- 1787 - Birth of poet Ludwig Uhland
- 1925 - Paul von Hindenburg defeats Wilhelm Marx in the second round of the German presidential election to become the first directly elected Reichspräsident
- 1933 - Establishment of the Gestapo as secret police of Nazi Germany
- 1951 - Death of physicist Arnold Sommerfeld (pictured)
- 2002 - 17 people die in the Erfurt spree killing