- 972 - Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor marries Theophanu, niece of the Eastern Roman Emperor John I Tzimisces
- 1759 - Death of composer Georg Friedrich Händel
- 1783 - Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's play Nathan der Weise premieres in Berlin
- 1868 - Birth of architect and designer Peter Behrens
- 1886 - Birth of philologist Ernst Robert Curtius