Born on Tuesday, 26th August – Famous Birthdays

26/08/2002

Lil Tecca, American rapper

Tyler-Justin Anthony Sharpe, known professionally as Lil Tecca, is an American rapper. Lil Tecca rose to mainstream prominence with the release of the 2019 single "Ransom", which peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100. The song preceded the release of his debut mixtape We Love You Tecca (2019), which peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 and contained the follow-up singles "Love Me" and "Did It Again".

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26/08/2001

Patrick Williams, American basketball player

Patrick Lee Williams is an American professional basketball player for the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Florida State Seminoles. He was the fourth pick in the 2020 NBA draft.

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26/08/2000

Kyren Williams, American football player

Kyren Lawrence Williams is an American professional football running back for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and was selected by the Rams in the fifth round of the 2022 NFL draft.

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26/08/1999

Naz Reid, American basketball player

Nazreon Hilton Reid is an American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the LSU Tigers. Reid won the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award in 2024. He recently signed a three-year $42 million contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

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Kotoshoho Yoshinari, Japanese sumo wrestler

Kotoshōhō Yoshinari is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Kashiwa, Chiba. He made his debut in November 2017 and reached the top makuuchi division in May 2020. He wrestles for Sadogatake stable. His highest rank has been maegashira 3.

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26/08/1998

Charlie Gillespie, Canadian actor and singer

Charles Gillespie is a Canadian actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Luke Patterson in the Netflix series Julie and the Phantoms (2020).

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Jeon Soyeon, Korean rapper and record producer

Jeon So-yeon, known mononymously as Soyeon, is a South Korean rapper and record producer, under Cube Entertainment. She first gained attention for competing in the television shows Produce 101 and Unpretty Rapstar before debuting as a solo artist on November 5, 2017. On May 2, 2018, she debuted as the leader and rapper of the K-pop girl group (G)I-dle, later changing their name to I-dle, for whom she has written and produced most lead singles.

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26/08/1997

Cordae, American rapper

Cordae Amari Brooks, known mononymously as Cordae, is an American rapper. He began his career as a member of the hip hop collective YBN.

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26/08/1995

Anthony Duclair, Canadian ice hockey player

Anthony Duclair is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a forward for the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League (NHL). Duclair was selected by the New York Rangers in the third round, 80th overall, of the 2013 NHL entry draft, the organization with which he began his NHL career. Duclair has also played in the NHL for the Arizona Coyotes, Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Ottawa Senators, Florida Panthers, San Jose Sharks and Tampa Bay Lightning.

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Ranger Suárez, Venezuelan baseball player

Ranger José Suárez Gomez is a Venezuelan professional baseball pitcher for the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Philadelphia Phillies.

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26/08/1994

Alex Collins, American football player (died 2023)

Alex Collins, was an American professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Arkansas Razorbacks and was selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the fifth round of the 2016 NFL draft with the 171st overall pick. He spent two seasons with the Baltimore Ravens in 2017 and 2018 before re-signing by Seattle in 2020. He played one season with the Memphis Showboats of the United States Football League (USFL).

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Austin Gunn, American professional wrestler

Austin Sopp, better known by the ring name Austin Gunn, is an American professional wrestler and reality television personality. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and Ring of Honor (ROH) where he is in a tag team with his brother Colten as The Gunns, and is a member of the Bang Bang Gang stable. Gunn is a former one-time AEW World Tag Team Champion and a one-time AEW World Trios Champions and ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions. Sopp is a second-generation professional wrestler, as he is the son of professional wrestler Monty Sopp, better known as Billy Gunn.

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26/08/1993

Keke Palmer, American actress and singer

Lauren Keyana "Keke" Palmer is an American actress, singer, and television host. She has received numerous accolades, including two Primetime Emmy Awards and nominations for a Daytime Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Time magazine included her on its list of most influential people in the world in 2019.

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26/08/1991

Jessie Diggins, American cross-country skier

Jessica Diggins is an American cross-country skier. She is the most accomplished cross-country skier from the United States in the sport's history having won four World Cup overall titles, four Olympic medals, seven World Championship medals, and numerous other event championships. The New Yorker described Diggins as "the greatest American ever to put on a pair of skinny skis, and arguably the greatest winter endurance athlete this country has ever produced". She announced that she would retire from competitive cross-country skiing after the 2025–26 season.

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Dylan O'Brien, American actor

Dylan Rhodes O'Brien is an American actor. His first major role was as Stiles Stilinski in the MTV supernatural series Teen Wolf (2011–2017). He achieved further prominence for his lead role in the science fiction Maze Runner trilogy (2014–2018), which led to more film appearances.

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26/08/1990

Lorenzo Brown, American basketball player

Lorenzo D'Ontez Brown Banks is an American-born naturalized Spanish professional basketball player for Olimpia Milano of the Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) and the EuroLeague. He played college basketball for the NC State Wolfpack and spent several seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Born in the United States, he helped lead the Spanish national team to a EuroBasket title in 2022.

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Irina-Camelia Begu, Romanian tennis player

Irina-Camelia Begu is a Romanian tennis player. She reached a career-high WTA singles ranking of world No. 22, in August 2016. Two years later, she reached her highest ranking in doubles, also No. 22. She is currently the No. 3 Romanian player.

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Mateo Musacchio, Argentine footballer

Mateo Pablo Musacchio is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a central defender.

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26/08/1989

James Harden, American basketball player

James Edward Harden Jr. is an American professional basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is widely regarded as one of the greatest shooting guards and scorers in NBA history. In 2021, Harden was honored as one of the league's top 75 players by being named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. Harden is also a two-time member of the United States national team, winning gold medals at the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2014 FIBA World Cup. Harden is nicknamed "the Beard" after his characteristic facial hair.

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26/08/1988

Elvis Andrus, Venezuelan baseball player

Elvis Augusto Andrus Torres is a Venezuelan-American former professional baseball shortstop. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, and Chicago White Sox. He was a two-time All-Star.

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Evan Ross, American actor

Evan Olav Ross-Næss is an American actor and musician. He made his acting debut in the comedy-drama film ATL (2006), and has since starred in the films Pride (2007), According to Greta (2009), Mooz-lum (2010), 96 Minutes (2011), Supremacy (2014), and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014) and Part 2 (2015).

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Danielle Savre, American actress

Danielle Savre is an American actress. She is known for her television roles, such as her lead performances in the 2007 MTV music drama Kaya, the 2016 TLC drama Too Close to Home, and the ABC Grey's Anatomy spin-off Station 19, and for her roles in the films Wild About Harry and Boogeyman 2.

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Wayne Simmonds, Canadian ice hockey player

Wayne Simmonds is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. A right winger, he played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Los Angeles Kings, Philadelphia Flyers, Nashville Predators, New Jersey Devils, Buffalo Sabres, and Toronto Maple Leafs between 2008 and 2023. During the 2012–13 NHL lockout, Simmonds played in Europe with ETC Crimmitschau and HC Bílí Tygři Liberec. He is known to his teammates and fans by the nickname "Wayne Train".

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Lars Stindl, German footballer

Lars Edi Stindl is a German former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or forward.

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26/08/1987

Juan Joseph, American football player and coach (died 2014)

Juan Joseph was an American football quarterback. He played college football for the Millsaps Majors. He was signed by the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League (CFL) as an undrafted free agent in 2009. Joseph was also a member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL and the Lafayette Wildcatters of the Southern Indoor Football League (SIFL).

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26/08/1986

Vladislav Gussev, Estonian footballer

Vladislav Gussev is an Estonian footballer. He plays the position of striker and is 1.97 m tall and weighs 86 kg. He has played two games for the Estonia national football team.

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Saint Jhn, Guyanese-American rapper, singer, and songwriter

Carlos St. John Phillips, known professionally as Saint Jhn, is an American and Guyanese rapper and singer.

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Colin Kazim-Richards, Turkish footballer

Colin Kazım-Richards, also known as Colin Kâzım, Kâzım or Kâzım Kâzım, is a professional football coach and former player who played as a forward. He is the head coach of EFL League Two club Crawley Town. Born in England, Kazim-Richards represented the Turkey national team.

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Cassie Ventura, American singer, dancer, actress and model

Casandra Elizabeth Ventura is an American singer, dancer, actress, and model. Born in New London, Connecticut, she began her musical career in 2004 after meeting producer Ryan Leslie, who signed her to his record label, NextSelection Lifestyle Group. She was then discovered by Sean Combs, who signed her to a joint venture with his label, Bad Boy Records, to commercially release her 2006 debut single, "Me & U". The song marked the first of her two entries on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number three.

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26/08/1985

Oleksiy Kasyanov, Ukrainian decathlete

Oleksiy Kasyanov or Oleksii Serhiiovych Kasianov (Ukrainian: Олексій Сергійович Касьянов; born 26 August 1985 in Stakhanov is a Ukrainian decathlete.

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Brandon McDonald, American football player

Brandon Randolph McDonald is a former American gridiron football cornerback. He was selected by the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round of the 2007 NFL draft. He played college football at Memphis.

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David Price, American baseball player

David Taylor Price is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Price was selected first overall in the 2007 Major League Baseball draft by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and made his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut in September 2008. He also played for the Detroit Tigers, Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox, and Los Angeles Dodgers.

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26/08/1983

Mattia Cassani, Italian footballer

Mattia Cassani is an Italian former footballer who played as a defender.

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Félix Porteiro, Spanish race car driver

Félix Porteiro Pérez is a Spanish former racing driver. He competed in GP2 Series in 2006, his best finish was 6th.

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Nicol David, Malaysian squash player

Datuk Nicol Ann David is a Malaysian retired professional squash player. She was the world number one for a record-breaking 108 consecutive months, ceding the ranking in September 2015 to Raneem El Weleily. She has won the World Open title a record 8 times in 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014, as well as the British Open title in 2005, 2006, 2008, 2012 and 2014. In July 2016, she reached her 151st successive month in the top 10, breaking the record in both men's and women's category. She surpassed Peter Nicol's records of 150 months. David is the first squash player to have won the World Junior title twice; in 1999 and 2001 under Richard Glanfield.

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26/08/1982

Angelo Iorio, Italian footballer

Angelo Iorio is an Italian footballer who plays for Serie B club Grosseto.

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John Mulaney, American comedian, actor, writer, and producer

John Edmund Mulaney is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Mulaney first rose to prominence for his work as a writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2008 to 2013, where he contributed to numerous sketches and characters, including Stefon, a recurring character whom he and Bill Hader co-created. Since his departure from SNL, Mulaney has hosted the program six times, and became a member of the SNL Five Timers Club in 2022.

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Jayson Nix, American baseball player

Jayson Truitt Edward Nix is an American former professional baseball utility player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Colorado Rockies, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Kansas City Royals.

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Noah Welch, American ice hockey player

Noah Paul Welch is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning and the Atlanta Thrashers. Welch completed his professional career in Europe, most notably winning two Swedish Hockey League championships with the Växjö Lakers.

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26/08/1981

Tino Best, Barbadian cricketer

Tino la Bertram Best is a West Indian former cricketer. Since 2002, he has played domestic cricket for his native Barbados, with a season at English club Yorkshire in 2010. Best made his Test debut in May 2003 and played his first One Day International a year later. A back strain incurred in May 2004 prevented Best from playing cricket until March the following year. In 2008 Best signed to play in the Indian Cricket League because he had not played international cricket since 2006. He returned to the side when the West Indies fielded a side weakened by contract disputes between leading players and the West Indies Cricket Board but was dropped shortly after.

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Sebastian Bönig, German footballer

Sebastian Bönig is a German football coach and former player, who is the currently assistant manager of Bundesliga club Union Berlin. During his playing career, he played for Bayern Munich (A), LR Ahlen, Union Berlin, and BFC Viktoria 1889.

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Andreas Glyniadakis, Greek basketball player

Andreas Glyniadakis is a former Greek professional basketball player, at a height of 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) tall. During his professional club career that started in 1997 and ended in 2020, Glyniadakis played at a center position.

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Vangelis Moras, Greek footballer

Vangelis Moras is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He is the current manager of Greece U19 national team.

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Petey Williams, Canadian wrestler

Peter Williams III is a Canadian professional wrestler and musician. He is signed to WWE as a backstage producer. He is best known for his time in Impact Wrestling, where he is a two-time X Division Champion. He is also known for his time in Lucha Libre USA (LLUSA), where he held the Tag Team Championship with Jon Rekon. He is known by his nickname "The Canadian Destroyer", a reference to Doug Chevalier and also the name of his front flip piledriver finishing move.

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26/08/1980

Macaulay Culkin, American actor

Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin is an American actor and musician. Considered one of the most successful child actors of the 1990s, Culkin has received several accolades including a Golden Globe Award nomination. In 2005, he was ranked second on VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Kid-Stars". In 2023, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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Brendan Harris, American baseball player

Brendan Michael Harris is an American former professional baseball infielder. He played in Major League Baseball for the Chicago Cubs, Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals, Cincinnati Reds, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Minnesota Twins, and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

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Manolis Papamakarios, Greek basketball player

Emmanouil "Manolis" "Manos" Papamakarios is a retired Greek professional basketball player. He is 1.92 m tall and he mainly played as a shooting guard, but he could also play at the point guard, point forward, and small forward positions.

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Chris Pine, American actor

Christopher Whitelaw Pine is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as James T. Kirk in the Star Trek reboot film series (2009–2016) and Steve Trevor in the DC Extended Universe films Wonder Woman (2017) and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020).

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26/08/1979

Jamal Lewis, American football player

Jamal Lewis is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns. He played college football for the Tennessee Volunteers and was selected fifth overall by the Ravens in the 2000 NFL draft. After spending his first seven seasons with the Ravens, Lewis signed a free agent contract with the Cleveland Browns before the 2007 season and retired after the 2009 season.

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Cristian Mora, Ecuadorian footballer

Cristian Rafael Mora Medrano is a retired Ecuadorian football goalkeeper.

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Rubén Arriaza Pazos, Spanish footballer

Rubén Arriaza Pazos is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a defensive midfielder.

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26/08/1977

Therese Alshammar, Swedish swimmer

Malin Therese Alshammar is a Swedish swimmer who has won three Olympic medals, 25 World Championship medals, and 43 European Championship medals. She is a specialist in short distances races in freestyle and butterfly. She is coached by former Swedish swimmer Johan Wallberg. She is the first female swimmer and the third overall to participate in six Olympic Games.

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Liam Botham, English rugby player and cricketer

Liam James Botham is an English former professional sportsman who played both codes of rugby football and cricket. He is the son of former England cricketer Ian Botham.

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Saeko Chiba, Japanese voice actress and singer

Saeko Chiba is a Japanese voice actress. She grew up in Tokyo and married in 2007. She is contracted to the Space Craft Produce.

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Simone Motta, Italian footballer

Simone Motta is an Italian football coach and a former player who is the manager of the Under-19 squad of Pordenone.

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Morris Peterson, American basketball player

Morris Russell Peterson Jr. is an American former professional basketball player who played 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Michigan State Spartans, earning Big Ten Player of the Year honors and leading the team to a national title in 2000.

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26/08/1976

Mike Colter, American actor

Mike Colter is an American actor best known for his roles as Luke Cage in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (2015–present) and David Acosta in the CBS/Paramount+ series Evil (2019–2024). He has also appeared as Lemond Bishop in the television series The Good Wife (2010–2015) and The Good Fight (2018–2019), Malcolm Ward in Ringer (2011–2012), and Agent J's father in Men in Black 3 (2012), and Jameson Locke in the Halo franchise (2014–2015).

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Amaia Montero, Spanish singer-songwriter

Amaia Montero Saldías is a Spanish singer and songwriter mainly known as the lead vocalist of the Spanish pop-band La Oreja de Van Gogh from 1996 to 2007, and 2025 onwards.

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26/08/1975

Morgan Ensberg, American baseball player and coach

Morgan Paul Ensberg is an American former professional baseball infielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Astros, San Diego Padres, and New York Yankees. Ensberg bats and throws right-handed. From 2011–12 he was the co-host of MLB Roundtrip on SiriusXM's MLB Network Radio. As of 2025, Ensberg is the manager of the Durham Bulls, the Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays.

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26/08/1974

Kelvin Cato, American basketball player and coach

Kelvin Tavares Cato is an American former professional basketball player. A 6'11" center from the University of South Alabama and Iowa State University, Cato played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets, Orlando Magic, Detroit Pistons, and New York Knicks.

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Meredith Eaton, American actress

Meredith Hope Eaton Gordon is an American actress. She is 122 cm tall, and refers to herself as a "short-stature actress". She is known for portraying the attorney Emily Resnick on the CBS television series Family Law, for her recurring role as Bethany Horowitz on the ABC series Boston Legal, and for her lead role as Matilda "Matty" Webber on the CBS series MacGyver.

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26/08/1973

Richard Evatt, English boxer (died 2012)

Richard Evatt, also called 'tiger', was a British amateur and professional boxer in the super featherweight division who was unsuccessful in his only opportunity to win a world title. He hailed from Coventry, West Midlands, United Kingdom.

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26/08/1971

Thalía, Mexican-American singer-songwriter and actress

Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda is a Mexican singer, songwriter and actress. Known for her influence on the Latin entertainment industry, she is dubbed the "Queen of Latin Pop" and the "Queen of Telenovelas". Thalía is considered one of the greatest Latin music artists of all time by Billboard and as Latin pop icon.

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26/08/1970

Jason Little, Australian rugby union player

Jason Little is an Australian former professional rugby union player. He won 75 caps with one as captain playing at centre for the Australian rugby union side between 1989 and 2000. He also won caps on the wing later in his career. He would later become one of only 43 players who have won the Rugby World Cup on multiple occasions, however as an Australian achieved this feat first.

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Melissa McCarthy, American actress, comedian, producer, and screenwriter

Melissa Ann McCarthy is an American comedian, actress, and producer. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Primetime Emmy Awards, and nominations for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. McCarthy was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016, and she has been featured multiple times in annual rankings of the highest-paid actresses in the world. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her #22 in its list of the 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century.

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Brett Schultz, South African cricketer

Brett Schultz is a former South African cricketer who played in nine Test matches and one One Day International between 1992 and 1997. During the course of his career, he also played for Eastern Province, Western Province and Gauteng.

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26/08/1969

Adrian Young, American drummer and songwriter

Adrian Samuel Young is an American musician, best known as the drummer of the rock bands No Doubt and Dreamcar. He also serves as a producer in his free time.

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26/08/1968

Chris Boardman, English cyclist

Christopher Miles Boardman, is an English former racing cyclist. A time trial and prologue specialist, Boardman won the inaugural men's World time trial championship in 1994, won the individual pursuit gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics, broke the world hour record three times, and won three prologue stages at the Tour de France.

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26/08/1967

Michael Gove, Scottish journalist and politician, Secretary of State for Education

Michael Andrew Gove, Baron Gove is a British politician and journalist. A member of the House of Lords since 2025, he previously held senior Cabinet positions in Conservative governments between 2010 and 2024. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Surrey Heath from 2005 to 2024, during which he twice returned to the backbenches. He was a prominent figure in the 2016 referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union and stood for the Conservative leadership on two occasions. Gove has been editor of The Spectator since 2024.

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26/08/1966

Jacques Brinkman, Dutch field hockey player and coach

Jacques Brinkman is a former Dutch field hockey player, who twice won the golden medal with the national squad: at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and four years later, at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. There he played his last international tournament for the Dutch, after a career spanning more than thirteen years.

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Shirley Manson, Scottish singer-songwriter and actress

Shirley Ann Manson is a Scottish singer, songwriter, and musician who is the lead vocalist of the rock band Garbage. Deemed a "Godmother of Rock" by The New York Times, she is noted for her distinctive deep voice, forthright style, and rebellious attitude. As of 2017, Garbage have sold over 17 million records; her accolades with the band include nominations for two Brit Awards and seven Grammy Awards.

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26/08/1965

Marcus du Sautoy, English mathematician and academic

Marcus Peter Francis du Sautoy is a British mathematician, Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford, Fellow of New College, Oxford, and author of popular mathematics and popular science books. He was previously a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and Wadham College, Oxford, and served as president of the Mathematical Association, an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) senior media fellow, and a Royal Society University Research Fellow.

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Chris Burke, American actor

Christopher Joseph Burke is an American actor known for his character Charles "Corky" Thatcher on the television series Life Goes On.

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26/08/1964

Allegra Huston, English-American author and screenwriter

Allegra Huston is a British-American author, editor, and writer based in Taos, New Mexico.

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Bobby Jurasin, American-Canadian football player and coach

Robert Jurasin is a former defensive lineman for the Saskatchewan Roughriders from 1986 to 1997 and the Toronto Argonauts in 1998. He was a CFL All-Star in 1987, 1988, 1992 and 1997. He was a part of the Roughriders 1989 Grey Cup winning team. He also won the Molson Cup Most Popular Player in 1987 and 1997.

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Chad Kreuter, American baseball player and manager

Chadden Michael Kreuter is an American former professional baseball catcher and manager, and former college baseball head coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1988 to 2003 for seven different franchises. He later served as head coach of the USC Trojans baseball team, and was a manager in Minor League Baseball for the New York Mets organization.

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Zadok Malka, Israeli footballer and manager

Zadok Malka is a former Israeli footballer.

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Torsten Schmitz, German boxer

Torsten Schmitz is a retired German boxer in the Light Middleweight class. He represented East Germany at the 1988 Summer Olympics.

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Carsten Wolf, German cyclist

Carsten Wolf is an East German racing cyclist, who competed for the SC Dynamo Berlin / Sportvereinigung (SV) Dynamo. He won the silver medal at the Olympic games in Seoul 1988.

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Mehriban Aliyeva, 1st Vice President of Azerbaijan, goodwill ambassador of UNESCO and ISESCO

Mehriban Arif gizi Aliyeva is an Azerbaijani politician and former physician who is the First Vice President and First Lady of Azerbaijan.

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26/08/1963

David Byas, English cricketer and umpire

David Byas ) is an English first-class cricketer, who played for Yorkshire and latterly Lancashire, in a 17-year first-class career.

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Stephen J. Dubner, American journalist and author

Stephen Joseph Dubner is an American author, journalist, and podcast and radio host. He is co-author of the popular Freakonomics book series: Freakonomics, SuperFreakonomics, Think Like a Freak and When to Rob a Bank. He is the host of Freakonomics Radio.

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Patrice Oppliger, American author, critic, and academic

Patrice A. Oppliger, is the assistant professor of communication at Boston University College of Communication.

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26/08/1962

Roger Kingdom, American hurdler

Roger Kingdom is an American former sprint hurdler who was twice Olympic champion in the 110 meters. Kingdom set a world record of 12.92 in 1989. He is now an athletics coach and strength and conditioning coach who currently works as a speed and conditioning coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL.

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26/08/1961

Daniel Lévi, Algerian-French singer-songwriter and pianist (died 2022)

Daniel Lévi was a French singer-songwriter, composer, and pianist.

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Jeff Parrett, American baseball player

Jeffrey Dale Parrett is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Montreal Expos (1986–88), Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves (1990–91), Oakland Athletics (1992), Colorado Rockies (1993) and St. Louis Cardinals (1995–96).

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26/08/1960

Branford Marsalis, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader

Branford Marsalis is an American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque. From 1992 to 1995 he led The Tonight Show Band.

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Ola Ray, American model and actress

Ola Ray is an American actress and model most notable for her role as the girlfriend of Michael Jackson in the music video Thriller.

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26/08/1959

Oliver Colvile, English lawyer and politician

Oliver Newton Colvile was a British politician. He was a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport.

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Stan Van Gundy, American basketball player and coach

Stanley Alan Van Gundy is an American former basketball coach who is a television commentator for College Basketball on CBS for CBS Sports and NBA on Prime for Sports on Amazon Prime Video. He previously worked as game analyst for NBA on TNT from 2019 to 2020, and again from 2021 to 2025. Prior to TNT, he was most recently the head coach for the New Orleans Pelicans of the NBA. He also served as the head coach and president of basketball operations for the Detroit Pistons from 2014 to 2018. From 2003 to 2005, he was the head coach of the Miami Heat but resigned in 2005 mid-season, returning the job over to Pat Riley. Van Gundy then coached the Orlando Magic for five seasons from 2007 to 2012, leading them to the 2009 NBA Finals. He is the older brother of former New York Knicks and Houston Rockets head coach Jeff Van Gundy.

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26/08/1958

Jan Nevens, Belgian cyclist

Jan Nevens is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer. Nevens won the 8th stage of the 1992 Tour de France. He also competed in the individual road race event at the 1980 Summer Olympics.

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26/08/1957

Nikky Finney, American poet and academic

Nikky Finney is an American poet. She was the Guy Davenport Endowed Professor of English at the University of Kentucky for twenty years. In 2013, she accepted a position at the University of South Carolina as the John H. Bennett, Jr. Chair in Southern Letters and Literature. An alumna of Talladega College, and author of four books of poetry and a short-story cycle, Finney is an advocate for social justice and cultural preservation. Her honors include the 2011 National Book Award for her collection Head Off & Split. Finney is a member of The Wintergreen Women Writers Collective.

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Dr. Alban, Swedish musician

Ogbuagu Alban Uzoma Nwapa, better known by his stage name Dr. Alban, is a Nigerian-Swedish musician and producer with his own record label, Dr. Records. His music can best be described as Eurodance/hip-hop reggae in a dancehall style. He has sold an estimated 16 million records worldwide and is most famous for his worldwide 1992 hit "It's My Life", from the album One Love.

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26/08/1956

Sally Beamish, English viola player and composer

Sarah Frances Beamish is a British composer and violist. Her works include chamber, vocal, choral and orchestral music. She has also worked in theatre, film and television, as well as composing for children and for her local community.

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Brett Cullen, American actor

Peter Brett Cullen is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Dan Fixx in Falcon Crest (1986–1988), Sam Cain in The Young Riders (1989–1990), Governor Ray Sullivan in The West Wing (2005–2006), Goodwin Stanhope in Lost (2005–2008), Mark Keeler in Make It or Break It (2009–2012), Nathan Ingram in Person of Interest, and Michael Stappord in Devious Maids (2013–2015).

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Mark Mangino, American football player and coach

Mark Thomas Mangino is a former American college football coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Kansas from 2002 to 2009. In 2007, Mangino received several national coach of the year honors after leading the Jayhawks to their only 12-win season in school history and an Orange Bowl victory. However, he resigned as coach at Kansas two seasons later following allegations of mistreatment of players. While at Kansas, Mangino coached in four bowl games with a 3–1 record, the lone loss coming in the 2003 Tangerine Bowl. Additionally, in five of his eight seasons at Kansas, the Jayhawks were Bowl eligible; they had been bowl eligible only five times in the previous thirty seasons. He held multiple assistant coaching jobs before becoming the head coach at Kansas, the longest being an eight season stint at Kansas State as their running game coordinator.

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26/08/1955

Ian Dejardin, English historian and curator

Ian A. C. Dejardin is an art historian who was director of the Dulwich Picture Gallery in Dulwich, England. In August 2016 Dulwich Picture Gallery announced that he would be leaving to become chief executive of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Ontario in April 2017. He is married to Eric Pearson, his partner since 1987, and lives in Toronto, Canada.

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Giuseppe Resnati, Italian chemist and educator

Giuseppe Resnati is an Italian chemist with interests in supramolecular chemistry and fluorine chemistry. He has a particular focus on self-assembly processes driven by halogen bonds, chalcogen bonds, and pnictogen bonds. His results on the attractive non-covalent interactions wherein atoms act as electrophiles thanks to the anisotropic distribution of the electron density typical for bonded atoms, prompted a systematic rationalization and categorization of many different weak bonds formed by many elements of the p- and d-blocks of the periodic table.

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26/08/1954

Howard Clark, English golfer and sportscaster

Howard Keith Clark is an English professional golfer who played on the European Tour for many years and had his most successful period in the mid-1980s.

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Tracy Krohn, American race car driver and businessman

Tracy William Krohn is an entrepreneur and auto racing enthusiast who was a new addition to the 2006 Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans, at #320.

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Hugh Pelham, British academic and educator

Sir Hugh Reginald Brentnall Pelham, is a cell biologist who has contributed to our understanding of the body's response to rises in temperature through the synthesis of heat shock proteins. He served as director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) between 2006 and 2018.

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26/08/1953

David Hurley, Australian general and politician, 27th Governor General of Australia

General David John Hurley is an Australian former politician and military officer. A senior officer in the Australian Army, he served as the 27th governor-general of Australia from 2019 to 2024. He was previously the 38th governor of New South Wales from 2014 to 2019.

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Andrea Saltelli, Italian statistician and sociologist

Andrea Saltelli is an Italian scholar specializing in quantification using statistical and sociological tools. He has extended the theory of sensitivity analysis to sensitivity auditing, focusing on physical chemistry, environmental statistics, impact assessment and science for policy. He is currently Counsellor at the UPF ca:UPF Barcelona School of Management.

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Pat Sharkey, Irish footballer

Patrick Gerald Walter Sharkey is a former Northern Irish international footballer.

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26/08/1952

Bryon Baltimore, Canadian ice hockey player

Bryon Donald Baltimore is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, who played in the NHL and WHA.

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Michael Jeter, American actor (died 2003)

Michael Jeter was an American actor. Known for his career on stage and screen, Jeter played diverse characters. He won a Tony Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. He portrayed Herman Stiles on the sitcom Evening Shade from 1990 until 1994.

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Will Shortz, American journalist and puzzle creator

William F. Shortz is an American cruciverbalist and editor of The New York Times crossword. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in the invented field of enigmatology. After starting his career at Penny Press and Games magazine, he was hired by The New York Times in 1993.

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26/08/1951

Gerd Bonk, German weightlifter (died 2014)

Gerd Bonk was an East German weightlifter who was active from 1969 to 1980 who won silver at the 1976 Summer Olympics, bronze at the 1972 Summer Olympics, and set three world records. He was the first man in history to clean and jerk 250 kg (551 lb). He also achieved numerous other top-three placements at World Championships and European Weightlifting Championships. He was also a master mechanic.

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Bill Whitaker, American journalist

Bill Whitaker is an American television journalist and a correspondent for the CBS News program 60 Minutes.

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Edward Witten, American physicist and academic

Edward Witten is an American theoretical physicist known for his contributions to string theory, topological quantum field theory, and various areas of mathematics. He is a professor emeritus in the school of natural sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Witten is a researcher in string theory, quantum gravity, supersymmetric quantum field theories, and other areas of mathematical physics. Witten's work has also significantly impacted pure mathematics. In 1990, he became the first physicist to be awarded a Fields Medal by the International Mathematical Union, for his mathematical insights in physics, such as his 1981 proof of the positive energy theorem in general relativity, and his interpretation of the Jones invariants of knots as Feynman integrals. He is considered the practical founder of M-theory.

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26/08/1949

Allahshukur Pashazadeh, Azerbaijani cleric

Allahshukur Hummat Pashazade is the Shaykh al-Islam of the Caucasus which includes the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Georgia, and Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Karachay–Cherkessia, and Adygea in the Russian Federation. He is also the chairman of the Religious Council of the Caucasus.

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Leon Redbone, Canadian-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (died 2019)

Leon Redbone was a singer-songwriter and musician specializing in jazz, blues, and Tin Pan Alley classics. Recognized by his hat, dark sunglasses, and black tie, he was born in Cyprus of Armenian ancestry and first appeared on stage in Toronto, Canada, in the early 1970s. He also appeared on film and television in acting and voice-over roles.

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26/08/1947

Nicolae Dobrin, Romanian footballer and manager (died 2007)

Nicolae Dobrin was a Romanian professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder and a manager.

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26/08/1946

Zhou Ji, Chinese engineer and politician, 14th Chinese Minister of Education

Zhou Ji is a Chinese mechanical engineer and politician. He served as China's Minister of Education from 2003 to 2009 and President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering from 2010 to 2018. Prior to that, served briefly as Mayor of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province.

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Valerie Simpson, American singer-songwriter

Ashford & Simpson were an American husband-and-wife songwriting, production and recording duo composed of Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson.

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Mark Snow, American composer for film and television (died 2025)

Mark Snow was an American composer for film and television. He was perhaps best known for composing the theme for The X-Files, and would compose for the show's initial nine-season run from 1993 to 2001. He would return for the show's revival from 2015 to 2018. Additionally, he composed the score for the two feature films and the short-lived spinoff series The Lone Gunmen.

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Alison Steadman, English actress

Alison Steadman is an English actress. She received the 1977 Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for Abigail's Party, the 1991 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for the Mike Leigh film Life Is Sweet and the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Actress for her role as Mari in the original production of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. In a 2007 Channel 4 poll, the '50 Greatest Actors' voted for by other actors, she was ranked 42.

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26/08/1945

Tom Ridge, American sergeant and politician, 1st Secretary of Homeland Security

Thomas Joseph Ridge is an American politician and author who served in the George W. Bush administration as the assistant to the president for homeland security from 2001 to 2003 and as the United States secretary of homeland security from 2003 to 2005. He was the first person to hold either office. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 1995 and as the 43rd governor of Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2001.

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26/08/1944

Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester

Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, is a member of the British royal family. He is the second son of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, the youngest of the nine grandchildren of George V, nephew of Edward VIII and George VI, and first cousin of Elizabeth II. He is 32nd in the line of succession to the British throne, and the highest person on the list who is not a descendant of George VI. At the time of his birth, he was fifth in line to the throne.

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Alan Parker, English guitarist and songwriter

Alan Frederick Parker is an English guitarist and composer.

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Judith Rees, English geographer and academic

Dame Judith Anne Rees,, is a distinguished academic geographer, was interim director of London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) from May 2011 until September 2012. Professor Rees also acts as director for its Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy and is vice-chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

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Maureen Tucker, American singer-songwriter and drummer

Maureen Ann "Moe" Tucker is an American retired musician, singer, and songwriter who achieved international fame as the drummer of the rock band the Velvet Underground. Tucker occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, including the songs "After Hours" and "I'm Sticking With You".

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26/08/1943

Dori Caymmi, Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist

Dorival "Dori" Tostes Caymmi is a Brazilian singer, songwriter, guitarist, arranger, and producer.

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26/08/1942

Dennis Turner, Baron Bilston, English lawyer and politician (died 2014)

Dennis Turner, Baron Bilston was a British Labour Co-operative politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Wolverhampton South East from 1987 to 2005.

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Chow Kwai Lam, Malaysian football coach and player (died 2018)

Chow Kwai Lam was a Malaysian football player and coach.

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Vic Dana, American dancer and singer

Samuel Mendola, known professionally as Vic Dana, is an American singer, dancer and actor.

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26/08/1941

Chris Curtis, English drummer and singer (died 2005)

Chris Curtis was an English musician. He was best known for being with the 1960s beat band The Searchers. He originated the concept behind Deep Purple and formed the band in its original incarnation of 'Roundabout'.

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Jane Merrow, English actress, producer, and screenwriter

Jane Josephine Meirowsky, known professionally as Jane Merrow, is an English actress who has been active from the 1960s in both Britain and the United States.

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Barbet Schroeder, French-Swiss director and producer

Barbet Schroeder is an Iranian-born Swiss film director and producer who started his career in French cinema in the 1960s, working with directors of the French New Wave such as Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer.

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26/08/1940

Michael Cockerell, English journalist

Michael Roger Lewis Cockerell is a British broadcaster and journalist. He is the BBC's most established political documentary maker, with a long, Emmy award-winning career of political programmes spanning television and radio.

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Don LaFontaine, American voice actor, producer, and screenwriter (died 2008)

Donald LeRoy LaFontaine was an American voice actor who recorded more than 5,000 film trailers and hundreds of thousands of television advertisements, network promotions, and video game trailers over four decades.

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Nik Turner, English musician and songwriter (died 2022)

Nicholas Robert Turner was an English musician best known as a member of space rock pioneers Hawkwind. Turner played saxophone and flute, as well as being a vocalist and composer. While with Hawkwind, Turner was known for his experimental free jazz stylisations and outrageous stage presence, often donning full makeup and Ancient Egypt-inspired costumes.

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26/08/1939

Pinchas Goldstein, Israeli businessman and politician (died 2007)

Pinchas Goldstein was an Israeli politician, who served as a member of the Knesset for Likud and the New Liberal Party between 1981 and 1992, and as Deputy Minister of Communications and Deputy Minister of Education and Culture during the early 1990s.

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Jorge Paulo Lemann, Brazilian banker and financier

Jorge Paulo Lemann is a Brazilian billionaire investment banker, businessman, and former tennis player with dual Brazilian and Swiss citizenship.

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Bill White, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 2017)

William Earl White was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach. He played in the National Hockey League with the Los Angeles Kings and Chicago Black Hawks from 1967 to 1976. He then coached Chicago during the 1976–77 season. White was one of the most notable defensive defencemen of the 1970s.

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26/08/1938

Jet Black, English drummer (died 2022)

Brian John Duffy, known professionally as Jet Black, was an English drummer and founding member of punk rock/new wave band the Stranglers. He last performed with the band in 2015, and officially retired in 2018.

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26/08/1937

Don Bowman, American singer-songwriter (died 2013)

Rubel Don Bowman was an American country music singer, songwriter, comedian, and radio host. He recorded for RCA Victor between 1964 and 1970, charting in the Top 40 with the novelty hit single "Chit Akins, Make Me a Star". Bowman also worked at several radio stations, including KRZK in Branson, Missouri. At this time, he was also opening the show for Moe Bandy doing Seymore Miles. Bowman also worked at KDEO San Diego, KEWB Oakland, KDWB St. Paul, and KBBQ Burbank. He developed a fictional character for his radio shows named Gruesome Goodbody. In 1961 he had a country hit "Coward at the Alamo."

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26/08/1936

Benedict Anderson, American political scientist and academic (died 2015)

Benedict Richard O'Gorman Anderson was an Anglo-Irish political scientist and historian who lived and taught in the United States. Anderson is best known for his 1983 book Imagined Communities, which explored the origins of nationalism. A polyglot with an interest in Southeast Asia, he was the Aaron L. Binenkorb Professor of International Studies, Government & Asian Studies at Cornell University. His work on the "Cornell Paper" disputed the official story of Indonesia's 30 September Movement and the subsequent anti-Communist purges of 1965–1966 which led to his expulsion from that country. He was the elder brother of historian Perry Anderson.

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26/08/1935

Geraldine Ferraro, American lawyer and politician (died 2011)

Geraldine Anne Ferraro was an American politician, diplomat, and attorney who served in the United States House of Representatives, representing New York's 9th congressional district from 1979 to 1985. She was the Democratic Party nominee for vice president in the 1984 presidential election, running alongside presidential candidate and former vice president Walter Mondale; this made her the first female vice-presidential nominee representing a major American political party. She was also a journalist, author, and businesswoman.

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Karen Spärck Jones, English computer scientist and academic (died 2007)

Karen Ida Boalth Spärck Jones was a self-taught programmer and a pioneering British computer and information scientist responsible for the concept of inverse document frequency (IDF), a technology that underlies most modern search engines. She was an advocate for women in computer science, her slogan being, "Computing is too important to be left to men." In 2019, The New York Times published her belated obituary in its series Overlooked, calling her "a pioneer of computer science for work combining statistics and linguistics, and an advocate for women in the field." From 2008, to recognise her achievements in the fields of information retrieval (IR) and natural language processing (NLP), the Karen Spärck Jones Award is awarded annually to a recipient for outstanding research in one or both of her fields.

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26/08/1934

Tom Heinsohn, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster (died 2020)

Thomas William Heinsohn was an American professional basketball player, coach, and broadcaster. He was associated with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) for six decades as a player, coach and broadcaster. He played for the Celtics from 1956 to 1965, and also coached the team from 1969 to 1978. He spent over 30 years as the color commentator for the Celtics' local broadcasts alongside play-by-play commentator Mike Gorman. He is regarded as one of the most iconic Celtics figures in the franchise's history, known during his lifetime for his charisma and loyalty to the team and its traditions. From this, he earned the nickname "Mr. Celtic".

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Kevin Ryan, Australian rugby player, coach, lawyer and politician

Kevin James Ryan is an Australian former state parliamentarian and local mayor, barrister and advocate. In the 1950s and 1960s he was an Australian dual-code rugby international representative and had previously been a Queensland amateur boxing champion in 1958 and 1959, who trialled for the 1960 Olympics.

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26/08/1932

Luis Salvadores Salvi, Chilean basketball player (died 2014)

Luis Salvadores Salvi was a Chilean basketball player who competed in the 1956 Summer Olympics. One of nine boys and two girls, he and his brothers established the Salvadores Salvi name as part of the basketball legend of Chile. One of his brothers, Alvaro Salvadores, was also well-known in professional basketball.

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26/08/1931

Kálmán Markovits, Hungarian water polo player (died 2009)

Kálmán Markovits was a Hungarian water polo player who competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics, 1956 Summer Olympics, and 1960 Summer Olympics.

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26/08/1930

Joe Solomon, Guyanese cricketer and coach (died 2023)

Joseph Stanislaus Solomon was a Guyanese cricketer who played 27 Test matches for the West Indies from 1958 to 1965, scoring 1,326 runs, mainly from number six and seven in the batting line-up. He also bowled occasional leg-breaks but was best known as a brilliant fieldsman. He was best remembered for his role in the famous Tied Test match between the West Indies and Australia in 1960 at the Gabba, where he was involved in two direct hit runout dismissals.

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26/08/1929

Reuben Kamanga, Zambian soldier and politician, 1st Vice President of Zambia (died 1996)

Reuben Chitandika Kamanga was a Zambian freedom fighter, politician and statesman. He was educated at Munali Secondary School.

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26/08/1928

Om Prakash Munjal, Indian businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Hero Cycles (died 2015)

Om Prakash Munjal was an Indian businessman, poet and philanthropist. He was the founder and chairman of Hero Cycles, the world's largest integrated bicycle manufacturing company by volume and Hero Motors, an Indian two-wheeler components manufacturer, and ventured into newer business fields including luxury hotels and four-wheeler components. He is also known for philanthropic activities of running various schools and hospitals. He died on 13 August 2015 at DMC Hero Heart Centre, Ludhiana.

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26/08/1926

Anahit Tsitsikian, Armenian violinist and educator (died 1999)

Anahit Tsitsikian was an Armenian female violinist. She toured around the world through more than 100 cities during the Soviet times; she taught at the State Conservatory for approximately 40 years and wrote more than 300 articles and scenarios for television and radio programs. She was also a scholar who established a new branch of Armenian musicology, history of performing art, and dedicated the last twenty years of her life to research in the field of ancient music history, becoming the founder of a new branch of Armenian musical archaeology.

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Robert Vickrey, American painter and author (died 2011)

Robert Remsen Vickrey was an American artist and author based in Massachusetts who specialized in the ancient medium of egg tempera. His paintings are surreal dreamlike visions of sunset shadows of bicycles, nuns in front of mural-painted brick walls, and children playing.

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26/08/1925

Jack Hirshleifer, American economist and academic (died 2005)

Jack Hirshleifer was an American economist and long-time professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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Alain Peyrefitte, French scholar and politician, Minister of Justice for France (died 1999)

Alain Peyrefitte was a French scholar and politician. He was a confidant of Charles de Gaulle and had a long career in public service, serving as a diplomat in Germany and Poland. Peyrefitte is remembered for his support for partitioning Algeria amid the Algerian War.

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Pyotr Todorovsky, Ukrainian-Russian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer (died 2013)

Pyotr Yefimovich Todorovsky was a Russian film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer.

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Etelka Keserű, Hungarian economist and politician (died 2018)

Etelka Keserű was a Hungarian economist and politician, who served as Minister of Light Industry between 1971 and 1980.

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Gustavo Becerra-Schmidt, Chilean composer (died 2010)

Gustavo Becerra-Schmidt was a Chilean composer.

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26/08/1924

Alex Kellner, American baseball player (died 1996)

Alexander Raymond Kellner was an American starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Philadelphia / Kansas City Athletics (1948–1958), Cincinnati Reds (1958) and St. Louis Cardinals (1959). Kellner batted right-handed and threw left-handed. He was born in Tucson, Arizona. His younger brother, Walt, also was a major league pitcher.

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26/08/1923

Wolfgang Sawallisch, German pianist and conductor (died 2013)

Wolfgang Sawallisch was a German conductor and pianist.

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26/08/1922

Irving R. Levine, American journalist and author (died 2009)

Irving Raskin Levine was an American journalist and longtime correspondent for NBC News. During his 45-year career, Levine reported from more than two dozen countries. He was the first American television correspondent to be accredited in the Soviet Union. He wrote three non-fiction books on life in the USSR, each of which became a bestseller.

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26/08/1921

Shimshon Amitsur, Israeli mathematician and scholar (died 1994)

Shimshon Avraham Amitsur was an Israeli mathematician. A leading figure in twentieth-century noncommutative algebra, he is best known for his wide-ranging contributions to ring theory, including the theory of rings with polynomial identities (PI-rings), division algebras, the general theory of radicals, and the Amitsur complex in descent theory. His collected works, published in two volumes by the American Mathematical Society in 2001, are organized into four broad areas: general ring theory, structure theory of PI-rings, combinatorial PI-theory, and division algebras.

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Benjamin C. Bradlee, American journalist and author (died 2014)

Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee was an American journalist who served as managing editor and later as executive editor of The Washington Post, from 1965 to 1991. He became a public figure when the Post joined The New York Times in publishing the Pentagon Papers and gave the go-ahead for the paper's extensive coverage of the Watergate scandal in the 1970s. He was also criticized for editorial lapses when the Post had to return a Pulitzer Prize in 1981 after it discovered that its award-winning story was false.

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26/08/1920

Brant Parker, American illustrator (died 2007)

Brant Julian Parker was an American cartoonist. He co-created and drew The Wizard of Id comic strip until passing the job on to his son, Jeff Parker, in 1997. Cartoonist Johnny Hart, his co-creator, continued writing the strip until his death on April 7, 2007. Parker himself died eight days later, on April 15.

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Prem Tinsulanonda, Thai general and politician, 16th Prime Minister of Thailand (died 2019)

Prem Tinsulanonda was a Thai military officer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th prime minister of Thailand from 1980 to 1988.

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26/08/1919

Gerard Campbell, American priest and academic (died 2012)

Gerard John Campbell was an American Catholic priest, Jesuit, and historian who became the president of Georgetown University. Born in Pennsylvania, he entered the Society of Jesus at the age of 20 and studied at West Baden College and Fordham University, before earning his doctorate at Princeton University. A promising historian, he then taught at Loyola University Maryland, before becoming the executive vice president of Georgetown University in 1963, where he effectively worked as acting president.

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26/08/1918

Katherine Johnson, American physicist and mathematician (died 2020)

Creola Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician and human computer whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights. During her 33-year career at NASA and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, she earned a reputation for mastering complex manual calculations and helped pioneer the use of computers to perform tasks previously requiring humans. The space agency noted her "historical role as one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist".

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26/08/1915

Humphrey Searle, English composer and conductor (died 1982)

Humphrey Searle was an English composer and writer on music. His music combines aspects of late Romanticism and modernist serialism, particularly reminiscent of his primary influences, Franz Liszt, Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, who was briefly his teacher. As a writer on music, Searle published texts on numerous topics; he was an authority on the music of Franz Liszt, and created the initial cataloguing system for his works.

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26/08/1914

Julio Cortázar, Belgian-Argentinian author and translator (died 1984)

Julio Florencio Cortázar was an Argentine and naturalised French novelist, short story writer, poet, essayist, and translator. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortázar influenced an entire generation of Spanish-speaking readers and writers in America and Europe.

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Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca, Turkish soldier and poet (died 2008)

Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca was one of the most prolific Turkish poets of the Turkish Republic with more than 60 collections of his poems published as of 2007. He was a laureate of the Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath Award.

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26/08/1912

John Tinniswood, British supercentenarian (died 2024)

John Alfred Tinniswood was a British supercentenarian who was the world's oldest verified living man from the death of 112-year-old Shi Ping of China on 29 June 2024 until his own death on 25 November 2024, at the age of 112 years and 91 days.

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26/08/1911

Otto Binder, American author and screenwriter (died 1974)

Otto Oscar Binder was an American author of science fiction and non-fiction books and stories, and comic books. He is best known as the co-creator of Supergirl and for his many scripts for Captain Marvel Adventures and other stories involving the entire superhero Marvel Family. He was prolific in the comic book field and is credited with writing over 4,400 stories across a variety of publishers under his own name, as well as more than 160 stories under the pen-name Eando Binder.

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26/08/1910

Mother Teresa, Albanian-Indian nun, missionary, Catholic saint, and Nobel Prize laureate (died 1997)

Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of Charity and a Catholic saint.

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26/08/1909

Eric Davies, South African cricketer and educator (died 1976)

Eric Quail Davies, was a South African cricketer, who played in five Test matches from 1936 to 1939. He was born in King William's Town and died in Port Alfred, both in Cape Province.

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Jim Davis, American actor (died 1981)

Jim Davis was an American actor, best known for his roles in television Westerns. In his later career, he became famous as Jock Ewing in the CBS primetime soap opera Dallas, a role he continued until he was too ill from multiple myeloma to perform. In 1981, his performance on the series earned him a posthumous nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

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Gene Moore, American baseball player (died 1978)

Eugene Moore Jr. was an American professional baseball right fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Bees / Braves, Brooklyn Dodgers, Washington Senators, and St. Louis Browns between 1931 and 1945. His father, Gene Sr., was a pitcher for the Pirates and Reds between 1910 and 1912.

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26/08/1908

Walter Bruno Henning, Prussian-American linguist and scholar (died 1967)

Walter Bruno Henning was a German scholar of Middle Iranian languages and literature, especially of the corpus discovered by the Turpan expeditions of the early 20th century.

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Aubrey Schenck, American screenwriter and producer (died 1999)

Aubrey Schenck was an American film producer from the 1940s through the 1970s.

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26/08/1906

Bunny Austin, English tennis player (died 2000)

Henry Wilfred "Bunny" Austin was an English tennis player. For 74 years he was the last Briton to reach the final of the men's singles at the Wimbledon Championships, until Andy Murray did so in 2012. He was also a finalist at the 1937 French Championships and a championship winner at Queen's Club. Along with Fred Perry, he was a vital part of the British team that won the Davis Cup in three consecutive years (1933–1935). He is also remembered as the first tennis player to wear shorts.

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Albert Sabin, Polish-American physician and virologist, developed the polio vaccine (died 1993)

Albert Bruce Sabin was a Polish-American medical researcher, best known for developing the oral polio vaccine, which has played a key role in nearly eradicating the disease. In 1969–1972, he served as the president of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

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26/08/1905

Helen Sharsmith, American biologist and educator (died 1982)

Helen Katherine Meyers Sharsmith was an American biologist and educator. She was one of the first women botanists at the University of California and is recognized for her contributions to botanical research there.

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26/08/1904

Christopher Isherwood, English-American author and academic (died 1986)

Christopher Isherwood was an English and American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist. His best-known works include Goodbye to Berlin (1939), a semi-autobiographical novel which was the basis for Cabaret (1966); A Single Man (1964), adapted into a film directed by Tom Ford in 2009; and Christopher and His Kind (1976), a memoir which "carried him into the heart of the Gay Liberation movement".

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Joe Hulme, English footballer and cricketer (died 1991)

Joseph Harold Anthony Hulme was an English footballer and cricketer.

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26/08/1903

Caroline Pafford Miller, American author (died 1992)

Caroline Pafford Miller was an American novelist. She gathered the folktales, stories, and archaic dialects of the rural communities she visited in her home state of Georgia in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and wove them into her first novel, Lamb in His Bosom, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1934, and the French literary award, the Prix Femina Americain in 1935. Her success as the first Georgian winner of the fiction prize inspired Macmillan Publishers to seek out more southern writers, resulting in the discovery of Margaret Mitchell, whose first novel, Gone with the Wind, also won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937. Miller's story about the struggles of nineteenth-century south Georgia pioneers found a new readership in 1993 when Lamb in His Bosom was reprinted, one year after her death. In 2007, Miller was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.

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26/08/1901

Eleanor Dark, Australian author and poet (died 1985)

Eleanor Dark AO was an Australian writer whose novels included Prelude to Christopher (1934) and Return to Coolami (1936), both winners of the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal for literature, and her best known work The Timeless Land (1941).

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Hans Kammler, German SS officer and engineer (died 1945)

Hans Kammler was an SS-Obergruppenführer responsible for Nazi civil engineering projects and its top secret V-weapons program. He oversaw the construction of various Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, before being put in charge of the V-2 rocket and Emergency Fighter Programs towards the end of World War II. Kammler disappeared in May 1945 during the final days of the war, although conjecture about his capture or death remains.

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Jimmy Rushing, American singer and bandleader (died 1972)

James Andrew Rushing was an American singer and pianist from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S., best known as the featured vocalist of Count Basie's Orchestra from 1935 to 1948.

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Maxwell D. Taylor, American general and diplomat, United States Ambassador to South Vietnam (died 1987)

Maxwell Davenport Taylor was a senior United States Army officer and diplomat during the Cold War. He served with distinction in World War II, most notably as commander of the 101st Airborne Division, nicknamed "The Screaming Eagles."

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Chen Yi, Chinese general and politician, 2nd Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China (died 1972)

Chen Yi was a Chinese communist military commander and politician. He served as Mayor of Shanghai from 1949 to 1958 and as Foreign Minister of China from 1958 to 1972. He is one of Ten Marshals of the People's Republic of China.

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26/08/1900

Margaret Utinsky, American nurse, recipient of the Medal of Freedom (died 1970)

Margaret Elizabeth Doolin "Peggy" Utinsky was an American nurse who worked with the Filipino resistance movement to provide medicine, food, and other items to aid Allied prisoners of war in the Philippines during World War II. She was recognized in 1946 with the Medal of Freedom for her actions.

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Hellmuth Walter, German-American engineer and businessman (died 1980)

Hellmuth Walter was a German engineer who pioneered research into rocket engines and gas turbines. His most noteworthy contributions were rocket motors for the Messerschmitt Me 163 and Bachem Ba 349 interceptor aircraft, so-called Starthilfe jettisonable rocket propulsion units used for a variety of Luftwaffe aircraft during World War II, and a revolutionary new propulsion system for submarines known as air-independent propulsion (AIP).

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26/08/1898

Peggy Guggenheim, American-Italian art collector and philanthropist (died 1979)

Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim was an American art collector, bohemian, and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who went down with the Titanic in 1912, and the niece of Solomon R. Guggenheim, who established the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Guggenheim collected art in Europe and America between 1938 and 1946. She exhibited this collection as she built it. In 1949, she settled in Venice, where she lived and exhibited her collection for the rest of her life. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is a modern art museum on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, and is one of the most visited attractions in the city.

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26/08/1897

Yun Posun, South Korean activist and politician, 2nd President of South Korea (died 1990)

Yun Po-sun was a South Korean politician and activist who served as the second president of South Korea from 1960 to 1962. He was the only president of the short-lived Second Republic of Korea, and served as little more than a figurehead due to its nature as a parliamentary system.

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26/08/1896

Ivan Mihailov, Bulgarian soldier and politician (died 1990)

Ivan Mihaylov Gavrilov, also known as Vancho Mihaylov, was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary in interwar Macedonia and the last leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO).

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26/08/1894

Sparky Adams, American baseball player and farmer (died 1989)

Earl John "Sparky" Adams was an American professional Major League Baseball player who played with the Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, and Cincinnati Reds. At five feet four and a half inches (1.638 m), Adams was the smallest Major League player during his career.

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26/08/1891

Acharya Chatursen Shastri, Indian author and playwright (died 1960)

Acharya Chatursen Shastri was an Indian writer of Hindi literature. He wrote many historical fictions, including Vaishali ki Nagarvadhu adapted into a feature film (1948), Vayam Rakshamah (1951), Somnath (1954), and Dharamputra which was adapted into the 1961 feature film of the same name.

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26/08/1888

Gustavo R. Vincenti, Maltese architect and developer (died 1974)

Gustavo Romeo Vincenti was a Maltese architect and developer. Born into a wealthy and business-oriented family in Valletta and Floriana, he was able to purchase land and design and build buildings which he would then sell to clients. He was interested in architecture from a young age, and he graduated as an architect from the University of Malta in 1911, at the age of 23.

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26/08/1885

Jules Romains, French author and poet (died 1972)

Jules Romains was a French poet and writer and the founder of the Unanimism literary movement. His works include the play Knock ou le Triomphe de la médecine, and a cycle of works called Les Hommes de bonne volonté . Sinclair Lewis called him one of the six best novelists in the world.

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26/08/1882

James Franck, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1964)

James Franck was a German–American physicist who shared the 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics with Gustav Hertz "for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom."

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Sam Hardy, English footballer (died 1966)

Sam Hardy was an English footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

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26/08/1880

Guillaume Apollinaire, Italian-French author, poet, playwright, and critic (died 1918)

Guillaume Apollinaire was a Polish-French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist and art critic of Polish, Swiss and Italian descent.

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26/08/1875

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, Scottish-Canadian historian and politician, 15th Governor General of Canada (died 1940)

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir was a Scottish novelist, historian, British Army officer, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation.

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26/08/1874

Zona Gale, American novelist, short story writer, and playwright (died 1938)

Zona Gale, also known by her married name, Zona Gale Breese, was an American novelist, short story writer, and playwright. She became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921. The close relationship she had with her parents influenced both her writing and personal life. Her books, based on her hometown, were noted for their charm and intimate realism, capturing the underlying emotions and motivations of her characters. All of her works were published under her maiden name, Zona Gale.

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26/08/1873

Lee de Forest, American engineer and academic, invented the Audion tube (died 1961)

Lee de Forest was an American inventor, electrical engineer, and early pioneer in electronics of fundamental importance. He invented the first practical electronic amplifier, the three-element "Audion" triode vacuum tube in 1908. This helped start the Electronic Age, and enabled the development of the electronic oscillator. These made radio broadcasting and long-distance telephone lines possible, and led to the development of talking motion pictures, among countless other applications.

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26/08/1865

Arthur James Arnot, Scottish-Australian engineer, designed the Spencer Street Power Station (died 1946)

Arthur James Arnot was a Scottish electrical engineer and inventor, best known for patenting the world's first electric drill. He later designed the Spencer Street Power Station.

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26/08/1862

Herbert Booth, Canadian songwriter and bandleader (died 1926)

Herbert Henry Howard Booth was a Salvation Army officer, the third son of five children to William and Catherine Booth (Mumford), who later went on to serve as an independent evangelist. He oversaw the Limelight Department's development and he was the writer and director for Soldiers of the Cross.

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26/08/1856

Clara Schønfeld, Danish actress (died 1939)

Clara Schønfeld was a Danish stage and film actress whose career spanned from the late 19th century through the 1920s.

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26/08/1854

Arnold Fothergill, English cricketer (died 1932)

Arnold James Fothergill was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket for Somerset County Cricket Club and the MCC in a career which spanned from 1870 until 1892. A left-arm fast-medium pace bowler, he appeared for England in two Test matches in 1889.

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26/08/1824

Martha Darley Mutrie, British painter (died 1885)

Martha Darley Mutrie was a British painter. Her paintings consisted mostly of fruit and flowers. She grew up in Manchester, England, and studied at the Manchester School of Design. Mutrie's works were shown at the Royal Academy of Arts, Royal Manchester Institution and other national and international exhibitions. Her works are among the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum.

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26/08/1819

Albert, Prince Consort of the United Kingdom (died 1861)

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the husband of Queen Victoria and consort of the British monarch from their marriage on 10 February 1840 until his death in 1861. Victoria granted him the title Prince Consort in 1857.

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26/08/1797

Saint Innocent of Alaska, Russian Orthodox missionary priest, then the first Orthodox bishop and archbishop in the Americas, and finally the Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia (died 1879)

Innocent of Alaska, also known as Innocent Metropolitan of Moscow, was a Russian Orthodox missionary priest, then the first Orthodox bishop and archbishop in the Americas, and finally the Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna. Remembered for his missionary work, scholarship, and leadership in Alaska and the Russian Far East during the 19th century, he is known for his abilities as a scholar, linguist, and administrator, as well as his great zeal for his work.

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26/08/1792

Manuel Oribe, Uruguayan soldier and politician, 4th President of Uruguay (died 1857)

Manuel Ceferino Oribe y Viana was the 2nd Constitutional president of Uruguay and founder of Uruguay's National Party, the oldest Uruguayan political party and considered one of the two Uruguayan "traditional" parties, along with the Colorado Party, which was, until the 20th century, its only political adversary.

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26/08/1783

Federigo Zuccari, astronomer, director of the Astronomical Observatory of Naples (died 1817)

Federigo, Vincenzo Antonio, Ludovico Zuccari was an Italian astronomer, professor of Astronomy at the Naples University, professor of Mathematical Geography at the Military Academy of Naples and director of the Astronomical Observatory of Naples.

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26/08/1775

William Joseph Behr, German publicist and academic (died 1851)

William Joseph Behr, German publicist and writer.

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26/08/1751

Manuel Abad y Queipo, Spanish-born Mexican bishop (died 1825)

Manuel Abad y Queipo was a Spanish Roman Catholic Bishop of Michoacán in the Viceroyalty of New Spain at the time of the Mexican War of Independence. He was "an acute social commentator of late colonial Mexico, ... an exemplification of the enlightened clergyman".

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26/08/1743

Antoine Lavoisier, French chemist and biologist (died 1794)

Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier, also Antoine Lavoisier after the French Revolution, was a French nobleman and chemist who was central to the 18th-century chemical revolution and who had a large influence on both the history of chemistry and the history of biology.

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26/08/1740

Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, French inventor, invented the hot air balloon (died 1810)

The Montgolfier brothers – Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier – were aviation pioneers, balloonists and paper manufacturers from the commune Annonay in Ardèche, France. They invented the Montgolfière-style hot air balloon, globe aérostatique, which launched the first confirmed piloted ascent by humans in 1783, carrying Jacques-Étienne.

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26/08/1736

Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de l'Isle, French mineralogist and geologist (died 1790)

Jean-Baptiste Louis Romé de l'Isle was a French mineralogist, considered one of the creators of modern crystallography.

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26/08/1728

Johann Heinrich Lambert, Swiss mathematician, physicist, and astronomer (died 1777)

Johann Heinrich Lambert was a polymath from the Republic of Mulhouse, at that time allied to the Swiss Confederacy, who made important contributions to the subjects of mathematics, physics, philosophy, astronomy and map projections.

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26/08/1695

Marie-Anne-Catherine Quinault, French singer-songwriter (died 1791)

Marie-Anne-Catherine Quinault was a French singer and composer.

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26/08/1694

Elisha Williams, English colonial minister, academic, and politician (died 1755)

Elisha Williams was a Congregational minister, legislator, militia soldier, jurist, and rector of Yale College from 1726 to 1739.

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26/08/1676

Robert Walpole, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1745)

Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British Whig statesman who is generally regarded as the de facto first Prime Minister of Great Britain, serving from 1721 to 1742. His formal titles included First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Leader of the House of Commons. He is the longest serving prime minister in UK history, with a tenure of over 20 years.

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26/08/1596

Frederick V, Elector Palatine, Bohemian king (died 1632)

Frederick V was the Elector Palatine of the Rhine in the Holy Roman Empire from 1610 to 1623, and reigned as King of Bohemia from 1619 to 1620. He was forced to abdicate both roles, and the brevity of his reign in Bohemia earned him the derisive sobriquet "the Winter King".

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26/08/1582

Humilis of Bisignano, Italian Franciscan friar and saint (died 1637)

Humilis of Bisignano was a Franciscan friar who was widely known in his day as a mystic and wonderworker. He has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church.

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26/08/1548

Bernardino Poccetti, Italian painter (died 1612)

Bernardino Poccetti, also known as Barbatelli, was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker of etchings.

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