- 923 Robert I, King of France (922-23), dies in battle
- 948 Romanus I Lecapenus, Armenian emperor of Byzantium (919-44), dies
- 991 Theophanu, wife of Holy Roman Emperor Otto II and regent of Otto III, dies (b. 960)
- 1073 Emperor Go-Sanjō of Japan, 71st emperor of Japan, dies at 38
- 1246 Frederik II "the Strijdbare", duke of Austria, dies in battle at 25
- 1337 Angelus Clarenus/da Cingoli, Italian leader, dies
- 1341 Andronicus III Paleologus, Byzantine emperor (1328-41), dies
- 1381 Wat Tyler, leader of English Peasants' Revolt, beheaded in London
- 1381 John Cavendish, Lord Chief Justice of England
- 1383 John VI Cantacuzenus, Byzantine Emperor
- 1389 Lazar I, Serbian prince, dies in battle
- 1389 Murad I, Osmaans sultan, dies in battle
- 1397 Count of Eu, French knight, dies in Turkish captivity
- 1467 Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, dies at 70
- 1521 Tamás Bakócz, Hungarian Catholic cardinal and statesman (b. 1442)
- 1557 Sebastiaan Van Noyen, military master builder, dies
- 1580 Nicolaas van Nieuwland, corrupt 1st bishop of Haarlem, dies at 70
- 1614 Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton, English politician (b. 1540)
- 1666 Pieter de Bitter, Dutch admiral (Colombo, Goa), dies
- 1679 Guillaume Courtois, French painter (b. 1628)
- 1702 Georg E Rumphius, German nature explorer, dies
- 1703 Gillis Schey, Dutch admiral (battle at Lowestoft), dies at 58
- 1708 Romeyn de Hooghe, painter/goldsmith, buried at 62
- 1724 Henry Sacheverell, English churchman and politician (b. 1674)
- 1750 Marguerite De Launay, Baronne Staal, French writer (b. 1684)
- 1768 James Short, Scottish mathematician and optician (b. 1710)
- 1814 Charles Palissot de Montenoy, French writer/politician, dies at 84
- 1844 Thomas Campbell, Scottish poet (Ye Mariners of England), dies at 66
- 1845 Francesco Capaccini, Italian cardinal and diplomat, dies at 60
James Knox Polk
1849 James Knox Polk, 11th US President (1845-1849), dies in Nashville Tenn at 53
James Knox Polk
- 1856 David Cox, English painter (Treatise on Landscape Paint), dies at 73
- 1858 Ary Scheffer, painter/etcher/sculptor, dies at 63
- 1865 Edmun Ruffin, US secessionist/writer, commits suicide
- 1888 Emperor Friedrich III of Germany (b. 1831)
- 1889 Mihail Eminesco, Romanian poet (Luceafarul), dies at 39
- 1905 Hermann Wissmann, German African explorer and governor of East-Africa,, dies at 51
- 1907 William Le Baron Jenney, American architect (father of skyscraper), dies at 74
- 1917 Kristian Birkeland, Norwegian explorer and physicist (nominated 7 times for Nobel Prize), dies at 49
- 1917 Lillian Bassman, Russian emigrant to America, photographer and painter (Harper's Bazaar), (d. 2012)
- 1923 Alexander Stamboeliski, premier Bulgaria (1919-23), dies
- 1938 Ernst L Kirchner, German painter, dies at 58
- 1941 Evelyn Underhill, British Anglo-Catholic poet, dies at 65
- 1941 Otfrid Foerster, German neurologist, dies at 67
- 1942 Vera Figner, writer, dies
- 1952 Jakob Jud, Swiss linguist/etymologist, dies at 70
- 1958 François de Vries, Dutch economist, dies at 74
- 1965 E. A. Speiser, American Bible scholar (b. 1902
- 1971 Wendell Meredith Stanley, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
- 1978 Anton Roosjen, Dutch politician and NCRV-chairman, dies at 83
- 1979 Ernst Meister, writer, dies at 67
- 1981 Philip Toynbee, British journalist and writer (Savage Days, Barricade), dies at 64
- 1983 Srirangam Srinivasarao [Sri Sri], Indian Telugu poet, dies at 73
- 1985 Robert Stethem, U.S. Navy Seabee diver murdered by terrorists on TWA Flight 847 (b. 1961)
- 1987 Walter Heller, American economist (Old Myths & New Realities), dies at 71
- 1989 Maurice Bellemare, Canadian politician (b. 1912)
- 1993 Mahfoud Boucebi, Algerian psychiatrist, murdered
- 1993 Vera, scarf/linen designer, dies of cardiac arrest at 87
- 1993 John Connally Jr, American politician, 39th Governor of Texas, and federal treasurer who was critically wounded during the assassination of Kennedy, dies of pulmonary fibrosis at 76
- 1994 David Lawson, executed in NC (wanted execution shown on Donahue)
- 1996 Jean Gimpel, French author and medievalist, dies at 77
- 2000 Jules Roy, French writer (b. 1907)
- 2002 Choi Hong Hi, South Korean army general and Founder of Taekwon-Do, dies at 83
- 2006 Alireza Shapour Shahbazi, Iranian archaeologist and a world expert on Achaemenid archeology, dies of cancer at 63
- 2007 Claudia Cohen, American gossip columnist and socialite (b. 1950)
- 2011 Bill Haast, American Herpetologist (b. 1910)
- 2013 Kenneth G. Wilson, American physicist (Nobel 1982), dies from lymphoma at 77
- 2014 Daniel Keyes, American author (Flowers for Algernon), dies from complications from pneumonia at 86
- 2015 Kirk Kerkorian, American CEO and "father of the mega-resort" (MGM, UA), dies at 98
- 2016 Lois Duncan, American young adult novelist (I Know What You Did Last Summer), dies at 82
- 2017 John Robert Jones [John Dalmas], American sci-fi author (White Regiment, Lizard War), dies at 90