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Daisuke Inoue

Daisuke Inoue

Inoue Daisuke invented the karaoke machine in 1971 but never bothered to patent it, losing his chance to become one of Japan's richest men. For a man who lost out on one of music's biggest paychecks, Daisuke is surprisingly still blessed with a good sense of humour. Daisuke was born 10 May, 1940 in Osaka. He likes to describe his invention as "taking a car stereo, a coin box and a small amp to make the karaoke". Daisuke was a rhythmically challenged drummer in a Kobe covers band when he hit on the idea of pre-recording his own backing tracks. The band had spent years learning how to make drunken businessmen sound in tune by following rather than leading, and drowning out the worst of the damage, so Daisuke knew the tricks of the trade when the boss of a steel firm asked him to record a tape for a company trip to a hot springs resort. Karaoke (meaning empty orchestra) in its current format has its origin when Daisuke and his friends gave it a leg up into the world by making more tapes and leasing machines to bars around Kobe. By the 1980's, karaoke was one of the few words that required no translation across much of Asia. China embraced it, and Hong Kong sent it back to Japan as karaoke boxes, small booths where friends and family could out-croon each other in soundproofed bliss. Daisuke languished for years in international obscurity. But in 1999, after karaoke had stomped noisily into the United States and Europe, Time Magazine astonishingly called him one of the 20th Century's most influential Asians, saying he "had helped to liberate legions of the once unvoiced: as much as Mao Zedong or Mohandas Gandhi changed Asian days, Daisuke transformed its nights." Daisuke was presented the Ig Nobel Peace Prize at Harvard University, a joke award presented by the American science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research and featuring real Nobel Prize winners; he received a standing ovation after calling himself the "last samurai" and attempted a wobbly version of the 1970's Coca-Cola anthem "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing". The Nobel laureates in turn (or in revenge) murdered the Andy Williams standard "Can't Take My Eyes Off You". These days Daisuke makes a living selling, among other things, an eco-friendly detergent and a cockroach repellent for karaoke machines. "Cockroaches get inside the machines, build nests and chew on the wires," he explained. Friends say he is the ideas man, while his wife, who works in the same Osaka office, helps bring them to life. Karaoke is used as therapy to make people happy everywhere. There is a strong case that karaoke is socially useful, rather than the bane of quiet pint-drinkers.

External link

[http://www.japanfocus.org/article.asp?id=398 Mr. Song and Dance Man] Category:Japanese people ja:井上大佑

Karaoke

Karaoke (Japanese: カラオケ, from 空 kara, "empty", and オーケストラ ōkesutora, "orchestra") is a form of entertainment where recorded music accompanies an amateur singer who sings along with the accompaniment on microphone. The music is of a well-known song in which the voice of the original singer is absent or reduced in volume. Lyrics are usually also displayed, sometimes including color changes synchronized with the music, on music video to help with the sing-along. Karaoke has been a popular form of entertainment in East Asia since at least the 1980s, and has since spread to other parts of the world. Karaoke engenders quite a bit of culture specific to its enthusiasts, and this culture, unsurprisingly, varies from country to country. Much of the information in this entry is currently specific to karaoke's area of origin in the Far East.

Word origin

The Japanese word stems from the words kara (空), meaning "empty" (as in karate, "empty hand") and oke which is short for ōkesutora, meaning "orchestra". The words together make a contraction literally meaning "empty orchestra". It used to be a slang in media where a live performance is substituted by a pre-recorded music and thus it is written in katakana. The term karaoke can be interpreted as "virtual orchestra" because one can specify a key to the music and start singing along without the presence of a live band or orchestra. In the United States, the word is often pronounced as . The Japanese pronunciation is . (These pronunciations are in IPA.) IPA]

History

It has been common to provide a musical entertainment at a dinner or a party in Japan for a long time. It appeared in the earliest Japanese mythology. For a long time, singing and dancing remained the only entertainment in the rural area. Noh was initially played at a tea party and guests were welcomed to join in for a cheer or a shout of praise. Dancing and singing was also a part of a samurai's education. It was expected that every samurai have a dance or a song they could perform. During the Taisho period, Utagoe Kissa, (literally song coffee shop), became popular and customers sung to a live performance of a music band. The industry started in Japan in the early 1970s when singer Daisuke Inoue (Inoue Daisuke) was asked by frequent guests in the Utagoe Kissa where he performed to provide a recording of his performance so that they could sing along on a company-sponsored vacation. Realizing the potential for the market, Inoue made a tape recorder that played a song for a 100-yen coin. This was a karaoke machine. Instead of selling karaoke machines, he leased them out, so that stores didn't have to buy new songs on their own. Originally it was considered a fad which was lacking the "live atmosphere" of a real performance. It was also regarded as somewhat expensive since 100 yen in the 1970s was the price of two typical lunches. However, it caught on as a popular entertainment. Karaoke machines were initially placed in restaurants or hotel rooms; however, new businesses called Karaoke Box with compartmented rooms became popular. (See below "Public Places for Karaoke" and Terms of Karaoke" for a description of karaoke boxes.) In 2004, Daisuke Inoue was dubiously awarded the Ig Nobel Peace Prize for inventing karaoke, "thereby providing an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other." Early karaoke machines used cassette tapes but technological advances replaced this with CDs, VCDs, laserdiscs and, currently, DVDs. In 1992, Taito introduced the X2000 that fetched music via a dial-up telephone network. Its repertoire of music and graphics was limited, but the advantage of continuous updates and the smaller machine size saw it gradually replace traditional machines. It is now common to use karaoke machines connected via fiber-optic links to provide instant high-quality music and video. X2000] Karaoke soon spread to the rest of Asia and then to the United States in the 1990s. Facilities such as karaoke bars or "KTV boxes" provided the venue, equipment and software for amateur singers to entertain (or "torture") each other. Its popularity has spread rapidly to the United States, Canada and other Western countries. Some people still regard it as "hokey" and simply a method for the intoxicated to embarrass themselves, but as the novelty has worn off and the available selection of music has exploded, more and more people within the industry see it as a very profitable form of lounge and nightclub entertainment. It is not uncommon for some bars to have karaoke performances seven nights a week, commonly with much more high-end sound equipment than the small, standalone machines noted above. Dance floors and lighting effects are also becoming common sights in karaoke bars. Lyrics are often displayed on multiple TV sets around the bar, including big screens. It also growing in popularity in the United Kingdom, with Martha Lane Fox, the founder of lastminute.com, helping finance what is being touted as a chain of upmarket Karaoke venues, called Lucky Voice.

Technology

A basic karaoke machine consists of audio input, a means of altering the pitch of the music (not the singer) and an audio output. Some low-end machines attempt to provide vocal suppression so that one can feed regular songs into the machine and suppress the voice of the original singer, however this is not very effective (see below). Most common machines are audio mixers with microphone input built-in with CD+G, Video CD, Laser Disc, or DVD players. CD+G players use a special track called subcode to encode the lyrics and pictures displayed on the screen, while the other formats natively display both audio and video. In some countries, karaoke with video lyrics display capabilities is called KTV. Most karaoke machines have technology that electronically changes the pitch of music so that amateur singers can sing along to any music source by choosing a key that is appropriate for their vocal range, while maintaining the original tempo of the song. (There were some very old systems that used cassettes, and these changed the pitch by altering playback speed, but none are still on the market, and their commercial use is virtually nonexistent.) A popular game using karaoke is to randomly type in a number and call up a song, which participants take a turn to try to sing as much as they can. In some machines, this game is pre-programmed and may be limited to a genre so that they cannot call up an obscure national anthem that none of them can sing. This game has come to be called "Kamikaze Karaoke" in some parts of the United States and Canada. Many low-end entertainment systems (boom boxes etc) have a karaoke mode that attempts to remove the vocal track from general (non-karaoke) audio CDs. This is done by center removal which exploits the fact that in most music the vocals are in the center. This means that the voice, as part of the music, has equal volume on both stereo channels and no phase difference. To get the quasi-karaoke (mono) track the left channel of the original audio is subtracted from the right channel. The crudeness of that approach is reflected in the often poor performance of voice removal. Common effects are hearing the echo of the voice track (due to stereo echo being put on the vocals), and also other instruments that happen to be mixed into the center get removed (snare/bass drum, solo instruments), degrading this approach to hardly more than a gimmick in those devices.

MIDI applications and
- .kar files

Some computer programs that serve a similar purpose to the standard karaoke machine have been developed that use MIDI instrumentation to generate the accompaniment rather than a recorded track. This has the advantage of making transposition technically trivial and also shrinks the information needed to provide the accompaniment to the point where it is easy to transfer them across the Internet, even over slow connections. The standard file format used is
- .KAR, which is an extension of the standard .MID MIDI disk format, and can be played unaltered by MIDI player software.

Video game

A karaoke game was initially released for the Nintendo Famicom but its limited computing ability made for a short catalog of songs, and therefore reduced replay value. As a result, karaoke games were considered little more than collector's items until games saw release in the higher-capacity DVD format. Karaoke Revolution, created for the PlayStation 2 by Konami and released in North America in 2003, is a console game in which a single player sings along with on-screen guidance, and receives a score based on his or her pitch, timing, and rhythm. The game soon spawned two more versions, Karaoke Revolution Vol. 2 and Karaoke Revolution Vol. 3. While the original Karaoke Revolution was also eventually released for the Microsoft Xbox console in late 2004, the new online-enabled version included the ability to download additional song packs through the console's exclusive Xbox Live service. A similar game, SingStar, published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, is particularly popular in the European and Australasian markets. Other similar titles in the rhythm-based game genre include Bemani's Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Freaks, and Drum Mania.

Karaoke VCD

The takeoff of Video CDs in Southeast Asia is partly due to the cheap but tolerable quality, and partly due to the popularity of karaoke. Many VCD players in Southeast Asia have built-in Karaoke function. If users disable the singer's voice and leave the music alone, they can play karaoke. In the past, there were only pop-song karaoke VCDs. Nowadays, different types of karaoke VCD are available. Cantonese opera karaoke VCD is now a big hit among the elderly in Hong Kong.

Karaoke on mobile phones

In 2003, several companies started offering a karaoke service on a mobile phone. This is still a budding service and it is unclear whether this service will take root even with all advances in technology. However, some Mobile Karaoke providers, such as Karaokini, have begun to achieve commercial success. Karaokini is sold through Vodafone Live! in Greece and Malta. Karaoke services on mobile phones most often deploy a Java midlet which runs with a text file containing the words and a midi file with the music. [http://www.web2txt.co.uk/ www.web2txt.co.uk]are the first company to offer fully licensed blue screen [http://www.web2txt.co.uk/mobile-phone-karaoke.html Mobile Phone Karaoke] in 3gp (mobile video) format which offers a much better end user experience.

Karaoke on computers and internet

Starting in 2003, much software has been released for hosting karaoke shows, and playing karaoke songs on a personal computer. Instead of having to carry around hundreds of CD-G's or LaserDiscs, a KJ can 'rip' their entire library onto a hard drive, and play the songs and lyrics from that. Additionally, new software permits singers to sing and listen to one another over the Internet with collaborators/audience from all around the world.

Alternative playback devices

The CD+G format of karaoke disc, which contains the lyrics on a specially encoded subcode track, has heretofore required special—and expensive—equipment to play it. Commercial players have come down in price, though, and some unexpected devices (including the Sega Saturn videogame console) can decode the graphics; in fact, karaoke machines, including video and sometimes recording capability, are often popular electronics items for sale in toy stores and electronics stores. Additionally, there is software for Windows, Pocket PC, Linux, and Macintosh PC's that can decode and display karaoke song tracks, though usually these must be ripped off of the CD first, and possibly compressed. Recently, Karaoke software was also made available for mobile telephones, mainly in Asian countries. In addition to CD+G and Software-based Karaoke, microphone-based Karaoke players enjoy popularity mainly in North America and some Asian countries such as the Philippines. Microphone-based Karaoke Players only need to be connected to a TV - and in some cases to a power outlet, in other cases they run on batteries. These devices often sport advanced features, such as pitch correction and special sound effects. Some companies offer Karaoke content for paid download to extend the song library in microphone-based Karaoke systems. CD+G and Microphone-based Karaoke systems are typically also used at home. Recently, DVD Karaoke disks became the most popular medium for home-Karaoke in North America. This is due to the large amount of DVD Players in US Households which enables consumers to simply play a DVD rather than have to hook up new equipment. DVD]

Public places for karaoke

A karaoke bar / karaoke restaurant / karaoke club / karaoke lounge is simply a bar or restaurant with karaoke equipment, so that people can sing publicly. This is the most common arrangement in North America. Many establishments offer karaoke on a weekly schedule, while some have shows every night. Such establishments commonly invest more in both equipment and song discs, and are often extremely popular, with an hour or more wait between a singer's opportunities to take the stage (called the 'rotation'). In Asia, a Karaoke box (also called KTV or Noraebang) is the most popular type of karaoke venue. A karaoke box is a small or medium-sized room containing karaoke equipment for a group of friends to rent by timed increments, providing for a more intimate and less public atmosphere. Some believe that the karaoke box format originated in South Korea. In some traditional Chinese restaurants, there are so-called "mahjong-karaoke rooms" where elderly can play mahjong and teenagers can enjoy karaoke. The result is fewer complaints about boredom but more noise.

Terms of karaoke

Gian

A character ("Jaian" in romaji, ジャイアン) from Doraemon, known for his highly questionable singing ability. Thus someone who loves karaoke but can only sing completely out of tune, is referred as a Gian, pronounced like giant, but without the t sound on the end.

Ohako (18th)

Some karaoke singers have one song which they are especially good at, and which they use to show off their singing abilities. It is called Ohako (十八番), meaning "18th", which refers to the 18 most popular kabuki plays. It is also used to mean being good at any entertainment such as dancing or playing an instrument. "Number 18" is slang in Korean and mildly obscene because going to karaoke was one of the few occasions where a male and a female could get together in Korea. The term took hold in Korea during the Japanese colonial period when varieties of entertainment were introduced. In Hong Kong, such a song is called a "banquet song" (飲歌).

KTV, Karaoke box, Noraebang

:Main article: KTV A KTV, Karaoke box, or Noraebang is a venue where small, private rooms can be rented for singing.

Sing K

There is a new term originating from Hong Kong which refers to "going to a karaoke box"; karaoke is abbreviated as "K". This buzzword is now particularly prevalent in Chinese-speaking countries or regions like Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China, Taiwan, and Singapore. In fact, there are other similar new terms, of which karaoke is identically shorted as a single "K", e.g.:
- The K King / The King of K: a man who is sophisticated in karaoke singing.
- The K Queen / The Queen of K: a woman who is sophisticated in karaoke singing.
- a K song: (1)similar to "Ohako" (see above); (2) a song which is designated for karaoke, particularly due to its easy-to-remember melody and smooth lyrics.
- K lunch / K buffet: meals (buffet) served in karaoke boxes; people can sing songs while enjoying their food.
- K hours: going to a karaoke box in happy hours, usually with special discounts.
- K fun: karaoke discount coupons, or the act of going for karaoke

Karaoke in fiction

Karaoke appears in a variety of fictional settings in Asia, often as a place young people gather for fun. The small size of a karaoke room makes for an intimate and simple setting.

Karaoke in film

Karaoke has been depicted in movies and television shows. Examples include the 1996 comedy film The Cable Guy, and the 1997 Korean movie No. 3, a gangster comedy film, in which some of the characters are depicted drunk and singing off-key. A more recent example is Lost in Translation. Karaoke is central to the 2000 movie Duets, which was reasonably well researched, and presents the topic in a fairly positive light.

See also


- Pop Idol
- http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiScores
- http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Music_markup

External links


- [http://www.croonon.com croonon.com] Online karaoke
- [http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/opinion/200211/kt2002112117032611330.htm Singing as the "National Sport" of Korea]
- [http://www.karaokeforever.com Karaoke Forever], a comprehensive guide to karaoke, including where to sing as well background information and community features..
- [http://www.musicwebcenter.com All Music Center], helps you find karaoke files and other useful music resources..
- [http://www.loudkaraoke.com Karaoke], Online source for Karaoke Information on Music, Equipment and News..
- [http://www.webbyshop.com Enter Tech Magic Sing], the source for the latest updates on Enter Tech karaoke microphones.
- [http://www.web2txt.co.uk/mobile-phone-karaoke.html Mobile Phone Karaoke], 3gp mobile video format mobile phone karaoke from a leading ringtone retailer.

Karaoke Brands


- [http://www.sunflykaraoke.com Sunfly]
- [http://www.cbkaraoke.com Chartbuster Karaoke]
- [http://www.toptuneskaraoke.com Top Tunes Karaoke]
- [http://www.stellarrecords.com Stellar Records]
- [http://www.pocketsongs.com Pocket Songs]
- [http://www.priddis.com Priddis]
- [http://www.audio-stream-karaoke.com AudioStream Karaoke]
- [http://www.soundchoice.com Sound Choice Karaoke]
- [http://www.keynote-karaoke.com Keynote Karaoke]

Karaoke related software


- [http://www.karafun.com KaraFun Free Karaoke Software] - midi mp3 karaoke player and editor for Windows
- [http://www.untiedknot.co.uk/ CDG conversion tools] - Convert your CDG files into AVI/VCD/DVD streams
- [http://www.activeaspsoftware.net/ Karaoke-Go-Round] - Karaoke Rotation Management and Playback Software for Windows, and MP3+G Toolz, karaoke file utility
- [http://www.karaokebuilder.com Karaoke Builder] - track creation editor
- [http://kibosh.org/pykaraoke/ PyKaraoke] - MP3+G and MIDI player for Linux/Windows
- [http://kibosh.org/cdgtools/ cdgtools] - CD+G ripper and tools for Linux
- [http://www.vanbasco.com/karaokeplayer/ Vanbasco] - midi-karaoke player for Windows
- [http://www.powerkaraoke.com/ PowerKaraoke] - player and various tools for Windows
- [http://www.kyuran.be/world/html/article-4-0.html Kara-O-Pocket and PocketCDG] - players for Pocket PC
- [http://www.ktunes.net/ kTunes] - Rip / Mix / Play CD+G on Macintosh. Manage Venues, Singers & Rotation.
- [http://www.karaoke-shop.com/product_info.php?cPath=117&products_id=2420/ interactive karaoke dvds] - Interactive Karaoke is a new and unique concept has revolutionised the world of karaoke.
- [http://www.physysteme.com phy systeme] - CD+G and MP3+G player fow Windows using winamp.
- [http://www.karaokesongfinder.com Karaoke SongFinder] - Software to create "electronic songbooks" and eliminate paper books.

Microphone based karaoke


- [http://www.onkeykaraoke.com/ On-Key Karaoke] - Compact Karaoke Players featuring advanced sound effects
- [http://www.enter-tech.com/ Enter-Tech] - MIDI-based Karaoke Microphones
- [http://www.leadsinger.com/ Leadsinger] - Karaoke Machines with Wireless capability

International competitions


- [http://www.kwc.fi KWC] - Karaoke World Championships

Live band karaoke


- [http://bitchingandmoaning.org/archives/2005/04/behind_the_musi_1.php Punk Rock/Heavy Metal Live Band Karaoke]

Heavy Metal Karaoke


- [http://www.hevikaraoke.fi Heavy Metal Karaoke] - site mainly in Finnish, briefly in English

Punk Metal Karaoke


- [http://punkmetalkaraoke.com Punk Metal Karaoke]

Hip Hop Karaoke


- [http://hiphopkaraokenyc.com Hip Hop Karaoke] - Based in New York City Category:Japanese entertainment terms Category:Japanese culture ja:カラオケ th:คาราโอเกะ

1971

1971 (MCMLXXI) is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar).

Events

January


- January 1 - British Divorce Reform Act comes into force
- January 2 - 66 die in stairway crush at Rangers v Celtic football match, Glasgow, Scotland. See Ibrox disaster.
- January 2 - A ban on television cigarette advertisements goes into effect in the United States.
- January 3 - BBC Open University begins in the United Kingdom
- January 7 - Howard Hughes breaks his silence to announce that his supposed biography is a forgery.
- January 8 – Tupamaros kidnap Geoffrey Jackson, British ambassador to Uruguay, in Montevideo; they keep him captive until September
- January 9 – Uruguayan president Jorge Pacheco Areco demands emergency powers for 90 days due to kidnappings and receives them the next day
- January 14 – 70 Brazilian political prisoners released in Santiago. Giovanni Enrico Bucher is released January 16
- January 15 - Aswan Dam officially opened
- January 18 – Strikes in Poland demand resignation of interior minister Kazimierz Switala. He resigns January 23 and is replaced by Franciszek Szlachcic
- January 19 – Representatives of 23 western oil companies begin negotiations with OPEC in Tehran to stabilize oil prices. February 14 they sign a treaty with six Persian Gulf countries
- January 19 - No, No Nanette premieres (46th Street Theatre, New York City)
- January 24 – Guinean government sentences to death 92 Guineans who helped Portuguese troops in the failed landing attempts in November 1970. 72 are sentenced to hard labor for life. 58 of the sentenced are hanged the next day
- January 25 - Charles Manson and three female "family members" are found guilty of the 1969 murder of Sharon Tate and others at Sharon's house
- January 25 - Idi Amin leads a coup deposing Milton Obote and becomes Uganda's president
- January 25 - Himachal Pradesh becomes the 18th Indian state
- January 31 - Apollo program: US spaceflight Apollo 14, commanded by Alan Shepard, lifts off on the third successful lunar landing mission

February


- February 2 - Idi Amin ousts Milton Obote and assumes power in Uganda
- February 4 - In Britain, Rolls Royce goes bankrupt - state takes over
- February 5 - Apollo 14 lands on the Moon.
- February 7 - Tuscany, Italy, wrecked in an earthquake
- February 7 - Men of Switzerland vote for giving voting rights to women in state elections - but not in all canton-specific ones.
- February 7 – Wladyslaw Gomulka is expelled from central council of the Polish communist party
- February 8 - A new stock market index called the Nasdaq debuts
- February 9 - The 6.4 on the Richter Scale Sylmar earthquake hits the San Fernando Valley area of California.
- February 9 - Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro League player to become voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame
- February 9 - Apollo program: Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned moon landing
- February 11 - US, UK, USSR, others sign Seabed Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons.
- February 11-12 – Palestinian and Jordanian fighters clash in Amman
- February 13 - Vietnam War: Backed by American air and artillery support, South Vietnamese troops invade Laos.
- February 15 - "Decimalisation Day" - United Kingdom and Ireland both switch to decimal currency. See also decimalisation.
- February 15 – Angry Belgian farmers crash the EEC meeting in Brussels with three live cows with them
- February 16 – In Italy, local parliament elects the city of Catanzaro as the capital of Calabria – residents of Reggio di Calabria riot for five days because of the decision
- February 20 – 50 tornadoes rage in Mississippi – 74 dead
- February 20 - US Emergency Broadcast System sends an erroneous warning - many radio stations just ignore it
- February 21 - The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
- February 26 - Secretary-General U Thant signs United Nations proclamation of the vernal equinox as Earth Day.
- February 27 - Doctors in the first Dutch abortion clinic (Mildredhuis in Arnhem) start to perform abortus provocatus

March


- March 1 - Bomb explodes in men's room in the White House - Weather Underground claims responsibility.
- March 1 - Pakistani President Yahya Khan indefinitely postponed the pending national assembly session, precipitating massive civil disobedience in East Pakistan.
- March 1 - Canadian John Robarts ends his term of office as 17th premier of Ontario
- March 5 – Pakistani army occupies the East Pakistan
- March 7 – Strike of British postal workers ends after 47 days
- March 10 - Twenty-sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution lowers voting age to 18.
- March 12 - Hafez al-Assad becomes president of Syria.
- March 16 – Government of Trygve Bratteli in Norway
- March 18 - A landslide at Chungar, Peru crashes into Lake Yanahuani killing 200
- March 23 – Military coup in Argentina – general Alejandro Lanusse takes power
- March 25 – Pakistani army starts massive killing in East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh, after an open, non-democratic denial by Pakistani president Yahiya Khan, a military ruler, of election results that gave Awami League an overwhelming majority in the parliament.
- March 26 - The Independence Day of Bangladesh.
- March 29 - Filming begins on The Godfather. Shooting starts on Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather. The movie, released in 1972, won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay.
- March 29 - William Calley is found guilty of 22 murders in My Lai massacre and sentenced to life in prison. He is later pardoned.
- March 29 - A Los Angeles, California jury recommends the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers.

April


- April 1 - United Kingdom lifts all restrictions on gold ownership
- April 5 – In Ceylon, group calling himself People’s Liberation Front begins a rebellion against Bandaranaike government
- April 5 – Chile and East Germany form diplomatic relations
- April 5 - Mount Etna erupts
- April 7 – Greece releases 261 political prisoners, 50 of which are sent to internal exile
- April 8 – Right-wing coup attempt exposed in Laos
- April 9 - Charles Manson is sentenced to death but the sentence is commuted to life imprisonment.
- April 12 – Palestinians retreat from Amman to north of Jordan
- April 17 – Bangladesh makes official declaration of independence but Pakistani troops continue the fighting
- April 17 - Libya, Syria and Egypt sign an agreement to form a confederation.
- April 19 – Government of Bangladesh flees to India
- April 19 – Sierra Leone becomes a republic
- April 19 – Unemployment in UK is 3.4%
- April 19 - Soviet Union launches Saljut I.
- April 19 - Followers of Charles Manson, the Manson Family, are sentenced to gas chamber.
- April 20 - Supreme Court of the United States rules unanimously that busing of students may be ordered to achieve racial desegregation.
- April 20 – Cambodian Prime Minister Lon Nol resigns
- April 21 – Siaka Stevens is elected the first president of Sierra Leone
- April 21 – François Duvalier, president of Haiti, dies—his son Jean-Claude Duvalier follows him as president-for-life
- April 24 – Soyuz 10 docks with Salyut 1
- April 24 – 500,000 people in Washington DC and 125,000 in San Francisco march against the Vietnam War
- April 24 - Tsunami 85 m high rises over Ryukyu Islands in Japan. It throws a 750-ton block of coral 2.5 km inland
- April 25 – Todor Zhivkov re-elected as the leader of the Bulgarian communist party
- April 25 – Franz Jonas re-elected as the new chancellor of Austria
- April 26 – Government of Turkey declares the state of siege in 11 provinces, Ankara included, because of violent demonstrations
- April 29 – Bolivia nationalizes American-owned zinc mine of Matilde
- April 29 - The third anniversary of the Broadway musical Hair was celebrated with a concert at a Central Park bandshell.

May


- May 1 - Amtrak begins operation of intercity rail passenger service in the United States
- May 1 – Ceylonese government promises amnesty for those guerillas who surrender before April 5
- May 2 – in Ceylon left-wing guerillas launch a series of assaults against public buildings
- May 3 – Harris public opinion poll claims that 60% of Americans are against the war in Vietnam
- May 3 – East German leader Walter Ulbricht resigns as a party leader but retains the positions of the head of state
- May 3 - Anti-war militants attempt to disrupt government business in Washington, D.C.; police and military units arrest as many as 12,000, most of whom are later released.
- May 3 - All Things Considered, National Public Radio's flagship news program, broadcasts for the first time.
- May 5 – US dollar floods the European currency markets and threatens especially the Deutsche Mark – Central banks of Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland stop the currency trading
- May 6 – Ceylon government begins a major offensive against the People's Liberation Front
- May 9 – Launch of Mariner 8 fails
- May 12 – Earthquake in Turkey destroys most of the city of Burdur
- May 15 – Israeli ambassador to Turkey, Efraim Elrom, is kidnapped. He is found killed in Istanbul May 25
- May 16 – Coup attempt exposed and foiled in Egypt
- May 19 - Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union
- May 26 – Austria and People's Republic of China form diplomatic relations
- May 26 - Qantas agrees to pay $500,000 to Bomb hoaxer-extortionist Mr Brown (Peter Marcini) (Later Arrested)
- May 27 – Six armed passengers hijack Romanian passenger plane and force it to fly to Vienna
- May 27 - Christie's auctions diamond later known as Deepdene - it is later found to be artificially colored
- May 28 – Portugal resigns from UNESCO
- May 30 - Mariner program: Mariner 9 is launched toward Mars
- May 31 - The birth of a new country, Bangladesh, is declared by the government in exile from territory formerly part of Pakistan.

June


- June 1 - Vietnam War: Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace, claiming to represent the majority of U.S. veterans who served in southeast Asia, speak against war protests
- June 6 - Soyuz program: Soyuz 11 launches.
- June 6 - A midair collision between a Hughes Airwest Douglas DC-9 jetliner and a U.S. Marine Corps McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom jet fighter near Duarte, California claims 50 lives.
- June 10 – USA ends trade embargo of China.
- June 13 - Vietnam War: The New York Times begins to publish the Pentagon Papers. [http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/48.htm].
- June 13 - Gijs van Lennep wins the 24 hours of Le Mans together with Helmet Marko.
- June 14 - Norway begins oil production in North Sea.
- June 17 - Representatives of Japan and the United States sign the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, setting out a plan where the U.S. would return control of Okinawa.[http://www.niraikanai.wwma.net/pages/archive/rev71.html]
- June 20 – Britain announces that Soviet space scientist Anatoli Fedosejev has been granted asylum.
- June 21 – Britain begins new negotiations for EEC membership in Luxembourg.
- June 25 – Madagascar accuses USA of being connected to the plot to oust the current government – USA recalls its ambassador.
- June 28 - Assassin Jerome A. Johnson shoots Joe Colombo to the head in a middle of a Italian-American rally. Colombo goes into coma.
- June 30 - After a successful mission aboard Salyut 1, the world's first manned space station, the crew of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft are killed when their air supply leaks out through a faulty valve.

July


- July 3 - Doors musician Jim Morrison in found dead in his Paris apartment.
- July 5 - Right to vote: The voting age in the United States is reduced from 21 to 18 (provision of the 26th Amendment formally certified by President Richard Nixon on this day).
- July 9 - United Kingdom increases its troops in Northern Ireland to 11,000.
- July 10-11 – Coup attempt in Morocco - 1400 cadets take over the king's palace for three hours and kill 28 people; 158 rebels die when king's troops storm the palace. Ten high-ranking officers are later executed for involvement.
- July 13 – Ólafur Jóhannesson's government in Iceland.
- July 13 – Jordanian army troops launch offensive against Palestinian guerillas in Jordan.
- July 14 – Libya severs its diplomatic ties to Morocco.
- July 14 – Yugoslavian government allows foreign companies to take their profits from the country.
- July 16 - Francisco Franco makes Prince Juan Carlos his successor.
- July 16 - The four billionth baby was born. (see World Population).
- July 17 – Italy and Austria sign a treaty that ends the schism about South Tyrol.
- July 18 – Trucial States formed in the Persian Gulf.
- July 19-23 – Military coup in Sudan ousts Jaafar Muhammad al-Nemieri and major Hashem al-Atta takes over. Fighting continues until on July 22 pro-Nimeiri troops win. Al-Atta and 3 officers are executed July 23. Nimeiri launches an anti-communist campaign.
- July 26 - Apollo program: Launch of Apollo 15. On July 31 the Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover a day after landing on the surface.
- July 28 - Abdel Madgoub, Sudanese communist leader, is hanged.
- July 29 - The United Kingdom opts out of the Space Race with the cancellation of its Black Arrow launch vehicle.
- July 30 – In Japan, an All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 collides with a Japanese fighter jet – 162 dead.

August


- August 9 - India signs a twenty year treaty of friendship and cooperation with the Soviet Union.
- August 9 - British security forces in Northern Ireland detain hundreds of guerilla suspects and put them into Long Kesh - the beginning of an internment without trial policy. 20 die in riots that follow.
- August 12 – 3000 people from Belfast and Londonderry flee to Ireland because of the violence
- August 12 – Syria severs diplomatic relations to Jordan because of border clashes
- August 14 – British troops stationed on Ireland border to stop arms smuggling
- August 14 - Emirate of Bahrain declares independence
- August 15 – Number of British troops in Northern Ireland rises to 12,500
- August 15 - President Richard Nixon announces that the United States would no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value, effectively ending the Bretton Woods system
- August 18 - Vietnam War: Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw their troops from Vietnam
- August 18 – British troops in firefight in Londonderry
- August 19-22 – Right-wing coup ignites a rebellion in Bolivia. Miners and students join troops to support president Juan Jose Torres but eventually Hugo Banzer takes over
- August 25 – Border clashes between Tanzania and Uganda
- August 25 – Large flood in Bangladesh and eastern Bengal – thousands flee the area
- August 26 - Civilian government in Greece.
- August 30 - The Alberta Progressive Conservatives under Peter Lougheed defeat the Social Credit government under Harry E. Strom in a general election, ending 36 years of uninterrupted power for Social Credit in Alberta.

September


- September 3 - Qatar regains independence from the United Kingdom
- September 3 - Manlio Brosio resigns as secterary general of NATO
- September 4 - A Boeing 727 carrying Alaska Airlines Flight 1866 crashes into the side of a mountain near Juneau, Alaska killing all 111 people on board
- September 8 - In Washington, DC, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is inaugurated with the opening feature being the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass
- September 9 - 13 - Attica Prison riots - Revolt at the maximum-security prison in Attica, New York. In the end, state police and National Guard storm the facility - 42 dead, 10 of them hostages
- September 21 - Pakistan declares state of emergency
- September 24 - Britain expels 90 KGB and GRU officials and 15 are not allowed to return
- September 27 - October 11 - Emperor Hirohito travels abroad.
- September 28 - Cardinal Mindszenty, who has resided in US embassy in Budapest from 1956 is allowed to move out of Hungary.
- September 29 - Cyclone and tsunami in the Bay of Bengal in Orissa State in India kills 10,000.

October


- October 1 - Walt Disney World opens.
- October 20 - Dannii Minogue born.
- October 21 - President Nixon nominated Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. and William H. Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court.
- October 21 - Gas explosion in Clarkston, Glasgow kills 20 people.
- October 25 - The United Nations General Assembly admits the People's Republic of China and expels the Republic of China (on Taiwan).
- October 27 - Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire.
- October 28 - British House of Commons votes in favour of joining the EEC by 356-244.
- October 28 - The United Kingdom becomes the 6th nation to launch a satellite into orbit, the Prospero X-3.
- October 29 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - The total number of American troops still in Vietnam drops to a record low of 196,700 (lowest since January 1966)
- October 30 - Rev. Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party founded in Northern Ireland.
- October 31 - A bomb explodes at the top of the Post Office Tower in London.

November


- November 3 - The UNIX Programmer's Manual is published
- November 6 - US nuclear bomb test in Aleuts.
- November 10 - In Cambodia, Khmer Rouge forces attack the city Phnom Penh and its airport, killing 44, wounding at least 30 and damaging nine airplanes.
- November 12 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - US President Richard M. Nixon sets February 1, 1972 as the deadline for the removal of another 45,000 American troops from Vietnam.
- November 13 - Mariner program: Mariner 9 becomes the first spacecraft to enter Mars orbit successfully
- November 15 - Intel releases world's first microprocessor, the 4004.
- November 23 - The People's Republic of China is given the Republic of China's seat on the United Nations Security Council (see China and the United Nations)
- November 24 - During a severe thunderstorm over Washington, a man calling himself D.B. Cooper parachutes from the Northwest Orient Airlines plane he hijacked with US$200,000 in ransom money (he was never heard from again)
- November 24 - Brussels court sentences would-be-pretender Alexis Brimeyer to 18 months in jail for falsely using a noble title; Brimeyer has already fled to Greece

December


- December 1 - Cambodian Civil War: Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray, 10 kilometers northeast of Phnom Penh
- December 2 - Six Sheikdoms in Persian Gulf founds United Arab Emirates.
- December 3 - The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 begins as Pakistan attacks eight India airbases. The next day India launches a massive invasion of East Pakistan.
- December 3- 4 night - Indian navy destroyer INS Rajput sinks Pakistani submarine PNS Ghazi (former USS Diablo)
- December 8 - US President Richard Nixon orders the 7th Fleet to move towards the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean.
- December 14 - Facing defeat in the war, Pakistan Army kills hundreds of Bangladeshi Intellectuals.
- December 16 - Victory Day of Bangladesh (Pakistan Army surrenders to the Mitro Bahini, ending Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 simultaneously).
- December 18 - US dollar devalued for the second time in US history.
- December 18 - World's largest hydroelectric plant in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, begins operations.
- December 29 - The United Kingdom gives up its military bases in Malta.

unknown dates


- Don't Make A Wave Committee changes its name to Greenpeace.
- Ray Tomlinson sends the first e-mail.
- Libertarian party established in USA.
- Free State of Christiania is founded.
- Intelsat IV
- Seychelles International Airport in Victoria, Seychelles (Mahe) is completed.
- Knapp Commission
- Johnny Cash, the American country and western singer, writes a song titled The Man in Black.
- US 48 continental states crude oil production peaks at approximately 4.5 million barrels/day.
- Center for Science in the Public Interest established.
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism established.

Births

January-April


- January 2 - Lisa Harrison, American basketball player
- January 7 - Chavo Guerrero Jr., American professional wrestler
- January 8 - Jason Giambi, baseball player
- January 9 - Scott Thornton, Canadian hockey player
- January 11 - Mary J. Blige, American singer
- January 17 - Leonardo Ciampa, American composer
- January 17 - Kid Rock, American singer
- January 18 - Jon Davis, American singer (Korn)
- January 19 - Shawn Wayans, American actor, writer, and producer
- January 19 - John Wozniak, American singer and songwriter (Marcy Playground)
- January 21 - Alan McManus, Scottish snooker player
- January 25 - Luca Badoer, Italian race car driver
- January 27 - Fann Wong, Chinese actress, model, and singer (Shanghai Knights)
- February 1 - Jill Kelly, American actress
- February 3 - Sarah Kane, English playwright (d. 1999)
- February 5 - Sara Evans, American singer
- February 10 - Lisa Marie Varon, American professional wrestler
- February 17 - Denise Richards, American actress
- February 25 - Sean Astin, American actor
- February 26 - Erykah Badu, American singer
- February 28 - Tristan Louis, Internet entrepreneur
- March 5 - John Frusciante, American musician (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
- March 10 - Ugonna Wachuku, Nigerian writer
- March 11 - Johnny Knoxville, American television personality
- March 23 - Karen McDougal, American model
- March 26 - Behzad Ghorbani, Iranian scientist
- March 27 - David Coulthard, Scottish race car driver
- March 31 - Pavel Bure, Russian hockey player
- March 31 - Ewan McGregor, Scottish actor
- April 1 - Method Man, American rapper
- April 2 - Todd Woodbridge, Australian tennis player
- April 12 - Shannon Doherty, American actress
- April 16 - Selena Quintanilla, American singer (d. 1995)
- April 20 - Carla Geurts, Dutch swimmer

May-August


- May 8 - Candice Night, American singer
- May 20 - Tony Stewart, American race car driver
- May 25 - Sonya Smith, American actress
- May 26 - Matt Stone, American television producer
- May 27 - Paul Bettany, British actor
- June 2 - Anthony Montgomery, American actor
- June 5 - Mark Wahlberg, American actor and singer
- June 8 - Troy Vincent, American football player
- June 10 - Joel Hailey, American singer (Jodeci)
- June 16 - Derek R. Audette, Canadian musician, artist, and poet
- June 16 - Tupac Shakur, American rapper, poet, and actor (d. 1996)
- June 22 - Kurt Warner, American football player
- June 27 - Dipendra of Nepal, King of Nepal (d. 2001)
- June 28 - Norika Fujiwara, Japanese actress and television-personality
- July 1 - Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott, American singer
- July 9 - Marc Andreessen, American software developer
- July 12 - Kristi Yamaguchi, American figure skater
- July 17 - Cory Doctorow, Canadian author and activist
- July 23 - Dalvin DeGrate, American singer and producer (Jodeci)
- July 22 - Kristine Lilly, American soccer player
- August 4 - Jeff Gordon, American race car driver
- August 6 - Merrin Dungey, American actress
- August 10 - Roy Keane, Irish footballer
- August 10 - Mario César Kindelán Mesa, Cuban amateur boxer
- August 12 - Pete Sampras, American tennis player
- August 17 - Jorge Posada, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player
- August 18 - Richard D James, Irish musician
- August 26 - Thalía, Mexican actress
- August 28 -



10 May

May 10 is the 130th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (131st in leap years). There are 235 days remaining.

Events


- 1291 - Scottish nobles recognize the authority of King Edward I of England.
- 1497 - Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves Cádiz for his first voyage to the New World.
- 1503 - Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the numerous sea turtles there.
- 1534 - Jacques Cartier visits Newfoundland.
- 1768 - John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing an article for the North Briton severely criticizing King George III. This action provokes rioting in London.
- 1774 - Louis XVI becomes King of France.
- 1775 - American Revolutionary War: Fort Ticonderoga is taken by a small force led by Colonel Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen.
- 1775 - American Revolutionary War: Representatives from the 13 colonies of the United States meet in Philadelphia and raise the Continental Army to defend the new republic. They place it under command of Cavalier George Washington of Virginia.
- 1796 - First Coalition: Napoleon I of France wins a decisive victory against Austrian forces at Lodi bridge over the River Adda in Italy. The Austrians lose some 2,000 men.
- 1801 - First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States.
- 1837 - Panic of 1837: New York City banks fail, and unemployment reaches record levels.
- 1857 - Indian Mutiny: In India, the Sepoys revolt against the British Army.
- 1865 - American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is captured by Union troops near Irwinville, Georgia.
- 1865 - American Civil War: Union soldiers ambush and mortally wound Confederate raider William Quantrill in Kentucky, who lingers until his death on June 6.
- 1869 - The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah (not Promontory Point, Utah).
- 1872 - Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States.
- 1877 - Romania declares itself independent from Turkey, recognized on March 26, 1881 after the end of the Romanian independence war.
- 1908 - Mother's Day is observed for the first time (Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, USA).
- 1924 - J. Edgar Hoover is appointed the Director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, and remains so until his death in 1972.
- 1933 - Censorship: In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings.
- 1940 - World War II: The first German bombs of the war fall on England at Chilham and Petham, in Kent.
- 1940 - World War II: Germany invades Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
- 1940 - World War II: Winston Churchill is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 1941 - World War II: The House of Commons in London is destroyed by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.
- 1941 - World War II: Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland in order to try and negotiate a peace deal between the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany.
- 1954 - Bill Haley and the Comets release "Rock Around the Clock", the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the charts.
- 1960 - The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth.
- 1969 - The first "Zip to Zap" rural outdoor rock concert at Zap, North Dakota, is ended prematurely as North Dakota National Guard is ordered to disperse the unruly crowd.
- 1979 - The Federated States of Micronesia becomes self-governing.
- 1981 - François Mitterrand takes office as the first Socialist President of France.
- 1988 - Michel Rocard becomes Prime Minister of France.
- 1993 - In Thailand, a fire at the Kader Toy Factory kills 188 workers, mostly young women.
- 1994 - The U.S. state of Illinois executes serial killer John Wayne Gacy for the murder of 33 young men and boys.
- 1994 - An annular eclipse of the sun is visible across much of North America.
- 1996 - A "rogue storm" near the summit of Mount Everest kills eight climbers, making this the deadliest day in the mountain's history. Among the dead are experienced climbers Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, both of whom were leading paid expeditions to the summit.
- 1997 - An earthquake near Ardekul in northeastern Iran kills at least 2,400 people.
- 1998 - National elections are held in Hungary.
- 2001 - In Ghana, a stampede at a football game kills over 120 spectators.
- 2002 - FBI agent Robert Hanssen is given a life sentence without the possibility of parole for selling American secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.
- 2002 - Lynda Lyon Block is executed in Yellow Mama, the electric chair of Alabama.
- 2003 - Record shattering tornado activity during the May 2003 Tornado Outbreaks.
- 2005 - A live hand grenade lands about 100 feet from United States President George W. Bush while he is giving a speech to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, but malfunctions and does not detonate. Vladimir Arutinian later admits throwing the grenade.

Births


- 1265 - Emperor Fushimi of Japan (d. 1317)
- 1604 - Jean Mairet, French dramatist (d. 1686)
- 1641 - Dudley North, English economist (d. 1691)
- 1727 - Anne Robert Turgot, French statesman (d. 1781)
- 1760 - Johann Peter Hebel, German poet (d. 1826)
- 1770 - Louis Nicolas Davout, French marshal (d. 1823)
- 1838 - John Wilkes Booth, American actor and assassin of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1865)
- 1841 - James Gordon Bennett Jr., American publisher (d. 1918)
- 1866 - Léon Bakst, Russian artist (d. 1924)
- 1872 - Marcel Mauss, French sociologist (d. 1950)
- 1878 - Gustav Stresemann, Chancellor of Germany, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1929)
- 1886 - Karl Barth, Swiss Protestant theologian (d. 1968)
- 1886 - Felix Manalo, first Executive Minister of the Iglesia ni Cristo (d. 1963)
- 1888 - Max Steiner, Austrian composer (d. 1971)
- 1889 - Mae Murray, American actress (d. 1965)
- 1890 - Alfred Jodl, German general (d. 1946)
- 1897 - Einar Gerhardsen, Prime minister of Norway (d. 1987)
- 1899 - Fred Astaire, American singer, dancer, and actor (d. 1987)
- 1899 - Dimitri Tiomkin, Ukrainian-born composer (d. 1979)
- 1902 - Anatole Litvak, Ukrainian-born film director (d. 1974)
- 1902 - David O. Selznick, American film producer (d. 1965)
- 1909 - Maybelle Carter, American musician
- 1916 - Milton Babbitt, American composer
- 1927 - Nayantara Sahgal, Indian author
- 1928 - Arnold Rüütel, Estonian president
- 1930 - Pat Summerall, American football player and broadcaster
- 1933 - Barbara Taylor Bradford, English writer
- 1934 - Cliff Wilson, Welsh snooker player (d. 1994)
- 1936 - Gary Owens, American actor and announcer
- 1944 - Jim Abrahams, American film director
- 1946 - Donovan, Scottish musician
- 1946 - Dave Mason, English musician (Traffic)
- 1953 - John Diamond, British journalist (d. 2001)
- 1955 - Chris Berman, American sportscaster
- 1955 - Mark David Chapman, American assassin of John Lennon
- 1955 - Ashoka Jahnavi-Prasad, scientist
- 1956 - Vladislav Listyev, Russian television anchor and journalist
- 1957 - Sid Vicious, English bassist (The Sex Pistols) (d. 1979)
- 1958 - Rick Santorum, U.S. Senator
- 1960 - Bono, Irish singer ( U2)
- 1965 - Linda Evangelista, Canadian model
- 1966 - Jonathan Edwards, British athlete
- 1969 - Dennis Bergkamp, Dutch footballer
- 1970 - David Weir, Scottish footballer
- 1971 - Ådne Søndrål, Norwegian speed skater
- 1972 - Radosław Majdan, Polish footballer
- 1975 - Hélio Castroneves, Brazilian race car driver
- 1977 - Nick Heidfeld, German Formula 1 driver
- 1980 - Jørgen Scharling Rasmussen, Danish singer and cartoonist

Deaths


- 1290 - Duke Rudolph II of Austria (b. 1271)
- 1424 - Go-Kameyama, Emperor of Japan
- 1482 - Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, Italian mathematician and astronomer (b. 1397)
- 1493 - Colin Campbell, 1st Earl of Argyll, Scottish politician
- 1521 - Sebastian Brant, Alsatian humanist (b. 1457)
- 1566 - Leonhart Fuchs, German botanist (b. 1501)
- 1641 - Johan Banér, Swedish soldier (b. 1596)
- 1657 - Gustaf Horn, Swedish soldier and politician (b. 1592)
- 1691 - Colonel John Birch, English soldier (b. 1615)
- 1696 - Jean de La Bruyère, French writer (b. 1645)
- 1717 - John Hathorne, American magistrate (b. 1641)
- 1726 - Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans, English soldier (b. 1670)
- 1733 - Barton Booth, English actor (b. 1681)
- 1737 - Nakamikado Emperor of Japan (b. 1702)
- 1774 - King Louis XV of France (b. 1710)
- 1787 - William Watson, English physician and scientist (b. 1715)
- 1792 - John Stevens, American delegate to the Continental Congress
- 1807 - Comte de Rochambeau, French soldier (b. 1725)
- 1818 - Paul Revere, American patriot (b. 1735)
- 1829 - Thomas Young, English physician and linguist (b. 1773)
- 1850 - Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, French chemist and physicist (b. 1778)
- 1863 - Stonewall Jackson, American Confederate general (b. 1824)
- 1889 - Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Russian satirist (b. 1826)
- 1897 - Andrés Bonifacio, Filipino revolutionary leader (b. 1863)
- 1950 - Belle da Costa Greene, librarian, bibliographer, archivist (b. 1883)
- 1955 - Tommy Burns, Canadian boxer (b. 1881)
- 1960 - Yury Olesha, Russian novelist (b. 1899)
- 1977 - Joan Crawford, American actress (b. 1905)
- 1990 - Walker Percy, American author (b. 1916)
- 1994 - John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer (executed) (b. 1942)
- 1999 - Shel Silverstein, American poet and composer (b. 1930)
- 2003 - Milan Vukcevich, Yugoslavian chemist and chess problem composer (b.