- 270 St. Valentine dies giving birth to Valentine's Day (some sources say 269, others 273)
- 869 Saint Cyril, Greek monk, scholar, theologian and linguist (b. 827) Called "apostle of Slavs"
- 1317 Marguerite of France, queen of Edward I of England (b. 1282)
Richard II
1400 Richard II, king of England (1377-99), murdered at age 33 at Pontefract Castle
Richard II
- 1528 Edzard I the Great, count of Austria-E Frisia (1494-1528), dies at 66
- 1571 Benvenuto Cellini, Italian sculptor, goldsmith and author (Perseus), dies at 70
- 1571 Odet de Coligny, Cardinal of Châtillon and count of Beauvais, dies at 53
- 1676 Abraham Bosse, French engraver and artist
- 1714 Maria Luisa of Savoy, Queen consort of Spain to Philip V (1701-14), dies tuberculosis at 25
- 1737 Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot of Hensol, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1685)
- 1744 John Hadley, English mathematician and inventor (octant), dies at 61
James Cook
1779 James Cook, British explorer, navigator and cartographer, discovered and explored Australia, Pacific Islands and New Zealand for Britain, killed in a fight with Hawaiians near Kealakekua at 50
James Cook
William Blackstone
1780 William Blackstone, English jurist (Blackstone's Commentaries), dies at 56
William Blackstone
John Dickinson
1808 John Dickinson, American lawyer and Governor of Delaware and Pennsylvania, dies at 75
John Dickinson
Vicente Guerrero
1831 Vicente Guerrero, Mexican revolutionary hero, general and 2nd President of Mexico (1829, executed by firing squad at 48
Vicente Guerrero
- 1831 Henry Maudslay, English inventor of the metal lathe, dies at 59
- 1845 Joseph Lakanal, French Politician and Educator, dies at 82
- 1846 Cornelis Felix van Maanen, Dutch Minister of Justice (1807-42), dies at 76
- 1870 St. John Richardson Liddell, American Civil War Confederate General, dies at 54
- 1881 Fernando Wood, New York City mayor (b. 1812)
- 1884 Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, 1st wife of Theodore Roosevelt, dies of Bright's disease at 22
- 1885 Jules Vallès, French writer (b. 1832)
William Tecumseh Sherman
1891 William Tecumseh Sherman, American Major General in the Union Army, dies at 71
William Tecumseh Sherman
- 1894 Eugène Charles Catalan, French-Belgian mathematician (worked on continued fractions, descriptive geometry, number theory and combinatorics), dies at 79
- 1916 Petko Todorov, Bulgarian writer (Zmejova), dies at 36
- 1922 Heikki Ritavuori, Finnish lawyer and politician (Minister of the Interior), assassinated at 41
- 1942 Adnan Bin Saidi, Officer of the Malay Regiment killed in the defense of Singapore (b. 1915)
- 1943 David Hilbert, German mathematician (Hilbert spaces, invariant theory, axiomatization of geometry, dies at 81
- 1949 Yusuf Salman Yusuf, Iraqi-Assyrian communist leader (b. 1901)
- 1950 Eduard Hermann, German linguist (Homer), dies at 80
- 1950 Karl G Jansky, Czech discoverer of cosmic radio sources, dies at 44
- 1958 Abdul Rab Nishtar, veteran leader of Pakistan Movement, (b. 1899)
- 1969 Vito Genovese, Italian-American crime syndicate boss, dies at 71
- 1975 Heintje Davids [Hendrika David], Dutch cabaret artist, dies at 87
- 1975 Julian S. Huxley, English biologist, 1st director-general of UNESCO, dies at 87
- 1975 P. G. Wodehouse, English-American writer (Bertie Wooster novels), dies at 93
- 1979 Adolph Dubs, US ambassador to Afghanistan, murdered
- 1984 Elmer Keith, American firearms enthusiast and author (Guns & Ammo), dies at 84
- 1987 Karolos Koun, Greek theater director (b. 1908)
- 1989 James Bond, American ornithologist (b. 1900)
- 1991 Arno Breker, German architect and sculptor (Third Reich), dies at 90
- 1991 John A McCone, Head of CIA (1961-65), dies
- 1991 Carlo L. Golino, Italian-American scholar, dies at 77
- 1994 Christopher Lasch, American historian and author (The Culture of Narcissism), dies of metastatic cancer at 61
- 1994 Andrei Chikatilo, Soviet-Russian serial killer who murdered at least 52 women and children between 1978 and 1990, executed by a single gunshot at 57
- 1995 Alberto Burri, Italian physician/sculptor/painter, dies at 79
- 1995 Patricia Highsmith, writer, dies at 74
- 1995 Roger de Grey, British landscape painter and President of Royal Academy (1984-93), dies at 76
- 1995 Siem Suurhoff, TV-director (Behind the News, Sonja), dies at 58
- 1995 U Nu, 1st Prime Minister of Burma (1948-56, 1960-62), dies at 87
- 1995 Israël "Ischa" Meijer, Dutch journalist, critic and author (Een Dik Uur Ischa, Boezemvriend), dies of a myocardial infarction at 52
- 1996 Lady Caroline Blackwood, British journalist and writer (The Last of the Duchess), dies at 64
- 1996 Eva Hart, Titanic survivor, dies at 90
- 1996 Ivan William Hannaford, sociologist, dies at 64
- 1999 John Ehrlichman, American presidential advisor (b. 1925)
- 2000 Walter Zinn, Canadian-American nuclear physicist (invented the breeder reactor), dies at 93
- 2001 Alan Ross, British poet and editor (London Magazine), dies at 78
Dolly the Sheep
2003 Dolly the Sheep, first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell dies young from a progressive lung disease aged 6
Dolly the Sheep
- 2005 Rafik Hariri, Lebanese politician and billionaire businessman (b. 1944)
- 2009 Bernard Ashley, English businessperson, fashion designer and co-founder of Laura Ashley, dies of cancer at 82
- 2015 Louis Jourdan [Louis Robert Gendre], French actor (The Paradine Case, Count Dracula, Gigi, Octopussy), dies at 93
- 2015 Philip Levine, American poet (1995 Pulitzer prize), dies at 87
- 2015 Michele Ferrero, Italian entrepreneur (Ferrero SpA) created Nutella, dies at 89
- 2018 Ruud Lubbers, Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (1982-94), dies at 78