What happened on January 21 ?

304 - Saint Agnes (martyred)

1118 - Pope Paschal II

1519 - Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Spanish explorer

1527 - Juan de Grijalva, Spanish conquistador

1546 - Azai Sukemasa, Japanese samurai and warlord (b. 1491)

1609 - Joseph Justus Scaliger, French protestant scholar (b. 1540)

1638 - Ignazio Donati, Italian composer

1683 - Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, British politician (b. 1621)

1699 - Obadiah Walker, English writer (b. 1616)

1706 - Adrien Baillet, French scholar and critic (b. 1649)

1710 - Johann Georg Gichtel, German mystic (b. 1638)

1722 - Charles Paulet, 2nd Duke of Bolton, English supporter of William III of England (b. 1661)

1731 - Thomas Woolston, English theologian (b. 1669)

1766 - James Quin, English actor (b. 1693)

1773 - Alexis Piron, French writer (b. 1689)

1774 - Mustafa III, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1717)

1793 - King Louis XVI of France (executed) (b. 1754)

1795 - Samuel Wallis, English navigator

1814 - Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, French writer and botanist (b. 1737)

1831 - Ludwig Achim von Arnim, German poet (b. 1781)

1851 - Albert Lortzing, German composer (b. 1801)

1870 - Alexander Herzen, Russian writer (b. 1812)

1872 - Franz Grillparzer, Austrian writer (b. 1791)

1881 - Wilhelm Matthias Naeff, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1802)

1891 - Calixa Lavallée, Canadian composer (b. 1842)

1901 - Elisha Gray, American inventor (b. 1835)

1914 - Theodor Kittelsen, Norwegian artist (b. 1857)

1919 - Gojong of Joseon, Emperor of Korea (b. 1852)

1924 - Vladimir Lenin, Russian Revolutionary (b. 1870)

1926 - Camillo Golgi, Italian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1843)

1928 - George Goethals, American army engineer (b. 1858)

1931 - Felix Blumenfeld, Russian composer and conductor (b. 1863)

1932 - Giles Lytton Strachey British writer (b. 1880)

1933 - George A. Moore, Irish novelist (b. 1852)

1948 - Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, Italian composer (b. 1876)

1950 - George Orwell, British writer (b. 1903)

1955 - Archie Hahn, American athlete (b. 1880)

1956 - Sam Langford, Canadian boxer (b. 1883)

1959 - Cecil B. DeMille, American director (b. 1881)

1959 - Carl Switzer, American actor (b. 1927)

1961 - Blaise Cendrars, Swiss writer (b. 1887)

1967 - Ann Sheridan, American actress (b. 1915)

1968 - Will Lang Jr., Chief Bureau Director of LIFE Magazine (b. 1914)

1984 - Jackie Wilson, American musician (b. 1934)

1985 - James Beard, American chef and author (b. 1903)

1987 - Charles Goodell, American politician (b. 1926)

1989 - Billy Tipton, American musician (b. 1914)

1993 - Charlie Gehringer, baseball player (b. 1903)

1997 - Colonel Tom Parker, American manager of Elvis Presley (b. 1909)

1998 - Jack Lord, American actor (b. 1920)

1999 - Susan Strasberg, American actress (b. 1938)

2001 - Byron De La Beckwith, American white supremacist (b. 1921)

2001 - Chung Ju-yung, Korean industrialist (b. 1915)

2002 - Peggy Lee, American singer (b. 1920)

2004 - Yordan Radichkov, Bulgarian writer (b. 1929)

2005 - Parveen Babi, Indian actress (b. 1955)

2005 - John L. Hess, American journalist (b. 1917)

2005 - Theun de Vries, Dutch writer (b. 1907)

2006 - Ibrahim Rugova, President of Kosovo and historical leader of the Kosovo Albanian people (b. 1944)