| | 619 - Laurence of Canterbury, 2nd Archbishop of Canterbury |
| | 699 - Saint Werburgh |
| | 1014 - King Sweyn I of Denmark |
| | 1116 - King Coloman of Hungary (b. 1070) |
| | 1399 - John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (b. 1340) |
| | 1428 - Ashikaga Yoshimochi, Japanese shogun (b. 1386) |
| | 1451 - Murad II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1404) |
| | 1468 - Johannes Gutenberg, German publisher |
| | 1566 - George Cassander, Flemish theologian (b. 1513) |
| | 1619 - Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham, English conspirator (b. 1564) |
| | 1737 - Tommaso Ceva, Italian Mathematician (b. 1648) |
| | 1802 - Pedro Rodríguez, Conde de Campomanes, Spanish statesman and writer (b. 1723) |
| | 1862 - Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist (b. 1774) |
| | 1889 - Belle Starr, American outlaw (b. 1848) |
| | 1922 - John Butler Yeats, Northern Irish artist (b. 1839) |
| | 1924 - Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1856) |
| | 1929 - Agner Krarup Erlang, Danish scientist (b. 1878 |
| | 1935 - Hugo Junkers, German engineer (b. 1859) |
| | 1945 - Roland Freisler, Nazi leader (b. 1893) |
| | 1956 - Émile Borel, French mathematician, politician, statesman, and resistance figher (b. 1871) |
| | 1959 - Also known as The Day the Music Died because of the deaths of: |
| | Buddy Holly, American singer (b. 1936) |
| | Ritchie Valens, American singer (b. 1941) |
| | J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, American singer (b. 1930) |
| | 1960 - Fred Buscaglione, Italian singer and actor (b. 1921) |
| | 1964 - Sir Albert Richardson, English architect (b. 1880) |
| | 1967 - Joe Meek, English record producer (b. 1929) |
| | 1975 - Umm Kulthum, Egyptian singer (b. 1904) |
| | 1985 - Frank Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1912) |
| | 1989 - John Cassavetes, American actor, director, and writer (b. 1929) |
| | 1991 - Nancy Kulp, American actress (b. 1921) |
| | 1996 - Audrey Meadows, American actress (b. 1926) |
| | 1998 - Karla Faye Tucker, American murderer (b. 1959) |
| | 2000 - Richard Kleindienst, American politician (b. 1923) |
| | 2003 - Lana Clarkson, American actress (murdered) (b. 1962) |
| | 2003 - Kid Gavilan, Cuban boxer (b. 1926) |
| | 2004 - Jason Raize, American musical theatre actor (b. 1975) |
| | 2005 - Corrado Cardinal Bafile, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1903) |
| | 2005 - Ernst Mayr, German-born biologist (b. 1904) |
| | 2005 - Zurab Zhvania, Prime Minister of Georgia (b. 1963) |
| | 2006 - Al Lewis, American actor (b. 1923) |