- 1759 - Robert Burns, Scottish poet born
- 1864 - Julije Kempf, Croatian historian and writer born
- 1874 - William Somerset Maugham, English writer born
- 1882 - Virginia Woolf, English writer born
- 1900 - Yojiro Ishizaka, Japanese writer born
- 1908 - Ouida, English writer died
- 1938 - Vladimir Vysotsky, Russian poet born
- 1949 - John Cooper Clarke, British punk-poet born
