1795 - France adopts the metre as the basic measure of length.
1933 - Zéro de conduite premiers in France. It was subsequently banned in France until 1946.
1770 - William Wordsworth, English poet (d. 1850)
1771 - Madeleine Laure , daughter of Marquis de Sade and Renée-Pélagie de Montreuil (d. 1844)
1772 - Charles Fourier, French philosopher (d. 1837)
1803 - Flora Tristan, French feminist and socialist philosopher (d. 1844)
1883 - Gino Severini, Italian painter (d. 1966)
1884 - Bronisław Malinowski , Polish anthropologist (The Sexual Life of Savages) (d. 1942)
1907 - Violette Leduc, French writer (La Bâtarde and Thérèse and Isabelle) (b. 1972)
1908 - Percy Faith, Canadian composer and musician (d. 1976)
1911 - Hervé Bazin, French writer (d. 1996)
1915 - Billie Holiday, American singer (d. 1959)
1920 - Ravi Shankar, Indian sitar player
1922 - Mongo Santamaria, Cuban musician (d. 2003)
1924 - Daniel Emilfork , French actor of Ukrainian-Jewish descent (d. 2006)
1927 - Babatunde Olatunji, Nigerian drummer (d. 2003)
1931 - Donald Barthelme, American author (d. 1989)
1934 - Ian Richardson, Scottish actor (d. 2007)
1938 - Freddie Hubbard, American jazz trumpeter (d. 2008)
1939 - Francis Ford Coppola, American film director
1945 - Werner Schroeter, German film director (d. 2010)
1947 - Florian Schneider, German musician (Kraftwerk)
1948 - Carol Douglas, American singer
1951 - Janis Ian, American singer and songwriter
1954 - Jackie Chan, Hong Kong actor
1614 - El Greco, Greek-born artist (b. 1541)
1836 - William Godwin, English political writer (b. 1756)
1891 - P. T. Barnum, American circus impresario (b. 1810)
1955 - Theda Bara, American film actress (b. 1885)
1977 - Jim Thompson , American writer (b. 1906)