Born on Tuesday, 15th April – Famous Birthdays

15/04/2006

Izan Merino, Spanish footballer

Izan Merino Rodríguez is a Spanish footballer who plays for Segunda División club Málaga CF. Mainly a defensive midfielder, he can also play as a centre-back.

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15/04/2003

Matías Soulé, Argentine footballer

Matías Soulé Malvano is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder, right winger or forward for Serie A club Roma.

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15/04/2001

Shanti Dope, Filipino rapper

Sean Patrick Ramos, known professionally as Shanti Dope, is a Filipino rapper, singer and songwriter. He is known for his songs "Nadarang", "Shantidope", "MAU", and "Amatz".

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15/04/1999

Denis Shapovalov, Canadian tennis player

Denis Viktorovich Shapovalov is a Canadian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 10 in singles by the ATP, achieved on 21 September 2020 and a doubles ranking of No. 44, achieved on 24 February 2020. He has won four ATP Tour singles titles and produced his best Grand Slam performance at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships, where he reached the semifinals. Shapovalov is the third highest-ranked Canadian singles male player in history behind Milos Raonic and Félix Auger-Aliassime.

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15/04/1998

Sexyy Red, American rapper

Janae Nierah Wherry, known professionally as Sexyy Red, is an American rapper. She rose to prominence with the release of her 2023 single "Pound Town" ; its popularity spawned the remixed sequel "Pound Town 2", her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100. Her follow-up single, "SkeeYee", was met with similar success; both songs were included on her second mixtape, Hood Hottest Princess (2023). Billboard declared Wherry as "one of the biggest breakout artists of summer 2023."

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15/04/1997

Ashleigh Gardner, Australian cricketer

Ashleigh Katherine Gardner is an Australian cricketer who currently plays for the national women's team as an all-rounder. A right-handed batter and right-arm off spinner, Gardner also plays for New South Wales in the Women's National Cricket League (WNCL), for the Sydney Sixers in the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) and for the Gujarat Giants in the Women's Premier League (WPL). She has won three world championships and four national titles with her respective teams, while also gaining numerous individual honours, including the Belinda Clark Award.

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Sam Hughes, English footballer

Samuel Joseph Hughes is an English footballer who plays as a defender for EFL League One side Peterborough United.

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Maisie Williams, English actress

Margaret Constance "Maisie" Williams is an English actress. Williams made her acting debut in 2011 as Arya Stark, a lead character in the HBO epic medieval fantasy television series Game of Thrones (2011–2019). She gained recognition and critical praise for her work on the show and received two Emmy Award nominations. Williams' other television appearances include Ashildr in the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who (2015), starring in the British docudrama television film Cyberbully (2015), and in the British science-fiction teen thriller film iBoy (2017). She played the central character in the comedy action drama miniseries Two Weeks to Live (2020), and portrayed punk rock icon Jordan in Pistol (2022), a biopic about the Sex Pistols. Williams also voiced Cammie MacCloud in the American animated web series Gen:Lock (2019–2021).

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15/04/1995

Leander Dendoncker, Belgian footballer

Leander Dendoncker is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder or centre-back for La Liga club Real Oviedo.

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15/04/1994

Brodie Grundy, Australian rules football player

Brodie Grundy is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was previously an All-Australian and best-and-fairest winner with Collingwood, having been selected with the 18th draft pick in the 2012 AFL draft, as well as a player for Melbourne.

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Shaunae Miller-Uibo, Bahamian sprinter

Shaunae Miller-Uibo, née Shaunae Miller, is a Bahamian track and field sprinter who competes in the 200 and 400 metres. She is a two-time Olympic champion after winning the women's 400 metres at the 2016 Rio Olympics and again at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

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15/04/1993

Felipe Anderson, Brazilian footballer

Felipe Anderson Pereira Gomes, known as Felipe Anderson, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder, winger or forward for Brasileiro Série A club Palmeiras. He has previously played for Santos, West Ham United, Porto, and Lazio. He was capped by the Brazil national team twice.

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15/04/1992

Remo Freuler, Swiss footballer

Remo Marco Freuler is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Serie A club Bologna and the Switzerland national team.

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John Guidetti, Swedish footballer

John Alberto Guidetti is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker.

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Jeremy McGovern, Australian rules football player

Jeremy Ronald McGovern is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was a tall key-position player who spent most of his career as a defender, although he occasionally played forward.

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15/04/1991

Daiki Arioka, Japanese idol, singer, and actor

Daiki Arioka is a Japanese singer, actor, tarento, and model as well as member of Hey! Say! JUMP. He is under the management of Johnny & Associates.

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Javier Fernández López, Spanish figure skater

Javier Fernández López is a Spanish former figure skater. He is the 2018 Olympic bronze medalist, a two-time World champion, a two-time World bronze medalist, a seven-time European champion (2013–2019), a two-time Grand Prix Final silver medalist, and an eight-time Spanish national champion.

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15/04/1990

Emma Watson, English actress

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson is an English actress. In the 2010s, she was ranked among the world's highest-paid actresses by Forbes and Vanity Fair, and was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2015. Watson was also listed by Forbes as an honouree on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2015 and 2016.

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15/04/1989

Darren Nicholls, Australian rugby league player

Darren Nicholls is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played as a halfback for the Brisbane Tigers in the Queensland Cup. He previously played for the St. George Illawarra Dragons in the NRL.

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15/04/1988

Blake Ayshford, Australian rugby league player

Blake Ayshford is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a centre in the 2000s and 2010s.

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Steven Defour, Belgian footballer

Steven Arnold Defour is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder, currently a manager.

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Chris Tillman, American baseball pitcher

Christopher Steven Tillman is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He made his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut with the Baltimore Orioles in 2009, and played with them until 2018. He was named an All-Star in 2013.

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15/04/1986

Tom Heaton, English footballer

Thomas David Heaton is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Manchester United.

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Sylvain Marveaux, French footballer

Sylvain Marveaux is a French former professional footballer. He played a variety of positions in midfield, but was mostly utilized as a right-sided midfielder or an attacking midfielder or as a forward. He is the younger brother of Joris Marveaux, who currently plays for Gazélec Ajaccio.

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15/04/1985

Ryan Hamilton, Canadian ice hockey player

Ryan Hamilton is a Canadian former professional ice hockey forward who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Edmonton Oilers. He spent his last three professional seasons Captaining the Bakersfield Condors of the American Hockey League (AHL).

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15/04/1984

Antonio Cromartie, American football player

Antonio Cromartie Sr. is an American former professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL) for eleven seasons. He played college football for the Florida State Seminoles and was selected in the first round by the San Diego Chargers in the 2006 NFL draft. He was selected to four Pro Bowls and was a first-team All-Pro in 2007 after leading the league in interceptions. He also played for the Arizona Cardinals, New York Jets and Indianapolis Colts. Cromartie holds the record for the longest scoring play in NFL history after returning a missed field goal 109 yards for a touchdown in 2007. After his playing career, he was a graduate assistant for the Texas A&M Aggies.

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Cam Janssen, American ice hockey player

Cameron Wesley Janssen is an American former professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the New Jersey Devils and St. Louis Blues. He was selected by the New Jersey Devils 117th overall in the fourth round of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft. Janssen was widely regarded as one of the toughest enforcers in the league throughout his low-scoring tenure.

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Daniel Paille, Canadian ice hockey player

Daniel Joseph Paille is a Canadian former professional ice hockey left winger. He was originally drafted 20th overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2002 NHL entry draft and also played in the National Hockey League with the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers.

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15/04/1983

Alice Braga, Brazilian actress

Alice Braga Moraes is a Brazilian actress and producer. She gained international recognition for her role as Anna Montez in the American science fiction film I Am Legend (2007), opposite Will Smith. Braga has since built a successful career in Hollywood, appearing in films such as Blindness (2008), Predators (2010), Elysium (2013), and The Suicide Squad (2021). From 2016 to 2021, she starred as Teresa Mendoza in the American television series Queen of the South. In addition to her acting career, she has worked as a producer and remains an influential figure in both Brazilian and international cinema. In 2024, she starred in the Apple TV+ science fiction series Dark Matter.

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Matt Cardle, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Matthew Sheridan Cardle is an English singer. He was born in Southampton and grew up in Halstead, Essex. Cardle has been involved in music since his early teens and has been a member of two different bands; Darwyn and Seven Summers. Cardle rose to fame after winning the seventh series of The X Factor in 2010, and received a £1 million recording contract with Syco Music and later signed a deal with Columbia Records.

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Dudu Cearense, Brazilian footballer

Alexandro Silva de Sousa, known as Dudu Cearense or simply Dudu, is a Brazilian former professional footballer.

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Andreas Fransson, Swedish skier (died 2014)

Andreas Fransson was a Swedish extreme skier perhaps best known for having made descents of the hitherto un-skied specific faces of mountains. Among his inaugural descents was that of the south face of Denali in Alaska during the spring of 2011.

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Ilya Kovalchuk, Russian ice hockey player

Ilya Valeryevich Kovalchuk is a Russian former professional ice hockey winger. He played for the Atlanta Thrashers, New Jersey Devils, Los Angeles Kings, Montreal Canadiens, and Washington Capitals in the National Hockey League (NHL), as well as Ak Bars Kazan, Khimik Moscow Oblast, SKA Saint Petersburg, Avangard Omsk, and Spartak Moscow in the Russian Superleague (RSL) and Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).

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Martin Pedersen, Danish cyclist

Martin Pedersen is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer. He rode with Team PH in 2004, and after a great 2005 season with many wins for the small, talent producing Team GLS, he signed his first professional contract with Team CSC for the 2006 and 2007 seasons. He retired after the 2013 season.

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15/04/1982

Michael Aubrey, American baseball player

Robert Michael Aubrey is an American former professional baseball first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians and Baltimore Orioles.

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Anthony Green, American singer-songwriter

Anthony Green is an American singer from Doylestown, Pennsylvania. He is currently the lead singer of the Sound of Animals Fighting, and L.S. Dunes, while also maintaining a solo career. He was previously in the bands Saosin, Audience of One, Circa Survive, Jeer at Rome, High and Driving, and Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer.

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Albert Riera, Spanish footballer and manager

Albert Riera Ortega is a Spanish professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt.

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Seth Rogen, Canadian-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

Seth Aaron Rogen is a Canadian actor, comedian, and filmmaker. Known primarily for his comedic leading man roles in films and on television, he has often collaborated with his writing partner, Evan Goldberg, and filmmaker and producer Judd Apatow. Rogen has received various accolades including four Primetime Emmy Awards, two Actor Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a Producers Guild of America Award, a Writers Guild of America Award, and a Directors Guild of America Award.

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15/04/1981

Andrés D'Alessandro, Argentinian footballer

Andrés Nicolás D'Alessandro is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He has played top-flight football in Argentina, Germany, England, Spain, Brazil and Uruguay.

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15/04/1980

Patrick Carney, American drummer, musician, and producer

Patrick James Carney is an American musician and producer best known as the drummer of the Black Keys, a blues rock band from Akron, Ohio.

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James Foster, English cricketer

James Savin Foster is an English cricket coach and former cricketer. A wicket-keeper who played seven Tests and 11 One Day Internationals in 2001–02 and 2002–03.

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Raül López, Spanish basketball player

Raül López Molist is a Spanish former professional basketball player. He played for the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA). López is a native of Vic, Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain. At a height of 6 ft 0 in tall, he played at the point guard position. López was featured on the Spanish version of the NBA Live 2004 video game.

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Willie Mason, New Zealand-Australian rugby league player

William Marshall Mason, also nicknamed "Big Willie", is a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. An Australia and Tonga international and New South Wales State of Origin representative forward, he played in the National Rugby League for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, the Sydney Roosters, the North Queensland Cowboys, the Newcastle Knights and the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles. Mason also played in the Super League for English club Hull Kingston Rovers and French club, the Catalans Dragons. He also played rugby union in the Top 14 for French club RC Toulonnais. During his career Mason was involved in a number of controversial off-field incidents which have received media publicity due to his high profile in the NRL.

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Billy Yates, American football player

William LaQuayne Yates is an American football coach and former offensive guard in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Texas A&M and was signed by the Miami Dolphins as an undrafted free agent in 2003.

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15/04/1979

Luke Evans, Welsh actor and singer

Luke George Evans is a Welsh actor and singer. He began his career on the stage, and performed in London's West End productions of Rent, Miss Saigon, and Piaf before making his film breakthrough in the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans. Following his debut, Evans was cast in the action and thriller films Immortals (2011), The Raven (2012), and the reimagined The Three Musketeers (2011), and the 2026 production of The Rocky Horror Show on Broadway.

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15/04/1978

Milton Bradley, American baseball player

Milton Obelle Bradley Jr. is an American former professional baseball player. Standing 6 feet (1.8 m) and weighing 215 pounds (98 kg), Bradley was an outfielder and a switch hitter who threw right-handed. During an 11-year career in Major League Baseball (MLB), Bradley played with the Montreal Expos (2000–01), Cleveland Indians (2001–03), Los Angeles Dodgers (2004–05), Oakland Athletics (2006–07), San Diego Padres (2007), Texas Rangers (2008), Chicago Cubs (2009), and Seattle Mariners (2010–11). His career was also marred by legal troubles and several notable on-field incidents.

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Tim Corcoran, American baseball player

Timothy Hugh Corcoran is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars. Corcoran's brother, Roy Corcoran, also played professional baseball

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Luis Fonsi, Puerto Rican-American singer-songwriter and dancer

Luis Alfonso Rodríguez López-Cepero, known by his stage name Luis Fonsi, is a Puerto Rican singer. He is known for his soulful and dance oriented songs, most notably 2017's "Despacito".

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Chris Stapleton, American country singer-songwriter and guitarist

Christopher Alvin Stapleton is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Born in Kentucky, he moved to Nashville in 1996 to study for an engineering degree from Vanderbilt University, but dropped out to pursue a career in music. Shortly after, Stapleton signed a contract with Sea Gayle Music to write and publish his music.

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15/04/1977

Sudarsan Pattnaik, Indian sculptor

Sudarsan Pattnaik is an Indian sand artist from Puri, Odisha. In 2014, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian award, for his seashore sand arts.

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Brian Pothier, American ice hockey player

Brian Pothier is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman. Pothier played in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 2000 until 2010.

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15/04/1976

Jason Bonsignore, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

Jason M. Bonsignore is an American former professional ice hockey forward and speedway promoter and racer.

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Darius Regelskis, Lithuanian footballer

Darius Regelskis is a Lithuanian professional footballer. He was playing the position of defender and is 1.78 m tall and weighs 71 kg. Regelskis spent the prime years of his career playing for FBK Kaunas. He is a former member of the Lithuania national football team.

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Kęstutis Šeštokas, Lithuanian basketball player

Kęstutis Šeštokas is a Lithuanian professional basketball player, who plays at the power forward position. He last played for Molėtai Ežerūnas-Karys basketball team. He is the only player who has won the domestic leagues of all three Baltic states. His major trophies include the Euroleague title in 1999, the ULEB Cup title in 2005 and the Saporta Cup in 1998 as well as many regional and domestic titles.

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Steve Williams, English rower

Stephen David Williams is an English rower and double Olympic champion. In April and May 2011, Williams walked to the North Pole and achieved the summit of Mount Everest.

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15/04/1975

Sarah Teichmann, German-American biophysicist and immunologist

Sarah Amalia Teichmann is a German scientist, the former head of cellular genetics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and a visiting research group leader at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI). She serves as director of research in the Cavendish Laboratory, Professor at the University of Cambridge and Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, and is a senior research fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge.

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15/04/1974

Kim Min-kyo, South Korean actor and director

Kim Min-kyo is a South Korean actor and director. He is well known as a cast member ('crew') on the tvN entertainment show Saturday Night Live Korea.

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Danny Pino, American actor and screenwriter

Daniel Gonzalo Pino is an American actor who starred as Detective Scotty Valens on the CBS series Cold Case from 2003 to 2010, and as NYPD Detective Nick Amaro in the long-running NBC crime drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit from 2011 to 2015. In 2002, he appeared in London's West End in Up for Grabs with Madonna. In May 2003, Pino played Desi Arnaz in a CBS special on the life of Lucille Ball, Lucy. He played drug cartel leader Miguel Galindo on Mayans M.C. which airs on FX, and FBI agent John Bishop in procedural crime drama Gone.

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Mike Quinn, American football player

Michael Patrick Quinn is an American former professional football quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Indianapolis Colts, Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins, Houston Texans, and Denver Broncos. He also was a member of the Rhein Fire of NFL Europe, and the Montreal Alouettes and Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football at Stephen F. Austin State University.

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Douglas Spain, American actor, director, and producer

Douglas Spain is an American film and television actor, director and producer. In 1998 Spain was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in the category of Best Debut Performance for his role in the film Star Maps. In 1999 he won the Rising Star Award at the Marco Island Film Festival for The Last Best Sunday and in 2006 he won the Camie award at the Character and Morality in Entertainment Awards for his part in The Reading Room. He has since appeared in various features, including Permanent Midnight, But I'm a Cheerleader, A Time for Dancing, What's Cooking?, Cherry Falls, Delivering Milo and Still Green.

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Tim Thomas, American ice hockey player

Timothy James Thomas Jr. is an American former professional ice hockey goaltender who mainly played in the National Hockey League (NHL), most notably with the Boston Bruins.

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15/04/1972

Arturo Gatti, Italian-Canadian boxer (died 2009)

Arturo Gatti was a Canadian professional boxer who competed from 1991 to 2007.

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Lou Romano, American animator and voice actor

Lou Romano is an American animator and voice actor. He did design work on Monsters, Inc. and The Incredibles, and provided the voices of Bernie Kropp in The Incredibles, Snot Rod in Cars, and Alfredo Linguini in Ratatouille.

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15/04/1971

Philippe Carbonneau, French rugby player

Philippe Carbonneau is a retired French rugby player.

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Finidi George, Nigerian footballer

Finidi George is a Nigerian professional football coach and former player who played as a winger. He is the current head coach of Nigerian Professional Football League club Rivers United.

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Jason Sehorn, American football player

Jason Heath Sehorn is an American former professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Giants from 1994 to 2002 and St. Louis Rams in 2003. He played college football for the USC Trojans.

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Josia Thugwane, South African runner

Josia Thugwane is a South African retired long-distance runner, best known for winning the gold medal in the marathon at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Thugwane, who is of Ndebele heritage, is the first black athlete to earn an Olympic gold for South Africa.

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Karl Turner, English lawyer and politician

Karl William Turner is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston upon Hull East since 2010.

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15/04/1970

Chris Huffins, American decathlete and coach

Chris Huffins is an athlete from the United States who competed in the field of decathlon. He was the director and head coach of the men's and women's track and field and cross country programs at the University of California from 2002 to 2007. He married Monique Parker in 1997 with whom he had one son Zachary. He earned a degree from the University of California in political economies of industrial societies in 2007. Huffins is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He is currently married to Tamika Huffins with whom he had another son, Jaxon.

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15/04/1969

Jeromy Burnitz, American baseball player

Jeromy Neal Burnitz is an American former professional baseball player. Burnitz was a right fielder in Major League Baseball who played with the New York Mets, Cleveland Indians (1995–96), Milwaukee Brewers (1996–2001), Los Angeles Dodgers (2003), Colorado Rockies (2004), Chicago Cubs (2005), and Pittsburgh Pirates (2006).

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Kaisa Roose, Estonian pianist and conductor

Kaisa Roose was born in Tallinn, Estonia on 15 April 1969. At the age of six she began studying piano at the Tallinn School of Music. In 1987 she was admitted to the Tallinn Conservatoire, where she studied choir conducting, taking her degree in 1992. The following year Kaisa Roose was admitted to The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, where she studied orchestra conducting. She completed the postgraduate soloist course in 1997 by giving her debut concert with the Danish Odense Symphony Orchestra. The same year Kaisa Roose was awarded the Grethe Kolbe Grant for promising young conductors.

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Jimmy Waite, Canadian-German ice hockey player and coach

James Dean Waite is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and former goaltender. He currently serves as the goaltending coach for the Chicago Blackhawks.

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15/04/1968

Ben Clarke, English rugby player and coach

Ben Clarke, is a former England back-row international rugby union player.

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Brahim Lahlafi, Moroccan-French runner

Brahim Lahlafi is a retired long-distance runner who represented Morocco during his active career. He acquired French citizenship on 6 April 2002, but represented Morocco again from 15 March 2007.

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Ed O'Brien, English guitarist

Edward John O'Brien is an English guitarist, songwriter, and member of the rock band Radiohead. O'Brien attended Abingdon School in Oxfordshire, England, where he formed Radiohead with schoolmates. He said his role was to "service the songs" and support the songwriter, Thom Yorke. He creates ambient sounds and textures using effects, sustain units and the EBow, and provides backing vocals.

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15/04/1967

Frankie Poullain, Scottish bass player and songwriter

Francis Gilles Poullain-Patterson, better known as Frankie Poullain, is a Scottish bass player, best known for playing with The Darkness. He was raised in Milnathort, then Edinburgh, Scotland.

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Dara Torres, American swimmer and journalist

Dara Grace Torres is an American former competitive swimmer, coach, and author who is a 12-time Olympic medalist and former world record-holder in three events. Torres is the first swimmer to represent the United States in five Olympic Games, and at age 41, the oldest swimmer to earn a place on the U.S. Olympic team. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, she competed in the 50-meter freestyle, 4×100-meter medley relay, and 4×100-meter freestyle relay, and won silver medals in all three events.

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15/04/1966

Samantha Fox, English singer-songwriter and actress

Samantha Karen Fox is an English pop singer and former glamour model from Wood Green in North London. She has appeared on reality television shows and has occasionally worked as a television presenter and actress.

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Mott Green, American businessman (died 2013)

Mott Green was an American businessman and chocolatier, who founded the Grenada Chocolate Company in 1999. An edition of The Food Programme was devoted to Mott Green in June 2013.

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15/04/1965

Soichi Noguchi, Japanese engineer and astronaut

Soichi Noguchi is a Japanese aeronautical engineer and former JAXA astronaut. His first spaceflight was as a mission specialist aboard STS-114 on 26 July 2005 for NASA's first "return to flight" Space Shuttle mission after the Columbia disaster. He was also in space as part of the Soyuz TMA-17 crew and Expedition 22 to the International Space Station (ISS), returning to Earth on 2 June 2010. He is the sixth Japanese astronaut to fly in space, the fifth to fly on the Space Shuttle, and the first to fly on Crew Dragon.

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Linda Perry, American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer

Linda Perry is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. She is the lead singer and primary songwriter and guitarist of 4 Non Blondes, including their 1993 hit "What's Up?". She has since founded two record labels and composed and produced songs for other artists, which include: "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera; "What You Waiting For?" by Gwen Stefani; and "Get the Party Started" by Pink. Perry also contributed to albums by Adele, Alicia Keys, and Courtney Love, as well as signing and distributing James Blunt in the United States. Perry was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015.

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Kevin Stevens, American ice hockey player

Kevin Michael Stevens is an American former ice hockey player and current scout in the National Hockey League (NHL). He played left wing on a line with Mario Lemieux during the Pittsburgh Penguins' Stanley Cup championships in 1991 and 1992. During his career, he also played with the Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings, New York Rangers, and Philadelphia Flyers. In 2017, Stevens was named Special Assignment Scout with the Penguins hockey organization.

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15/04/1964

Andre Joubert, South African rugby player

André Johan Joubert is a former South African rugby union player, widely known as "The Rolls-Royce of Fullbacks" for his pace, class, and seemingly effortless style. He was capped 34 times at fullback for the Springboks in the 1990s, and amassed 115 test points from 10 tries, 17 penalties and 7 conversions.

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Lee Kernaghan, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist

Lee Kernaghan OAM is an Australian country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. Kernaghan has won four ARIA Awards and three APRA Awards, and has sold over two million albums, and as of 2021, has won 38 Golden Guitars at the Country Music Awards of Australia.

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15/04/1963

Alex Crawford, Nigerian-South African journalist

Alexandra Christine Crawford, is a British journalist who currently works as a Special Correspondent for Sky News based in Turkey.

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Manzoor Elahi, Pakistani cricketer

Manzoor Elahi is a Pakistani cricket coach and former cricketer. Considered a hard-hitting batsman and a medium-pacer bowler, Elahi appeared in six Test matches and 54 One Day Internationals for Pakistan national cricket team from 1984 to 1995. Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan described him as "perhaps the hardest hitter of the cricket ball in the world."

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Manoj Prabhakar, Indian cricketer and sportscaster

Manoj Prabhakar is a former Indian cricketer and coach, who recently coached Nepal National Cricket Team. He was a right-arm medium-pace bowler and a lower-order batsman, and also opened the innings a few times for the Indian cricket team. He was part of the Indian squad which won the 1985 World Championship of Cricket, 1984 Asia Cup, 1990–91 Asia Cup and 1995 Asia Cup.

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15/04/1962

Nawal El Moutawakel, Moroccan athlete and politician

Nawal El Moutawakel is a Moroccan former hurdler, who won the inaugural women's 400 metres hurdles event at the 1984 Summer Olympics, and is the first Moroccan, Arab, African, and Muslim woman to win an Olympic gold. She is currently a vice president of the International Olympic Committee. In August 2024, the International Sports Press Association voted her as the fourth best female athlete of the past 100 years after Serena Williams, Nadia Comăneci and Simone Biles. In 2007, El Moutawakel was named the Minister of Sports in the upcoming cabinet of Morocco.

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Tom Kane, American voice actor

Tom Kane is an American retired voice actor. He is known for his work in animation and video games, most notably the Star Wars franchise.

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15/04/1961

Neil Carmichael, English academic and politician

William Neil Carmichael is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stroud from 2010 until 2017. In April 2019, he announced he had left the Conservative Party; he subsequently joined Change UK for which he was an unsuccessful candidate in the East of England constituency at the 2019 European Parliament election. In September 2019, Carmichael joined the Liberal Democrats but left after one year.

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Carol W. Greider, American molecular biologist

Carolyn Widney Greider is an American molecular biologist and Nobel laureate. She is a Distinguished Professor of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

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Dawn Wright, American geographer and oceanographer

Dawn Jeannine Wright is an American geographer and oceanographer. She is a leading authority in the application of geographic information system (GIS) technology to the field of ocean and coastal science and played a key role in creating the first GIS data model for the oceans. Wright is Chief Scientist of the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri). She has also been a professor of geography and oceanography at Oregon State University since 1995 and is a former Oregon Professor of the Year as named by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Wright was the first Black female to dive to the ocean floor in the deep submersible ALVIN. On July 12, 2022, she became the first and only Black person to dive to Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth, and to successfully operate a side scan sonar at full-ocean depth.

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15/04/1960

Pierre Aubry, Canadian ice hockey player

Pierre Aubry is a Canadian former professional ice hockey left winger who played five seasons in the National Hockey League for the Quebec Nordiques and Detroit Red Wings from 1980–81 to 1984–85.

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Susanne Bier, Danish director and screenwriter

Susanne Bier is a Danish filmmaker. Bier is the first female director to collectively receive an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a European Film Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.

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Pedro Delgado, Spanish cyclist and sportscaster

Pedro Delgado Robledo, also known as Perico, is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer. He won the 1988 Tour de France, as well as the Vuelta a España in 1985 and 1989. He finished in the top 10 of eighteen Grand Tours.

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Tony Jones, English snooker player

Tony Jones is an English former professional snooker player from Nottinghamshire.

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15/04/1959

Fruit Chan, Chinese director, producer, and screenwriter

Fruit Chan Gor is a Hong Kong filmmaker who is best known for his style of film reflecting the everyday life of Hong Kong people. He is well known for using amateur actors in his films. He became a household name after the success of the 1997 film Made in Hong Kong, which earned many local and international awards.

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Kevin Lowe, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager

Kevin Hugh Lowe is a Canadian professional ice hockey executive, former coach and former player. Lowe was the vice-chairman of Oilers Entertainment Group until his retirement on August 2, 2022, having formerly served as head coach and then general manager of the Edmonton Oilers. As a defenceman, he played for the Edmonton Oilers and the New York Rangers from 1979 to 1998.

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Emma Thompson, English actress, comedian, author, activist and screenwriter

Dame Emma Thompson is a British actress and screenwriter. Her work spans over four decades of screen and stage, and her accolades include two Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2018, she was made a dame by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to drama.

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15/04/1958

Keith Acton, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

Keith Edward Acton is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre who played 15 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), with the Montreal Canadiens, Minnesota North Stars, Edmonton Oilers, Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals and New York Islanders between 1980 and 1994. In his NHL coaching career he has been an assistant coach with the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Philadelphia Flyers, the New York Rangers, the Toronto Maple Leafs and most recently the Edmonton Oilers, who released Acton and fellow assistant Craig Ramsay on June 4, 2015.

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John Bracewell, New Zealand cricketer

John Garry Bracewell is a former New Zealand cricketer who was most recently the coach of the Irish national team. He played 41 Test matches between 1980 and 1990, as well as 53 One Day Internationals. He was the second New Zealand cricketer to score 1000 runs and take 100 wickets in Test cricket.

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Memos Ioannou, Greek basketball player and coach

Agamemnon "Memos" Ioannou is a retired Greek professional basketball player and coach. At 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m), he played at the point guard and shooting guard positions.

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Benjamin Zephaniah, English actor, author, poet, and playwright (died 2023)

Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah was a British writer, dub poet, actor, musician and professor of poetry and creative writing. Over his lifetime, he was awarded 20 honorary doctorates in recognition of his contributions to literature, education, and the arts. He was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008. In his work, Zephaniah drew on his lived experiences of incarceration, racism and his Jamaican heritage.

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15/04/1957

Evelyn Ashford, American runner and coach

Evelyn Ashford is an American retired track and field athlete, the 1984 Olympic champion in the 100-meter dash, and the world record-holder in the 60-yard dash. She ran under the 11-second barrier over 30 times and was the first woman to run under 11 seconds in an Olympic Games. Ashford has the distinction of owning the longest unbroken athletics record.

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15/04/1956

Michael Cooper, American basketball player and coach

Michael Jerome Cooper, nicknamed "Coop", is an American basketball coach and former player. He played for the Los Angeles Lakers during his entire career in the National Basketball Association (NBA), winning five NBA championships with the Lakers during their Showtime era. He was an eight-time selection to the NBA All-Defensive Team, including five times on the first team. He was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in 1987. Cooper was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024. The Lakers retired his No. 21 jersey in 2025.

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15/04/1955

Dodi Fayed, Egyptian film producer (died 1997)

Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Mena'em "Dodi" Fayed was an Egyptian film producer and the eldest child of the businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed. He was romantically involved with Diana, Princess of Wales, when they both died in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997.

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Joice Mujuru, Zimbabwean politician

Joice Runaida Mujuru, also known by her nom-de-guerre Teurai Ropa Nhongo, is a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Vice-President of Zimbabwe from 2004 to 2014. Previously, she had served as a government minister and as vice-president of ZANU–PF. She was married to Solomon Mujuru until his death in 2011 and was long considered a potential successor to President Robert Mugabe, but in 2014 she was denounced for allegedly plotting against Mugabe. As a result of the accusations against her, Mujuru lost both her post as vice-president and her position in the party leadership. She was expelled from the party a few months later, after which she formed the new Zimbabwe People First party.

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15/04/1952

Kym Gyngell, Australian actor, comedian, and screenwriter

Kim Gyngell, sometimes also credited as Kym Gyngell, is an Australian comedian and film, television and stage actor. Gyngell won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1988 for his role as Ian McKenzie in Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

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Brian Muir, English sculptor and set designer

Brian Ian Muir is a British sculptor who most famously created Darth Vader's helmet and armour using Ralph McQuarrie's design.

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Avital Ronell, Czech-American philosopher and academic

Avital Ronell is an American academic who writes about continental philosophy, literary studies, psychoanalysis, political philosophy, and ethics. She is a professor in the humanities and in the departments of Germanic languages and literature and comparative literature at New York University, where she co-directs the trauma and violence transdisciplinary studies program. As Jacques Derrida Professor of Philosophy, Ronell also teaches at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee.

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Glenn Shadix, American actor, (died 2010)

William Glenn Shadix-Scott was an American actor and comedian. He was best known for his roles as Otho Fenlock in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice and the Mayor of Halloween Town in The Nightmare Before Christmas.

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15/04/1951

Heloise, American journalist and author

Ponce Kiah Marchelle Heloise Cruse Evans, best known by her pen name Heloise, is an American writer, author, and speaker specializing in lifestyle hints, including consumer issues, pets, travel, food, home improvement, and health. Heloise's father was in the Air Force, and like many military brats she moved frequently.

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John L. Phillips, American captain and astronaut

John Lynch Phillips is a NASA astronaut. Phillips is also a Naval Aviator and retired captain, United States Navy Reserve. Phillips has received numerous awards and special honors. He is a National Merit Scholar, graduated 2nd in his class of 906 people at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1972. Phillips has also been awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal, NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the Gagarin Medal and several others. Phillips has logged over 4,400 flight hours and 250 aircraft carrier landings, flying the A-7 Corsair II carrier-based light attack aircraft while on active duty in the Regular Navy and subsequently during his time as a Navy Reservist from 1982 to 2002. At the time of his retirement, Phillips had retained the rank of captain.

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Stuart Prebble, English journalist and producer

Stuart Colin Prebble was a British television executive who was Chairman of Storyvault Films, and was CEO of ITV, Granada Sky Broadcasting and of ITV Digital.

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Marsha Ivins, American engineer and astronaut

Marsha Sue Ivins is an American retired astronaut and a veteran of five Space Shuttle missions.

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15/04/1950

Josiane Balasko, French actress, director, and screenwriter

Josiane Balasko is a French actress, writer, and director. She has been nominated seven times for César Awards, and won twice.

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Amy Wright, American actress

Amy Wright is an American actress and former model. She has appeared in such films as The Deer Hunter, Breaking Away, The Accidental Tourist, Hard Promises, Crossing Delancey, and Miss Firecracker. She is the widow of actor Rip Torn.

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Karel Kroupa, Czech football player

Karel Kroupa is a former Czech football player, considered as legendary player of Zbrojovka Brno.

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15/04/1949

Alla Pugacheva, Russian singer-songwriter and actress

Alla Borisovna Pugacheva is a Russian singer and songwriter. Her career began in 1965 and continues to this day, although she retired from performing in 2010 after the international concert tour "Dreams of Love". For her "clear mezzo-soprano and a full display of sincere emotions", she enjoys an iconic status across the former Soviet Union as the most successful Soviet performer in terms of record sales and popularity. For several decades, Pugacheva was a sex symbol, a style icon, an inspiration for Soviet women and a heroine of Russian tabloids. In the media, Pugacheva has been called "the Queen of Russian pop music". Pugacheva is one of the few Russian performers who has achieved international success, along with Anna Netrebko and t.A.T.u. Some Russian publications have suggested that she would not be welcome to return to Russia.

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Craig Zadan, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2018)

Craig Zadan was an American producer and writer. Working alone and with Neil Meron, his partner in the production company Storyline Entertainment, he produced such films as Footloose, Chicago and Hairspray.

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15/04/1948

Christopher Brown, English historian, curator, and academic

Christopher Paul Hadley Brown, CBE is a British art historian and academic. He was director of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England from 1998 to 2014. He is recognised as an authority on Sir Anthony van Dyck.

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Michael Kamen, American composer and conductor (died 2003)

Michael Arnold Kamen was an American composer, arranger, conductor, songwriter, and musician. He began his work as a pop and rock music arranger, notably for Pink Floyd, and was a member of the New York Rock & Roll Ensemble and the Roger Waters Band. Starting in the mid-1980s, he achieved further prominence as a composer of film scores.

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Phil Mogg, English singer-songwriter and musician

Phillip John Mogg is an English singer. He was the lead singer and frontman of the hard rock band UFO, which he co-founded with longtime friends Pete Way, Andy Parker and Mick Bolton in 1968.

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15/04/1947

Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, American screenwriter and producer

Linda Joyce Bloodworth-Thomason is an American writer, director, and television producer. She is best known for creating, writing, and producing several television series, most successfully with the sitcoms Designing Women and Evening Shade. She and her husband, Harry Thomason, are also notable for their friendship with former President Bill Clinton, and the role they played in his election campaigns.

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Martin Broughton, English businessman

Sir Martin Faulkner Broughton is a British businessman and deputy chairman of International Airlines Group. Formed in January 2011, IAG is the parent company of British Airways, Iberia and Vueling. It is a Spanish registered company with shares traded on the London Stock Exchange and Spanish Stock Exchanges. The corporate head office for IAG is in London, UK. He is also a Managing Partner at Sports Investment Partners and chairman of the sports virtual advertising company Supponor. He is a former chairman of Liverpool Football Club and also served as President of the Confederation of British Industry.

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Lois Chiles, American model and actress

Lois Cleveland Chiles is an American actress and former fashion model known for her role as Holly Goodhead in the James Bond film Moonraker (1979). Other screen credits include The Way We Were (1973), The Great Gatsby (1974), Death on the Nile (1978), Broadcast News (1987), and the television role of Holly Harwood on Dallas (1982–1983).

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David Omand, English civil servant and academic

Sir David Bruce Omand is a British former senior civil servant who served as the Director of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) from 1996 to 1997.

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Cristina Husmark Pehrsson, Swedish nurse and politician, Swedish Minister for Social Security

Cristina Maria Husmark Pehrsson is a Swedish politician and a member of the Moderate Party. She served as Minister for Social Security and as Minister for Nordic Cooperation from 2006 to 2010. She is a certified nurse and was a member of the Swedish Riksdag for Skåne County West from 1998 to 2014.

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15/04/1946

John Lloyd, Scottish journalist and author

John Nicol Fortune Lloyd is a British journalist who is currently contributing editor at the Financial Times and an Associate Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford.

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Pete Rouse, American politician, White House Chief of Staff

Peter Mikami Rouse is an American political consultant who served as interim White House Chief of Staff to U.S. President Barack Obama. Rouse previously spent many years on Capitol Hill, becoming known as the "101st senator" during his tenure as Chief of Staff to Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle.

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15/04/1944

Dave Edmunds, Welsh singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

David William Edmunds is a Welsh retired singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer. He is mainly associated with pub rock and new wave, having produced many hits in these genres during the 1970s and early 1980s.

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15/04/1943

Pınar Kür, Turkish author, playwright, and academic (died 2025)

Havva Pınar Kür was a Turkish novelist, dramatist, and translator. She worked as a academician in the media and communication systems department at Istanbul Bilgi University. Pınar Kür was the daughter of İsmet Kür (1916–2013), who was an educator, journalist, columnist and writer of mainly children's literature. Her maternal aunt Halide Nusret Zorlutuna (1901–1984) was a poet. Kür was considered a leading Turkish novelist.

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Robert Lefkowitz, American physician and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate

Robert Joseph Lefkowitz is an American physician and biochemist. He is best known for his discoveries that reveal the inner workings of an important family of G protein-coupled receptors, for which he was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Brian Kobilka. He is currently an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as well as a James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry at Duke University.

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Veronica Linklater, Baroness Linklater, English politician (died 2022)

Veronica Linklater, Baroness Linklater of Butterstone was a British Liberal Democrat politician and member of the House of Lords. Her career indicated her interests in children's welfare, education and special needs, and prison reform.

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Hugh Thompson, Jr., American soldier and pilot (died 2006)

Hugh Clowers Thompson Jr. was a United States Army officer, serving as a warrant officer in the 123rd Aviation Battalion of the 23rd Infantry Division. He is credited with ending the Mỹ Lai massacre of the South Vietnamese village known as Sơn Mỹ on March 16, 1968, alongside Glenn Andreotta and Lawrence Colburn.

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15/04/1942

Francis X. DiLorenzo, American bishop (died 2017)

Francis Xavier DiLorenzo was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Richmond in Virginia from 2004 until his death in 2017.

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Walt Hazzard, American basketball player and coach (died 2011)

Mahdi Abdul-Rahman was an American professional basketball player and college basketball coach. He played in college for the UCLA Bruins and was a member of their first national championship team in 1964. He also won a gold medal that year with the US national team at the 1964 Summer Olympics. Hazzard began his pro career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Los Angeles Lakers, who selected him a territorial pick in the 1964 NBA draft. He was named an NBA All-Star with the Seattle SuperSonics in 1968. After his playing career ended, he was the head coach at UCLA during the 1980s.

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Kenneth Lay, American businessman and criminal (died 2006)

Kenneth Lee Lay was an American businessman and political donor who was the founder, chief executive officer and chairman of Enron. He was heavily involved in Enron's accounting scandal that unraveled in 2001 into the largest bankruptcy ever to that date. Lay was indicted by a grand jury and was found guilty of 10 counts of securities fraud at trial. Lay died in July 2006 while vacationing in his house near Aspen, Colorado, three months before his scheduled sentencing. A preliminary autopsy reported Lay died of a heart attack caused by coronary artery disease. His death resulted in a vacated judgment. Conspiracy theories regarding Lay's death surfaced, alleging that it was faked.

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Tim Lankester, English economist and academic

Sir Timothy Patrick Lankester, KCB is a retired British civil servant, a former President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and the first economic private secretary to Margaret Thatcher.

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15/04/1941

Howard Berman, American lawyer and politician

Howard Lawrence Berman is an American attorney and retired politician who served as a U.S. representative from California from 1983 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented the state's 26th congressional district until redistricting and the 28th congressional district—which both encompassed parts of the San Fernando Valley—for a combined 15 terms.

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15/04/1940

Jeffrey Archer, English author, playwright, and politician

Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare is an English novelist and former politician. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Louth (Lincolnshire) from 1969 to 1974, but did not seek re-election after a financial scandal that left him almost bankrupt.

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Penelope Coelen, South African actress, model, beauty queen and 1958 Miss World

Penelope Anne Coelen is a South African former actress, model and beauty queen who won Miss World 1958. She was the second major international titleholder to come from Africa.

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Willie Davis, American baseball player and actor (died 2010)

William Henry Davis was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball and the Nippon Professional Baseball league as a center fielder from 1960 through 1979, most prominently as an integral member of the Los Angeles Dodgers teams that won three National League pennants and two World Series titles between 1963 and 1966.

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Robert Lacroix, Canadian economist and academic

Robert Lacroix, is a professor of economics at the Université de Montréal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

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Robert Walker, American actor (died 2019)

Robert Hudson Walker Jr. was an American actor who appeared in films including Easy Rider (1969). He was a familiar presence on television in the 1960s and early 1970s.

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15/04/1939

Marty Wilde, English singer-songwriter and actor

Marty Wilde is an English singer and songwriter. He was among the first generation of British pop stars to emulate American rock and roll, scoring several 1950s and 1960s hit singles including "Endless Sleep", "Sea of Love" and "Bad Boy". During the late 1960s to early 1980s, Wilde continued to record and, with Ronnie Scott, co-wrote hit singles for others including the Casuals' "Jesamine" and Status Quo's "Ice in the Sun". He is the father of pop singer Kim Wilde and co-wrote many of her hit singles including "Kids in America" with his son Ricky. He continues to perform and record.

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Desiré Ecaré, Ivorian filmmaker (died 2009)

Désiré Ecaré was an Ivorian film director. His directorial debut was the film Concerto pour un exil in 1968, followed by A Nous Deux, France (1970). He directed the seminal film Faces of Women in 1985, which went on to win the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes Film Festival.

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15/04/1938

Claudia Cardinale, Italian actress (died 2025)

Claude Joséphine Rose "Claudia" Cardinale was an Italian Tunisian actress. Regarded as one of the leading figures of Italian cinema, alongside Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida, she achieved international recognition during a career spanning more than six decades. Celebrated in the 1960s as "the most beautiful woman in the world" and widely considered a sex symbol of the era, Cardinale appeared in more than 175 films, primarily in Italy and France, across genres including comedy, drama, spaghetti westerns, and historical epics. She collaborated with acclaimed directors such as Federico Fellini, Sergio Leone, and Werner Herzog, and several of her films are regarded as significant works in the history of cinema. At the time of her death, she was one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of European cinema.

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Hso Khan Pha, Burmese-Canadian geologist and politician (died 2016)

Prince Hso Khan Pha of Yawnghwe was a prince of Yawnghwe. He was a son of Sao Shwe Thaik, the last Saopha of Yawnghwe and Sao Nang Hearn Kham, the Mahadevi (consort). He was a consulting geologist based in Canada.

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15/04/1937

Bob Luman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1978)

Robert Glynn Luman was an American country and rockabilly singer.

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Robert W. Gore, American engineer and businessman, co-inventor of Gore-Tex (died 2020)

Robert W. Gore was an American engineer and scientist, inventor and businessman. Gore led his family's company, W. L. Gore & Associates, which was founded by his father Bill Gore, in developing applications of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) ranging from computer cables to medical equipment to the outer layer of space suits. His most significant breakthrough was likely the invention of Gore-Tex, a waterproof and breathable fabric popularly known for its use in sporting and outdoor gear.

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15/04/1936

Raymond Poulidor, French cyclist (died 2019)

Raymond Poulidor, nicknamed "Pou-Pou", was a French professional racing cyclist, who rode for Mercier his entire career.

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15/04/1935

Stavros Paravas, Greek actor and producer (died 2008)

Stavros Paravas was a Greek actor.

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15/04/1933

Roy Clark, American musician and television personality (died 2018)

Roy Linwood Clark was an American singer, musician and television presenter. He is best known for having co-hosted Hee Haw, a nationally televised country music variety show, with Buck Owens, from 1969 to 1993. Clark was an important and influential figure in country music, both as a performer and in helping to popularize the genre. Clark was highly regarded and renowned as a guitarist, banjo player and fiddler.

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David Hamilton, English-French photographer and director (died 2016)

David Hamilton was a British photographer and film director best known for his photography of young women and girls, mostly nude. Hamilton's images became part of an "Art or pornography?" debate.

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Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress and producer (died 1995)

Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery was an American actress whose career spanned five decades in film, stage and television. She portrayed the good witch Samantha Stephens on the popular television series Bewitched, which earned her five Primetime Emmy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations.

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15/04/1931

Kenneth Bloomfield, Northern Irish civil servant (died 2025)

Sir Kenneth Percy Bloomfield, KCB was a Northern Irish civil servant who was Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) and was later a member of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains. For a time, he was also Northern Ireland Victims Commissioner.

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Tomas Tranströmer, Swedish poet, translator, and psychologist Nobel Prize laureate (died 2015)

Tomas Gösta Tranströmer was a Swedish poet, psychologist and translator. His poems captured the long winters in Sweden, the rhythm of the seasons and the palpable, atmospheric beauty of nature. Tranströmer's work is also characterized by a sense of mystery and wonder underlying the routine of everyday life, a quality which often gives his poems a religious dimension. He has been described as a Christian poet.

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15/04/1930

Georges Descrières, French actor (died 2013)

Georges Descrières was a French actor. He appeared in 52 films and television shows between 1954 and 1996. He starred alongside Anna Karina in the 1962 film Sun in Your Eyes and portrayed the gentleman-burglar title character in the internationally successful TV series Arsène Lupin.

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Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, Icelandic educator and politician, 4th President of Iceland

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir is an Icelandic politician and theatre director who was the fourth president of Iceland, serving from 1980 to 1996, the first woman to hold the position and the first in the world to be democratically elected president of a country. Having served for 16 years, she was also the longest-serving elected female head of state in history. Vigdís is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and a member of the Club of Madrid.

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15/04/1929

Gérald Beaudoin, Canadian lawyer and politician (died 2008)

Gérald A. Beaudoin was a Canadian lawyer and Senator.

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Adrian Cadbury, English rower and businessman (died 2015)

Sir George Adrian Hayhurst Cadbury, was an English businessman who served as the chairman of Cadbury and Cadbury Schweppes for 24 years. He was also a British Olympic rower. Cadbury was a pioneer in raising the awareness and stimulating the debate on corporate governance and, via the Cadbury committee set up by the London Stock Exchange, produced the Cadbury Report, a code of best practice which served as a basis for reform of corporate governance around the world.

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15/04/1927

Robert Mills, American physicist and academic (died 1999)

Robert Laurence Mills was an American physicist, specializing in quantum field theory, the theory of alloys, and many-body theory.

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15/04/1926

Jurriaan Schrofer, Dutch sculptor, designer, and educator (died 1990)

Jurriaan Willem Schrofer was a Dutch sculptor, graphic designer, type designer, and art school educator.

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15/04/1924

M. Canagaratnam, Sri Lankan politician (died 1980)

Mylvaganam Canagaratnam was a Sri Lankan Tamil politician and Member of Parliament.

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Rikki Fulton, Scottish comedian (died 2004)

Robert Kerr "Rikki" Fulton was a Scottish comedian and actor best remembered for writing and performing in the long-running BBC Scotland sketch show Scotch and Wry. He was also known for his appearances as one half of the double act, Francie and Josie, alongside Jack Milroy.

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Neville Marriner, English violinist and conductor (died 2016)

Sir Neville Marriner, was an English conductor and violinist. Described as "one of the world's greatest conductors", Gramophone lists Marriner as one of the 50 greatest conductors and another compilation ranks Marriner #14 of the 18 "Greatest and Most Famous Conductors of All Time". He founded the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and his partnership with them is the most recorded of any orchestra and conductor.

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15/04/1923

Artur Alliksaar, Estonian poet and author (died 1966)

Artur Alliksaar was an Estonian poet.

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Robert DePugh, American activist, founded the Minutemen (an anti-Communist organization) (died 2009)

Robert Boliver DePugh was an American anti-communist activist who founded the Minutemen militant anti-Communist organization in 1961.

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15/04/1922

Michael Ansara, Syrian-American actor (died 2013)

Michael George Ansara was a Syrian‐American actor. He was often cast in Arab and Native American roles. His work in both film and television spanned several genres, including historical epics, Westerns, and science fiction.

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Donn F. Draeger, American martial arts practitioner (died 1982)

Donald Frederick "Donn" Draeger was an American practitioner and teacher of martial arts. He was the author of several important books on Asian martial arts, and was a pioneer of international judo in the United States and Japan. He also helped make the study of martial arts an acceptable topic of academic research.

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Hasrat Jaipuri, Indian poet and songwriter (died 1999)

Hasrat Jaipuri, born Iqbal Hussain, was an Indian poet, who wrote in the Hindi and Urdu languages. He was also a renowned film lyricist in Hindi films, where he won the Filmfare Awards for Best Lyricist twice – in 1966 and 1972.

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Harold Washington, American lawyer and politician, 51st Mayor of Chicago (died 1987)

Harold Lee Washington was an American lawyer and politician who was the 51st mayor of Chicago. In April 1983, Washington became the first African American to be elected as the city's mayor at the age of 60. He served as mayor from April 29, 1983, until his death in 1987. Born in Chicago and raised in the Bronzeville neighborhood, Washington became involved in local 3rd Ward politics under Chicago Alderman and future Congressman Ralph Metcalfe after graduating from Roosevelt University and Northwestern University School of Law. Washington was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 1983, representing Illinois's first district. Washington had previously served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1965 to 1976 and the Illinois State Senate from 1977 to 1980. A 1994 survey of experts on Chicago politics assessed Washington the third-best mayor in the city's history up to that time.

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Graham Whitehead, English racing driver (died 1981)

Alfred Graham Whitehead was a British racing driver from England. He participated in one Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, on 19 July 1952. He finished 12th, scoring no championship points. He also competed in several non-Championship Formula One races. He began racing his half-brother Peter's ERA, in 1951 and then drove his Formula Two Alta in the 1952 British Grand Prix. He finished second at 1958 24 Hours of Le Mans only weeks before the accident on the Tour de France in which Peter was killed. Graham escaped serious injury and later raced again with an Aston Martin and Ferrari 250GT before stopping at the end of 1961.

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15/04/1921

Georgy Beregovoy, Ukrainian-Russian general, pilot, and astronaut (died 1995)

Georgy Timofeyevich Beregovoy was a Soviet cosmonaut who commanded the space mission Soyuz 3 in 1968. From 1972 to 1987, he headed the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.

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Angelo DiGeorge, American physician and endocrinologist (died 2009)

Angelo Mario DiGeorge was an American physician and pediatric endocrinologist from Philadelphia who pioneered the research on the autosomal dominant immunodeficiency now commonly referred to as DiGeorge syndrome.

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15/04/1920

Godfrey Stafford, English-South African physicist and academic (died 2013)

Godfrey Harry Stafford CBE, FRS, was a British physicist and directed the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories from 1969 to 1981. He went on to be a master at St Cross College, Oxford and president of the Institute of Physics. In 1950 Dr. Stafford married Helen Goldthorp Clark, an Australian biologist. He has a son and twin daughters and lived near Oxford.

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Thomas Szasz, Hungarian-American psychiatrist and academic (died 2012)

Thomas Stephen Szasz was a Hungarian-American academic and psychiatrist. He served for most of his career as professor of psychiatry at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University. A distinguished lifetime fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a life member of the American Psychoanalytic Association, he was best known as a social critic of the moral and scientific foundations of psychiatry, as what he saw as the social control aims of medicine in modern society, as well as scientism.

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Richard von Weizsäcker, German soldier and politician, 6th President of Germany (died 2015)

Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker was a German politician (CDU), who served as President of Germany from 1984 to 1994. Born into the aristocratic Weizsäcker family, he took his first public offices in the Protestant Church in Germany.

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15/04/1919

Alberto Breccia, Uruguayan-Argentinian author and illustrator (died 1993)

Alberto Breccia was a Uruguayan-born Argentine artist and cartoonist. His son Enrique Breccia and daughter Patricia Breccia are also comic book artists.

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15/04/1918

Hans Billian, German film director, screenwriter, and actor (died 2007)

Hans Billian was a German film director, screenwriter, and actor noted for the "sex comedies" he directed in the 1970s. He was also credited as Hans Billan, Phillip Halliday, and Christian Kessler.

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15/04/1917

Hans Conried, American actor (died 1982)

Hans Georg Conried Jr. was an American actor and comedian. He voiced Captain Hook and George Darling in Walt Disney's Peter Pan (1953), Snidely Whiplash in Jay Ward's Dudley Do-Right cartoons, Professor Waldo P. Wigglesworth in Ward's Hoppity Hooper cartoons, was host of Ward's live-action Fractured Flickers show and Professor Kropotkin on the radio and film versions of My Friend Irma. He also appeared as Uncle Tonoose on Danny Thomas' sitcom Make Room for Daddy, twice on I Love Lucy, and as the Mad Hatter along with Daws Butler, Dolores Starr, Stanley Adams, Francis Condie Baxter and Cheryl Callaway in The Alphabet Conspiracy (1959).

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Elmer Gedeon, American baseball player and bomber pilot (died 1944)

Elmer John Gedeon was an American professional baseball player, appearing in several games for the Washington Senators in 1939. Gedeon and Harry O'Neill were the only two Major League Baseball players killed during World War II. Gedeon flew several missions in the European Theater of Operations as an officer of the United States Army Air Forces before being shot down over France.

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James Kee, American lawyer and politician (died 1989)

James Kee was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives for West Virginia's 5th congressional district from 1965 to 1973, succeeding his mother Elizabeth Kee. His father John Kee served in the same House seat from 1933 to 1951.

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15/04/1916

Alfred S. Bloomingdale, American businessman (died 1982)

Alfred Schiffer Bloomingdale was an American businessman who launched the credit card business Dine and Sign, was chairman of Diners Club, and became known as "father of the credit card." He was an heir to the Bloomingdale's department store fortune and the lover of murdered mistress Vicki Morgan.

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Helene Hanff, American author and screenwriter (died 1997)

Helene Hanff was an American writer born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is best known as the author of the book 84, Charing Cross Road, which became the basis for a stage play, television play, and film of the same name.

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15/04/1915

Elizabeth Catlett, African-American sculptor and illustrator (died 2012)

Elizabeth Catlett, born as Alice Elizabeth Catlett, also known as Elizabeth Catlett Mora was an American and Mexican sculptor and graphic artist best known for her depictions of the Black-American experience in the 20th century, which often focused on the female experience. She was born and raised in Washington, D.C., to parents working in education, and was the grandchild of formerly enslaved people. It was difficult for a black woman then to pursue a career as a working artist. Catlett devoted much of her career to teaching. However, a fellowship awarded to her in 1946 allowed her to travel to Mexico City, where she settled and worked with the Taller de Gráfica Popular for twenty years and became head of the sculpture department for the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas. In the 1950s, her main means of artistic expression shifted from print to sculpture, though she never gave up the former.

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15/04/1912

William Congdon, American-Italian painter and sculptor (died 1998)

William Grosvenor Congdon was an American painter who became notable as an artist in New York City in the 1940s, but lived most of his life in Europe.

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Kim Il Sung, North Korean general and politician, 1st Supreme Leader of North Korea (died 1994)

Kim Il Sung was a North Korean revolutionary, military commander, politician, and dictator who founded the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), also known as North Korea, in 1948, and led the country from its establishment until his death in 1994. He was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Il and was declared Eternal President.

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15/04/1910

Sulo Bärlund, Finnish shot putter (died 1986)

Sulo Richard Bärlund was a Finnish shot putter who won a silver medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics. At the European Championships he finished fourth in 1938 and sixth in 1946.

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Miguel Najdorf, Polish-Argentinian chess player and theoretician (died 1997)

Miguel Najdorf was a Polish-Argentine chess grandmaster. Originally from Poland, he was in Argentina when World War II began in 1939, and he stayed and settled there. He was a leading world player in the 1940s and 1950s, and is also known for the Najdorf Variation, one of the most popular chess openings.

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15/04/1909

Robert Edison Fulton Jr., American inventor and adventurer (died 2004)

Robert Edison Fulton Jr. was an American inventor and adventurer. He is known for having traveled around the world on a motorcycle in 1932–33, authored a book and made a film about his journey, and for several aviation-related inventions, among his 70 patents. Fulton was also a professional photographer.

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15/04/1908

eden ahbez, American songwriter and recording artist (died 1995)

George Alexander Aberle, known as eden ahbez, was an American songwriter and recording artist of the 1940s to 1960s, whose lifestyle in California was influential in the hippie movement. He was known to friends simply as ahbe.

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Lita Grey, American actress (died 1995)

Lita Grey, who was known for most of her life as Lita Grey Chaplin, was an American actress. She was the second wife of Charlie Chaplin, and appeared in his films The Kid, The Idle Class, and The Gold Rush.

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15/04/1907

Nikolaas Tinbergen, Dutch-English ethologist and ornithologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1988)

Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen was a Dutch biologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning the organization and elicitation of individual and social behavior patterns in animals. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern ethology, the study of animal behavior.

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15/04/1904

Arshile Gorky, Armenian-American painter and illustrator (died 1948)

Arshile Gorky was an Armenian-American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. He spent the last years of his life as a national of the United States. Along with Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, Gorky has been hailed as one of the most powerful American painters of the 20th century. The suffering and loss he experienced in the Armenian genocide had crucial influence on Gorky's development as an artist.

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15/04/1903

John Williams, English-American actor (died 1983)

Hugh Ernest Leo Williams, known professionally as John Williams, was an English stage, film and television actor. He is remembered for his role as Chief Inspector Hubbard in Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder, as the chauffeur in Billy Wilder's Sabrina, as Mr. Brogan-Moore in Witness for the Prosecution (1957) and as the second "Mr. French" on TV's Family Affair in its first season (1967).

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15/04/1902

Fernando Pessa, Portuguese journalist (died 2002)

Fernando Pessa, ComIH, GOM, OBE was a Portuguese journalist and reporter. Early in 2002, Pessa was hailed as the world's oldest journalist.

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15/04/1901

Joe Davis, English snooker player (died 1978)

Joseph Davis was an English professional snooker and English billiards player. He was the dominant figure in snooker from the 1920s to the 1950s, and has been credited with inventing aspects of the way the game is now played, such as break-building. He drove the creation of the World Snooker Championship by persuading the Billiards Association and Control Council to recognise an official professional snooker championship in 1927. Davis won the first 15 world championships from 1927 to 1946, and he is the only undefeated player in World Snooker Championship history. In 1935, he scored the championship's first century break.

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Ajoy Mukherjee, Indian politician, Chief Minister of West Bengal (died 1986)

Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee was an Indian independence activist and politician who served three short terms as the Chief Minister of West Bengal. He hailed from Tamluk, Purba Medinipur district, West Bengal.

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René Pleven, French businessman and politician, Prime Minister of France (died 1993)

René Jean Pleven was a notable political figure of the French Resistance and Fourth Republic. An early associate of Jean Monnet then member of the Free French led by Charles de Gaulle, he took a leading role in colonial and financial matters including the Gaullist takeover of French Equatorial Africa in 1940, the creation of the Caisse Centrale de la France Libre in 1941, the Brazzaville Conference in 1944, and the nationalization of the largest French banks in 1945.

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15/04/1900

Ramón Iribarren, Spanish civil engineer (died 1967)

Ramón Iribarren Cavanilles Ing.D was a Spanish civil engineer and professor of ports at the School of Civil Engineering in Madrid. He was chairman of the Spanish delegation to the Permanent International Association of Navigation Congresses and was elected as an academic at the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences, although he did not take up the latter position. He made notable contributions in the field of coastal engineering, including methods for the calculation of breakwater stability and research which led to the development of the Iribarren number.

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15/04/1898

Harry Edward, Guyanese-English sprinter (died 1973)

Harry Francis Vincent Edward, known as Harry Edward, was a German-British athlete in track; in 1920 he was Britain's first black Olympian and the first black person to win Olympic medals. He represented the UK and competed in the 100 and 200 m 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, winning bronze medals in both events. Because he injured himself during the 200 m final, he withdrew from the 4 × 100 m relay.

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15/04/1896

Nikolay Semyonov, Russian physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1986)

Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov , sometimes Semenov, Semionov or Semenoff was a Soviet physicist and chemist. Semyonov was awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the mechanism of chemical transformation.

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15/04/1895

Clark McConachy, New Zealand snooker player (died 1980)

Clark McConachy, often known simply as Mac, was a New Zealand professional player of English billiards and snooker.

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Abigail Mejia, Dominican feminist activist, nationalist, literary critic and educator (died 1941)

Ana Emilia Abigaíl Mejia Soliere was a feminist activist, nationalist, literary critic and educator from the Dominican Republic. She completed her primary education at the Salome Ureña de Henríquez School for Girls and Liceo Dominicano. In 1912, she became a teacher in Barcelona where she resided with her family. She returned to the Dominican Republic in 1925 and became a professor of Literature, Pedagogy and History at the Superior Normal School of Santo Domingo. She is one of the leading figures of feminism in the Dominican Republic, founding the Club Nosotras in 1927 and Acción Feminista.

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15/04/1894

Nikita Khrushchev, Russian general and politician, 7th Premier of the Soviet Union (died 1971)

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. As leader of the Soviet Union, he stunned the world by denouncing his predecessor Joseph Stalin, embarking on a campaign of de-Stalinization, and presiding over the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

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Bessie Smith, African-American singer and actress (died 1937)

Bessie Smith was an African-American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the "Empress of the Blues" and formerly Queen of the Blues, she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, she is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and was a major influence on fellow blues singers, as well as jazz vocalists.

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15/04/1892

Theo Osterkamp, German general and pilot (died 1975)

Theodor "Theo" Osterkamp was a German fighter pilot during World War I and World War II. A flying ace, he achieved 32 victories in World War I. In World War II, he led Jagdgeschwader 51 up to the Battle of Britain and claimed a further six victories during World War II, in the process becoming one of only a few men to score victories and become an ace in both world wars.

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Corrie ten Boom, Dutch-American clocksmith, Nazi resister, and author (died 1983)

Cornelia Arnolda Johanna "Corrie" ten Boom was a Dutch watchmaker and later a Christian writer and public speaker, who worked with her father, Casper ten Boom, her sister Betsie ten Boom and other family members to help many Jewish people escape from the Nazis during the Holocaust in World War II by hiding them in her home. They were caught, and she was arrested and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Her most famous book, The Hiding Place, is a biography that recounts the story of her family's efforts and how she found and shared hope in God while she was imprisoned at the concentration camp.

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15/04/1890

Percy Shaw, English businessman, invented the cat's eye (died 1976)

Percy Shaw, was an English inventor and businessman. He patented the reflective road stud or "cat's eye" in 1934, and set up a company to manufacture his invention in 1935.

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15/04/1889

Thomas Hart Benton, American painter and educator (died 1975)

Thomas Hart Benton was an American painter, muralist, and printmaker. Along with Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry, he was at the forefront of the Regionalist art movement. The fluid, sculpted figures in his paintings showed everyday people in scenes of life in the United States.

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A. Philip Randolph, American activist (died 1979)

Asa Philip Randolph was an American labor unionist and civil rights activist. In 1925, he organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first successful African-American-led labor union. In the early Civil Rights Movement and the Labor Movement, Randolph was a prominent voice. His continuous agitation with the support of fellow labor rights activists against racist labor practices helped lead President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802 in 1941, banning discrimination in the defense industries during World War II. The group then successfully maintained pressure, so that President Harry S. Truman proposed a new Civil Rights Act and issued Executive Orders 9980 and 9981 in 1948, promoting fair employment and anti-discrimination policies in federal government hiring, and ending racial segregation in the armed services.

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15/04/1888

Maximilian Kronberger, German poet and author (died 1904)

Maximilian Kronberger, known familiarly as Maximin, was a German poet and a significant figure in the literary circle of Stefan George.

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15/04/1887

Felix Pipes, Austrian tennis player (died 1983)

Fritz Felix Pipes was an Austrian tennis player who was born in Prague. He was Jewish, and was a medical doctor. At the 1912 Stockholm Olympics he teamed up with Arthur Zborzil to win a silver medal for Austria in the men's doubles event.

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William Forgan Smith, Scottish-Australian politician, 24th Premier of Queensland (died 1953)

William Forgan Smith was an Australian politician. He served as Premier of the state of Queensland from 1932 to 1942. He came to dominate politics in the state during the 1930s, and his populism, firm leadership, defence of states' rights and interest in state development make him something of an archetypal Queensland Premier. He represented the Labor Party.

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15/04/1886

Nikolay Gumilyov, Russian poet and critic (died 1921)

Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev was a Russian poet, literary critic, traveler, and military officer. He was a co-founder of the Acmeist movement. He was the husband of Anna Akhmatova and the father of Lev Gumilev. Nikolai Gumilev was arrested and executed by the Cheka, the secret Soviet police force, in 1921.

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15/04/1885

Tadeusz Kutrzeba, Polish general (died 1947)

Tadeusz Kutrzeba was a general of the army during the Second Polish Republic. He served as a major general in the Polish Army in overall command of Army Poznań during the 1939 German Invasion of Poland.

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15/04/1883

Stanley Bruce, Australian captain and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Australia (died 1967)

Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne was an Australian politician, statesman and businessman who served as the eighth prime minister of Australia from 1923 to 1929. He held office as the leader of the Nationalist Party, having previously served as the treasurer of Australia from 1921 to 1923.

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15/04/1879

Melville Henry Cane, American lawyer and poet (died 1980)

Melville Henry Cane was an American poet and lawyer. He studied at Columbia University, and was the author of the influential book, Making a Poem (1953).

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15/04/1878

Robert Walser, Swiss author and playwright (died 1956)

Robert Walser was a German language Swiss writer. He additionally worked as a copyist, an inventor's assistant, a butler, and in various other low-paying trades. Despite marginal early success in his literary career, the popularity of his work gradually diminished over the second and third decades of the 20th century, making it increasingly difficult for him to support himself through writing. He eventually had a nervous breakdown and spent the remainder of his life in sanatoria.

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15/04/1877

Georg Kolbe, German sculptor (died 1947)

Georg Kolbe was a German sculptor. He was the leading German figure sculptor of his generation, in a vigorous, modern, simplified classical style similar to Aristide Maillol of France.

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William David Ross, Scottish philosopher (died 1971)

Sir William David Ross, known as David Ross but usually cited as W. D. Ross, was a Scottish Aristotelian philosopher, translator, WWI veteran, civil servant, and university administrator. His best-known work is The Right and the Good (1930), in which he developed a pluralist, deontological form of intuitionist ethics in response to G. E. Moore's consequentialist form of intuitionism. Ross also critically edited and translated a number of Aristotle's works, such as his 12-volume translation of Aristotle together with John Alexander Smith, and wrote on other Greek philosophy.

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15/04/1875

James J. Jeffries, American boxer and promoter (died 1953)

James Jackson Jeffries was an American professional boxer and world heavyweight champion from 1899 until his initial retirement in 1905.

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15/04/1874

George Harrison Shull, American botanist and geneticist (died 1954)

George Harrison Shull was an American plant geneticist who played a central role in the development of hybrid maize and in establishing the genetic basis of heterosis.

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Johannes Stark, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1957)

Johannes Stark was a German physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1919 for his discovery of the Stark effect.

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15/04/1863

Ida Freund, Austrian-born chemist and educator (died 1914)

Ida Freund was the first woman to be a university chemistry lecturer in the United Kingdom. She is known for her influence on science teaching, particularly the teaching of women and girls. She wrote two key chemistry textbooks and invented the idea of baking periodic table cupcakes, as well as inventing a gas measuring tube, which was named after her.

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15/04/1861

Bliss Carman, Canadian-British poet and playwright (died 1929)

William Bliss Carman was a Canadian poet who lived most of his life in the United States, where he achieved international fame. He was acclaimed as Canada's poet laureate during his later years.

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15/04/1858

Émile Durkheim, French sociologist, psychologist, and philosopher (died 1917)

David Émile Durkheim was a French sociologist. Durkheim formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science, along with both Karl Marx and Max Weber.

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15/04/1856

Jean Moréas, Greek poet and critic (died 1910)

Jean Moréas was a Greek poet, essayist, and art critic, who wrote mostly in the French language but also in Greek during his youth.

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15/04/1843

Henry James, American novelist, short story writer, and critic (died 1916)

Henry James was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the son of theologian Henry James Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.

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15/04/1841

Mary Grant Roberts, Australian zoo owner (died 1921)

Mary Grant Roberts was an Australian zoo owner. Roberts owned Hobart Zoo from when it opened in 1895 until her death in 1921. The zoo was closed in 1937.

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Joseph E. Seagram, Canadian businessman and politician, founded the Seagram Company Ltd (died 1919)

Joseph Emm Seagram was a Canadian distillery founder, politician, philanthropist, and major owner of thoroughbred racehorses.

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15/04/1832

Wilhelm Busch, German poet, painter, and illustrator (died 1908)

Heinrich Christian Wilhelm Busch was a German humorist, poet, illustrator, and painter. He published wildly innovative illustrated tales that remain influential to this day.

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15/04/1828

Jean Danjou, French captain (died 1863)

Jean Danjou was a decorated captain of the Foreign Legion in the French Army. He commanded the two lieutenants and 62 legionnaires who fought the Battle of Camarón during the French intervention in Mexico, in which he was killed.

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15/04/1817

William Crowther, Dutch-Australian politician, 14th Premier of Tasmania (died 1885)

William Lodewyk Crowther FRCS was a Tasmanian politician, who was Premier of Tasmania from 20 December 1878 to 29 October 1879.

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15/04/1809

Hermann Grassmann, German linguist and mathematician (died 1877)

Hermann Günther Grassmann was a German polymath known in his day as a linguist and now also as a mathematician. He was also a physicist, general scholar, and publisher. His mathematical work was little noted until he was in his sixties. His work preceded and exceeded the concept which is now known as a vector space. He introduced the Grassmannian, the space which parameterizes all k-dimensional linear subspaces of an n-dimensional vector space V. In linguistics he helped free language history and structure from each other.

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15/04/1808

William Champ, English-Australian politician, 1st Premier of Tasmania (died 1892)

William Thomas Napier Champ was a soldier and politician who served as the first Premier of Tasmania from 1856 to 1857. He was born in the United Kingdom.

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15/04/1800

James Clark Ross, English captain and explorer (died 1862)

Rear-Admiral of the Red Sir James Clark Ross was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who explored both the North and South Poles. In the Arctic, he participated in two expeditions led by his uncle, John Ross, and in four led by William Edward Parry: in the Antarctic, he led his own expedition from 1839 to 1843.

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15/04/1795

Maria Schicklgruber, mother of Alois Hitler and the paternal grandmother of Adolf Hitler (died 1847)

Maria Anna Schicklgruber was the mother of Alois Hitler, and the paternal grandmother of Adolf Hitler.

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15/04/1793

Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, German astronomer and academic (died 1864)

Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve was a Baltic German astronomer and geodesist. He is best known for studying double stars and initiating a triangulation survey later named Struve Geodetic Arc in his honor.

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15/04/1772

Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, French biologist and zoologist (died 1844)

Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire was a French naturalist who established the principle of "unity of composition". He was a colleague of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and expanded and defended Lamarck's evolutionary theories. Geoffroy's scientific views had a transcendental flavor and were similar to those of German morphologists like Lorenz Oken. He believed in the underlying unity of organismal design, and the possibility of the transmutation of species in time, amassing evidence for his claims through research in comparative anatomy, paleontology, and embryology. He is considered as a predecessor of the evo-devo evolutionary concept.

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15/04/1771

Nicolas Chopin, French-Polish educator (died 1844)

Nicolas Chopin was a teacher of the French language in Partitioned Poland, and father of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin.

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15/04/1741

Charles Willson Peale, American painter and soldier (died 1827)

Charles Willson Peale was an American painter, military officer, scientist, and naturalist.

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15/04/1731

William B. Whiting, New York politician (died 1796)

William Bradford Whiting was an American politician. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Whiting moved to Canaan, New York, in 1765. During the American Revolutionary War, he served as a colonel commanding the 17th Regiment of the Albany County militia. He participated in the Battles of Saratoga under General Horatio Gates and was present for the surrender of General John Burgoyne. Whiting was a member of the New York State Assembly from 1777–1781 and the New York State Senate from 1781–1785, and a justice of the peace in Columbia County, New York, from 1786–1795.

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15/04/1710

William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist (died 1790)

William Cullen was a Scottish physician, chemist and agriculturalist from Hamilton, Scotland, who also served as a professor at the Edinburgh Medical School. Cullen was a central figure in the Scottish Enlightenment: He was David Hume's physician, and was friends with Joseph Black, Henry Home, Adam Ferguson, John Millar, and Adam Smith, among others.

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15/04/1707

Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician and physicist (died 1783)

Leonhard Euler was a Swiss polymath who was active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, logician, geographer, music theorist and engineer. He founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made influential discoveries in many other branches of mathematics, such as analytic number theory, complex analysis, and infinitesimal calculus. He also introduced much of modern mathematical terminology and notation, including the notion of a mathematical function. He is known for his work in mechanics, fluid dynamics, optics, astronomy, and music theory. Euler has been called a "universal genius" who "was fully equipped with almost unlimited powers of imagination, intellectual gifts and extraordinary memory". He spent most of his adult life in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and in Berlin, then the capital of Prussia.

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15/04/1688

Johann Friedrich Fasch, German violinist and composer (died 1758)

Johann Friedrich Fasch was a German violinist and composer. Much of his music is in the Baroque-Classical transitional style known as galant.

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15/04/1684

Catherine I of Russia (died 1727)

Catherine I was Empress of Russia from 1725 to 1727. She was previously empress consort of Russia from 1721 to 1725 as the second wife of Peter the Great, and tsaritsa consort from 1712 to 1721.

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15/04/1646

Christian V of Denmark (died 1699)

Christian V was King of Denmark and Norway from 1670 until his death in 1699.

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15/04/1642

Suleiman II, Ottoman sultan (died 1691)

Suleiman II was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1687 to 1691. After being brought to the throne by an armed mutiny, Suleiman and his grand vizier Fazıl Mustafa Pasha were successfully able to turn the tide of the War of the Holy League, reconquering Belgrade in 1690, as well as carrying out significant fiscal and military reforms.

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15/04/1641

Robert Sibbald, Scottish physician and geographer (died 1722)

Sir Robert Sibbald was a Scottish physician and antiquary.

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15/04/1592

Francesco Maria Brancaccio, Catholic cardinal (died 1675)

Francesco Maria Brancaccio was an Italian Catholic cardinal.

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15/04/1588

Claudius Salmasius, French author and scholar (died 1653)

Claude Saumaise, also known by the Latin name Claudius Salmasius, was a French classical scholar.

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15/04/1563

Guru Arjan Dev, fifth Sikh leader (died 1606)

Guru Arjan was the fifth of the ten total Sikh Gurus. He compiled the first official edition of the Sikh scripture called the Adi Granth, which later expanded into the Guru Granth Sahib. He is regarded as the first of the two Gurus martyred in the Sikh faith.

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15/04/1552

Pietro Cataldi, Italian mathematician and astronomer (died 1626)

Pietro Antonio Cataldi was an Italian mathematician. A citizen of Bologna, he taught mathematics and astronomy and also worked on military problems. His work included the development of simple continued fractions and a method for their representation. He was one of many mathematicians who attempted to prove Euclid's fifth postulate.

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15/04/1469

Guru Nanak, the first Sikh guru (died 1539)

Gurū Nānak, also known as Bābā Nānak, was an Indian spiritual teacher, mystic and poet, who is regarded as the founder of Sikhism and is the first of the ten Sikh Gurus.

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15/04/1452

Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, sculptor, and architect (died 1519)

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on his achievements as a painter, he has also become known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on a variety of subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and palaeontology. Leonardo is widely regarded as a genius who epitomised the Renaissance humanist ideal, and his collective works contributed to the development of European art to an extent rivalled only by that of his younger contemporary Michelangelo.

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15/04/1442

John Paston, English noble (died 1479)

Sir John Paston was the eldest son of John Paston and Margaret Mautby. He succeeded his father in 1466, and spent a considerable part of his life attempting to make good his father's claim to the lands of Margaret Mautby's kinsman, Sir John Fastolf. A number of his letters survive among the Paston Letters, a rich source of historical information for the lives of the English gentry of the period. Although long betrothed to Anne Haute, a first cousin of Elizabeth Woodville, he never married, and was succeeded by his younger brother, also named John.

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15/04/1282

Frederick IV, Duke of Lorraine (died 1329)

Frederick IV, called the Fighter, was the Duke of Lorraine from 1312 to his death in 1328.

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01/01/1970

Gaius Maecenas, Roman politician (died 8 BC)

Gaius Cilnius Maecenas was a friend and political advisor to Octavian. He was also an important patron for the new generation of Augustan poets, including both Horace and Virgil. In many languages, his name is an eponym for "patron of arts".

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