EVENTS:
- 1600 – The philosopher Giordano Bruno is burned alive, for heresy, at Campo de’ Fiori in Rome.
- 1854 – The United Kingdom recognizes the independence of the Orange Free State.
- 1863 – A group of citizens of Geneva founded an International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, which later became known as the International Committee of the Red Cross.
- 1933 – Newsweek magazine is first published.
- 1980 – First winter ascent of Mount Everest by Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy.
- 1996 – NASA‘s Discovery Program begins as the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft lifts off on the first mission ever to orbit and land on an asteroid, 433 Eros.
- 2008 – Kosovo declares independence as the Republic of Kosovo.
- 2015 – Eighteen people are killed and 78 injured in a stampede at a Mardi Gras parade in Haiti.
- 2016 – Military vehicles explode outside a Turkish Armed Forces barracks in Ankara, Turkey, killing at least 29 people and injuring 61 others.
BIRTHS:
- 1888 – Otto Stern, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1969)
- 1899 – Jibanananda Das, Bangladeshi-Indian poet and author (d. 1954)
- 1916 – Don Tallon, Australian cricketer (d. 1984)
- 1948 – Rick Majerus, American basketball player and coach (d. 2012)
- 1949 – Dennis Green, American football player and coach
- 1955 – Mo Yan, Chinese author and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1968 – Bryan Cox, American football player and coach
- 1984 – AB de Villiers, South African cricketer
- 1987 – Aseem Trivedi, Indian cartoonist and activist
- 1988 – Adil Rashid, English cricketer
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
- Independence Day (Kosovo), celebrates the independence declaration of Kosovo in 2008, still under dispute.
- Quirinalia, in honor of Quirinus (Roman Empire)
