|  December 31
Births
* 1378 - Pope Callixtus III (d. 1458)
* 1491 - Jacques Cartier, French explorer (d. 1557)
* 1514 - Vesalius, Flemish anatomist (d. 1564)
* 1572 - Emperor Go-Yozei of Japan, (d. 1617)
* 1668 - Herman Boerhaave, Dutch humanist and physician (d. 1738)
* 1720 - Charles Edward Stuart, pretender to the British throne (d. 1788)
* 1738 - Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British general (d. 1805)
* 1763 - Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, French admiral (d. 1806)
* 1830 - Isma'il Pasha, Governor of Egypt (d. 1895)
* 1869 - Henri Matisse, French painter (d. 1954)
* 1880 - George C. Marshall, United States Secretary of State, Nobel Laureate (d. 1959)
* 1880 - Fred Beebe, baseball player (d. 1957)
* 1881 - Max Pechstein, German painter (d. 1955)
* 1882 - Martin O'Meara, Australian soldier (d. 1935)
* 1884 - Bobby Byrne, American baseball player (d. 1964)
* 1894 - Pola Negri, Polish actress (d. 1987)
* 1903 - Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (d. 1992)
* 1905 - Jule Styne, English-born composer (d. 1994)
* 1908 - Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Holocaust survivor (d. 2005)
* 1910 - Carl Dudley, American film director (d. 1973)
* 1919 - Tommy Byrne, baseball player
* 1920 - Rex Allen, American actor and singer (d. 1999)
* 1928 - Siné, French cartoonist
* 1930 - Odetta, American singer
* 1931 - Bob Shaw, Irish writer (d. 1996)
* 1934 - Akram Awan, Islamic scholar
* 1937 - Avram Hershko, Israeli biologist, Nobel laureate
* 1937 - Anthony Hopkins, Welsh actor
* 1938 - Rosalind Cash, American actress (d. 1995)
* 1941 - Alex Ferguson, Scottish footballer
* 1942 - Andy Summers, British musician (The Police)
* 1943 - John Denver, American musician (d. 1997)
* 1943 - Ben Kingsley, English actor
* 1945 - Taylor Hackford, American film producer and director
* 1945 - Diane von Fürstenberg, Belgian-born fashion designer
* 1945 - Connie Willis, American writer
* 1947 - Burton Cummings, Canadian musician (The Guess Who)
* 1947 - Tim Matheson, American actor
* 1948 - Donna Summer, American singer
* 1949 - Ellen Datlow, American editor
* 1949 - Susan Shwartz, American writer
* 1951 - George Thorogood, American musician
* 1951 - Tom Hamilton, American musician (Aerosmith)
* 1953 - James Remar, American actor
* 1953 - Jane Badler, American actress
* 1958 - Bebe Neuwirth, American actress
* 1959 - Phill Kline, American politician
* 1959 - Val Kilmer, American actor
* 1959 - Paul Westerberg, American musician (The Replacements)
* 1960 - John Allen Muhammad, American serial killer
* 1961 - Rick Aguilera, baseball player
* 1962 - Heather McCartney, British activist
* 1963 - Scott Ian, American musician (Anthrax)
* 1964 - Allen D'Nulderf, American stuntman
* 1971 - Brent Barry, American basketball player
* 1971 - Esteban Loaiza, Mexican Major League Baseball player
* 1977 - Wardy Alfaro, Costa Rican footballer
* 1978 - Papoose (rapper), African American Rapper
* 1980 - Richie McCaw, New Zealand rugby player
* 1980 - Bob Bryar, American drummer (My Chemical Romance)
* 1980 - Matt Cross, American professional wrestler
* 1981 - Jason Campbell, American football player
* 1981 - Matthew Pavlich, Australian American football player
Deaths
* 192 - Commodus, Roman Emperor (b. 161)
* 1164 - Margrave Ottokar III of Styria (b. 1124)
* 1194 - Duke Leopold V of Austria (killed at a tournament) (b. 1157)
* 1297 - Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford, English soldier (b. 1249)
* 1302 - Frederick III, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1238)
* 1384 - John Wycliffe, English theologian and Bible translator
* 1424 - Thomas Beaufort, 1st Duke of Exeter, English military leader
* 1460 - Edmund, Earl of Rutland, brother of Kings Edward IV of England and Richard III of England (executed) (b. 1443)
* 1460 - Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, English politician (b. 1400)
* 1510 - Bianca Maria Sforza, wife of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1472)
* 1535 - William Skeffington, Lord Deputy of Ireland (b. 1465)
* 1568 - Shimazu Tadayoshi, Japanese warlord (b. 1493)
* 1575 - Pierino Belli, Italian soldier and jurist (b. 1502)
* 1583 - Thomas Erastus, Swiss theologian (b. 1524)
* 1610 - Ludolph van Ceulen, German mathematician (b. 1540)
* 1650 - Dorgon, Chinese emperor (b. 1612)
* 1673 - Oliver St John, English statesman and judge
* 1679 - Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist (b. 1608)
* 1691 - Dudley North, English economist (b. 1641)
* 1719 - John Flamsteed, English astronomer (b. 1646)
* 1742 - Karl III Philip, Elector Palatine (b. 1661)
* 1799 - Jean-François Marmontel, French historian and writer (b. 1723)
* 1872 - Aleksis Kivi, Finnish author (b. 1834)
* 1877 - Gustave Courbet, French painter (b. 1819)
* 1888 - Samson Raphael Hirsch, German rabbi (b. 1808)
* 1889 - Ion Creanga, Romanian writer (b. 1837 or 1839)
* 1894 - Thomas Joannes Stieltjes, Dutch mathematician (b. 1856)
* 1905 - Alexander Popov, Russian physicist (b. 1859)
* 1921 - Boies Penrose, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania (b. 1860)
* 1936 - Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish writer and philosopher (b. 1864)
* 1948 - Malcolm Campbell, English race car driver (b. 1885)
* 1953 - Albert Plesman, Dutch aviation pioneer (b. 1889)
* 1964 - Ólafur Thors, Prime Minister of Iceland (b. 1892)
* 1964 - Bobby Byrne, baseball player (b. 1884)
* 1969 - George Lewis, American clarinetist (b. 1900)
* 1971 - Pete Duel American actor (b. 1940)
* 1971 - Marin Sais, American actress (b. 1890)
* 1971 - Vikram Sarabhai, Indian physicist (b. 1919)
* 1972 - Roberto Clemente, Puerto Rican baseball player (b. 1934)
* 1977 - Sabah III Al-Salim Al-Sabah, ruler of Kuwait (b. 1924)
* 1980 - Marshall McLuhan, Canadian writer (b. 1911)
* 1980 - Raoul Walsh, American film director (b. 1887)
* 1985 - Rick Nelson, American singer (b. 1940)
* 1986 - Lloyd Haynes, American actor (b. 1934)
* 1990 - Vasili Lazarev, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1928)
* 1993 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia, first President of Georgia (b. 1939)
* 1997 - Floyd Cramer, American musician (b. 1933)
* 1997 - Michael Kennedy, American politician (b. 1958)
* 1999 - Elliot Richardson, American politician (b. 1920)
* 2000 - Alan Cranston, American politician (b. 1914)
* 2003 - Arthur R. von Hippel German-born physicist (b. 1898)
* 2004 - Gerard Debreu, French-born economist, Bank of Sweden Prize laureate (b. 1921)
* 2005 - Phillip Whitehead, British politician (b. 1937)
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