- 1414 Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury/chancellor of England, dies
- 1545 Pierre Brully, [Peter Brulius], calvinist minister, burned to death
- 1553 Erasmus Reinhold, German mathematician, dies at 41
- 1568 Miles Coverdale, translator (1st complete English Bible), dies at 80
- 1589 Saint Philothei, Orthodox martyr and Patron of Athens (b. 1522)
- 1596 Blaise de Vigenère, French cryptographer, dies at 72
- 1602 Philippe Emmanuel, Duke of Mercoeur, French soldier, dies at 43
- 1605 Orazio Tiberio Vecchi, Italian composer, dies at 54
- 1620 Roemer P Visscher, poet, buried in Amsterdam
- 1622 Sir Henry Savile, English educator (b. 1549)
- 1653 Luigi Rossi, composer, dies
- 1663 Adam Adami, German bishop and diplomat (b. 1603)
- 1672 Charles Chauncy, English-born president of Harvard College (b. 1592)
- 1709 Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Japanese shogun (b. 1646)
- 1716 Dorthe Engelbrechtsdatter, Norwegian poet (b. 1634)
- 1785 Johann Christoph Richter, composer, dies at 84
- 1789 Nicholas Van Dyke, American lawyer and President of Delaware, dies at 50
- 1790 Jean-Baptiste Krumpholtz, Czech composer, dies at 47
- 1799 Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician, physicist, political scientist, and sailor, dies at 65
- 1806 Elizabeth Carter, English poet, bluestocking and translator (All the Works of Epictetus Which Are Now Extant), dies at 88
- 1815 Leonhard von Call, composer, dies at 47
- 1822 Jeronymo Francisco de Lima, composer, dies at 78
- 1837 Georg Büchner, German playwright (b. 1813)
- 1858 Alois Basil Nikolaus Tomasini, Italian violinist and composer, dies at 78
- 1864 William Edwin Baldwin, US Confederate brigadier general, dies
- 1871 John B. Magruder, American Major General (Confederate Army), dies at 63
- 1873 Vasil Levski, Bulgarian revolutionary, dies at 35
- 1875 Jean B Vuillaume, French violin maker (octobas), dies at 76
- 1878 Charles F Daubigny, French restaurateur/painter, dies at 61
- 1880 Constantino Brumidi, Greek-Italian-American historical artist (Myrtle Murdock), dies at 74
- 1887 Multatuli [Eduard Douwes Dekker], Dutch writer (Max Havelaar), dies at 66
- 1892 Monty Bowden, cricket captain (England v South Africa 1889), dies at 26
- 1894 Ernesto Camillo Sivori, Italian violinist and composer, dies at 78
- 1897 Karl Weierstrass, German mathematician (theory of functions), dies at 81
- 1902 Thomas F. Toon, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 61
- 1915 Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Indian social reformer and leader of Indian Independence Movement, dies at 48
- 1916 Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist/philosopher/psychologist, dies at 78
- 1923 Gerónimo Giménez, Spanish composer, dies at 68
- 1927 Georg Brandes, [Cohen], Danish literary-historian and critic, dies at 85
- 1927 Robert Fuchs, composer, dies at 80
- 1933 Arnold Mendelssohn, German composer, dies at 77
- 1936 Charles Harding Firth, British historian (b. 1857)
- 1938 Leopoldo Lugones, Argentine poet (Las montañas del oro), dies at 63
- 1941 Alexander Josiah Webbe, English cricket wicket-keeper (v Aus 1879), dies
- 1941 Hamilton Harty, Irish composer and conductor called "the prince of accompanists", dies at 61
- 1942 Frank Abbandando, American gangster (executed) (b. 1910)
- 1943 Lynne Overman, American actor (Reap the Wild Wind), dies from a heart attack at 55
- 1944 Siegfried Garibaldi Kallenberg, German composer, dies at 76
- 1945 Wim Speelman, Dutch resistance fighter, executed at 26
- 1945 John Basilone, American Marine (Medal of Honor at the Battle for Henderson Field), is killed in action at Iwo Jima at 26
- 1949 Auguste Jean Maria Charles Serieyx, composer, dies at 83
- 1950 Edyth Walker, American opera singer, dies at 82
André Gide
1951 Andre Gide, French writer (Lafcadio's Adventures-Nobel 1947), dies of pneumonia at 81
André Gide
- 1952 Knut Hamsun, Norwegian writer (Nobel Prize in Literature 1920), dies at 92
- 1952 Lawrence Grant [Percy Reginald], British actor (Bulldog Drummond), dies at 82
- 1957 Maurice Garin, Italian-born French road bicycle racer (winner of Tour de France in 1903), dies at 85
- 1962 Albert Elkus, American composer, dies at 77
- 1962 Georgios Papanikolaou, Greek doctor, inventor of the Pap smear (b. 1883)
- 1965 Forrest Taylor, actor (This is Life, Man Without a Gun), dies at 81
- 1965 Gheorge Gheorghiu Dej, Romanian president, dies at 63
- 1967 Wilmer King, 1st casuality on Tappan Zee Bridge NY, dies
- 1968 Ralph Dunn, actor (Mr Rudge-Norby), dies at 65
- 1968 Georg Hackenschmidt, Estonian professional wrestler (b. 1878)
- 1969 Madge Blake, American actress (b. 1899)
- 1970 Ralph Edward Flanders, (Sen-VT), dies at 89
- 1972 John Grierson, Scottish documentary filmmaker (Drifters), dies at 73
- 1972 Tedd Pierce, American animator (b. 1906)
- 1975 Luigi Dallapiccola, Italian 12-tone composer, dies at 71
- 1977 Mike González, Cuban baseball player, dies at 86
- 1977 Anthony Crosland, British politician (b. 1918)
- 1980 Bon Scott [Ronald Belford Scott], Australian rock musician (lead singer and lyricist of AC/DC), dies at 33
- 1981 Frank Merrick, English composer, dies at 94
- 1983 Alice White, actress (Employees' Entrance), dies at 78 of a stroke
- 1984 Ina Ray Hutton, American orchestra leader (Ina Ray Hutton Show), dies at 66
- 1985 Elizabeth Julesberg, author (Dick & Jane), dies
- 1985 George Holmes, actor (Man in the Trunk), dies at 66
- 1986 Adolfo Celi, Italian film actor and director (Next Man, Murders in Rue Morgue), dies at 63
- 1986 James O Eastland, (Sen-D-Miss), dies at 81
- 1986 Paul Stewart, American actor (Citizen Kane, Kiss Me Deadly), dies from a heart attack at 77
- 1988 André F. Cournand, French physician and physiologist (Nobel 1956), dies at 92
- 1988 René Char, French poet and painter, dies at 80
- 1989 Jaap van de Merwe, Dutch journalist/cabareter (Hadjememaar), dies
- 1990 Michael Powell, English director (Life & Death of Col Blimp), dies at 84
- 1991 Peggy Mondo, actress (Who's Minding the Store), dies at 50
- 1992 Chet Leaming, dies after brief illness at 66
- 1993 Gerhard Gesell, judge (Pentagon Papers), dies of liver cancer at 82
- 1993 Michael Morrison, actor (Caleb-As the World Turns), dies at 33
- 1994 Derek Jarman, actor and director (Tempest), dies of AIDS at 52
- 1994 Georges Watin, Algerian/French officer (OAS), dies at 71
- 1994 Renske Vellinga, Dutch speed-skater, dies in auto-accident at 19
- 1995 Calder Willingham, American novelist and scriptwriter (End as a Man), dies at 72
- 1995 Ian Ball, newspaper photographer, dies at 80
- 1995 Shlomo Averbach, Israeli ultra-orthodox rabbi, dies at 84
- 1995 John Howard, American actor (The Philadelphia Story, My Three Sons), dies of heart failure at 81
- 1996 Brenda Bruce, actress (December Bride, Nightmare), dies at 77
- 1996 Charles O Finley, baseball owner (Oakland A's), dies at 76
- 1996 Grant Sawyer, US politician, dies at 76
- 1996 Madhaviah Krishnan, Indian naturalist and wildlife photographer, dies at 83
- 1996 Dorothy Maynor, American soprano and founder (Harlem School of Arts), dies at 85
Deng Xiaoping
1997 Deng Xiaoping, Chinese revolutionary and paramount leader of China (1978-92), dies of a lung infection and Parkinson's disease at 92
Deng Xiaoping
- 1997 Leo Rosten, American writer and humourist (Joys of Yiddish), dies at 88
- 1997 Stanley Pearson, footballer, dies at 76
- 1998 Grandpa Jones, country comic/banjo wizard (Hee Haw), dies at 84
- 1999 Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr, Iraqi Shiite leader (assassinated)
- 2000 Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian artist (b. 1928)
- 2001 Priscilla Davis, American socialite (b. 1942)
- 2001 Stanley Kramer, American producer/director (Inherit the Wind), dies at 87
- 2001 Charles Trenet, French singer (b. 1913)
- 2002 Sylvia Rivera, American gay liberation and transgender activist and drag queen, dies of liver cancer at 50
- 2003 Johnny PayCheck, American country singer/songwriter (b. 1938)
- 2007 Janet Blair [Martha Janet Lafferty], American singer and actress (Leave it to the Girls, Smith Family), dies of pneumonia at 85
- 2007 Celia Franca, Canadian ballet dancer, founder of National Ballet of Canada, dies at 85
- 2008 Lydia Shum, Hong Kong comedian and actress (b. 1945)
- 2008 Yegor Letov, Russian song writer and singer (b. 1964)
- 2008 Natalia Bessmertnova, Soviet ballerina (Bolshoi, Lenin Prize 1970), dies at 66
- 2009 Kelly Groucutt, Bass guitarist and singer for the band Electric Light Orchestra (b.1945)
- 2009 Miika Tenkula, Finnish guitarist for the band Sentenced (b.1974)
- 2010 Laura Spurr, Tribal Chairperson, Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi (b. 1945)
- 2011 Ollie Matson, Pro/College Football Halls of Fame halfback (NFL 1950s All Decade Team), dies of dementia at 80
- 2012 John Hogan, American research chemist, dies at 92
- 2012 Steve Kordek, American pinball machine designer, dies at 100
- 2013 Robert Coleman Richardson, American physicist (Nobel 1996), dies at 75
- 2013 Donald Richie, American-born author and (Japanese) film critic, dies at 88
- 2013 Manfred Niehaus, German composer, dies at 79
- 2014 Dale Gardner, American astronaut, dies from a brain aneurysm at 65
- 2014 Valeri Nikolayevich Kubasov, Russian cosmonaut, dies at 79
- 2014 Imre Olsvik, Hungarian composer and ethnomusicologist, dies at 82
- 2016 Umberto Eco, Italian philosopher and writer (Name of the Rose), dies at 84
Harper Lee
2016 [Nelle] Harper Lee, American author (To Kill a Mockingbird), dies at 89
Harper Lee
- 2017 Larry Coryell, American jazz guitarist (11th House), dies at 73
- 2017 Igor Shafarevich, Russian mathematician, dies at 93
- 2018 Yury Tyukalov, Soviet rower (Olympic 1952,56 Gold), dies at 87
- 2019 Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer (Fendi, Chanel), dies at 85 (age disputed)
- 2019 Don Newcombe, American baseball pitcher (4-time MLB All Star), dies at 92
February in History
A Deadly Bite, Or King Tut's Revenge?
It was one of the most spectacular archaeological finds – but was the disturbed Tutankhamun a sleeping tiger?
February 16, 1923Buried at Sea: The Casket That Carried JFK
John F. Kennedy's aides struggling to load the casket containing the slain President aboard Air Force One is an enduring image. But what happened to the casket?
February 18, 1966Final Deadly Performance of a Twisted Actor
From a celebrated family of actors came a young man with a twisted mind whose last performance involved the death of a president.
February 20, 1817Wonder of Woolworths Begins its Meteoric Rise
It was a simple idea: opening a store where nothing cost more than five cents. The idea caught on so quickly that Woolworth’s became a retail phenomenon.
February 22, 1878
