1896 - Arthur Shields, Dublin Ireland, actor (River, Enchanted Island)

1483 - Babur, founder of Mughal dynasty in India (1526-30

1951 - Jane Seymour, [Joyce Frankenberg], England, actress (Dr Quinn)

1951 - Melissa Manchester, Bronx NY, vocalist (Don't Cry Out Loud)

1953 - Derek Conway, British MP

1557 - Alfonso Fontanelli, composer

1564 - Galileo Galilei, Pisa Italy, astronomer/physicist

1571 - Michael Praetorius, Kreuzberg Germany, composer (Syntagma music)

1901 - Christmas Humphreys, Engld, lawyer/writer/Buddhist (Awakening of Zen)

1650 - Anne Jules duke de Noailles, marshal of France (hugenot)

1955 - Christopher McDonald, American actor

1904 - Mary Adshead, muralist/painter

1705 - Charles A Vanloo, French painter

1906 - Stephen Brown, CEO (Stone-Platt Industries)

1710 - Louis XV the Well-Beloved, Versailles, King of France (1715-74)

1725 - Abraham Clark, American founding father (d. 1794)

1957 - Charles Edward Pevensey Tennant, aristocrat

1957 - Jake E Lee, rocker (Badlands-Dreams in the Dark)

1957 - Jimmy Spencer, American race car driver

1748 - Jeremy Bentham, London England philosopher/originator (Utilitarian)

1759 - Friedrich A Wolfius, [Wolf], German philological (Prolegomena)

1959 - Ali Campbell, British reggae vocalist/guitarist (UB40-Red Red Wine)

1764 - Jens I Baggesen, Danish writer/linguist (Danske V'rker)

1959 - Joe Hesketh, US baseball player (Boston Red Sox)

1913 - Willy Vandersteen, Belgian cartoonist (Suske & Wiske)

1774 - W G Frederik, prince of Orange

1780 - Carel Asser, Dutch jurist

1960 - Mikey Craig, rock bassist (Culture Club-Do You Really Want to Hurt Me)

1785 - Claude Louis Marie Navier

1914 - Hale Boggs, American politician (d. 1972)

1795 - Charles Niellon, Belgian brigade general (10 day campaign)

1797 - Henry Engelhard Steinway, piano maker (Steinway)

1800 - Frederik W Conrad, Dutch hydraulic engineer/railway pioneer

1966 - Petra Huber, Austria, tennis star

1967 - Michael Easton, actor, (Ally McBeal)

1809 - Cyrus Hall McCormick, inventor (Mechanical reaper)

1809 - Andr Dumont, Belgian geologist (d. 1857)

1920 - Endicott Peabody, 62nd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1997)

1968 - Axelle Red, Belgian singer and songwriter

1817 - Charles F Daubigny, French restauranteur/painter

1922 - John Bayard Anderson, American politician

1820 - Susan Brownell Anthony, Adams Mass, woman's suffragette

1821 - Abraham de Amorie van der de Have, theologist/poet

1923 - Yelena Bonner, Moscow, soviet disident/wife of Andre Sakharov

1970 - Gloria Trevi, Mexico, sexy spanish vocalist (A Gatas)

1825 - Carter Harrison, Sr., American politician (d. 1893)

1927 - Harvey Korman, Chicago, actor (Carol Burnett Show, Blazing Saddles)

1828 - Johan H van Dale, schoolmaster (New Dutch Language Dictionary)

1929 - Countess of Dysart

1971 - Jim Butler, Iowa City Iowa, table tennis player (Olympics-92, 96)

1835 - Alexander Stuart Webb, Major General (Union Army), died in 1911

1835 - Demetrius Vikelas, Greek author (d. 1908)

1841 - Manoel Ferraz de Campos Salles, Brazilian politician (d. 1913)

1930 - Nico Minardos, American actor

1847 - Robert Fuchs, composer

1973 - Amy Van Dyken, 50m/100m freestyle/100m butterfly swimmer (Oly-2 g-96)

1856 - Frank Harris, Galway England, writer

1932 - Adrian Swire, British aircraft magnate (Cathay Pacific)

1974 - Jodie McMullen, Miss Universe-Australia/Miss Congeniality (1996)

1974 - Tim Hall, running back (Oakland Raiders)

1934 - Graham Kennedy, Australian actor (d. 2005)

1935 - John R Block, US Secretary of Agriculture (1981-86)

1974 - Gina Lynn, American porn actress

1935 - Susan Brownmiller, Brooklyn, feminist author (Against Our Wills)

1936 - Andrew Miller, British principal (Stirling U)

1882 - John Barrymore, [Blythe], Phila, actor (Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde)

1883 - Sax Rohmer, English author (d. 1959)

1937 - Terry Everett, (Rep-R-Alabama)

1886 - Sax Rohmer, England, author (Dr Fu Manchu)

1887 - H M Bateman, Sutton Forest NSW, cartoonist

1938 - Jack Tinker, drama critic

1890 - Robert Ley, Nazi official (d. 1945)

1939 - Jo Clayton, US, sci-fi author (Irsud, Maeve, Star Hunters)

1893 - Harm H Kamerlingh Onnes, painter/etcher/ceramist

1978 - Tuan Le, American poker player

1894 - Oswaldo Aranha, Brazil, lawyer/statesman (1st pres of UN)

1895 - Earl Thomson, Canadian athlete (d. 1971)

1896 - Arthur Shields, Dublin Ireland, actor (River, Enchanted Island)

590 - Khosrau II is crowned king of Persia.

1113 - Pope Paschal II issued a bull sanctioning the establishment of the Order of Hospitallers.

1493 - While on board the Nia, Christopher Columbus writes an open letter (widely distributed upon his return to Portugal) describing his discoveries and the unexpected items he came across in the New World.

1637 - Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor.

1764 - The city of St. Louis, Missouri is established.

1804 - The Serbian revolution begins.

1835 - The first constitutional law in modern Serbia is adopted.

1862 - American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant attacks Fort Donelson, Tennessee.

1879 - Women's rights: American President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.

1898 - Spanish-American War: The USS Maine explodes and sinks in Havana harbor in Cuba, killing more than 260. This event leads the United States to declare war on Spain.

1906 - The British Labour Party is organised.

1909 - The Flores Theater fire in Acapulco, Mexico kills 250.

1933 - In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to assassinate President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but instead shoots Chicago mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds on March 6, 1933.

1942 - World War II: The Fall of Singapore. Following an assault by Japanese forces, the British General Arthur Percival surrenders. About 80,000 Indian, United Kingdom and Australian soldiers become prisoners of war, the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history. The Sook Ching massacre begins.

1944 - World War II: The assault on Monte Cassino, Italy, begins.

1946 - ENIAC, the first electronic general-purpose computer, is formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

1949 - Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux begin excavations at Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves, where they will eventually discover the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls.

1952 - King George VI is buried in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

1954 - Canada and the United States agree to construct the Distant Early Warning Line, a system of radar stations in the far northern Arctic regions of Canada and Alaska.

1961 - Sabena Flight 548 crashes in Belgium, killing 73, including the entire United States figure skating team, several coaches and family members.

1965 - A new red-and-white maple leaf design is adopted as the flag of Canada, replacing the old Canadian Red Ensign banner.

1970 - A Dominican DC-9 crashes into the sea during takeoff from Santo Domingo, killing 102.

1971 - The decimalisation of British coinage is completed on Decimal Day.

1972 - Sound recordings are granted U.S. federal copyright protection for the first time.

1972 - Jos Mara Velasco Ibarra, serving as President of Ecuador for the fifth time, is overthrown by the military for the fourth time.

1976 - The 1976 Constitution of Cuba is adopted by national referendum.

1979 - Don Dunstan resigns as Premier of South Australia, ending a decade of sweeping social liberalisation.

1982 - The drilling rig Ocean Ranger sinks during a storm off the coast of Newfoundland, killing 84 workers.

1989 - Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan: The Soviet Union officially announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan.

1991 - The Visegrd Agreement, establishing cooperation to move toward free-market systems, is signed by the leaders of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland.

1994 - Standard of the President of Russia is established.

1996 - At the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China, a Long March 3 rocket, carrying an Intelsat 708, crashes into a rural village after liftoff, killing many people.

1999 - Abdullah calan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party, is arrested in Kenya.

2000 - Indian Point II nuclear power plant in New York State vents a small amount of radioactive steam when a steam generator fails.

2001 - First draft of the complete human genome is published in Nature.

2003 - Protests against the Iraq war take place in over 600 cities worldwide. It is estimated that between 8 million to 30 million people participate, making this the largest peace demonstration in history.