What happened on 27th April?

On this day, 187 notable people were born on 27th April — spanning from -85 to 2005. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

27/04/2005

Mathys Tel, French footballer

Mathys Henri Tel is a French professional footballer who plays as a left winger or forward for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur.

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27/04/2004

Arch Manning, American football player

Archibald Charles Manning is an American college football quarterback for the Texas Longhorns. He is a member of the Manning family of football players.

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27/04/2003

Xavier Worthy, American football player

Xavier Worthy is an American professional football wide receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Texas Longhorns, earning three All-Big 12 honors. Worthy holds the 40-yard dash record at the NFL Combine and was selected by the Chiefs in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft.

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27/04/2002

Anthony Elanga, Swedish footballer

Anthony David Junior Elanga is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a forward or winger for Premier League club Newcastle United and the Sweden national team.

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27/04/1999

Peter Hola, Australian rugby league player

Peter Hola is a professional rugby league footballer who plays as a prop for the Newcastle Knights in the National Rugby League (NRL) and the Norths Devils in the Queensland Cup.

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27/04/1998

Cristian Romero, Argentine footballer

Cristian Gabriel Romero is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, which he captains, and the Argentina national team.

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27/04/1997

Jesse Ramien, Australian rugby league player

Jesse Ramien is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a centre for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the National Rugby League (NRL).

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27/04/1995

Nick Kyrgios, Australian tennis player

Nicholas Hilmy Kyrgios, is an Australian professional tennis player. Kyrgios currently ranks 741 in the ATP and has been ranked as high as world No. 13 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), achieved on 24 October 2016. He has won seven ATP Tour singles titles, including the 2019 and 2022 Washington Open, and reached eleven finals, most notably a major final at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships. In doubles, Kyrgios has a career-high ranking of world No. 11, achieved on 7 November 2022, winning a major doubles title at the 2022 Australian Open while partnering with Thanasi Kokkinakis.

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27/04/1994

Corey Seager, American baseball player

Corey Drew Seager is an American professional baseball shortstop for the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He is often regarded as one of the best shortstops of his generation.

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27/04/1992

Keenan Allen, American football player

Keenan Alexander Allen is an American professional football wide receiver. He played college football for the California Golden Bears before leaving after his junior year. He was selected by the then San Diego Chargers in the third round of the 2013 NFL draft. Allen has also played for the Chicago Bears.

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27/04/1991

Lara Gut, Swiss skier

Lara Gut-Behrami is a Swiss World Cup alpine ski racer who competes in all disciplines and specializes in the speed events of downhill and Super-G. She won the gold medal in the super-G event at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. With 48 World Cup victories to her name across 3 disciplines, she is one of the all-time greats in Alpine skiing history. She is the first woman with at least ten World Cup victories in three different disciplines. With six Super-G globes, which is an overall record, 24 World Cup victories and both an olympic and world championships gold medal, she can be considered the most successful alpine skier in Super-G of all time.

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27/04/1990

Austin Dillon, American race car driver

Austin Reed Dillon is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 3 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Richard Childress Racing. He is the grandson of RCR team owner Richard Childress, the older brother of Ty Dillon, who competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, and the son of Mike Dillon, a former racing driver who currently works as RCR's general manager.

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27/04/1989

Lars Bender, German footballer

Lars Bender is a German professional football coach and former player who played as a right-back or defensive midfielder. He is currently the manager of Regionalliga Bayern club SV Wacker Burghausen. He is the twin brother of fellow coach and former player Sven Bender.

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Sven Bender, German footballer

Sven Bender is a German former professional footballer who played as a centre-back or defensive midfielder. He is currently the manager of Regionalliga club SpVgg Unterhaching. He is the twin brother of fellow coach and former player Lars Bender.

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27/04/1988

Lizzo, American singer and rapper

Melissa Viviane Jefferson, known professionally as Lizzo, is an American singer, rapper, songwriter, and actress. Born in Detroit, Michigan, she moved to Houston, Texas, with her family at the age of 10. After college, she moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she began her recording career in hip-hop. Lizzo released two studio albums, Lizzobangers (2013) and Big Grrrl Small World (2015), before signing with Nice Life Recording Company and Atlantic Records. Her first major-label extended play (EP), Coconut Oil, was released in 2016.

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Semyon Varlamov, Russian ice hockey player

Semyon Aleksandrovich Varlamov is a Russian professional ice hockey player who is a goaltender for the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League (NHL).

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27/04/1987

Taylor Chorney, American ice hockey player

Taylor Chorney is a Canadian-born American former professional ice hockey player. A defenceman, he played parts of eight seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Edmonton Oilers, St. Louis Blues, Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals, and Columbus Blue Jackets.

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William Moseley, English actor

William Peter Moseley is an English actor. He is known for his portrayal of Peter Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia (2005–2010) trilogy, which won him a Kids' Choice Award, in addition to nominations for a Saturn Award and a Young Artist Award. He also played Prince Liam in the E! series The Royals (2015–2018).

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Wang Feifei, Chinese singer and actress

Wang Feifei, known professionally as Fei, is a Chinese singer and actress. She was a member of the South Korean girl group miss A from the group's debut in 2010 until its disbandment in 2017. She debuted as a solo artist in 2016 in Korea with the mini album "Fantasy". After departing Korea in 2018, Fei has been pursuing her solo career in mainland China. In 2021, Fei released Chinese mini album "Fearless", an independent production by Wang Feifei Studio. She had also ventured into acting in China with roles in My Marvelous Fable and One and Only.

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27/04/1986

Jenna Coleman, English actress

Jenna-Louise Coleman is an English actress, whose roles include Jasmine Thomas in Emmerdale (2005–2009), Clara Oswald in Doctor Who and Queen Victoria in Victoria (2016–2019). She has received accolades including nominations for an International Emmy Award, as well as for the BAFTA Cymru and BAFTA Scotland Awards.

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Dinara Safina, Russian tennis player

Dinara Mubinovna Safina is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 26 weeks, and world No. 8 in doubles. Safina won twelve WTA Tour-level singles titles and nine in doubles, including the women's doubles title at the 2007 US Open with Nathalie Dechy. She was the runner-up at three major singles tournaments: the 2008 French Open, 2009 Australian Open, and 2009 French Open, and won an Olympic silver medal in singles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

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27/04/1985

Meselech Melkamu, Ethiopian runner

Meselech Melkamu is an Ethiopian long-distance runner. She defeated Meseret Defar to win the 5000 metres gold medal at the 2008 African Athletics Championships, but she is better known for her 29:53.80 run over 10,000 metres in 2009, which until August 2016 ranked her second on the all-time list behind world record holder Wang Junxia. She is one of seven women in history to break the 30-minute barrier and one of four Ethiopians to accomplish the feat.

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27/04/1984

Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Canadian ice hockey player

Pierre-Marc Bouchard is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Bouchard played his junior hockey with the Chicoutimi Saguenéens in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), and is the older brother of François Bouchard. Bouchard was selected eighth overall in the 2002 NHL entry draft by the Minnesota Wild and also played with the New York Islanders. He is the cousin of P. A. Parenteau.

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Daniel Holdsworth, Australian rugby league player

Daniel Holdsworth is an Australian former professional rugby league five-eighth who played in the 2000s and 2010s.

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Patrick Stump, American musician, singer, and songwriter

Patrick Martin Stumph, known professionally as Patrick Vaughn Stump, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is the lead vocalist and guitarist of the rock band Fall Out Boy, originally from Glenview, Illinois.

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27/04/1983

Ari Graynor, American actress and producer

Ariel Geltman Graynor is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in the television series The Sopranos (2001), Fringe (2009–2010), Bad Teacher (2014), I'm Dying Up Here (2017), and Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (2024). In film, she has starred in Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008), The Sitter (2011), For a Good Time, Call... (2012), and The Disaster Artist (2017).

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27/04/1980

Sybille Bammer, Austrian tennis player

Sybille Bammer is a former professional tennis player from Austria. Her career-high ranking is No. 19, which she achieved on 17 December 2007.

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Christian Lara, Ecuadorian footballer

Christian Rolando Lara Anangonó, nicknamed Diablito, is an Ecuadorian former footballer who played as a left winger. His last club was Sociedad Atlética Sancor, a team competing in Ecuador’s Segunda Categoría, the third tier of the national football league system. He was an international player for the Ecuador national football team and was part of the squad that participated in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

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27/04/1979

Vladimir Kozlov, Ukrainian actor and wrestler

Oleg Aleksandrovich Prudius better known by his ring name Vladimir Kozlov, is a Ukrainian-American actor and professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he won the WWE Tag Team Championship once with Santino Marella. He is trained in freestyle wrestling, rugby, football, sambo, kickboxing, judo, jujutsu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts.

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27/04/1976

Isobel Campbell, Scottish singer-songwriter and cellist

Isobel Campbell is a Scottish singer, songwriter and cellist. She rose to prominence at age nineteen as a member of the indie pop band Belle & Sebastian, but left the group to pursue a solo career, first as the Gentle Waves, and later under her own name. She later collaborated with singer Mark Lanegan on three albums. Her latest studio album, Bow To Love, was released in 2024.

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Sally Hawkins, English actress

Sally Cecilia Hawkins is an English actress of stage and screen. She began her career on stage and then moved into film, for which she has received several accolades including a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and two British Academy Film Awards.

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Walter Pandiani, Uruguayan footballer

Walter Gerardo Pandiani Urquiza is a Uruguayan football manager and former player who played as a striker. He is the current manager of Tercera Federación club Palencia.

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27/04/1975

Chris Carpenter, American baseball player

Christopher John Carpenter is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played 15 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays and St. Louis Cardinals from 1997 to 2012. A Cy Young Award winner and two-time World Series champion, he was also a three-time All-Star selection. Additionally, he was twice named the Sporting News National League Pitcher of the Year, and received votes for a number of Comeback Player of the Year awards after surmounting various injuries.

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Pedro Feliz, Dominican baseball player

Pedro Julio Feliz, is a Dominican former professional baseball third baseman, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, Houston Astros, and St. Louis Cardinals.

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Kazuyoshi Funaki, Japanese ski jumper

Kazuyoshi Funaki is a Japanese former ski jumper. He ranked among the most successful sportsmen of its discipline, particularly in the 1990s. Funaki is known for his special variant of the V-style, in which the body lies flatter between the skis than usual.

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27/04/1974

Frank Catalanotto, American baseball player

Frank John Catalanotto is an American baseball coach and former infielder and left fielder, who is the current head baseball coach of the Hofstra Pride. Catalanotto played professional baseball for the Detroit Tigers (1997–1999), the Texas Rangers, the Toronto Blue Jays (2003–2006), the Milwaukee Brewers (2009) and the New York Mets (2010). In his career, Catalanotto played all infield and outfield positions except shortstop and center field. He then went on to be the head baseball coach of the NYIT Bears (2019–2020) and Hofstra Pride (2022–present), leading the latter program to its first-ever NCAA tournament appearance in 2022.

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27/04/1973

Sharlee D'Angelo, Swedish bass player and songwriter

Sharlee D'Angelo is a Swedish musician. He is the bassist for the melodic death metal band Arch Enemy, as well as the classic rock/AOR band the Night Flight Orchestra and the stoner metal band Spiritual Beggars.

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Sébastien Lareau, Canadian tennis player

Sébastien Lareau is a former professional tennis player. He became the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam title by winning the 1999 US Open men's doubles with his American partner Alex O'Brien. He also won his nation's first Olympic tennis medal by claiming gold in men's doubles at the 2000 Sydney Games with Daniel Nestor.

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27/04/1972

Nigel Barker, English photographer and author

Nigel Barker is an English reality TV show personality, fashion photographer, author, spokesperson, filmmaker, and former model. He is best known for his participation as a judge and photographer on the reality show America's Next Top Model, and was the host of reality show The Face for the American series.

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27/04/1969

Cory Booker, African-American lawyer and politician

Cory Anthony Booker is an American politician and lawyer serving as a United States senator from New Jersey, a seat he has held since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Booker is the first African-American U.S. senator from New Jersey. He was the 38th mayor of Newark from 2006 to 2013, and served on the Municipal Council of Newark for the Central Ward from 1998 to 2002.

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Darcey Bussell, English ballerina

Dame Darcey Andrea Bussell is a retired English ballerina and a former judge on the BBC television dance contest Strictly Come Dancing.

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27/04/1968

Dana Milbank, American journalist and author

Dana Timothy Milbank is an American author and former columnist for The Washington Post. He has written books about Al Gore, George W. Bush, Glenn Beck, American politics, and the Republican Party. He has appeared as a pundit on various shows.

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27/04/1967

Willem-Alexander, King of the Netherlands

Willem-Alexander is the current King of the Netherlands, having reigned since 30 April 2013.

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Tommy Smith, Scottish saxophonist, composer, and educator

Thomas William Ellis Smith is a Scottish jazz saxophonist, composer, and educator.

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Erik Thomson, Scottish-New Zealand actor

Erik Thomson is a New Zealand-Australian actor. He played Hades in the television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena Warrior Princess and Young Hercules, Dr. Mitch Stevens in All Saints and Dave Rafter in Packed to the Rafters.

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Jason Whitlock, American football player and journalist

Jason Lee Whitlock is an American former sports columnist who currently hosts a program for the conservative media company Blaze Media titled Fearless with Jason Whitlock. Whitlock was a sports columnist at The Kansas City Star, AOL Sports, Foxsports.com, and ESPN. He was a radio personality for WHB and KCSP sports stations in the Kansas City area. Whitlock played Division I college football at Ball State as an offensive lineman.

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27/04/1966

Siobhan Finneran, English actress

Siobhan Margaret Finneran is a British actress. She made her screen debut in the independent film Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1987) and subsequently worked consistently in television drama including roles in Coronation Street (1989–1990), Clocking Off (2000–2002) and The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (2006). In 2005, Finneran originated the lead female role in the stage play On the Shore of the Wide World and was awarded the Manchester Evening News Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Also a comedy performer, she appeared as Janice Garvey, a leading character in the first seven series of the ITV sitcom Benidorm (2007–2015).

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Peter McIntyre, Australian cricketer

Peter Edward McIntyre is a former Australian cricketer who played in two Test matches in the 1990s.

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Yoshihiro Togashi, Japanese illustrator

Yoshihiro Togashi is a Japanese manga artist. He began drawing manga at an early age and was recognized for his talent by the publishing company Shueisha while attending college. Togashi has authored several different manga series in different genres since the 1980s. He is best known for writing and illustrating YuYu Hakusho (1990–1994) and Hunter × Hunter (1998–present), which are two of the best-selling manga series of all time. Togashi is married to Naoko Takeuchi, the author of Sailor Moon.

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27/04/1965

Anna Chancellor, English actress

Anna Theodora Chancellor is an English actress who has appeared widely on TV, film and in the theatre. She received a nomination for BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Lix Storm in The Hour (2011–2012) and has twice been nominated for Olivier Awards, in 1997 for her performances in Stanley at the National Theatre and again in 2014 for Private Lives at the Gielgud Theatre. She was also nominated for an award at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival in 2007 and for one at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards in 2013.

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27/04/1963

Russell T Davies, Welsh screenwriter and producer

Stephen Russell Davies, known professionally as Russell T Davies, is a Welsh screenwriter and television producer. He is best known for being the original showrunner and head writer of the revival of the BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who, from 2005 to 2010 and again since 2023. His other notable works include creating the series Queer as Folk (1999–2000), Bob & Rose (2001), The Second Coming (2003), Casanova (2005), Doctor Who spin-offs Torchwood (2006–2011), The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007–2011), and The War Between the Land and the Sea (2025), Cucumber (2015), A Very English Scandal (2018), Years and Years (2019), It's a Sin (2021) and Nolly (2023).

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27/04/1962

Ángel Comizzo, Argentinian footballer and manager

Ángel David Comizzo Leiva is an Argentine football manager and former player who played as a goalkeeper.

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Seppo Räty, Finnish javelin thrower and coach

Seppo Henrik Räty is a retired Finnish track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. He was a World Champion, having won gold in 1987. He was also an Olympic medalist. He was nicknamed Tohmajärven karhu and Tohmajärven tykki.

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Im Sang-soo, South Korean director and screenwriter

Im Sang-soo is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. He has twice been invited to compete for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival: first for The Housemaid in 2010, and then The Taste of Money in 2012.

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Andrew Selous, English soldier and politician

Andrew Edmund Armstrong Selous is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for South West Bedfordshire from 2001 until 2024, when the constituency was abolished. Selous stood for the new Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard constituency however the seat was won by the Labour candidate Alex Mayer. Selous lives in Studham in the constituency of Luton South.

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27/04/1961

Andrew Schlafly, American lawyer and activist, founded Conservapedia

Andrew Layton Schlafly is an American lawyer and Christian conservative activist. He is the founder and owner of the wiki encyclopedia project Conservapedia. He is the son of the conservative activist and lawyer Phyllis Schlafly.

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27/04/1960

Mike Krushelnyski, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

Michael "Kruzer" Krushelnyski is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre/left winger who played 14 years in the National Hockey League (NHL). While playing in the NHL, he won three Stanley Cups as a player with the Edmonton Oilers and one as an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings. In a career of 897 games, Krushelnyski recorded 241 goals and 328 assists for 569 career points. He was born in Montreal, Quebec, but grew up in LaSalle, Quebec.

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27/04/1959

Sheena Easton, Scottish-American singer-songwriter, actress, and producer

Sheena Shirley Easton is a Scottish singer, songwriter and actress who rose to prominence in the reality television series The Big Time: Pop Singer (1980). Her record sales worldwide are estimated at 20 million copies, and she became the first artist in Billboard history to have a top-five hit on each of the Billboard primary singles charts. Her commercial prominence in the 1980s led to collaborations with Prince, Kenny Rogers, Babyface, L.A. Reid and Nile Rodgers.

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Marco Pirroni, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

Marco Francesco Andrea Pirroni frequently credited simply as Marco, is a British guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He has worked with Adam Ant, Sinéad O'Connor, Siouxsie and the Banshees and many others from the late 1970s to the present day.

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27/04/1957

Dietmar Keck, Austrian politician

Dietmar Keck is an Austrian politician and member of the National Council. A member of the Social Democratic Party, he has represented Greater Linz since December 2002.

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Willie Upshaw, American baseball player and manager

Willie Clay Upshaw is an American former Major League Baseball player who played first base for the Toronto Blue Jays and Cleveland Indians (1988), both of the American League.

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27/04/1956

Bryan Harvey, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2006)

Bryan Taber Harvey was an American musician noted for his fronting role in House of Freaks.

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27/04/1955

Eric Schmidt, American engineer and businessman

Eric Emerson Schmidt is an American businessman and former computer engineer who was the chief executive officer of Google from 2001 to 2011 and the company's executive chairman from 2011 to 2015. He also was the executive chairman of parent company Alphabet Inc. from 2015 to 2017, and technical advisor at Alphabet from 2017 to 2020. Since 2025, he has been the CEO of Relativity Space, an aerospace manufacturing company. As of 2026, he is one of the wealthiest people in the world according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index with an estimated net worth of US$64.3 billion.

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27/04/1954

Frank Bainimarama, Fijian commander and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Fiji

Josaia Voreqe "Frank" Bainimarama is a Fijian former politician and naval officer who served as the prime minister of Fiji from 2007 until 2022. A member of the FijiFirst party, which he founded in 2014, he began his career as an officer in the Fijian navy and commander of the Fijian military. Despite being suspended from Parliament, he served as the opposition leader from 24 December 2022 until 8 March 2023, when he resigned and was replaced by Inia Seruiratu.

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Herman Edwards, American football player, coach, and sportscaster

Herman Montmartre Edwards is an American football coach and former player. He played cornerback in the National Football League (NFL) for ten seasons, primarily with the Philadelphia Eagles. Edwards was also a head coach in the NFL from 2001 to 2008 with the New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs. Following the conclusion of his NFL coaching career, Edwards was a football analyst at ESPN from 2009 to 2017. He later served as the head coach of the Arizona State Sun Devils from 2018 to 2022.

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Mark Holden, Australian singer, actor, and lawyer

Mark Ronald Holden is an Australian singer, actor, TV personality, record producer, songwriter, and barrister. He was a pop star in the 1970s and had four top 20 hit singles, "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again", "I Wanna Make You My Lady" (September), "Last Romance" (November) and "Reach Out for the One Who Loves You". Holden regularly appeared on national pop music show, Countdown. Holden is remembered for his clean-cut image, his white dinner suit and his penchant for handing out carnations to girls on the set of the popular television show Countdown – he was nicknamed "The Carnation Kid". In the 1980s he worked as a songwriter in Los Angeles providing material recorded by Meat Loaf, Joe Cocker, Gladys Knight, Bob Welch and Steve Jones. He was one of three original judges on the television series Australian Idol (2003–07) and the first season (2005) of The X Factor.

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27/04/1953

Arielle Dombasle, French-American actress and model

Arielle Dombasle is an American-born French singer, actress, director and model. Her breakthrough roles were in Éric Rohmer's Pauline at the Beach (1983) and Alain Robbe-Grillet's The Blue Villa (1995). She has worked with a wide variety of filmmakers, including Werner Schroeter on Two (2002), Philippe de Broca on Amazon (2000), Roman Polanski on Tess (1979), Jean-Pierre Mocky on Crédit pour tous (2011) and Raoul Ruiz on Savage Souls (2001). She also starred in the 1984 ABC miniseries Lace and its 1985 sequel Lace II and appeared as a guest on Miami Vice. Dombasle has released thirty-four singles and eleven albums and has directed six movies.

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27/04/1952

Larry Elder, American lawyer and talk show host

Laurence Allen Elder is an American conservative political commentator and talk radio host. He hosts The Larry Elder Show, based in California. The show began as a local program on Los Angeles radio station KABC in 1994 and ran until 2008, followed by a second run on KABC from 2010 to 2014. The show was nationally syndicated, first through ABC Radio Networks from 2002 to 2007 and then Salem Media Group from 2015 to 2022. He maintains ties to The Epoch Times, a newspaper published by the new religious movement Falun Gong. While Elder is primarily known as a conservative, he also self-identifies as a "small l libertarian", summarizing his political ideology as "I believe that a government that governs less governs best."

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George Gervin, American basketball player

George Gervin, nicknamed "the Iceman", is an American former professional basketball player who played in both the American Basketball Association (ABA) and National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Virginia Squires, San Antonio Spurs, and Chicago Bulls. Gervin averaged at least 14 points per game in all 14 of his ABA and NBA seasons, and finished with an NBA career average of 26.2 points per game. Widely regarded as a top ten shooting guard in NBA history, in 1996 Gervin was named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, and in 2021 was included in the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.

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Ari Vatanen, Finnish race car driver and politician

Ari Pieti Uolevi Vatanen is a Finnish former rally driver and politician and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1999 to 2009. He won the World Rally Championship drivers' title in 1981 and the Paris Dakar Rally four times. In addition, he won the 1997 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies.

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27/04/1951

Ace Frehley, American guitarist and songwriter (died 2025)

Paul Daniel "Ace" Frehley was an American musician who was the original lead guitarist, occasional vocalist, and a founding member of the rock band Kiss. He invented the persona of the Spaceman and originally played with the group from its inception in 1973 until his departure in 1982, before later rejoining in 1996 until his final departure in 2002.

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27/04/1950

Jaime Fresnedi, Filipino politician

Jaime dela Rosa Fresnedi, also known as Jimmy Fresnedi, is a Filipino politician, lawyer, and businessman currently serving as a member of the Philippine House of Representatives representing the lone district of Muntinlupa, Metro Manila, since 2022. He previously served as the mayor of Muntinlupa from 1998 to 2007 and from 2013 to 2022 and as vice mayor of Muntinlupa from 1987 to 1998.

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David W. Duclon, American television writer and producer (died 2025)

Warren David Duclon was an American television writer and producer, known for his work on Silver Spoons, Family Matters, Punky Brewster and the legacy sequel of the same name. Duclon was born in Rockford, Illinois, on April 27, 1950. He died in Franklin, Tennessee, on January 15, 2025, at the age of 74.

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27/04/1948

Frank Abagnale Jr., American security consultant and criminal

Frank William Abagnale Jr. is an American-French security consultant, author, and convicted felon whose documented crimes consist primarily of check fraud and petty theft targeting individuals and small businesses. Beginning in the late 1970s, Abagnale claimed a far more dramatic criminal past involving long-term impersonations of a Pan American World Airways pilot, a Georgia hospital physician, and a Louisiana assistant attorney general, among other roles. These claims formed the basis of his 1980 autobiography, Catch Me If You Can, co-written with Stan Redding. The book inspired the film of the same name, directed by Steven Spielberg in 2002, in which Abagnale was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio.

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Josef Hickersberger, Austrian footballer, coach, and manager

Josef Hickersberger is a former professional football player and former coach of the Austria national football team and Austrian club side Rapid Wien.

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Kate Pierson, American singer-songwriter and bass player

Catherine Elizabeth Pierson is an American singer, lyricist, and founding member of the B-52s. She plays guitar, bass, and various keyboard instruments. In the early years, as well as being a vocalist, Pierson was the main keyboard player and performed on a keyboard bass during live shows and on many of the band's recordings, taking on a role usually filled by a bass guitar player, which differentiated the band from their contemporaries. This, along with Pierson's distinctive, wide-ranging singing voice, remains a trademark of the B-52s' unique sound. Pierson has also collaborated with many other artists, including the Ramones, Iggy Pop, and R.E.M..

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27/04/1947

G. K. Butterfield, African-American soldier, lawyer, and politician

George Kenneth Butterfield Jr. is an American lawyer, lobbyist, and retired politician who served as the U.S. representative for North Carolina's 1st congressional district from 2004 to 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected in a special election after the resignation of Frank Ballance.

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Nick Greiner, Hungarian-Australian politician, 37th Premier of New South Wales

Nicholas Frank Hugo Greiner is an Australian politician who served as the 37th Premier of New South Wales from 1988 to 1992. Greiner was Leader of the New South Wales Division of the Liberal Party from 1983 to 1992 and Leader of the Opposition from 1983 to 1988. Greiner served as the Federal President of the Liberal Party of Australia from 2017 to 2020. He served as the Consul-General in the United States of America, New York from 2021 to 2023.

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Pete Ham, Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1975)

Peter William Ham was a Welsh musician and songwriter who was the lead vocalist and composer of the rock band Badfinger from 1961 until his death in 1975. He also co-wrote the ballad "Without You", a worldwide number one hit for Harry Nilsson that has become a standard covered by hundreds of artists. Ham was granted two Ivor Novello Awards related to the song in 1973.

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Keith Magnuson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 2003)

Keith Arlen Magnuson was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman from Wadena, Saskatchewan who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1969 and 1979.

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Ann Peebles, American soul singer-songwriter

Ann Lee Peebles is a retired American singer and songwriter who gained popularity for her Memphis soul albums of the 1970s while signed to Hi Records. Her most successful singles include "I Can't Stand the Rain," which she wrote with her husband Don Bryant and radio broadcaster Bernie Miller, and "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down." In 2014, she was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.

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27/04/1946

Franz Roth, German footballer

Franz "Bulle" Roth is a former German footballer. He earned four caps for the Germany national football team and was nicknamed "the Bull" due to his physical playing style.

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27/04/1945

Martin Chivers, English footballer and manager (died 2026)

Martin Harcourt Chivers was an English professional footballer who played as a forward. He began his career with his hometown club Southampton where he had a successful six years and in 1968 was bought by Tottenham Hotspur for a club and league record sum of £125,000. With Spurs he went on to win the Football League Cup twice and the UEFA Cup in the 1971–72 season.

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Terry Willesee, Australian journalist and television host

Terence Joseph Willesee is an Australian retired journalist and television and radio presenter.

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August Wilson, American author and playwright (died 2005)

August Wilson was an American playwright. He has been referred to as the "theater's poet of Black America". He is best known for a series of 10 plays, collectively called The Pittsburgh Cycle , which chronicle the experiences and heritage of the African-American community in the 20th century. Plays in the series include Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990), each of which won Wilson the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984) and Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988). In 2006, Wilson was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

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27/04/1944

Michael Fish, English meteorologist and journalist

Michael Fish is a British weather forecaster. From 1974 to 2004, he was a television presenter for BBC Weather.

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Cuba Gooding Sr., American singer (died 2017)

Cuba Mark Gooding Sr. was an American singer. He was the most successful lead singer of the soul group The Main Ingredient, replacing former lead singer Donald McPherson who was diagnosed with leukemia in 1971. According to Billboard, as the lead vocalist he scored five top 10 hits, most notably, "Everybody Plays the Fool" (1972), peaking at No. 2 for three weeks, and peaking at No. 3 on Billboard′s all-genre Hot-100 list. "Just Don't Want to Be Lonely" (1974), "Happiness Is Just Around the Bend" and "Rolling Down a Mountainside" were also top 10 hits on Billboard charts. He also recorded as a solo artist with hits of his own.

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Herb Pedersen, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Herbert Joseph Pedersen is an American musician, guitarist, banjo player, and singer-songwriter who has played a variety of musical styles over the past fifty years including country, bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, folk, folk rock, country rock, and has worked with numerous musicians in many different bands.

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27/04/1943

Helmut Marko, Austrian race car driver and manager

Helmut Marko is an Austrian former racing driver and motorsport executive who competed in Formula One at 10 Grands Prix from 1971 to 1972. In endurance racing, Marko won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1971 with Martini. He founded RSM Marko in 1984, which later became the Red Bull Junior Team; from 2005 to 2025, he served as an adviser to Red Bull Racing and its related teams in Formula One, winning six World Constructors' Championship titles between 2010 and 2023.

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27/04/1942

Ruth Glick, American author

Ruth Glick is an American writer of cookbooks, romance and young adult novels. She has written novels under the pseudonym Rebecca York; until 1997 these were written in collaboration with Eileen Buckholtz.

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Jim Keltner, American drummer

James Lee Keltner is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session work. He was characterized by Bob Dylan biographer Howard Sounes as "the leading session drummer in America".

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27/04/1941

Fethullah Gülen, Turkish preacher and theologian (died 2024)

Muhammed Fethullah Gülen was a Turkish Muslim scholar, preacher, and leader of the Gülen movement, which as of 2010 had 8-10 million of followers globally and had established a network of over 2,000 STEM focused schools in more than 150 countries. Gülen was an influential neo-Ottomanist, Anatolian panethnicist, Islamic poet, writer, social critic, and activist–dissident developing a Nursian theological perspective that embraces democratic modernity. Gülen was a local state imam from 1959 to 1981 and he was a citizen of Turkey until his denaturalization by the Turkish government in 2017. Over the years, Gülen became a centrist political figure in Turkey prior to his being there as a fugitive. From 21 March 1999 until his death on 20 October 2024, Gülen lived in self-exile in the United States near Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. Gülen's body was buried inside the Chestnut Retreat Center in Pennsylvania, where he had been residing for the last 25 years. 15,000 attended his funeral in a stadium in New Jersey.

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Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti, Indian archaeologist

Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti is an Indian archaeologist, Professor Emeritus of South Asian Archaeology at Cambridge University, and a Senior Fellow at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University. He is known for his studies on the early use of iron in India and the archaeology of Eastern India.

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Lee Roy Jordan, American football player

Lee Roy Jordan was an American professional football player who was a linebacker for 14 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL) from 1963 to 1976. He played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide and was selected by the Cowboys in the first round of the 1963 NFL draft. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983.

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27/04/1939

Judy Carne, English actress and comedian (died 2015)

Joyce Audrey Botterill, known professionally as Judy Carne, was an English actress. She appeared on American television in the late 1960s in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, where she employed the catch phrase "Sock it to me!".

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Stanisław Dziwisz, Polish cardinal

Stanisław Jan Dziwisz is a Polish Catholic prelate who served as Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków from 2005 to 2016. He was created a cardinal in 2006. He was a long-time and influential aide to Pope John Paul II, a friend of Pope Benedict XVI, and an ardent supporter of John Paul II's beatification.

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27/04/1938

Earl Anthony, American bowler and sportscaster (died 2001)

Earl Roderick Anthony was an American professional bowler who amassed records of 43 titles and six Player of the Year awards on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour. For over two decades, his career title count was listed as 41. The count was amended to 43 in 2008, when the PBA chose to retroactively award PBA titles for ABC Masters championships if won by a PBA member at the time. He is widely credited for having increased bowling's popularity in the United States. He was the first bowler to earn over $100,000 in a season (1975), and the first to reach $1,000,000 in lifetime PBA earnings (1982). His ten professional major titles—six PBA National Championships, two Firestone Tournament of Champions titles, and two ABC Masters titles—are the second most all time, tied with Pete Weber and five behind Jason Belmonte.

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Alain Caron, Canadian ice hockey player (died 1986)

Joseph Paul Luc Alain Caron was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played in various leagues from 1956 to 1976.

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27/04/1937

Sandy Dennis, American actress (died 1992)

Sandra Dale Dennis was an American actress. She made her film debut in the drama Splendor in the Grass (1961). For her performance in the comedy-drama film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), she received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

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Robin Eames, Irish Anglican archbishop

Robert Henry Alexander Eames, Baron Eames is an Anglican bishop and life peer, who served as Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh from 1986 to 2006.

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Richard Perham, English biologist and academic (died 2015)

Richard Nelson Perham, was Professor of biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, and Master of St John's College, Cambridge 2004–07. He was also editor-in-chief of FEBS Journal from 1998 to 2013.

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27/04/1936

Geoffrey Shovelton, English singer and illustrator (died 2016)

Geoffrey Richard Shovelton was an English singer, actor and illustrator best known for his performances in leading tenor roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in the 1970s.

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27/04/1935

Theodoros Angelopoulos, Greek director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2012)

Theodoros "Theo" Angelopoulos was a Greek filmmaker, screenwriter and film producer. He dominated the Greek art film industry from 1975 on, and Angelopoulos was one of the most influential and widely respected filmmakers in the world. He started making films in 1967. In the 1970s he made a series of political films about modern Greece.

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Ron Morris, American pole vaulter and coach (died 2024)

Ronald Hugh Morris was an American track and field athlete who won the national title in pole vault in 1958, 1961 and 1962. He placed fourth at the 1959 Pan American Games and second at the 1960 Summer Olympics. Morris vaulted 15 ft 0 in (4.57 m) in June 1971 for a Masters M35 World Record at the 1971 Los Angeles Senior Olympics. After retiring from competitions, he worked as athletics coach. Morris competed for the USC Trojans track and field team. He died on May 31, 2024, at the age of 89.

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27/04/1933

Peter Imbert, Baron Imbert, English police officer and politician, Lord Lieutenant for Greater London (died 2017)

Peter Michael Imbert, Baron Imbert, was Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service from 1987 to 1993, and prior to that appointment Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police from 1979 to 1985. Earlier in his career Imbert was involved in interrogating the Guildford Four.

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27/04/1932

Anouk Aimée, French actress (died 2024)

Nicole Françoise Florence Dreyfus, known professionally as Anouk Aimée or Anouk, was a French film actress who appeared in 70 films from 1947 until 2019. Having begun her film career at age 14, she studied acting and dance in her early years, besides her regular education. Although the majority of her films were French, she also made films in Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany, along with some American productions.

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Pik Botha, South African lawyer, politician, and diplomat, 8th South African Ambassador to the United States (died 2018)

Roelof Frederik "Pik" Botha, was a South African politician who served as the country's foreign minister in the last years of the apartheid era, the longest-serving in South African history. Known as a liberal within the party, Botha served to present a friendly, conciliatory face on the regime, while criticised internally. He was a leading contender for the leadership of the National Party upon John Vorster's resignation in 1978, but was ultimately not chosen. Staying in the government after the first non-racial general election in 1994, he served under Nelson Mandela as Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs from 1994 to 1996.

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Casey Kasem, American disc jockey, radio celebrity, and voice actor; co-created American Top 40 (died 2014)

Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem was an American disc jockey, actor, and radio presenter who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably American Top 40, as well as the weekly syndicated television series America's Top 10. He was the first actor to voice Shaggy Rogers in the Scooby-Doo franchise and Dick Grayson/Robin in Super Friends (1973–1985).

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Chuck Knox, American football coach (died 2018)

Charles Robert Knox was an American football coach at the high school, collegiate and professional levels. He served as head coach of three National Football League (NFL) teams, the Los Angeles Rams, Buffalo Bills (1978–1982), and Seattle Seahawks (1983–1991). He was a three-time AP NFL Coach of the Year and is a member of the Seahawks Ring of Honor.

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Derek Minter, English motorcycle racer (died 2015)

Derek Minter was an English Grand Prix motorcycle and short-circuit road racer. Born in Ickham, Kent, with education starting in nearby Littlebourne, he was versatile rider who rode a variety of machinery between 1955 and 1967 at increasing levels of expertise and in varying capacities and classes.

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Gian-Carlo Rota, Italian-American mathematician and philosopher (died 1999)

Gian-Carlo Rota was an Italian-American mathematician and philosopher. He spent most of his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he worked in combinatorics, functional analysis, probability theory, and phenomenology.

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27/04/1931

Igor Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist and educator (died 2021)

Igor Davidovich Oistrakh was a Soviet and Russian violinist. He was described by Encyclopædia Britannica as "noted for his lean, modernist interpretations".

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27/04/1929

Nina Ponomaryova, Russian discus thrower and coach (died 2016)

Nina Apollonovna Ponomaryova was a Russian discus thrower and the first Soviet Olympic champion.

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27/04/1927

Coretta Scott King, African-American activist and author (died 2006)

Coretta Scott King was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader who was the wife of Martin Luther King Jr. from 1953 until his assassination in 1968. As an advocate for African-American equality, she was a leader for the civil rights movement in the 1960s. King was also a singer who often incorporated music into her civil rights work. King met her husband while attending graduate school in Boston. They both became increasingly active in the American civil rights movement.

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Joe Moakley, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (died 2001)

John Joseph Moakley was an American politician who served as the United States representative for Massachusetts's 9th congressional district from 1973 until his death in 2001. Moakley won the seat from incumbent Louise Day Hicks in a 1972 rematch; the seat had been held two years earlier by the retiring Speaker of the House John William McCormack. Moakley was the last Democratic chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Rules before Republicans took control of the chamber in 1995. He is the namesake of both Joe Moakley Park and the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston.

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27/04/1926

Tim LaHaye, American minister, activist, and author (died 2016)

Timothy Francis LaHaye was an American Baptist evangelical Christian minister and political activist who wrote more than 85 books, both non-fiction and fiction, including the Left Behind series of novels depicting apocalypse events after a pre-tribulation rapture.

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Basil A. Paterson, American lawyer and politician, 59th Secretary of State of New York (died 2014)

Basil Alexander Paterson was an American labor lawyer and politician. He served in the New York State Senate from 1966 to 1971 and as the first African-American secretary of state of New York, serving under Governor Hugh Carey from 1979 to 1983. In 1970, Paterson was the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor of New York on the Arthur Goldberg ticket. Paterson's son David served as the state's first African-American governor from 2008 to 2011.

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Alan Reynolds, English painter and educator (died 2014)

Alan Munro Reynolds was a British painter.

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27/04/1925

Derek Chinnery, English broadcaster (died 2015)

Charles Derek Chinnery was the controller of BBC Radio 1 from 1978 to 1985.

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27/04/1924

Vernon B. Romney, American lawyer and politician, 14th Attorney General of Utah (died 2013)

Vernon Bradford Romney was an American lawyer who served as the attorney general of Utah from 1969 to 1977, and the Republican candidate for Governor of Utah in 1976. He was a member of the Romney family and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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27/04/1923

Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, Seminole chief (died 2011)

Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, also known as Potackee (Seminole), was the first and so far the only female chairperson of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. A nurse, she co-founded the tribe's first newspaper in 1956, the Seminole News, later replaced by The Seminole Tribune, for which she served as editor, winning a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native American Journalists Association. In 2001 she published her memoir, entitled A Seminole Legend.

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27/04/1922

Jack Klugman, American actor (died 2012)

Jack Klugman was an American actor of stage, film and television.

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Sheila Scott, English nurse and pilot (died 1988)

Sheila Christine Scott OBE was an English aviator who broke over 100 aviation records through her long-distance flight endeavours, which included a 34,000-mile (55,000 km) "world and a half" flight in 1971. On this flight, she became the first person to fly over the North Pole in a small aircraft. She was also the first European woman to fly solo around the world.

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27/04/1921

Robert Dhéry, French actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2004)

Robert Dhéry was a French comedian, actor, director and screenwriter.

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27/04/1920

Guido Cantelli, Italian conductor (died 1956)

Guido Cantelli was an Italian orchestral conductor. Toscanini elected him his "spiritual heir" after witnessing him conduct at La Scala, Milan in May 1948. He was named music director of La Scala in November 1956, but his promising career was cut short only one week later by his death at the age of 36 in the 1956 Paris DC-6 crash in France en route to the United States.

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Mark Krasnosel'skii, Ukrainian mathematician and academic (died 1997)

Mark Aleksandrovich Krasnoselsky or Mark Alexsandrovich Krasnoselskii was a Soviet and Russian mathematician renowned for his work on nonlinear functional analysis and its applications.

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James Robert Mann, American colonel, lawyer, and politician (died 2010)

James Robert Mann was a World War II soldier, lawyer and Democratic United States Representative from South Carolina.

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Edwin Morgan, Scottish poet and translator (died 2010)

Edwin George Morgan was a Scottish poet and translator associated with the Scottish Renaissance. He is widely recognised as one of the foremost Scottish poets of the 20th century. In 1999, Morgan was made the first Glasgow Poet Laureate. In 2004, he was named as the first Makar or National Poet for Scotland.

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27/04/1918

Sten Rudholm, Swedish lawyer and jurist (died 2008)

Sten John Gustaf Rudholm was a Swedish lawyer, member of the Swedish Academy, former Chancellor of Justice, Chief Justice of Appeal and Marshal of the Realm. Rudholm was prior to his death the only living Swedish non-royal to have been made Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim – the foremost order of Sweden.

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27/04/1917

Roman Matsov, Estonian violinist, pianist, and conductor (died 2001)

Roman Voldemarovich Matsov was a Soviet and Estonian violinist, pianist, and conductor.

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27/04/1916

Robert Hugh McWilliams, Jr., American sergeant, lawyer, and judge (died 2013)

Robert Hugh McWilliams Jr. was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and a justice of the Colorado Supreme Court.

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Enos Slaughter, American baseball player and manager (died 2002)

Enos Bradsher Slaughter, nicknamed "Country", was an American professional baseball right fielder. He played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees, Kansas City Athletics, and Milwaukee Braves from 1938 to 1959. He is best known for scoring the winning run in Game 7 of the 1946 World Series for the Cardinals. A ten-time All-Star, he has been elected to both the National Baseball Hall of Fame and St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.

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27/04/1913

Philip Abelson, American physicist and author (died 2004)

Philip Hauge Abelson was an American physicist, scientific editor and science writer. Trained as a nuclear physicist, he co-discovered the element neptunium, worked on isotope separation in the Manhattan Project, and wrote the first study of nuclear marine propulsion for submarines. He later worked on a broad range of scientific topics and related public policy, including organic geochemistry, paleobiology and energy policy.

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Irving Adler, American mathematician, author, and academic (died 2012)

Irving Adler was an American author, mathematician, scientist, political activist, and educator. He was the author of 57 books about mathematics, science, and education, and the co-author of 30 more, for both children and adults. His books have been published in 31 countries in 19 different languages. Since his teenaged years, Adler was involved in social and political activities focused on civil rights, civil liberties, and peace, including his role as a plaintiff in the McCarthy-era case Adler vs. Board of Education that bears his name.

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Luz Long, German long jumper and soldier (died 1943)

Carl Ludwig "Luz" Long was a German Olympic long jumper who won the silver medal in the event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin and had a friendship with Jesse Owens, who won the gold medal in that event. Luz Long won the German long jump championship six times: in 1933, 1934, 1936, 1937, 1938, and 1939.

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27/04/1912

Jacques de Bourbon-Busset, French author and politician (died 2001)

Jacques de Bourbon, Count of Busset was a French novelist, essayist and politician. He was elected to the Académie française on 4 June 1981. He was a senior member of the House of Bourbon-Busset.

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Zohra Sehgal, Indian actress, dancer, and choreographer (died 2014)

Zohra Mumtaz Sehgal was an Indian actress, dancer, and choreographer. Having begun her career as a member of a contemporary dance troupe, she transitioned into acting roles beginning in the 1940s. Sehgal appeared in several British films, television shows, and Bollywood productions in a career that spanned over eight decades.

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27/04/1911

Bruno Beger, German anthropologist and ethnologist (died 2009)

Bruno Beger was a German racial anthropologist, ethnologist, and explorer who worked for the Ahnenerbe. In that role he participated in Ernst Schäfer's 1938–1939 expedition to Tibet, helped the SS Race and Settlement Main Office identify Jews, and later helped select human subjects to be killed to create an anatomical study collection of Jewish skulls.

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Chris Berger, Dutch sprinter and footballer (died 1965)

Christiaan David "Chris" Berger was a Dutch athlete, competing in the sprints.

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27/04/1910

Chiang Ching-kuo, Chinese politician, 3rd President of the Republic of China (died 1988)

Chiang Ching-kuo was a Chinese and Taiwanese statesman and diplomat who served as the president of the Republic of China from 1978 to 1988. A member of the Kuomintang (KMT), he was the party's chairman from 1975 until his death. His presidency was defined by the end of martial law in Taiwan.

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27/04/1909

Lim Bo Seng, Chinese businessman, resistance fighter of Force 136 and war hero of Singapore (died 1944)

Lim Bo Seng was a resistance fighter who played a crucial role in the anti-Japanese fund raising and movement in Singapore and Malaya during World War II. Born in Fujian, China, he moved to Singapore at a young age and was educated at Raffles Institution (RI) before pursuing engineering at the University of Hong Kong. Following his studies, he returned to manage his family's business ventures and emerged as a respected leader within the overseas Chinese community in Southeast Asia. With the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Lim became deeply involved in patriotic and civic efforts, spearheading boycott campaigns against Japanese goods and raising funds in support of China's war resistance.

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27/04/1906

Yiorgos Theotokas, Greek author and playwright (died 1966)

Yiorgos Theotokas, formally Georgios Theotokas, was a Greek novelist.

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27/04/1905

John Kuck, American javelin thrower and shot putter (died 1986)

John Henry Kuck was an American athlete who won a gold medal in the shot put at the 1928 Summer Olympics setting a new world record at 15.87 m. Earlier that year he set two more world records, but they were not recognized officially. In 1926 he also set a US record in the javelin throw at 65.28 m and won the AAU title.

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27/04/1904

Cecil Day-Lewis, Anglo-Irish poet and author (died 1972)

Cecil Day-Lewis, often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Anglo-Irish poet and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1968 until his death. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym Nicholas Blake, most of which feature the fictional detective Nigel Strangeways, starting with A Question of Proof (1935).

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Nikos Zachariadis, Greek politician (died 1973)

Nikos Zachariadis was the leader of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) from 1931 to 1956.

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27/04/1902

Tiemoko Garan Kouyaté, Malian educator and activist (died 1942)

Tiemoko Garan Kouyaté was a Malian teacher, journalist and political activist. He was a pioneer for African nationalism and one of the first Communists in Africa.

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27/04/1900

August Koern, Estonian politician and diplomat, Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs in exile (died 1989)

August Koern was an Estonian statesman and diplomat. He was Estonian foreign minister in exile from 1 March 1964 to 3 June 1982.

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27/04/1899

Walter Lantz, American animator, producer, screenwriter, and actor (died 1994)

Walter Benjamin Lantz was an American cartoonist, animator, producer and director best known for founding Walter Lantz Productions and creating Woody Woodpecker.

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27/04/1898

Ludwig Bemelmans, Italian-American author and illustrator (died 1962)

Ludwig Bemelmans was an Austrian-born American writer and illustrator known for his humorous memoirs about working in upscale hotels and restaurants of New York City and illustrations on the walls of Bemelmans Bar, as well as his 1939 picture book Madeline.

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27/04/1896

Rogers Hornsby, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 1963)

Rogers Hornsby, nicknamed "the Rajah", was an American baseball player, manager, and coach who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants (1927), Boston Braves (1928), Chicago Cubs (1929–1932), and St. Louis Browns (1933–1937). He was named the National League (NL)'s Most Valuable Player (MVP) twice, and was a member of one World Series championship team.

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William Hudson, New Zealand-Australian engineer (died 1978)

Sir William Hudson was a New Zealand-born engineer who headed construction of the Snowy Mountains Scheme for hydroelectricity and irrigation in Australia from 1949 to 1967, when he reluctantly retired at 71. The scheme was completed in 1974, under budget and before time.

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Wallace Carothers, American chemist and inventor of nylon (died 1937)

Wallace Hume Carothers was an American chemist, inventor, and the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont, who was credited with the invention of nylon.

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27/04/1894

George Petty, American painter and illustrator (died 1975)

George Brown Petty IV was an American pin-up artist. His pin-up art appeared primarily in Esquire and Fawcett Publications's True but was also in calendars marketed by Esquire, True and Ridgid Tool Company. Petty's Esquire gatefolds originated and popularized the magazine device of centerfold spreads. Reproductions of his work, known as "Petty Girls," were widely rendered by military artists as nose art decorating warplanes during the Second World War, including the Memphis Belle.

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Nicolas Slonimsky, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1995)

Nicolas Slonimsky, born Nikolai Leonidovich Slonimskiy, was a Russian-American musicologist, conductor, pianist, lexicographer, and composer. Best known for his writing and musical reference work, he wrote the Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns and the Lexicon of Musical Invective, and edited Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians.

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27/04/1893

Draža Mihailović, Serbian general (died 1946)

Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović was a Yugoslav Serb general during World War II. He was the leader of the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army (Chetniks), a royalist and nationalist movement and guerrilla force established following the German invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941.

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Allen Sothoron, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 1939)

Allen Sutton Sothoron was an American professional baseball player, coach and manager. As a player, he was a spitball pitcher who spent 11 years in the major leagues playing for the St. Louis Browns, Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians and the St. Louis Cardinals. Born in Bradford, Ohio, Sothoron threw and batted right-handed, stood 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) tall and weighed 182 pounds (83 kg). He attended Albright College and Juniata College.

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27/04/1891

Sergei Prokofiev, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1953)

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who later worked in the Soviet Union. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous music genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. His works include such widely heard pieces as the March from The Love for Three Oranges, the suite Lieutenant Kijé, the ballet Romeo and Juliet—from which "Dance of the Knights" is taken—and Peter and the Wolf. Of the established forms and genres in which he worked, he created—excluding juvenilia—seven completed operas, seven symphonies, eight ballets, five piano concertos, two violin concertos, a cello concerto, a symphony-concerto for cello and orchestra, and nine completed piano sonatas.

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27/04/1888

Florence La Badie, Canadian actress (died 1917)

Florence La Badie was an American-Canadian actress in the early days of the silent film era. She was a major star between 1911 and 1917. Her career was at its height when she died at age 29 from injuries sustained in an automobile accident.

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27/04/1887

Warren Wood, American golfer (died 1926)

Warren Kenneth Wood was an American amateur golfer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics.

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27/04/1882

Jessie Redmon Fauset, American author and poet (died 1961)

Jessie Redmon Fauset was an editor, poet, essayist, novelist, and educator. Her literary work helped sculpt African-American literature in the 1920s as she focused on portraying a true image of African-American life and history. Her black fictional characters were working professionals which was an inconceivable concept to American society during this time. Her story lines related to themes of racial discrimination, "passing", and feminism.

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27/04/1880

Mihkel Lüdig, Estonian organist, composer, and conductor (died 1958)

Mihkel Lüdig was an Estonian composer, organist and choir conductor. As a composer, he particularly worked on a cappella choral songs. Lüdig is considered one of the major organisers of large-scale musical events in 20th century Estonia. He was born in Vaskrääma, studied at both Moscow and St. Petersburg conservatories, and was a student of Nicolai Soloviev.

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27/04/1875

Frederick Fane, Irish-born, English cricketer (died 1960)

Frederick Luther Fane, played cricket for the England cricket team in 14 Test matches. He also played for Essex, Oxford University and London County.

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27/04/1866

Maurice Raoul-Duval, French polo player (died 1916)

Maurice Raoul-Duval was a French polo player who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics.

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27/04/1861

William Arms Fisher, American composer and music historian (died 1948)

William Arms Fisher was an American composer, music historian and writer.

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27/04/1857

Theodor Kittelsen, Norwegian painter and illustrator (died 1914)

Theodor Severin Kittelsen was a Norwegian artist. He is one of the most popular artists in Norway. Kittelsen became famous for his nature paintings, as well as for his illustrations of fairy tales and legends, especially of trolls.

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27/04/1853

Jules Lemaître, French playwright and critic (died 1914)

François Élie Jules Lemaître was a French critic and dramatist.

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27/04/1850

Hans Hartwig von Beseler, German general and politician (died 1921)

Hans Hartwig von Beseler was a German colonel general.

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27/04/1848

Otto, King of Bavaria (died 1916)

Otto was King of Bavaria from 1886 until 1913. However, he never actively ruled because of alleged severe mental illness. His uncle, Luitpold, and his cousin, Ludwig, served as regents. Ludwig deposed him in 1913, a day after the legislature passed a law allowing him to do so, and became king in his own right as Ludwig III.

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27/04/1840

Edward Whymper, English-French mountaineer, explorer, author, and illustrator (died 1911)

Edward Whymper FRSE was an English mountaineer, explorer, illustrator, and author best known for the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865. Four members of his climbing party were killed during the descent. Whymper also made important first ascents on the Mont Blanc massif and in the Pennine Alps, Chimborazo in South America, and the Canadian Rockies. His exploration of Greenland contributed an important advance to Arctic exploration. Whymper wrote several books on mountaineering, including Scrambles Amongst the Alps.

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27/04/1822

Ulysses S. Grant, American general and politician, 18th President of the United States (died 1885)

Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. He previously led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War in 1865 as commanding general.

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27/04/1820

Herbert Spencer, English biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and philosopher (died 1903)

Herbert Spencer was an English polymath active as a philosopher, psychologist, biologist, sociologist, and anthropologist. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest", which he coined in Principles of Biology (1864) after reading Charles Darwin's 1859 book On the Origin of Species. The term strongly suggests natural selection, yet Spencer saw evolution as extending into realms of sociology and ethics, so he also supported Lamarckism.

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27/04/1812

William W. Snow, American lawyer and politician (died 1886)

William W. Snow was an American businessman and politician who served one term as a United States representative from New York from 1851 to 1853.

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Friedrich von Flotow, German composer (died 1883)

Friedrich Adolf Ferdinand, Freiherr von Flotow was a German composer. He is chiefly remembered for his opera Martha, which was popular in the 19th century and the early part of the 20th.

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27/04/1791

Samuel Morse, American painter and inventor, co-invented the Morse code (died 1872)

Samuel Finley Breese Morse was an American inventor and painter. After establishing his reputation as a portrait painter, Morse, in his middle age, contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system based on European telegraphs. He was a co-developer and the namesake of Morse code in 1837 and helped to develop the commercial use of telegraphy.

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27/04/1788

Charles Robert Cockerell, English architect, archaeologist, and writer (died 1863)

Charles Robert Cockerell was an English architect, archaeologist and writer. He studied architecture under Robert Smirke and embarked on an extended Grand Tour lasting seven years, mainly in Greece. After returning to London he established a successful architectural practice. Appointed Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts, he served between 1839 and 1859. Cockerell wrote widely on archaeology and architecture, and in 1848 became the first recipient of the Royal Gold Medal.

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27/04/1759

Mary Wollstonecraft, English philosopher, historian, and novelist (died 1797)

Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer and philosopher best known for her advocacy of women's rights. Until the late twentieth century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationships, received more attention than her writing. Wollstonecraft is regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers, and feminists often cite both her life and her works as important influences.

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27/04/1755

Marc-Antoine Parseval, French mathematician and theorist (died 1836)

Marc-Antoine Parseval des Chênes was a French mathematician, most famous for what is now known as Parseval's theorem, which showed that the Fourier transform is unitary.

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27/04/1748

Adamantios Korais, Greek-French philosopher and scholar (died 1833)

Adamantios Korais or Koraïs was a Greek scholar credited with laying the foundations of modern Greek literature and a major figure in the Greek Enlightenment. His activities paved the way for the Greek War of Independence and the emergence of a purified form of the Greek language, known as Katharevousa. Encyclopædia Britannica asserts that "his influence on the modern Greek language and culture has been compared to that of Dante on Italian and Martin Luther on German".

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27/04/1718

Thomas Lewis, Irish-born American surveyor and lawyer (died 1790)

Thomas Lewis was an Irish-American surveyor, lawyer, politician and pioneer of early western Virginia. He was among the signers of the Fairfax Resolves, represented Augusta County at four of the five Virginia Revolutionary Conventions and the first session of the Virginia House of Delegates during the American War for Independence, and after the conflict, represented newly established Rockingham County at the Virginia Ratification Convention, as well as contributed to the settlement of Kanawha County that, long after his death, become part of West Virginia.

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27/04/1701

Charles Emmanuel III, King of Sardinia (died 1773)

Charles Emmanuel III was Duke of Savoy, King of Sardinia and ruler of the Savoyard states from his father's abdication on 3 September 1730 until his death in 1773. He was the paternal grandfather of the last three mainline kings of Sardinia. In the War of the Polish Succession, he initially gained Lombardy but later ceded it for smaller territorial gains. During the War of the Austrian Succession, he defended Piedmont against a Franco-Spanish army, winning the Battle of Assietta. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle restored lost lands and expanded his territory. He strengthened ties with Spain through marriage alliances. He chose not to get involved in the Seven Years War and instead focused on administrative reforms and maintaining a well-disciplined army.

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27/04/1654

Charles Blount, English deist and philosopher (died 1693)

Charles Blount was an English deist and philosopher who published several anonymous essays critical of the existing English order.

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27/04/1650

Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel, Queen Consort of Denmark (1670–1699) (died 1714)

Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel was Queen of Denmark and Norway by marriage to King Christian V. Although she did not have much political influence, she was a successful businesswoman in her many estates and protected foreign Protestant non-Lutherans from oppression. She gained popularity for defending Copenhagen from Swedish forces in 1700. The city of Charlotte Amalie was named after her in 1691.

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27/04/1593

Mumtaz Mahal, Mughal empress buried at the Taj Mahal (died 1631)

Mumtaz Mahal was the empress of the Mughal Empire from 1628 to 1631 as the chief consort of the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan. The Taj Mahal in Agra, often cited as one of the Wonders of the World, was commissioned by her husband to act as her tomb.

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27/04/1564

Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland (died 1632)

Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, KG was an English nobleman. He was a grandee and one of the wealthiest peers of the court of Elizabeth I. Under James I, Northumberland was a long-term prisoner in the Tower of London, due to the suspicion that he was complicit in the Gunpowder Plot. He is known for the circles he moved in as well as for his own achievements. He acquired the sobriquet The Wizard Earl, from his scientific and alchemical experiments, his passion for cartography, and his large library.

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27/04/1556

François Béroalde de Verville, French writer (died 1626)

François Béroalde de Verville was a French Renaissance novelist, poet and intellectual. He was born in Paris, the son of Matthieu Brouard, called "Béroalde", a professor of Agrippa d'Aubigné and Pierre de l'Estoile and a Huguenot; his mother, Marie Bletz, was the niece of the humanist and Hebrew scholar François Vatable. At the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, his family fled to Geneva (1573), but Béroalde returned to Paris in 1581. During the civil wars, Béroalde abjured Calvinism and joined the factions around Henri III of France. In 1589 he moved to Tours, and became chanoine (canon) of the cathedral chapter of Saint Gatien, Tours, where he remained until his death.

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27/04/1468

Frederick Jagiellon, Primate of Poland (died 1503)

Frederick Jagiellon was a prince of the Kingdom of Poland and of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Archbishop of Gniezno, Bishop of Kraków, and Primate of Poland. He was the sixth son and ninth child of Casimir IV Jagiellon, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his wife Elizabeth of Austria, known as 'Matka Jagiellonów'.

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01/01/1970

Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, Roman politician and general (died 43 BC)

Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus was a Roman general and politician of the late republican period and one of the leading instigators of Julius Caesar's assassination. He had previously been an important supporter of Caesar in the Gallic Wars and in the civil war against Pompey. Decimus Brutus is often confused with his distant cousin and fellow conspirator, Marcus Junius Brutus.

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