Born on Tuesday, 29th April – Famous Birthdays

29/04/2007

Mirra Andreeva, Russian tennis player

Mirra Aleksandrovna Andreeva is a Russian professional tennis player. She has been ranked by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) as high as world No. 5 in singles, which she achieved on 14 July 2025, and No. 12 in doubles, attained on 15 September 2025.

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Infanta Sofía of Spain, Spanish princess

Infanta Sofía of Spain is a member of the Spanish royal family. She is the younger daughter of King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia and, as such, is second in the line of succession to the Spanish throne behind her sister, Leonor, Princess of Asturias.

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29/04/2006

Xochitl Gomez, American actress

Xochitl Gomez is an American actress. She began acting at age five, performing in local musical theater productions and student films. Gomez made her professional debut in 2018 in Raven's Home. She starred in the first season of the Netflix comedy series The Baby-Sitters Club (2020), and gained wider recognition for playing America Chavez in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). In 2023, she won season 32 of Dancing with the Stars.

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29/04/2005

Aarón Anselmino, Argentine footballer

Aarón Anselmino is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for French Ligue 1 club Strasbourg on loan from Premier League club Chelsea.

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29/04/2002

Sinja Kraus, Austrian tennis player

Sinja Kraus is an Austrian tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of world No. 99 in singles achieved on 23 February 2026 and No. 238 in doubles, achieved in January 2026. Kraus has won one WTA 125 singles title as well as 13 singles and two doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.

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29/04/2001

Danilo, Brazilian footballer

Danilo dos Santos de Oliveira, known simply as Danilo, Danilo Oliveira or Danilo Santos, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Botafogo and the Brazil national team.

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29/04/1999

Mateo Retegui, Argentine-Italian footballer

Mateo Retegui is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for Saudi Pro League club Al-Qadsiah. Born in Argentina, he plays for the Italy national team.

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29/04/1998

Kimberly Birrell, Australian tennis player

Kimberly Birrell is an Australian professional tennis player. Birrell reached a career-high WTA ranking of No. 60 on 5 May 2025 and a doubles ranking of No. 144 on 8 September 2025. Birrell has won seven singles titles and two doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.

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Mallory Pugh, American soccer player

Mallory Diane Swanson is an American professional soccer player who plays as a forward for the Chicago Stars FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and the United States women's national soccer team (USWNT).

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29/04/1997

Lucas Tousart, French footballer

Lucas Simon Pierre Tousart is a French professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Ligue 1 club Brest. He has also represented France internationally, having played for the country's under-19, under-20 and under-21 teams, as well as the France Olympic football team.

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29/04/1996

Katherine Langford, Australian actress

Katherine Langford is an Australian actress. After appearing in several independent films, she had her breakthrough starring as Hannah Baker in the Netflix television series 13 Reasons Why (2017–2018), which earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination. She then appeared in the films Love, Simon (2018) and Knives Out (2019), and headlined the dark comedy Spontaneous (2020) and the Netflix series Cursed (2020).

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29/04/1994

Christina Shakovets, German tennis player

Christina Shakovets is a German former tennis player.

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29/04/1992

Alina Rosenberg, German paralympic equestrian

Alina Rosenberg is a German Paralympic equestrian.

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29/04/1991

Adam Smith, English footballer

Adam James Smith is an English professional footballer who plays as a full-back for and captains Premier League club Bournemouth. He has also represented England at under-21 level.

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Jung Hye-sung, South Korean actress

Jung Eun-joo, known professionally as Jung Hye-sung (Korean: 정혜성), is a South Korean actress and model.

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Misaki Doi, Japanese tennis player

Misaki Doi is a Japanese former professional tennis player. Her highest WTA rankings are No. 30 in singles and No. 77 in doubles.

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29/04/1990

James Faulkner, Australian cricketer

James Peter Faulkner is an Australian former international cricketer who played for the Australian cricket team from 2013 to 2017 and currently in domestic cricket for Tasmania. An all-rounder, Faulkner is known for his aggressive batting in the middle order, and for his bowling at the end of limited-overs innings.

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Chris Johnson, American basketball player

Christapher Johnson is an American professional basketball player who last played for Hapoel Jerusalem. He played college basketball for the University of Dayton. Standing at 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m), he plays at the small forward and the shooting guard positions.

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29/04/1989

Candace Owens, American political commentator and activist

Candace Amber Owens Farmer is an American political commentator, author, and conspiracy theorist. Her political positions have mostly been described as conservative or far-right. She has promoted conspiracy theories on a wide range of subjects throughout her career. Since 2024, she has espoused antisemitic conspiracy theories.

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Domagoj Vida, Croatian footballer

Domagoj Vida is a Croatian professional footballer who plays as a defender for Super League Greece club AEK Athens. He is capable of playing in any defensive position but is mostly deployed as a centre-back.

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29/04/1988

Alfred Hui, Hong Kong singer

Alfred Hui Ting Hang is a Hong Kong singer. He rose to prominence as the eleventh-place finalist in the first season of The Voice. His debut studio album Departure Trilogy earned gold certification. Hui won multiple best newcomer awards in 2011. He has since released more than ten studio albums.

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Taoufik Makhloufi, Algerian athlete

Taoufik Makhloufi is an Algerian athlete who specialises in middle-distance running. He became the 1500 metres Olympic champion at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England. In 2016, Makhloufi took the silver medal in the 800m and 1500 m at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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Jonathan Toews, Canadian ice hockey player

Jonathan Bryan Toews is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a centre for the Winnipeg Jets of the National Hockey League (NHL). He previously played for the Chicago Blackhawks, serving as the captain from 2008 to 2023. Nicknamed "Captain Serious", Toews was selected by the Blackhawks with the third overall pick in the 2006 NHL entry draft. He joined the team in 2007–08 and was nominated for the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year. The following season he was named team captain, becoming the second-youngest captain in NHL history at the time. Toews won the Stanley Cup in 2010, along with the Conn Smythe Trophy for the most valuable player in the playoffs. After winning the Cup, Toews passed Peter Forsberg as the youngest player to join the Triple Gold Club. He won the Stanley Cup again in 2013 and 2015.

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Younha, South Korean singer-songwriter and record producer

Ko Younha, known mononymously as Younha, is a South Korean singer-songwriter and record producer. She began her career in 2004 in Japan, where she was nicknamed the "Oricon Comet" for her success on the Japanese music chart. In 2006, she debuted in South Korea, where she is regarded as one of the country's best singer-songwriters.

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29/04/1987

Rob Atkinson, English footballer

Robert Guy Atkinson is an English former professional footballer who plays as a defender.

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Sara Errani, Italian tennis player

Sara Errani is an Italian professional tennis player. Errani is one of only seven women who have completed a Career Golden Slam in doubles. She is an Olympic Games gold medalist, a former doubles world No. 1, nine-time major champion in doubles and mixed doubles, and a finalist in singles. With 9 singles and 40 doubles and mixed doubles titles, she is the Italian tennis player with the highest number of titles. Errani reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 5 on 20 May 2013. She is currently a top-10 player in doubles and the coach of Jasmine Paolini.

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Andre Russell, Jamaican cricketer

Andre Dwayne Russell, nicknamed Dre Russ, is a Jamaican former international cricketer who has played international cricket for the West Indies and for Jamaica in domestic cricket as an all-rounder. He currently plays in various T20 leagues around the world and periodically represented the West Indies in T20is. Russell was part of the 2012 and 2016 ICC World T20 winning West Indies teams. Russell is considered as one of the greatest cricketers in the T20 format, notable for his powerful hitting, and capability to bowl at speeds consistently above 140 km/h.

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29/04/1986

Byun Yo-han, South Korean actor

Byun Yo-han is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his roles in the television series Misaeng: Incomplete Life (2014), Six Flying Dragons (2015–2016), Mr. Sunshine (2018), and Black Out (2024). He has also appeared in films including Socialphobia (2015), The Book of Fish (2021), and Hansan: Rising Dragon (2022), for which he was awarded the Best Supporting Actor prize at the 59th Baeksang Arts Awards.

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Lee Chae-young, South Korean actress

Lee Chae-young is a South Korean actress. She debuted in a music video called "Come On" by the Hip-hop group Turtles in 2003. The following year, she appeared in Rain's "I Do" music video and in 2007, Yoon Mi-rae's "Did You Forget It". Her first television drama was Witch Yoo Hee, a romantic comedy, as Chef Marie. It wasn't until she was cast as Sa Illa in the 2009 historical drama Iron Empress and took the role as a host on the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) variety show Star Golden Bell that her popularity rose. She is a Dankook University graduate and the younger sister of Seo Seung-ah.

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29/04/1984

Kirby Cote, Canadian swimmer

Kirby Cote is a blind Canadian Paralympic swimmer.

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Lina Krasnoroutskaya, Russian tennis player

Lina Vladimirovna Krasnoroutskaya is a retired tennis player. She is a former junior world No. 1 (1999), and in addition, she won the US Open junior title. Krasnoroutskaya, however, had a career blighted by injury.

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29/04/1983

Megan Boone, American actress

Megan Boone is an American actress and producer. She is best known for her role as FBI agent and profiler Elizabeth Keen on the first eight seasons (2013–2021) of the drama series The Blacklist. Early in her career she appeared in the films My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009) and Step Up Revolution (2012), and had a recurring role in the single season of Law & Order: LA (2010–2011). Since leaving The Blacklist, she has appeared in a 2023 episode of Accused.

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Jay Cutler, American football player

Jay Christopher Cutler is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons. A member of the Chicago Bears for most of his career, he is the franchise leader in passing yards, passing touchdowns, attempts, and completions.

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Sam Jones III, American actor

Samuel L. Jones III is an American actor. He is best known for playing Pete Ross on the first three seasons of the Superman television series Smallville, Willie Worsley in the 2006 film Glory Road, Craig Shilo on Blue Mountain State, Chaz Pratt on ER and Billy Marsh in the 2006 film Home of the Brave.

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29/04/1981

George McCartney, Northern Irish footballer

George McCartney is a Northern Irish former footballer who is a coach at Linfield. He began his career at Sunderland in 1998 before having two spells each with West Ham United and Leeds United. He won the 2004–05 Football League Championship with Sunderland and was named the club's player of the season award as well as being named in the 2004–05 Football League Championship PFA Team of the Year. He moved to West Ham in 2006 before returning to Sunderland under Roy Keane's managership in 2008. He spent one season, the 2010–11 season, on loan with Leeds United before returning in 2011 to play on loan for West Ham. From 2001 until 2010 he also played international football for Northern Ireland.

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29/04/1980

Mathieu Biron, Canadian ice hockey player

Mathieu Biron is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played over 250 games in the National Hockey League (NHL). After retiring as a hockey player, he became a firefighter.

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Bre Blair, Canadian actress

Sarah Brianne Blair is a Canadian actress. She has played Stacey in the 1995 film The Baby-Sitters Club and Jessie West in the 2016 television drama series Game of Silence.

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29/04/1979

Lee Dong-gook, South Korean footballer

Lee Dong-gook is a South Korean former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is a record scorer in the K League 1, and had brief spells in Europe with Werder Bremen and Middlesbrough. He also played for the South Korea national football team at two FIFA World Cups and three AFC Asian Cups.

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Jo O'Meara, English pop singer

Joanne Valda O'Meara is an English singer and media personality. She was a member of the pop group S Club between 1999 and 2003, which has currently reformed since 2023. O'Meara was a contestant on the Channel 4 reality show Celebrity Big Brother in 2007.

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29/04/1978

Bob Bryan, American tennis player

Robert Charles Bryan is an American former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players of all time, Bryan was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's doubles for 438 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 eight times. Bryan won 126 ATP Tour-level doubles titles, including 23 majors: 16 in men's doubles and seven in mixed doubles. Alongside his twin brother Mike, the Bryan brothers were one of the most successful doubles partnerships in tennis history. The pair were named the ATP Team of the Decade for the 2000s. They became the second men's doubles team to complete the career Golden Slam at the 2012 London Olympics.

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Mike Bryan, American tennis player

Michael Carl Bryan is an American former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players of all time, Bryan was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's doubles for a record 506 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 a record ten times. Bryan won a record 128 ATP Tour-level doubles titles, including 22 majors: a record 18 in men's doubles, and four in mixed doubles. Alongside his twin brother Bob, the Bryan brothers were one of the most successful doubles partnerships in tennis history. The pair were named the ATP Team of the Decade for the 2000s. They became the second men's doubles team to complete the career Golden Slam at the 2012 London Olympics, and completed the double career Grand Slam. Mike Bryan also had success partnering Jack Sock, winning two majors and the 2018 ATP Finals, as well as the 2018 ATP World Tour Fans' Favorite Doubles Team.

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Javier Colon, American singer-songwriter and musician

Javier Colon is an American singer-songwriter. He has referred to his style of music as being "acoustic soul". He was a member of EmcQ and The Derek Trucks Band, and worked with many musicians before going solo. From 2002 to 2006, he was signed to Capitol Records, known as artist Javier. In 2006, however, the contract was terminated and Javier Colon became an independent artist with his own label, Javier Colon Music. In 2011, he was the winner of season 1 of the American talent competition show on NBC, The Voice, receiving $100,000 and signing a recording contract with Universal Republic Records. Colon eventually decided to part ways with Universal Republic in 2012.

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Tyler Labine, Canadian actor and comedian

Tyler Labine is a Canadian actor. He is best known for starring in the film Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, the television series Breaker High, Invasion, Reaper, Deadbeat and as Dr. Iggy Frome, head of psychiatry, in the NBC medical drama New Amsterdam.

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29/04/1977

Zuzana Hejdová, Czech tennis player

Zuzana Hejdová is a former Czech tennis player.

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Claus Jensen, Danish international footballer and manager

Claus William Jensen is a Danish professional football manager, and former player. During his active playing career, he played as an attacking midfielder for homeland clubs Næstved and Lyngby, as well as three other clubs in England. Jensen also made 47 appearances for the Denmark national team, in which he scored eight goals. He also represented Denmark at the 2002 World Cup and 2004 European Championship tournaments. He is the cousin of former winger Anders Due, who currently works as his assistant at Nykøbing.

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David Sullivan, American film and television actor

David Wade Sullivan is an American film and television actor.

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29/04/1976

Micol Ostow, American author, editor and educator

Micol Ostow is an American author, editor and educator who has written more than 40 published works. Her first original hardcover novel, Emily Goldberg Learns to Salsa, was named a "New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age". She has also been the ghostwriter for novelizations of television series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed and Fearless.

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God Shammgod, American basketball player and coach

God Shammgod, formerly known as Shammgod Wells, is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played in the NBA with the Washington Wizards during 1997–98 after being drafted by them in the second round of the 1997 NBA draft. He played in the Chinese Basketball Association for several teams, including the Zhejiang Cyclones and Shanxi Yujun. He also played professionally in Poland and Saudi Arabia. Despite a brief NBA career, he is well-remembered as the progenitor and namesake of a widely used crossover dribble, the "Shammgod", although the move, known in Europe as "The Whip", was already used earlier by former Yugoslavian players Dragan Kićanović and Danko Cvjetićanin and later popularized by Dejan Bodiroga.

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29/04/1975

Garrison Starr, American singer-songwriter and producer

Garrison Starr is a Grammy-nominated American singer-songwriter/producer. Her major label debut, "18 Over Me" was released in 1997 (Geffen). Starr's shows have been described as "marrying pop smarts and Americana grit with a voice of remarkable power and clarity". Since that initial record, Starr has released over a dozen EPs and LPs while landing numerous placements on shows and movies like Grey's Anatomy, Pretty Little Liars, Nashville, Hart of Dixie, Switched at Birth, Rookie Blue, Army Wives, and Brothers & Sisters, as well as commercial placements that include Pandora, Virgin Mobile, McDonald's, and Fisher Price.

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April Telek, Canadian actress

April Amber Telek is a Canadian actress.

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29/04/1970

Andre Agassi, American tennis player

Andre Kirk Agassi is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 101 weeks, including as the year-end No. 1 in 1999. Agassi won 60 ATP Tour-level singles titles, including eight majors, completing the Career Grand Slam. He also won an Olympic gold medal, the 1990 ATP Tour World Championships, 17 Masters titles and was part of the winning United States Davis Cup teams in 1990, 1992 and 1995. Agassi is one of nine men in history to win the Career Grand Slam in singles, and one of three men to complete the career Golden Slam in singles.

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Uma Thurman, American actress

Uma Karuna Thurman is an American actress. Known for her collaborations with Quentin Tarantino, she has performed in over fifty film and television productions since the 1980s, across genres that range from comedies and dramas to science fiction and action. Her accolades include a Golden Globe Award and nominations for an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

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29/04/1969

Paul Adelstein, American actor and writer

Paul Adelstein is an American actor. He is known for the role of Agent Paul Kellerman in the Fox television series Prison Break and his role as pediatrician Cooper Freedman in the ABC medical drama Private Practice. In addition to supporting roles in films such as Intolerable Cruelty and Memoirs of a Geisha, he is also known for his recurring role as Leo Bergen on ABC's Scandal and as Jake Novak in the Bravo television series Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce. He also played David Sweetzer on the short-lived NBC comedy I Feel Bad.

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29/04/1968

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, Croatian politician and diplomat, 4th President of Croatia

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović is a Croatian politician and diplomat who served as the president of Croatia from 2015 to 2020. She was the first woman to be elected to the office since the first multi-party elections in 1990 and independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. At 46 years of age, she also became the youngest person to assume the presidency.

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29/04/1966

Christian Tetzlaff, German violinist

Christian Tetzlaff is a German violinist who has performed internationally, with a focus on chamber music.

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29/04/1965

Michel Bussi, French geographer, author, and academic

Michel Bussi is a French author, known for writing thriller novels, and a political analyst and Professor of Geography at the University of Rouen, where he leads a Public Scientific and Technical Research Establishment in the French National Centre for Scientific Research, where he is a specialist in electoral geography.

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Amy Krouse Rosenthal, American author (died 2017)

Amy Krouse Rosenthal was an American author of both adult and children's books, a short film maker, and radio show host. She is best known for her memoir Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, her children's picture books, and the film project The Beckoning of Lovely. She was a prolific writer, publishing more than 30 children's books between 2005 and her death in 2017. She is the only author to have three children's books make the Best Children's Books for Family Literacy list in the same year. She was a contributor to Chicago's NPR affiliate WBEZ, and to the TED conference.

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29/04/1964

Federico Castelluccio, Italian-American actor, director, producer and screenwriter

Federico Castelluccio is an Italian-born American actor. He is best known for his role as Furio Giunta on the HBO series The Sopranos.

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Lúðvík Bergvinsson, Icelandic politician

Lúðvík Bergvinsson is an Icelandic lawyer, politician and former member of the Althing. A member of the Social Democratic Alliance, he represented the Southern constituency from April 1995 to May 2003 and the South constituency from May 2003 to April 2009.

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29/04/1963

Mike Babcock, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

Michael Babcock Jr. is a Canadian former ice hockey player and coach. He spent parts of eighteen seasons as a head coach in the National Hockey League (NHL), beginning when he was named head coach of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, whom he led to the 2003 Stanley Cup Final. In 2005, Babcock signed with the Detroit Red Wings, winning the Stanley Cup with them in 2008, and helping them to the Stanley Cup playoffs every year during his tenure and setting a record for most wins in Red Wings history. In 2015, he left Detroit to coach the Toronto Maple Leafs, a position he held until he was fired in 2019. During his coaching tenure from 1991 to 2019, Babcock's teams missed the post-season only four times.

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29/04/1962

Polly Samson, English novelist, lyricist and journalist

Polly Samson is an English novelist, lyricist and journalist. She is married to the musician David Gilmour and has written lyrics for many of his songs, including albums with his band Pink Floyd.

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29/04/1960

Robert J. Sawyer, Canadian author and academic

Robert James Sawyer is a Canadian and American writer of science fiction. He is the author of 25 published novels, and his short fiction has appeared in magazines and journals such as Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, On Spec, and Nature, in addition to several anthologies. He has won many writing awards, including the Nebula Award for Best Novel (1995), the Hugo Award for Best Novel (2003), the John W. Campbell Memorial Award (2006), the Robert A. Heinlein Award (2017), and multiple Aurora Awards.

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29/04/1958

Kevin Moore, English footballer (died 2013)

Kevin Thomas Moore was an English professional footballer.

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Michelle Pfeiffer, American actress

Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress and producer. One of Hollywood's most bankable stars during the 1980s and 1990s, her performances have earned her various accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a British Academy Film Award, as well as nominations for three Academy Awards and one Primetime Emmy Award.

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Eve Plumb, American actress

Eve Aline Plumb is an American actress, singer and painter. She is best known for portraying the middle daughter Jan Brady on the ABC sitcom The Brady Bunch.

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29/04/1957

Daniel Day-Lewis, British actor

Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is an English actor. Often described as one of the greatest actors in the history of cinema, he is best known for intense method acting portrayed with eccentric characters in auteurs' films. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a record three Academy Awards for Best Actor, as well as four BAFTAs, three Actor Awards and two Golden Globes. In 2014, Day-Lewis received a knighthood for services to drama.

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Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, Samoan politician, 7th Prime Minister of Samoa

Afioga Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa is a Samoan politician and High Chief (matai) who served as the seventh Prime Minister of Samoa from 2021 to 2025. She has led the Samoa Uniting Party (SUP) since 2025.

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Joseph Morelle, American politician

Joseph D. Morelle is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for New York's 25th congressional district since 2018. A Democrat, he was formerly a member of the New York State Assembly representing the 136th Assembly district, which includes eastern portions of the City of Rochester and the Monroe County suburbs of Irondequoit and Brighton. Speaker Sheldon Silver appointed him as majority leader of the New York State Assembly in January 2013 and Morelle served as acting speaker in the Speaker's absence. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives for New York's 25th congressional district in November 2018 following the death of longtime Representative Louise Slaughter.

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29/04/1955

Leslie Jordan, American actor, comedian, writer and singer (died 2022)

Leslie Allen Jordan was an American actor, comedian, writer, and singer. His television roles include Beverley Leslie on Will & Grace, several characters in the American Horror Story franchise (2013–2019), Sid on The Cool Kids (2018–2019), Phil on Call Me Kat (2021–2022), and Lonnie Garr on Hearts Afire (1993–1995). On stage, Jordan played Earl "Brother Boy" Ingram in the 1996 play Sordid Lives, later portraying the character in the 2000 film of the same name. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he became an Instagram contributor, amassing 5.8 million followers in 2020, and published his autobiography How Y'all Doing? Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived in April 2021.

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Kate Mulgrew, American actress

Katherine Kiernan Maria Mulgrew is an American actress and author. She is best known for her roles as Captain Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager and Red in Orange Is the New Black. She first came to attention in the role of Mary Ryan in the daytime soap opera Ryan's Hope.

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29/04/1954

Mo Brooks, American attorney and politician

Morris Jackson Brooks Jr. is an American attorney and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Alabama's 5th congressional district from 2011 to 2023. His district was based in Huntsville and stretches across the northern fifth of the state. A member of the Republican Party, Brooks was a founding member of the Freedom Caucus.

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Jerry Seinfeld, American comedian, actor and producer

Jerome Allen Seinfeld is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, filmmaker, and television producer specializing in observational comedy. Seinfeld gained stardom playing a fictionalized version of himself in the NBC sitcom Seinfeld (1989–1998), which he co-created and wrote with Larry David. Seinfeld earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy in 1995. The show is one of the most acclaimed and popular sitcoms of all time. He has since created and produced the reality series The Marriage Ref (2010–2011), and created and hosted the web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (2012–2019), the latter of which earned him three Webby Awards. He also co-produced, co-wrote, and starred in the DreamWorks animated film Bee Movie (2007) and the Netflix comedy Unfrosted (2024).

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29/04/1953

Bill Drummond, British musician

William Ernest Drummond is a Scottish artist, musician, writer, and record producer. He was a co-founder of the late-1980s avant-garde pop group the KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with which he burned £1 million in 1994.

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29/04/1952

Geraldine Doogue, Australian journalist and television host

Geraldine Frances Doogue is an Australian journalist and radio and television presenter, known for her work with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Since January 2024, she has been co-host of ABC Radio National's Global Roaming current affairs programme.

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Nora Dunn, American actress and comedian

Nora Dunn is an American actress, comedian and writer. She first garnered popularity during her tenure as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990. Following her departure from SNL, she played Dr. Reynolds in The Nanny from 1998 to 1999, and she had a recurring role as Muriel in Home Economics from 2021 to 2022.

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Bob McClure, American baseball player and coach

Robert Craig McClure is an American former professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as a left-handed pitcher from 1975 to 1993, most notably as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers with whom he won the 1982 American League pennant. Following his playing career, he has served as a coach for several MLB teams.

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Dave Valentin, American flautist (died 2017)

David Peter Valentin was an American Latin jazz flautist of Puerto Rican descent.

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29/04/1951

Dale Earnhardt, American race car driver (died 2001)

Ralph Dale Earnhardt was an American professional stock car driver and racing team owner, who raced from 1975 to 2001 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series, most notably driving the No. 3 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. His aggressive driving style earned him the nicknames "the Intimidator", "the Man in Black" and "Ironhead"; after his son Dale Earnhardt Jr. joined the Cup Series circuit in 1999, Earnhardt was generally known by the retronyms Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Dale Sr. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history and was named as one of the NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers class in 1998.

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Jon Stanhope, Australian politician

Jonathan Donald Stanhope is a former Australian politician who was Labor Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory from 2001 to 2011. Stanhope represented the Ginninderra electorate in the ACT Legislative Assembly from 1998 until 2011. He is the only ACT Chief Minister to have governed with a majority in the ACT Assembly. From 2012 to 2014 Stanhope was Administrator of the Australian Indian Ocean Territories, which consists of Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

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29/04/1950

Paul Holmes, New Zealand journalist (died 2013)

Sir Paul Scott Holmes was a New Zealand broadcaster who gained national recognition through his high-profile radio and television journalism. Holmes fronted one of first major prime time current affairs shows of the 1980s, Holmes, which ran on TV One from 1989 to 2004. Holmes hosted the Newstalk ZB breakfast show from 1985 to 2008, and the Saturday morning show from 2009 to 2012.

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Phillip Noyce, Australian director and producer

Phillip Roger Noyce is an Australian film and television director. Since 1977, he has directed over 19 feature films in various genres, including historical drama ; thrillers ; and action films. He has also directed the Jack Ryan adaptations Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994), as well as the 2014 adaptation of Lois Lowry's The Giver.

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Debbie Stabenow, American social worker and politician

Deborah Ann Stabenow is an American politician who served from 2001 to 2025 as a United States senator from Michigan. A member of the Democratic Party, she was Michigan's first female U.S. senator.

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29/04/1948

Edith Brown Clement, American judge

Edith Joy Brown Clement is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, based in New Orleans, Louisiana.

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29/04/1947

Tommy James, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer

Tommy James is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. James is the frontman of the rock band Tommy James and the Shondells, which is known for hit singles such as "Mony Mony", "Crimson and Clover" and "I Think We're Alone Now".

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Johnny Miller, American golfer and sportscaster

John Laurence Miller is an American former professional golfer. He was one of the top players in the world during the mid-1970s. He was the first to shoot 63 in a major championship to win the 1973 U.S. Open, and he ranked second in the world on Mark McCormack's world golf rankings in both 1974 and 1975 behind Jack Nicklaus. Miller won 25 PGA Tour events, including two majors. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1998. He was the lead golf analyst for NBC Sports, a position he held from January 1990 to February 2019. He is also an active golf course architect.

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Jim Ryun, American runner and politician

James Ronald Ryun is an American former Republican politician and Olympic track and field athlete, who at his peak was widely considered the world's top middle-distance runner. He won a silver medal in the 1500 m at the 1968 Summer Olympics, and was the first high school athlete to run a mile in under four minutes. He is the last American to hold the world record in the mile run. Ryun later served in the United States House of Representatives from 1996 to 2007, representing Kansas's 2nd congressional district.

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29/04/1946

Rodney Frelinghuysen, American politician and lobbyist

Rodney Procter Frelinghuysen is an American former politician and lobbyist who served as the U.S. representative for New Jersey's 11th congressional district from 1995 to 2019. The district includes most of Morris County, an affluent suburban county west of New York City. A member of the Republican Party, Frelinghuysen served as chair of the House Appropriations Committee from 2017 to 2019. Frelinghuysen announced on January 29, 2018, that he would not seek re-election that year.

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29/04/1945

Hugh Hopper, English bass guitarist (died 2009)

Hugh Colin Hopper was a British progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and other bands.

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Catherine Lara, French singer-songwriter and violinist

Catherine Lara is a French violinist, composer, singer, and author. Over a career spanning more than five decades, she has established herself as an icon in French pop/rock music as well as the neo-classical genre. She has released 26 studio albums, contributed music to numerous television and film productions, and helped stage and produce many theatrical works. Lara is openly lesbian.

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Tammi Terrell, American soul singer-songwriter (died 1970)

Thomasina Winifred Montgomery, professionally known as Tammi Terrell, was an American singer-songwriter, widely known as a star singer for Motown Records during the 1960s, notably for a series of duets with singer Marvin Gaye.

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29/04/1944

Francis Lee, English footballer and businessman (died 2023)

Francis Henry Lee, also known as Franny Lee, was an English professional footballer and businessman. He was also later the chairman and main shareholder of Manchester City, as well as briefly a racehorse trainer and amateur cricket player.

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29/04/1943

Duane Allen, American country singer

Duane David Allen is an American singer and songwriter, who had formal training in both operatic and quartet singing before becoming a member of the Oak Ridge Boys in 1966. Allen is the lead singer for the quartet and is heard on the majority of their most successful songs. Allen was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2015 as a member of the Oak Ridge Boys. He was later inducted into the SGMA Hall of Fame in 2025, for his Gospel music contribution.

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Brenda Dean, Baroness Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde, English union leader and politician (died 2018)

Brenda Dean, Baroness Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde, was a British trade unionist and Labour Party politician. As general secretary of SOGAT from 1985 until 1991, she was "the first woman elected to head a major industrial trade union."

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Ruth Deech, Baroness Deech, English lawyer and academic

Ruth Lynn Deech, Baroness Deech, DBE is a British academic, bioethicist and politician, most noted for chairing the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), from 1994 to 2002, and as the former Principal of St Anne's College, Oxford. Deech sits as a Crossbench peer in the House of Lords (2005–) and chaired the Bar Standards Board (2009–2014).

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29/04/1942

Dick Chrysler, American politician

Richard R. Chrysler is an American businessman and former politician who was a U.S. representative from Michigan from 1995 until 1997.

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Rennie Fritchie, Baroness Fritchie, English civil servant and academic

Irene Tordoff Fritchie, Baroness Fritchie, DBE, known as Rennie Fritchie, was a British life peer who was a member of the House of Lords.

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29/04/1941

Hanne Darboven, German painter (died 2009)

Hanne Darboven was a German conceptual artist, best known for her large-scale minimalist installations consisting of handwritten tables of numbers.

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29/04/1940

George Adams, American musician (died 1992)

George Rufus Adams was an American jazz musician who played tenor saxophone, flute and bass clarinet. He is best known for his work with Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Roy Haynes and in the quartet he co-led with pianist Don Pullen, featuring bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Dannie Richmond. He was also known for his idiosyncratic singing.

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Peter Diamond, American economist

Peter Arthur Diamond is an American economist known for his analysis of U.S. Social Security policy and his work as an advisor to the Advisory Council on Social Security in the late 1980s and 1990s. He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2010, along with Dale T. Mortensen and Christopher A. Pissarides. He is an Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. On June 6, 2011, he withdrew his nomination to serve on the Federal Reserve's board of governors, citing intractable Republican opposition for 14 months.

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29/04/1939

Klaus Rinke, German artist (died 2026)

Klaus Rinke was a German artist.

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29/04/1938

Steven Bach, American writer, businessman and educator (died 2009)

Steven Bach was an American writer and lecturer on film and a former senior vice-president and head of worldwide productions for United Artists studios.

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Bernie Madoff, American businessman, financier and convicted felon (died 2021)

Bernard Lawrence Madoff was an American financial criminal and financier who was the admitted mastermind of the largest known Ponzi scheme in history, worth an estimated $65 billion. He was at one time chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange. Madoff's firm had two basic units: a stock brokerage and an asset management business; the Ponzi scheme was centered in the asset management business.

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29/04/1937

Jill Paton Walsh, English author (died 2020)

Gillian Honorine Mary Herbert, Baroness Hemingford,, known professionally as Jill Paton Walsh, was an English novelist and children's writer. She may be known best for her Booker Prize-nominated novel Knowledge of Angels and for the Peter Wimsey–Harriet Vane mysteries that continued the work of Dorothy L. Sayers.

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29/04/1936

Zubin Mehta, Indian conductor

Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of Western classical music. He is music director emeritus of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) and conductor emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

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Adolfo Nicolás, Spanish priest, 13th Superior General of the Society of Jesus (died 2020)

Adolfo Nicolás Pachón was a Spanish Catholic priest who served as the 30th superior general of the Society of Jesus from 2008 to 2016. He previously taught at Sophia University in Tokyo for twenty years and headed educational institutions in Manila from 1978 to 1984 and in Tokyo from 1991 to 1993. He led the Jesuits in Japan from 1993 to 1996 and, after four years of pastoral work in Tokyo, led the Jesuits in Asia from 2004 to 2008.

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Alejandra Pizarnik, Argentine poet (died 1972)

Flora Alejandra Pizarnik was an Argentine poet. Her idiosyncratic and thematically introspective poetry has been considered "one of the most unusual bodies of work in Latin American literature", and has been recognized and celebrated for its fixation on "the limitation of language, silence, the body, night, the nature of intimacy, madness, [and] death".

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Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild, English banker and philanthropist (died 2024)

Nathaniel Charles Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild, was a British hereditary peer, investment banker and member of the Rothschild banking family. Rothschild held important roles in business and British public life, and was active in charitable and philanthropic areas.

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29/04/1935

Otis Rush, American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2018)

Otis Rush Jr. was an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter. His distinctive guitar style featured a slow-burning sound and long bent notes. With qualities similar to the styles of other 1950s artists Magic Sam and Buddy Guy, his sound became known as West Side Chicago blues and was an influence on many musicians, including Michael Bloomfield, Peter Green and Eric Clapton.

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29/04/1934

Luis Aparicio, Venezuelan-American baseball player

Luis Ernesto Aparicio Montiel, nicknamed "Little Louie", is a Venezuelan former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop from 1956 to 1973 for three American League (AL) teams, most prominently as a member of the Chicago White Sox. During his ten seasons with the team, he became known for his exceptional defensive and base-stealing skills. A 13-time All-Star,, he made an immediate impact with the team, winning the Rookie of the Year Award in 1956 after leading the league in stolen bases and leading AL shortstops in putouts and assists; he was the first Latin American player to win the award.

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Pedro Pires, Cape Verdean politician, 3rd President of Cape Verde

Pedro de Verona Rodrigues Pires is a Cape Verdean politician who served as Prime Minister of Cape Verde from 1975 to 1991, and later as president from 2001 to 2011.

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29/04/1933

Ed Charles, American baseball player and coach (died 2018)

Edwin Douglas Charles was an American professional baseball third baseman in Major League Baseball. A right-handed hitter, Charles played for the Kansas City Athletics (1962–67) and New York Mets (1967–69). He was listed as 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) tall and 170 pounds (77 kg).

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Rod McKuen, American singer-songwriter and poet (died 2015)

Rodney Marvin McKuen was an American poet, singer-songwriter and composer. He was one of the best-selling poets in the United States during the late 1960s. Throughout his career, McKuen produced a wide range of recordings, which included popular music, spoken word poetry, film soundtracks and classical music. He earned two Academy Award nominations for his music compositions. McKuen's translations and adaptations of the songs of Jacques Brel were instrumental in bringing the Belgian songwriter to prominence in the English-speaking world. His poetry deals with themes of love, the natural world and spirituality. McKuen's songs sold over 100 million recordings worldwide and 60 million books of his poetry were sold as well.

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Willie Nelson, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer and actor

Willie Hugh Nelson is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor, and activist. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restrictions of the Nashville sound. The critical success of his album Shotgun Willie (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger (1975) and Stardust (1978), made Nelson one of the most recognized artists in country music. Nelson has acted in over 30 films, co-authored several books, and has been involved in activism for the use of biofuels and the legalization of marijuana.

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29/04/1932

David Tindle, English painter and educator

David Tindle is a British painter who was made a Royal Academician in 1979. He is a Fellow of St Edmund Hall where several of his paintings are in the Senior Common Room. In the Old Dining Hall hangs his portrait of the former Principal Justin Gosling. He is now living in Santa Maria del Giudice, near Lucca, in Italy.

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Dmitry Zaikin, Soviet pilot and cosmonaut instructor (died 2013)

Dmitry Alekseevich Zaikin was a Soviet cosmonaut trainer.

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29/04/1931

Frank Auerbach, German-British painter (died 2024)

Frank Helmut Auerbach was a German-born British painter. Born in Germany to Jewish parents, he became a naturalised British subject in 1947. He is considered one of the leading names in the School of London, with fellow artists Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, both of whom were early supporters of his work.

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Lonnie Donegan, Scottish-English singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2002)

Anthony James "Lonnie" Donegan was a British skiffle singer, songwriter and musician, referred to as the "King of Skiffle", who influenced 1960s British pop and rock musicians. Born in Scotland and brought up in England, Donegan began his career in the British trad jazz revival, but transitioned to skiffle in the mid-1950s, rising to prominence with a hit recording of the American folk song "Rock Island Line", which helped spur the broader UK skiffle movement.

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Chris Pearson, Canadian politician, 1st Premier of Yukon (died 2014)

Christopher William Pearson was the second leader of the Yukon Progressive Conservative Party and the first premier of Yukon.

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29/04/1930

Jean Rochefort, French actor and director (died 2017)

Jean Raoul Robert Rochefort was a French actor. He received many accolades during his career, including an Honorary César in 1999.

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29/04/1929

Walter Kempowski, German author and academic (died 2007)

Walter Kempowski was a German writer. Kempowski was known for his series of novels called German Chronicle and the monumental Echolot ("Sonar"), a collage of autobiographical reports, letters and other documents by contemporary witnesses of the Second World War.

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Peter Sculthorpe, Australian composer and conductor (died 2014)

Peter Joshua Sculthorpe FAHA was a distinguished Australian composer and music educator. Much of his music resulted from an interest in the music of countries neighbouring Australia, as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of Aboriginal Australian music with that of the heritage of the West. He was known primarily for his orchestral and chamber music, such as Kakadu (1988) and Earth Cry (1986), which evoke the sounds and feeling of the Australian bushland and outback. He also wrote 18 string quartets, using unusual timbral effects, works for piano, and two operas. He stated that he wanted his music to make people feel better and happier for having listened to it. He typically avoided the dense, atonal techniques of many of his contemporary composers. His work was often characterised by its distinctive use of percussion. As one of the compositional pioneers of a distinctively Australian sound, Sculthorpe and his music have been likened to the role played by Aaron Copland in America's musical coming of age.

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April Stevens, American singer (died 2023)

Caroline Vincinette LoTempio, known professionally as April Stevens, was an American Grammy Award-winning singer of traditional pop, best known for her collaborations with her younger brother, Nino Tempo, as Nino Tempo & April Stevens. Stevens was an inductee in the Niagara Falls Music Hall of Fame

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Maurice Strong, Canadian businessman and diplomat (died 2015)

Maurice Frederick Strong was a Canadian oil and mineral businessman and a diplomat who served as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.

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Jeremy Thorpe, English lawyer and politician (died 2014)

John Jeremy Thorpe was a British politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for North Devon from 1959 to 1979 and Leader of the Liberal Party from 1967 to 1976. In May 1979 he was tried at the Old Bailey on charges of conspiracy and incitement to murder his former boyfriend, Norman Scott. Thorpe was acquitted on all charges, but the case, and the scandal surrounding it, ended his political career.

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29/04/1928

Carl Gardner, American singer (died 2011)

Carl Edward Gardner was an American singer, best known as the foremost member and founder of The Coasters. Known for the 1958 song "Yakety Yak", which spent a week as number one on the Hot 100 pop list, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

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Heinz Wolff, German-English physiologist, engineer, and academic (died 2017)

Heinz Siegfried Wolff, was a German-born British scientist as well as a television and radio presenter. He was best known for the BBC television series The Great Egg Race.

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29/04/1927

Dorothy Manley, English sprinter (died 2021)

Dorothy Gladys Manley was a British sprinter. She competed in the 1948 Summer Olympics, held in London, in the 100 metres where she won the silver medal with a time of 12.2 seconds. She was the first British woman to win an Olympic sprint medal. She was also a medallist in the 1950 British Empire Games, and the 1950 European Athletics Championships.

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Bill Slater, English footballer (died 2018)

William John Slater,, also commonly known as W. J. Slater, was an English professional footballer. Slater made the majority of his appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers, with whom he won three league championships and the FA Cup.

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29/04/1926

Elmer Kelton, American journalist and author (died 2009)

Elmer Kelton was an American author, known for his Westerns. He was born in Andrews County, Texas.

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29/04/1925

John Compton, Saint Lucian lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Saint Lucia (died 2007)

Sir John George Melvin Compton, was a Saint Lucian politician who became the first prime minister upon independence in February 1979. Having led Saint Lucia under British rule from 1964 to 1979, Compton served as prime minister three times: briefly in 1979, again from 1982 to 1996, and from 2006 until his death in 2007. He cofounded the conservative United Workers Party (UWP) in 1964; he led the party until 1996, again from 1998 to 2000, and again from 2005 to 2007.

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Iwao Takamoto, American animator, director, and producer (died 2007)

Iwao Takamoto was an American animator, character designer, television producer, and film director. After his family had been sent to the California internment camps in the early 1940s, Takamoto learned to draw, presented his sketchbook to Walt Disney Productions and was hired on the spot.

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29/04/1924

Zizi Jeanmaire, French ballerina and actress (died 2020)

Renée Marcelle "Zizi" Jeanmaire was a French ballet dancer, actress and singer. She became famous in the 1950s after playing the title role in the ballet Carmen, produced in London in 1949, and went on to appear in several Hollywood films and Paris revues. She was the wife of dancer and choreographer Roland Petit, who created ballets and revues for her.

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29/04/1923

Irvin Kershner, American actor, director and producer (died 2010)

Irvin Kershner was an American director for film and television. Early in his career as a filmmaker he directed quirky, independent drama films, while working as a lecturer at the University of Southern California. Later, he began making high-budget blockbusters such as Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, the James Bond adaptation Never Say Never Again and RoboCop 2. Through the course of his career, he received numerous accolades, including being nominated for both a Primetime Emmy Award and a Palme d'Or.

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29/04/1922

Parren Mitchell, American politician (died 2007)

Parren James Mitchell was an American politician who served as a U.S. Congressman affiliated with the Democratic Party representing the 7th congressional district of Maryland from January 3, 1971, to January 3, 1987. He was the first African American elected to Congress from Maryland.

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Toots Thielemans, Belgian guitarist and harmonica player (died 2016)

Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans, known professionally as Toots Thielemans, was a Belgian jazz musician. He was mostly known for playing the chromatic harmonica, as well as his guitar and whistling skills, and composing. According to jazz historian Ted Gioia, his most important contribution was in "championing the humble harmonica", which Thielemans made into a "legitimate voice in jazz". He eventually became the "preeminent" jazz harmonica player.

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29/04/1920

Edward Blishen, English author and radio host (died 1996)

Edward Blishen was an English author and broadcaster. He may be known best for the first of two children's novels based on Greek mythology, written with Leon Garfield, illustrated by Charles Keeping, and published by Longman in 1970. For The God Beneath the Sea Blishen and Garfield won the 1970 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.

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Harold Shapero, American composer (died 2013)

Harold Samuel Shapero was an American composer.

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29/04/1919

Gérard Oury, French actor, director and screenwriter (died 2006)

Gérard Oury was a French film director, actor and writer. He is best known for a number of comedies he directed and co-wrote between the 1960s and 1980s, most notably The Sucker (1965), Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! (1966), The Brain (1969), The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (1973), and Ace of Aces (1982).

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29/04/1918

George Allen, American football player and coach (died 1990)

George Herbert Allen was an American football coach. He served as the head coach for two teams in the National Football League (NFL), the Los Angeles Rams from 1966 to 1970 and the Washington Redskins from 1971 to 1977. Allen led his teams to winning records in all 12 of his seasons as an NFL head coach, compiling an overall regular-season record of 116–47–5. Seven of his teams qualified for the NFL playoffs, including the 1972 Washington Redskins, who reached Super Bowl VII, losing to Don Shula's Miami Dolphins. Allen made a brief return as head coach of the Rams in 1978, but was fired before the regular season commenced.

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29/04/1917

Maya Deren, Ukrainian-American director, poet, and photographer (died 1961)

Maya Deren was a Russian-born American experimental filmmaker and important part of the avant-garde in the 1940s and 1950s. Deren was also a choreographer, dancer, film theorist, poet, lecturer, writer, and photographer.

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Celeste Holm, American actress and singer (died 2012)

Celeste Holm was an American actress. Holm won an Academy Award for her performance in Elia Kazan's Gentleman's Agreement (1947), and was nominated for her roles in Come to the Stable (1949) and All About Eve (1950). She also is known for her performances in The Snake Pit (1948), A Letter to Three Wives (1949), and High Society (1956) as well as for originating the role of Ado Annie in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! (1943).

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29/04/1915

Henry H. Barschall, German-American physicist and academic (died 1997)

Henry Herman ("Heinz") Barschall was a German-American physicist.

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29/04/1912

Richard Carlson, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1977)

Richard Dutoit Carlson was an American actor, television and film director, and screenwriter. He is best remembered for his leading roles in sci-fi classic It Came from Outer Space (1953) and iconic Universal Monster film Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).

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29/04/1909

Tom Ewell, American actor (died 1994)

Tom Ewell was an American film, stage and television actor, and producer. His most successful and most identifiable role was that of Richard Sherman in The Seven Year Itch, a character he played in the Broadway production (1952–1954) and reprised for the 1955 film adaptation. He received a Tony Award for his work in the play and a Golden Globe Award for his performance in the film. Although Ewell preferred acting on stage, he accepted several other screen roles in light comedies of the 1950s, most notably The Girl Can't Help It (1956). He appeared in the film version of the musical State Fair (1962) and in a small number of additional ones released between the early 1960s and 1980s.

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29/04/1908

Jack Williamson, American author and academic (died 2006)

John Stewart Williamson was an American science fiction writer, one of several called the "Dean of Science Fiction". He is also credited with one of the first uses of the term genetic engineering. Early in his career he sometimes used the pseudonyms Will Stewart and Nils O. Sonderlund.

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29/04/1907

Fred Zinnemann, Austrian-American director and producer (died 1997)

Alfred Zinnemann was an Austrian and American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Austria-Hungary and educated in France and Germany, Zinnemann began his career in Europe before emigrating to the US, where he specialized in shorts before making 25 feature films during his 50-year career. He won four Academy Awards, both for directing and producing, and made films in a variety of genres including thrillers, westerns, film noir, and stage adaptations.

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29/04/1901

Hirohito, Japanese emperor (died 1989)

Emperor Shōwa , known colloquially by his personal name Hirohito, was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 1926 until his death in 1989. He remains the longest-reigning emperor in Japanese history and one of the longest-reigning monarchs in the world. As emperor during the Shōwa era, Hirohito presided over the rise of Japanese militarism, the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Asia-Pacific theater of World War II, and the nation's postwar economic miracle.

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29/04/1900

Amelia Best, Australian politician (died 1979)

Amelia Martha (Millie) Best MBE was one of the first two women elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly.

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29/04/1899

Duke Ellington, American pianist, composer and bandleader (died 1974)

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Ralph J. Gleason called him "America's most important composer."

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Mary Petty, American illustrator (died 1976)

Mary Petty was an illustrator of books and magazines best remembered for a series of covers published by The New Yorker that feature a family she invented and named, "Peabody", along with their household servants.

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29/04/1898

E. J. Bowen, British physical chemist (died 1980)

Edmund ("Ted") John Bowen FRS was a British physical chemist.

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29/04/1895

Vladimir Propp, Russian scholar and critic (died 1970)

Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp was a Russian and Soviet folklorist and scholar who analysed the basic structural elements of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest, irreducible structural units.

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Malcolm Sargent, English organist, composer and conductor (died 1967)

Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works. The musical ensembles with which he was associated included the Ballets Russes, the Huddersfield Choral Society, the Royal Choral Society, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, and the London Philharmonic, Hallé, Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Symphony and Royal Philharmonic orchestras. Sargent was held in high esteem by choirs and instrumental soloists, but because of his high standards and a statement that he made in a 1936 interview disputing musicians' rights to tenure, his relationship with orchestral players was often uneasy. Despite this, he was co-founder of the London Philharmonic, was the first conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic as a full-time ensemble, and played an important part in saving the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from disbandment in the 1960s.

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29/04/1894

Marietta Blau, Austrian physicist and academic (died 1970)

Marietta Blau was an Austrian physicist of the 20th century who pioneered developments of photographic nuclear emulsions to image and accurately measure high-energy nuclear particles and events, significantly advancing the field of particle physics in her time. For this, she was awarded the Lieben Prize in 1937 by the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW). As a Jew, she became an émigré from Austria because of the 1938 Nazi Anschluss (annexe), her research continuing from Oslo, on to Mexico and the United States of America before eventually returning to Austria in 1960 where she was awarded the ÖAW Erwin Schrödinger Prize.

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29/04/1893

Harold Urey, American chemist and astronomer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1981)

Harold Clayton Urey was an American physical chemist who conducted pioneering work on isotopes. He earned the 1934 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his discovery of heavy hydrogen." He played a significant role in the development of the atom bomb, as well as contributing to theories on the development of organic life from non-living matter.

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29/04/1891

Edward Wilfred Taylor, British businessman (died 1980)

Edward Wilfred Taylor was a British manufacturer of optical instruments.

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29/04/1888

Michael Heidelberger, American immunologist (died 1991)

Michael Heidelberger was an American immunologist, often regarded as the father of modern immunology. He and Oswald Avery showed that the polysaccharides of pneumococcus are antigens, enabling him to show that antibodies are proteins. He spent most his early career at Columbia University and comparable time in his later years on the faculty of New York University. In 1934 and 1936 he received the Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1967 he received the National Medal of Science, and then he earned the Lasker Award for basic medical research in 1953 and again in 1978. His papers are held at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland.

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29/04/1887

Robert Cushman Murphy, American ornithologist (died 1973)

Robert Cushman Murphy was an American ornithologist and Lamont Curator of birds at the American Museum of Natural History. He went on numerous oceanic expeditions and was an expert on marine birds, and wrote several major books on them. He described a species of petrel which is now known as Murphy's petrel. Mount Murphy in Antarctica and Murphy Wall in South Georgia are named after him.

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29/04/1885

Egon Erwin Kisch, Czech journalist and author (died 1948)

Egon Erwin Kisch was an Austro-Hungarian and Czechoslovak writer and journalist, who wrote in German. He styled himself Der Rasende Reporter for his countless travels to the far corners of the globe and his equally numerous articles produced in a relatively short time, Kisch was noted for his development of literary reportage, his opposition to Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime, and his Communism.

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29/04/1882

Auguste Herbin, French painter (died 1960)

Auguste Herbin was a French painter of modern art. He is best known for his Cubist and abstract paintings consisting of colorful geometric figures. He co-founded the groups Abstraction-Création and Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, which promoted non-figurative abstract art.

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Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman, Dutch printer, typographer, and Nazi resister (died 1945)

Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman was an experimental Dutch artist, typographer, and printer. He set up a clandestine printing house during the Nazi occupation (1940–1945) and was shot by the Gestapo in the closing days of the war.

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29/04/1880

Adolf Chybiński, Polish historian, musicologist and academic (died 1952)

Adolf Chybiński was a Polish musicologist and academic.

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29/04/1879

Thomas Beecham, English conductor (died 1961)

Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras. From the early 20th century until his death, Beecham was a major influence on the musical life of Britain and, according to the BBC, was Britain's first international conductor.

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29/04/1875

Rafael Sabatini, Italian-English novelist and short story writer (died 1950)

Rafael Sabatini was an Italian-born British writer of romance and adventure novels.

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29/04/1872

Harry Payne Whitney, American businessman and lawyer (died 1930)

Harry Payne Whitney was an American businessman, thoroughbred horse breeder, and member of the prominent Whitney family.

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Forest Ray Moulton, American astronomer and academic (died 1952)

Forest Ray Moulton was an American astronomer. He was the brother of Harold G. Moulton, a noted economist.

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29/04/1863

Constantine P. Cavafy, Egyptian-Greek journalist and poet (died 1933)

Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis, known, especially in English, as Constantine P. Cavafy and often published as C. P. Cavafy, was a Greek poet, journalist, and civil servant from Alexandria. A major figure of modern Greek literature, he is sometimes considered the most distinguished Greek poet of the 20th century. His works and consciously individual style earned him a place among the most important contributors not only to Greek poetry, but to Western poetry as a whole.

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William Randolph Hearst, American publisher and politician, founded the Hearst Corporation (died 1951)

William Randolph Hearst was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow journalism in violation of ethics and standards influenced the nation's popular media by emphasizing sensationalism and human-interest stories. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887 with Mitchell Trubitt after being given control of The San Francisco Examiner by his wealthy father, Senator George Hearst.

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Maria Teresia Ledóchowska, Austrian nun and missionary (died 1922)

Mary Theresa Ledóchowska, ; 29 April 1863 – 6 July 1922), was a Polish Catholic religious sister who founded the Missionary Sisters of St. Peter Claver, dedicated to spreading Catholicism in Africa. She was beatified in 1975.

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29/04/1854

Henri Poincaré, French mathematician, physicist and engineer (died 1912)

Jules Henri Poincaré was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathematics as "The Last Universalist", since he excelled in all fields of the discipline as it existed during his lifetime. He has further been called "the Gauss of modern mathematics". Due to his success in science, along with his influence in philosophy, he has also been called "the philosopher par excellence of modern science".

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29/04/1848

Raja Ravi Varma, Indian painter and academic (died 1906)

Raja Ravi Varma was an Indian painter. His works are one of the best examples of the fusion of European academic art with a purely Indian sensibility and iconography. He greatly enhanced his reach and influence as a painter and public figure by making affordable lithographs of his paintings available to the public. His lithographs increased the involvement of common people with fine arts and defined artistic tastes. Furthermore, his religious depictions of Hindu deities and works from Indian epic poetry and Puranas have received critical acclaim. He was part of the royal family of Parappanad, Malappuram district.

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29/04/1847

Joachim Andersen, Danish flautist, composer and conductor (died 1907)

Carl Joachim Andersen was a Danish flutist, conductor and composer born in Copenhagen, son of the flutist Christian Joachim Andersen. Both as a virtuoso and as composer of flute music, he is considered one of the best of his time. He was a demanding leader and teacher, achieving high standards with orchestras.

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29/04/1842

Carl Millöcker, Austrian composer and conductor (died 1899)

Carl Joseph Millöcker, was an Austrian composer of operettas and a conductor. He was born in Vienna, where he studied the flute at the Vienna Conservatory. While holding various conducting posts in the city, he began to compose operettas. The first was Der tote Gast, an operetta in one act, premiered in 1865 with libretto by Ludwig Harisch, after the novel by Heinrich Zschokke.

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29/04/1837

Georges Ernest Boulanger, French general and politician, French Minister of War (died 1891)

Georges Ernest Jean-Marie Boulanger, nicknamed Général Revanche, was a French Army officer and politician. An enormously popular public figure during the second decade of the Third Republic, he won multiple elections. At the zenith of his popularity in January 1889, he was feared to be powerful enough to establish himself as dictator. His base of support was the working-class districts of Paris and other cities, plus rural traditionalist Catholics and royalists. He advocated revanche, révision, and restauration.

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29/04/1818

Alexander II of Russia (died 1881)

Alexander II was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 2 March 1855 until his assassination on 13 March 1881. He is also known as Alexander the Liberator because of his historic Edict of Emancipation, which officially abolished Russian serfdom in 1861. Crowned on 7 September 1856, he succeeded his father Nicholas I and was succeeded by his son Alexander III.

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29/04/1810

Thomas Adolphus Trollope, English journalist and author (died 1892)

Thomas Adolphus Trollope was an English writer who was the author of more than 60 books. He lived most of his life in Italy creating a renowned villa in Florence with his first wife, Theodosia, and later another centre of British society in Rome with his second wife, the novelist Frances Eleanor Trollope. His mother, brother and both wives were known as writers. He was awarded the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus by Victor Emmanuel II of Italy.

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29/04/1784

Samuel Turell Armstrong, American publisher and politician, 14th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts (died 1850)

Samuel Turell Armstrong was a U.S. political figure. Born in 1784 in Dorchester, Massachusetts, he was a printer and bookseller in Boston, specializing in religious materials. Among his works were an early stereotype edition of Scott's Family Bible, which was very popular, and The Panoplist, a religious magazine devoted to missionary interests.

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29/04/1783

David Cox, English landscape painter (died 1859)

David Cox was an English landscape painter, one of the most important members of the Birmingham School of landscape artists and an early precursor of Impressionism.

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29/04/1780

Charles Nodier, French librarian and author (died 1844)

Jean Charles Emmanuel Nodier was a French author and librarian who introduced a younger generation of Romanticists to the conte fantastique, gothic literature, and vampire tales. His dream related writings influenced the later works of Gérard de Nerval.

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29/04/1762

Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, French general and politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (died 1833)

Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, 1st Count Jourdan, was a French military commander who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was made a Marshal of the Empire by Emperor Napoleon I in 1804. He was also a Jacobin politician during the Directory phase of the French Revolution, serving as member of the Council of Five Hundred between 1797 and 1799.

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29/04/1758

Georg Carl von Döbeln, Swedish general (died 1820)

Georg Carl von Döbeln was a Swedish friherre (baron), Lieutenant general and above all known for his efforts on the Swedish side during the Finnish War.

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29/04/1745

Oliver Ellsworth, American lawyer and politician, 3rd Chief Justice of the United States (died 1807)

Oliver Ellsworth was a Founding Father of the United States, attorney, jurist, politician, and diplomat. Ellsworth was a framer of the United States Constitution, United States senator from Connecticut, and the third chief justice of the United States. Additionally, he received 11 electoral votes in the 1796 presidential election.

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29/04/1727

Jean-Georges Noverre, French actor and dancer (died 1810)

Jean-Georges Noverre was a French dancer and ballet master, and is generally considered the creator of ballet d'action, a precursor of the narrative ballets of the 19th century. His birthday is now observed as International Dance Day.

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29/04/1667

John Arbuthnot, Scottish-English physician and polymath (died 1735)

John Arbuthnot FRS, often known simply as Dr Arbuthnot, was a Scottish physician, satirist and polymath in London. He is best remembered for his contributions to mathematics, his membership in the Scriblerus Club, and for inventing the figure of John Bull.

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29/04/1665

James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, Irish general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (died 1745)

James FitzJames Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, was an Irish statesman and army officer. He was the third of the Kilcash branch of the family to inherit the earldom of Ormond. Like his grandfather, the 1st Duke, he was raised as a Protestant, unlike his extended family who held to Roman Catholicism. He served in the campaign to put down the Monmouth Rebellion, in the Williamite War in Ireland, in the Nine Years' War and in the War of the Spanish Succession but was accused of treason and went into exile after the Jacobite rising of 1715.

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29/04/1636

Esaias Reusner, German lute player and composer (died 1679)

Esaias Reusner was a German lutenist and composer.

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29/04/1587

Sophie of Saxony, Duchess of Pomerania (died 1635)

Sophie of Saxony was a member of the Albertine branch of the House of Wettin. She was a princess of Saxony by birth and by marriage a Duchess of Pomerania-Stettin.

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29/04/1469

William II, Landgrave of Hesse (died 1509)

William II was Landgrave of Lower Hesse from 1493 and Landgrave of Upper Hesse after the death of his cousin, William III, Landgrave of Upper Hesse in 1500. This immediately sparked the War of the Katzenelnbogen Succession, in which William sought to enforce his claim on the County of Katzenelnbogen with military might.

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