Anniversaries 5 February

Birth

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné5

French noble 1626–1696

John Witherspoon3

Scottish-American Presbyterian minister and a Founding Fath… 1723–1794

James Otis Jr.13

Lawyer in colonial Massachusetts 1725–1783

Robert Peel14

British Conservative statesman 1788–1850

John Muir (indologist)5

Scottish Sanskrit scholar and Indologist 1810–1882

Henry Maudsley1

British psychiatrist 1835–1918

Dwight L. Moody27

American evangelist and publisher 1837–1899

Johann Most17

German-American anarchist politician, newspaper editor, and… 1846–1906

Joris-Karl Huysmans8

French novelist and art critic 1848–1907

Arthur Keith2

anatomy, anthropology, geologist 1866–1955

Frederick E. Morgan3

British Army general 1894–1967

Adlai Stevenson131

mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the… 1900–1965

William S. Burroughs110

American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, a… 1914–1997

Andrew M. Greeley1

Irish-American Roman Catholic priest, sociologist, journali… 1928–2013

B.S. Johnson1

British writer 1933–1973

Hank Aaron11

Retired American baseball player 1934

Don Cherry9

ice hockey coach, television commentator 1934

John Guare2

1938; American playwright 1938

Stephen J. Cannell1

American television producer, writer, novelist and occasion… 1941–2010

Susan Hill1

English author 1942

Nolan Bushnell1

American entrepreneur 1943

Charlotte Rampling3

British actress 1946

Errol Morris14

American filmmaker and writer 1948

Roger Swain3

American television personality 1949

Mustafa Ef. Ceric1

Bosnian Imam 1952

Giannina Braschi37

Puerto Rican writer 1953

David Wiesner1

American children's illustrator and writer 1956

Divine Ndhlukula2

Zimbabwean businesswoman and farmer 1960

Bruce Timm3

Animator 1961

Michael Sheen1

Welsh actor 1969

Ameer Haider Khan Hoti1

politician in Pakistan 1971

Sara Evans4

American country singer and songwriter 1971

Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark5

Crown Princess of Denmark 1972

Chelsea Cain3

American journalist and writer 1972

Loke Siew Fook2

Malaysian politician 1976

Abhishek Bachchan3

Indian actor 1976

Jo Swinson1

British politician and leader of the Liberal Democrats 1980

Cristiano Ronaldo8

Portuguese association football player 1985

Darren Criss2

American actor and singer 1987

Death

Umar II3

Umayyad caliph 681–720

John Eardley Wilmot22

English judge 1709–1792

Thomas Carlyle481

Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian… 1795–1881

Pierre Bosquet1

Marshal of France 1810–1861

Anton Mauve29

Dutch painter (1838–1888) 1838–1888

Auguste Vaillant1

French anarchist 1861–1894

Addison Mizner12

American architect 1872–1933

H. M. Tomlinson1

British writer 1873–1958

Hazrat Inayat Khan37

Indian Sufi 1882–1927

Marianne Moore59

American poet and writer 1887–1972

Günter Reimann16

German economist 1904–2005

Wassily Leontief10

Russian economist 1906–1999

Pedro Arrupe1

Twenty-eighth Superior General of the Society of Jesus 1907–1991

Larry LeSueur8

American journalist 1909–2003

Joseph L. Mankiewicz3

American film director, screenwriter, and producer 1909–1993

Robert A. Dahl30

American political scientist 1915–2014

Kirk Douglas14

American stage and film actor 1916–2020

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi17

Inventor of Transcendental Meditation, musician 1917–2008

Ian Carmichael4

actor 1920–2010

Val Logsdon Fitch2

American physicist 1923–2015

Harry Schwarz17

South African activist 1924–2010

Mirkka Rekola22

Finnish writer 1931–2014

Brian Jacques37

British fiction writer known for Redwall animal fantasy nov… 1939–2011

Thomas Lux1

American poet 1946–2017

Sean Sellers15

American murderer 1969–1999