Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin was an English physiologist and biophysicist who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Andrew Huxley and John Eccles.

05/02/1911

Jussi Björling, Swedish tenor (died 1960)

Johan Jonatan "Jussi" Björling was a Swedish tenor. One of the leading operatic singers of the 20th century, Björling appeared for many years at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and less frequently at the major European opera houses, including the Royal Opera House in London and La Scala in Milan. He sang the Italian, French and Russian opera repertory with taste.

05/02/1910

Charles Philippe Leblond, French-Canadian biologist and academic (died 2007)

Charles Philippe Leblond was a pioneer of cell biology and stem cell research and a Canadian former professor of anatomy. Leblond is notable for developing autoradiography and his work showing how cells continuously renew themselves, regardless of age.

Francisco Varallo, Argentinian footballer (died 2010)

Francisco Antonio Varallo was an Argentine footballer who played as a forward for the Argentina national team from 1930 to 1937, also representing the country at the inaugural FIFA World Cup in 1930.

05/02/1909

Grażyna Bacewicz, Polish violinist and composer (died 1969)

Grażyna Bacewicz Biernacka was a Polish composer and violinist of Lithuanian origin. She is the second Polish female composer to have achieved national and international recognition, the first being Maria Szymanowska in the early 19th century.

05/02/1908

Marie Baron, Dutch swimmer and diver (died 1948)

Mietje "Marie" Baron was a Dutch swimmer and diver who competed at the 1924 and 1928 Olympics. In 1924 she was sixth in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay. She was disqualified in the first round of the 200 m breaststroke event, as the judges believed she touched the wall with one hand instead of two hands at one of the turns. Meanwhile, her time of 3:22.6 was several seconds ahead of the gold medalist's. Four years later she swam 3:15.2, but this was only enough for a silver medal, as her main rival Germany's Hilde Schrader clocked 3:12.6. At the 1928 Games Baron also competed in the 10 m platform diving event and finished fourth.

Peg Entwistle, Welsh-American actress (died 1932)

Millicent Lilian "Peg" Entwistle was a British stage and screen actress. She began her stage career in 1925, appearing in several Broadway productions. She appeared in only one film, Thirteen Women (1932), which was released posthumously. Entwistle gained notoriety after she jumped to her death from atop the 'H' on the Hollywoodland sign in September 1932, at the age of 24.

Eugen Weidmann, German criminal (died 1939)

Eugen Weidmann was a German criminal and serial killer who was executed by guillotine in France in June 1939, the last public execution in France, an execution witnessed by the 17-year-old Christopher Lee who was visiting Paris at the time.

05/02/1907

Birgit Dalland, Norwegian politician (died 2007)

Birgit Ellenora Johanne Dalland was a Norwegian politician for the Communist Party.

Pierre Pflimlin, French politician, Prime Minister of France (died 2000)

Pierre Eugène Jean Pflimlin was a French Christian Democrat politician who served as the Prime Minister of the Fourth Republic for a few weeks in 1958, before being replaced by Charles de Gaulle during the crisis of that year.

05/02/1906

John Carradine, American actor (died 1988)

John Carradine was an American character actor, who was considered one of the greatest in American cinema. He was a member of Cecil B. DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, known for his roles in horror films, Westerns, and Shakespearean theater, most notably portraying Count Dracula in House of Frankenstein (1944), House of Dracula (1945), Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966), and Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula (1979). Among his other notable roles was "Preacher Casy" in John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath. In later decades of his career, he starred mostly in low-budget B-movies.

05/02/1903

Koto Matsudaira, Japanese diplomat, ambassador to the United Nations (died 1994)

Koto Matsudaira was a Japanese diplomat who served as an ambassador to the United Nations from 1957 to 1961.

Joan Whitney Payson, American businesswoman and philanthropist (died 1975)

Joan Whitney Payson was an American heiress, businesswoman, philanthropist, patron of the arts and art collector, and a member of the prominent Whitney family. She co-founded, and was the majority owner of, Major League Baseball's New York Mets baseball franchise, making her the first woman to own a major league team in North America without inheriting it.

05/02/1900

Adlai Stevenson II, American soldier, politician, and diplomat, 5th United States Ambassador to the United Nations (died 1965)

Adlai Ewing Stevenson II was an American politician and diplomat who was the United States ambassador to the United Nations from 1961 until his death in 1965. He previously served as the 31st governor of Illinois from 1949 to 1953 and was the Democratic Party nominee for president of the United States in 1952 and 1956, losing both elections to Dwight D. Eisenhower.

05/02/1897

Dirk Stikker, Dutch businessman and politician, 3rd Secretary General of NATO (died 1979)

Dirk Uipko Stikker was a Dutch politician and diplomat of the defunct Liberal State Party (LSP), co-founder of the defunct Freedom Party (PvdV) and of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), and businessman. Stikker was known for his abilities as a manager and negotiator. Stikker continued to comment on political affairs as a statesman until his death. He holds the distinction as the first secretary general of NATO from the Netherlands.

05/02/1892

Elizabeth Ryan, American tennis player (died 1979)

Elizabeth Montague Ryan was an American tennis player who was born in Anaheim, California, but lived most of her adult life in the United Kingdom. Ryan won 26 Grand Slam titles, 19 in women's doubles and 7 in mixed doubles at Wimbledon, an all-time record for those two events. Twelve of her Wimbledon titles were in women's doubles and seven were in mixed doubles. Ryan also won four women's doubles titles at the French Championships, as well as one women's doubles title and two mixed-doubles titles at the U.S. Championships. During a 19-year run Ryan amassed a total of 659 titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles.

05/02/1891

Renato Petronio, Italian rower (died 1976)

Renato Petronio was an Italian rowing coxswain who competed in the 1928 Summer Olympics and in the 1936 Summer Olympics.

05/02/1889

Patsy Hendren, English cricketer and footballer (died 1962)

Elias Henry "Patsy" Hendren was an English first-class cricketer, active 1907 to 1937, who played for Middlesex and England. He also had a concurrent career as a footballer and had a long tenure with Brentford F.C. He was born in Turnham Green and died in Tooting Bec. A right-handed batsman who occasionally bowled off breaks, Hendren was one of the most prolific batsmen of the inter-war period, averaging 47.63 in his 51 Test matches and 50.80 in all his first-class matches. He has the third highest first-class run aggregate of 57,611 runs, and his total of 170 centuries ranks second only to Hobbs, who was a personal friend. Hendren was a noted wit, a keen practical joker and had a talent for mimicry.

Ernest Tyldesley, English cricketer (died 1962)

George Ernest Tyldesley was an English cricketer. The younger brother of Johnny Tyldesley and the leading batsman for Lancashire. He remains Lancashire's most prolific run-getter of all time, and is one of only a few batsmen to have scored 100 centuries in the first-class game.

Recep Peker, Turkish officer and politician (died 1950)

Mehmet Recep Peker was a Turkish military officer and politician. A heavy-handed modernist, he served in various ministerial posts and finally as the Prime Minister of Turkey between 1946 and 1947.

05/02/1880

Gabriel Voisin, French pilot and engineer (died 1973)

Gabriel Voisin was a French aviation pioneer and the creator of Europe's first manned, engine-powered, heavier-than-air aircraft capable of a sustained (1 km), circular, controlled flight, which was made by Henri Farman on 13 January 1908 near Paris, France. During World War I, the company founded by Voisin became a major producer of military aircraft, notably the Voisin III. Subsequently, he switched to the design and production of luxury automobiles under the name Avions Voisin.

05/02/1878

André Citroën, French engineer and businessman, founded Citroën (died 1935)

André-Gustave Citroën was a French industrialist and the founder of French automaker Citroën. He is also remembered for his application of double helical gears.

05/02/1876

Ernie McLea, Canadian ice hockey player (died 1931)

Ernest Hope "Ernie" McLea was a Canadian amateur ice hockey player, in the era before professional hockey. McLea played in the 1890s for the Montreal Victorias and was a member of four Stanley Cup-winning teams. He scored the first hat trick in Stanley Cup play, and scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal in a challenge game in 1896.

05/02/1870

Charles Edmund Brock, British painter and book illustrator (died 1938)

Charles Edmund Brock was a widely published English painter, line artist and book illustrator, who signed most of his work C. E. Brock. He was the eldest of four artist brothers, including Henry Matthew Brock, also an illustrator.

05/02/1866

Domhnall Ua Buachalla, Irish politician, 3rd and last Governor-General of the Irish Free State (died 1963)

Domhnall Ua Buachalla was an Irish politician and member of the First Dáil who served as third and final governor-general of the Irish Free State from 1932 to 1936, and later served as a member of the Council of State from 1959 until his death.

05/02/1852

Terauchi Masatake, Japanese field marshal and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Japan (died 1919)

Count Terauchi Masatake was a Japanese military officer and politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1916 to 1918. He was a Gensui in the Imperial Japanese Army.

05/02/1848

Joris-Karl Huysmans, French author and critic (died 1907)

Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans was a French novelist and art critic who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans. He is most famous for the novel À rebours. He supported himself by way of a 30-year career in the French civil service.

Ignacio Carrera Pinto, Chilean lieutenant (died 1882)

Ignacio Carrera Pinto (1848–1882) was a Chilean soldier and Captain of the 4th Company of the "Chacabuco" 6th Line Battalion who was killed in action at the Battle of La Concepción. A hero of the War of the Pacific, Carrera is commemorated on the thousand peso banknote.

05/02/1847

Eduard Magnus Jakobson, Estonian missionary and engraver (died 1903)

Eduard Magnus Jakobson was an Estonian wood engraver and Baptist missionary. He illustrated many books and designed the masthead logo for Sakala, a newspaper founded by his older brother, Carl Robert Jakobson.

05/02/1840

John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish businessman, co-founded Dunlop Rubber (died 1921)

John Boyd Dunlop was a Scottish inventor and veterinary surgeon who spent most of his career in Ireland. Familiar with making rubber devices, he invented the practical pneumatic tyres for his child's tricycle and developed them for use in cycle racing. He sold his rights to the pneumatic tyres to a company he formed with the president of the Irish Cyclists' Association, Harvey du Cros, for a small cash sum and a small shareholding in their pneumatic tyre business. Dunlop withdrew in 1896. The company that bore his name, Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company, was not incorporated until later and, despite its name, was Du Cros's creation.

Hiram Maxim, American engineer, invented the Maxim gun (died 1916)

Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim was an American-born British inventor best known as the creator of the first automatic machine gun, the Maxim gun. Maxim held patents on numerous mechanical devices such as hair-curling irons, a mousetrap, and steam pumps. Maxim laid claim to inventing the lightbulb.

05/02/1837

Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist and publisher, founded Moody Church, Moody Bible Institute, and Moody Publishers (died 1899)

Dwight Lyman Moody, also known as D. L. Moody, was an American evangelist and publisher connected with Keswickianism, who founded the Moody Church, Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts, Moody Bible Institute, and Moody Publishers. One of his most famous quotes was "Faith makes all things possible... Love makes all things easy." Moody gave up his lucrative boot and shoe business to devote his life to revivalism, working first in the Civil War with Union troops through YMCA in the United States Christian Commission. In Chicago, he built one of the major evangelical centers in the nation, which is still active. Working with singer Ira Sankey, he toured the country and the British Isles, drawing large crowds with a dynamic speaking style.

05/02/1827

Peter Lalor, Irish-Australian activist and politician (died 1889)

Peter Fintan Lalor ; 5 February 1827 – 9 February 1889) was an Irish-Australian rebel and, later, politician, who rose to fame for his leading role in the Eureka Rebellion, an event identified with the "birth of democracy" in Australia.

05/02/1810

Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist and composer (died 1880)

Ole Bornemann Bull was a Norwegian virtuoso violinist and composer. According to Robert Schumann, he was on a level with Niccolò Paganini for the speed and clarity of his playing.

05/02/1808

Carl Spitzweg, German painter and poet (died 1885)

Carl Spitzweg was a German romantic painter, especially of genre subjects. He is considered to be one of the most important artists of the Biedermeier era.

05/02/1804

Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Finnish poet and hymn-writer (died 1877)

Johan Ludvig Runeberg was a Finnish priest, lyric and epic poet. He wrote exclusively in Swedish. He is considered a national poet of Finland. He is the author of the lyrics to Vårt land. Runeberg was also involved in the modernization of the Finnish Lutheran hymnal and produced many texts for the new edition.

05/02/1795

Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger, Austrian mineralogist, geologist, and physicist (died 1871)

Wilhelm Karl Haidinger, ennobled as Wilhelm Ritter von Haidinger in 1864, was an Austrian mineralogist.

05/02/1788

Robert Peel, English lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1850)

Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, was a British Conservative statesman who twice was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and simultaneously was Chancellor of the Exchequer (1834–1835). He previously was Home Secretary twice. He is regarded as the father of modern British policing, owing to his founding of the Metropolitan Police while he was Home Secretary. Peel was one of the founders of the modern Conservative Party.

05/02/1748

Christian Gottlob Neefe, German composer and conductor (died 1798)

Christian Gottlob Neefe was a German opera composer and conductor. He was known as one of the first teachers of Ludwig van Beethoven.

05/02/1744

John Jeffries, American medical doctor, scientist, military surgeon, and inspiration for National Weatherperson's Day

John Jeffries was an American medical doctor, scientist, and military surgeon with the British Army in Nova Scotia and New York during the American Revolution. He is best known for accompanying French inventor Jean-Pierre Blanchard on his 1785 balloon flight across the English Channel.

05/02/1725

James Otis Jr., American lawyer and politician (died 1783)

James Otis Jr. was an American lawyer, politician, and activist who was an early supporter of patriotic causes in the Province of Massachusetts Bay at the beginning of the American Revolution. Otis was a fervent opponent of the writs of assistance introduced in 1761 which allowed law enforcement officials to search private property without cause. He later criticized British plans to introduce new taxes in the Thirteen Colonies. As a result, Otis is often credited with coining the slogan "taxation without representation is tyranny".

05/02/1723

John Witherspoon, Scottish-American minister and academic (died 1794)

John Witherspoon was a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense realism, and while president of the College of New Jersey became an influential figure in the development of the United States' national character. Politically active, Witherspoon was a delegate from New Jersey to the Second Continental Congress and a signatory to the July 4, 1776, Declaration of Independence. He was the only active clergyman and the only college president to sign the Declaration. Later, he signed the Articles of Confederation and supported ratification of the Constitution of the United States. In 1789 he was convening moderator of the First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. As one of the first national leaders of American Presbyterianism, he promoted theological and civic ideas adjacent to John Calvin, John Knox, and Samuel Rutherford, particularly the concept that resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.

05/02/1703

Gilbert Tennent, Irish-American minister (died 1764)

Gilbert Tennent was a Presbyterian revivalist minister in Colonial America. Born into a Scotch-Irish family in County Armagh, Ireland, he migrated to America with his parents, studied theology, and along with Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, became one of the leaders of the evangelical revival known as the First Great Awakening. His most famous sermon, On the Danger of an Unconverted Ministry, also known as the "Nottingham Sermon," compared "Old Side" ministers to the biblical Pharisees of the Gospels, triggering a schism in the Presbyterian Church which lasted for 17 years. A prolific writer, Tennent would later work towards reunification of the two synods involved.

05/02/1650

Anne Jules de Noailles, French general (died 1708)

Anne Jules de Noailles, 2nd Duke of Noailles was one of the chief generals of France towards the end of the reign of Louis XIV, and, after raising the regiment of Noailles in 1689, he commanded in Spain during both the War of the Grand Alliance and the War of the Spanish Succession, and was made marshal of France in 1693.

05/02/1626

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, French author (died 1696)

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, also widely known as Madame de Sévigné or Mme de Sévigné, was a French aristocrat, remembered for her letter-writing. Most of her letters, celebrated for their wit and vividness, were addressed to her daughter, Françoise-Marguerite de Sévigné. She is revered in France as one of the great icons of French 17th-century literature.

05/02/1608

Gaspar Schott, German mathematician and physicist (died 1666)

Gaspar Schott was a German Jesuit and scientist, specializing in the fields of physics, mathematics and natural philosophy, and known for his industry.

05/02/1594

Biagio Marini, Italian violinist and composer (died 1663)

Biagio Marini was an Italian virtuoso violinist and composer in the first half of the seventeenth century.

05/02/1589

Esteban Manuel de Villegas, Spanish poet and educator (died 1669)

Esteban Manuel de Villegas was a 17th-century Spanish poet.

05/02/1534

Giovanni de' Bardi, Italian soldier, composer, and critic (died 1612)

Giovanni de' Bardi, Count of Vernio, was an Italian literary critic, writer, composer and soldier.

05/02/1533

Andreas Dudith, Croatian-Hungarian nobleman and diplomat (died 1589)

Andreas Dudith, also András Dudith de Horahovicza, was a Hungarian nobleman of Croatian and Italian origin, Catholic bishop, humanist and diplomat in the Kingdom of Hungary.

05/02/1525

Juraj Drašković, Croatian Catholic cardinal (died 1587)

Juraj II Drašković was a Croatian nobleman, statesman and Catholic bishop and cardinal. He held significant positions within the Croatian Kingdom. He was a member of the House of Drašković and elected by the Sabor – the Parliament of Croatia – as Ban (viceroy) of Croatia to oversee the country between 1567 and 1578.

05/02/1519

René of Châlon, prince of Orange (died 1544)

René of Chalon, also known as Renatus of Chalon, was a Prince of Orange and stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht and Gelre.

05/02/1505

Aegidius Tschudi, Swiss statesman and historian (died 1572)

Aegidius Tschudi was a Swiss historian, statesman and soldier, an eminent member of the Tschudi family of Glarus, Switzerland. His best-known work is the Chronicon Helveticum, a history of the early Swiss Confederation.

05/02/1438

Philip II, duke of Savoy (died 1497)

Philip II, known as the Landless, was Duke of Savoy from 1496 until his death in 1497. A member of a junior branch of the House of Savoy, he was the son of Louis I, Duke of Savoy, and the younger brother of Duke Amadeus IX. Philip inherited the duchy late in life, following the death of his grandnephew Charles II.

05/02/1321

John II, marquess of Montferrat (died 1372)

John II Palaeologus was the Margrave of Montferrat from 1338.

05/02/0976

Sanjō, emperor of Japan (died 1017)

Emperor Sanjō was the 67th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.

Lives Remembered on 4th February

On 4th February, 87 remarkable people passed away — from 523 to 2025. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.

05/02/2025

Irv Gotti, American record producer, co-founded Murder Inc Records (born 1970)

Irving Domingo Lorenzo Jr., known professionally as Irv Gotti or DJ Irv, was an American record producer and record executive. Gotti started off as a New York hip-hop DJ in the 1980s, then becoming an A&R talent scout for TVT Records in 1995 and moved to Def Jam Recordings in 1997. He co-founded the record label Murder Inc. Records with his brother Chris in 1999, which was an imprint of Def Jam. Gotti is credited with having helped discover or sign rappers Jay-Z, DMX, Vita and Ja Rule, as well as singers Ashanti and Lloyd.

05/02/2024

Toby Keith, American country singer (born 1961)

Toby Keith Covel was an American country music singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and businessman. He began using the stage name Toby Keith early in his music career.

05/02/2023

Pervez Musharraf, Pakistani military officer and politician, 10th President of Pakistan (born 1943)

Pervez Musharraf was a Pakistani politician and a military officer who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. He overthrew Nawaz Sharif's government in the 1999 coup d'état and proclaimed himself the chief executive of Pakistan, under martial law.

05/02/2021

Örs Siklósi, Hungarian singer (born 1991)

AWS is a Hungarian post-hardcore band formed in early November 2006 by Örs Siklósi, Bence Brucker, Dániel Kökényes, Soma Schiszler and Áron Veress. Their music is characterized by diversity, powerful performances, and sudden changes, which utilizes metal, psychedelic rock, alternative and post-rock styles. Up to now, they have released five studio albums, two live albums and fourteen video clips. Their music videos often have juxtapositions of images of violence and celebrities in order to bring light to problems that the world faces, exhibiting what they call being "anti-celebrity". They represented Hungary at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Portugal with the song "Viszlát nyár".

Christopher Plummer, Canadian actor (born 1929)

Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage, and television. His accolades included an Academy Award, two Tony Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards, making him the only Canadian recipient of the "Triple Crown of Acting". He also received a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as a nomination for a Grammy Award.

05/02/2020

Kirk Douglas, American actor (born 1916)

Kirk Douglas was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Douglas soon developed into a leading box-office star throughout the 1950s, known for serious dramas, including westerns and war films. During his career, he appeared in more than 90 films and was known for his explosive acting style. He was named by the American Film Institute the 17th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood cinema.

05/02/2016

Ciriaco Cañete, Filipino martial artist (born 1919)

Ciriaco "Cacoy" Cañete was a Filipino martial artist of the Doce Pares Eskrima Club. He was the last surviving member of the club, which was founded in January 1932. He was also a 12th degree black belt. His version of the Doce Pares Eskrima system is known as Cacoy Doce Pares. In 1951 he developed a personal system of his named Eskrido.

05/02/2015

K. N. Choksy, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, Minister of Finance of Sri Lanka (born 1933)

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.

Marisa Del Frate, Italian actress and singer (born 1931)

Marisa Del Frate was an Italian singer, actress and television personality who was mainly active in the 1950s and 60s.

Val Logsdon Fitch, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1923)

Val Logsdon Fitch was an American nuclear physicist who, with co-researcher James Cronin, was awarded the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physics for a 1964 experiment using the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron at Brookhaven National Laboratory that proved that certain subatomic reactions do not adhere to fundamental symmetry principles. Specifically, they proved, by examining the decay of K-mesons, that a reaction run in reverse does not retrace the path of the original reaction, which showed that the reactions of subatomic particles are not indifferent to time. Thus the phenomenon of CP violation was discovered. This demolished the faith that physicists had that natural laws were governed by symmetry.

Herman Rosenblat, Polish-American author (born 1929)

Herman A. Rosenblat was a Polish-born American author, known for writing a fictitious Holocaust memoir titled Angel at the Fence, purporting to tell the story of a girl who passed him food through the barbed-wire fence at the Schlieben sub-camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp in World War II. The book was planned to be published in 2009 by Berkley Books, but was cancelled after it turned out that many elements of his memoir were fabricated and some were contrary to verifiable historical facts. Rosenblat later admitted to lying on purpose with the intention of "bringing joy".

05/02/2014

Robert Dahl, American political scientist and academic (born 1915)

Robert Alan Dahl was an American political theorist and Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University.

05/02/2013

Reinaldo Gargano, Uruguayan journalist and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Uruguay (born 1934)

Reinaldo Apolo Gargano Ostuni was a Uruguayan political figure.

Egil Hovland, Norwegian composer and conductor (born 1924)

Egil Hovland was a Norwegian composer.

Tom McGuigan, New Zealand soldier and politician, 23rd New Zealand Minister of Health (born 1921)

Thomas Malcolm McGuigan was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.

05/02/2012

Sam Coppola, American actor (born 1932)

Sam Coppola was an American character actor of stage, film, and television, appearing in more than 35 films and nearly 40 television shows, since 1968.

Al De Lory, American keyboard player, conductor, and producer (born 1930)

Alfred V. De Lory was an American record producer, arranger, conductor and session musician. He was the producer and arranger of a series of worldwide hits by Glen Campbell in the 1960s, including John Hartford's "Gentle on My Mind", Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "Wichita Lineman" and "Galveston". He was also a member of the 1960s Los Angeles session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew, and inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2007.

John Turner Sargent Sr., American publisher (born 1924)

John Turner Sargent Sr. was president and CEO of the Doubleday and Company publishing house from 1963 to 1978, taking over from the previous president, Douglas Black. He led the expansion of the company from "a modest, family-controlled business to an industry giant with interests extending into broadcasting and baseball." A socialite, he was active in New York's cultural circles.

Jo Zwaan, Dutch sprinter (born 1922)

Jo Zwaan was a Dutch sprinter. He competed in the Men's 100 m and 4 × 100 m relay events at the 1948 Summer Olympics. Two years earlier he had already been present at the 1946 European Athletics Championships as part of the Dutch 4 × 100 m relay team, that finished in 4th position in 42.3 seconds.

05/02/2011

Brian Jacques, English author and radio host (born 1939)

James Brian Jacques was an English author known for his Redwall series of children's fantasy novels and Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series. He also completed two collections of short stories entitled The Ribbajack & Other Curious Yarns and Seven Strange and Ghostly Tales.

Peggy Rea, American actress and casting director (born 1921)

Peggy Jane Rea was an American actress known for her many roles in television, often playing matronly characters.

05/02/2010

Brendan Burke, Canadian ice hockey player and activist (born 1988)

Brendan Gilmore Burke was an athlete and student manager at Miami University for the RedHawks men's ice hockey team. The youngest son of Brian Burke, former general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, longtime executive of various other NHL teams and of the US Olympic hockey team, in November 2009, he made international headlines for coming out, advocating for tolerance and speaking out against homophobia in professional sports. Burke's coming out was widely praised and supported by sports news outlets and fans, generating multiple discussions about homophobia in sports, and in hockey in particular. He was viewed as a pioneer in advocacy against homophobia in hockey, described as "the closest person to the NHL ever to come out publicly and say that he is gay."

Harry Schwarz, South African lawyer, anti-apartheid leader, and diplomat, 13th South Africa Ambassador to United States (born 1924)

Harry Heinz Schwarz was a South African lawyer, statesman, and long-time political opposition leader against apartheid in South Africa who eventually served as the South African Ambassador to the United States during the country's transition to majority rule.

05/02/2008

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian guru, founded Transcendental Meditation (born 1918)

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was the creator of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and leader of the worldwide organization that has been characterized in multiple ways, including as a new religious movement and as non-religious. He became known as Maharishi and Yogi as an adult.

05/02/2007

Leo T. McCarthy, New Zealand-American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 43rd Lieutenant Governor of California (born 1930)

Leo Tarcissus McCarthy was an American politician and businessman. He served as the 43rd lieutenant governor of California from 1983 to 1995.

05/02/2006

Norma Candal, Puerto Rican-American actress (born 1927)

Norma Daniela Candal Penedo, was a Puerto Rican actress and comedian who was best known for her role as Petunia on La criada malcriada.

05/02/2005

Gnassingbé Eyadéma, Togolese general and politician, President of Togo (born 1937)

Gnassingbé Eyadéma was a Togolese military officer and politician who served as the third president of Togo from 1967 until his death in 2005, after which he was immediately succeeded by his son, Faure Gnassingbé.

Michalina Wisłocka, Polish gynecologist and sexologist (born 1921)

Michalina Anna Wisłocka was a Polish gynecologist, sexologist, and author of Sztuka kochania, the first guide to sexual life in a communist country. Her book became a bestseller, with a total circulation of 7 million copies, and started greater openness about matters of sex and sex life in Poland.

05/02/2004

John Hench, American animator (born 1908)

John Hench was an American artist, designer and director at the Walt Disney Company. For 65 years, he helped design and develop various Disney attractions and theme parks.

05/02/2000

Claude Autant-Lara, French director and screenwriter (born 1901)

Claude Autant-Lara was a French film director, screenwriter, set designer and costume designer who worked in films for over 50 years. He made films characterised by bourgeois realism, anti-clericalism and sexual frankness, often from literary sources. His career was frequently marked by controversy. Even though he was considered left-wing during most of his life, in his late 80s he was elected to the European Parliament as a member for the far-right National Front: he stepped down two months later after making antisemitic statements.

05/02/1999

Wassily Leontief, Russian-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1906)

Wassily Wassilyevich Leontief was a Soviet-American economist known for his research on input–output analysis and how changes in one economic sector may affect other sectors.

05/02/1998

Tim Kelly, American guitarist (born 1963)

Timothy Patrick Kelly was an American guitarist for the band Slaughter.

05/02/1997

Pamela Harriman, English-American diplomat, 58th United States Ambassador to France (born 1920)

Pamela Beryl Harriman, also known as Pamela Churchill Harriman, was an English political activist for the Democratic Party in the United States, diplomat, and socialite. She married three times: her first husband was Randolph Churchill, the son of prime minister Winston Churchill; her third husband was W. Averell Harriman, an American diplomat who also served as Governor of New York. Her only child, Winston Churchill, was named after his famous grandfather. She served as US ambassador to France from 1993 until her death in 1997.

René Huyghe, French historian and author (born 1906)

René Huyghe was a French writer on the history, psychology and philosophy of art. He was also a curator at the Louvre's department of paintings, a professor at the Collège de France director of the Musée Jacquemart-André, and, beginning in 1960 a member of the Académie Française. He was the father of the writer François-Bernard Huyghe.

05/02/1995

Doug McClure, American actor (born 1935)

Douglas Osborne McClure was an American actor whose career in film and television extended from the 1950s to the 1990s. He is best known for his role as the cowboy Trampas during the entire run from 1962 to 1971 of the series The Virginian and mayor turned police chief Kyle Applegate on Out of This World. From 1961 to 1963, he was married to actress BarBara Luna.

05/02/1993

Seán Flanagan, Irish footballer and politician, 7th Irish Minister for Health (born 1922)

Seán Flanagan was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and Gaelic footballer who served as Minister for Health from 1966 to 1969, Minister for Lands from 1969 to 1973 and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1965 to 1966. He served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Connacht–Ulster constituency from 1979 to 1989. He was as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo South constituency from 1951 to 1969 and for the Mayo East constituency from 1969 to 1977.

Joseph L. Mankiewicz, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1909)

Joseph Leo Mankiewicz was an American filmmaker. A four-time Academy Award winner, he is best known for his witty and literate dialogue and his preference for voice-over narration and narrative flashbacks. Also known as an actor's director, Mankiewicz directed several prominent actors, including Bette Davis, Gene Tierney, Humphrey Bogart and Elizabeth Taylor, to several of their memorable onscreen performances.

William Pène du Bois, American author and illustrator (born 1916)

William Sherman Pène du Bois was an American writer and illustrator of books for young readers. He is best known for The Twenty-One Balloons, published in April 1947 by Viking Press, for which he won the 1948 Newbery Medal. He was twice a runner-up for the Caldecott Medal for illustrating books written by others, and the two Caldecott Honor picture books, which he also wrote.

05/02/1992

Miguel Rolando Covian, Argentinian-Brazilian physiologist and academic (born 1913)

Miguel Rolando Covian, was an Argentine-Brazilian physiologist, medical educator and writer.

05/02/1991

Dean Jagger, American actor (born 1903)

Dean Jagger was an American film, stage, and television actor who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Henry King's Twelve O'Clock High (1949).

05/02/1989

Joe Raposo, American pianist and composer (born 1937)

Joseph Guilherme Raposo, OIH was an American composer and songwriter. He is best known for his work on the children's television series Sesame Street, for which he wrote the theme song, and several notable songs, including "Bein' Green", "C Is For Cookie" and "Sing". He also wrote music for other television shows including The Electric Company, Shining Time Station and the sitcoms Three's Company and The Ropers, including their theme songs. Additionally, he composed scores for three Dr. Seuss television specials produced by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises: Halloween Is Grinch Night (1977), Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You? (1980), and The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat (1982).

05/02/1987

William Collier Jr., American actor and producer (born 1902)

William Collier Jr. was an American stage performer, producer, and a film actor who in the silent and sound eras was cast in no fewer than 89 motion pictures.

05/02/1984

El Santo, Mexican professional wrestler (born 1917)

Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, best known by his ring name El Santo, was a Mexican professional wrestler and actor. He is the most famous and iconic of the Mexican professional wrestlers, and has been referred to as one of "the greatest legends in Mexican sports". His wrestling career spanned nearly five decades, during which he became a folk hero and a symbol of justice for the common man through his appearances in luchador films and comic books telling fictionalized stories of El Santo fighting for justice. He starred or co-starred in at least 53 movies between 1958 and 1982.

05/02/1983

Margaret Oakley Dayhoff, American chemist and academic (born 1925)

Margaret Belle (Oakley) Dayhoff was an American biophysicist and a pioneer in the field of bioinformatics. Dayhoff was a professor at Georgetown University Medical Center and a noted research biochemist at the National Biomedical Research Foundation, where she pioneered the application of mathematics and computational methods to the field of biochemistry. She dedicated her career to applying the evolving computational technologies to support advances in biology and medicine, most notably the creation of protein and nucleic acid databases and tools to interrogate the databases. She originated one of the first substitution matrices, point accepted mutations (PAM). The one-letter code used for amino acids was developed by her, reflecting an attempt to reduce the size of the data files used to describe amino acid sequences in an era of punch-card computing.

05/02/1982

Neil Aggett, Kenyan-South African physician and union leader (born 1953)

Neil Hudson Aggett was a Kenyan and South African doctor and trade union organiser who died in detention, after being held for 70 days without trial, during which he was tortured by the Security Branch of the apartheid government's South African Police Service. An initial inquest carried out in 1982 cleared the police, but after continued and increased pressure by his sister Jill Burger, partner Liz Floyd, activists, and supporters, a second inquest was held by the High Court in 2020, ruling in December 2022 that Aggett did not die by suicide as claimed, but was killed by members of the Security Branch.

05/02/1981

Ella Grasso, American politician, 83rd Governor of Connecticut (born 1919)

Ella Rosa Giovianna Oliva Grasso was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as the 83rd governor of Connecticut from January 8, 1975, to December 31, 1980, after rejecting past offers of candidacies for Senate and governor. She was the first woman elected governor in Connecticut and the fourth woman to be elected governor of a U.S. state. She is also the first female governor to not be the spouse or widow of a former governor. She resigned as governor due to her battle with ovarian cancer.

05/02/1977

Oskar Klein, Swedish physicist and academic (born 1894)

Oskar Benjamin Klein was a Swedish theoretical physicist now best remembered for the Klein-Gordon equation of relativistic quantum mechanics, the Kaluza-Klein theory, a unified field theory of gravitation and electromagnetism, and the Klein–Nishina cross section in quantum electrodynamics.

05/02/1976

Rudy Pompilli, American saxophonist (Bill Haley & His Comets) (born 1926)

Rudolph Clement Pompilii was an American musician best known for playing tenor saxophone with Bill Haley and His Comets. He was usually credited under the alternate spelling Rudy Pompilli and occasionally as Rudy Pell.

05/02/1972

Marianne Moore, American poet, author, critic, and translator (born 1887)

Marianne Craig Moore was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for its formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit.

05/02/1970

Rudy York, American baseball player, coach, and manager (born 1913)

Preston Rudolph York was an American professional baseball player, coach, scout, and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher and a first baseman between 1934 and 1948, most notably as a member of the Detroit Tigers.

05/02/1969

Thelma Ritter, American actress (born 1902)

Thelma Ritter was an American character actress who, known for her strong New York City accent, diminutive size, and plain look, favored working-class roles. She earned a Tony Award and six Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress, more than any other actress in the category.

05/02/1967

Leon Leonwood Bean, American businessman, founded L.L.Bean (born 1872)

Leon Leonwood Bean was an American inventor, author, outdoor enthusiast, and founder of the company L.L.Bean.

05/02/1962

Jacques Ibert, French-Swiss composer (born 1890)

Jacques François Antoine Marie Ibert was a French composer of classical music. Having studied music from an early age, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won its top prize, the Prix de Rome at his first attempt, despite studies interrupted by his service in World War I.

05/02/1957

Sami Ibrahim Haddad, Lebanese surgeon and author (born 1890)

Sami Ibrahim Haddad, Arabic: سامي ابراهيم حداد was a doctor, surgeon and writer. He was born in Palestine and spent most of his life in Lebanon.

05/02/1955

Victor Houteff, Bulgarian religious reformer and author (born 1885)

Victor Tasho Houteff was a Bulgarian-American religious leader who was the founder of the Davidian Seventh-day Adventist organization, known as The Shepherd's Rod.

05/02/1954

Hossein Sami'i, Iranian politician, diplomat, writer and poet (born 1876)

Mirza Hossein Khan Sami'i also known by his court title of Adib al Saltaneh was an Iranian writer, poet, diplomat and politician. He served in many positions in both the Qajar and Pahlavi governments.

05/02/1952

Adela Verne, English pianist and composer (born 1877)

Adela Verne was a distinguished English pianist of German descent, born in Southampton. She was considered the greatest woman pianist of her era, ranked alongside the male keyboard giants of the time. She toured with great success in many parts of the world. She composed a Military March dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother; her sister Mathilde's pupil.

05/02/1948

Johannes Blaskowitz, German general (born 1883)

Johannes Albrecht Blaskowitz was a German Generaloberst during World War II. After joining the Imperial German Army in 1901, Blaskowitz served throughout World War I, where he earned the Iron Cross for bravery. During WWII, Blaskowitz led the 8th Army during the Invasion of Poland and was the Commander in Chief of Occupied Poland from 1939 to 1940. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. He commanded Army Group G during the Allied invasion of Southern France and Operation Nordwind, the last major German offensive of World War II on the Western Front. Blaskowitz later commanded the remnants of Army Group H as it withdrew to Northern Netherlands before surrendering to Allied forces.

05/02/1946

George Arliss, English actor and playwright (born 1868)

George Arliss was an English actor, author, playwright, and filmmaker who found success in the United States. He was the first British actor to win an Academy Award – which he won in the Best Actor category for his performance as Victorian-era British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli in Disraeli (1929) – as well as the earliest-born actor of any category to win the honour. He specialized in successful biopics, such as Disraeli, Voltaire (1933), and Cardinal Richelieu (1935), as well as light comedies, which included The Millionaire (1931) and A Successful Calamity (1932).

05/02/1941

Banjo Paterson, Australian journalist, author, and poet (born 1864)

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author, widely considered one of the greatest writers of Australia's colonial period.

Otto Strandman, Estonian lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Estonia (born 1875)

Otto August Strandman was an Estonian politician, who served as Prime Minister (1919) and State Elder of Estonia (1929–1931).

05/02/1938

Hans Litten, German lawyer and jurist (born 1903)

Hans Joachim Albert Litten was a German lawyer who represented opponents of the Nazis at important political trials between 1929 and 1932, defending the rights of workers during the Weimar Republic.

05/02/1937

Lou Andreas-Salomé, Russian-German psychoanalyst and author (born 1861)

Lou Andreas-Salomé was a Russian-born psychoanalyst and a well-traveled author, narrator, and essayist from a French Huguenot-German family. Her diverse intellectual interests led to friendships with a broad array of distinguished thinkers, including Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Paul Rée, and Rainer Maria Rilke.

05/02/1933

Josiah Thomas, English-Australian miner and politician (born 1863)

Josiah Thomas was an Australian politician. He was elected to the House of Representatives at the inaugural 1901 federal election, representing the Labor Party. Thomas served as a minister in Andrew Fisher's first two governments, as Postmaster-General and Minister for External Affairs (1911–1913). He joined the Nationalist Party after the 1916 Labor split and transferred to the Senate at the 1917 election, serving as a Senator for New South Wales from 1917 to 1923 and from 1925 to 1929.

05/02/1931

Athanasios Eftaxias, Greek politician, 118th Prime Minister of Greece (born 1849)

Athanasios Eftaxias was a Greek politician. He was born in Amfikleia, Phthiotis, and was briefly Prime Minister of Greece from 19 July to 23 August 1926. He died in Athens.

05/02/1927

Inayat Khan, Indian mystic and educator (born 1882)

Inayat Khan Rehmat Khan, was an Indian professor of musicology, singer, exponent of the sarasvati vina, poet, philosopher, writer, and pioneer of the transmission of Sufism to the West. At the urging of his students, and on the basis of his ancestral Sufi tradition and four-fold training and authorisation at the hands of Sayyid Abu Hashim Madani of Hyderabad, he established an order of Sufism in London in 1914. By the time of his death in 1927, centers had been established throughout Europe and North America, and multiple volumes of his teachings had been published.

05/02/1922

Slavoljub Eduard Penkala, Croatian engineer, invented the mechanical pencil (born 1871)

Slavoljub Eduard Penkala was a Croatian engineer and inventor.

05/02/1917

Jaber II Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti ruler (born 1860)

Jaber II Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah,, was the eighth ruler of the Sheikhdom of Kuwait from the Al-Sabah dynasty. He was the eldest son of Mubarak Al-Sabah and is the ancestor of the Al-Jaber branch of the Al-Sabah family. He ruled the country from 28 November 1915 to his death on 5 February 1917 and was succeeded by his brother, Salim Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah.

05/02/1915

Ross Barnes, American baseball player and manager (born 1850)

Charles Roscoe Barnes was one of the stars of baseball's National Association (1871–1875) and the early National League (1876–1881), playing second base and shortstop. He played for the dominant Boston Red Stockings teams of the early 1870s, along with Albert Spalding, Cal McVey, George Wright, Harry Wright, Jim O'Rourke, and Deacon White. Despite playing for these star-studded teams, many claim that Ross was the most valuable to his teams. However, injuries limited his power in his peak and his professional career ended at the age of 31.

05/02/1892

Emilie Flygare-Carlén, Swedish author (born 1807)

Emilie Flygare-Carlén was a Swedish novelist.

05/02/1882

Adolfo Rivadeneyra, Spanish orientalist and diplomat (born 1841)

Adolfo Rivadeneyra was a Spanish diplomat, orientalist, editor and traveler.

05/02/1881

Thomas Carlyle, Scottish philosopher, historian, and academic (born 1795)

Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. Known as the "sage of Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the Victorian era.

05/02/1818

Charles XIII, king of Sweden (born 1748)

Charles XIII or Carl XIII was King of Sweden from 1809 and King of Norway from 1814 to his death. He was the second son of King Adolf Frederick of Sweden and Louisa Ulrika of Prussia, sister of Frederick the Great.

05/02/1807

Pasquale Paoli, Corsican commander and politician (born 1725)

Filippo Antonio Pasquale de' Paoli was a Corsican patriot, statesman, and military leader who was at the forefront of resistance movements against the Genoese and later French rule over the island. He became the President of the Executive Council of the General Diet of the People of Corsica and wrote the Constitution of the state.

05/02/1790

William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist (born 1710)

William Cullen was a Scottish physician, chemist and agriculturalist from Hamilton, Scotland, who also served as a professor at the Edinburgh Medical School. Cullen was a central figure in the Scottish Enlightenment: He was David Hume's physician, and was friends with Joseph Black, Henry Home, Adam Ferguson, John Millar, and Adam Smith, among others.

05/02/1775

Eusebius Amort, German theologian and academic (born 1692)

Eusebius Amort was a German Roman Catholic theologian.

05/02/1766

Count Leopold Joseph von Daun, Austrian field marshal (born 1705)

Count Leopold Joseph von Daun, later Prince of Thiano, was an Austrian field marshal of the Imperial Army in the War of the Austrian Succession and Seven Years' War. Daun is considered one of the outstanding military leaders from his time.

05/02/1754

Nicolaas Kruik, Dutch astronomer and cartographer (born 1678)

Nicolaas Samuelszoon Kruik, also known as Nicolaes Krukius, was a Dutch surveyor, cartographer, astronomer and weather observer.

05/02/1751

Henri François d'Aguesseau, French jurist and politician, Chancellor of France (born 1668)

Henri François d'Aguesseau, seigneur de Fresnes was Chancellor of France three times between 1717 and 1750 and was pronounced by Voltaire to be "the most learned magistrate France ever possessed".

05/02/1705

Philipp Spener, German theologian and author (born 1635)

Philipp Jakob Spener was a German Lutheran theologian and pastor who essentially founded what became known as Pietism. He was later dubbed the "Father of Pietism". A prolific writer, his two main works, Pia desideria (1675) and Allgemeine Gottesgelehrtheit (1680), were published while he was the chief pastor in the Lutheran Church in Frankfurt.

05/02/1661

Shunzhi, Chinese emperor of the Qing Dynasty (born 1638)

The Shunzhi Emperor, also known by his temple name Emperor Shizu of Qing, personal name Fulin, was the second emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the first Qing emperor to rule over China proper. Upon the death of his father Hong Taiji, a committee of Manchu princes chose the 5-year-old Fulin as successor. The princes also appointed two co-regents: Dorgon, the 14th son of Nurhaci, and Jirgalang, one of Nurhaci's nephews, both of whom were members of the Aisin-Gioro clan. In November 1644, the Shunzhi Emperor was enthroned as emperor of China in Beijing.

05/02/1578

Giovanni Battista Moroni, Italian painter (born 1520)

Giovanni Battista Moroni, also known as Giambattista Moroni was an Italian painter of the Mannerist school. Best known for his elegantly realistic portraits of the local nobility and clergy, he is considered one of the great portrait painters of the Cinquecento.

05/02/1146

Zafadola, Arab emir of Zaragoza

Aḥmad III Abū Jaʿfar ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Mustanṣir, called Sayf al-Dawla, Latinised as Zafadola, was the last ruler of the Hudid dynasty. He ruled the rump of the taifa kingdom of Zaragoza from his castle at Rueda de Jalón, in what is now Spain. He was the son of Abd al-Malik.

05/02/1036

Alfred Aetheling, Anglo-Saxon prince

Ælfred Æþeling was the youngest of the eight sons of the English king Æthelred the Unready. He and his brother Edward the Confessor were sons of Æthelred's second wife Emma of Normandy. King Canute became their stepfather when he married Emma. Ælfred and his brother were caught up in the power struggles at the start and end of Canute's reign.

05/02/1015

Adelaide, German abbess and saint

Adelaide, Abbess of Vilich, also known as Adelheid, was the abbess of Vilich and also of St. Maria im Kapitol in Cologne. She was considered a saint by some; miracles are ascribed to her. She was descended from the German king Henry the Fowler. Her parents founded the convent at Vilich in which she became abbess.

05/02/0994

William IV, duke of Aquitaine (born 937)

William IV, called Fierebras, was the Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou from 963 to his retirement in 990.

05/02/0523

Avitus of Vienne, Gallo-Roman bishop

Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus was a Latin poet and bishop of Vienne in Gaul. His fame rests in part on his poetry, but also on the role he played as secretary for the Burgundian kings.

Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 4th February

Christian feast day: Adelaide of Vilich

Adelaide, Abbess of Vilich, also known as Adelheid, was the abbess of Vilich and also of St. Maria im Kapitol in Cologne. She was considered a saint by some; miracles are ascribed to her. She was descended from the German king Henry the Fowler. Her parents founded the convent at Vilich in which she became abbess.

Christian feast day: Agatha of Sicily

Agatha of Sicily is an early Christian virgin and martyr. Her feast is on 5 February; traditionally, it is considered the last date by which one can send New Year's greetings.

Christian feast day: Avitus of Vienne

Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus was a Latin poet and bishop of Vienne in Gaul. His fame rests in part on his poetry, but also on the role he played as secretary for the Burgundian kings.

Christian feast day: Bertulf (Bertoul) of Renty

Saint Bertulf, O.S.B. was born in either Pannonia (Hungary) or Germany; he died in Artois in 705. He became a monk later in his life and founded a Benedictine abbey at Renty.

Christian feast day: Ingenuinus (Jenewein)

Ingenuinus or Ingenuin, also Jenewein, was the second historically confirmed bishop of Sabiona or Säben. He is venerated as a saint.

Christian feast day: Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson (Episcopal Church (United States))

Roger Williams was an English-born New England minister, theologian, author, and founder of the Providence Plantations, which became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and later the State of Rhode Island. He was a staunch advocate for religious liberty, separation of church and state, and fair dealings with the Native Americans.

Christian feast day: 26 Martyrs of Japan (in Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Anglican Church in Japan)

The 26 Martyrs of Japan were a group of Catholics who were executed by crucifixion on 5 February 1597, in Nagasaki, Japan. Their martyrdom is especially significant in the history of the Catholic Church in Japan.

Christian feast day: February 5 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

February 4 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - February 6

Kashmir Solidarity Day (Pakistan)

Kashmir Solidarity Day is a national holiday observed in Pakistan on 5 February annually. It is observed to show Pakistan's support and unity with the people of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir and Kashmiri separatists' efforts to secede from the Indian Republic, and to pay homage to the Kashmiris who have died in the conflict. Solidarity rallies are held in the Pakistani-administered territory of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan and by British Mirpuris in the United Kingdom.

Runeberg Day (Finland)

Runeberg Day is celebrated in Finland on February 5th in honor of the national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg, who was born on this day in 1804. Runeberg is remembered as the author of the romantic nationalistic epic The Tales of Ensign Stål. Its first poem was chosen as the Finnish national anthem.

What Happened on 4th February?

48 significant events took place on Friday, 4th February — stretching from -2 to 2020. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.

05/02/2020

United States President Donald Trump is acquitted by the United States Senate in his first impeachment trial.

Donald John Trump is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021.

Pegasus Airlines Flight 2193 overshoots the runway at Sabiha Gökçen International Airport and crashes, killing three people and injuring 179.

Pegasus Airlines Flight 2193 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from İzmir to Istanbul in Turkey operated by Pegasus Airlines. On 5 February 2020, the Boeing 737-800 operating the route skidded off the runway while landing at Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, Turkey. Three people were killed, 179 people were injured, and the aircraft was destroyed. This was the first fatal accident in the airline's history. The accident came less than a month after another Pegasus Airlines accident involving a Boeing 737 skidding off the runway at the same airport.

05/02/2019

Pope Francis becomes the first Pope in history to visit and perform papal mass in the Arabian Peninsula during his visit to Abu Dhabi.

Pope Francis was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 13 March 2013 until his death in 2025. He was the first Jesuit pope, the first Latin American, and the first pope born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century Syrian pope Gregory III.

05/02/2016

New Zealand politician Steven Joyce is hit by a flung rubber dildo in a Waitangi Day protest.

Steven Leonard Joyce is a New Zealand former politician, who entered the New Zealand House of Representatives in 2008 as a member of the New Zealand National Party. As a broadcasting entrepreneur with RadioWorks, he was a millionaire before he entered politics. In 2008 he became Minister of Transport and Minister for Communications and Information Technology. He later became Minister of Science and Innovation, and then served as Minister of Finance and Minister for Infrastructure.

Cybercriminals initiate the Bangladesh Bank robbery, using the SWIFT network to fraudulently transfer $101 million from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York account of Bangladesh Bank.

The Bangladesh Bank robbery, also known colloquially as the Bangladesh Bank cyber heist, was a theft that took place in February 2016. Thirty-five fraudulent instructions were issued by security hackers via the SWIFT network to illegally transfer close to US$1 billion from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York account belonging to Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of Bangladesh. Five of the thirty-five fraudulent instructions were successful in transferring US$101 million, with US$81 million traced to the Philippines and US$20 million to Sri Lanka. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York blocked the remaining thirty transactions, amounting to US$850 million, due to suspicions raised by a misspelled instruction. As of 2025, only US$15 million out of US$81 million transferred to the Philippines has been recovered with little progress in recovering the remaining US$66 million, and all the money transferred to Sri Lanka has since been recovered. Most of the money transferred to the Philippines went to four personal accounts, held by single individuals, and not to companies or corporations.

05/02/2008

A major tornado outbreak across the Southern United States kills 57.

A deadly tornado outbreak affected the Southern United States and the lower Ohio Valley on February 5 and 6, 2008. The event, referred to as the Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak by the National Weather Service (NWS), began on Super Tuesday, while 24 states in the United States were holding primary elections and caucuses to select the presidential candidates for the upcoming presidential election. Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Alabama, and Tennessee were among the affected regions in which primaries were being held. Some voting locations were forced to close early due to the approaching severe weather.

05/02/2004

Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion.

The National Revolutionary Front for the Liberation and Reconstruction of Haiti was a rebel group in Haiti that controlled most of the country following the 2004 Haitian coup d'état. It was briefly known as the "Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front", after the country's central Artibonite region, before being renamed on February 19, 2004, to emphasize its national scope.

05/02/2000

Russian forces massacre at least 60 civilians in the Novye Aldi suburb of Grozny, Chechnya.

The Novye Aldi massacre was the mass murder of Chechen civilians on February 5, 2000, in which Russian forces went on a cleansing operation (zachistka), summarily executing dozens. The village had been cluster-bombed a day prior to the massacre, and local residents urged to come out for inspection the next day. Upon entering the village, Russian forces shot their victims with automatic fire at close range. The killings were accompanied by looting, rape, arson and robbery. As a result of the deadly rampage by Russian forces, up to 82 civilians were killed in the spree. Houses of civilians were burnt in an attempt to destroy evidence of summary executions and other crimes. Looting took place on a large scale and organised manner.

05/02/1997

The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families.

Banking in Switzerland dates to the early 18th century through Switzerland's merchant trade and over the centuries has grown into a complex and regulated international industry. Banking is seen as emblematic of Switzerland and the country has been one of the largest, if not largest, offshore financial centers and tax havens in the world since the mid-20th century, with a long history of banking secrecy, security and client confidentiality reaching back to the early 1700s. Starting as a way to protect wealthy European banking interests, Swiss banking secrecy was codified in 1934 with the passage of a landmark federal law, the Federal Act on Banks and Savings Banks. These laws were used to protect assets of persons being persecuted by Nazi authorities but have also been used by people and institutions seeking to illegally evade taxes, hide assets, or to commit other financial crime.

05/02/1994

Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.

Byron De La Beckwith Jr. was an American white supremacist and member of the Ku Klux Klan who murdered civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963, in Jackson, Mississippi.

Markale massacres, more than 60 people are killed and some 200 wounded as a mortar shell explodes in a downtown marketplace in Sarajevo.

The Markale market shelling or Markale massacres were two separate bombardments, with at least one of them confirmed to have been carried out by the Army of Republika Srpska, targeting civilians during the siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian War. They occurred at the Markale (marketplace) located in the historic core of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

05/02/1988

Manuel Noriega is indicted on drug smuggling and money laundering charges.

Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno was a Panamanian military officer and politician who was the de facto ruler of Panama from 1983 to 1989. He never officially served as president of Panama, instead ruling as an unelected military dictator through puppet presidents. Amassing a personal fortune through drug trafficking operations by the Panamanian military, Noriega had longstanding ties with American intelligence agencies before the United States invasion of Panama removed him from power.

05/02/1985

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.

Ugo Vetere was an Italian Communist Party politician. He was born in Reggio Calabria. He became mayor of Rome in 1981, after the death of his predecessor and served until 1985. He served in the Chamber of Deputies of Italy in Legislature VI, Legislature VII, Legislature VIII and in the Senate of the Republic in Legislature X.

05/02/1981

Operation Soap: The Metropolitan Toronto Police Force raids four gay bathhouses in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, arresting just under 300, triggering mass protest and rallies.

Operation Soap was a raid by the Metropolitan Toronto Police against four gay bathhouses in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which took place on February 5, 1981. Nearly three hundred men were arrested, the largest mass arrest in Canada since the 1970 October crisis, before the record was broken during the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs in Edmonton, Alberta.

05/02/1975

Riots break out 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.

Lima is the capital and largest city of Peru, as well as a primate city. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of the country, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The city is considered the political, cultural, financial and commercial center of Peru. Due to its geostrategic importance, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network has categorized it as a "beta" tier city. Jurisdictionally, the metropolis extends mainly within the province of Lima and in a smaller portion, to the west, within the Constitutional Province of Callao, where the seaport and the Jorge Chávez Airport are located. Both provinces have had regional autonomy since 2002.

05/02/1971

Astronauts land on the Moon in the Apollo 14 mission.

Apollo 14 was the eighth crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, the third to land on the Moon, and the first to land in the lunar highlands. It was the last of the "H missions", landings at specific sites of scientific interest on the Moon for two-day stays with two lunar extravehicular activities.

05/02/1967

Cultural Revolution: The Shanghai People's Commune is formally proclaimed, with Yao Wenyuan and Zhang Chunqiao being appointed as its leaders.

The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by CCP chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his death in 1976. Its stated goal was to preserve Chinese communism by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society.

05/02/1963

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.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ), officially the Court of Justice, is the supreme court of the European Union (EU) in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Union, it is tasked with interpreting EU law and ensuring its uniform application across all EU member states under Article 263 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

05/02/1962

French President Charles de Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence.

The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic or president of the Republic, is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency is the supreme magistracy of the country, the position is the highest office in France. The powers, functions and duties of prior presidential offices, in addition to their relation with the prime minister and government of France, have over time differed with the various constitutional documents since the Second Republic.

05/02/1958

Gamal Abdel Nasser is nominated to be the first president of the United Arab Republic.

Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was an Egyptian military officer and revolutionary who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-reaching land reforms the following year. Following a 1954 assassination attempt by a Muslim Brotherhood member, he cracked down on the organization, put President Mohamed Naguib under house arrest and assumed executive office. He was formally elected president in June 1956.

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.

A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon, using nuclear fusion. The most destructive weapons ever created, their yields typically exceed first-generation nuclear weapons by twenty times, with far lower mass and volume requirements. Characteristics of fusion reactions can make possible the use of non-fissile depleted uranium as the weapon's main fuel, thus allowing more efficient use of scarce fissile material. Its multi-stage design is distinct from the usage of fusion in simpler boosted fission weapons. The first full-scale thermonuclear test was carried out by the United States in 1952, and the concept has since been employed by at least the five NPT-recognized nuclear-weapon states: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, China, and France.

05/02/1945

World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.

Douglas MacArthur was an American general who served as a top commander during World War II and the Korean War, achieving the rank of General of the Army. He served with distinction in World War I; as chief of staff of the United States Army from 1930 to 1935; as Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area, from 1942 to 1945; as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers overseeing the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951; and as head of the United Nations Command in the Korean War from 1950 to 1951. MacArthur was nominated for the Medal of Honor three times, and awarded it for his WWII service in the Philippines. He is one of only five people to hold the rank of General of the Army, and the only person to hold the rank of Field Marshal in the Philippine Army.

05/02/1941

World War II: Allied forces begin the Battle of Keren to capture Keren, Eritrea.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

05/02/1933

Mutiny on Royal Netherlands Navy warship HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën off the coast of Sumatra, Dutch East Indies.

The Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN) is the maritime service branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. It traces its history to 8 January 1488, making it the third-oldest navy in the world.

05/02/1924

The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal.

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich is an observatory situated on a hill in Greenwich Park in south east London, overlooking the River Thames to the north. It played a major role in the history of astronomy and navigation, and because the Prime Meridian passed through it, it gave its name to Greenwich Mean Time, the precursor to today's Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The ROG has the IAU observatory code of 000, the first in the list. ROG, the National Maritime Museum, the Queen's House and the clipper ship Cutty Sark are collectively designated Royal Museums Greenwich.

05/02/1919

Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith launch United Artists.

Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. was an English comic actor, filmmaker, singer, film editor and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered one of the film industry's most important figures. His career spanned more than 75 years, from his childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977.

05/02/1918

Stephen W. Thompson shoots down a German airplane; this is the first aerial victory by the U.S. military.

Stephen W. Thompson was an American aviator of World War I. Flying as a gunner on a French aircraft in February 1918, he became the first member of the United States military to shoot down an enemy aircraft. Kiffin Rockwell achieved an earlier aerial victory as an American volunteer member of the French Lafayette Escadrille in 1916.

SS Tuscania is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland; it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.

SS Tuscania was a luxury liner of the Anchor Line, a subsidiary of the Cunard Line and named after Tuscania, Italy. In 1918 the ship was torpedoed and sunk by the German U-boat UB-77 while transporting American troops to Europe with the loss of 210 lives.

05/02/1917

The current constitution of Mexico is adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

The current Constitution of Mexico, formally the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States, was drafted in Santiago de Querétaro, in the State of Querétaro, Mexico, by a constituent convention during the Mexican Revolution. It was approved by the Constituent Congress on 5 February 1917, and was later amended several times. It is the successor to the Constitution of 1857, and earlier Mexican constitutions. "The Constitution of 1917 is the legal triumph of the Mexican Revolution. To some it is the revolution."

The Congress of the United States passes the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.

The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both meet in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

05/02/1913

Greek military aviators Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis perform the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane.

The Hellenic Air Force is the air force of Greece. It is considered to be one of the largest air forces in NATO, and is globally placed 18th out of 139 countries. Under the Kingdom of Greece from 1935 to 1973, it was previously known as the Royal Hellenic Air Force (RHAF).

Claudio Monteverdi's last opera L'incoronazione di Poppea was performed theatrically for the first time in more than 250 years.

Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered a crucial transitional figure between the Renaissance and Baroque periods of music history.

05/02/1907

Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic.

Leo Hendrik Baekeland was a Belgian chemist. Educated in Belgium and Germany, he spent most of his career in the United States. He is best known for the inventions of Velox photographic paper in 1893, and Bakelite in 1907. He has been called "The Father of the Plastics Industry" for his invention of Bakelite, an inexpensive, non-flammable and versatile plastic, which marked the beginning of the modern plastics industry.

05/02/1905

In Mexico, the General Hospital of Mexico is inaugurated, initially with four basic specialties.

The General Hospital of Mexico is a hospital in Mexico City, operated by the Secretariat of Health, the federal government department in charge of all social health services in Mexico.

05/02/1901

J. P. Morgan incorporates U.S. Steel in the state of New Jersey, although the company would not start doing business until February 25 and the assets of Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Steel Company, Elbert H. Gary's Federal Steel Company, and William Henry Moore's National Steel Company were not acquired until April 1.

John Pierpont Morgan Sr. was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known as JPMorgan Chase & Co., he was the driving force behind a wave of industrial consolidations in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century.

05/02/1885

King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal possession.

Leopold II was the second king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908.

05/02/1869

The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the "Welcome Stranger", is found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia.

Alluvium is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is typically geologically young and is not consolidated into solid rock. Sediments deposited underwater, in seas, estuaries, lakes, or ponds, are not described as alluvium. Floodplain alluvium can be highly fertile, and supported some of the earliest human civilizations.

05/02/1859

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 in the birth of the modern Romanian state.

Alexandru Ioan Cuza was the first domnitor (prince) of the Romanian Principalities through his double election as Prince of Moldavia on 5 January 1859 and Prince of Wallachia on 24 January 1859, which resulted in the unification of the two states. He was a prominent figure of the Moldavian Revolution of 1848. Following his double election, he initiated a series of liberal and progressive reforms that contributed to the modernization of Romanian society and of state structures.

05/02/1852

The New Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, opens to the public.

The State Hermitage Museum is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and holds the largest collection of paintings in the world. It was founded in 1764 when Empress Catherine the Great acquired a collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky. The museum celebrates the anniversary of its founding each year on 7 December, Saint Catherine's Day. It has been open to the public since 1852. The Art Newspaper ranked the museum 10th in their list of the most visited art museums, with 2,812,913 visitors in 2022.

05/02/1818

Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway.

Charles XIV John was King of Sweden and Norway from 1818 until his death in 1844 and the first monarch of the Bernadotte dynasty. In Norway, he is known as Charles III John ; before he became royalty in Sweden, his name was Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte. During the Napoleonic Wars, he participated in several battles as a Marshal of France.

05/02/1810

Peninsular War: Siege of Cádiz begins.

The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by the Iberian nations Spain and Portugal, along with the United Kingdom, against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, it is considered to overlap with the Spanish War of Independence. It overlapped with the War of the Fifth Coalition (1809) and the War of the Sixth Coalition (1812–1814).

05/02/1783

In Calabria, a sequence of strong earthquakes begins.

Calabria is a region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. It has 1,832,147 residents as of 2025 across a total area of 15,222 km2 (5,877 sq mi). Catanzaro is the region's capital.

05/02/1597

A group of early Japanese Christians are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society.

Kakure Kirishitan is a modern term for a member of the Catholic Church in Japan who went underground at the start of the Edo period in the early 17th century due to Christianity's repression by the Tokugawa shogunate. The term is particularly used today for those who have refused to embrace modern Roman Catholic practices and still hold onto the traditions established during the times of persecution.

05/02/1576

Henry of Navarre abjures Catholicism at Tours and rejoins the Protestant forces in the French Wars of Religion.

Henry IV, also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarch of France from the House of Bourbon, a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. He pragmatically balanced the interests of the Catholic and Protestant parties in France, as well as among the European states. He was assassinated in Paris in 1610 by a Catholic zealot, and was succeeded by his son Louis XIII.

05/02/1265

Pope Clement IV is elected as the 183rd Bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church.

Pope Clement IV, born Gui Foucois and also known as Guy le Gros, was Bishop of Le Puy (1257–1260), Archbishop of Narbonne (1259–1261), Cardinal of Sabina (1261–1265), and head of the Catholic Church from 5 February 1265 until his death. His election as pope occurred at a conclave held at Perugia that lasted four months while cardinals argued over whether to call in Charles I of Anjou, the youngest brother of Louis IX of France, to carry on the papal war against the Hohenstaufens. Pope Clement was a patron of Thomas Aquinas and of Roger Bacon, encouraging Bacon in the writing of his Opus Majus, which included important treatises on optics and the scientific method.

05/02/0756

An Lushan proclaims himself Emperor of China, founding the short-lived state of Yan.

An Lushan was a Chinese military general and rebel leader during the Tang dynasty and is primarily known for instigating the An Lushan rebellion which devastated China and killed millions of Han Chinese. The rebellion caused the decline of the Tang dynasty and led to the sacking of Chang'an by the Tibetan Empire.

05/02/0062

An earthquake with an estimated intensity between IX or X on the Mercalli scale occurs in Pompeii, Italy.

AD 62 (LXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Marius and Afinius. The denomination AD 62 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

01/01/1970

Caesar Augustus is granted the title pater patriae by the Roman Senate.

Augustus, also known as Octavian, was the founder of the Roman Empire and the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. The reign of Augustus initiated an imperial cult and an era of imperial peace in which the Roman world was largely free of armed conflict. The principate, a style of government where the emperor showed nominal deference to the Senate, was established during his reign and lasted until the Crisis of the Third Century.

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Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck, Bhutanese prince

Jisung, South Korean rapper

Taehyun, South Korean singer-songwriter

Kim Min-ju, South Korean actress

Patrick Roberts, English footballer

Stina Blackstenius, Swedish footballer

Adnan Januzaj, Belgian-Albanian footballer

Leilani Latu, Australian rugby league player

Ty Rattie, Canadian ice hockey player

Stefan de Vrij, Dutch footballer

Neymar, Brazilian footballer

Nabil Bahoui, Swedish footballer

Gerald Tusha, Albanian footballer

Dmitry Andreikin, Russian chess player

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Indian cricketer

Jordan Rhodes, Scottish footballer

Jeremy Sumpter, American actor

Alex Brightman, American actor, singer, and voice actor

Vedran Ćorluka, Croatian footballer

Kevin Gates, American rapper, singer, and entrepreneur

Lloyd Johansson, Australian rugby player

Laurence Maroney, American football player

Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese footballer

Carlos Tevez, Argentinian footballer

Anja Hammerseng-Edin, Norwegian handball player

Laura del Río, Spanish footballer

Kevin Everett, American football player

Tomáš Kopecký, Slovak ice hockey player

Rodrigo Palacio, Argentinian footballer

Mia Hansen-Løve, French director and screenwriter

Loukas Vyntra, Czech-Greek footballer

Brad Fitzpatrick, American programmer, created LiveJournal

Jo Swinson, Scottish politician

Nate Holzapfel, American entrepreneur and television personality

Brian Russell, American football player

Samuel Sánchez, Spanish cyclist

Ben Ainslie, English sailor

Adam Dykes, Australian rugby league player

Adam Everett, American baseball player and coach

John Aloisi, Australian footballer and manager

Abhishek Bachchan, Indian actor

Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Dutch footballer and manager

Michael Maguire, Australian rugby league player and coach

Richard Matvichuk, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

Trijntje Oosterhuis, Dutch singer-songwriter

Luke Ricketson, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster

Queen Mary of Denmark

Brad Fittler, Australian rugby league player, coach, and sportscaster

Michel Breistroff, French ice hockey player (died 1996)

Sara Evans, American country singer

Jean-Marc Jaumin, Belgian basketball player and coach

Darren Lehmann, Australian cricketer and coach

Jeremy Rockliff, Australian politician, 47th Premier of Tasmania

Bobby Brown, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor

Michael Sheen, Welsh actor and director

Derek Stephen Prince, American voice actor

Roberto Alomar, Puerto Rican-American baseball player and coach

Chris Barron, American rock singer

Marcus Grönholm, Finnish race car driver

Chris Parnell, American actor and comedian

José María Olazábal, Spanish golfer

Rok Petrovič, Slovenian skier (died 1993)

Tarik Benhabiles, Algerian-French tennis player and coach

Gheorghe Hagi, Romanian footballer and manager

Keith Moseley, American bass player and songwriter

Quique Sánchez Flores, Spanish footballer and manager

Jon Spencer, American singer, guitarist, and bandleader

Laura Linney, American actress

Ha Seung-moo, Korean poet, pastor, historical theologian

Duff McKagan, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer

Steven Shainberg, American film director and producer

Jennifer Jason Leigh, American actress, screenwriter, producer and director

Savvas Kofidis, Greek footballer and manager

Tim Meadows, American actor and screenwriter