- 270 St. Valentine dies giving birth to Valentine's Day (some sources say 269, others 273)
- 869 Saint Cyril [Constantine], Greek Byzantine Christian monk, missionary to the Slavs, scholar, linguist, and namesake of the Cyrillic alphabet, dies at about 42 (birthdate unconfirmed)27)
- 1317 Marguerite of France, queen of Edward I of England (b. 1282)
Richard II (1367-1400)
king of England (1377-99), murdered at age 33 at Pontefract Castle
- 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 (1728-1779)
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
William Blackstone (1723-1780)
English jurist (Blackstone's Commentaries), dies at 56
John Dickinson (1732-1808)
American lawyer and Governor of Delaware and Pennsylvania, dies at 75
Vicente Guerrero (1782-1831)
Mexican revolutionary hero, general and 2nd President of Mexico (1829, executed by firing squad at 48
- 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 (1820-1891)
American Major General in the Union Army, dies at 71
- 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 Carlo L. Golino, Italian-American scholar, dies at 77
- 1991 John A. McCone, American politician (Head of CIA 1961-65), dies at 89
- 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
- 1994 Christopher Lasch, American historian and author (The Culture of Narcissism), dies of metastatic cancer at 61
- 1995 Alberto Burri, Italian physician, sculptor, and painter, dies at 79
- 1995 Israël "Ischa" Meijer, Dutch journalist, critic and author (Een Dik Uur Ischa, Boezemvriend), dies of a myocardial infarction at 52
- 1995 Roger de Grey, British landscape painter and President of Royal Academy (1984-93), dies at 76
- 1995 Siem Suurhoff, Dutch TV-director (Behind the News, Sonja), dies at 58
- 1995 U Nu, 1st Prime Minister of Burma (1948-56, 1960-62), dies at 87
- 1996 Eva Hart, Titanic survivor, dies at 90
- 1996 Ivan William Hannaford, sociologist, dies at 64
- 1996 Lady Caroline Blackwood, British journalist and writer (The Last of the Duchess), 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 (1996-2003)
first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, dies young from a progressive lung disease aged 6
- 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 Michele Ferrero, Italian entrepreneur (Ferrero SpA) created Nutella, dies at 89
- 2015 Philip Levine, American poet (1995 Pulitzer prize), dies at 87
- 2018 Ruud Lubbers, Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (1982-94), dies at 78