Born on Wednesday, 1st April – Famous Birthdays

01/04/2000

Rhian Brewster, English footballer

Rhian Joel Brewster is an English professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for EFL Championship club Derby County. In 2017, he was part of the England squad which won the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup in India and was awarded the Golden Boot award for ending as the competition's leading goalscorer.

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01/04/1999

Gabe Davis, American football player

Gabriel Davis is an American professional football wide receiver. He played college football for the UCF Knights and was selected by the Bills in the fourth round of the 2020 NFL draft. Davis has been nicknamed "Big-Game Gabe" due to his performance in important games, particularly his four touchdowns in the 2021 AFC Divisional playoff game.

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01/04/1998

King Combs, American rapper

Christian Casey "King" Combs is an American rapper and model. The son of rapper Sean Combs and model Kim Porter, Combs began his recording career with the release of his 2017 single "Type Different". His debut extended play, Cyncerely, C3 (2019), was released by his father's label Bad Boy Records. In the wake of his father's sexual misconduct trial, Combs released an extended play, Never Stop (2025), where Combs expressed support for him.

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Mitchell Robinson, American basketball player

Mitchell Robinson III is an American professional basketball player for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was selected with the 36th overall pick in the 2018 NBA draft. Before beginning his professional career, he gained national coverage for withdrawing from his commitment to attend Western Kentucky University to instead dedicate the entire 2017–18 season for training on his own, being the first player to make such a decision.

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01/04/1997

Asa Butterfield, English actor

Asa Bopp Farr Butterfield is an English actor. Beginning his career as a child actor, Butterfield first achieved recognition as the lead of the historical drama film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008). He continued to headline films during the 2010s, starring in the adventure drama Hugo (2011), the science-fiction film Ender's Game (2013), the drama X+Y (2014), the fantasy Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016) and the romantic science-fiction The Space Between Us (2017). From 2019 to 2023, Butterfield portrayed the lead of the Netflix comedy-drama series Sex Education.

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Álex Palou, Spanish racing driver

Álex Palou Montalbo is a Spanish racing driver who drives for Chip Ganassi Racing in the IndyCar Series, where he won the 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025 championships and the 2025 Indianapolis 500. He is the first Spanish racing driver to win a national championship in American open-wheel racing history and also the first Spaniard to win in the GP3 Series and the Indianapolis 500.

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01/04/1996

Sophia Hutchins, American socialite

Sophia Hutchins was an American socialite, media personality, businesswoman, charity executive and model. She was best known as the manager of Caitlyn Jenner, the chief executive officer and director of the Caitlyn Jenner Foundation, and the founder CEO of the sunscreen company LUMASOL.

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01/04/1995

Jofra Archer, Barbadian-English cricketer

Jofra Chioke Archer is an English cricketer who represents England in all formats as a right-arm fast bowler. In domestic cricket he plays for Sussex as well as a number of T20 franchises. Archer was a member of the England squad that won the 2019 Cricket World Cup. In April 2020, Archer was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year.

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Logan Paul, American YouTuber, actor and wrestler

Logan Alexander Paul is an American influencer, professional wrestler, entrepreneur, boxer, singer and actor. As a wrestler, he is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand and is a member of The Vision stable. He is one-half of the World Tag Team Champions with Austin Theory. He is also a former WWE United States Champion. He has over 23 million subscribers on his YouTube channel Logan Paul Vlogs and has ranked on the Forbes list for the highest-paid YouTube creators in 2017, 2018, and 2021. He is the co-founder of beverage company Prime and snack brand Lunchly. Paul has also run the Impaulsive podcast since November 2018, which has over four million YouTube subscribers. In December 2025, Paul was appointed General Partner of the venture capital firm Anti Fund, which was co-founded by his brother Jake Paul.

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01/04/1992

Deng Linlin, Chinese gymnast

Deng Linlin is a Chinese retired gymnast. She was a member of the Chinese team that won the team gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, People's Republic of China, and is a three-time World Cup gold medalist. She is the 2009 World and 2012 Olympic champion on balance beam.

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01/04/1991

Duván Zapata, Colombian footballer

Duván Esteban Zapata Banguero is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains Serie A club Torino.

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01/04/1990

Julia Fischer, German discus thrower

Julia Harting is a German athlete who specialises in the discus throw. She won the silver medal at the 2016 European Championships, and has represented Germany at two Olympics.

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01/04/1989

Jan Blokhuijsen, Dutch speed skater

Jan Blokhuijsen is an Olympic award-winning Dutch long-track speed skater who until 2013 skated for the commercial TVM team.

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David Ngog, French footballer

David Philippe Henri Ngog is a French former professional footballer who played as a striker.

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Christian Vietoris, German racing driver

Christian Johannes Vietoris is a German retired racing driver. He competed in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, most recently for HWA Team. Vietoris has also been a part of the revitalized Mercedes-Benz Junior Team, together with Robert Wickens and Roberto Merhi. Vietoris made his debut in the DTM in 2011, driving for Persson Motorsport, before being promoted to HWA for the 2012 DTM season.

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01/04/1988

Brook Lopez, American basketball player

Brook Robert Lopez is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "Splash Mountain", he was named an NBA All-Star as a member of the Brooklyn Nets, and was voted twice to the NBA All-Defensive Team while with the Milwaukee Bucks. He won an NBA championship with Milwaukee in 2021.

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Robin Lopez, American basketball player

Robin Byron Lopez is an American former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was selected with the 15th pick in the 2008 NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns, was traded to the New Orleans Hornets in 2012 and was traded to Portland in 2013. He played college basketball for the Stanford Cardinal alongside his twin brother Brook Lopez. He played for nine NBA teams, including a three-year stint with the Chicago Bulls and two stints with the Milwaukee Bucks.

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01/04/1987

Vitorino Antunes, Portuguese footballer

Vitorino Gabriel Pacheco Antunes is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a left-back.

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Ding Junhui, Chinese professional snooker player

Ding Junhui is a Chinese professional snooker player. He is the most successful Asian player in the history of the sport. Throughout his career, he has won 15 major ranking titles, including three UK Championships, and in 2014, became the first Asian world number one. He has twice reached the final of the Masters, winning once in 2011. In 2016, he became the first Asian player to reach the final of the World Championship.

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Gianluca Musacci, Italian footballer

Gianluca Musacci is an Italian footballer who plays as a midfielder for Serie D club U.S.D. Real Forte dei Marmi-Querceta.

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Oliver Turvey, English racing driver

Oliver Jonathan Turvey is a British professional racing driver, who most recently competed in Formula E, and is currently signed to DS Penske as a reserve driver and a sporting advisor. He was a notable kart racer, with two national titles, and was the 2006 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner. His career has been supported by the Racing Steps Foundation.

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01/04/1986

Nikolaos Kourtidis, Greek weightlifter

Nikolaos Kourtidis is a Greek weightlifter of Georgian origin. At age eighteen, Kourtidis made his official debut for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, representing the host nation Greece. He successfully lifted 377.5 kg in the men's middle-heavyweight category (94 kg), finishing in eleventh place.

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Hillary Scott, American country singer-songwriter

Hillary Dawn Scott-Tyrrell is an American singer and songwriter who rose to fame as the co-lead vocalist of the country music group Lady A. She is signed to Big Machine Records.

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01/04/1985

Daniel Murphy, American baseball player

Daniel Thomas Murphy is an American former professional baseball second baseman and first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Mets, Washington Nationals, Chicago Cubs, and Colorado Rockies. While primarily a second baseman, he also played first base, third base, and left field. Murphy was an MLB All-Star in 2014, 2016, and 2017. Internationally, Murphy represents the United States. In the 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC), he helped win Team USA's first gold medal in a WBC tournament.

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Beth Tweddle, English gymnast

Elizabeth Kimberly Tweddle is a retired English artistic gymnast. Renowned for her uneven bar and floor routines, she was the first female gymnast from Great Britain to win a medal at the European Championships, World Championships, and Olympic Games. Tweddle, known for her consistency and longevity as an elite gymnast, is regarded as a pioneer of the renaissance of British gymnastics at the beginning of the twenty-first century that saw the country's gymnastics programme progress from 'also ran' to consistent global competitiveness, and along with peers such as Vanessa Ferrari of Italy and Isabelle Severino of France, helped begin a period of significant success for western European gymnasts globally.

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01/04/1984

Gilberto Macena, Brazilian footballer

Gilberto Macedo da Macena, commonly known as Gilberto Macena, is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a forward for Rasisalai United of the Thai League 2.

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01/04/1983

Ólafur Ingi Skúlason, Icelandic footballer

Ólafur Ingi Skúlason is an Icelandic former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is the manager of Iceland national under-19 football team and the Iceland national under-15 women's team.

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Sean Taylor, American football player (died 2007)

Sean Michael Maurice Taylor was an American professional football safety for the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL). He was selected fifth overall in the 2004 NFL draft by the Redskins, where he played four seasons until his murder in 2007.

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01/04/1982

Taran Killam, American actor, voice artist, comedian, and writer

Taran Hourie Killam is an American actor and comedian. He first garnered attention for his brief stint on the Fox comedy series MADtv during its seventh season between 2001 and 2002, followed by his wider success as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2010 to 2016. He has also appeared in other television series such as Wild 'n Out, The Amanda Show, How I Met Your Mother, New Girl, and in the main cast of Single Parents. Killam is also known for his portrayal of a teen pop star in the 2004 Disney Channel Original Movie Stuck in the Suburbs. He voiced the title character on the PBS children's cartoon series Nature Cat.

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Andreas Thorkildsen, Norwegian javelin thrower

Andreas Thorkildsen is a retired Norwegian track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. He was the Olympic Champion in 2004 and 2008, European Champion in 2006 and 2010, and World Champion in 2009. He is the first male javelin thrower in history to simultaneously be European, World and Olympic Champion. He was also a three-time silver medalist at the World Championships, placing second in 2005, 2007 and 2011. His personal best of 91.59 m, set in 2006, is the Norwegian record.

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01/04/1981

Antonis Fotsis, Greek basketball player

Antonis Fotsis is a Greek professional basketball player for Ilysiakos. His height is of 2.09-metre tall. During his professional career he was also the captain of the senior Greek national team. In most of his playing career, he played primarily as a power forward, but he could also sometimes be used as a small ball center, or even as a small forward, if needed. Fotsis was inducted into the Greek Basket League Hall of Fame in 2022.

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Bjørn Einar Romøren, Norwegian ski jumper

Bjørn Einar Romøren is a Norwegian former ski jumper who competed at World Cup level from 2001 to 2014. His career highlights include eight individual World Cup wins, two ski flying world records, and a team bronze medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Bjørn Einar is the younger brother of Jan-Erik Romøren, best known by the stage name Nag, frontman of black metal band Tsjuder.

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01/04/1980

Dennis Kruppke, German footballer

Dennis Kruppke is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder or forward.

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Randy Orton, American wrestler

Randal Keith Orton is an American professional wrestler. He has been signed to WWE since 2000, where he performs on the SmackDown brand. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Orton has the tied-third most world championship reigns in the company's history, and a career spanning over 20 years.

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Bijou Phillips, American actress and model

Bijou Mary Phillips is an American model, socialite, and actress and singer. The daughter of musicians John Phillips and Geneviève Waïte, she began her career as a model. Phillips made her singing debut with I'd Rather Eat Glass (1999), and since her first major film appearance in Black and White (1999), she has acted in Almost Famous (2000), Bully (2001), The Door in the Floor (2004), Havoc (2005), Hostel: Part II (2007), and Choke (2008). From 2010 to 2013, she played the recurring role of Lucy Carlyle on the television series Raising Hope.

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01/04/1979

Ruth Beitia, Spanish high jumper

Ruth Beitia Vila is a Spanish retired high jumper who was the 2016 Olympic champion in the women's high jump. She was also a politician in the Partido Popular and a member of the Parliament of Cantabria.

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01/04/1978

Antonio de Nigris, Mexican footballer (died 2009)

Antonio de Nigris Guajardo was a Mexican professional footballer who played as a striker.

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Mirka Federer, Slovak-Swiss tennis player

Miroslava "Mirka" Federer is a Swiss former professional tennis player of Slovak origin.

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Anamaria Marinca, Romanian-English actress

Anamaria Marinca is a Romanian actress. She made her screen debut with the Channel 4 film Sex Traffic, for which she won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress. Marinca is also known for her performance in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, earning several awards for her performance, and was nominated for the European Film Award for Best Actress, London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress and National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress. In 2008, at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival, she was presented the Shooting Stars Award by the European Film Promotion.

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Etan Thomas, American basketball player

Dedrick Etan Thomas is an American former professional basketball player who played for the Washington Wizards, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is also a published poet, freelance writer, activist, and motivational speaker, as well as a co-host of Centers of Attention, a sports talk show on ESPN Radio Syracuse in Syracuse, New York, alongside former professional basketball player Danny Schayes.

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01/04/1977

Vitor Belfort, Brazilian-American boxer and mixed martial artist

Vítor Vieira Belfort is a Brazilian-American professional boxer and retired mixed martial artist who competed for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he fought in the Heavyweight, Light Heavyweight, and Middleweight divisions. He is the UFC 12 Heavyweight Tournament Champion, as well as a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and Cage Rage World Light Heavyweight Champion. Known for his explosive knockout power, Belfort is tied for fifth for the most finishes in UFC history with 14. Belfort also competed for MMA promotions Pride FC, Strikeforce, and Affliction.

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Haimar Zubeldia, Spanish cyclist

Haimar Zubeldia Agirre is a Spanish former road racing cyclist from the Basque Country, who competed professionally between 1998 and 2017 for the Euskaltel–Euskadi, Astana, Team RadioShack and Trek–Segafredo teams. During his career, Zubeldia recorded five top-ten finishes in the Tour de France, and one in the Vuelta a España.

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01/04/1976

Hazem El Masri, Lebanese-Australian rugby league player and educator

Hazem El Masri is a Lebanese Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a winger in the 1990s and 2000s. An international representative for Australia and Lebanon, and a New South Wales State of Origin representative goal-kicking wing, he played his entire club football career in Sydney with Canterbury with whom he won the 2004 NRL Premiership. In 2009 El Masri took the record for the highest-ever point scorer in premiership history and for a record sixth time was the NRL's top point scorer for the season. He also became only the seventh player in history to score over 150 NRL tries, having primarily played on the wing, but also at fullback.

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David Gilliland, American race car driver

David Leonard Gilliland is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver and team owner. Since 2017, he has operated Tricon Garage, a team that races in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The team has also competed in the ARCA Menards Series, ARCA Menards Series West, ARCA Menards Series East, and CARS Tour.

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Gábor Király, Hungarian footballer

Gábor Ferenc Király is a Hungarian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

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David Oyelowo, English actor

David Oyetokunbo Oyelowo is a British actor, director, and producer. His accolades include a Critics' Choice Award and two NAACP Image Awards as well as nominations for three Golden Globe Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award. In 2016, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to drama.

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Clarence Seedorf, Dutch-Brazilian footballer and manager

Clarence Clyde Seedorf is a Dutch former professional football manager and player. He is regarded by many as one of the greatest midfielders of all time. He is currently working primarily remotely as a senior sports advisor and senior consultant for Esteghlal Tehran Football Club of the Persian Gulf Pro League.

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Yuka Yoshida, Japanese tennis player

Yuka Kaneko is a former professional tennis player from Japan.

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01/04/1975

John Butler, American-Australian singer-songwriter and producer

John Charles Wiltshire-Butler, professionally known as John Butler, is an Australian singer, songwriter and music producer. He is best known for his time as the eponymous frontman of the John Butler Trio, a roots rock and jam rock band that formed in Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1998.

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Magdalena Maleeva, Bulgarian tennis player

Magdalena Georgieva Maleeva is a Bulgarian former professional tennis player. Her best WTA singles ranking was world No. 4. She played on the WTA Tour competing in singles and doubles, from April 1989 to October 2005 and has won ten career singles titles.

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01/04/1974

Hugo Ibarra, Argentinian footballer and manager

Hugo Benjamín Ibarra nicknamed "Negro," is an Argentine football manager and former player who played as a right back. He last managed Boca Juniors.

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01/04/1973

Christian Finnegan, American comedian and actor

Fletcher Christian Finnegan, better known as Christian Finnegan, is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor based in New York City.

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Stephen Fleming, New Zealand cricketer and coach

Stephen Paul Fleming is a cricket coach and former captain of the New Zealand national cricket team. He was a left-handed opening batter and an occasional right arm slow medium bowler. He is New Zealand's second-most capped Test cricketer with 111 appearances. He is also the team's longest-serving and most successful captain with 28 test victories and led the team to win the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy, the team's first International Cricket Council trophy. Fleming captained New Zealand in the first ever Twenty20 International against Australia in 2005.

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Rachel Maddow, American journalist and author

Rachel Anne Maddow is an American television news program host and liberal political commentator. She hosts The Rachel Maddow Show, a weekly television show on MS NOW, and serves as the cable network's special event co-anchor. Her syndicated talk radio program of the same name aired on Air America Radio from 2005 to 2010.

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01/04/1972

Darren McCarty, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster

Darren Douglas McCarty is a Canadian former professional ice hockey forward and professional wrestler, best known for his years playing with the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League (NHL). McCarty has been known for taking on the role of the Red Wings enforcer most of his career, a role in which he played in five Stanley Cup Finals and won the Stanley Cup four times in 1997, 1998, 2002, and 2008, the last of which after resurrecting his career in the Red Wings minor league system.

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Jesse Tobias, American guitarist and songwriter

Jesse Tobias is an American musician who has been the lead guitarist and co-songwriter for Morrissey since 2004. Tobias first gained fame during a brief tenure with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1993, although he was replaced by Dave Navarro within a month after joining the band. Before he joined the Chili Peppers, he briefly played with the band Mother Tongue. In 1995, Tobias joined the touring band for Alanis Morissette, and from 1999 to 2005 he was a member of the musical duo Splendid alongside his then-wife Angie Hart.

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01/04/1971

Sonia Bisset, Cuban javelin thrower

Sonia Bisset Poll is a retired Cuban track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw.

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Shinji Nakano, Japanese racing driver

Shinji Nakano is a Japanese professional racing driver.

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01/04/1970

Brad Meltzer, American author, screenwriter, and producer

Brad Meltzer is an American novelist, non-fiction writer, TV show creator, and comic book author. His novels touch on the political thriller, legal thriller and conspiracy fiction genres, while he has also written superhero comics for DC Comics, and periodically Marvel Comics, and a series of short biographies of prominent people for young readers.

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01/04/1969

Lev Lobodin, Ukrainian-Russian decathlete

Lev Alekseyevich Lobodin is a male decathlete from Russia, having changed nationality from Ukraine at the end of 1996. His best achievement was the silver medal at the 2003 World Indoor Championships in Birmingham.

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Andrew Vlahov, Australian basketball player

Andrew Mitchell Vlahov is an Australian retired professional basketball player. He played his entire eleven-year professional career for the Perth Wildcats of the National Basketball League (NBL), with whom he won three championships in 1991, 1995 and 2000.

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Dean Windass, English footballer and manager

Dean Windass is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He played spells at Bradford City and contributed to his hometown team Hull City's promotion to the Premier League in 2008.

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01/04/1968

Mike Baird, Australian politician, 44th Premier of New South Wales

Michael Bruce Baird is an Australian investment banker and former politician who was the 44th Premier of New South Wales, the Minister for Infrastructure, the Minister for Western Sydney, and the Leader of the New South Wales Liberal Party from April 2014 to January 2017.

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Andreas Schnaas, German actor and director

Andreas Schnaas is a German director and actor working exclusively in the horror genre. Since he first appeared on the film scene in 1989, he has become a leader in Germany's ultra-violent low-budget horror film industry. He was the one of the first in a series of maverick directors making underground movies who began a sustained revival of German horror cinema post World War II.

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Alexander Stubb, Finnish academic and politician, 43rd Prime Minister of Finland and 13th President of Finland

Cai-Göran Alexander Stubb is a Finnish politician serving as the president of Finland since 2024. A member of the National Coalition Party, he previously served as prime minister of Finland from 2014 to 2015 and has held several senior ministerial posts since 2008.

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01/04/1967

Nicola Roxon, Australian lawyer and politician, 34th Attorney-General for Australia

Nicola Louise Roxon is an Australian former politician. After politics, she has worked as a company director and academic.

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01/04/1966

Chris Evans, English radio and television host

Christopher James Evans is an English television presenter, radio DJ, and producer for radio and television.

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Mehmet Özdilek, Turkish footballer and manager

"Şifo" Mehmet Özdilek is a Turkish football manager and former player. He is nicknamed "Şifo" after Belgian star Enzo Scifo with whom he shared a similar playing style.

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01/04/1965

Jane Adams, American film, television, and stage actress

Jane Adams is an American actress and screenwriter. Known for her work in independent cinema, her acting credits include Light Sleeper (1992), Happiness (1998), Mumford (1999), Songcatcher (2000), The Anniversary Party (2001), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Little Children (2006), All the Light in the Sky (2012), and She Dies Tomorrow (2020).

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Mark Jackson, American basketball player and coach

Mark A. Jackson is an American former professional basketball player who was a point guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the St. John's Red Storm and was selected by the New York Knicks in the first round of the 1987 NBA draft with the 18th overall pick. He played in the NBA for the Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, Toronto Raptors, Utah Jazz, and Houston Rockets in a career spanning from 1987 to 2004.

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01/04/1964

Erik Breukink, Dutch cyclist and manager

Erik Breukink is a former Dutch professional road racing cyclist. In 1988, Breukink won the youth competition in the Tour de France. In 1990, finished 3rd in the 1990 Tour de France. Most recently, he served as the manager of the Rabobank team.

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Kevin Duckworth, American basketball player (died 2008)

Kevin Jerome Duckworth was an American professional basketball player who played as center in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A native of Illinois, he played college basketball for the Eastern Illinois Panthers before being selected by the San Antonio Spurs in the second round of the 1986 NBA draft. Before completing his rookie season with the Spurs, he was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers where he spent most of his six seasons and was named the NBA's Most Improved Player and a two-time All-Star. After playing with three more teams he retired in 1997 and returned to Oregon where he would later work for the Trail Blazers' organization.

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John Morris, English cricketer

John Edward Morris is an English former cricketer, who played for England in three Test matches and eight One Day Internationals in 1990 and 1991. He played first-class cricket for Derbyshire from 1982 to 1993, for Durham from 1994 to 1999 and for Nottinghamshire in 2000 and 2001.

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José Rodrigues dos Santos, Portuguese journalist, author, and educator

José António Afonso Rodrigues dos Santos is a Portuguese journalist, novelist and university lecturer. He has been one of the presenters of Telejornal, the evening news program on the Portuguese public television channel RTP1, since 1991. Since the 2000s he has published several thriller and historical fiction novels, becoming a best-selling author in Portugal.

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01/04/1963

Teodoro de Villa Diaz, Filipino guitarist and songwriter (died 1988)

Teodoro "Teddy" de Villa Diaz was a Filipino musician and songwriter, best known as the founder and original guitarist of the Dawn.

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Aprille Ericsson-Jackson, American aerospace engineer

Aprille Joy Ericsson is an American aerospace engineer who had served as the assistant secretary of defense for science and technology. Ericsson is the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Howard University and the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in engineering at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).

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01/04/1962

Mark Shulman, American author

Mark Shulman is an American children's author who has written more than 200 books. He is the founder of Oomf, Inc., a book production company.

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Chris Grayling, English journalist and politician, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain

Christopher Stephen Grayling, Baron Grayling,, is a British politician and author who served as Secretary of State for Justice from 2012 to 2015, Leader of the House of Commons from 2015 to 2016 and Secretary of State for Transport from 2016 until 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Epsom and Ewell from 2001 to 2024. Before entering politics, Grayling worked in the television and film industry.

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Samboy Lim, Filipino basketball player and manager (died 2023)

Avelino "Samboy" Borromeo Lim Jr., nicknamed "The Skywalker", was a Filipino professional basketball player of the Philippine Basketball Association and the national team in the 1980s and 1990s.

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Phillip Schofield, English television host

Phillip Bryan Schofield is an English television presenter. He began his UK television career as a Children's BBC continuity announcer from 1985 to 1987, and went on to present a wide range of high-profile programmes for the BBC and ITV, including Going Live! (1987–1993), This Morning (2002–2023), Dancing on Ice , All Star Mr & Mrs (2008–2016), and The Cube.

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01/04/1961

Susan Boyle, Scottish singer

Susan Magdalane Boyle is a Scottish singer who rose to fame in 2009 after appearing as a contestant on the third series of Britain's Got Talent, singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables. As of 2021, Boyle had sold 25 million records. Her debut album, I Dreamed a Dream (2009), is one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century, having sold over 10 million copies worldwide, and was the best-selling album internationally in 2009. In 2011, Boyle made UK music history by becoming the first female artist to achieve three successive albums debuting at No.1 in less than two years. As of May 2025, her estimated net worth was £22 million.

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Sergio Scariolo, Italian professional basketball head coach

Sergio Scariolo is an Italian professional basketball coach who is the head coach of Real Madrid of the Liga ACB and the EuroLeague. Having won four EuroBasket championships and a World Cup at the head of Spain, Scariolo is one of the most successful coaches in the history of international competitions, and according to many players, journalists and commentators, he is regarded as the greatest national team coach of all time.

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Mark White, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Mark Andrew White is an English singer, songwriter, composer, musician and record producer.

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01/04/1959

Helmut Duckadam, Romanian footballer (died 2024)

Helmut Duckadam was a Romanian professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

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01/04/1958

D. Boon, American singer and musician (died 1985)

Dennes Dale Boon, commonly known as D. Boon, was an American musician, best known as the guitarist, singer and songwriter of the punk rock trio Minutemen.

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01/04/1957

John Farragher, Australian rugby league player (died 2025)

John Wayne Farragher was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s. He played for the Penrith Panthers as a prop.

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David Gower, English cricketer and sportscaster

David Ivon Gower is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer who was captain of the England cricket team during the 1980s. Described as one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of his era, Gower played 117 Test matches and 114 One Day Internationals (ODI) scoring 8,231 and 3,170 runs, respectively. He was one of the most capped and high-scoring players for England during this period, and only Jack Hobbs made more runs against Australia than Gower's 3,269. He was a part of the English squad which finished as runners-up at the 1979 Cricket World Cup.

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Denise Nickerson, American actress (died 2019)

Denise Marie Nickerson was an American actress. Starting her career as a child actress, at the age of 13, she starred as Violet Beauregarde in the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. She later played Allison on The Electric Company, and had recurring roles as Amy Jennings, Nora Collins, and Amy Collins in the soap opera Dark Shadows. She left the acting profession in 1978 and later worked as a receptionist and office manager.

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01/04/1955

Don Hasselbeck, American football player and sportscaster

Donald William Hasselbeck was an American professional football player who was a tight end in the National Football League (NFL) for the New England Patriots, Los Angeles Raiders, Minnesota Vikings, and the New York Giants. He played college football for the Colorado Buffaloes, earning second-team All-American honors in 1975. Hasselbeck was selected in the second round of the 1977 NFL draft. He won a Super Bowl with the Raiders in the 1983 season.

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Humayun Akhtar Khan, Pakistani politician, 5th Commerce Minister of Pakistan

Humayun Akhtar Khan is a Pakistani politician, business tycoon and actuary. He has been elected as a member of the National Assembly four consecutive times between 1990 and 2007, having served as Federal Minister for Trade and Commerce from 2002 to 2007 and as Chairman Board of Investment / Minister of State for Investment from 1997 to 1999.

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01/04/1954

Jeff Porcaro, American drummer, songwriter, and producer (died 1992)

Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro was an American drummer and songwriter. He is best known for being the co-founder and drummer of the rock band Toto, but is also one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on hundreds of albums and thousands of sessions. While already an established studio player in the 1970s, he came to prominence in the United States as the drummer on the Steely Dan album Katy Lied (1975).

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01/04/1953

Barry Sonnenfeld, American cinematographer, director, and producer

Barry Sonnenfeld is an American filmmaker and television director. He originally worked as a cinematographer for the Coen brothers before directing comedy films like The Addams Family (1991), the Men in Black trilogy (1997-2012), Wild Wild West (1999), and RV (2006).

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Alberto Zaccheroni, Italian footballer and manager

Alberto Zaccheroni is an Italian former football manager, formerly in charge of the United Arab Emirates and Japan national football teams.

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01/04/1952

Annette O'Toole, American actress

Annette O'Toole is an American actress, singer, and songwriter.

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Bernard Stiegler, French philosopher and academic (died 2020)

Bernard Stiegler was a French philosopher. He was head of the Institut de recherche et d'innovation (IRI), which he founded in 2006 at the Centre Georges-Pompidou. He was also founder of the political and cultural group Ars Industrialis in 2005. In 2010, he established the philosophy school, pharmakon.fr, held at Épineuil-le-Fleuriel. He co-founded Collectif Internation, a group of "politicised researchers" in 2018. His best known work is Technics and Time, 1: The Fault of Epimetheus.

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01/04/1951

John Abizaid, American general

John Philip Abizaid is a retired United States Army general and former United States Central Command (CENTCOM) commander who served as the United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 2019 to 2021.

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01/04/1950

Samuel Alito, American lawyer and jurist, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. is an American jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated to the high court by President George W. Bush on October 31, 2005, and has served on it since January 31, 2006. After Antonin Scalia, Alito is the second Italian American justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Loris Kessel, Swiss racing driver (died 2010)

Loris Kessel was a racing driver from Switzerland.

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Daniel Paillé, Canadian academic and politician

Daniel Paillé is a Canadian politician, who represented the riding of Prévost in the National Assembly of Quebec from 1994 to 1996 as a member of the Parti Québécois, and represented the district of Hochelaga in the House of Commons of Canada as a member of the Bloc Québécois. He was elected leader of the Bloc Québécois with 62 percent of the vote on December 11, 2011. Paillé stepped down as leader on December 16, 2013, for health reasons.

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01/04/1949

Gérard Mestrallet, French businessman

Gérard Mestrallet is a French manager who was chairman and CEO of Engie 2008 to 2016. He is also the chairman of Suez.

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Paul Manafort, American lobbyist, political consultant, and convicted felon

Paul John Manafort Jr. is an American former lobbyist, political consultant, and attorney. A long-time Republican Party campaign consultant, he chaired the Trump presidential campaign from June to August 2016. Manafort served as an adviser to the U.S. presidential campaigns of Republicans Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bob Dole. In 1980, he co-founded the Washington, D.C.–based lobbying firm Black, Manafort & Stone, along with principals Charles R. Black Jr. and Roger Stone, joined by Peter G. Kelly in 1984. Manafort often lobbied on behalf of foreign leaders, including former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, former dictator of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos, former dictator of Zaire Mobutu Sese Seko, and Angolan guerrilla leader Jonas Savimbi. Lobbying to serve the interests of foreign governments requires registration with the United States Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA); on June 27, 2017, he retroactively registered as a foreign agent.

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Sammy Nelson, Northern Irish footballer and coach

Samuel Nelson is a former footballer who played as a left back in the Football League for Arsenal and Brighton & Hove Albion. He was capped 51 times for Northern Ireland and played at the 1982 FIFA World Cup.

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Gil Scott-Heron, American singer-songwriter and author (died 2011)

Gilbert Scott-Heron was an American jazz poet, singer, musician and author, known for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. His collaborative efforts with musician Brian Jackson fused jazz, blues and soul with lyrics relative to social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles. He referred to himself as a "bluesologist", his own term for "a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues". His poem "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", delivered over a jazz-soul beat, is considered a major influence on hip hop music.

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01/04/1948

Javier Irureta, Spanish footballer and manager

Javier Iruretagoyena Amiano, Irureta for short, is a Spanish retired football attacking midfielder and manager.

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Peter Law, Welsh politician and independent Member of Parliament (died 2006)

Peter John Law was a Welsh politician. For most of his career Law sat as a Labour councillor and subsequently Labour Co-operative Assembly member (AM) for Blaenau Gwent. Latterly he sat as an independent member of Parliament (MP) and AM for the same constituency.

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01/04/1947

Alain Connes, French mathematician and academic

Alain Connes is a French mathematician, known for his contributions to the study of operator algebras and noncommutative geometry. He was a professor at the Collège de France, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, Ohio State University and Vanderbilt University. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1982.

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01/04/1946

Nikitas Kaklamanis, Greek academic and politician, Greek Minister of Health and Social Security

Nikitas Michail Kaklamanis is a Greek politician who has served as President of the Hellenic Parliament since 2025, and has been a member of parliament from Athens A multiple times since 1990.

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Ronnie Lane, English bass player, songwriter, and producer (died 1997)

Ronald Frederick Lane was an English musician and songwriter who was the bassist and co-founder of the rock bands Small Faces (1965–69) and Faces (1969–73).

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Arrigo Sacchi, Italian footballer, coach, and manager

Arrigo Sacchi is an Italian former professional football coach, best known for having twice managed AC Milan. Sacchi is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time, and his Milan side (1987–1991) is widely regarded to be one of the greatest club squads of all time.

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01/04/1943

Dafydd Wigley, Welsh academic and politician

Dafydd Wynne Wigley, Baron Wigley, is a Welsh politician who served as the leader of Plaid Cymru from 1981 to 1984 and again from 1991 to 2000. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Caernarfon from 1974 to 2001 and as the Member of the Welsh Assembly for Caernarfon from 1999 to 2003. In 2010, Wigley was granted life peerage, taking his seat in the House of Lords in 2011, making him one of the party's only two Lords in the HOL.

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Titina Silá, Bissau-Guinean revolutionary (died 1973)

Ernestina "Titina" Silá was a Bissau-Guinean revolutionary. Recruited into the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), while she was a young woman, she joined in the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence against the Portuguese Empire.

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01/04/1942

Samuel R. Delany, American author and critic

Samuel R. "Chip" Delany is an African American writer and literary critic. His work includes fiction, memoir, criticism, and essays on science fiction, literature, sexuality, and society.

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Richard D. Wolff, American economist and academic

Richard David Wolff is an American Marxian economist known for his work on economic methodology and class analysis. He is a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor in the graduate program in international affairs at The New School. Wolff has also taught economics at Yale University, City College of New York, University of Utah, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, and The Brecht Forum in New York City.

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01/04/1941

Gideon Gadot, Israeli journalist and politician (died 2012)

Gideon Gadot was an Israeli journalist and politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Likud between 1984 and 1992.

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Ajit Wadekar, Indian cricketer, coach, and manager (died 2018)

Ajit Laxman Wadekar was an Indian international cricketer who played for the Indian national team between 1966 and 1974. Described as an "aggressive batsman", Wadekar made his first-class debut in 1958, before making his foray into international cricket in 1966. He batted at number three and was considered to be one of the finest slip fielders. Wadekar also captained the Indian cricket team which won series in the West Indies and England in 1971. The Government of India honoured him with the Arjuna Award (1967) and Padmashri (1972), India's fourth highest civilian honour. In 2011, he received the C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honour Indian board can bestow on a former player.

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01/04/1940

Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmentalist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2011)

Wangarĩ Maathai was a Kenyan social, environmental, and political activist who founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on planting trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 2004 she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

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01/04/1939

Ali MacGraw, American model and actress

Elizabeth Alice MacGraw is an American actress. For her role in Goodbye, Columbus (1969) she won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. She then starred in Love Story (1970), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. In 1972, MacGraw was voted the top female film star in the world and was honored with a hands and footprints ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre after having made just three films. She went on to star in The Getaway (1972), Convoy (1978), Players (1979), Just Tell Me What You Want (1980), and The Winds of War (1983). In 1991, she published an autobiography, Moving Pictures.

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Phil Niekro, American baseball player and manager (died 2020)

Philip Henry Niekro, nicknamed "Knucksie", was an American baseball pitcher who played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays. Niekro is generally regarded as the greatest knuckleball pitcher of all time.

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01/04/1937

Jordan Charney, American actor

Jordan Charney is an American character actor known for Ghostbusters (1984), Network (1976) and Hill Street Blues (1981).

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Yılmaz Güney, Palme d'Or award-winning Kurdish film director, scenarist, actor, novelist and activist (died 1984)

Yılmaz Güney was a Kurdish film director, screenwriter, novelist, actor and communist political activist. He quickly rose to prominence in the Turkish film industry. Many of his works were made from a far-left perspective and devoted to the plight of working-class people in Turkey. Güney won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1982 for the film Yol which he co-directed with Şerif Gören. He was at constant odds with the Turkish government over the portrayal of Kurdish culture, people and language.

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Lynn Garrison, Canadian aviator, political advisor, and mercenary

Lynn Garrison is a Canadian pilot and political adviser. He was a Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot in the 403 City of Calgary Squadron, before holding jobs as a commercial pilot, film producer, director and mercenary. Garrison has also accumulated a substantial collection of classic aircraft, flying many of these as well as organising their restoration and preservation. He participated in the Nigerian Civil War as a mercenary, assisting the military of Biafra.

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01/04/1936

Peter Collinson, English-American director and producer (died 1980)

Peter Collinson was a British film director whose notable credits include The Italian Job (1969).

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Jean-Pascal Delamuraz, Swiss politician, 80th President of the Swiss Confederation (died 1998)

Jean-Pascal Delamuraz was a Swiss politician and member of the Swiss Federal Council (1983–1998).

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Tarun Gogoi, Indian politician, 14th Chief Minister of Assam (died 2020)

Tarun Gogoi was an Indian politician and lawyer who served as the 13th Chief Minister of Assam from 2001 to 2016. He was the longest serving Chief Minister of Assam. He was a member of the Indian National Congress. During his tenure as the chief minister, he is credited with ending militant insurgency and mitigating violence in addition to improving the state's fiscal condition. He is the father of Deputy LoP of the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi.

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Abdul Qadeer Khan, Indian-Pakistani physicist, chemist, and engineer (died 2021)

Abdul Qadeer Khan was a Pakistani nuclear physicist and metallurgical engineer. He is colloquially known as the "father of Pakistan's atomic weapons program".

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01/04/1935

Cyril Karabus, South African paediatric oncologist

Cyril Karabus is a South African paediatric oncologist. Karabus was initially well-recognised in South Africa for his work with black cancer patients during apartheid. In 2012, Karabus gained international attention after he was detained in the United Arab Emirates for a manslaughter and forgery conviction in absentia from 2004, which he was not aware of. Following boycotts in South Africa against the UAE, and government pressure, the UAE acquitted him of all charges in March 2013, and he returned to South Africa in May of that year.

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Larry McDonald, American physician and politician (died 1983)

Lawrence Patton McDonald was an American physician, politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Georgia's 7th congressional district as a Democrat from 1975 until he was killed as a passenger on board Korean Air Lines Flight 007 when it was shot down by Soviet interceptors.

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01/04/1934

Vladimir Posner, French-American journalist and radio host

Vladimir Vladimirovich Pozner, sometimes Vladimir Pozner, Jr., is a French-born Russian-American journalist and presenter. In the West he represented and explained the views of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He was a spokesman for the Soviets, in part because he grew up in the United States and speaks fluent English, Russian, and French. Pozner later described his role as propaganda.

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01/04/1933

Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Algerian-French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

Claude Cohen-Tannoudji is a French physicist at the École normale supérieure in Paris. He is known for his experiments in laser cooling. He was the first to show that it is possible to cool far beyond the limit expected by sub-Doppler cooling, below the recoil temperature.

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Dan Flavin, American sculptor and educator (died 1996)

Daniel Nicholas Flavin Jr. was an American minimalist artist famous for creating sculptural objects and installations from commercially available fluorescent light fixtures.

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Bengt Holbek, Danish folklorist (died 1992)

Bengt Holbek was a Danish folklorist known for his unorthodox approach to folklore theory. He wrote one of the definitive works of fairy tale scholarship entitled Interpretation of Fairy Tales (1987).

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01/04/1932

Debbie Reynolds, American actress, singer, and dancer (died 2016)

Mary Frances "Debbie" Reynolds was an American actress, singer and entrepreneur. Her acting career spanned almost 70 years. Reynolds performed on stage and television and in films into her 80s.

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01/04/1931

George Baker, Bulgarian-English actor and screenwriter (died 2011)

George Morris Baker was an English actor and writer. He was best known for portraying Tiberius in I, Claudius, and Inspector Wexford in The Ruth Rendell Mysteries.

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Rolf Hochhuth, German author and playwright (died 2020)

Rolf Hochhuth was a German author and playwright, best known for his 1963 drama The Deputy, which insinuates Pope Pius XII's indifference to Hitler's extermination of the Jews, and he remained a controversial figure both for his plays and other public comments and for his 2005 defense of British Holocaust denier David Irving.

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01/04/1930

Grace Lee Whitney, American actress and singer (died 2015)

Grace Lee Whitney was an American actress and singer. Her entertainment career spanned over a half century in a variety of capacities in radio, on stage, in music as a singer and songwriter, in television and in movies. She played Janice Rand on the original Star Trek television series and subsequent Star Trek films.

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Ásta Sigurðardóttir, Icelandic writer and visual artist (died 1971)

Ásta Sigurðardóttir was an Icelandic writer and visual artist recognized for her pioneering contributions to modernist short fiction. Her work is notably characterized by its depiction of urban marginalization in mid-twentieth-century Reykjavík.

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01/04/1929

Jonathan Haze, American actor, producer, screenwriter, and production manager (died 2024)

Jonathan Haze was an American actor, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in Roger Corman films, especially the 1960 black comedy cult classic The Little Shop of Horrors, in which he played florist's assistant Seymour Krelboined.

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Milan Kundera, Czech-French novelist, poet, and playwright (died 2023)

Milan Kundera was a Czech and French novelist. Kundera went into exile in France in 1975, acquiring citizenship in 1981. His Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, but he was granted Czech citizenship in 2019.

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Payut Ngaokrachang, Thai animator and director (died 2010)

Payut Ngaokrachang was a Thai cartoonist and animator. He created Thai cinema's first cel-animated feature film, The Adventure of Sudsakorn.

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Jane Powell, American actress, singer, and dancer (died 2021)

Jane Powell was an American actress, singer, and dancer who appeared in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals in the 1940s and 50s. With her soprano voice and girl-next-door image, Powell appeared in films, television and on the stage, performing in the musicals A Date with Judy (1948), Royal Wedding (1951), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), Hit the Deck (1955) and The Berry & Bitty Movie (2010).

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01/04/1927

Walter Bahr, American soccer player, coach, and manager (died 2018)

Walter Alfred Bahr was an American professional soccer player, considered one of the greatest ever in the United States. He was the long-time captain of the U.S. men's national team and played in the 1950 FIFA World Cup when the U.S. defeated England 1–0. Bahr's three sons Casey, Chris, and Matt, all played professional soccer in the defunct North American Soccer League. Casey and Chris also played for the U.S. Olympic team, and Chris and Matt later became placekickers in the National Football League, each earning two Super Bowl rings.

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Amos Milburn, American R&B singer-songwriter and pianist (died 1980)

Joseph Amos Milburn was an American R&B singer and pianist, popular in the 1940s and 1950s. One commentator noted, "Milburn excelled at good-natured, upbeat romps about booze and partying, imbued with a vibrant sense of humour and double entendre, as well as vivid, down-home imagery in his lyrics."

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Ferenc Puskás, Hungarian footballer and manager (died 2006)

Ferenc Puskás was a Hungarian footballer and manager, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and the sport's first international superstar. A forward and an attacking midfielder, he scored 84 goals in 85 international matches for Hungary and later played four international matches for Spain as well. He is the European all-time top assist provider in international football (53). He became an Olympic champion in 1952 and led his nation to the final of the 1954 World Cup. He won three European Cups, ten national championships and eight top individual scoring honors. Known as the "Galloping Major", in 1995, he was recognized as the greatest top division scorer of the 20th century by the IFFHS. Scoring 802 goals in 792 official games during his career, he is the seventh top goal scorer of all time by the RSSSF.

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01/04/1926

Anne McCaffrey, American-Irish author (died 2011)

Anne Inez McCaffrey was an American writer known for the Dragonriders of Pern science fiction series. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction and the first to win a Nebula Award. Her 1978 novel The White Dragon became one of the first science-fiction books to appear on the New York Times Best Seller list.

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01/04/1924

Brendan Byrne, American lieutenant, judge, and politician, 47th Governor of New Jersey (died 2018)

Brendan Thomas Byrne was an American attorney and Democratic Party politician who served as the 47th Governor of New Jersey from 1974 to 1982.

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01/04/1922

Duke Jordan, American pianist and composer (died 2006)

Irving Sidney "Duke" Jordan was an American jazz pianist.

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William Manchester, American historian and author (died 2004)

William Raymond Manchester was an American author, biographer, and historian. He was the author of 18 books which have been translated into over 20 languages. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal and the Abraham Lincoln Literary Award.

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01/04/1921

William Bergsma, American composer and educator (died 1994)

William Laurence Bergsma was an American composer and teacher. He was long associated with Juilliard School, where he taught composition, until he moved to the University of Washington as head of their music school until 1971.

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Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith, American guitarist, fiddler, and composer (died 2014)

Arthur Smith was an American musician, composer, and record producer, as well as a radio and TV host. He produced radio and TV shows; The Arthur Smith Show was the first nationally syndicated country music show on television. After moving to Charlotte, North Carolina, Smith developed and ran the first commercial recording studio in the Southeast.

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01/04/1920

Toshiro Mifune, Japanese actor (died 1997)

Toshiro Mifune was a Japanese actor and producer. The recipient of numerous awards and accolades over a lengthy career, he is widely considered one of the greatest actors of all time. He often played heroic characters and was noted for his commanding screen presence in the Japanese film industry.

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01/04/1919

Joseph Murray, American surgeon and soldier, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2012)

Joseph Edward Murray was an American plastic surgeon who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1990 with E. Donnall Thomas for "their discoveries concerning organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease."

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01/04/1917

Sydney Newman, Canadian screenwriter and producer, co-created Doctor Who (died 1997)

Sydney Cecil Newman was a Canadian television producer and screenwriter who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. After his return to Canada in 1970, he was appointed acting director of the Broadcast Programs Branch for the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) and then head of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He also occupied senior positions at the Canadian Film Development Corporation and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and acted as an advisor to the Secretary of State.

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Melville Shavelson, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2007)

Melville Shavelson was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. He was President of the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAw) from 1969 to 1971, 1979 to 1981, and 1985 to 1987.

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01/04/1916

Sheila May Edmonds, British mathematician (died 2002)

Sheila May Edmonds was a British mathematician, a Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, and Vice-Principal of Newnham College from 1960 to 1981.

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01/04/1915

O. W. Fischer, Austrian-Swiss actor and director (died 2004)

Otto Wilhelm Fischer was an Austrian film and theatre actor, a leading man of West German cinema during the Wirtschaftswunder era of the 1950s and 1960s.

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01/04/1913

Memos Makris, Greek sculptor (died 1993)

Memos Makris was a prominent Greek sculptor. He spent his early childhood in Patras but his family moved to Athens in 1919. He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts and soon became involved in the artistic and cultural life of the 1930s. During the German Occupation Makris joined the National Resistance. After the liberation he continued his studies in Paris. He was deported from France in 1950 due to his political allegiance to the Left and sought political asylum in Hungary. In Hungary he became an important figure in the country's political and cultural life. In 1964 he was deprived of his Greek nationality, which he regained in 1975 after the restoration of democracy in Greece. In 1979 his first retrospective exhibition in Greece took place in the National Art Gallery.

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01/04/1911

Augusta Braxton Baker, African American librarian (died 1998)

Augusta Braxton Baker was an American librarian and storyteller. She was known for her contributions to children's literature, especially regarding the portrayal of Black Americans in works for children.

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01/04/1910

Harry Carney, American saxophonist and clarinet player (died 1974)

Harry Howell Carney was a jazz saxophonist and clarinettist who spent over four decades as a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. He played a variety of instruments, but primarily used the baritone saxophone, being a critical influence on the instrument in jazz.

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Bob Van Osdel, American high jumper and soldier (died 1987)

Bob Van Osdel was an American athlete who competed mainly in the high jump.

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01/04/1909

Abner Biberman, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1977)

Abner Warren Biberman was an American actor, director, and screenwriter.

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Eddy Duchin, American pianist and bandleader (died 1951)

Edwin Frank Duchin, commonly known as Eddy Duchin or alternatively Eddie Duchin, was an American popular music pianist and bandleader during the 1930s and 1940s.

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01/04/1908

Abraham Maslow, American psychologist and academic (died 1970)

Abraham Harold Maslow was an American psychologist who created Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization.

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Harlow Rothert, American shot putter, lawyer, and academic (died 1997)

Harlow Phelps Rothert was an American athlete who competed mainly in the shot put.

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01/04/1907

Shivakumara Swami, Indian religious leader and philanthropist (died 2019)

Shivakumara Swami was an Indian humanitarian, spiritual leader, educator and supercentenarian. He was a Veerashaiva religious figure. Swami joined the Siddaganga Matha in 1930 Karnataka and became head seer in 1941. He also founded the Sri Siddaganga Education Society. Described as the most esteemed adherent of Lingayatism (Veerashaivism), he was referred to as Nadedaaduva Devaru in the state. In 2015, Dr Shivakumara Swamiji was awarded by the Government of India the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award.

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01/04/1906

Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev, Russian engineer, founded the Yakovlev Design Bureau (died 1989)

Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev was a Soviet aeronautical engineer. He designed the Yakovlev military aircraft and founded the Yakovlev Design Bureau. Yakovlev joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1938.

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01/04/1905

Gaston Eyskens, Belgian economist and politician, 47th Prime Minister of Belgium (died 1988)

Gaston François Marie, Viscount Eyskens was a Christian democratic politician and prime minister of Belgium. He was also an economist and member of the Belgian Christian Social Party (CVP-PSC).

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Paul Hasluck, Australian historian, poet, and politician, 17th Governor-General of Australia (died 1993)

Sir Paul Meernaa Caedwalla Hasluck was an Australian statesman who served as the 17th governor-general of Australia, in office from 1969 to 1974. Prior to that, he was a Liberal Party politician, holding ministerial office continuously from 1951 to 1969.

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01/04/1902

Maria Polydouri, Greek poet (died 1930)

Maria Polydouri was a Greek poet who belonged to the school of Neo-romanticism.

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01/04/1901

Whittaker Chambers, American journalist and spy (died 1961)

Whittaker Chambers was an American author, journalist, and spy. After dropping out of Columbia University, Chambers joined the open Communist Party in 1925. He wrote and edited for the New Masses and the Daily Worker, before being ordered to go underground as a secret agent for the Soviet intelligence services. From 1932 to 1938 he was part of the clandestine "Ware Group", based in Washington, D.C. Disillusioned by Joseph Stalin's rule and by Communism more broadly, Chambers defected from the Soviet spy ring and eventually found employment at Time magazine, where he rose to become a senior editor.

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01/04/1900

Stefanie Clausen, Danish Olympic diver (died 1981)

Anna Stefanie Nanna Fryland Clausen was a Danish diver. She was a gold medalist at the 1920 Summer Olympics.

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01/04/1899

Gustavs Celmiņš, Latvian academic and politician (died 1968)

Gustavs Celmiņš was a Latvian politician, who was the founder of the ultranationalist, Anti-Baltic, anti-Slavic, and antisemitic political party Pērkonkrusts.

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01/04/1898

William James Sidis, Ukrainian-Russian Jewish American mathematician, anthropologist, and historian (died 1944)

William James Sidis was an American child prodigy whose exceptional abilities in mathematics and languages made him one of the most famous intellectual prodigies of the early 20th century. Born to Boris Sidis, a prominent psychiatrist, and Sarah Mandelbaum Sidis, a physician, Sidis demonstrated extraordinary intellectual capabilities from infancy. Enrolled at Harvard University at age 11, he delivered a widely publicized lecture on four-dimensional geometry at age 12 and graduated cum laude in 1914 at 16.

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01/04/1895

Alberta Hunter, African-American singer-songwriter and nurse (died 1984)

Alberta Hunter was an American jazz and blues singer and songwriter from the early 1920s to the late 1950s. After twenty years of working as a nurse, Hunter resumed her singing career in 1977.

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01/04/1893

Cicely Courtneidge, Australian-English actress (died 1980)

Dame Esmerelda Cicely Courtneidge was an Australian-born British actress, comedian and singer. The daughter of the producer and playwright Robert Courtneidge, she was appearing in his productions in the West End by the age of 16, and was quickly promoted from minor to major roles in his Edwardian musical comedies.

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01/04/1889

K. B. Hedgewar, Indian physician and activist (died 1940)

Keshav Baliram Hedgewar was an Indian physician who founded the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindutva paramilitary organisation, in Nagpur in 1925.

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01/04/1885

Wallace Beery, American actor (died 1949)

Wallace Fitzgerald Beery was an American film and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill (1930) opposite Marie Dressler, as General Director Preysing in Grand Hotel (1932), as the pirate Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1934), as Pancho Villa in Viva Villa! (1934) for which he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, and his title role in The Champ (1931), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Beery appeared in some 250 films during a 36-year career. His contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer stipulated in 1932 that he would be paid $1 more than any other contract player at the studio. This made Beery the highest-paid film actor in the world during the early 1930s. He was the brother of actor Noah Beery and uncle of actor Noah Beery Jr.

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Clementine Churchill, English wife of Winston Churchill (died 1977)

Clementine Ogilvy Spencer-Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill, was the wife of Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and a life peer in her own right. While she was legally the daughter of Sir Henry Hozier, her mother Lady Blanche's known infidelity and his suspected infertility makes her paternity uncertain.

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01/04/1883

Lon Chaney, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1930)

Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney was an American actor and makeup artist. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted, characters and for his groundbreaking artistry with makeup. Chaney was known for his starring roles in such silent horror films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). His ability to transform himself using makeup techniques that he developed earned him the nickname "The Man of a Thousand Faces".

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Edvard Drabløs, Norwegian actor and director (died 1976)

Edvard Drabløs was a Norwegian actor and theatre director.

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Laurette Taylor, Irish-American actress (died 1946)

Laurette Taylor was an American stage and silent film star who is particularly well known for originating the role of Amanda Wingfield in the first production of Tennessee Williams's play The Glass Menagerie.

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01/04/1881

Octavian Goga, Romanian Prime Minister (died 1938)

Octavian Goga was a Romanian far-right politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator. Octavian Goga was the first fascist Prime Minister of Romania.

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01/04/1879

Stanislaus Zbyszko, Polish wrestler and strongman (died 1967)

Stanisław Jan Cyganiewicz, better known by his ring name Stanislaus Zbyszko, was a Polish strongman, catch wrestler, and professional wrestler. He was a three-time World Heavyweight Champion in the United States during the 1920s.

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01/04/1878

C. Ganesha Iyer, Ceylon Tamil philologist (died 1958)

Vidhva Shiromani Brahma Sri C. Ganesha Iyer was a Ceylonese Tamil philologist from Jaffna.

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01/04/1875

Edgar Wallace, English journalist, author, and playwright (died 1932)

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was a British writer of crime and adventure fiction.

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01/04/1874

Ernest Barnes, English mathematician and theologian (died 1953)

Ernest William Barnes was a British mathematician and scientist who later became a liberal theologian and bishop.

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Prince Karl of Bavaria (died 1927)

Prince Karl of Bavaria was a member of the Bavarian Royal House of Wittelsbach and a Major General in the Bavarian Army.

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01/04/1873

Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1943)

Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music. Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and other Russian composers gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom notable for its song-like melodicism, expressiveness, dense contrapuntal textures, and rich orchestral colours. The piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninoff's compositional output and he used his skills as a performer to fully explore the expressive and technical possibilities of the instrument.

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01/04/1871

F. Melius Christiansen, Norwegian-American violinist and conductor (died 1955)

Fredrik Melius Christiansen was a Norwegian-born violinist and choral conductor in the Lutheran choral tradition. He is most notable for his many a cappella choral arrangements, and for founding The St. Olaf Choir in 1912.

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01/04/1868

Edmond Rostand, French poet and playwright (died 1918)

Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism and is known best for his 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac. Rostand's romantic plays contrasted with the naturalistic theatre popular during the late nineteenth century. Another of Rostand's works, Les Romanesques (1894), was adapted to the 1960 musical comedy The Fantasticks.

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Walter Mead, English cricketer (died 1954)

Walter Mead was the principal bowler for Essex during their first two decades as a first-class county. As a member of the Lord’s ground staff, he was also after J.T. Hearne the most important bowler for MCC and Ground, who in those days played quite a number of first-class matches.

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01/04/1866

William Blomfield, New Zealand cartoonist and politician (died 1938)

William Blomfield was a New Zealand cartoonist and local politician. He was born in Auckland, New Zealand on 1 April 1866. Between 1914 and 1921 he was the second Mayor of Takapuna.

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Ferruccio Busoni, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1924)

Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary figures of his time, and he was a sought-after keyboard instructor and a teacher of composition.

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Ève Lavallière, French actress (died 1929)

Ève Lavallière was a French stage actress and later a noteworthy Catholic penitent and member of the Secular Franciscan Order.

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01/04/1865

Richard Adolf Zsigmondy, Austrian-German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1929)

Richard Adolf Zsigmondy was an Austrian-born chemist. He was known for his research in colloids, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1925, as well as for co-inventing the slit-ultramicroscope, and different membrane filters. The crater Zsigmondy on the Moon is named in his honour.

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01/04/1858

Columba Marmion, Irish Benedictine abbot (died 1923)

Columba Marmion O.S.B, born Joseph Aloysius Marmion was an Irish Benedictine monk and the third Abbot of Maredsous Abbey in Belgium. Beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 3, 2000, Columba was one of the most popular and influential Catholic authors of the 20th century. His books are considered spiritual classics.

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01/04/1852

Edwin Austin Abbey, American painter and illustrator (died 1911)

Edwin Austin Abbey was an American muralist, illustrator, and painter. He flourished at the beginning of what is now referred to as the "golden age" of illustration, and is best known for his drawings and paintings of Shakespearean and Victorian subjects, as well as for his painting of Edward VII's coronation. His most famous set of murals, The Quest and Achievement of the Holy Grail, adorns the Boston Central Library.

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01/04/1834

James Fisk, American businessman (died 1872)

James Fisk Jr., known variously as "Big Jim", "Diamond Jim", and "Jubilee Jim" – was an American stockbroker and corporate executive who has been referred to as one of the "robber barons" of the Gilded Age. Though Fisk was admired by the working class of New York and the Erie Railroad, he achieved much ill-fame for his role in Black Friday in 1869, where he and his partner Jay Gould befriended the unsuspecting President Ulysses S. Grant in an attempt to use the President's good name in a scheme to corner the gold market in New York City. On January 7, 1872, Fisk was assassinated in New York City by his former mistress's new lover, who was trying to blackmail him.

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01/04/1824

Louis-Zéphirin Moreau, Canadian bishop (died 1901)

Louis-Zéphirin Moreau was a Canadian Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Saint-Hyacinthe from 1875 until his death in 1901. He was also the cofounder of the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Hyacinthe with Élisabeth Bergeron, and the founder of the Sisters of Sainte Martha.

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01/04/1823

Simon Bolivar Buckner, American general and politician, 30th Governor of Kentucky (died 1891)

Simon Bolivar Buckner was an American soldier, Confederate military officer, and politician. He fought in the United States Army in the Mexican–American War. He later fought in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. After the war, he served as the 30th governor of Kentucky.

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01/04/1815

Otto von Bismarck, German lawyer and politician, 1st Chancellor of the German Empire (died 1898)

Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as its first chancellor from 1871 to 1890. Bismarck's Realpolitik and firm governance earned him the nickname Iron Chancellor.

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Edward Clark, American lawyer and politician, 8th Governor of Texas (died 1880)

Edward Clark was the eighth governor of Texas. His term coincided with the beginning of the American Civil War.

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01/04/1786

William Mulready, Irish genre painter (died 1863)

William Mulready was an Irish genre painter living in London. He is best known for his romanticising depictions of rural scenes, and for creating Mulready stationery letter sheets, issued at the same time as the Penny Black postage stamp.

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01/04/1776

Sophie Germain, French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher (died 1831)

Marie-Sophie Germain was a French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher. Despite initial opposition from her parents and difficulties presented by society, she gained education from books in her father's library, including ones by Euler, and from correspondence under the pseudonym of Monsieur Le Blanc with famous mathematicians, such as Lagrange, Legendre, and Gauss. One of the pioneers of elasticity theory, she won the grand prize from the Paris Academy of Sciences for her essay on the subject. Her work on Fermat's Last Theorem provided a foundation for mathematicians exploring the subject for hundreds of years after. Because of prejudice against her sex, she was unable to make a career out of mathematics, but she worked independently throughout her life. Before her death, Gauss had recommended that she be awarded an honorary degree, but that never occurred. On 27 June 1831, she died from breast cancer. At the centenary of her life, a street and a girls' school were named after her. The Academy of Sciences established the Sophie Germain Prize in her honour.

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01/04/1765

Luigi Schiavonetti, Italian engraver and etcher (died 1810)

Luigi Schiavonetti was an Italian reproductive engraver and etcher.

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01/04/1753

Joseph de Maistre, French philosopher, lawyer, and diplomat (died 1821)

Joseph Marie, comte de Maistre was a Savoyard lawyer, diplomat, and political philosopher. He is chiefly remembered as one of the intellectual forefathers of modern conservatism.

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01/04/1741

George Dance the Younger, English architect and surveyor (died 1825)

George Dance the Younger RA was an English architect and surveyor as well as a portraitist.

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01/04/1721

Pieter Hellendaal, Dutch-English organist, violinist, and composer (died 1799)

Pieter Hellendaal was a Dutch composer, organist and violinist.

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01/04/1697

Antoine François Prévost, French novelist and translator (died 1763)

Antoine François Prévost d'Exiles, usually known simply as the Abbé Prévost, was a French priest, author, and novelist. He is best remembered for Manon Lescaut (1731), a romance and adventure novel, the most reprinted novel in French literary history.

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01/04/1647

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, English poet and courtier (died 1680)

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester was an English poet and courtier of King Charles II's Restoration court, who reacted against the "spiritual authoritarianism" of the Puritan era. Rochester embodied a novel rebellion against the puritan programme, and he became as well known for his rakish lifestyle as for his poetry, although the two were often interlinked. He died as a result of a sexually transmitted infection at the age of 33.

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01/04/1640

Georg Mohr, Danish mathematician and academic (died 1697)

Jørgen Mohr was a Danish mathematician, known for being the first to prove the Mohr–Mascheroni theorem, which states that any geometric construction which can be done with compass and straightedge can also be done with compasses alone.

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01/04/1629

Jean-Henri d'Anglebert, French organist and composer (died 1691)

Jean-Henri d'Anglebert was a French composer, harpsichordist and organist. He was one of the foremost keyboard composers of his day.

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01/04/1610

Charles de Saint-Évremond, French soldier and critic (died 1703)

Charles de Marguetel de Saint-Denis, seigneur de Saint-Évremond was a French soldier, hedonist, essayist and literary critic. After 1661, he lived in exile, mainly in England, as a consequence of his attack on French policy at the time of the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659). He is one of the few foreigners to be buried in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. He wrote for his friends and did not intend his work to be published, although a few of his pieces were leaked in his lifetime. The first full collection of his works was published in London in 1705, after his death.

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01/04/1578

William Harvey, English physician and academic (died 1657)

William Harvey was an English physician who made influential contributions to anatomy and physiology. He was the first known physician to describe completely, and in detail, pulmonary and systemic circulation as well as the specific process of blood being pumped to the brain and the rest of the body by the heart.

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01/04/1543

François de Bonne, Duke of Lesdiguières (died 1626)

François de Bonne, duc de Lesdiguières was a French soldier of the French Wars of Religion and Constable of France, and one of only six Marshals to have been promoted Marshal General of France.

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01/04/1328

Blanche of France, Duchess of Orléans (died 1382)

Blanche of France was the posthumous daughter of King Charles IV of France and his third wife, Joan of Évreux. She was the last direct Capetian and the last-surviving member of her family, and her marriage to her second cousin, Philip, Duke of Orléans, proved childless. With Blanche's death in 1393, the House of Capet continued to exist only via its numerous cadet branches.

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01/04/1282

Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1347)

Louis IV, called the Bavarian, was King of the Romans from 1314, King of Italy from 1327, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1328 until his death in 1347.

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01/04/1220

Emperor Go-Saga of Japan (died 1272)

Emperor Go-Saga was the 88th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. This reign spanned the years 1242 through 1246.

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