- 1619 - Gédéon Tallemant des Réaux, French writer born
- 1750 - Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg, German poet born
- 1838 - Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, French writer born
- 1906 - Heinrich Seidel, German engineer, poet and writer died
- 1910 (O.S.) - Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist died
- 1913 - Albert Camus, French writer born
- 1974 - Eric Linklater, British author died