What happened on February 1 ?

1248 - Henry II, Duke of Brabant (b. 1207)

1328 - King Charles IV of France (b. 1294)

1542 - Girolamo Aleandro, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1480)

1563 - Menas, Emperor of Ethiopia (died of fever)

1590 - Lawrence Humphrey, English clergyman and educator

1691 - Pope Alexander VIII (b. 1610)

1718 - Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury, English politician (b. 1660)

1733 - King Augustus II of Poland (b. 1670)

1734 - John Floyer, English physician and writer (b. 1649)

1743 - Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni, Italian composer (b. 1657)

1761 - Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, French historian (b. 1682)

1768 - Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet, British cavalry officer (b. 1685)

1793 - William Wildman Shute Barrington, British statesman (b. 1717)

1851 - Mary Shelley, English author (b. 1797)

1893 - George Henry Sanderson, Mayor of San Francisco (b. 1824)

1897 - Constantin von Ettingshausen, Austrian geologist (b. 1826)

1903 - George Gabriel Stokes, Irish physicist (b. 1819)

1908 - King Carlos I of Portugal (b. 1863)

1928 - Hughie Jennings, baseball player (b. 1869)

1944 - Piet Mondriaan, Dutch painter (b. 1872)

1957 - Friedrich Paulus, German general (b. 1890)

1958 - Clinton Davisson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)

1966 - Hedda Hopper, American gossip columnist (b. 1885)

1966 - Buster Keaton, American actor (b. 1895)

1970 - Alfréd Rényi, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1921)

1976 - Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)

1976 - George Whipple, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1878)

1981 - Donald Wills Douglas, Sr., American aircraft manufacturer (b. 1892)

1981 - Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer (b. 1908)

1986 - Alva Myrdal, Swedish politician, diplomat, and writer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1902)

1988 - Heather O'Rourke, American actress (b. 1975)

1989 - Elaine de Kooning, American artist (b. 1918)

1991 - Carol Dempster, American actress (b. 1901)

1997 - Herb Caen, American newspaper columnist (b. 1916)

1999 - Paul Mellon, American philanthropist (b. 1907)

2002 - Hildegard Knef, German actress, singer, and writer (b. 1925)

2003 - The crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia, astronauts: Michael P. Anderson (b. 1959)

David Brown (b. 1956)

Kalpana Chawla (b. 1961)

Laurel Clark (b. 1961)

Rick D. Husband (b. 1957)

Willie McCool (b. 1961)

Ilan Ramon (b. 1954)

2003 - Mongo Santamaria, Cuban percussionist and band leader (b. 1922)

2005 - John Vernon, Canadian actor (b. 1932)