Born on Friday, 18th April – Famous Birthdays

18/04/1996

Ski Mask the Slump God, American rapper

Stokeley Clevon Goulbourne, known professionally as Ski Mask the Slump God, is an American rapper. He is best known for his association with XXXTentacion, with whom he formed the hip hop collective Members Only in 2014. He is notable for his nostalgic-themed musical production and public image, often clad with multi-colored durags. He signed with Victor Victor Worldwide, an imprint of Republic Records to release his debut commercial mixtape You Will Regret (2017), which entered the Billboard 200 and spawned the platinum-certified singles "BabyWipe", "Take a Step Back", and "Catch Me Outside".

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18/04/1995

Divock Origi, Belgian footballer

Divock Okoth Origi is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a striker.

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18/04/1994

Aminé, American singer-songwriter

Adam Aminé Daniel is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter, from Portland, Oregon. He first gained notability for his commercial debut single, "Caroline", which peaked at number 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Aminé released his debut studio album Good for You, on July 28, 2017, and his second studio album, Limbo, on August 7, 2020.

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18/04/1993

Mika Zibanejad, Swedish ice hockey player

Mika Zibanejad is a Swedish professional ice hockey player who is a centre and alternate captain for the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Swedish national team. Zibanejad was selected sixth overall in the 2011 NHL entry draft by the Ottawa Senators. He made the Senators lineup out of training camp to start the 2011–12 season, but was returned to Djurgårdens IF in Sweden after scoring one point in nine NHL games with Ottawa. On 18 July 2016, after five seasons within the Senators organization, Zibanejad was traded to the Rangers.

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18/04/1992

Chloe Bennet, American actress

Chloé Wang, known professionally as Chloe Bennet, is an American actress and singer. She starred as Daisy Johnson / Quake in the ABC superhero drama series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013–2020) and voiced Yi in the animated film Abominable (2019) and the television series Abominable and the Invisible City (2022–2023).

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18/04/1990

Wojciech Szczęsny, Polish footballer

Wojciech Tomasz Szczęsny is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for La Liga club Barcelona.

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18/04/1989

Jessica Jung, South Korean-American singer, songwriter, actress, author, fashion designer and businesswoman

Jessica Jung is an American and South Korean singer-songwriter, actress, author, and businesswoman. She is best known for her work as a former member of the South Korean girl group Girls' Generation. As an actress, Jung portrayed Elle Woods in the Korean version of the musical Legally Blonde in 2010 and played a role in the television drama Wild Romance in 2012.

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Alia Shawkat, American actress

Alia Martine Shawkat is an American actress. She is known for her performances as Maeby Fünke in the Fox/Netflix television sitcom Arrested Development, Dory Sief in the TBS and HBO Max dark comedy series Search Party (2016–2022), and Gertie Michaels in the 2015 horror-comedy film The Final Girls, as well as her roles in State of Grace (2001–2002) and The Old Man starring Jeff Bridges (2022–2024). She has also guest starred as historical figures Frances Cleveland, Virginia Hall, and Alexander Hamilton on Comedy Central's Drunk History (2014–2016).

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18/04/1988

Vanessa Kirby, English actress

Vanessa Nuala Kirby is an English actress. She rose to international prominence with her portrayal of Princess Margaret in the Netflix drama series The Crown (2016–2017), for which she won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress. For her performance in the film Pieces of a Woman (2020), she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

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18/04/1986

Tina Bru, Norwegian politician

Tina Bru is a Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party. From 2020 to 2021, she served as the Minister of Petroleum and Energy. She was a member of the Storting for Rogaland from 2013 to 2025 and was a member of the Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment. She was reelected to the Storting for the period 2017–2021, and continued as a member of the Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment.

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18/04/1985

Łukasz Fabiański, Polish footballer

Łukasz Marek Fabiański is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club West Ham United.

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18/04/1984

America Ferrera, American actress

America Georgina Ferrera is an American actress, director and television producer. She has received numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to a nomination for an Academy Award. In 2007 and 2024, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world and in 2023, she was named in BBC's 100 Women list.

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18/04/1983

Miguel Cabrera, Venezuelan baseball player

José Miguel Cabrera Torres, nicknamed Miggy, is a Venezuelan former professional baseball first baseman, third baseman, and designated hitter who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Florida Marlins and Detroit Tigers. Debuting in 2003, he was a two-time American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) award winner, a four-time AL batting champion, and a 12-time MLB All-Star. Although he primarily played in left and right field before 2006, he spent the majority of his major league career at first and third base. He claimed the 17th MLB Triple Crown in 2012, the first to do so in 45 seasons. Cabrera is one of three players in MLB history to have a career batting average above .300, 500 home runs, and 3,000 hits, joining Hank Aaron and Willie Mays. Cabrera is regarded as one of the greatest hitters of all time.

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18/04/1981

Audrey Tang, Taiwanese Minister of Digital Affairs and programmer

Tang Feng, also known by her English name Audrey, is a Taiwanese politician and free software programmer who served as the first Minister of Digital Affairs of Taiwan from August 2022 to May 2024. She has been described as one of the "ten greatest Taiwanese computing personalities". In August 2016, Tang was invited to join Taiwan's Executive Yuan as a minister without portfolio, making her the first transgender person and the first non-binary gender official in the top executive cabinet. Tang has identified as "post-gender" and accepts "whatever pronoun people want to describe me with online." Tang is a leader of the Haskell and Perl programming language communities, and is the core member of g0v.

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18/04/1979

Matt Cooper, Australian rugby league player

Matt Cooper is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. A New South Wales State of Origin and Australia international representative centre, he played his entire National Rugby League career for the St. George Illawarra Dragons, with whom he won the 2010 NRL grand final.

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Kourtney Kardashian, American television personality

Kourtney Kardashian Barker is an American media personality, socialite and businesswoman. In 2007, she and her family began starring in the reality television series Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Its success led to the creation of spin-offs including Kourtney and Kim Take Miami  and Kourtney and Kim Take New York. After she and her family made the decision to end their show after 20 seasons in 2021, they began appearing in an all new reality television series titled The Kardashians on Hulu in 2022.

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18/04/1976

Melissa Joan Hart, American actress

Melissa Joan Hart is an American actress, director and producer. She had starring roles as the title characters in the sitcoms Clarissa Explains It All, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Melissa & Joey, and appeared as Liz in No Good Nick. She has also appeared in the films Drive Me Crazy (1999), Nine Dead (2009), and God's Not Dead 2 (2016).

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18/04/1974

Edgar Wright, English filmmaker

Edgar Howard Wright is an English filmmaker. He is known for his fast-paced and kinetic, satirical genre films, which feature extensive use of expressive popular music, Steadicam tracking shots, dolly zooms and a signature editing style that includes transitions, whip pans and wipes. He first made independent short films before making his first feature film A Fistful of Fingers in 1995. Wright created and directed the comedy series Asylum in 1996, written with David Walliams. After directing several other television shows, Wright directed the sitcom Spaced (1999–2001), which aired for two series and starred frequent collaborators Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

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18/04/1973

Derrick Brooks, American football player

Derrick Dewan Brooks is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker for his entire 14-year career in the National Football League (NFL) with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brooks played college football for the Florida State Seminoles, earning consensus All-American honors twice. He was selected by the Buccaneers in the first round of the 1995 NFL draft. An 11-time Pro Bowl selection and five-time first-team All-Pro, Brooks was the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2002 en route to winning the franchise's first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XXXVII. He was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2014 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2016.

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Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopian runner

Haile Gebrselassie is an Ethiopian former long-distance track, road running athlete, and businessman. He won two Olympic gold medals and four World Championship titles over the 10,000 metres. Haile triumphed in the Berlin Marathon four times consecutively and also had three straight wins at the Dubai Marathon. He also earned four world titles indoors and was the 2001 World Half Marathon Champion. He is considered to be one of the greatest long distance runners of all time.

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18/04/1972

Rosa Clemente, American journalist and activist

Rosa Alicia Clemente is an American community organizer, independent journalist, and hip-hop activist. She was the vice presidential running mate of Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney in the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

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Eli Roth, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

Eli Raphael Roth is an American filmmaker and actor. As a director and producer, he is most closely associated with the horror genre, namely splatter films, having directed the films Cabin Fever (2002) and Hostel (2005).

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18/04/1971

David Tennant, Scottish actor

David John Tennant is a Scottish actor. He is best known for portraying the lead character in Doctor Who, headlining the show as the Tenth Doctor from 2005–2010, and returning as the Fourteenth Doctor in 2023. His other notable screen roles include portraying Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), DI Alec Hardy in Broadchurch (2013–2017), Crowley in Good Omens (2019–present), and various fictionalised versions of himself in Staged (2020–2022).

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18/04/1970

Saad Hariri, Saudi Arabian-Lebanese businessman and politician, 33rd Prime Minister of Lebanon

Saad El-Din Rafik Al-Hariri is a Lebanese businessman and politician who served as the prime minister of Lebanon from 2009 to 2011 and 2016 to 2020. The son of Rafic Hariri, he founded and has been leading the Future Movement party since 2007. He is seen as "the strongest figurehead" of the March 14 Alliance.

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Willie Roaf, American football player

William Layton Roaf, nicknamed "Nasty", is an American former professional football player who was an offensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons. He played college football for Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, where he earned consensus All-American honors. He was a first-round pick in the 1993 NFL draft, and played professionally for the New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL. An 11-time Pro Bowl selection and nine-time All-Pro, he was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2012 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2014.

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18/04/1969

Keith DeCandido, American author

Keith Robert Andreassi DeCandido is an American science fiction and fantasy writer, martial artist, and musician, who works on comic books, novels, role-playing games and video games, including numerous media tie-in books for properties such as Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, Supernatural, Andromeda, Farscape, Leverage, Spider-Man, X-Men, Sleepy Hollow, and Stargate SG-1.

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18/04/1967

Maria Bello, American actress

Maria Bello is an American actress and producer. Her first major film role was in 1998's Permanent Midnight. She followed this with a range of supporting and leading parts in films such as Payback (1999), Coyote Ugly (2000), The Cooler (2003), Secret Window (2004), Assault on Precinct 13, A History of Violence, Thank You for Smoking, World Trade Center (2006), The Jane Austen Book Club (2007), The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008), Grown Ups (2010), Prisoners (2013), and Lights Out (2016).

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18/04/1964

Niall Ferguson, Scottish historian and academic

Sir Niall Campbell Ferguson is a British-American historian who is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. Previously, he was a professor at Harvard University, the London School of Economics, New York University, a visiting professor at the New College of the Humanities, and a senior research fellow at Jesus College, Oxford. He was a visiting lecturer at the London School of Economics for the 2023/2024 academic year and at Tsinghua University in China from 2019 to 2020.

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18/04/1963

Eric McCormack, Canadian-American actor

Eric James McCormack is a Canadian and American actor. He is known for his roles as Will Truman in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, Grant MacLaren in Netflix's Travelers, and Dr. Daniel Pierce in the TNT crime drama Perception. Born in Toronto, McCormack started acting by performing in high school plays. He left Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in 1985 to accept a position with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, where he spent five years performing in many stage productions.

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Conan O'Brien, American television host, comedian, and podcaster

Conan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, comedian and writer. He is best known for having hosted late-night talk shows, beginning with Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993–2009) and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (2009–2010) on the NBC television network, and Conan (2010–2021) on the cable channel TBS. Before his hosting career, O'Brien was a writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1988 to 1991, and the Fox animated sitcom The Simpsons from 1991 to 1993. He has hosted the podcast series Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend since 2018, and starred in the 2024 travel show Conan O'Brien Must Go on HBO Max.

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18/04/1962

Jeff Dunham, American ventriloquist and comedian

Jeffrey Douglas Dunham is an American ventriloquist, stand-up comedian and actor who has also appeared on numerous television shows, including Late Show with David Letterman, Comedy Central Presents, The Tonight Show, and Sonny with a Chance. He has seven specials that run on Comedy Central as well as two Netflix specials among others. He also starred in The Jeff Dunham Show, a series that ran in 2009. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and holds the Guinness Book of World Records record for "Most tickets sold for a stand-up comedy tour" for his Spark of Insanity tour.

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18/04/1961

Jane Leeves, English actress and dancer

Jane Elizabeth Leeves is an English actress, best known for her role as Daphne Moon on the NBC sitcom Frasier (1993–2004), for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series at the 50th Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film at the 52nd Golden Globe Awards. She also played Joy Scroggs on TV Land's sitcom Hot in Cleveland.

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John Podhoretz, American journalist and author

John Mordecai Podhoretz is an American journalist and conservative political commentator. The son of writers Norman Podhoretz and Midge Decter, he has been the editor of the magazine Commentary since 2009, a post his father held for over 30 years. Before that, Podhoretz ran the editorial page of the New York Post, was a deputy editor of The Weekly Standard, and contributed to numerous other publications. He served as a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, worked in the George H. W. Bush administration, and has authored several books on politics.

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18/04/1960

Yelena Zhupiyeva-Vyazova, Ukrainian runner

Olena Zhupiieva-Viazova or Olena Zhupiyeva-Vyazova or Yelena Zhupiyeva-Vyazova, née Yelena Zhupiyeva, is a retired track and field athlete from Ukraine, who competed mainly in the 10,000 metres. Competing for the Soviet Union as Yelena Zhupiyeva, she won a silver medal in the 10,000 m at the 1987 World Championships in Rome and a bronze medal in the 10,000m at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. As Yelena Vyazova, she won the 1992 CIS Athletics Championships 10,000 m title, and competed at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

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18/04/1959

Susan Faludi, American journalist, author and feminist

Susan Charlotte Faludi is an American feminist, journalist, and author. She won a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1991, for a report on the leveraged buyout of Safeway Stores, Inc., a report that the Pulitzer Prize committee commended for depicting the "human costs of high finance". She was also awarded the Kirkus Prize in 2016 for In the Darkroom, which was also a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in biography.

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18/04/1958

Gabi Delgado-López, Spanish-German singer, co-founder of D.A.F. (died 2020)

Gabriel Delgado-López, commonly known as Gabi Delgado, was a Spanish-born German composer, lyricist and producer, best known as singer and co-founder, with Robert Görl, of the German electronic band Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft.

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Malcolm Marshall, Barbadian cricketer and coach (died 1999)

Malcolm Denzil Marshall was a Barbadian cricketer. Primarily a fast bowler, Marshall is widely regarded as one of the greatest and one of the most accomplished fast bowlers of the modern era in Test cricket. He is often acknowledged as the greatest West Indian fast bowler of all time, and one of the most complete fast bowlers in the history of cricket. His Test bowling average of 20.94 is the second best of anyone who has taken 200 or more wickets.

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18/04/1956

Eric Roberts, American actor

Eric Anthony Roberts is an American actor. He has amassed more than 700 credits and is one of the most prolific English-speaking screen actors, acting in 74 films in 2017 alone.

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18/04/1954

Robert Greenberg, American pianist and composer

Robert M. Greenberg is an American composer, pianist, and musicologist who was born in Brooklyn, New York. He has composed more than 50 works for a variety of instruments and voices, and has recorded a number of lecture series on music history and music appreciation for The Great Courses.

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18/04/1953

Rick Moranis, Canadian-American actor, comedian, singer and screenwriter

Frederick Allan Moranis is a Canadian actor, comedian, musician, producer, songwriter and writer.

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Sk. Mujibur Rahman, Bengali politician

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is an Indian politician belonging to the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was the MLA of Moyna Assembly constituency in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.

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18/04/1950

Grigory Sokolov, Russian pianist and composer

Grigory Lipmanovich Sokolov is a Russian born Russian and Spanish pianist. He is among the most esteemed of living pianists, with his repertoire spanning composers from the Baroque period such as Bach, Couperin or Rameau up to Schoenberg and Arapov. He regularly tours Europe.

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18/04/1948

Régis Wargnier, French director, producer, and screenwriter

Régis Wargnier is a French film director, film producer, screenwriter and film score composer. His 1986 film The Woman of My Life won the César Award for Best First Film at the 12th César Awards. His 1992 film Indochine won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 65th Academy Awards. His 1995 A French Woman was entered into the 19th Moscow International Film Festival where he won the Silver St. George for the Direction.

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18/04/1947

Moses Blah, Liberian general and politician, 23rd President of Liberia (died 2013)

Moses Zeh Blah was a Liberian politician. He served as the 28th vice president of Liberia under President Charles Taylor and became the 23rd president of Liberia on 11 August 2003, following Taylor's resignation. He served as president for two months, until 14 October 2003, when a United Nations-backed transitional government, headed by Gyude Bryant, was established.

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Jerzy Stuhr, Polish actor, director, and screenwriter

Jerzy Oskar Stuhr was a Polish film and theatre actor. Considered one of the most popular, influential and versatile Polish actors and an icon of Polish cinema, he also worked as a screenwriter, film director, voice actor and drama professor. He served as the rector of the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Kraków for two terms: from 1990 to 1996 and again from 2002 to 2008.

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James Woods, American actor and producer

James Howard Woods is an American actor. Known for fast-talking, intense roles on screen and stage, he has received numerous accolades, including three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. He started his career in minor roles on and off-Broadway before making his Broadway debut in The Penny Wars (1969), followed by Borstal Boy (1970), The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (1971) and Moonchildren (1972). Woods' early film roles include The Visitors (1972), The Way We Were (1973) and The Gambler (1974). He starred in the NBC miniseries Holocaust (1978) opposite Meryl Streep.

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18/04/1946

Hayley Mills, English actress

Hayley Catherine Rose Vivien Mills is an English actress and singer. A daughter of Sir John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell and younger sister of actress Juliet Mills, she began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising newcomer, winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her performance in the British crime drama film Tiger Bay (1959), the Academy Juvenile Award for Disney's Pollyanna (1960) and Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress in 1961.

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18/04/1945

Bernard Arcand, Canadian anthropologist and author (died 2009)

Bernard Arcand was a French-Canadian anthropologist, author and communicator. He was for several decades a professor of the anthropology department of Laval University.

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18/04/1944

Kathy Acker, American author and poet (died 1997)

Kathy Acker was an American experimental novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, critic, performance artist, and postmodernist writer, known for her idiosyncratic and transgressive writing that dealt with complex themes such as childhood trauma, sexuality, language, identity, and rebellion. Her writing incorporates pastiche and the cut-up technique, involving cutting-up and scrambling passages and sentences; she also defined her writing as existing in the post-nouveau roman European tradition. In her texts, she combines biographical elements, power, sex and violence.

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Philip Jackson, Scottish sculptor and photographer

Philip Henry Christopher Jackson CVO DL is a Scottish sculptor, noted for his modern style and emphasis on form. Acting as Royal Sculptor to Queen Elizabeth II, his sculptures appear in numerous UK cities, as well as Argentina and Switzerland.

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18/04/1942

Michael Beloff, English lawyer and academic

Michael Jacob Beloff, KC is an English barrister and arbitrator. A member of Blackstone Chambers, he practises in a number of areas including human rights, administrative law and sports law.

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Robert Christgau, American journalist and critic

Robert Thomas Christgau is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became an early proponent of musical movements such as hip hop, riot grrrl, and the import of African popular music in the West. He was the chief music critic and senior editor for The Village Voice for 37 years, during which time he created and oversaw the annual Pazz & Jop critics poll. He has also covered popular music for Esquire, Creem, Newsday, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Billboard, NPR, Blender, and MSN Music; he was a visiting arts teacher at New York University. CNN senior writer Jamie Allen has called Christgau "the E. F. Hutton of the music world—when he talks, people listen."

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Jochen Rindt, German-Austrian racing driver (died 1970)

Karl Jochen Rindt was a racing driver who competed under the Austrian flag in Formula One from 1964 to 1970. Rindt won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1970 with Lotus, and remains the only driver to have won the World Drivers' Championship posthumously, following his death at the Italian Grand Prix; he won six Grands Prix across seven seasons. In endurance racing, Rindt won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1965 with NART.

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18/04/1941

Michael D. Higgins, Irish sociologist and politician, 9th President of Ireland

Michael Daniel Higgins is an Irish politician, poet and broadcaster who served as the president of Ireland from November 2011 to November 2025. Entering national politics through the Labour Party, he served as a senator from 1973 to 1977 and a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1981 to 1982, returning to the Seanad from 1983 to 1987 and the Dáil from 1987 to 2011. He served as minister for arts, culture and the Gaeltacht from 1993 to 1997 and as mayor of Galway from 1981 to 1982 and 1990 to 1991.

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18/04/1940

Joseph L. Goldstein, American biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate

Joseph Leonard Goldstein ForMemRS is an American biochemist. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1985, along with fellow University of Texas Southwestern researcher, Michael Brown, for their studies regarding cholesterol. They discovered that human cells have low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors that remove cholesterol from the blood and that when LDL receptors are not present in sufficient numbers, individuals develop hypercholesterolemia and become at risk for cholesterol related diseases, notably coronary heart disease. Their studies led to the development of statin drugs.

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Mike Vickers, English guitarist, saxophonist, and songwriter

Michael Graham Vickers is an English musician who came to prominence as the guitarist, flautist, and saxophonist with the 1960s band Manfred Mann.

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18/04/1939

Glen Hardin, American pianist and arranger

Glen Dee Hardin is an American piano player and arranger. He has performed and recorded with such artists as Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, Emmylou Harris, John Denver, and Ricky Nelson.

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Thomas J. Moyer, American lawyer and judge (died 2010)

Thomas Joseph Moyer was an American jurist and the chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court from 1987 to 2010. A member of the Republican Party, he formerly served as a justice of the 10th district of the Ohio District Courts of Appeals from 1979 to 1987. The Thomas J. Moyer Ohio Judicial Center, headquarters of the Ohio Supreme Court, was named in his honor in 2011.

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18/04/1937

Keiko Abe, Japanese marimba player and composer

Keiko Abe is a Japanese composer and marimba player. She has been a primary figure in the development of the marimba, in terms of expanding both technique and repertoire, and through her collaboration with the Yamaha Corporation, developed the modern five-octave concert marimba.

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Jan Kaplický, Czech architect, designed the Selfridges Building (died 2009)

Jan Kaplický was a Neofuturistic Czech architect who spent a significant part of his life in the United Kingdom. He was the leading architect behind the innovative design office, Future Systems. He was best known for the neofuturistic Selfridges Building in Birmingham, England, and the Media Centre at Lord's Cricket Ground in London.

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18/04/1936

Roger Graef, American-English criminologist, director, and producer (died 2022)

Roger Arthur Graef OBE was an American-born British documentary filmmaker and theatre director. Born in New York City, he moved to Britain in 1962, where he began a career producing documentary films investigating previously closed institutions, including Government ministries and court buildings.

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Vladimir Hütt, Estonian physicist and philosopher (died 1997)

Vladimir Hütt was an Estonian philosopher.

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18/04/1935

Costas Ferris, Egyptian-Greek actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

Costas Ferris is a Greek film director, writer, actor, and producer. He wrote the lyrics of Aphrodite's Child's album 666. His 1983 film Rembetiko won the Silver Bear at the 34th Berlin International Film Festival.

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18/04/1934

James Drury, American actor (died 2020)

James Child Drury Jr. was an American actor. He is best known for having played the title role in the 90-minute weekly Western television series The Virginian, which was broadcast on NBC from 1962 to 1971.

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George Shirley, African-American tenor and educator

George Irving Shirley is an American operatic tenor, and was the first African-American tenor to perform a leading role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

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18/04/1931

Bill Miles, American director and producer (died 2013)

William Miles was an American filmmaker. Born in Harlem, New York, he used his deep knowledge and experience of that iconic neighborhood to produce films that tell unique and often inspiring stories of Harlem's history. Based at Thirteen/WNET in New York City, William Miles produced many films dedicated to the African-American experience that have been broadcast nationwide.

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18/04/1930

Clive Revill, New Zealand actor and singer (died 2025)

Clive Selsby Revill was a New Zealand actor and singer, best known for his performances in musical theatre and the London stage. A veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he also starred in numerous films and television programmes, often in character parts. He was a two-time Tony Award nominee, as Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Irma La Douce and Best Actor in a Musical for Oliver!.

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Jean Guillou, French organist (died 2019)

Jean Victor Arthur Guillou was a French composer, organist, pianist, and pedagogue. Principal Organist at Saint Eustache in Paris, from 1963 to 2015, he was widely known as a composer of instrumental and vocal music focused on the organ, as an improviser, and as an adviser to organ builders. For several decades he held regular master classes in Zurich and in Paris.

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18/04/1929

Peter Hordern, English soldier and politician (died 2024)

Sir Peter Maudslay Hordern, DL, PC was a British Conservative Party politician.

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18/04/1928

Karl Josef Becker, German cardinal and theologian (died 2015)

Karl Josef Becker S.J. was a German Catholic theologian and consultor for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 15 September 1977. He taught at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

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Otto Piene, German sculptor and academic (died 2014)

Otto Piene was a German-American artist specializing in kinetic and technology-based art, often working collaboratively. He lived and worked in Düsseldorf, Germany; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Groton, Massachusetts.

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18/04/1927

Samuel P. Huntington, American political scientist, author, and academic (died 2008)

Samuel Phillips Huntington was an American political scientist, adviser, and academic. He was the Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor at Harvard University, where he directed the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.

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Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Polish journalist and politician, Prime Minister of Poland (died 2013)

Tadeusz Mazowiecki was a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist Polish prime minister since 1946, having held the post from 1989 to 1991.

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18/04/1926

Doug Insole, English cricketer (died 2017)

Douglas John Insole was an English cricketer, who played for Cambridge University, Essex and in nine Test matches for England, five of them on the 1956–57 tour of South Africa, where he was vice-captain to Peter May. After retiring from playing, he was prominent in cricket administration, and served as chairman of the England selectors and as President of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).

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18/04/1925

Marcus Schmuck, Austrian mountaineer and author (died 2005)

Marcus Schmuck was an Austrian mountaineer. In 1957, together with Hermann Buhl he organized the expedition, firstly envisaged and initiated by Buhl, to climb the world's 12th highest peak, the Broad Peak (8,047 metres) in the Karakoram in Pakistan. The other members of the expedition were: Fritz Wintersteller and Kurt Diemberger. In his later years, he successfully organized and led 74 expeditions to the high mountains around the world.

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18/04/1924

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2005)

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown was an American singer and multi-instrumentalist from Louisiana. He was best-known as a blues performer, but his music was often eclectic and also touched on genres including country, jazz and rock and roll. Brown won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album in 1983 for his album, Alright Again!

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18/04/1922

Barbara Hale, American actress (died 2017)

Barbara Hale was an American actress who portrayed legal secretary Della Street in the dramatic television series Perry Mason (1957–1966), earning her a 1959 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She reprised the role in 30 Perry Mason made-for-television movies (1985–1995).

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18/04/1921

Jean Richard, French actor and singer (died 2001)

Jean Richard was a French actor, comedian, and circus entrepreneur. He is best remembered for his role as Georges Simenon's Maigret in the eponymous French television series, which he played for more than twenty years, and for his circus activities.

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18/04/1920

John F. Wiley, American football player and coach (died 2013)

John Franklin "Smiling Jack" Wiley was an American football player and coach. He played professionally a tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1946 to 1950. Willey served as the head football coach at his alma mater, Waynesburg College—now known as Waynesburg University—in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, from 1951 to 1954, compiling a record of 22–9–1.

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18/04/1919

Virginia O'Brien, American actress and singer (died 2001)

Virginia Lee O'Brien was an American actress, singer, and radio personality known for her comedic singing roles in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals of the 1940s.

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Esther Afua Ocloo, Ghanaian entrepreneur and pioneer of microlending (died 2002)

Esther Afua Ocloo was a Ghanaian businesswoman and pioneer of microlending, a programme of making small loans in order to stimulate businesses.

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18/04/1918

Gabriel Axel, Danish-French actor, director, and producer (died 2014)

Axel Gabriel Erik Mørch better known as Gabriel Axel was a Danish film director, actor, writer and producer, best known for Babette's Feast (1987), which he wrote and directed.

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André Bazin, French critic and theorist (died 1958)

André Bazin was a renowned and influential French film critic and film theorist. He started to write about movies in 1943 and was a co-founder of the renowned film magazine Cahiers du cinéma in 1951 alongside Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca.

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Shinobu Hashimoto, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2018)

Shinobu Hashimoto was a Japanese screenwriter, director and producer. A frequent collaborator of Akira Kurosawa, he wrote the scripts for critically acclaimed films such as Rashomon and Seven Samurai, as well as the Samurai films Harakiri (1962) and Hitokiri (1969).

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Clifton Hillegass, American publisher, founded CliffsNotes (died 2001)

Clifton K. Hillegass was the creator and publisher of CliffsNotes.

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Tony Mottola, American guitarist and composer (died 2004)

Anthony C. "Tony" Mottola was an American jazz guitarist who released dozens of solo albums. He was born in Kearny, New Jersey, and died in Denville.

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18/04/1916

Carl Burgos, American illustrator (died 1984)

Carl Burgos was an American comic book and advertising artist best known for creating the original Human Torch in Marvel Comics #1, during the period historians and fans call the Golden Age of comic books.

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18/04/1915

Joy Davidman, Polish-Ukrainian American poet and author (died 1960)

Helen Joy Davidman was an American poet and writer. Often referred to as a child prodigy, she earned a master's degree from Columbia University in English literature at age twenty in 1935. For her book of poems, Letter to a Comrade, she won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition in 1938 and the Russell Loines Award for Poetry in 1939. She was the author of several books, including two novels.

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18/04/1914

Claire Martin, Canadian author (died 2014)

Claire Martin, was the pseudonym of the Canadian writer Claire Montreuil. She wrote mainly in French. Her novels often have themes of women's liberation and erotic relationships. Martin frequently revealed her devotions toward the "Frenchness" and Quebec nationalism as saying "I prefer to be of Quebec." or "I feel closer to love as a French-Canadian." In her works, Quebec and French-Canadian are portrayed as well-educated and living well. Martin focused her writing style on risks and illnesses of love, and wrote with prejudice and social conventions. Her works are characterized by purity and crafty use of language.

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18/04/1911

Maurice Goldhaber, Ukrainian-American physicist and academic (died 2011)

Maurice Goldhaber was an American physicist.

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18/04/1907

Miklós Rózsa, Hungarian-American composer and conductor (died 1995)

Miklós Rózsa was a Hungarian-American composer trained in Germany (1925–1931) and active in France (1931–1935), the United Kingdom (1935–1940), and the United States (1940–1995), with extensive sojourns in Italy from 1953 onward. Best known for his nearly one hundred film scores, he nevertheless maintained a steadfast allegiance to absolute concert music throughout what he called his "double life".

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18/04/1905

Sydney Halter, Canadian lawyer and businessman (died 1990)

Gerald Sydney Halter, was a Canadian sports executive and lawyer. He served as the first commissioner of the Canadian Football League from 1958 to 1966, and was president of the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada from 1938 to 1946.

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George H. Hitchings, American physician and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1998)

George Herbert Hitchings was an American medical doctor who shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sir James Black and Gertrude Elion "for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment", Hitchings specifically for his work on chemotherapy.

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18/04/1904

Pigmeat Markham, African-American comedian, singer, and dancer (died 1981)

Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham was an American entertainer. Though best known as a comedian, Markham was also a singer, dancer, and actor. His nickname came from a stage routine, in which he declared himself to be "Sweet Poppa Pigmeat". He was sometimes credited in films as Pigmeat "Alamo" Markham.

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18/04/1902

Waldemar Hammenhög, Swedish author (died 1972)

Per Waldemar Hammenhög was a Swedish writer and novelist. The trivial, petty bourgeois urban environment forms the basis of many of his early realistic novels, whereas his later works turned towards religious and moral issues. Writing more than 40 novels, Hammenhög is probably best known for Pettersson & Bendel (1931), a humorous novel adapted twice to screen.

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Giuseppe Pella, Italian politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Italy (died 1981)

Giuseppe Pella was an Italian Christian Democratic politician and statesman who served as the 31st prime minister of Italy from 1953 to 1954. He was also Minister of Treasury, Budget and of Foreign Affairs during the 1950s and early 1960s. Pella served as President of the European Parliament from 1954 to 1956 after the death of Alcide De Gasperi.

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18/04/1901

Al Lewis, American songwriter (died 1967)

Al Lewis was an American lyricist, songwriter and music publisher. He is thought of mostly as a Tin Pan Alley era lyricist; however, he did write music on occasion as well. Professionally he was most active during the 1920s working into the 1950s. During this time, he most often collaborated with songwriters such as Al Sherman and Abner Silver. Among his most famous songs are "Blueberry Hill" and "You Gotta Be a Football Hero".

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László Németh, Hungarian dentist, author, and playwright (died 1975)

László Németh was a Hungarian writer, dramatist and essayist.

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18/04/1900

Bertha Isaacs, Bahamian teacher, tennis player, politician and women's rights activist (died 1997)

Dame Albertha Magdelina Isaacs DBE was a Bahamian teacher, tennis player, women's rights activist and politician. After a career as an elementary school teacher, she played on the international tennis circuit, winning both singles and doubles titles in the 1930s.

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18/04/1898

Patrick Hennessy, Irish soldier and businessman (died 1981)

Sir Patrick Hennessy was an Irish-born British industrialist, originally from County Cork. During the First World War he served in the British Army, between 1914 and 1918, with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.

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18/04/1897

Ardito Desio, Italian geologist and cartographer (died 2001)

Count Ardito Desio was an Italian explorer, mountain climber, geologist, and cartographer.

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18/04/1892

Eugene Houdry, French-American mechanical engineer and inventor (died 1962)

Eugène Jules Houdry was a mechanical engineer who graduated from École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers in 1911.

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18/04/1889

Jessie Street, Australian activist (died 1970)

Jessie Mary Grey Street was an Australian diplomat, suffragette, and a campaigner for Indigenous Australian rights. She was referred to as "Red Jessie" by the Australian media, due to her support for the Soviet Union through World War II and the Cold War, as she organised the "Sheepskins for Russia" campaign during World War II, and she was notably one of two Australians to attend Stalin's funeral.

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18/04/1884

Jaan Anvelt, Estonian educator and politician (died 1937)

Jaan Anvelt, was an Estonian Bolshevik revolutionary and writer. He served the Russian SFSR, was a leader of the Communist Party of Estonia, the first premier of the Soviet Executive Committee of Estonia, and the chairman of the Council of the Commune of the Working People of Estonia. Imprisoned during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge in 1937, he died from the injuries sustained during a beating by Aleksandr Langfang while in NKVD custody.

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18/04/1883

Aleksanteri Aava, Finnish poet (died 1956)

Aleksanteri Aava, born Aleksanteri (Santeri) Kuparinen, was a Finnish poet and smallholder.

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18/04/1882

Isaac Babalola Akinyele, Nigerian ruler (died 1964)

Oba Sir Isaac Babalola Akinyele, KBE was the first educated Olubadan of Ibadan, and the second Christian to ascend the throne.

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Leopold Stokowski, English conductor (died 1977)

Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was especially noted for his free-hand conducting style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristic sound from the orchestras he directed.

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18/04/1880

Sam Crawford, American baseball player, coach, and umpire (died 1968)

Samuel Earl Crawford, nicknamed "Wahoo Sam", was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Crawford batted and threw left-handed, stood 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) tall and weighed 190 pounds (86 kg). Born in Wahoo, Nebraska, he had a short minor league baseball career before rapidly rising to the majors with the Cincinnati Reds in 1899. He played for the Reds until 1902.

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18/04/1879

Korneli Kekelidze, Georgian philologist and scholar (died 1962)

Korneli Kekelidze was a Soviet and Georgian philologist, scholar of Georgian literature, and one of the founding fathers of the Tbilisi State University where he chaired the Department of the History of Old Georgian Literature from 1918 until his death.

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18/04/1877

Vicente Sotto, Filipino lawyer and politician (died 1950)

Vicente Yap Sotto, Sr. was a Filipino playwright, journalist, and politician who served as a senator from 1946 to 1950. He also served in the House of Representatives from 1922 to 1925, representing Cebu's 2nd district. He was the main author of the Press Freedom Law.

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18/04/1874

Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, Croatian author and poet (died 1938)

Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, also spelled Ivana Berlic-Mazuranic in English, was a Croatian writer. She has been praised as the best Croatian writer for children.

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18/04/1864

Richard Harding Davis, American journalist and author (died 1916)

Richard Harding Davis was an American journalist and writer of fiction and drama, known foremost as the first American war correspondent to cover the Spanish–American War, the Second Boer War, and World War I. His writing greatly assisted the political career of Theodore Roosevelt. He also played a major role in the evolution of the American magazine. His influence extended to the world of fashion, and he is credited with making the clean-shaven look popular among men at the turn of the 20th century.

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18/04/1863

Count Leopold Berchtold, Austrian-Hungarian politician and diplomat, Joint Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary (died 1942)

Leopold Anton Johann Sigismund Josef Korsinus Ferdinand Graf Berchtold von und zu Ungarschitz, Frättling und Püllütz was an Austro-Hungarian politician, diplomat and statesman who served as Imperial Foreign Minister at the outbreak of World War I.

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Linton Hope, English sailor and architect (died 1920)

Linton Chorley Hope FRAes was a sailor from Great Britain, who represented his country at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Meulan, France. With Lorne Currie as helmsman and fellow crewmembers John Gretton and Algernon Maudslay, Hope took first places in both the race of the .5 to 1 ton class and the Open class.

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Siegfried Bettmann, founder of the Triumph Motorcycle Company and Mayor of Coventry (died 1955)

Siegfried Bettmann was a bicycle, motorcycle and car manufacturer and founder of the Triumph Motorcycle Company. In 1914 he established the Annie Bettmann Foundation to help young people start businesses. Triumph became one of the most famous motorcycle trade-names in the world. Bettmann was also Mayor of Coventry from 1913 to 1914.

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18/04/1858

Dhondo Keshav Karve, Indian educator and activist, Bharat Ratna Awardee (died 1962)

Dhondo Keshav Karve, popularly known as Maharshi Karve, was a social reformer in India in the field of women's welfare. He advocated widow remarriage, and he himself remarried a widow as a widower. Karve was a pioneer in promoting widows' education. He founded the first women's university in India, the SNDT Women's University in 1916. The Government of India awarded him with the highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, in 1958, the year of his 100th birthday. He organized a conference against the practice of devdasi. He started 'Anath balikashram' an orphanage for girls. His intention was to give education to all women and make them stand on their own feet. Through his efforts, the first women university was set up in 20th century. In addition to his work in women's education, he actively campaigned against the caste system and played a key role in founding societies aimed at advancing primary education in rural areas.

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Alexander Shirvanzade, Armenian playwright and author (died 1935)

Alexander Minasi Movsisian, better known by his pen name Alexander Shirvanzade was an Armenian playwright and novelist. He was one of the main representatives of the realist movement in Armenian literature.

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18/04/1857

Clarence Darrow, American lawyer (died 1938)

Clarence Seward Darrow was an American lawyer and politician who became famous in the 19th century for high-profile representations of trade union causes, and in the 20th century for several criminal matters, including the Leopold and Loeb murder trial, the Scopes "monkey" trial, and the Ossian Sweet defense. He was a leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union and a prominent advocate for Georgist economic reform. Darrow was also a well-known public speaker, debater, and writer.

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18/04/1854

Ludwig Levy, German architect (died 1907)

Ludwig Levy was a German Jewish architect of the Historicist school. He designed a number of synagogues, amongst which was the huge Neue Synagoge in Strasbourg, as well as official buildings such as the ministries of Alsace-Lorraine on the Kaiserplatz in that same town.

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18/04/1838

Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, French chemist and academic (died 1912)

Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, also called François Lecoq de Boisbaudran, was a self-taught French chemist known for his discoveries of the chemical elements gallium, samarium and dysprosium. He developed methods for separation and purification of the rare earth elements and was one of the pioneers of the science of spectroscopy.

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18/04/1819

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Cuban lawyer and activist (died 1874)

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes del Castillo was a Cuban revolutionary hero and First President of Cuba in Arms in 1868. Céspedes, who was a plantation owner in Cuba, freed his slaves and made the declaration of Cuban independence in 1868 which started the Ten Years' War (1868–1878). This was the first of three wars of independence, the third of which, the Cuban War of Independence led to the end of Spanish rule in 1898 and Cuba's independence in 1902.

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Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer and conductor (died 1895)

Franz von Suppé, born Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo de Suppé was an Austrian composer of light operas and other theatre music. He came from the Kingdom of Dalmatia, Austro-Hungarian Empire. A composer and conductor of the Romantic period, he is notable for his four dozen operettas, including the first operetta to a German libretto. Some of them remain in the repertory, particularly in German-speaking countries, and he composed a substantial quantity of church music, but he is now chiefly known for his overtures, which remain popular in the concert hall and on record. Among the best-known are Poet and Peasant, Light Cavalry, Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna and Pique Dame.

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18/04/1813

James McCune Smith, African-American physician, apothecary, abolitionist, and author (died 1865)

James McCune Smith was an American physician, apothecary, abolitionist and author. He was the first African American to earn a medical degree. His M.D. was awarded by the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland, where a building has been dedicated to him. After his return to the United States, he also became the first African American to run a pharmacy in the nation.

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18/04/1794

William Debenham, English founder of Debenhams (died 1863)

William Debenham was the founder of Debenhams, once one of the largest retailers in the United Kingdom.

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18/04/1772

David Ricardo, British economist and politician (died 1823)

David Ricardo was a British economist and politician. He is recognized as one of the most influential classical economists, alongside figures such as Thomas Malthus, Adam Smith and James Mill.

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18/04/1771

Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg (died 1820)

Karl Philipp, Fürst zu Schwarzenberg was an Austrian Generalissimo and former Field Marshal. He first entered military service in 1788 and fought against the Turks. During the French Revolutionary War, he fought on the allied side against France and in that period rose through the ranks of the Imperial Army. During the Napoleonic Wars, he fought in the Battle of Wagram (1809), which the Austrians lost decisively against Napoleon. He had to fight for Napoleon in the battles of Gorodechno and Wolkowisk (1812) against the Russians and won. During the War of the Sixth Coalition, he was in command of the allied army that decisively defeated Napoleon in the Battle of Leipzig (1813). He participated in the Battle of Paris (1814), which forced Napoleon to abdicate.

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18/04/1759

Jacques Widerkehr, French cellist and composer (died 1823)

Jacques Christian Michel Widerkehr l'aîné was a French composer and cellist from Alsace during the classical era.

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18/04/1740

Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet, English banker and politician (died 1810)

Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet was an English merchant banker, a member of the Baring family, later becoming the first of the Baring baronets.

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18/04/1666

Jean-Féry Rebel, French violinist and composer (died 1747)

Jean-Féry Rebel was an innovative French Baroque composer and violinist.

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18/04/1605

Giacomo Carissimi, Italian priest and composer (died 1674)

(Gian) Giacomo Carissimi was an Italian composer and music teacher. He is one of the most celebrated masters of the early Baroque or, more accurately, the Roman School of music. Carissimi established the characteristic features of the Latin oratorio and was a prolific composer of masses, motets, and cantatas. He was highly influential in musical developments in northern European countries through his pupils, like Kerll in Germany and Charpentier in France, and the wide dissemination of his music.

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18/04/1590

Ahmed I, Ottoman Emperor (died 1617)

Ahmed I was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1603 to 1617. Ahmed's reign is noteworthy for marking the first breach in the Ottoman tradition of royal fratricide; henceforth, Ottoman rulers would no longer systematically execute their brothers upon accession to the throne. He is also well known for his construction of the Blue Mosque, one of the most famous mosques in Turkey.

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18/04/1580

Thomas Middleton, English Jacobean playwright and poet (died 1627)

Thomas Middleton was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. He, with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jacobean period, and among the few to gain equal success in comedy and tragedy. He was also a prolific writer of masques and pageants.

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18/04/1534

William Harrison, English clergyman (died 1593)

William Harrison was an English clergyman, whose Description of England was produced as part of the publishing venture of a group of London stationers who produced Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles. His contribution to Holinshed's work drew heavily on the earlier work of John Leland.

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18/04/1503

Henry II of Navarre (died 1555)

Henry II, nicknamed Sangüesino because he was born in Sangüesa, was the King of Navarre from 1517. The kingdom had been reduced to a small territory north of the Pyrenees mountains by the Spanish conquest of 1512. Henry succeeded his mother, Queen Catherine, upon her death. His father was her husband and co-ruler, King John III, who died in 1516.

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18/04/1480

Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI (died 1519)

Lucrezia Borgia was an Italian noblewoman of the House of Borgia who was the illegitimate daughter of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza dei Cattanei. She was a former governor of Spoleto.

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18/04/1446

Ippolita Maria Sforza, Italian noble (died 1484)

Ippolita Maria Sforza was an Italian noblewoman, a member of the Sforza family which ruled the Duchy of Milan from 1450 until 1535. She was the first wife of the Duke of Calabria, who later reigned as King Alfonso II of Naples. Ippolita was described as very intelligent and cultured.

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18/04/0812

Al-Wathiq, Abbasid caliph (died 847)

Abū Jaʿfar Hārūn ibn Muḥammad al-Wathiq bi'Llah, commonly known by his regnal name al-Wathiq bi'Llah, was an Abbasid caliph who reigned from 842 until his death in 847.

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18/04/0588

K'an II, Mayan ruler (died 658)

Kʼan II was a Maya ruler of Caracol. He reigned AD 618–658.

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18/04/0359

Gratian, Roman emperor (died 383)

Gratian was emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 367 to 383. The eldest son of Valentinian I, Gratian was raised to the rank of Augustus as a child and inherited the West after his father's death in 375. He nominally shared the government with his infant half-brother Valentinian II, who was also acclaimed emperor in Pannonia on Valentinian's death. The East was ruled by his uncle Valens, who was later succeeded by Theodosius I.

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