Oleg Efremov, theater and cinema actor, Moscow Arts Theatre (MKhAT) art director, is born.(1927)

Pavel I, the Emperor is born(1754)

Vasily Shukshin, writer, film director and actor dies(1974)

Sergey Yesenin, Russian lyrical poet, is born(1895)

Ekaterina II enthroned(1762)

Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik – the world's first artificial Earth satellite.(1957)

Vitaly Ginsburg, outstanding Russian physicist, is born.(1916)

Inna Churikova, actress, is born(1943)

Igor Tal’kov0(1956-1991), a popular Russia composer and singer dies in St. Petersburg from bullet wound(1991)

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, second president of Russian Federation, is born.(1952)

Soviet automatic interplanetary station “Luna-3” takes first pictures of the back side of the Moon(1959)

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russian novelist, dramatist and historian, awarded the Nobel prize for literature.(1970)

Кenowned physicist, humanitarian Andrey Sakharov awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his "fearless personal commitment in upholding the fundamental principles for peace between men".(1975)

Physicist Zhores Alferov awarded Nobel Prize for physics.(2000)

Elena Berezhnaya, a figure skater and 2002 Olympic champion together with her partner Anton Sikharulidze, is born(1977)

Dmitri Donskoy, Grand Duke of Moscow, is born.(1350)

Savely Kramarov (1934 - 1995), a comedy actor, is born.(1934)

Valentin Udashkin, famous Russian couturier and clothes designer is born(1963)

This day is considered to be the birthday of Russian cinema.(1908)

The President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev, author and leader of “perestroika”, is awarded the Peace Nobel Prize “for his leading role in the peace process which today characterizes important parts of the international community".(1990)

Battle of Leipzig (Battle of the Nations) started.(1813)

Grigory Orlov, Russian field marshal is born(1734)

Soviet space station “Venera-4” performs first ever landing on Venus’s surface(1967)

Sergey Bezrukov, theatre and cinema actor is born(1973)

In Saint-Petersburg’s suburb, Tsarskoe Selo, Tsarskoselsky Liceum was opened, where the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin and many other renowned figures were brought up.(1811)

While in counsel with the Boyar Duma Russian Tsar Peter I proposed the creation and perpetual maintenance of a Russian fleet.(1696)

the birth date of Nikita Mikhalkov(45)

the birth date of Leo Yashin(1929)

Russian poet and writer Boris Pasternak, author of the world famous novel “Doctor Zhivago”, is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.(1958)

Chechen terrorists stormed a Moscow theater centre at Dubrovka during a performance of the musical Nord-Ost, taking an estimated 1000 people hostage, mostly guests and staff members of the theater.(2002)

the birth date of Arkady Raikin(1911)

the birth date of Roman Abramovich(1966)

Anton Sikharulidze, figure skater, is born(1976)

State Academic Maly theatre, the oldest Russian drama theatre, opens.(1824)

Opens Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre, one of the most popular Russian theatres.(1898)

the birth date of Lydia Ruslanova(1900)

the birth date of Nikolay Karachentsev(1944)

the birth date of Igor Butman(1961)

death of Anna Ioannovna(1740)

the birth date of Abram Yoffe(1880)

the birth date of Eugeny Primakov(1929)

a monument for victims of political repressions set in Moscow(1990)

Anatoly Papanov, honored Russian actor, is born.(1922)