Born on Monday, 21st April – Famous Birthdays

On this day, 155 notable people were born on 21st April — spanning from 1132 to 2008. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

Monday, 21st April 2025 marks a significant date in history, with numerous notable individuals born on this day across centuries and disciplines. Among the most prominent is Princess Isabella of Denmark, born in 2007, daughter of King Frederik X and Queen Mary of Denmark, representing the modern European royal lineage. The date has also produced acclaimed performers and creators, including James McAvoy, the Scottish actor born in 1979, who has become one of the most recognisable figures in contemporary cinema. Historical records reveal equally distinguished births stretching back centuries, from the environmentalist John Muir in 1838 to the physicist Percy Williams Bridgman in 1882, both of whom made lasting contributions to their respective fields.

The breadth of talent born on this date extends across the arts, sciences, and public service. Charlotte Brontë, the English novelist, was born on this day in 1816, contributing significantly to literature through her enduring works. In more recent times, the date has seen the birth of athletes, musicians, and academics who have shaped contemporary culture and knowledge. The consistency of notable births on 21st April suggests a date of particular historical significance, with individuals spanning from Renaissance reformers like Ulrich von Hutten in 1488 to modern entertainers and public figures.

This date continues to produce individuals of consequence in the twenty-first century, maintaining its pattern as a day when notable people enter the world. The range and diversity of those born on 21st April, from political figures to creative professionals, demonstrates the universal nature of human achievement across generations. DayAtlas provides comprehensive information about notable births and deaths for any date and location, allowing users to explore the historical significance of their own birthdays and discover connections to influential figures throughout history.

Discover who was born today 7th April.

21/04/2008

Hyein, South Korean singer

Lee Hye-in, known mononymously as Hyein, is a South Korean singer and former child model. She began her musical career at nine years old as a member of the South Korean children's groups U.sso Girl and Play with Me Club. She later debuted as a member of South Korean girl group NewJeans, formed by ADOR in July 2022.


21/04/2007

Princess Isabella of Denmark, daughter of King Frederik X and Queen Mary of Denmark

Princess Isabella of Denmark, Countess of Monpezat, is a member of the Danish royal family. She is the second child and elder daughter of King Frederik X and Queen Mary.


21/04/2003

Xavi Simons, Dutch footballer

Xavi Quentin Shay Simons is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur and the Netherlands national team.


21/04/1999

Choi Hyun-suk, South Korean rapper

Choi Hyun-suk is a South Korean rapper, singer and dancer under YG Entertainment. As a member of boy band Treasure, Choi debuted on August 7, 2020, with the single album entitled The First Step: Chapter One. He is also known for his television appearance as a contestant on Mix Nine (2017–2018).


21/04/1998

Jarrett Allen, American basketball player

Jarrett Allen is an American professional basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Texas Longhorns and was selected 22nd overall by the Brooklyn Nets in the 2017 NBA draft. In January 2021, he was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers as part of the four-team blockbuster James Harden trade. In February 2022, Allen was named to his first NBA All-Star Game.


21/04/1997

Mikel Oyarzabal, Spanish footballer

Mikel Oyarzabal Ugarte is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a forward for La Liga club Real Sociedad, whom he captains, and the Spain national team.


21/04/1996

Arianne Hartono, Dutch tennis player

Arianne Hartono is a Dutch former professional tennis player. On 8 April 2024, she reached her career-high singles WTA ranking of No. 135, and on 11 July 2022, she achieved No. 123 in doubles. Hartono has won three singles titles and 20 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.


21/04/1994

Ludwig Augustinsson, Swedish footballer

Hans Carl Ludwig Augustinsson is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Pro League club Anderlecht and the Sweden national team.


21/04/1992

Isco, Spanish footballer

Francisco Román Alarcón Suárez, commonly known as Isco, is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or left winger for La Liga club Real Betis, which he captains and the Spain national team.


Joc Pederson, American baseball player

Joc Russell Pederson is an American professional baseball outfielder and first baseman for the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants, and Arizona Diamondbacks. He is a two-time World Series champion and a two-time All-Star.


21/04/1989

Nikki Cross, Scottish wrestler

Nicola Glencross is a Scottish professional wrestler. She is signed to WWE, where she performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Nikki Cross, and is a member of The Wyatt Sicks faction.


21/04/1988

Ricky Berens, American swimmer

Richard Berens is an American former competition swimmer, two-time Olympic gold medalist, world champion, and current world record-holder. As a member of the U.S. national team, he holds the world record in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. He competed in the 4×100-meter and 4×200-meter freestyle relay events, as well as the individual 200-meter freestyle at the 2012 Summer Olympics.


Jencarlos Canela, American singer-songwriter and actor

Jencarlos Canela is an American actor and singer. Canela starred in the telenovela Mi corazón insiste en Lola Volcán, and two other telenovelas.


21/04/1983

Tarvaris Jackson, American football player (died 2020)

Tarvaris D'Andre Jackson was an American professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL). Jackson played college football for the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Alabama State Hornets. He was selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the second round of the 2006 NFL draft.


Kim Wall, British sprinter

Kimberly Wall is an English former sprinter specializing in the 400 metres and the 2010 World Athletics Indoor Championships bronze medalist in the 4 × 400 m relay. She also won eight continental medals throughout her career, mostly as a member of the British 4 × 400 m relay team which spanned from the 1990s through her retirement in 2012. She was controversially not selected for the four-woman British 4 × 400 m team at the 2008 Summer Olympics despite finishing 4th at that year's national championships.


21/04/1980

Tony Romo, American football player and announcer

Antonio Ramiro Romo is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football for the Eastern Illinois Panthers, where he made an Ohio Valley Conference championship appearance in 2001 and won the Walter Payton Award the following year. Romo signed with the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2003.


21/04/1979

Virginie Basselot, French chef

Virginie Basselot is a French chef de cuisine who held one Michelin star at the restaurant within the Saint James Paris hotel. She became the second woman to be named to the title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France. In 2017, after moving to become executive chef at La Réserve Genève during the previous year, she was named Chef of the Year by the restaurant guide Gault Millau. At the moment she is working in the Hotel Negresco in Nice.


James McAvoy, Scottish actor

James McAvoy is a Scottish actor and director. He made his acting debut as a teen in The Near Room (1995) and appeared mostly on television until 2003, when his film career began. His television work includes the thriller State of Play (2003), the science fiction miniseries Frank Herbert's Children of Dune (2003), and the drama series Shameless (2004–2005).


21/04/1977

Gyula Koi, Hungarian scholar and educator

Gyula Koi is a Hungarian legal scholar and lecturer. His main research fields are administrative law, and theory of public administration. His Chinese name is Guo Yi.


Jamie Salé, Canadian figure skater

Jamie Rae Salé is a Canadian former competitive pair skater. With her former husband David Pelletier, she is the 2002 Olympic Champion and 2001 World Champion. The Olympic gold medals of Salé and Pelletier were shared with the Russian pair Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze after the 2002 Winter Olympics figure skating scandal.


21/04/1976

Petero Civoniceva, Fijian-Australian rugby league player

Petero Civoniceva, is a Fijian-Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. A Queensland State of Origin and Australian international representative prop forward, in 2009 he broke the record for most international matches for Australia of any forward in history. Civoniceva played his club football for the Brisbane Broncos, with whom he won the 1998, 2000 and 2006 NRL Premierships, as well as for the Penrith Panthers, whom he captained. Late in his career whilst playing for the Redcliffe Dolphins in the Queensland Cup, Civoniceva captained the Fiji national team in their 2013 Rugby League World Cup campaign. The Petero Civoniceva Medal is awarded to the Australian Fijian rugby league footballer of the year, while the Civoniceva Medal is awarded to the Queensland Cup player voted as the best and fairest.


21/04/1974

David Peachey, Australian rugby league player

David Peachey is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. An Australian international and New South Wales representative fullback, he played the majority of his club football in the National Rugby League for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks. During his career, Peachey also played for the South Sydney Rabbitohs of the NRL and the Widnes Vikings in the National League One. Peachey also played representative rugby league for Country Origin. He is an Indigenous Australian. His nephew Tyrone Peachey debuted for the Cronulla Sharks but currently plays for the Penrith Panthers.


21/04/1973

Steve Backshall, English naturalist, writer, and television presenter

Stephen James Backshall is an English naturalist, explorer, presenter and writer, best known for BBC TV's Deadly... franchise.


21/04/1971

Michael Turner, American author and illustrator (died 2008)

Michael Layne Turner was an American comics artist known for his work on Witchblade, Fathom, Superman/Batman, Soulfire, and various covers for DC Comics and Marvel Comics. He was also the president of the entertainment company Aspen MLT.


21/04/1970

Rob Riggle, American actor and comedian

Robert Allen Riggle Jr. is an American actor, stand-up comedian, and retired United States Marine officer. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, joining the Marines in 1990 and later attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel.


21/04/1969

Toby Stephens, English actor

Toby Stephens is an English actor who has appeared in films in the United Kingdom, United States, and India. He is known for the roles of Bond villain Gustav Graves in the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day, for which he was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor; William Gordon in the 2005 Bollywood film Mangal Pandey: The Rising; and Edward Fairfax Rochester in the 2006 BBC television adaptation of Jane Eyre. From 2014 to 2017, he starred as Captain Flint in the Starz television series Black Sails, followed by one of the lead roles in the Netflix science fiction series Lost in Space from 2018 to 2021. He portrays the Greek god Poseidon in Percy Jackson and the Olympians.


21/04/1965

Fiona Kelleghan, American academic, critic and librarian

Fiona Kelleghan is an American academic and critic specializing in science fiction and fantasy. She was a metadata librarian and a cataloguer at the University of Miami's Otto G. Richter Library. She left the university in 2011.


21/04/1963

Ken Caminiti, American baseball player (died 2004)

Kenneth Gene Caminiti was an American professional baseball third baseman who spent 15 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Houston Astros, San Diego Padres (1995–1998), Texas Rangers (2001) and Atlanta Braves (2001).


21/04/1961

David Servan-Schreiber, French physician, neuroscientist, and author (died 2011)

David Servan-Schreiber was a French physician, neuroscientist and author. He was a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He was also a lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine of Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1.


21/04/1959

Tim Jacobus, American illustrator and painter

Tim Jacobus is an American artist best known for illustrating the covers for nearly one hundred books in R. L. Stine's Goosebumps series. He has done over three hundred book covers and paintings for various different series, novels and video games. He currently resides in New Jersey, doing most of his art digitally.


Robert Smith, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Robert James Smith is an English musician who is the co-founder, lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter, and only continuous member of the Cure, a post-punk band formed in 1976. His guitar-playing style, distinctive singing voice, and fashion sense were highly influential on the goth subculture that rose to prominence in the 1980s.


21/04/1958

Andie MacDowell, American model, actress, and producer

Rosalie Anderson MacDowell is an American actress and former fashion model. MacDowell is known for her starring film roles in romantic comedies and dramas. She has modeled for Calvin Klein and has been a spokeswoman for L'Oréal since 1986.


Yoshito Usui, Japanese illustrator (died 2009)

Yoshito Usui was a Japanese manga artist known for the popular Crayon Shin-chan series. He was born in Shizuoka City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.


Michael Zarnock, American author

Michael Zarnock is an American writer of collector guides and articles about Hot Wheels toy cars and accessories. Zarnock is known for a massive Hot Wheels collection that earned him a Guinness World Record title in 2003 and 2007 for owning the largest collection of different model cars (8,128) and is featured in the 2008 "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" book Prepare to Be Shocked. And the 2011 "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" book "Utterly Crazy!" By his own account he has collected more than 20,000 toy cars; From 2004 to 2010 some had been on display at the Children's Museum of Utica, New York. The local Utica newspaper reported Zarnock as saying: "I’ve been in love with Hot Wheels since 1968."


21/04/1957

Hervé Le Tellier, French linguist and author

Hervé Le Tellier is a French writer and linguist, and a member of the international literary group Oulipo. He is its fourth president. Other notable members have included Raymond Queneau, Georges Perec, Italo Calvino, Jacques Roubaud, Jean Lescure and Harry Mathews. He won the 2020 Prix Goncourt for The Anomaly.


Herbert Wetterauer, German painter, sculptor, and author

Herbert Wetterauer is a German painter, sculptor and author. He is known for his paintings in ink and life-sized figures made of paperboard, for which he developed his own technique.


21/04/1956

Peter Kosminsky, English director, producer, and screenwriter

Peter Kosminsky is a British writer, director and producer. He has directed Hollywood movies such as White Oleander and television films like Warriors, The Government Inspector, The Promise, Wolf Hall and The State.


Phillip Longman, German-American demographer and journalist

Phillip Longman is an American demographer. Presently he is a Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, and he formerly worked as a senior writer and deputy assistant managing editor at U.S. News & World Report.


21/04/1955

Murathan Mungan, Turkish author, poet, and playwright

Murathan Mungan is a Turkish author, short story writer, playwright, and poet.


21/04/1954

Ebiet G. Ade, Indonesian singer-songwriter and guitarist

Abid Ghoffar bin Aboe Dja’far, better known as Ebiet G. Ade, is an Indonesian singer-songwriter and guitarist of Javanese descent.


James Morrison, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

James Paige Morrison is an American actor best known for his portrayal of CTU Director Bill Buchanan on 24.


Mike Wingfield, South African academic and scientist

Michael John Wingfield is a South African academic and scientist who studies plant pathology and biological control. He was the founding director of the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria. Wingfield has authored or co-authored over 1,000 scientific publications and is considered a leading expert in the field of forest health and invasive species. He has received numerous awards and honours throughout his career, including Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award and John Herschel Medal, the highest accolade from the Royal Society of South Africa. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and the African Academy of Sciences. Wingfield has had several fungi named after him.


21/04/1953

John Brumby, Australian politician, 45th Premier of Victoria

John Mansfield Brumby is the current Chancellor of La Trobe University and former Victorian Labor Party politician who was Premier of Victoria from 2007 to 2010. He became leader of the Victorian Labor Party and premier after the resignation of Steve Bracks. He also served as the Minister for Veterans' Affairs and the Minister for Multicultural Affairs. He contested his first election as premier at the November 2010 Victorian state election. His government was defeated by the Liberal/National Coalition led by Ted Baillieu. Brumby resigned as Labor leader after the election, on 30 November, to be replaced by Daniel Andrews. Within weeks of this leadership change, Brumby left parliament, with a Broadmeadows by-election taking place on 19 February 2011.


21/04/1952

Gerald Early, American author and academic

Gerald Lyn Early is an American essayist and American culture critic. He is currently the Merle Kling Professor of Modern letters, of English, African studies, African-American studies, American culture studies, and Director, Center for Joint Projects in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.


Cheryl Gillan, British businesswoman and politician, Secretary of State for Wales (died 2021)

Dame Cheryl Elise Kendall Gillan was a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Chesham and Amersham from 1992 until her death in 2021. A member of the Conservative Party, she served as Secretary of State for Wales from 2010 to 2012.


21/04/1951

Tony Danza, American actor and producer

Tony Danza is an American actor and retired professional boxer. He is known for co-starring in the television series Taxi (1978–1983) and Who's the Boss? (1984–1992), for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award and four Golden Globe Awards. In 1998, Danza won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Performer in a New Television Series for his work on the 1997 sitcom The Tony Danza Show. He has also appeared in films such as The Hollywood Knights (1980), Going Ape! (1981), She's Out of Control (1989), Angels in the Outfield (1994), Crash (2004), and Don Jon (2013).


Michael Freedman, American mathematician and academic

Michael Hartley Freedman is an American mathematician at Microsoft Station Q, a research group at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 1986, he was awarded a Fields Medal for his work on the 4-dimensional generalized Poincaré conjecture. Freedman and Robion Kirby showed that an exotic R4 manifold exists.


Bob Varsha, American sportscaster

Robert August Varsha is an American broadcast journalist who specializes in covering motorsports. He is best known for being the lap-by-lap commentator for Formula 1 and CART series races for ESPN, ABC Sports, and Speed Channel among others.


Steve Vickers, Canadian ice hockey player

Stephen James Vickers is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played ten seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the New York Rangers from 1972 to 1982. He won the Calder Memorial Trophy in 1973.


21/04/1950

Shivaji Satam, Indian actor

Shivaji Satam is an Indian television and film actor. He is best known for his role as ACP Pradyuman in the detective television series CID. He is recipient of two Maharashtra State Film Awards. He is honoured with the V. Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award, Maharashtra's highest award in the field of Marathi cinema.


21/04/1949

Patti LuPone, American actress and singer

Patti Ann LuPone is an American actress and singer. After starting her professional career with The Acting Company in 1972, she soon gained acclaim for her leading performances on the Broadway and West End stage. Known for playing bold, resilient women in musical theater, she has received numerous accolades, including three Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards and two Grammy Awards. She was inducted to the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2006.


21/04/1948

Gary Condit, American businessman and politician

Gary Adrian Condit is an American former politician from California. A Democrat, Condit represented California's 18th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1989 to 2003. He gained significant national attention after the May 2001 disappearance of Chandra Levy, an intern with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Condit and Levy were having an affair, and she was subsequently found to have been murdered.


Paul Davis, American singer-songwriter and musician (died 2008)

Paul Lavon Davis was an American singer and songwriter, best known for his radio hits and solo career that started worldwide in 1970. His career encompassed soul, country, and pop. His most successful songs are 1977's "I Go Crazy", a No. 7 pop hit that once held the record for the longest chart run on the Billboard Hot 100, and 1982's "'65 Love Affair", which at No. 6 is his highest-charting single. Another pop hit, "Cool Night", was released in 1981. In the mid-1980s, he also had two No. 1 country hits as a guest vocalist on songs by Marie Osmond and Tanya Tucker.


Josef Flammer, Swiss ophthalmologist

Josef Flammer is a Swiss ophthalmologist and long-time director of the Eye Clinic at Basel University Hospital. Flammer is a glaucoma specialist who developed a new pathogenetic concept of glaucomatous damage according to which unstable blood supply leads to oxidative stress, which in turn plays a major role in apoptosis of cells in the optic nerve and retina in glaucoma patients.


Dieter Fromm, German runner

Dieter Fromm is a retired East German middle-distance runner who specialized in the 800 metres. He held the indoor 800 m world record for over ten years.


21/04/1947

Al Bumbry, American baseball player

Alonza Benjamin Bumbry is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) outfielder who played for the Baltimore Orioles and San Diego Padres from 1972 through 1985. Bumbry was the 1973 American League Rookie of the Year, and went on to be an All-Star and World Series champion. He is an inductee of the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. Prior to his major league career, Bumbry served in the US Army during the Vietnam War and was awarded a Bronze Star.


Iggy Pop, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor

James Newell Osterberg Jr., known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor who was the lead vocalist of the proto-punk band the Stooges. Regarded as the "Godfather of Punk", he is noted for his outrageous and unpredictable stage antics, poetic lyrics, and unique voice. He was named one of the 50 Great Voices by NPR, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Stooges in 2010, and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020 for his solo career.


John Weider, English bass player

John Weider was an English rock musician who played guitar, bass guitar and violin. He is best remembered as the guitarist for The Animals from 1966 to 1968. He was also the bass player for Family from 1969 to 1971.


21/04/1945

Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan, Indian cricketer and umpire

Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan, also known as Venkat, is an Indian former international cricketer and umpire. He was a right arm off break bowler and a lower order batter. He captained the Indian cricket team in test cricket and also at the first two ICC Cricket World Cups in 1975 and 1979. He represented Tamil Nadu and South zone in domestic cricket while also playing for Derbyshire in English county cricket from 1973 to 1975.


Mark Wainberg, Canadian researcher and HIV/AIDS activist (died 2017)

Mark Arnold Wainberg, was a Canadian HIV/AIDS researcher and HIV/AIDS activist. He was the director of the McGill University AIDS Centre at the Montreal Jewish General Hospital and Professor of Medicine and of Microbiology at McGill University. His laboratory primarily studies HIV reverse transcriptase, the molecular basis for drug resistance, and gene therapy. He received a B.Sc. from McGill University in 1966, a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1972, and did his post-doctoral research at Hadassah Medical School of the Hebrew University.


Diana Darvey, English actress, singer and dancer (died 2000)

Diana Magdalene Roloff, known professionally as Diana Darvey, was a British actress, singer and dancer, best known for her appearances on The Benny Hill Show.


21/04/1942

Geoffrey Palmer, New Zealand politician, 33rd Prime Minister of New Zealand

Sir Geoffrey Winston Russell Palmer is a New Zealand lawyer, political scientist and former politician, who served as the 33rd prime minister of New Zealand for a little over a year from August 1989 until September 1990. A member of Parliament from 1979 to 1990, he spent six years as a senior member of the Fourth Labour Government.


21/04/1941

David Boren, American lawyer and politician, 21st Governor of Oklahoma (died 2025)

David Lyle Boren was an American lawyer and politician from Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 21st governor of Oklahoma from 1975 to 1979 and three terms in the United States Senate from 1979 to 1994. A conservative Democrat, to date, he is the last in his party to have served as U.S. Senator from Oklahoma. He was the 13th and second-longest serving president of the University of Oklahoma from 1994 to 2018. He was the longest serving chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. On September 20, 2017, Boren officially announced his retirement as president of the University of Oklahoma, effective June 30, 2018.


21/04/1940

Jacques Caron, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

Jacques Joseph Caron is a Canadian former ice hockey player and coach. He played 72 games in the National Hockey League with the Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues, and Vancouver Canucks between 1967 and 1974, and 26 games in the World Hockey Association with the Cleveland Crusaders and Cincinnati Stingers between 1975 and 1977. After his playing career, he worked as an assistant coach with the Hartford Whalers, and then as the goaltending coach and special assignment coach with the New Jersey Devils from 1993 to 2017. With New Jersey, he won the Stanley Cup three times.


Souleymane Cissé, Malian director, producer, and screenwriter

Souleymane Cissé was a Malian film director, regarded as one of the first generation of African filmmakers. He was called "Africa's greatest living filmmaker" while his film Yeelen has been called "conceivably the greatest African film ever made".


21/04/1939

John McCabe, English pianist and composer (died 2015)

John McCabe was a British composer and pianist. He created works in many different forms, including symphonies, ballets, and solo works for the piano. He served as director of the London College of Music from 1983 to 1990. Guy Rickards praised him as "one of Britain's finest composers in the past half-century" and "a pianist of formidable gifts and wide-ranging sympathies".


Sister Helen Prejean, American nun, activist, and author

Helen Prejean is an American Catholic religious sister and a leading advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.


Reni Santoni, American actor (died 2020)

Renaldo Santoni was an American film, television and voice actor. He was noted for playing Poppie on the television sitcom Seinfeld, Tony Gonzales in Cobra, and Chico González in Dirty Harry.


21/04/1937

Gary Peters, American baseball player (died 2023)

Gary Charles Peters was an American professional baseball player. He was a left-handed Major League Baseball pitcher who played on two major league teams for 14 seasons, from 1959 through 1972. He was one of the best-hitting pitchers of his era.


Ben Zinn, Israeli-born American academic and former international soccer player

Ben T. Zinn is an American academic in engineering and former international soccer player. He is the David S. Lewis Jr., Chair and Regents' Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology.


21/04/1936

James Dobson, American evangelist, psychologist, and author, founded Focus on the Family (died 2025)

James Clayton Dobson Jr. was an American evangelical Christian author, psychologist and founder of Focus on the Family (FotF), which he led from 1977 until 2010. In the 1980s, he was ranked as one of the most influential spokesmen for conservative social positions in American public life. Although never an ordained minister, he was called "the nation's most influential evangelical leader" by The New York Times while Slate portrayed him as being a successor to evangelical leaders Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.


Reg Fleming, Canadian-American ice hockey player (died 2009)

Reginald Stephen "Reggie, the Ruffian" Fleming was a professional hockey player in the National Hockey League with the Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Black Hawks, Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers and Buffalo Sabres. He also played for the Chicago Cougars of the World Hockey Association, as well as with a number of minor league teams in other professional leagues. His professional career spanned over 20 years. He was known as an aggressive and combative player who could play both forward and defence, as well as kill penalties.


21/04/1935

Charles Grodin, American actor and talk show host (died 2021)

Charles Sidney Grodin was an American actor, comedian, author, and television talk show host. Known for his deadpan delivery and often cast as a put-upon straight man, Grodin became familiar as a supporting actor in many Hollywood comedies. After a small part in Rosemary's Baby in 1968, he played the lead in Elaine May's The Heartbreak Kid (1972) where he received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Grodin also starred in 11 Harrowhouse (1974), for which he also wrote the adaptation.


Thomas Kean, American academic and politician, 48th Governor of New Jersey

Thomas Howard Kean is an American statesman and academic administrator who served as the 48th governor of New Jersey from 1982 to 1990. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the New Jersey General Assembly and was chair of the 9/11 Commission from 2002 to 2004.


21/04/1933

Edelmiro Amante, Filipino lawyer and politician (died 2013)

Edelmiro Atega Amante Sr., was a Filipino politician.


Easley Blackwood, Jr., American pianist, composer, and educator (died 2023)

Easley Rutland Blackwood Jr. was an American professor of music, concert pianist, composer, and the author of books on music theory, including his research into the properties of microtonal tunings and traditional harmony.


Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, Iraqi patriarch (died 2014)

Mor Ignatius Zakka I Iwas was the 122nd reigning Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East and, as such, Supreme Head of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church. Also known by his traditional episcopal name, Severios, he was enthroned as patriarch on 14 September 1980 in St. George's Patriarchal Cathedral in Damascus. He succeeded Ignatius Ya`qub III. As is traditional for the head of the church, Mor Severios adopted the name Ignatius.


21/04/1932

Slide Hampton, African-American trombonist and composer (died 2021)

Locksley Wellington Hampton was an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger. As his nickname implies, Hampton's main instrument was slide trombone, but he also occasionally played tuba and flugelhorn.


Elaine May, American actress, comedian, director, and screenwriter

Elaine Iva May is an American actress, comedian, writer, and director. She first gained fame in the 1950s for her improvisational comedy routines with Mike Nichols before going on to write and direct several critically acclaimed films. She has received numerous awards, including a BAFTA Award, a Grammy Award, and a Tony Award. She was honored with the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2013, and an Honorary Academy Award in 2022.


Angela Mortimer, English tennis player (died 2025)

Florence Angela Margaret Mortimer-Barrett was a British world No. 1 tennis player. Mortimer won three major singles titles: the 1955 French Championships, the 1958 Australian Championships and 1961 Wimbledon Championships, the last won when she was partially deaf.


21/04/1931

Morgan Wootten, American high school basketball coach (died 2020)

Morgan Bayard Wootten was an American high school basketball coach for 46 seasons at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland. He led the Stags to five national championships and 33 Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) titles. In 2000, he was the third high school coach to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the first high school only coach to be inducted.


21/04/1930

Hilda Hilst, Brazilian author, poet, and playwright (died 2004)

Hilda de Almeida Prado Hilst was a Brazilian poet, novelist, and playwright. Her work touches on the themes of mysticism, insanity, the body, eroticism, and female sexual liberation. Hilst greatly revered the work of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, and the influence of their styles—like stream of consciousness and fractured reality—is evident in her own work.


Silvana Mangano, Italian actress (died 1989)

Silvana Mangano was an Italian film actress. She was one of a generation of thespians who arose from the neorealist movement, and went on to become a major female star, regarded as a sex symbol for the 1950s and '60s. She won the David di Donatello for Best Actress three times – for The Verona Trial (1963), The Witches (1967), and The Scientific Cardplayer (1972) – and the Nastro d'Argento for Best Actress twice.


Dieter Roth, German-Swiss illustrator and sculptor (died 1998)

Dieter Roth was a Swiss artist known for his artist's books, editioned prints, sculptures, and works made of found materials, including rotting food stuffs. He was also known as Dieter Rot and Diter Rot.


Jack Taylor, English footballer and referee (died 2012)

John Keith Taylor was an English football referee. Later described by the Football League as "perhaps the finest English referee of all time", Taylor was famous for officiating in the 1974 FIFA World Cup Final during which he awarded two penalties in the first 30 minutes. The first of these penalties, awarded after just a minute of play, was the first penalty kick awarded in a World Cup final.


21/04/1928

Jack Evans, Welsh-Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 1996)

William John Trevor "Jack" Evans was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman and coach who played 14 seasons in the National Hockey League for the New York Rangers and Chicago Black Hawks between 1949 and 1963. With Chicago, he won the Stanley Cup in 1961. After his playing career, he worked as a coach, and coached the California Golden Seals, Cleveland Barons, and Hartford Whalers between 1975 and 1988.


21/04/1927

Ahmed Arif, Turkish poet and author (died 1991)

Ahmed Arif was a Turkish-Kurdish poet.


21/04/1926

Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and her other realms (died 2022)

Elizabeth II was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during her lifetime and was the monarch of 15 realms at her death. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days is the longest of any British monarch, the second-longest of any sovereign state, and the longest of any queen regnant in history.


Arthur Rowley, English footballer, manager, and cricketer (died 2002)

George Arthur Rowley Jr., nicknamed "The Gunner" because of his explosive left-foot shot, was an English football player and cricketer. He holds the record for the most goals in the history of English league football, scoring 434 from 619 league games. He was the younger brother of Manchester United footballer Jack Rowley. He was shortlisted for inclusion into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2008.


21/04/1925

Anthony Mason, Australian soldier and judge, 9th Chief Justice of Australia (died 2026)

Sir Anthony Frank Mason was an Australian judge who served as the ninth Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1987 to 1995. He was first appointed to the High Court in 1972, having previously served on the Supreme Court of New South Wales. He had also served as a non-permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong from 1997 to 2015.


John Swinton of Kimmerghame, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire (died 2018)

Major-General Sir John Swinton of Kimmerghame, was a British Army officer who served as Major-General commanding the Household Division and General Officer Commanding London District from 1976 until his retirement in 1979. He was the father of actress Tilda Swinton.


21/04/1924

Ira Louvin, American singer-songwriter and mandolin player (died 1965)

Ira Lonnie Loudermilk, known professionally as Ira Louvin, was an American country music singer, mandolinist and songwriter. He was a cousin of songwriter John D. Loudermilk.


21/04/1923

John Mortimer, English lawyer and author (died 2009)

Sir John Clifford Mortimer was a British barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author. He is best known for short stories about a barrister named Horace Rumpole, adapted from episodes of the TV series Rumpole of the Bailey also written by Mortimer.


21/04/1922

Alistair MacLean, Scottish novelist and screenwriter (died 1987)

Alistair Stuart MacLean was a Scottish novelist, who wrote popular thrillers and adventure stories. His books are estimated to have sold over 150 million copies, making him one of the best-selling fiction authors of all time.


Allan Watkins, Welsh-English cricketer (died 2011)

Albert John "Allan" Watkins was a Welsh cricketer, who played for England in fifteen Tests from 1948 to 1952.


21/04/1919

Don Cornell, American singer (died 2004)

Don Cornell was an American singer and guitarist.


Roger Doucet, Canadian tenor (died 1981)

Roger Doucet was a Canadian tenor best known for singing the Canadian national anthem, "O Canada", at televised games of the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Alouettes, and Montreal Expos during the 1970s. He was particularly known for his bilingual version of the anthem, which began in French and ended in English, in recognition of the two languages of Canada.


Licio Gelli, Italian financer (died 2015)

Licio Gelli was an Italian Freemason, businessman, and terrorist. A fascist volunteer in his youth, he is chiefly known for his role in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal and in the Bologna massacre. He was revealed in 1981 as being the Venerable Master of the clandestine Masonic lodge Propaganda Due (P2). This would lead to him getting arrested in Switzerland in 1982. He managed to escape from prison the next year, but eventually agreed to surrender him back into the custody of Swiss authorities for a short period of time in 1987. From 1996 until his death in 2015, Gelli remained mostly under house arrest at his home in Arezzo, Italy.


21/04/1918

Eddy Christiani, Dutch singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2016)

Eduard "Eddy" Christiani was a Dutch guitarist, singer, and composer. He was best known for songs like Zonnig Madeira (1938), Ouwe Taaie (1943), Op De Woelige Baren (1948), Kleine Greetje Uit De Polder (1950), Spring Maar Achterop (1952), Daar Bij De Waterkant and Rosemarie Polka (1953). In 1961 he reached the 82nd position with his Spanish-language song Sucu Sucu (1961)


21/04/1916

Estella B. Diggs, American businesswoman and politician (died 2013)

Estella B. Diggs was an American businesswoman, writer and politician from New York.


21/04/1915

Garrett Hardin, American ecologist, author, and academic (died 2003)

Garrett James Hardin was an American ecologist and microbiologist. He focused his career on the issue of human overpopulation, and is best known for his exposition of the tragedy of the commons in a 1968 paper of the same title in Science, which called attention to "the damage that innocent actions by individuals can inflict on the environment". He is also known for Hardin's First Law of Human Ecology: "We can never do merely one thing. Any intrusion into nature has numerous effects, many of which are unpredictable."


Anthony Quinn, Mexican-American actor (died 2001)

Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca, known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican and American actor. He was known for his portrayal of earthy, passionate characters "marked by a brutal and elemental virility" in over 100 film, television and stage roles between 1936 and 2002. He was a two-time Academy Award winner, and was also nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and a Tony Award.


21/04/1914

Angelo Savoldi, Italian-American wrestler and promoter, co-founded International World Class Championship Wrestling (died 2013)

Mario Louis Fornini was an Italian/American professional wrestler and wrestling promoter, better known professionally as Angelo Savoldi. At the time of his death, he was known as the world's oldest retired wrestler at the age of 99.


21/04/1913

Norman Parkinson, English photographer (died 1990)

Norman Parkinson was an English portrait and fashion photographer. His work revolutionised British fashion photography, as he moved his subjects out of the studio and used outdoor settings. While serving as a Royal Air Force photographer in World War II, he started with Vogue magazine, discovering several famous models. He became an official royal photographer in 1969, taking photographs for Princess Anne's 19th birthday and the Investiture portrait of Charles III as Prince of Wales. Many other royal portraits included official portraits of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother for her 75th birthday. He was known for using elements of humour in his photographs. Parkinson received many honours during his life including the Royal Photographic Society's Progress Medal, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Society of Magazine Photographers, a Google Doodle, and a British postage stamp.


21/04/1912

Eve Arnold, Russian-American photojournalist (died 2012)

Eve Arnold, OBE (honorary), FRPS (honorary) was an American photojournalist, long-resident in the UK. She joined Magnum Photos agency in 1951, and became a full member in 1957. She was the first woman to join the agency. She frequently photographed Marilyn Monroe, including candid-style photos on the set of The Misfits (1961).


Marcel Camus, French director and screenwriter (died 1982)

Marcel Camus was a French film director. He is best known for Orfeu Negro, which won the Palme d'Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival and the 1960 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.


21/04/1911

Ivan Combe, American businessman, developed Clearasil (died 2000)

Ivan DeBlois Combe was the American inventor of personal-care products, most notably Clearasil and Odor Eaters. In 1949 he established his eponymous company Combe Incorporated in White Plains, New York.


Kemal Satır, Turkish physician and politician (died 1991)

Kemal Satır was a Turkish physician and politician.


21/04/1905

Pat Brown, American lawyer and politician, 32nd Governor of California (died 1996)

Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 32nd governor of California from 1959 to 1967. His first elected office was as district attorney for San Francisco, and he was later elected attorney general of California in 1950, before becoming the state's governor after the 1958 election.


21/04/1904

Jean Hélion, French painter (died 1987)

Jean Hélion was a French painter whose abstract work of the 1930s established him as a leading modernist. His midcareer rejection of abstraction was followed by nearly five decades as a figurative painter. He was also the author of several books and an extensive body of critical writing.


Odilo Globocnik, Italian-Austrian SS officer (died 1945)

Odilo Lothar Ludwig Globočnik was an Austrian Nazi Party official of Slovene-Croatian-Serbian descent and a perpetrator of the Holocaust. A high-ranking member of the SS, Globočnik was the leader of Operation Reinhard, the organized murder of around one and a half million Jews, mostly of Polish origin, during the Holocaust in the Majdanek, Treblinka, Sobibór and Bełżec extermination camps. Historian Michael Allen described him as "the vilest individual in the vilest organization ever known". Globočnik killed himself shortly after his capture and detention by British soldiers.


21/04/1903

Luis Saslavsky, Argentinian director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1995)

Luis Saslavsky was an Argentine film director, screenwriter and film producer, notable for his work during the classical era of Argentine cinema.


21/04/1899

Randall Thompson, American composer and academic (died 1984)

Ira Randall Thompson was an American composer, particularly noted for his choral works, and educator.


21/04/1898

Maurice Wilson, English soldier, pilot, and mountaineer (died 1934)

Maurice Wilson MC was a British soldier, mystic, and aviator who is known for his ill-fated attempt to climb Mount Everest alone in 1934.


21/04/1897

Odd Lindbäck-Larsen, Norwegian Army general and war historian (died 1975)

Odd Lindbäck-Larsen was a Norwegian military officer and war historian. He participated in the Norwegian Campaign in Northern Norway during the Second World War as the chief-of-staff, under general Fleischer. He spent most of the war in Norwegian and German concentration camps. He continued his military career after the war, eventually with the rank of major general and military attaché in Stockholm. He wrote several books on Norwegian military history.


21/04/1893

Romeo Bertini, Italian runner (died 1973)

Romeo Bertini was an Italian athlete who competed mainly in the marathon.


21/04/1892

Freddie Dixon, English motorcycle racer and racing driver (died 1956)

Frederick William Dixon was an English motorcycle racer and racing car driver. The designer of the motorcycle and banking sidecar system, he was also one of the few motorsport competitors to have been successful on two, three and four wheels. He was twice awarded the BRDC Gold Star for car racing. Dixon, who had the nickname "Flying Freddie", was born at Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England, one of eight children of John and Martha Dixon.


21/04/1889

Marcel Boussac, French businessman (died 1980)

Marcel Boussac was a French entrepreneur best known for his ownership of the Maison Dior and one of the most successful thoroughbred race horse breeding farms in European history.


Paul Karrer, Russian-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1971)

Paul Karrer was a Swiss organic chemist best known for his research on vitamins. He and British chemist Norman Haworth won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1937.


Efrem Zimbalist, Sr., Russian-American violinist, composer, and conductor (died 1985)

Efrem Zimbalist was a Russian and American concert violinist, composer, conductor and director of the Curtis Institute of Music.


21/04/1887

Joe McCarthy, American baseball manager (died 1978)

Joseph Vincent McCarthy was an American manager in Major League Baseball (MLB), most renowned for his leadership of the "Bronx Bombers" teams of the New York Yankees from 1931 to 1946. The first manager to win pennants with both National and American League teams, he won a total nine league pennants and seven World Series championships – the latter is a record tied only by Casey Stengel. McCarthy was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1957. He recorded a 100-win season six times, a record matched only by Bobby Cox. McCarthy's career winning percentages in both the regular season (.615) and postseason are the highest in major league history. His 2,125 career victories rank ninth all-time in major league history for managerial wins, and he ranks first all-time for the Yankees with 1,460 wins.


21/04/1885

Tatu Kolehmainen, Finnish runner (died 1967)

Tatu Kolehmainen was a Finnish long-distance runner who competed at the 1912 and 1920 Summer Olympics. In 1912, he reached the finals of 10,000 m and marathon races, but failed to finish due to a strong heat. In 1920, he placed 10th in the marathon. His younger brother Hannes competed alongside at the 1912 and 1920 Games.


21/04/1882

Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1961)

Percy Williams Bridgman was an American physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1946 for his work on the physics of high pressures. He also wrote extensively on the scientific method and on other aspects of the philosophy of science. The Bridgman effect, the Bridgman–Stockbarger technique, and the high-pressure mineral bridgmanite are named after him.


21/04/1874

Vincent Scotto, French composer and actor (died 1952)

Vincent Scotto was a French composer.


21/04/1870

Edwin Stanton Porter, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1941)

Edwin Stanton Porter was an American film pioneer, most famous as a producer, director, studio manager and cinematographer with the Edison Manufacturing Company and the Famous Players Film Company. Of over 250 films created by Porter, his most important include What Happened on Twenty-third Street, New York City (1901), Jack and the Beanstalk (1902), Life of an American Fireman (1903), The Great Train Robbery (1903), The European Rest Cure (1904), The Kleptomaniac (1905), Life of a Cowboy (1906), Rescued from an Eagle's Nest (1908), The Prisoner of Zenda (1913), and Tess of the Storm Country (1914).


21/04/1868

Alfred Henry Maurer, American painter (died 1932)

Alfred Henry Maurer was an American modernist painter. He exhibited his work in avant-garde circles internationally and in New York City during the early twentieth century. Highly respected today, his work met with little critical or commercial success in his lifetime, and he died, a suicide, at the age of sixty-four.


Mary Rogers Miller, American author and educator (died 1971)

Mary Farrand Rogers Miller was an American writer, naturalist, and educator. She authored The Brook Book (1902) and Outdoor Work (1911), as well as magazine articles and educational pamphlets.


21/04/1864

Max Weber, German economist and sociologist (died 1920)

Maximilian Carl Emil Weber was a German sociologist, historian, jurist, and political economist who was one of the central figures in the development of sociology and the social sciences more generally. His ideas continue to influence social theory and research.


21/04/1854

William Stang, German-American bishop (died 1907)

William Stang was a German Catholic prelate who served as the first Bishop of Fall River from 1904 until his death in 1907.


21/04/1838

John Muir, Scottish-American environmentalist and author (died 1914)

John Muir, also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States.


21/04/1837

Fredrik Bajer, Danish lieutenant and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1922)

Fredrik Bajer was a Danish writer, teacher, and pacifist politician who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1908 together with Klas Pontus Arnoldson.


21/04/1816

Charlotte Brontë, English novelist and poet (died 1855)

Charlotte Nicholls, commonly known by her maiden name Charlotte Brontë, was an English novelist and poet, and was the elder sister of Emily, Anne and Branwell Brontë. She is best known for her novel Jane Eyre, which was first published under the pseudonym Currer Bell. Jane Eyre was a great success on publication, and has since been acknowledged as a classic of English literature.


21/04/1814

Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts, English art collector and philanthropist (died 1906)

Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts was a British philanthropist, the daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet and Sophia, formerly Coutts, daughter of banker Thomas Coutts. In 1837 she became one of the wealthiest women in England when she inherited her grandfather's fortune of around £1.8 million following the death of her stepgrandmother, Harriot Beauclerk, Duchess of St Albans. She joined the surnames of her father and grandfather, by royal licence, to become Burdett-Coutts. Edward VII is reported to have described her as "[a]fter my mother, the most remarkable woman in the kingdom".


21/04/1811

Alson Sherman, American merchant and politician, 8th Mayor of Chicago (died 1903)

Alson Smith Sherman served as Mayor of Chicago, Illinois (1844–1845) as an Independent Democrat.


21/04/1810

John Putnam Chapin, American politician, 10th Mayor of Chicago (died 1864)

John Putnam Chapin served as the 10th Mayor of Chicago, Illinois (1846–1847) for the Whig Party.


21/04/1790

Manuel Blanco Encalada, Spanish-Chilean admiral and politician, 1st President of Chile (died 1876)

Manuel José Blanco y Calvo de Encalada was a vice-admiral in the Chilean Navy, a political figure, and Chile's first President (Provisional) (1826).


21/04/1783

Reginald Heber, English priest (died 1821)

Reginald Heber was an English Anglican bishop, a man of letters, and hymn-writer. After 16 years as a country parson, he served as Bishop of Calcutta until his death at the age of 42. The son of a rich landowner and cleric, Heber gained fame at the University of Oxford as a poet. After graduation he made an extended tour of Scandinavia, Russia and Central Europe. Ordained in 1807, he took over his father's old parish, Hodnet, Shropshire. He also wrote hymns and general literature, including a study of the works of the 17th-century cleric Jeremy Taylor.


21/04/1775

Alexander Anderson, Scottish-American illustrator and engraver (died 1870)

Dr Alexander Anderson was an American physician and illustrator.


21/04/1774

Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist, astronomer, and mathematician (died 1862)

Jean-Baptiste Biot was a French physicist, astronomer, and mathematician who co-discovered the Biot–Savart law of magnetostatics with Félix Savart, established the reality of meteorites, made an early balloon flight, and studied the polarization of light.


21/04/1752

Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait, French engineer, hydrographer, and politician, French Minister of Marine and the Colonies (died 1807)

Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait was a French shipwright, hydrographer and politician who served as Minister of the Navy and the Colonies from 1799 to 1801.


Humphry Repton, English gardener and author (died 1818)

Humphry Repton was the last great designer of the classic phase of the English landscape garden, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown. His style is thought of as the precursor of the more intricate and eclectic styles of the 19th century. His first name is often incorrectly spelt "Humphrey".


21/04/1730

Antonín Kammel, Czech violinist and composer (died 1788)

Antonín Kammel was a Bohemian composer and violinist of the Classical period. He is known for his instrumental works composed primarily for strings, though he did compose a few sinfonias and divertimentos that included wind instruments. His music incorporates many features of other Classical period works as well as elements reminiscent of Czech folk music.


21/04/1713

Louis de Noailles, French general (died 1793)

Louis de Noailles, 4th Duke of Noailles was a French peer and Marshal of France.


21/04/1673

Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg (died 1742)

Wilhelmine Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg was Holy Roman Empress, Queen of the Germans, Queen of Hungary, Queen of Bohemia, Archduchess consort of Austria etc. as the spouse of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor.


21/04/1671

John Law, Scottish economist (died 1729)

John Law was a Scottish-French economist and financier. He rose to power in France where he created a novel financial scheme for French public finances known as Law's System with two institutions at its core, John Law's Bank and John Law's Company, ending in the devastating boom and bust "Mississippi Bubble" of 1720.


21/04/1652

Michel Rolle, French mathematician and academic (died 1719)

Michel Rolle was a French mathematician. He is best known for Rolle's theorem (1691). He is also the co-inventor in Europe of Gaussian elimination (1690).


21/04/1651

Joseph Vaz, Sri Lankan priest, missionary, and saint (died 1711)

Joseph Vaz CO was a Oratorian priest and missionary in Dutch Ceylon. Originally from Sancoale in Goa, Portuguese India, Vaz arrived in Ceylon during the Dutch occupation, a time when the Dutch had banned Catholicism in Ceylon and imposed Calvinism as the official religion after taking control from the Portuguese Empire.


21/04/1642

Simon de la Loubère, French mathematician, poet, and diplomat (died 1729)

Simon de la Loubère was a French diplomat to Siam (Thailand), writer, mathematician and poet. He is credited with bringing back a document which introduced Europe to Indian astronomy, the "Siamese method" of making magic squares, and one of the earliest descriptions of parachutes.


21/04/1631

Francesco Maidalchini, Catholic cardinal (died 1700)

Francesco Maidalchini was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.


21/04/1630

Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten, Dutch-English painter (died 1700)

Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten or Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraeten was a Dutch painter of still lifes, in particular floral and vanitas still lifes. He also painted genre scenes and portraits. After starting his career in Haarlem, he worked most of his career in London where he enjoyed the patronage of the highest circles.


21/04/1619

Jan van Riebeeck, Dutch founder of Cape Town (died 1677)

Johan Anthoniszoon van Riebeeck was a Dutch merchant and colonial administrator who served as the first Commander of the Cape from 1652 to 1662.


21/04/1555

Ludovico Carracci, Italian painter and etcher (died 1619)

Ludovico Carracci was an Italian early-Baroque painter, etcher, and printmaker from Bologna. His works are characterized by a strong mood invoked by broad gestures and flickering light that create spiritual emotion and are credited with reinvigorating Italian art, especially fresco art, which was subsumed with formalistic Mannerism. He died in Bologna in 1619.


21/04/1523

Marco Antonio Bragadin, Venetian lawyer and military officer (died 1571)

Marco Antonio Bragadin, also Marcantonio Bragadin, was a Venetian lawyer and military officer of the Republic of Venice.


21/04/1488

Ulrich von Hutten, German religious reformer (died 1523)

Ulrich von Hutten was a German knight, scholar, poet and satirist, who later became a follower of Martin Luther and a Protestant reformer.


21/04/1132

Sancho VI, king of Navarre (died 1194)

Sancho Garcés VI, called the Wise was King of Navarre from 1150 until his death in 1194. He was the first monarch to officially drop the title of King of Pamplona in favour of King of Navarre, thus changing the designation of his kingdom. Sancho Garcés was responsible for bringing his kingdom into the political orbit of Europe. He was the eldest son of García Ramírez, the Restorer and Margaret of L'Aigle.