What happened on January 1 ?

379 - Saint Basil of Caesarea (b. 330)

404 - Saint Telemachus

874 - Hasan al-Askari, eleventh Shia Imam (b. 846)

898 - Odo, Count of Paris (b. 860)

1204 - King Haakon III of Norway

1384 - King Charles II of Navarre (b. 1332)

1515 - King Louis XII of France (b. 1462)

1554 - Pedro de Valdivia, Spanish conquistador

1559 - Christian III of Denmark and Norway (b. 1503)

1560 - Joachim Du Bellay, French poet

1617 - Hendrik Goltzius, Dutch painter (b. 1558)

1679 - Jan Steen, Dutch painter

1716 - William Wycherley, English dramatist

1730 - Samuel Sewall, English-born judge (b. 1652)

1742 - Peregrine Bertie, 2nd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English statesman (b. 1686)

1748 - Johann Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (b. 1667)

1759 - Jacques-Joachim Trotti, marquis de La Ch?rdie, French adventurer (b. 1705)

1766 - James Francis Edward Stuart, The Old Pretender (b. 1688)

1782 - Johann Christian Bach, German composer (b. 1735)

1789 - Fletcher Norton, 1st Baron Grantley, English politician (b. 1716)

1793 - Francesco Guardi, Venetian painter (b. 1712)

1800 - Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton, French naturalist (b. 1716)

1817 - Martin Heinrich Klaproth, German chemist (b. 1743)

1862 - Mikhail Vasilievich Ostrogradsky, Russian physicist (b. 1801)

1869 - Martin W. Bates, U.S. Senator from Delaware (b. 1786)

1892 - Roswell B. Mason, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1805)

1894 - Heinrich Hertz, German physicist (b. 1857)

1912 - Pyotr Nikolaevich Lebedev, Russian phsyicist (b. 1866)

1919 - Mikhail Drozdovsky, Russian general (b. 1881)

1921 - Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1856)

1931 - Martinus Beijerinck, Dutch microbiologist and botanist (b. 1851)

1933 - Harriet Brooks, Canadian physicist (b. 1876)

1944 - Charles Turner, Australian cricketer (b. 1862)

1953 - Hank Williams, American singer (b. 1923)

1958 - Edward Weston, American photographer (b. 1886)

1960 - Margaret Sullavan, American actress (b. 1911)

1964 - Bechara El Khoury, President of Lebanon (b. 1890)

1972 - Maurice Chevalier, French actor and singer (b. 1888)

1981 - Beulah Bondi, American actress (b. 1888)

1986 - Alfredo Binda, Italian cyclist (b. 1902)

1992 - Grace Hopper, American computer pioneer (b. 1906)

1994 - Lord Arthur Espie Porritt, Governor-General of New Zealand (b. 1900)

1994 - Cesar Romero, American actor (b. 1907)

1995 - Fred West, British serial killer (suicide) (b. 1941)

1995 - Eugene Wigner, Hungarian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)

1996 - Arleigh Burke, U.S. admiral (b. 1901)

1997 - Townes Van Zandt, American musician (b. 1944)

1998 - Helen Wills Moody, American tennis player (b. 1905)

2000 - Colin Vaughan, Australian-born political journalist in Canada

2001 - Ray Walston, American actor (b. 1914)

2003 - Joe Foss, American politician and fighter pilot (b. 1915)

2005 - Shirley Chisholm, U.S. Congresswoman (b. 1924)

2005 - Hugh John Frederick Lawson, 6th Baron Burnham, British newspaperman and politician (b. 1931)

2005 - Bob Matsui, U.S. Congressman (b. 1941)

2006 - Harry Magdoff, American magazine editor (b. 1913)

2006 - Bryan Harvey, American musician (b. 1956)

2006 - Phillip Whitehead, British politician and television producer (b. 1937)