Sweet Patronus

Events
1545 - Council of Trent begins
1577 - Sir Francis Drake sets out from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage
1642 - Abel Janszoon Tasman reaches New Zealand.
1643 - English Civil War: The Battle of Alton takes place in Hampshire.
1862 - American Civil War: At the Battle of Fredericksburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeats the Union Major General Ambrose E. Burnside.
1937 - Battle of Nanjing concludes with the Japanese victory and the fall of the city which became the site of the Nanjing Massacre
1938 - 100 deportees from Sachsenhausen build the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg
1939 - The Battle of the River Plate, the first major naval battle of World War II, begins.
1949 - The Knesset votes to move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem
1959 - Archbishop Makarios becomes the first President of Cyprus
1972 - A chartered Spanish airliner crashes on takeoff from the Canary Islands, killing 155
1973 - Rael, leader of the Raelian Movement meets an ET named Yahweh, during a UFO encounter in Puy de Lassolas,France.
1974 - Malta becomes a republic
1977 - A United States government aircraft DC-3 crashes after takeoff at Evansville, Indiana, killing 29, including the University of Evansville basketball team
1978 - The first Susan B. Anthony dollar enters circulation
1979 - The Canadian Government of Prime Minister Joe Clark is defeated in the House of Commons.
1981 - General Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland
1989 - The last issue of Gnistan (The Spark), the organ of the Solidarity Party, is published in Sweden.
1996 - Kofi Annan elected as Secretary-General of the United Nations.
2000 - The Texas 7 escape from a Texas prison and go on a crime spree.
2001 - Parliament of India attacked by armed militants. Attempt foiled.
2002 - The European Union announces the addition of ten new members, effective May 1, 2004.
2003 - Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit.
2003 - The most-attended basketball game in history, between Michigan State University and the University of Kentucky at Ford Field.
2004 - A moderate 5.4 Richter Scale earthquake is felt all over Portugal.
2004 - Former Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet is put under house arrest, after being sued under accusations over 9 kidnapping actions and manslaughter. The house arrest is lifted the same day on appeal.
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Births
1521 - Pope Sixtus V (d. 1590)
1533 - King Eric XIV of Sweden (d. 1577)
1553 - King Henry IV of France (d. 1610)
1585 - William Drummond of Hawthornden, Scottish poet (d. 1649)
1640 - Robert Plot, British naturalist (d. 1696)
1662 - Francesco Bianchini, Italian philosopher and scientist (d. 1729)
1678 - Yongzheng Emperor of China (d. 1735)
1724 - Franz Aepinus, German scientist (d. 1802)
1784 - Archduke Louis of Austria (d. 1864)
1797 - Heinrich Heine, German poet (d. 1856)
1804 - Joseph Howe, Canadian politician (d. 1873)
1813 - David Spangler Kaufman, American politician (d. 1851)
1816 - Ernst Werner von Siemens, German engineer, inventor, and industrialist (d. 1892)
1818 - Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady of the United States (d. 1882)
1836 - Franz von Lenbach, German painter (d. 1904)
1854 - Thomas Watson, American telephone pioneer (d. 1934)
1856 - Svetozar Boroević, Austrian field marshal (d. 1920)
1864 - Emil Seidel, Mayor of Milwaukee (d. 1947)
1867 - Kristian Birkeland, Norwegian explorer and scientist (d. 1917)
1874 - Josef Lhévinne, Russian-born pianist (d. 1944)
1883 - Belle da Costa Greene, librarian, bibliographer, archivist (d. 1950)
1887 - George Polya, Hungarian-born mathematician (d. 1985)
1887 - Alvin York, American soldier of World War I (d. 1964)
1897 - Drew Pearson, American journalist (d. 1969)
1903 - Carlos Montoya, Spanish guitarist (d. 1993)
1906 - Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (d. 1968)
1906 - Laurens van der Post, South African author (d. 1996)
1910 - Van Heflin, American actor (d. 1971)
1911 - Trygve Haavelmo, Norwegian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
1911 - Kenneth Patchen, American poet and painter (d. 1972)
1913 - Archie Moore, American boxer (d. 1998)
1915 - Curd Jürgens, German actor (d. 1982)
1915 - Ross Macdonald, American-born author (d. 1983)
1923 - Philip Warren Anderson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1923 - Larry Doby, baseball player (d. 2003)
1925 - Dick Van Dyke, American actor and comedian
1926 - George Rhoden, Jamaican athlete
1927 - Christopher Plummer, Canadian actor
1934 - Richard D. Zanuck, American film producer
1936 - His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan, Shia Imam
1943 - Ferguson Jenkins, baseball player
1948 - Ted Nugent, American musician
1948 - Brian Wilson, British politician
1950 - Tom Vilsack, Governor of Iowa
1953 - Ben Bernanke, American economist
1953 - Bob Gainey, Canadian hockey player
1957 - Steve Buscemi, American actor
1957 - Morris Day, American musician (The Time (band))
1957 - Jean-Marie Messier, French businessman
1958 - Lynn-Holly Johnson American figure skater and actress
1959 - Nadia Russ, Ukrainian-born artist
1961 - Harry Gregson-Williams, British-born composer
1964 - Matsumoto Hideto, Japanese musician
1965 - David Windsor, Canadian actor
1967 - Jamie Foxx, American actor
1974 - Nicholas McCarthy, German guitarist (Franz Ferdinand)
1975 - Tom Delonge, American guitarist (blink-182)
1981 - Amy Lee, American singer (Evanescence)
1983 - Otylia Jędrzejczak, Polish swimmer
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Deaths
1048 - Al-Biruni, Persian mathematician (b. 973)
1124 - Pope Callixtus II
1204 - Maimonides, Spanish rabbi and philosopher (b. 1135)
1250 - Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1194)
1404 - Albert, Count of Holland (b. 1336)
1466 - Donatello, Italian artist (b. 1386)
1516 - Johannes Trithemius, German cryptographer (b. 1462)
1521 - King Manuel I of Portugal (b. 1469)
1557 - Niccolo Fontana Tartaglia, Italian mathematician
1565 - Conrad Gessner, Swiss naturalist (b. 1516)
1603 - François Viète, French mathematician (b. 1540)
1621 - Katarina Stenbock, queen of Gustav I of Sweden (b. 1535)
1716 - Charles de La Fosse, French painter (b. 1640)
1721 - Alexander Selkirk, Scottish sailor and castaway (b. 1676)
1729 - Anthony Collins, English philosopher (b. 1676)
1754 - Mahmud I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1696)
1769 - Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, German poet (b. 1715)
1783 - Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin, Swedish astronomer (b. 1717)
1784 - Samuel Johnson, English writer and lexicographer (b. 1709)
1814 - Charles Joseph, Prince de Ligne, Austrian field marshal (b. 1735)
1863 - Christian Friedrich Hebbel, German writer (b. 1813)
1868 - Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, German botanist (b. 1794)
1881 - August Senoa, Croatian writer (b. 1838)
1883 - Victor de Laprade, French poet and critic (b. 1812)
1919 - Woldemar Voigt, German physicist (b. 1850)
1930 - Fritz Pregl, Austrian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869)
1931 - Gustave le Bon, French psychologist (b. 1840)
1935 - Victor Grignard, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1871)
1944 - Wassily Kandinsky, Russian artist (b. 1866)
1947 - Nicholas Roerich, Russian painter (b. 1874)
1955 - Egas Moniz, Portuguese physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1874)
1961 - Grandma Moses, American artist (b. 1860)
1983 -Nichita Stanescu, Romanian poet (b.1933)
1993 - Vanessa Duriès, French novelist (b. 1972)
2001 - Chuck Schuldiner, American musician (b. 1967)
2002 - Zal Yanofsky, American musican (The Lovin’ Spoonful) (b. 1945)
2003 - William V. Roth, Jr., U.S. Senator from Delaware (b. 1921)
2004 - Andre Rodgers, baseball player (b. 1934)
2004 - David Wheeler, English computer scientist (b. 1927)
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Holidays and observances
Republic Day in Malta (1974)
Catholicism - Saint Lucy’s day.
In the Irish calendar the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday following the Feast of Saint Lucy were observed as Quarter tense.
St. Lucia Day in Sweden