Born on Saturday, 26th April – Famous Birthdays

26/04/2005

Alex Sarr, French basketball player

Alexandre Dam Sarr is a French professional basketball player for the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Sarr played for the French youth national team and the Perth Wildcats of the Australian National Basketball League (NBL) prior to being selected second overall by the Wizards in the 2024 NBA draft. He is the younger brother of basketball player Olivier Sarr.

---

26/04/2001

Thiago Almada, Argentine footballer

Thiago Ezequiel Almada is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for La Liga club Atlético Madrid and the Argentina national team.

---

26/04/1997

Kirill Kaprizov, Russian ice hockey player

Kirill Olegovich Kaprizov is a Russian professional ice hockey player who is a left winger and alternate captain for the Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League (NHL). Before joining the Wild, Kaprizov played for Metallurg Novokuznetsk, Salavat Yulaev Ufa and CSKA Moscow in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Kaprizov won the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL rookie of the year in 2021, becoming the first Wild player to win the award. Fans have nicknamed him "Kirill the Thrill".

---

Amber Midthunder, American actress

Amber Thunder Rose Midthunder is an American actress.

---

Calvin Verdonk, Indonesian footballer

Calvin Ronald Verdonk is a professional footballer who plays as a left-back or centre-back for Ligue 1 club Lille. Born in the Netherlands, he plays for the Indonesia national team.

---

26/04/1996

Jordan Pefok, American footballer

Theoson-Jordan Siebatcheu, commonly known as Jordan Pefok, Jordan Siebatcheu, or just Jordan, is an American professional soccer player who plays as a striker for Portuguese Primeira Liga club Tondela on loan from French club Reims.

---

26/04/1994

Daniil Kvyat, Russian racing driver

Daniil Vyacheslavovich Kvyat is a Russian racing driver who competes in Super GT for JLOC. Kvyat competed in Formula One from 2014 to 2020.

---

Odysseas Vlachodimos, Greek international footballer

Odysseas Vlachodimos is a professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for La Liga club Sevilla, on loan from Premier League club Newcastle United. Born in Germany, he plays for the Greece national team.

---

26/04/1992

Aaron Judge, American baseball player

Aaron James Judge is an American professional baseball outfielder for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). He is a seven-time MLB All-Star and three-time American League (AL) Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) winner. He holds the AL record for most home runs in a season with 62. He stands 6 feet 7 inches (2.01 m) tall and weighs 282 pounds (128 kg), making him one of the tallest and largest players in MLB. He is considered by some to be among the best power hitters and right-handed batters of all time.

---

Delon Wright, American basketball player

Delon Reginald Wright is an American professional basketball player who last played for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the CC of San Francisco Rams and the Utah Utes, being a first-team all-conference player in the Pac-12 in 2014 and 2015. He also earned the Bob Cousy Award in 2015.

---

26/04/1991

Peter Handscomb, Australian cricketer

Peter Stephen Patrick Handscomb is an Australian cricketer who plays for the Victoria cricket team.

---

Isaac Liu, New Zealand rugby league player

Isaac Liu is a professional rugby league footballer who plays as a loose forward and prop forward for the Leigh Leopards in the Super league and New Zealand at international level.

---

26/04/1990

Jonathan dos Santos, Mexican footballer

Jonathan dos Santos Ramírez is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Liga MX club América.

---

Mitch Rein, Australian rugby league player

Mitch Rein is a former Australian rugby league footballer who last played as a hooker for the Parramatta Eels in the National Rugby League (NRL).

---

Nevin Spence, Northern Irish rugby player (died 2012)

Nevin Spence was a Northern Irish rugby union player for Ulster in the Pro12. He played as a centre, but could also play wing. He was educated firstly at Dromore High School, where he was introduced to rugby, and then at Wallace High School. He played his club rugby with Ballynahinch. He was also a capable footballer, playing for the Northern Ireland U-16's.

---

Joey Wendle, American baseball player

Joseph Patrick Wendle is an American professional baseball infielder who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics, Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Marlins, and New York Mets. Wendle made his MLB debut in 2016 with the Athletics. He is one of the few MLB players to not use batting gloves.

---

26/04/1989

Melvin Ingram, American football player

Melvin Ingram III is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the South Carolina Gamecocks, earning All-American honors in 2011. He was selected by the San Diego Chargers in the first round with the 18th overall pick of the 2012 NFL draft. He has also played for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins.

---

Kang Daesung, South Korean singer

Kang Dae-sung, better known mononymously as Daesung and his Japanese stage name D-Lite, is a South Korean singer who made his musical debut in 2006 as a member of the South Korean boy band Big Bang. He debuted as a solo artist in South Korea with the number one trot song "Look at Me, Gwisoon" in 2008. Since the inception of the Gaon Digital Chart in 2010, Daesung achieved two Top 10 songs, the digital single "Cotton Candy" and "Wings" from the BigBang album Alive (2012).

---

26/04/1987

Jorge Andújar Moreno, Spanish footballer

Jorge Andújar Moreno, known as Coke, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a right-back.

---

26/04/1986

Lior Refaelov, Israeli footballer

Lior Refaelov is an Israeli former professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or as a winger.

---

Yuliya Zaripova, Russian runner

Yuliya Mikhailovna Zaripova is a disgraced former Russian middle-distance runner who specialised in the 3000 metres steeplechase event.

---

26/04/1985

John Isner, American tennis player

John Robert Isner is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 8 in singles and No. 14 in doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Considered one of the best servers ever to play on the ATP Tour, Isner achieved his career-high singles ranking in July 2018 by virtue of his first Masters 1000 crown at the 2018 Miami Open and a semifinal appearance at the 2018 Wimbledon Championships. At the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, Isner played the longest professional tennis match in history, requiring five sets and 183 games to defeat Nicolas Mahut in a match which lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes, and was played over the course of three days. Isner holds the record for hitting the ATP's fastest official serve ever and third-fastest on record in tennis at 157.2 mph or 253 km/h during his first-round 2016 Davis Cup match. He has the most aces in the history of the ATP Tour, having served 14,470, as of August 31, 2023. Isner retired from professional tennis following the 2023 US Open.

---

26/04/1983

José María López, Argentinian racing driver

José María "Pechito" López is an Argentine race car driver who is currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Akkodis ASP. He is three-time World Touring Champion with Citroën in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and two-time World Endurance Champion with Toyota Gazoo Racing in 2020 and 2021, also becoming that last year the second Argentine driver to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans since José Froilán González in 1954.

---

Jessica Lynch, American soldier

Jessica Dawn Lynch is an American teacher, actress, and former United States Army soldier who served in the 2003 invasion of Iraq as a private first class.

---

26/04/1982

Novlene Williams-Mills, Jamaican sprinter

Novlene Hilaire Williams-Mills is a retired Jamaican track and field athlete. She won the bronze medal in the 400 metres at the 2007 World Championships. She is also a three-time Olympic silver medallist in the 4 × 400 metres relay. In 2015 she won relay gold alongside her Jamaican teammates.

---

26/04/1981

Caro Emerald, Dutch pop and jazz singer

Caroline Esmeralda van der Leeuw, formerly known as Caro Emerald and lately part of the music project The Jordan, is a Dutch pop and jazz singer who mainly performs in English. Active since 2007, she rose to prominence in 2009 with debut single, "Back It Up". Follow-up single "A Night Like This" topped charts in several countries, including her native Netherlands.

---

Ms. Dynamite, English rapper and producer

Naomi Arleen McLean-Daley, better known as Ms. Dynamite, is a British singer and rapper. She is the recipient of the Mercury Music Prize, two Brit Awards and three MOBO Awards.

---

Sandra Schmitt, German skier (died 2000)

Sandra Schmitt was a German freestyle skier. In 1998, she came 9th in the Women's Moguls contest at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. She became the Women's Dual Moguls World Champion in 1999. Schmitt died with her parents in the Kaprun disaster on 11 November 2000.

---

26/04/1980

Jordana Brewster, Panamanian-American actress

Jordana Brewster is an American actress. She made her acting debut, three weeks after turning 15, in an episode of All My Children in 1995 and next took on the recurring role as Nikki Munson in As the World Turns, garnering a nomination for Outstanding Teen Performer at the 1997 Soap Opera Digest Award. Her first role in a feature film was in Robert Rodriguez's horror science fiction The Faculty (1998).

---

Marlon King, English footballer

Marlon Francis King is a former professional footballer who played as a striker.

---

Anna Mucha, Polish actress and journalist

Anna Maria Mucha is a Polish actress. She is best known to Western audiences as Danka Dresner in Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Schindler's List. In Poland, she is known for her regular role in the soap opera L for Love (2003–present).

---

Channing Tatum, American actor and producer

Channing Matthew Tatum is an American actor and film producer. He made his film debut in the drama Coach Carter (2005), and had his breakthrough with the sports comedy film She's the Man (2006) and the dance film Step Up (2006). He rose to prominence for playing Duke in the action films G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) and G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), the title role in the comedy-drama films Magic Mike (2012), Magic Mike XXL (2015) and Magic Mike's Last Dance (2023), and an undercover cop in the action-comedy films 21 Jump Street (2012), and 22 Jump Street (2014).

---

26/04/1978

Stana Katic, Canadian actress

Stana Katić is a Canadian and American actress. She played Kate Beckett on the ABC television romantic crime series Castle (2009–2016) and FBI Special Agent Emily Byrne in the psychological thriller series Absentia (2017–2020).

---

Peter Madsen, Danish footballer

Peter Planch Madsen is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a striker.

---

26/04/1977

Samantha Cristoforetti, Italian astronaut

Samantha Cristoforetti is an Italian European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, former Italian Air Force pilot and engineer. She is the second of two women sent into space by ESA and the first from Italy. Cristoforetti holds the record for the longest uninterrupted spaceflight by a European astronaut, and she held the record for the longest single space flight by a woman until this was broken by Peggy Whitson in June 2017, and later by Christina Koch. She took command of ISS Expedition 68 on 28 September 2022.

---

Kosuke Fukudome, Japanese baseball player

Kosuke Fukudome is a Japanese former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball from 2008 to 2012, primarily with the Chicago Cubs and had a long spanning career in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) with the Chunichi Dragons and Hanshin Tigers.

---

Roxana Saberi, American journalist and author

Roxana Saberi is an American journalist who works as a correspondent for CBS News. In 2009, she was held prisoner in Iran's Evin Prison for 101 days under accusations of espionage. She subsequently wrote a book about the experience.

---

Tom Welling, American actor

Thomas Joseph Welling is an American actor, director, and producer. He is best known for his role as Clark Kent in The WB superhero drama Smallville (2001–2011). He also co-starred in the third season of the Fox fantasy comedy-drama Lucifer as Lt. Marcus Pierce/Cain (2017–2018).

---

26/04/1976

Václav Varaďa, Czech ice hockey player

Václav Varaďa is a Czech former professional ice hockey player and current coach. He formerly played in the National Hockey League (NHL) in a ten-year span. In his professional career, he has previously played for the Buffalo Sabres and the Ottawa Senators. Varaďa was known for his physicality in a third or fourth line role.

---

26/04/1975

Joey Jordison, American musician and songwriter (died 2021)

Nathan Jonas "Joey" Jordison was an American musician. He was the original drummer of the heavy metal band Slipknot, in which he was designated #1, and the guitarist for the horror punk supergroup Murderdolls.

---

Rahul Verma, Indian social worker and activist

Rahul Verma is a humanitarian, spiritual worker, and a devoted follower of Neem Karoli Baba. He, along with his wife Tulika, founded the Uday Foundation—a nonprofit organization named after their son, who was born with multiple congenital defects. The New York Times has described him as a 'Man's Stand Against Junk Food as Diabetes Climbs Across India,' featuring his story on its front page.

---

26/04/1973

Geoff Blum, American baseball player and sportscaster

Geoffrey Edward Blum is an American former professional baseball infielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Montreal Expos, Houston Astros, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, San Diego Padres, Chicago White Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks. He is currently the TV color analyst for the Houston Astros.

---

Jules Naudet, French-American director and producer

Jules Clément Naudet and Thomas Gédéon Naudet are French-American filmmakers. The brothers, residents of the United States since 1989 and citizens since 1999, were in New York City at the time of the September 11 attacks to film a documentary on members of the Engine 7, Ladder 1 firehouse in Lower Manhattan.

---

Chris Perry, English footballer

Christopher John Perry is an English football coach, former footballer and pundit.

---

Óscar, Spanish footballer and coach

Óscar García Junyent, known simply as Óscar as a player, is a Spanish former professional footballer. He is currently caretaker manager of Eredivisie club Ajax.

---

26/04/1972

Jason Bargwanna, Australian racing driver

Jason Eric Bargwanna is an Australian motor racing driver. Best known as a Supercars Championship competitor, Bargwanna raced in the series for 25 years, the pinnacle of which was winning, with Garth Tander, the 2000 Bathurst 1000 in a Garry Rogers Motorsport prepared Holden Commodore. Bargwanna was the Driving Standards Observer for the Supercars Championship from 2014 until 2016.

---

Kiko, Spanish footballer

Francisco Miguel Narváez Machón, known as Kiko, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a centre-forward, mostly for Atlético Madrid.

---

Natrone Means, American football player and coach

Natrone Jermaine Means is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Diego Chargers, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Carolina Panthers from 1993 to 2000.

---

Avi Nimni, Israeli footballer and manager

Avi Nimni is an Israeli former professional footballer and Maccabi Tel Aviv's highest ever scorer. He is regarded as one of Maccabi Tel Aviv's greatest players ever. Until 2006, he served as the captain of the Israel national team. His number 8 shirt has become so symbolic that Maccabi Tel Aviv has retired the number at the end of his active football career.

---

26/04/1971

Naoki Tanaka, Japanese comedian and actor

Naoki Tanaka is a Japanese comedian, actor and television presenter, who is the leader and the boke of the owarai kombi Cocorico with his partner Shozo Endo. He has appeared in many television programmes and films. He is known for being a regular member of Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!!, which he and Endo have worked on since 1997.

---

Jay DeMarcus, American bass player, songwriter, and producer

Jay DeMarcus is an American musician, vocalist, record producer and songwriter. He is a member of the country music band Rascal Flatts.

---

26/04/1970

Dean Austin, English footballer and manager

Dean Barry Austin is an English football manager and former professional player who is head of recruitment at Coventry City.

---

Melania Trump, Slovene-American model; 47th First Lady of the United States

Melania Knauss Trump is a Slovenian and American former model serving as the first lady of the United States since 2025, a role she previously held from 2017 to 2021 as the wife of Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th president of the United States. She is the first naturalized citizen and the first non-native English speaker to become first lady; the second foreign-born first lady, after Louisa Adams; the second Roman Catholic first lady, after Jacqueline Kennedy; and the second to hold the position nonconsecutively, after Frances Cleveland.

---

Kristen R. Ghodsee, American ethnographer and academic

Kristen Rogheh Ghodsee is an American ethnographer and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She is primarily known for her ethnographic work on post-Communist Bulgaria as well as being a contributor to the field of postsocialist gender studies. She was critical of the role of Western feminist nongovernmental organizations doing work among East European women in the 1990s. She has also examined the shifting gender relations of Muslim minorities after Communist rule, the intersections of Islamic beliefs and practices with the ideological remains of Marxism–Leninism, communist nostalgia, the legacies of Marxist feminism, and the intellectual history of utopianism.

---

Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress

Tionne Tenese Watkins, also known by her stage name T-Boz, is an American singer and actress. Watkins rose to fame in the early 1990s as a member of the best selling girl group TLC, with whom she won four Grammy Awards. As a solo artist, she reached the Billboard Hot 100 with "Touch Myself" in 1996, and as a featured artist on Da Brat's 1997 single, "Ghetto Love".

---

26/04/1967

Glenn Thomas Jacobs, American professional wrestler, actor, businessman and politician

Glenn Thomas Jacobs, also known by his ring name Kane, is an American politician, actor and professional wrestler. He rose to fame in WWE, where he holds the record for most matches in WWE history. Jacobs is considered by many to be one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. In 2018, he became the mayor of Knox County, Tennessee.

---

Marianne Jean-Baptiste, English actress and singer-songwriter

Marianne Raigipcien Jean-Baptiste is an English actress and director. She is known for her role in Mike Leigh's drama film Secrets & Lies (1996), for which she received acclaim and earned nominations for the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.

---

Toomas Tõniste, Estonian sailor and politician

Toomas Tõniste is an Estonian sailor and politician, and the former Minister of Finance.

---

26/04/1965

Susannah Harker, English actress

Susannah Harker is an English film, television, and theatre actress. She was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award in 1990 for her role as Mattie Storin in House of Cards. She played Jane Bennet in the 1995 TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

---

Kevin James, American actor and comedian

Kevin George Knipfing, known professionally as Kevin James, is an American actor and writer. James began his career as a stand-up comedian on Long Island in the late 1980s before rising to prominence for playing Doug Heffernan on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens (1998–2007), for which he received the nomination for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2006.

---

26/04/1963

Jet Li, Chinese-Singaporean martial artist, actor, and producer

Jet Li Lianjie is a martial artist, actor, and philanthropist. With a career spanning more than forty years, he is regarded as one of the most iconic Chinese film stars and one of the greatest martial artists in the history of cinema. His film career in Asia is credited with reviving Hong Kong kungfu films as well as Shaolin Temple.

---

Colin Scotts, Australian-American football player

Colin Roberts Scotts is an Australian former professional American football defensive tackle. Scotts was the first Australian to receive an American football scholarship in the United States and be drafted into the National Football League (NFL). He became the second Australian to play in the NFL after Colin Ridgeway, an Australian rules football convert.

---

Cornelia Ullrich, German hurdler

Cornelia Ullrich, née Feuerbach is a retired East German hurdler. She represented the sports team SC Magdeburg.

---

Bill Wennington, Canadian basketball player

William Percey Wennington is a Canadian former professional basketball player who won three National Basketball Association (NBA) championships with the Chicago Bulls. A center, he represented Canada in the 1984 Olympics and the 1983 World University Games, where the team won gold. He was on the Canadian team which narrowly missed qualifying for the 1992 Olympics. Wennington has been inducted into the Quebec Basketball Hall of Fame and the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame.

---

26/04/1962

Colin Anderson, English footballer

Colin Anderson is an English former professional footballer, predominantly playing on left side of defence or midfield.

---

Debra Wilson, American actress and comedian

Debra Wilson is an American actress, puppeteer, and comedian. She is the longest-serving original cast member on the sketch comedy series Mad TV, having appeared on the show's first eight seasons from 1995 to 2003. As a voice actress, she has voiced various characters on television shows and video games, including Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart, Baby Shark's Big Show!, Spitting Image, Mirror's Edge Catalyst, Wolfenstein, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Halo Infinite, Diablo IV, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Clone Drone in the Hyperdome, Destiny 2, as well as Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.

---

26/04/1961

Joan Chen, Chinese-American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter

Joan Chen is a Chinese-born American actress and film director. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including four Taipei Golden Horse Awards and an AACTA Award. She made her film debut in the Chinese film Youth (1977) before starring in the film Little Flower (1979). She came to the attention of American audiences for her portrayal of Wanrong in the Bernardo Bertolucci historical epic film The Last Emperor (1987), which won nine Academy Awards including Best Picture.

---

Chris Mars, American artist

Chris Mars is an American painter and musician. He was the drummer for the seminal Minneapolis-based alternative rock band the Replacements from 1979 to 1990; he later joined the informal supergroup Golden Smog before beginning a solo career. Although Mars concentrates mainly on his art career, he still occasionally releases new music.

---

26/04/1960

H. G. Carrillo, American writer and academic (died 2020)

H. G. Carrillo was an American fiction writer and academic. In the 1990s, he began writing as "H. G. Carrillo," and he eventually adopted that identity in his private life as well. Carroll constructed a false claim that he was a Cuban immigrant who had left Cuba with his family at the age of seven; in fact, he had no ties to Cuba. Carroll wrote frequently about the Cuban immigrant experience in the United States, including in his only novel, Loosing My Espanish (2004). He was an assistant professor of English at George Washington University from 2007 to 2013, and was later chair of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation.

---

Steve Lombardozzi, American baseball player and coach

Stephen Paul Lombardozzi Sr. is an American former professional baseball player who was a second baseman for the Minnesota Twins and Houston Astros for six Major League Baseball seasons. As part of the Twins' world championship team in 1987, Lombardozzi hit .412 during the World Series and hit a home run in Game 1.

---

Roger Taylor, English drummer

Roger Andrew Taylor is an English musician. He was the drummer of the new wave band Duran Duran from their inception until 1985, and again from 2001 onwards. Duran Duran have sold over 100 million records worldwide. Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November 2022 as a member of Duran Duran.

---

26/04/1959

John Corabi, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

John Corabi is an American hard rock singer and guitarist. He was the frontman of The Scream during 1989 and the frontman of Mötley Crüe between 1992 and 1996 during original frontman Vince Neil's hiatus from the band.

---

Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rican politician

Pedro Rafael Pierluisi Urrutia is a Puerto Rican politician and lawyer who served as the Governor of Puerto Rico from 2021 to 2025, having previously been the de facto governor from August 2–7, 2019. A member of New Progressive and Democratic Parties, he previously served as acting Secretary of State of Puerto Rico in 2019, as Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico from 2009 to 2017, and as Secretary of Justice of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 1997. He was formerly a private attorney for Puerto Rico's fiscal oversight board under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act.

---

26/04/1958

John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute, Scottish racing driver (died 2021)

John Colum Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute, was a Scottish peer and racing driver, best known for winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1988. He was known as Johnny Dumfries, or, after he succeeded his father as marquess in 1993, John Bute. He attended Ampleforth College, as had his father and most male members of the Crichton-Stuart family, but did not finish the normal five years of study.

---

Giancarlo Esposito, American actor, director, and producer

Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito is an American actor and director. He rose to prominence for his portrayal of Gus Fring in the AMC crime drama series Breaking Bad (2009–2011), a role he reprised in the spin-off Better Call Saul (2017–2022). For this role, Esposito won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series twice and earned three nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

---

Georgios Kostikos, Greek footballer, coach, and manager

Georgios Kostikos is a Greek former international footballer who played as a striker.

---

26/04/1956

Koo Stark, American actress and photographer

Kathleen Norris "Koo" Stark is an American photographer and actress, known for her relationship with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. She is a patron of the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust, which runs the museum of the Victorian pioneer photographer.

---

26/04/1955

Kurt Bodewig, German politician

Kurt Bodewig is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as a member of the German Bundestag from 1998 to 2009, representing the Neuss I district. From 2000 to 2002, he served as Minister for Transport, Building and Urban Development in the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

---

26/04/1954

Tatyana Fomina, Estonian chess player

Tatjana Fomina is an Estonian chess player holding the title of Woman Grandmaster and twice European senior women's champion.

---

Alan Hinkes, English mountaineer and explorer

Alan Hinkes OBE is an English Himalayan high-altitude mountaineer from Northallerton in North Yorkshire. He is the first British mountaineer to claim all 14 Himalayan eight-thousanders, a feat he completed on 30 May 2005.

---

26/04/1951

John Battle, English politician

Sir John Dominic Battle, is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds West from 1987 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he served in government as Minister of State for Trade and Industry (1997–1999) and Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1999–2001) under Tony Blair.

---

26/04/1950

Junko Ohashi, Japanese singer (died 2023)

Junko Ohashi was a Japanese singer best known for her songs "Silhouette Romance" (1981) and "Tasogare My Love" (1978). She was known for her "overwhelming singing ability" and was mainly successful between late 1970s and early 1980s. Her discography consists of more than 20 albums. After a brief hiatus due to battling esophageal and breast cancers, she returned to music in 2019. On November 9, 2023, Ohashi died in Tokyo at the age of 73.

---

26/04/1949

Carlos Bianchi, Argentinian footballer and manager

Carlos Bianchi, nicknamed El Virrey, is an Argentine former football player and manager. A prolific goalscorer, although he had a bright career as a forward in Argentina and France, Bianchi is best known as one of the most successful coaches of all time managing Vélez Sarsfield and Boca Juniors to a great number of titles each. Bianchi is the only coach to win four Copa Libertadores.

---

Jerry Blackwell, American wrestler (died 1995)

Jerry Blackwell Jr., better known by his ring name "Crusher" Jerry Blackwell, was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his tenure in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) from 1979 to 1989.

---

26/04/1946

Ralph Coates, English international footballer (died 2010)

Ralph Coates was an English professional footballer who played as a winger. Coates played for Burnley, Tottenham Hotspur and Orient, making 480 appearances in the Football League. From 1970 to 1971, he played for the England national team, earning four caps.

---

Marilyn Nelson, American poet and author

Marilyn Nelson is an American poet, translator, biographer, and children's book author. She is a professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut, and the former Poet Laureate of Connecticut. She is a winner of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, and the Frost Medal. From 1978 to 1994, she published under the name Marilyn Nelson Waniek. She is the author or translator of more than twenty books and five chapbooks of poetry for adults and children. While most of her work deals with historical subjects, in 2014 she published a memoir, named one of NPR's Best Books of 2014, entitled How I Discovered Poetry.

---

Alberto Quintano, Chilean footballer

Alberto Fernando Quintano Ralph, commonly known as El Mariscal, is a Chilean former professional footballer. He played as a defender for Universidad de Chile in Chile's Primera División.

---

26/04/1945

Richard Armitage, American diplomat and government official (died 2025)

Richard Lee Armitage was an American diplomat and government official. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Armitage served as a U.S. Navy officer in three combat tours of duty in the Vietnam War as a riverine warfare advisor. After leaving active duty, he served in a number of civil-service roles under Republican administrations. He worked as an aide to Senator Bob Dole before serving in various posts in the Defense Department and State Department.

---

Howard Davies, English director and producer (died 2016)

Stephen Howard Davies, was a British theatre and television director.

---

Dick Johnson, Australian racing driver

Richard Johnson is a part-owner of the V8 Supercar team Dick Johnson Racing and a former racing driver. As a driver, he was a five-time Australian Touring Car Champion and a three-time winner of the Bathurst 1000. As of 2008 Johnson has claimed over twenty awards and honours, including the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame into which he was inducted in 2001.

---

Sylvain Simard, Canadian academic and politician

Sylvain Simard is a politician and academic based in the Canadian province of Quebec. He represented Richelieu in the National Assembly of Quebec from 1994 to 2012, and was a cabinet minister in the governments of Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry. Simard is a member of the Parti Québécois (PQ).

---

26/04/1944

Richard Bradshaw, English conductor (died 2007)

Richard James Bradshaw was a British opera conductor and the General Director of the Canadian Opera Company (COC) in Toronto.

---

26/04/1943

Gary Wright, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (died 2023)

Gary Malcolm Wright was an American musician and composer best known for his 1976 hit songs "Dream Weaver" and "Love Is Alive". Wright's breakthrough album, The Dream Weaver (1975), came after he had spent seven years in London as, alternately, a member of the British blues rock band Spooky Tooth and a solo artist on A&M Records. While in England, he played keyboards on former Beatle George Harrison's triple album All Things Must Pass (1970), which began a friendship that inspired the Indian religious themes and spirituality inherent in Wright's subsequent songwriting. His work from the late 1980s onwards embraced world music and the new age genre, although none of his post-1976 releases matched the same level of popularity as The Dream Weaver.

---

Peter Zumthor, Swiss architect and academic, designed the Therme Vals

Peter Zumthor is a Swiss architect whose work is frequently described as uncompromising and minimalist. Though managing a relatively small firm and not being a prolific architect, he is the winner of the 2009 Pritzker Prize and 2013 RIBA Royal Gold Medal.

---

26/04/1942

Svyatoslav Belza, Russian journalist, author, and critic (died 2014)

Svyatoslav Igorevich Belza was a Soviet Russian literary and musical scholar, critic and essayist, and a prominent TV personality who's launched and hosted several TV programs aimed at popularizing classical music, theatre, and ballet, including Music on Air and Masterpieces of the World Music Theatre. Belza has received high-profiled honors in three countries, among them the Russian Order of Merit for the Fatherland, the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, and the Ukrainian Order of Saint Nicholas.

---

Sharon Carstairs, Canadian lawyer and politician, Leader of the Government in the Senate

Sharon Carstairs is a Canadian politician. She was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba for the riding of River Heights, serving as Leader of the Opposition in Manitoba, and leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party. After her career in provincial politics, Carstairs was appointed to the Senate of Canada by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.

---

Michael Kergin, Canadian diplomat, Canadian Ambassador to the United States

Michael Kergin is a Canadian career diplomat, who has been a member of the foreign service in some capacity since 1967, when he joined the Department of External Affairs.

---

Bobby Rydell, American singer and actor (died 2022)

Robert Louis Ridarelli, known by the stage name Bobby Rydell, was an American singer and actor who mainly performed rock and roll and traditional pop music. In the early 1960s, he was considered a teen idol. His most well-known songs include "Wildwood Days", "Wild One" and "Volare" ; in 1963 he appeared in the musical film Bye Bye Birdie.

---

Jadwiga Staniszkis, Polish sociologist, political scientist, and academic (died 2024)

Jadwiga Staniszkis was a Polish sociologist and political scientist, essayist, a professor at the University of Warsaw and the Wyższa Szkoła Biznesu, a Polish campus of National-Louis University.

---

26/04/1941

Claudine Auger, French model and actress (died 2019)

Claudine Auger was a French actress best known for her role as a Bond girl, Dominique "Domino" Derval, in the James Bond film Thunderball (1965). She earned the title of Miss France Monde 1958 and went on to finish as the first runner-up in the 1958 Miss World contest.

---

26/04/1940

Giorgio Moroder, Italian singer-songwriter and producer

Giovanni Giorgio Moroder is an Italian composer and record producer. Dubbed the "Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering Euro disco and electronic dance music. His work with synthesizers had a significant influence on several music genres such as hi-NRG, Italo disco, synth-pop, new wave, house, and techno music.

---

Cliff Watson, English rugby league player (died 2018)

Clifford H. Watson was an English professional rugby league footballer who played as a prop in the 1960s and 1970s. He played for the St Helens in the Rugby Football League Championship, and later the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership in Australia. Along with hardman Ken Gee, and legendary captain Alan Prescott, he remains one of the best Great Britain front-rowers ever.

---

Tan Cheng Bock, Singaporean doctor and politician

Adrian Tan Cheng Bock is a Singaporean former politician and physician who has served as the secretary-general of the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) between 2019 and 2021 and chairperson since 2021.

---

26/04/1938

Duane Eddy, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (died 2024)

Duane Eddy was an American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had a string of hit records produced by Lee Hazlewood which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" guitar sound, including "Rebel-'Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young". He had sold 12 million records by 1963. His guitar style influenced the Ventures, the Shadows, the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle, and Marty Stuart.

---

Maurice Williams, American doo-wop/R&B singer-songwriter

Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs were an American doo-wop/R&B vocal group in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Originally the (Royal) Charms, the band changed its name to the Gladiolas in 1957 and the Excellos in 1958, before finally settling on the Zodiacs in 1959.

---

26/04/1937

Jean-Pierre Beltoise, French racing driver and motorcycle racer (died 2015)

Jean-Pierre Maurice Georges Beltoise was a French racing driver and motorcycle road racer, who competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing from 1962 to 1964, and Formula One from 1966 to 1974. Beltoise won the 1972 Monaco Grand Prix with BRM.

---

26/04/1933

Carol Burnett, American actress, singer, and producer

Carol Creighton Burnett is an American comedian, actress, singer and writer. Burnett has played dramatic and comedic roles on stage and screen. She has received numerous awards and accolades, including seven Golden Globe Awards, a Grammy Award, seven Primetime Emmy Awards, twelve People's Choice Awards, two Peabody Awards and a Tony Award. Burnett has been honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1975, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2013, and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2015.

---

Al McCoy, American sports announcer (died 2024)

Allen Leonard McCoy was an American sportscaster who was the play-by-play announcer for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association from 1972 to 2023. The 2022–23 NBA season was his 51st and final season. He is the longest-tenured broadcaster in NBA history.

---

Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, Puerto Rican-American general (died 2005)

Filiberto Ojeda Ríos was a Puerto Rican independence activist who cofounded the Boricua Popular Army, also known as Los Macheteros, and its predecessor, the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (FALN). In 1990, Ojeda Ríos became a fugitive of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), wanted for his role in the 1983 Águila Blanca heist, which netted more than US$7 million, as well as a bail bond default on September 23 of that year. On September 23, 2005, he was killed during an exchange of gunfire with FBI agents after they surrounded the house in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico.

---

Arno Allan Penzias, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2024)

Arno Allan Penzias was an American physicist and radio astronomer. He shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics with Robert Woodrow Wilson "for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation".

---

26/04/1932

Israr Ahmed, Indian-Pakistani theologian, philosopher, and scholar (died 2010)

Dr.Israr Ahmad was a Pakistani Islamic scholar, theologian and orator. He developed a following in Pakistan and the rest of South Asia and also among some South Asian Muslims in the Middle East, Western Europe, and North America. He founded Tanzeem-e-Islami and also served as a member of the National Assembly from 1981 to 1982.

---

Shirley Cawley, English long jumper

Shirley Cawley is a British former athlete who won the bronze medal in the long jump at the 1952 Summer Olympics held in Helsinki, Finland.

---

Frank D'Rone, American singer and guitarist (died 2013)

Frank D'Rone was an American jazz singer and guitarist.

---

Francis Lai, French accordion player and composer (died 2018)

Francis Albert Lai was a French composer, noted for his film scores. He won the 1970 Oscar for Best Music, Original Score and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for the film Love Story. The soundtrack album went to No. 2 in the Billboard album charts and the film's theme, "Where Do I Begin", was a hit single for Andy Williams.

---

Michael Smith, English-Canadian biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2000)

Michael Smith was a British-Canadian biochemist and businessman. He shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Kary Mullis for his work in developing site-directed mutagenesis. Following a PhD in 1956 from the University of Manchester, he undertook postdoctoral research with Har Gobind Khorana at the British Columbia Research Council in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Subsequently, Smith worked at the Fisheries Research Board of Canada Laboratory in Vancouver before being appointed a professor of biochemistry in the UBC Faculty of Medicine in 1966. Smith's career included roles as the founding director of the UBC Biotechnology Laboratory and the founding scientific leader of the Protein Engineering Network of Centres of Excellence (PENCE). In 1996 he was named Peter Wall Distinguished Professor of Biotechnology. Subsequently, he became the founding director of the Genome Sequencing Centre at the BC Cancer Research Centre.

---

26/04/1931

Paul Almond, Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2015)

Paul Almond was a Canadian television and motion picture screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist. He is most known for being the director of the first film in the Up series.

---

Bernie Brillstein, American talent agent and producer (died 2008)

Bernard Jules Brillstein was an American film and television producer, executive producer, and talent agent.

---

John Cain Jr., Australian politician, 41st Premier of Victoria (died 2019)

John Cain was an Australian politician who was the 41st Premier of Victoria, in office from 1982 to 1990 as leader of the Labor Party. During his time as premier, reforms were introduced such as liberalised shop trading hours and liquor laws, equal opportunity initiatives, and occupational health and safety legislation.

---

26/04/1930

Roger Moens, Belgian runner and sportscaster

Roger Moens is a Belgian former middle-distance runner. In 1955 he broke Rudolf Harbig's long-standing world record over 800 meters. At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome he won a silver medal in the 800 m.

---

26/04/1929

Richard Mitchell, American author and educator (died 2002)

Richard Mitchell was a professor, first of English and later of classics, at Glassboro State College in Glassboro, New Jersey. He gained fame in the late-1970s as the founder and publisher of The Underground Grammarian, a newsletter of opinion and criticism that ran until 1992, and wrote four books expounding his views on the relationships among language, education, and ethics.

---

26/04/1927

Jack Douglas, English actor (died 2008)

John Douglas Roberton, known professionally as Jack Douglas or Jack D. Douglas, was an English actor best known for his portrayals in the Carry On films.

---

Anne McLaren, British scientist (died 2007)

Dame Anne Laura Dorinthea McLaren, was a British scientist who was a leading figure in developmental biology. She paved the way for women in science and her work helped lead to human in vitro fertilisation (IVF). She left an enduring legacy marked by her research and ethical contributions to the field. She received many honors for her contributions to science, including election as fellow of the Royal Society.

---

Harry Gallatin, American basketball player and coach (died 2015)

Harry Junior "The Horse" Gallatin was an American professional basketball player and coach. Gallatin played nine seasons for the New York Knicks in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1948 to 1957, as well as one season with the Detroit Pistons in the 1957–58 season. Gallatin led the NBA in rebounding and was named to the All-NBA First Team in 1954. The following year, he was named to the All-NBA Second Team. For his career, Gallatin played in seven NBA All-Star Games. A member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, he is also a member of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, the SIU Edwardsville Athletics Hall of Fame, the Truman State University Athletics Hall of Fame, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, two Illinois Basketball Halls of Fame, the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) Hall of Fame, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Hall of Fame, and the SIU Salukis Hall of Fame.

---

Granny Hamner, American baseball player (died 1993)

Granville Wilbur "Granny" Hamner was an American professional baseball shortstop and second baseman in Major League Baseball (MLB). Hamner was one of the key players on the "Whiz Kids", the 1950 National League (NL) champion Philadelphia Phillies.

---

26/04/1926

David Coleman, British sports commentator and television presenter (died 2013)

David Robert Coleman was a British sports commentator and television presenter who worked for the BBC for 46 years. He covered eleven Summer Olympic Games from 1960 to 2000 and six FIFA World Cups from 1962 to 1982.

---

Michael Mathias Prechtl, German soldier and illustrator (died 2003)

Michael Mathias Prechtl was a German artist, illustrator and cartoonist.

---

26/04/1925

Vladimir Boltyansky, Russian mathematician, educator and author (died 2019)

Vladimir Grigorevich Boltyansky, also transliterated as Boltyanski, Boltyanskii, or Boltjansky, was a Soviet and Russian mathematician, educator and author of popular mathematical books and articles. He was best known for his books on topology, combinatorial geometry and Hilbert's third problem.

---

Gerard Cafesjian, American businessman and philanthropist (died 2013)

Gerard Leon Cafesjian was a businessman and philanthropist who founded the Cafesjian Family Foundation (CFF), the Cafesjian Museum Foundation (CMF) and the Cafesjian Center for the Arts.

---

Michele Ferrero, Italian entrepreneur (died 2015)

Michele Ferrero was an Italian billionaire businessman. He owned the chocolate manufacturer Ferrero SpA, Europe's second-largest confectionery company, which he developed from the small bakery and café of his father in Alba, Piedmont. His first big success was his work with Francesco Rivella in adding vegetable oil to the traditional gianduja paste to make the popular spread Nutella.

---

Frank Hahn, British economist (died 2013)

Frank Horace Hahn FBA was a British economist whose work focused on general equilibrium theory, monetary theory, Keynesian economics and critique of monetarism. A famous problem of economic theory, the conditions under which money, which is intrinsically worthless, can have a positive value in a general equilibrium, is called "Hahn's problem" after him. One of Hahn's main abiding concerns was the understanding of Keynesian (Non-Walrasian) outcomes in general equilibrium situations.

---

26/04/1924

Browning Ross, American runner and soldier (died 1998)

Harris Browning 'Brownie' Ross is often referred to as the father of long-distance running in the United States.

---

26/04/1922

J. C. Holt, English historian and academic (died 2014)

Sir James Clarke Holt, also known as J. C. Holt and Jim Holt, was an English medieval historian, known particularly for his work on Magna Carta. He was the third Master of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, serving between 1981 and 1988.

---

Jeanne Sauvé, Canadian journalist and politician, Governor General of Canada (died 1993)

Jeanne Mathilde Sauvé was a Canadian politician, journalist and stateswoman who served as the 23rd governor general of Canada from 1984 to 1990 and as the 29th speaker of the House of Commons from 1980 to 1984. She was the first woman to hold either office, and is to date the only woman to serve as speaker of the House of Commons.

---

Margaret Scott, South African-Australian ballerina and choreographer (died 2019)

Dame Catherine Margaret Mary Scott, was a South African-born pioneering ballet dancer who found fame as a teacher, choreographer, and school administrator in Australia. As the first director of the Australian Ballet School, she is recognised as one of the founders of the strong ballet tradition of her adopted country.

---

26/04/1921

Jimmy Giuffre, American clarinet player, saxophonist, and composer (died 2008)

James Peter Giuffre was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He is known for developing forms of jazz which allowed for free interplay between the musicians, anticipating forms of free improvisation.

---

26/04/1918

Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch sprinter and long jumper (died 2004)

Francina Elsje "Fanny" Blankers-Koen was a Dutch track and field athlete, best known for winning four gold medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. She competed there as a 30-year-old mother of two, earning her the nickname "the Flying Housewife", and was the most successful athlete at the event.

---

26/04/1917

Sal Maglie, American baseball player and coach (died 1992)

Salvatore Anthony Maglie was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB), and later a scout and a pitching coach. He played from 1945 to 1958 for the New York Giants, Cleveland Indians, Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Yankees, and St. Louis Cardinals. Maglie was known as "Sal the Barber", because he gave close shaves—that is, pitched inside to hitters. A gentle personality off the field went unnoticed during games, his foreboding physical appearance contributing to his menacing presence on a pitcher's mound. He was the last of 14 players to play for the Giants, Dodgers and Yankees at a time when all three teams were in New York City. During a 10-year major league baseball career, Maglie compiled 119 wins, 862 strikeouts, and a 3.15 earned run average.

---

I. M. Pei, Chinese-American architect, designed the National Gallery of Art and Bank of China Tower (died 2019)

Ieoh Ming Pei was a Chinese-American architect.

---

Virgil Trucks, American baseball player and coach (died 2013)

Virgil Oliver "Fire" Trucks was an American professional baseball pitcher in Major League Baseball with the Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Browns, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Athletics and New York Yankees between 1941 and 1958. He batted and threw right-handed.

---

26/04/1916

Eyvind Earle, American artist, author, and illustrator (died 2000)

Eyvind Earle was an American artist, author and illustrator, noted for his contribution to the background illustration and styling of Disney's animated films in the 1950s. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rahr West Art Museum, Phoenix Art Museum and Arizona State University Art Museum have purchased Earle's works for their permanent collections. His works have also been shown in many one-man exhibitions throughout the world.

---

Ken Wallis, English commander, engineer, and pilot (died 2013)

Wing Commander Kenneth Horatio Wallis was a British aviator, engineer, and inventor. During the Second World War, Wallis served in the Royal Air Force and flew 28 bomber missions over Germany; after the war, he moved on to research and development, before retiring in 1964. He later became one of the leading exponents of autogyros and earned 34 world records, still holding eight of them at the time of his death in 2013.

---

Morris West, Australian author and playwright (died 1999)

Morris Langlo West was an Australian novelist and playwright, best known for his novels The Devil's Advocate (1959), The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963) and The Clowns of God (1981). His books were published in 27 languages and sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. Each new book he wrote after he became an established writer sold more than one million copies.

---

26/04/1914

Bernard Malamud, American novelist and short story writer (died 1986)

Bernard Malamud was an American novelist and short story writer. Along with Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Norman Mailer and Philip Roth, he was one of the best known American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseball novel The Natural was adapted into a 1984 film starring Robert Redford. His 1966 novel The Fixer, about antisemitism in the Russian Empire, won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

---

James Rouse, American real estate developer (died 1996)

James Wilson Rouse was an American businessman and founder of The Rouse Company. Rouse was a pioneering American real estate developer, urban planner, civic activist, and later, free enterprise-based philanthropist. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award, for his lifetime achievements.

---

26/04/1912

A. E. van Vogt, Canadian-American author (died 2000)

Alfred Elton van Vogt was a Canadian-born American science fiction writer. His fragmented, bizarre narrative style influenced later science fiction writers, including Philip K. Dick. He was one of the most popular and influential practitioners of science fiction in the mid-twentieth century, the genre's so-called Golden Age, and one of the most complex. The Science Fiction Writers of America named him their 14th Grand Master in 1995.

---

26/04/1911

Paul Verner, German soldier and politician (died 1986)

Paul Verner was a German communist politician. He joined the communist movement at a young age and went into exile during Adolf Hitler's rule. Verner became a prominent political personality in the German Democratic Republic after the war.

---

26/04/1910

Tomoyuki Tanaka, Japanese screenwriter and producer (died 1997)

Tomoyuki "Yūkō" Tanaka was a Japanese film producer, best known as the creator of Godzilla. He produced most of the installments in the Godzilla series, beginning in 1954 with Godzilla and ending in 1995 with Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. He was one of the most prolific Japanese producers of all time, having worked on more than 200 films, including over 80 tokusatsu films and six of Akira Kurosawa's films, notably Yojimbo and Kagemusha.

---

26/04/1909

Marianne Hoppe, German actress (died 2002)

Marianne Hoppe was a German theatre and film actress.

---

26/04/1907

Ilias Tsirimokos, Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece (died 1968)

Ilias Tsirimokos was a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece for a very brief period.

---

26/04/1905

Jean Vigo, French director and screenwriter (died 1934)

Jean Vigo was a French film director who helped establish poetic realism in film in the 1930s. His work influenced French New Wave cinema of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

---

26/04/1904

Paul-Émile Léger, Canadian cardinal (died 1991)

Paul-Émile Léger was a Canadian Catholic prelate, educator, missionary, and humanitarian. A member of the Society of Saint-Sulpice, he served as Archbishop of Montreal from 1950 to 1967 and was elevated to the College of Cardinals in 1953 by Pope Pius XII. Known for his eloquent preaching, progressive leadership during the Second Vatican Council, and dedication to the poor, Léger resigned his archdiocese in 1967 to pursue missionary work among lepers and the disabled in Africa, where he established numerous aid projects. His humanitarian efforts extended globally, founding several foundations that continue to operate as of 2025. Léger's legacy endures through institutions bearing his name, such as the Centre National de Réhabilitation des Personnes Handicapées Cardinal Paul-Émile Léger in Cameroon, and commemorations marking his contributions to ecumenism, social justice, and church reform. He was the elder brother of Jules Léger, who served as Governor General of Canada from 1974 to 1979.

---

Xenophon Zolotas, Greek economist and politician, 177th Prime Minister of Greece (died 2004)

Xenophon Euthymiou Zolotas was a Greek economist who served as an interim non-party Prime Minister of Greece.

---

26/04/1900

Eva Aschoff, German bookbinder and calligrapher (died 1969)

Eva Aschoff was a German visual artist known for her bookbinding and calligraphy.

---

Charles Francis Richter, American seismologist and physicist (died 1985)

Charles Francis Richter was an American seismologist and physicist. He is the namesake and one of the creators of the Richter scale, which, until the development of the moment magnitude scale in 1979, was widely used to quantify the size of earthquakes. Inspired by Kiyoo Wadati's 1928 paper on shallow and deep earthquakes, Richter first used the scale in 1935 after developing it in collaboration with Beno Gutenberg; both worked at the California Institute of Technology.

---

Hack Wilson, American baseball player (died 1948)

Lewis Robert "Hack" Wilson was an American Major League Baseball player who played 12 seasons for the New York Giants, Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. Despite his diminutive stature, he was one of the most accomplished power hitters in the game during the late 1920s and early 1930s. His 1930 season with the Cubs is widely considered one of the most memorable individual single-season hitting performances in baseball history. Highlights included 56 home runs, the National League record for 68 years, and 191 runs batted in, an MLB record yet to be approached; the closest any player has come to having that many RBIs came in the very next season, when Lou Gehrighad 185 for the New York Yankees. "For a brief span of a few years," wrote a sportswriter of the day, "this hammered down little strongman actually rivaled the mighty Ruth."

---

26/04/1899

Oscar Rabin, Latvian-English saxophonist and bandleader (died 1958)

Oscar Rabin was a Latvian-born English bandleader and musician. He was the musical director of his own big band.

---

26/04/1898

Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish poet and author, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1984)

Vicente Pío Marcelino Cirilo Aleixandre y Merlo was a Spanish poet who was born in Seville. Aleixandre received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1977 "for a creative poetic writing which illuminates man's condition in the cosmos and in present-day society, at the same time representing the great renewal of the traditions of Spanish poetry between the wars". He was part of the Generation of '27.

---

John Grierson, Scottish director and producer (died 1972)

John Grierson was a Scottish filmmaker, film theorist, and critic, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. In 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" in a review of Robert J. Flaherty's Moana. In 1939, Grierson established the all-time Canadian film institutional production and distribution company The National Film Board of Canada controlled by the Government of Canada.

---

26/04/1897

Eddie Eagan, American boxer and bobsledder (died 1967)

Edward Patrick Francis Eagan was an American athlete who won a gold medal as a light-heavyweight boxer at the 1920 Summer Olympics and a gold medal in four-man bobsled at the 1932 Winter Olympics. Few athletes have competed in both the Summer and Winter Olympic games; Eagan is the only one to have won gold in each in different events.

---

Douglas Sirk, German-American director and screenwriter (died 1987)

Douglas Sirk was a German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s. However, he also directed comedies, westerns, and war films. Sirk started his career in Germany as a stage and screen director, but he left for Hollywood in 1937 after his Jewish wife was persecuted by the Nazis.

---

26/04/1896

Ruut Tarmo, Estonian actor and director (died 1967)

Ruut Tarmo was an Estonian stage and film actor and stage director whose career spanned more than five decades.

---

Ernst Udet, leading German fighter pilot in World War I and Chief of Procurement and Supply in the Luftwaffe (died 1941)

Ernst Udet was a German pilot during World War I and a Luftwaffe Colonel-General (Generaloberst) during World War II.

---

26/04/1894

Rudolf Hess, German politician and Deputy Führer in Nazi regime until 1941 (died 1987)

Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a German politician, convicted war criminal, and a leading member of the Nazi Party in Germany. Appointed Deputy to the Führer in 1933, Hess held that position until 1941, when he flew solo to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate the United Kingdom's exit from the Second World War. He was taken prisoner and eventually convicted of crimes against peace. He was still serving his life sentence and 93 years old at the time of his suicide in 1987.

---

26/04/1889

Anita Loos, American author, playwright, and screenwriter (died 1981)

Corinne Anita Loos was an American actress, novelist, playwright and screenwriter. In 1912, she became the first female staff screenwriter in Hollywood, when D. W. Griffith put her on the payroll at Triangle Film Corporation. She is best known for her 1925 comic novel, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, her screenplay of the 1939 adaptation of The Women, and her 1951 Broadway adaptation of Colette's novella Gigi.

---

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian-English philosopher and academic (died 1951)

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austro-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language.

---

26/04/1886

Ma Rainey, American singer-songwriter (died 1939)

Gertrude "Ma" Rainey was an American blues singer and influential early-blues recording artist. Dubbed the "Mother of the Blues", she bridged earlier vaudeville and the authentic expression of southern blues, influencing a generation of blues singers. Rainey was known for her powerful vocal abilities, energetic disposition, majestic phrasing, and a "moaning" style of singing. Her qualities are present and most evident in her early recordings "Bo-Weevil Blues" and "Moonshine Blues".

---

Ğabdulla Tuqay, Russian poet and publicist (died 1913)

Ğabdulla Möxəmmətğərif ulı Tuqay was a Tatar poet, critic, publisher, and towering figure of Tatar literature. Tuqay is often referred to as the founder of modern Tatar literature and the modern Tatar literary language, which replaced Old Tatar.

---

26/04/1879

Eric Campbell, British actor (died 1917)

Alfred Eric Campbell was an English actor. He was a key member of Charlie Chaplin's film ensemble, invariably playing an intimidating bully, and appeared in eleven of Chaplin's films before he was killed in a car crash at the age of 38. He is the subject of a 1996 documentary by filmmaker Kevin Macdonald.

---

Owen Willans Richardson, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1959)

Sir Owen Willans Richardson was a British physicist who received the 1928 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on thermionic emission and for the discovery of Richardson's law.

---

26/04/1878

Rafael Guízar y Valencia, Mexican bishop and saint (died 1938)

Rafael Guízar y Valencia was a Mexican bishop of the Roman Catholic Church who was persecuted during the Mexican Revolution. Named Bishop of Xalapa in 1919, he was driven out of his diocese and forced to live the remainder of his life in hiding in Mexico City. Pope Benedict XVI canonized Guízar on 15 October 2006.

---

26/04/1877

James Dooley, Irish-Australian politician, 21st Premier of New South Wales (died 1950)

James Thomas Dooley was an Australian political figure who served twice, briefly, as Premier of New South Wales during the early 1920s.

---

26/04/1876

Ernst Felle, German rower (died 1959)

Ferdinand Ernst Felle was a German rower who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics. He was part of the German boat Ludwigshafener Ruderverein, which won the bronze medal in the coxed four final B.

---

26/04/1865

Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Finnish artist (died 1931)

Akseli Gallen-Kallela was a Finnish painter who is best known for his illustrations of the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. His work is considered a very important aspect of the Finnish national identity. He finnicized his name from Gallén to Gallen-Kallela in 1907.

---

26/04/1862

Edmund C. Tarbell, American painter and educator (died 1938)

Edmund Charles Tarbell was an American Impressionist painter. A member of the Ten American Painters, his work hangs in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Corcoran Gallery of Art, DeYoung Museum, National Academy Museum and School, New Britain Museum of American Art, Worcester Art Museum, and numerous other collections. He was a leading member of a group of painters which came to be known as the Boston School.

---

26/04/1856

Joseph Ward, Australian-New Zealand businessman and politician, 17th Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1930)

Sir Joseph George Ward, 1st Baronet, was a New Zealand politician who served as the 17th prime minister of New Zealand from 1906 to 1912 and from 1928 to 1930. He was a dominant figure in the Liberal and United ministries of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

---

26/04/1834

Charles Farrar Browne, American author (died 1867)

Charles Farrar Browne was an American humor writer, better known under his nom de plume, Artemus Ward. Ward was the character of an illiterate rube with "Yankee common sense", whom Browne also played in public performances. He is considered to be America's first stand-up comedian. His birth name was Brown but he added the "e" after he became famous.

---

26/04/1822

Frederick Law Olmsted, American journalist and designer, co-designed Central Park (died 1903)

Frederick Law Olmsted was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the United States. Olmsted was famous for co-designing many well-known urban parks with his partner Calvert Vaux, beginning with Central Park in New York City, which led to numerous other urban park designs including Prospect Park in Brooklyn, Cadwalader Park in Trenton, New Jersey, and Forest Park in Portland, Oregon.

---

26/04/1804

Charles Goodyear, American banker, lawyer, and politician (died 1876)

Charles Goodyear was a banker, attorney, and politician from New York. He was most notable for his service as a United States representative from 1845 to 1847 and 1865 to 1867.

---

26/04/1801

Ambrose Dudley Mann, American politician and diplomat, 1st United States Assistant Secretary of State (died 1889)

Ambrose Dudley Mann was the first United States Assistant Secretary of State and a commissioner for the Confederate States of America.

---

26/04/1798

Eugène Delacroix, French painter and lithographer (died 1863)

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.

---

26/04/1787

Ludwig Uhland, German poet, philologist, and historian (died 1862)

Johann Ludwig Uhland was a German poet, philologist, literary historian, lawyer and politician.

---

26/04/1785

John James Audubon, French-American ornithologist and painter (died 1851)

John James Audubon was a French-American artist, entrepreneur, naturalist, explorer, and ornithologist. His combined interests in painting and ornithology turned into a plan to make a complete pictorial record of all the bird species of North America. He was notable for his extensive studies of American birds and for his detailed illustrations, which were engraved in Scotland and England for a large-format color-plate (intaglio) book titled The Birds of America (1827–1838), and five volumes of accompanying text entitled Ornithological Biography (1831–1839).

---

26/04/1782

Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily, Queen of France (died 1866)

Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily was Queen of the French by marriage to Louis Philippe I, King of the French. She was the last Queen of the French.

---

26/04/1774

Christian Leopold von Buch, German geologist and paleontologist (died 1853)

Christian Leopold von Buch, usually cited as Leopold von Buch, was a German geologist and paleontologist born in Stolpe an der Oder and is remembered as one of the most important contributors to geology in the first half of the nineteenth century. His scientific interest was devoted to a broad spectrum of geological topics: volcanism, petrology, fossils, stratigraphy and mountain formation. His most remembered accomplishment is the scientific definition of the Jurassic system.

---

26/04/1718

Esek Hopkins, American commander (died 1802)

Commodore Esek Hopkins was a Continental Navy officer and privateer. He served as the only commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War, when the Continental Congress appointed him to the position in December 1775. Hopkins is known for carrying out the successful raid of Nassau in the Bahamas, which captured large amounts of military supplies. His legacy today has become controversial due to Hopkins' involvement in the Atlantic slave trade and for torturing British prisoners of war.

---

26/04/1710

Thomas Reid, Scottish philosopher and academic (died 1796)

Thomas Reid was a religiously trained Scottish philosopher best known for his philosophical method, his theory of perception, and its wide implications on epistemology, and as the developer and defender of an agent-causal theory of free will. He also focused extensively on ethics, theory of action, language and philosophy of mind.

---

26/04/1697

Adam Falckenhagen, German lute player and composer (died 1754)

Adam Falckenhagen was a German lutenist and composer of the Baroque period.

---

26/04/1648

Peter II of Portugal (died 1706)

Dom Pedro II, nicknamed the Pacific was King of Portugal from 1683 until his death, previously serving as regent for his brother Afonso VI from 1668 until his own accession. He was the fifth and last child of John IV and Luisa de Guzmán.

---

26/04/1647

William Ashhurst, English banker, Sheriff of London, Lord Mayor of London and politician (died 1720)

Sir William Ashhurst was a British banker, merchant and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons from 1689 to 1710. He also served as the Lord Mayor of London in 1693.

---

26/04/1575

Marie de' Medici, queen of Henry IV of France (died 1642)

Marie de' Medici was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Henry IV. Marie served as regent of France between 1610 and 1617 during the minority of her son Louis XIII. Her mandate as regent legally expired in 1614, when her son reached the age of majority, but she refused to resign and continued as regent until she was removed by a coup in 1617.

---

26/04/1538

Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Italian painter and academic (died 1600)

Gian Paolo Lomazzo was an Italian artist and writer on art. Praised as a painter, Lomazzo wrote about artistic practice and art theory after blindness compelled him to pursue a different professional path by 1571. Lomazzo's written works were especially influential to second generation Mannerism in Italian art and architecture.

---

26/04/1319

John II of France (died 1364)

John II, called John the Good, was King of France from 1350 until his death in 1364. When he came to power, France faced several disasters: the Black Death, which killed between a third and a half of its population; popular revolts known as Jacqueries; free companies of routiers who plundered the country; and English aggression that resulted in catastrophic military losses, including the Battle of Poitiers of 1356, in which John was captured.

---

26/04/1284

Alice de Toeni, Countess of Warwick (died 1324)

Alice de Toeni, Countess of Warwick was a wealthy English heiress and the second wife of Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick, an English nobleman in the reign of kings Edward I and Edward II. He was one of the principal opponents of Piers Gaveston, a favourite of Edward II. Alice married three times; Guy was her second husband.

---

26/04/0764

Al-Hadi, Abbasid caliph (died 786)

Abū Muḥammad Mūsā ibn al-Mahdī al-Hādī better known by his laqab al-Hādī (الهادي‎) was the fourth Abbasid caliph who succeeded his father al-Mahdi and ruled from 169 AH until his death in 170 AH. His short reign ended with internal chaos and power struggles with his mother.

---

26/04/0757

Hisham I of Córdoba (died 796)

Year 757 (DCCLVII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 757 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

---

26/04/0121

Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor (died 180)

Year 121 (CXXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Verus and Augur. The denomination 121 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

---