Born on Sunday, 31st August – Famous Birthdays
On this day, 255 notable people were born on 31st August — spanning from 12 to 2004. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.
Sunday, 31 August 2025 marks the birth anniversary of several notable individuals across sport, entertainment and politics. Among those born on this date is Jang Won-young, the South Korean singer and model who emerged as a significant figure in the K-pop industry from 2004 onwards. The list of notable births also includes Ragna Sigurðardóttir, an Icelandic politician who has contributed to Nordic governance since her birth in 1992. Historical records show that Maria Montessori, the Italian physician and educator who revolutionised early childhood education through the Montessori method, was born on this date in 1870, leaving a lasting legacy that continues to influence educational practices worldwide.
The entertainment and sports industries have been particularly well represented among those born on 31 August. Chris Tucker, the American comedian and actor, entered the world in 1971, whilst Debbie Gibson, the American singer-songwriter and actress, was born in 1970. In the sporting realm, Frank Robinson, one of baseball’s most accomplished players and managers, was born in 1935 and went on to achieve numerous records that define excellence in the sport. The diversity of professions and nationalities among those sharing this birth date reflects the global significance of 31 August as a date of notable arrivals.
On 31 August 2025, the weather conditions and celestial positioning will create specific atmospheric conditions for this particular location. The moon phase and zodiac sign corresponding to this date provide additional context for those interested in astronomical and astrological perspectives. DayAtlas provides comprehensive information about weather patterns, historical events and notable births and deaths for any date and location, enabling users to explore the significance of particular days throughout history.
Discover who was born today 19th April.
31/08/2004
Jang Won-young, South Korean singer and model
Jang Won-young, also known mononymously as Wonyoung, is a South Korean singer. She is a member of the South Korean girl group Ive under Starship Entertainment and former member of project girl group Iz*One, having finished first in Mnet's girl group survival reality television show Produce 48 in 2018.
31/08/2001
Amanda Anisimova, American tennis player
Amanda Kay Victoria Anisimova is an American professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 3, achieved in January 2026. Anisimova is a two-time major finalist, at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships and at the 2025 US Open. She has won four WTA Tour titles, including two WTA 1000 events.
31/08/2000
Sauce Gardner, American football player
Ahmad "Sauce" Gardner is an American professional football cornerback for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Cincinnati Bearcats and was selected fourth overall by the New York Jets in the 2022 NFL draft. Gardner was named the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and was the first rookie cornerback since Ronnie Lott in 1981 to be named first-team All-Pro.
31/08/1998
BossMan Dlow, American rapper
Devante Milan McCreary, known professionally as BossMan Dlow, is an American rapper. He started rapping while serving time in county jail in 2019 and soon became popular in the Florida rap scene. After releasing the mixtape Too Slippery and its Alamo Records re-release 2 Slippery in 2023, his 2024 breakout single "Get in with Me" became popular on TikTok and Instagram and marked his debut on the Billboard Hot 100. He also released his debut studio album, Dlow Curry, in 2024.
31/08/1997
Jaylen Barron, American actress
Jaylen Barron is an American actress, known for her roles as Dominique Winslow in the Showtime series Shameless and Zoe Phillips in the Netflix drama series Free Rein. In 2021, she began starring in the Starz series Blindspotting.
31/08/1996
Jalen Brunson, American basketball player
Jalen Marquis Brunson is an American professional basketball player for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The son of former NBA guard Rick Brunson, he was drafted with the 33rd overall selection of the 2018 NBA draft by the Dallas Mavericks and played his first four seasons in the NBA with them. Brunson also played college basketball for the Villanova Wildcats, earning national player of the year honors as a junior and winning two national championships.
31/08/1995
Brittany Mahomes, American soccer player
Brittany Lynne Mahomes is an American sports team co-owner and former soccer player who played as a forward. She is a founding co-owner of the Kansas City Current, a team in the American professional top-division National Women's Soccer League (NWSL).
31/08/1994
Alex Harris, Scottish footballer
Alexander David Harris is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a winger for Berwick Rangers.
Can Aktav, Turkish football player
Can Demir Aktav is a Turkish football player who plays as a defender for Çankaya.
31/08/1993
Pablo Marí, Spanish football player
Pablo Marí Villar is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal.
Ilnur Alshin, Russian football player
Ilnur Tufikovich Alshin is a Russian professional football player who plays as a winger for Fakel Voronezh.
Anna Karnaukh, Russian water polo player
Anna Olegovna Karnaukh is a Russian water polo player. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, she competed for the Russia women's national water polo team in the women's event.
31/08/1992
Holly Earl, British actress
Holly Earl is an English actress. She started her career as a child actor, in the television series Touching Evil (1997–1998), and may be best known for her recurring role in the first three seasons of Cuckoo (2012–2016), or her main cast roles in the series Beowulf (2016) and in the third season of Humans (2018).
Tyler Randell, Australian rugby league player
Tyler Randell is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a hooker.
Ragna Sigurðardóttir, Icelandic politician
Ragna Sigurðardóttir is an Icelandic politician and member of the Althing. A member of the Social Democratic Alliance, she has represented the Reykjavík South constituency since November 2024.
Nicolás Tagliafico, Argentine footballer
Nicolás Alejandro Tagliafico is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Ligue 1 club Lyon and the Argentina national team. He was a member of the Argentina team that won the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
31/08/1991
António Félix da Costa, Portuguese race car driver
António Maria de Mello Breyner Félix da Costa is a Portuguese racing driver who competes in Formula E for Jaguar and in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Alpine. Félix da Costa won the 2019–20 Formula E Championship with Techeetah, and has won 13 ePrix across 12 seasons. In endurance racing, Félix da Costa won the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Drivers in 2022 with Jota.
Cédric Soares, Portuguese footballer
Cédric Ricardo Alves Soares, known simply as Cédric, is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a full-back for Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club São Paulo.
31/08/1990
Tadeja Majerič, Slovenian tennis player
Tadeja Majerič is a former tennis player from Slovenia.
31/08/1989
Dezmon Briscoe, American football player
Dezmon Jerrod Briscoe is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the sixth round of the 2010 NFL draft. He played college football for the Kansas Jayhawks.
31/08/1988
Matt Adams, American baseball player
Matthew James Adams is an American former professional baseball first baseman. Nicknamed "Big City" for his imposing size and ability to regularly hit long home runs, the St. Louis Cardinals selected Adams in the 23rd round of the 2009 MLB draft from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cardinals, Atlanta Braves, Washington Nationals, and Colorado Rockies.
Trent Hodkinson, Australian rugby league player
Trent Hodkinson is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a halfback in the NRL.
David Ospina, Colombian footballer
David Ospina Ramírez is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Categoría Primera A club Atlético Nacional, which he captains, and the Colombia national team.
Athena, American wrestler
Adrienne Palmer is an American professional wrestler who is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where she performs under the ring name Athena. She primarily appears in AEW's sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), where she is the leader of the M.I.T stable and the current ROH Women's World Champion in her first reign; at 1223 days, she is the longest-reigning champion in ROH history. She also makes appearances on the independent circuit.
31/08/1987
Xavi Annunziata, Spanish footballer
Javier 'Xavi' Fernández Annunziata is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a left winger.
Petros Kravaritis, Greek footballer
Petros Kravaritis is a Greek goalkeeper. He currently plays for Fostiras.
Ondřej Pavelec, Czech ice hockey player
Ondřej Pavelec is a Czech former professional ice hockey goaltender. Drafted in the second round, 41st overall, by the Atlanta Thrashers in 2005, he stayed with the team as they became the Winnipeg Jets in 2011, and played his final season with the New York Rangers. During the 2012–13 NHL lockout, Pavelec played for Bílí Tygři Liberec of the Czech Extraliga (ELH) and Pelicans of the Finnish SM-liiga.
31/08/1986
Ryan Kelley, American actor
Ryan Jonathan Kelley is an American actor. He is known for his roles in Mean Creek, Prayers for Bobby, as Ben Tennyson in Ben 10: Alien Swarm, and as Deputy Jordan Parrish on Teen Wolf.
Johnny Wactor, American actor (died 2024)
John William Wactor III was an American actor known for playing Brando Corbin on the series General Hospital and Johnny on the NBC series Siberia. He also had roles in the series Army Wives and the films USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage and Supercell. On May 25, 2024, Wactor was killed when three men tried to steal his automobile's catalytic converter in downtown Los Angeles. He was 37 years old.
Blake Wheeler, American ice hockey player
Blake James Wheeler is an American former professional ice hockey player. He played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Boston Bruins, Atlanta Thrashers/Winnipeg Jets, and New York Rangers. He was drafted by the Phoenix Coyotes in the first round, fifth overall, in the 2004 NHL entry draft. After failing to come to terms on a contract with the Coyotes, he signed with the Bruins as a free agent.
31/08/1985
Rolando, Portuguese footballer
Rolando Jorge Pires da Fonseca, known simply as Rolando, is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a central defender.
Andrew Foster, Australian footballer
Andrew Foster is an Australian rules footballer, who was rookie listed by the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was taken with Fremantle's second round pick in the 2007 Rookie Draft.
Mabel Matiz, Turkish singer
Fatih Karaca, better known by his stage name Mabel Matiz, is a Turkish pop music singer-songwriter.
Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia
Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, also known as MbS, is the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, formally serving as Crown Prince and Prime Minister. He is the heir apparent to the Saudi throne, the seventh son of King Salman, and the grandson of the nation's founder, Ibn Saud.
31/08/1984
Matti Breschel, Danish cyclist
Matti Breschel is a Danish retired professional road racing cyclist, who competed between 2005 and 2019 for the Rabobank, Tinkoff–Saxo, Astana and EF Education First teams.
Ryan Kesler, American ice hockey player
Ryan James Kesler is an American former professional ice hockey player. A center, Kesler spent the first 10 years of his National Hockey League (NHL) career with the Vancouver Canucks; in 2014 he was traded to the Anaheim Ducks, with whom he spent the rest of his career. He is best known for being a two-way forward and his agitating style of play, winning the Selke Trophy in 2011 while also being a finalist for the award in 2009, 2010, 2016 and 2017.
Ted Ligety, American skier
Theodore Sharp Ligety is a retired American alpine ski racer, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and an entrepreneur, having cofounded Shred Optics. Ligety won the combined event at the 2006 Olympics in Turin and the giant slalom race at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. He is also a five-time World Cup champion in giant slalom. Ligety won the gold medal in the giant slalom at the 2011 World Championships. He successfully defended his world title in giant slalom in 2013 in Schladming, Austria, where he also won an unexpected gold medal in the super-G and a third gold medal in the super combined.
Charl Schwartzel, South African golfer
Charl Adriaan Schwartzel is a South African professional golfer who currently plays in the LIV Golf Invitational Series and has previously played on the PGA Tour, European Tour and the Sunshine Tour. He has won one major title, the Masters in 2011. Schwartzel's highest world ranking has been number six, after finishing in a tie for fourth at the WGC-Cadillac Championship in 2012.
31/08/1983
Deniz Aydoğdu, German-Turkish footballer
Deniz Aydoğdu is a Turkish footballer.
Milan Biševac, Serbian footballer
Milan Biševac is a Serbian former footballer who played as centre-back. In international competition, he has played for the Serbia national team.
Larry Fitzgerald, American football player
Larry Darnell Fitzgerald Jr. is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver for 17 seasons with the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Pittsburgh Panthers, earning unanimous All-American honors in 2003. Fitzgerald was selected by the Cardinals with the third overall pick in the 2004 NFL draft. He is widely considered by fans, coaches and peers to be one of the greatest receivers in NFL history.
31/08/1982
Ian Crocker, American swimmer
Ian Lowell Crocker is an American former competition swimmer, five-time Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder. During his career, he set world records in the 50- and 100-meter butterfly and the 100-meter freestyle. He has won a total of twenty-one medals in major international competition, spanning the Olympics, the FINA World Aquatics Championships, and the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. He coached for many years at the Western Hills Athletic Club and has helped coach the Longhorns swim camp in 2019 as well as other years. Since Spring of 2022 when the new facility opened, Crocker coaches at the Western Aquatics and Social Club at the Eanes Independent School District Aquatics center.
Chris Duhon, American basketball player
Christopher Nicholas Duhon is an American former professional basketball player. Duhon was a point guard for the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team from 2000 to 2004. He then played for the Chicago Bulls, New York Knicks, Orlando Magic, and Los Angeles Lakers.
Lien Huyghebaert, Belgian sprinter
Lien Huyghebaert is a Belgian sprinter, who specializes in the 100 metres.
Christopher Katongo, Zambian footballer
Christopher Katongo is a Zambian former professional footballer who played as a striker. At international level, he amassed over 100 caps between 2003 and 2016 for the Zambia national team. He is an Africa Cup of Nations winner and won the BBC's African Footballer of the Year award in 2012, winning just over 40% of the public vote. His win is stated to have inspired a number of young players in Zambia.
Josh Kroeger, American baseball player
Joshua J. Kroeger is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2004. Listed at 6'3" [1.90 m], 220 pounds [104 k], Kroeger batted and threw left-handed. He was born in Davenport, Iowa.
Alexei Mikhnov, Ukrainian-Russian ice hockey player
Oleksiy Pavlovych "Alexei" Mikhnov is a Ukrainian-Russian former professional ice hockey left winger.
Pepe Reina, Spanish footballer
José Manuel "Pepe" Reina Páez is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
Michele Rugolo, Italian race car driver
Michele Rugolo is an Italian racing driver.
G. Willow Wilson, American journalist and author
Gwendolyn Willow Wilson is an American comics writer, prose author, and essayist. Her work is most often categorized as magical realism.
31/08/1981
Ahmad Al Harthy, Omani race car driver
Ahmad Al Harthy is an Omani racing driver who currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship in the LMGT3 Class in the No. 46 BMW M4 GT3 for BMW M Team WRT alongside nine-time MotoGP Champion Valentino Rossi and ADAC GT Masters champion, two time 24 Hours of Nürburgring winner, and DTM vice champion, Kelvin Van Der Linde. He won the 2012 Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain Pro-Am 1 Championship and in 2017 became the Blancpain Endurance Cup Pro-Am Champion along with British team-mate Jonny Adam.
Dwayne Peel, Welsh rugby player
Dwayne John Peel is a Welsh rugby union coach and former player. He was the most capped scrum-half for the Wales national rugby union team with 76 caps, until his record was surpassed by Mike Phillips on 16 March 2013.
Steve Saviano, American ice hockey player
Stephen Saviano is a former American professional ice hockey left winger. He last played for the Lausitzer Füchse in DEL2.
31/08/1980
Joe Budden, American broadcaster and former rapper
Joseph Anthony Budden II is an American broadcaster and former rapper. He first gained recognition with his 2003 single "Pump It Up", which peaked in the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 and preceded the release of his eponymous debut studio album (2003). A critical and commercial success, the album peaked in the top ten of the Billboard 200, although it was his only major label release for Def Jam Recordings. He released seven more independent albums to continued critical praise. While doing so, he performed as a member of the hip-hop supergroup Slaughterhouse, who signed with Eminem's Shady Records in 2012; the group released two studio albums.
31/08/1979
Clay Hensley, American baseball player
Clayton Allen Hensley is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres, Florida Marlins, and San Francisco Giants.
Mark Johnston, Canadian swimmer
Mark Johnston is a former freestyle swimmer from Canada, who competed at two consecutive Summer Olympic Games, Sydney, Australia in 2000 and Athens, Greece in 2004. Johnston's consecutive 10-year run on the Canadian national team was longer than any other current swimmer at the time. Born and raised in St. Catharines, Ontario, he was named to the national team in 1996 while swimming for Swim Brock Niagara. He went on to win numerous medals on the world stage throughout his career representing Canada at two Commonwealth Games, five World Championships, the Pan-American Games, three Pan-Pacific Aquatic Championships, and several other major international competitions. He is a 14-time national champion, world championship bronze medallist and Olympic finalist in the men's 4 x 200-metre freestyle relay. Mark attended the University of British Columbia and was inducted into the St. Catharines Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.
Yara Martinez, Puerto Rican-American actress
Yara Martínez is an American television actress, born in Puerto Rico, who is best known for her roles as Kelly in Hollywood Heights, as Dr. Luisa Alver on The CW series Jane the Virgin, and as Bull's wife Isabella on Bull.
Simon Neil, Scottish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
Simon Alexander Neil is a Scottish musician, and lead vocalist and guitarist for rock band Biffy Clyro.
Yuvan Shankar Raja, Indian Tamil singer-songwriter and producer
Yuvan Shankar Raja, known officially as Abdul Haliq, is an Indian composer and playback singer. He mainly scores music for Tamil films along with few Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi films. Considered a versatile composer, he is particularly known for his use of Western music elements and often credited with having introduced hip hop to the Tamil film and music industry and started the "era of remixes" in Tamil Nadu which included mixed EDM and jazz. He is frequently referred to as the "BGM King" of Tamil film music. Yuvan has won two Filmfare Awards South, five Mirchi Music Awards South, three Vijay Awards and two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards.
Ramón Santiago, Dominican baseball player
Ramón David Santiago Sanchez is a Dominican-American former professional baseball infielder and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Detroit Tigers from 2002 to 2003, and 2006 to 2013, the Seattle Mariners from 2004 to 2005, and the Cincinnati Reds in 2014. He spent most of his major league career at shortstop, but also played a significant amount of time at second base, and occasionally third base.
Mickie James, American wrestler
Mickie Laree James is an American professional wrestler and country singer. She is signed to WWE, as an ambassador. She is also signed to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) as Creative Director, Head of Female Talent and Executive Producer. She is also known for her tenures in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) and National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
31/08/1978
Philippe Christanval, French footballer
Philippe Charles Lucien Christanval is a French former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. During his career, he played for Monaco, Barcelona, Marseille and Fulham and earned six full international caps with the France national team, as well as selection to the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
Ido Pariente, Israeli mixed martial artist and trainer
Ido Pariente is an Israeli mixed martial arts fighter and trainer. His nickname is "The Hebrew Hammer". He is one of Israel's top fighters.
Jennifer Ramírez Rivero, Venezuelan model
Jennifer Ramírez Rivero was a Venezuelan model and owner of the clothing and accessories brands Mac River and Jen River. She was murdered in 2018 in Cúcuta, Colombia.
Craig Stapleton, Australian rugby league player
Craig Stapleton is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who last played for the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the National Rugby League. Stapleton formerly played for St. George and St. George Illawarra, Parramatta Eels, Penrith Panthers and Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the Australian National Rugby League (NRL) competition as well as Leigh Centurions and Salford City Reds in Super League, primarily as a prop. A journeyman forward, Stapleton played for eight clubs in twelve years.
Sandis Valters, Latvian basketball player
Sandis Valters is a retired professional basketball shooting guard, who last played for BK Ventspils. He is member of Latvia national basketball team. His father is a former Soviet basketball star, Valdis Valters, and his younger brother, Kristaps Valters, also plays professional basketball.
Morten Qvenild, Norwegian pianist and composer
Morten Qvenild is a Norwegian jazz pianist, band leader, and producer.
31/08/1977
Jeff Hardy, American wrestler and singer
Jeffrey Nero Hardy is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where he is a former four-time TNA World Tag Team Champion. He also appears on partner promotion WWE on its NXT brand where he is a former one-time NXT Tag Team Champion. He is also known for his tenure in All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Known for his risktaking and high-flying style, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of his generation.
Ian Harte, Irish footballer
Ian Patrick Harte is an Irish football agent and former professional footballer who played as a left back. He was best known for his ability to score goals from long range, including being a free kick specialist.
Craig Nicholls, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
Craig Robert Nicholls is an Australian musician, best known as the lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the Australian alternative rock band The Vines, of which he is the sole continuous member.
Arzu Yanardağ, Turkish actress and model
Arzu Yanardağ is a Turkish actress and model.
31/08/1976
Vincent Delerm, French singer-songwriter and pianist
Vincent Delerm is a French singer-songwriter, pianist and composer. He is the son of the writer Philippe Delerm and illustrator Martine Delerm.
Shar Jackson, American actress and singer
Sharisse Jackson is an American actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Niecy Jackson on the UPN sitcom Moesha (1996–2001). She was crowned the winner of MTV reality show Celebrity Rap Superstar in 2007.
Roque Júnior, Brazilian footballer and manager
José Vítor Roque Júnior, more commonly known as Roque Júnior, is a Brazilian football pundit and former player who played as a defender.
Radek Martínek, Czech ice hockey player
Radek Martínek is a Czech former professional ice hockey defenceman who last played for the New York Islanders in the National Hockey League (NHL).
31/08/1975
Craig Cumming, New Zealand cricketer and sportscaster
Craig Derek Cumming is a New Zealand former international cricketer. He played 11 Test matches and 13 One Day Internationals for the New Zealand national team. He played domestic cricket with Canterbury and Otago.
John Grahame, American ice hockey player and coach
John Gillies Mark Grahame is an American former professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League with the Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes. He won the Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004.
Sara Ramirez, Mexican-American actor and musician
Sara Elena Ramírez Vargas is an American actor, singer and activist. Born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Ramírez moved from Mexico to the United States at eight years old, eventually graduating with a fine arts degree from the Juilliard School.
31/08/1974
Andriy Medvedev, Ukrainian-Monégasque tennis player
Andrei Medvedev is a Ukrainian former professional tennis player. Medvedev reached the final of the 1999 French Open, the French Open semifinals in 1993, and won four Masters titles during his career, achieving a career-high ranking of world No. 4 in May 1994.
31/08/1973
Scott Niedermayer, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
Scott Niedermayer is a Canadian former ice hockey player and current special assignment coach of the Anaheim Ducks. A defenceman, he played 18 seasons and over 1,000 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Ducks. Niedermayer is a four-time Stanley Cup champion and played in five NHL All-Star Games. He won the James Norris Memorial Trophy in 2003–04 as the NHL's top defenceman and the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2007 as the most valuable player of the playoffs. In 2017, Niedermayer was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in history.
31/08/1971
Kirstie Allsopp, British TV presenter
Kirstie Mary Allsopp is a British television presenter, best known as co-presenter of Channel 4 property shows including Location, Location, Location, Love It or List It UK, Relocation, Relocation and Location Revisited.
Pádraig Harrington, Irish golfer
Pádraig Peter Harrington is an Irish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour, PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions. He has won three major championships: The Open Championship in 2007 and 2008 and the PGA Championship, also in 2008. He spent over 300 weeks in the top-10 of the world rankings, and reached a career-high ranking of the third spot in July 2008. Harrington was a member of six consecutive Ryder Cup teams between 1999 and 2010. In 2024, he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Vadim Repin, Belgian-Russian violinist
Vadim Viktorovich Repin is a Russian and Belgian violinist who lives in Vienna.
Chris Tucker, American comedian and actor
Christopher Tucker is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He made his debut in 1992 as a stand-up performer on the HBO comedy series Def Comedy Jam, where he frequently appeared on the show during the 1990s. He made his feature film debut in House Party 3 in 1994 and gained greater recognition in Friday the following year. In 1997, he co-starred in the films The Fifth Element and Money Talks, and had a supporting role in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown. Tucker gained international fame in the 2000s for playing Detective James Carter in the Rush Hour film series.
31/08/1970
Debbie Gibson, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
Deborah Ann Gibson is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She released her debut album Out of the Blue (1987) at age 16, writing and largely producing the material. The album spawned several international hits, later being certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. One of those singles, "Foolish Beat", made Gibson the youngest female artist to write, produce, and perform a Billboard Hot 100 number-one single. Her double-platinum second album Electric Youth (1989) gave Gibson another U.S. number-one hit with "Lost in Your Eyes". Gibson is the sole songwriter on all of her singles to reach the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100. She was recognized by ASCAP as Songwriter of the Year, along with Bruce Springsteen, in 1989.
Nikola Gruevski, Macedonian economist and politician, 6th Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia
Nikola Gruevski is a former Macedonian politician who served as Prime Minister of Macedonia from 2006 until his resignation in 2016, in accordance with the internationally mediated Pržino Agreement due to the Macedonian political crisis, and led the party VMRO-DPMNE from 2004 to 2017. He was the longest serving post-independence Macedonian prime minister, serving more than nine years in office.
Greg Mulholland, English politician
Gregory Thomas Mulholland is a British Liberal Democrat politician who was the MP for Leeds North West.
Queen Rania of Jordan
Rania Al Abdullah is Queen of Jordan as the wife of King Abdullah II.
Arie van Lent, Dutch-German footballer and manager
Arie van Lent is a Dutch former professional footballer, who played as a forward. He was most recently the manager of SpVgg Unterhaching.
Zack Ward, Canadian actor and producer
Zacharias Ward is a Canadian actor. He made his film debut with a supporting role as Scut Farkus in the comedy film A Christmas Story (1983). Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Ward appeared in multiple television films, and had supporting roles in the films Ed (1996) and Wild America (1997).
31/08/1969
Nathalie Bouvier, French skier
Nathalie Bouvier is a retired French alpine skier. She won a controversial World Cup victory in 1989, in Giant Slalom.
Jonathan LaPaglia, Australian actor and physician
Jonathan LaPaglia is an Australian actor and television personality. He hosted Network 10's revival of Australian Survivor from 2016 to 2025. As an actor, LaPaglia is known for his roles as Frank B. Parker in the television series Seven Days, Kevin Debreno in The District and Detective Tommy McNamara in New York Undercover.
Jeff Russo, American musician
Jeff Russo is an American composer, songwriter, guitarist, vocalist and music producer, and one of the two founding members of the rock band Tonic. He is also a founding member of the Americana band Low Stars.
Javagal Srinath, Indian cricketer and referee
Javagal Srinath is a former Indian cricketer and currently an ICC match referee. He is considered among India's finest fast bowlers and is the only Indian fast bowler till date to have taken more than 300 wickets in One Day Internationals. With India, Srinath was a member of the Indian team that was the joint-winners of the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, a title they shared with Sri Lanka, and was a member of the team that were runners-up in the 2003 Cricket World Cup.
31/08/1968
Valdon Dowiyogo, Nauruan politician (died 2016)
Valdon Kape Dowiyogo was a political figure and cabinet minister from the Pacific nation of the Republic of Nauru.
Hideo Nomo, Japanese baseball player
Hideo Nomo is a Japanese former baseball pitcher who played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and Major League Baseball (MLB). He achieved early success in his native country, where he played with the Kintetsu Buffaloes from 1990 to 1994. He then exploited a loophole to free himself from his contract, and became the first Japanese major leaguer to permanently relocate to MLB in the United States, debuting with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995. Nomo became just the second Japanese player in American professional baseball after Masanori Murakami who played in MLB three decades earlier, and Nomo's star status is often credited with opening the door for Japanese players in MLB.
Jolene Watanabe, American tennis player (died 2019)
Jolene Watanabe was an American international tennis player. She competed in the Australian Open 6 times, from 1994 to 2000. Jolene also competed in the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open making the second round in each of these tournaments. She obtained a career high singles ranking of 72 in 1997 and included a win over Jennifer Capriati. Jolene previously coached at the Van Der Meer Tennis Academy and most recently coached at Smith Stearns Tennis Academy serving as the Assistant Director. She coached numerous top players during her coaching career. As a junior Jolene played for the Southern California section. She attended the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) for her D1 collegiate tennis. She died from cancer of the appendix on June 22, 2019, on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
31/08/1967
Gene Hoglan, American drummer
Eugene Victor Hoglan II is an American drummer, best known as the drummer for thrash metal band Dark Angel, and formerly Testament. He is acclaimed for his creativity in drum arrangements, including use of abstract devices for percussion effects and his trademark lengthy double-kick drum rhythms. Though his playing style is very technically demanding, he retains high accuracy at extreme tempos, earning him the nicknames "The Atomic Clock" and "Human Drum Machine".
Anita Moen, Norwegian skier
Anita Moen, sometimes credited as Anita Moen-Guidon, is a Norwegian former cross-country skier who competed from 1987 to 2003. She won five medals at the Winter Olympics with three silvers and two bronzes.
31/08/1966
Lyuboslav Penev, Bulgarian footballer and manager
Lyuboslav Mladenov Penev is a Bulgarian professional football manager and former player.
31/08/1965
Zsolt Borkai, Hungarian gymnast and politician
Zsolt Borkai is a Hungarian Olympic gymnast champion and politician, who served as the mayor of Győr from 1 October 2006 to 8 November 2019. He was President of the Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB) between 20 November 2010 and 2 May 2017.
Susan Gritton, English soprano and actress
Susan Gritton is an English operatic soprano. She was the 1994 winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award and has sung leading roles in a wide-ranging repertoire from Handel and Mozart to Britten, Janáček and Strauss.
31/08/1964
Raymond P. Hammond, American poet and critic
Raymond P. Hammond is an American poet, critic and editor of the New York Quarterly magazine since assuming control after the death of William Packard in 2002.
31/08/1963
Reb Beach, American guitarist
Richard Earl "Reb" Beach Jr. is an American hard rock guitarist. He is a member of the bands Winger and Whitesnake.
Rituparno Ghosh, Indian actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2013)
Rituparno Ghosh was an Indian film director, actor, writer and lyricist. After pursuing a degree in economics, he started his career as a creative artist at an advertising agency. He received recognition for his second feature film Unishe April which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film. Having won 19 National Awards, along with his contemporaries Aparna Sen and Goutam Ghose, Rituparno heralded contemporary Bengali cinema to greater heights. Ghosh died on 30 May 2013 in Kolkata after a heart attack. Ghosh was one of the openly homosexual personalities in Indian cinema.
Sonny Silooy, Dutch footballer and manager
Jan Jacobus "Sonny" Silooy is a Dutch former professional footballer and football manager. He is currently the assistant coach with AFC Ajax. His last managing post was for the under-19 team for United Arab Emirates club Al Shabab. His most successful time as a player was in his period with Ajax. He won seven Eredivisie titles, four KNVB Cups, three Johan Cruyff Shields, one UEFA Champions League, one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, one UEFA Cup, one UEFA Super Cup and one Intercontinental Cup.
31/08/1962
Dee Bradley Baker, American voice actor
Dee Bradley Baker is an American voice actor. Much of his work has consisted of vocalizations of animals and monsters. Baker's roles include animated series such as Adventure Time, American Dad!, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Ben 10, Codename: Kids Next Door, The Fairly OddParents, Gravity Falls, Handy Manny, Higglytown Heroes, Jungle Junction, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Miles from Tomorrowland, Milo Murphy's Law, Muppet Babies, My Friends Tigger & Pooh, Phineas and Ferb, SpongeBob SquarePants, Steven Universe, The 7D, and The Legend of Korra. His voice work in live-action series includes Legends of the Hidden Temple and Shop 'til You Drop, as well as films such as Space Jam and The Boxtrolls.
31/08/1961
Kieran Crowley, New Zealand rugby player
Kieran James Crowley is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player, who is the former head coach of Italy. He has also coached the New Zealand Under-19s in the 2007 World Championships as well as coaching provincial side Taranaki. He previously served as head coach of Canada. He also spent five seasons coaching Benetton Rugby.
Magnus Ilmjärv, Estonian historian and author
Magnus Ilmjärv is an Estonian historian.
31/08/1960
Vali Ionescu, Romanian long jumper
Valeria "Valy" Ionescu is a retired long jumper from Romania. She won the European title in 1982 and an Olympic silver medal in 1984. Ionescu spent her entire career with the club Rapid Bucuresti, and later worked there as a coach and official.
Chris Whitley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2005)
Christopher Becker Whitley was an American blues/rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. Whitley's sound was drawn from the traditions of blues, jazz and rock and he recorded songs by artists from many genres. During his 25-year career, he released 17 albums. While two songs landed in the top 50 of the Billboard mainstream rock charts and he received two Independent Music Awards, he remained on the fringes of both the blues and alternative-rock worlds.
Hassan Nasrallah, Lebanese politician, 3rd Secretary-General of Hezbollah (died 2024)
Hassan Nasrallah was a Lebanese Shia cleric, a militant, and politician who served as the third secretary-general of Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist political party and militia, from 1992 until his assassination in 2024.
31/08/1959
Ralph Krueger, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
Ralph Krueger is a Canadian-born German professional ice hockey coach and former player. He is the former head coach of the Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL), and former chairman of Southampton Football Club. Since April 2019, he has held a Swiss passport.
Jessica Upshaw, American lawyer and politician (died 2013)
Jessica Sibley Upshaw was an American politician and lawyer.
31/08/1958
Serge Blanco, Venezuelan-French rugby player and businessman
Serge Blanco is a former rugby union rugby player who played fullback for Biarritz Olympique and the French national side, gaining 93 caps, 81 of them at fullback. His alternative position was wing. He was generally nicknamed by French rugby fans as the Pelé of Rugby.
Stephen Cottrell, English bishop
Stephen Geoffrey Cottrell is a Church of England bishop. Since 9 July 2020, he has been the Archbishop of York and Primate of England; the second-most senior bishop of the church and the most senior in northern England. He previously served as Bishop of Reading, 2004–2010, and as Bishop of Chelmsford, 2010–2020.
31/08/1957
Colm O'Rourke, Irish footballer and sportscaster
Colm O'Rourke is a Gaelic football manager, former player, retired secondary school principal, sports broadcaster and columnist. His league and championship career at senior level with the Meath county team spanned twenty years from 1975 to 1995.
Gina Schock, American drummer
Regina Ann Schock is an American musician and songwriter, best known as the drummer for the rock band the Go-Go's. She joined the group in 1979 and remained a member during its most active years in the early 1980s. Schock has also worked with other musical projects, contributed to songwriting for pop artists, and published a memoir. In 2021, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Go-Go's.
Glenn Tilbrook, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
Glenn Martin Tilbrook is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is the lead singer and guitarist of the English new wave band Squeeze, a band formed in the mid-1970s who broke through in the new wave era at the decade's end. He generally writes the music for Squeeze's songs, while his writing partner, Chris Difford, writes the lyrics. In addition to his songwriting skills, Tilbrook is respected both as a singer and an accomplished guitarist.
31/08/1956
Mária Balážová, Slovak painter and illustrator
Mária Balážová is a contemporary Slovak artist. Her practise as an artist is usually associated with new geometry, post-geometry and postmodern.
Kent Nilsson, Swedish ice hockey player
Kent Åke Nilsson is a Swedish former professional ice hockey centre. He played in the World Hockey Association (WHA) for the Winnipeg Jets, and in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Atlanta and Calgary Flames, Minnesota North Stars and Edmonton Oilers, as well as teams across various European leagues.
Masashi Tashiro, Japanese singer, actor, and director
Masashi Tashiro is a Japanese former television performer and a founding member of the band Rats & Star. Tashiro was a tenor singer with the band and, later, a TV entertainer in Japan. He directed a film after the breakup of Rats & Star.
Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwanese politician and the President of the Republic of China
Tsai Ing-wen is a Taiwanese politician and legal scholar who served as the seventh president of the Republic of China from 2016 to 2024. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), she intermittently served as chair of the DPP from 2008 to 2012, 2014 to 2018, and 2020 to 2022. She was the first woman to hold the presidency in Taiwan's history.
31/08/1955
Aleksander Krupa, Polish-American actor
Aleksander Krupa, often credited as Olek Krupa, is a Polish-American actor, active in film and television roles and best known for playing villains and/or criminals, such as in Eraser, Blue Streak, Home Alone 3 as Peter Beaupre and The Italian Job as Mashkov. He also notably portrayed a Bosnian Serb general engaged in genocide against Bosnian Muslims in 2001's Behind Enemy Lines and portrayed the President of Russia in 2010's action thriller film Salt. Krupa continued to have minor roles in many Hollywood movies, such as X-Men: First Class, Hidden Figures, and The Fate of the Furious.
Julie Maxton, Scottish lawyer and academic
Dame Julie Katharine Maxton is a British-New Zealand barrister, legal scholar, and academic administrator. Since 2011, she has been executive director of the Royal Society.
Edwin Moses, American hurdler
Edwin Corley Moses is an American former hurdler who won gold medals in the 400 m hurdles at the 1976 and 1984 Olympics. Between 1977 and 1987, Moses won 107 consecutive finals and set the world record in the event four times. In addition to his running achievements, Moses was also an innovative reformer in the areas of Olympic eligibility and drug testing. In 2000, he was elected the first Chairman of the Laureus World Sports Academy, an international service organization of world-class athletes.
Anthony Thistlethwaite, English saxophonist and bass player
Anthony "Anto" Thistlethwaite is an English multi-instrumentalist best known as a founding member of the folk rock group, The Waterboys and later as a long-standing member of Irish rock band The Saw Doctors.
Gary Webb, American journalist and author (died 2004)
Gary Stephen Webb was an American investigative journalist.
31/08/1954
Julie Brown, American actress and screenwriter
Julie Ann Brown is an American actress, comedian, musician, writer, and director.
31/08/1953
Marcia Clark, American attorney and author
Marcia Rachel Clark is an American prosecutor, author, television correspondent, and television producer. She was the lead prosecutor in the O. J. Simpson murder case.
Miguel Ángel Guerra, Argentinian race car driver
Miguel Ángel Guerra is a former racing driver from Argentina. He participated in four Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 15 March 1981. He qualified for only one of these, the 1981 San Marino Grand Prix, in which his Osella was hit by the March of Eliseo Salazar on the first lap. Guerra's car hit a wall, and he suffered a broken wrist and ankle.
György Károly, Hungarian poet and author (died 2018)
György Károly was a Hungarian poet and writer.
Pavel Vinogradov, Russian astronaut and engineer
Pavel Vladimirovich Vinogradov is a former cosmonaut and commander of the International Space Station. He has flown into space three times, aboard Mir and the International Space Station, and was one of the top 10 astronauts in terms of total time in space after his third spaceflight. Vinogradov has also conducted seven spacewalks in his cosmonaut career, and holds the record for the oldest person to perform a spacewalk.
Elisabeth Kværne, Norwegian langeleik player (died 2024)
Elisabeth Kværne was a Norwegian musician. She played the langeleik, a string instrument similar to the Appalachian dulcimer. She won the 1985 Spellemannprisen in the category folk music and old dance for På langeleik. Kværne died on 12 September 2024, at the age of 71.
31/08/1952
Kim Kashkashian, American viola player and educator
Kim Kashkashian is an American violist. She has spent her career in the U.S. and Europe and collaborated with many major contemporary composers. In 2013 she won a Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. She is recognized as one of the world's top violists.
Herbert Reul, German politician
Herbert Reul is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as State Minister for Internal Affairs in the government of successive Ministers-President Armin Laschet (2017–2021) and Hendrik Wüst. He previously served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP).
31/08/1951
Grant Batty, New Zealand rugby player
Grant Bernard Batty was a New Zealand rugby union footballer. A diminutive but effective wing for the All Blacks, Batty played domestically for Wellington and Bay of Plenty. A crowd favourite, he was usually the smallest man on the field. Nicknamed "Batts", he was also known as "Twinkle Toes" or "Pocket Rocket" for his small size, explosive acceleration, and fearless combative approach. His rugby career was cut short by a knee injury, leading to his retirement in 1977 at age 25.
31/08/1950
Eduardo Nonato Joson, Filipino politician (died 2025)
Eduardo Nonato "Edno" Noriel Joson was a Filipino lawyer and politician who served in the Philippine legislature as assemblyman from Nueva Ecija (1984–1986) and representative of the province's first district.
31/08/1949
Richard Gere, American actor and producer
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began appearing in films in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) and a starring role in Days of Heaven (1978). Gere came to prominence with his role in the film American Gigolo (1980), which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol. Gere's other films include An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), The Cotton Club (1984), Internal Affairs (1990), Pretty Woman (1990), Sommersby (1993), First Knight (1995), Primal Fear (1996), Red Corner (1997), Runaway Bride (1999), Unfaithful (2002), Shall We Dance? (2004), I'm Not There (2007), Arbitrage (2012) and Norman (2016). For portraying Billy Flynn in the musical Chicago (2002), he won a Golden Globe Award.
Stephen McKinley Henderson, American actor
Stephen McKinley Henderson is an American actor. Henderson trained at Juilliard School for acting and later became a resident member of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis from 1976 to 1981. He came to prominence as a character actor often performing the plays of August Wilson. He has received nominations for two Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2021, Vulture named Henderson as one of "The 32 Greatest Character Actors Working Today".
Hugh David Politzer, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
Hugh David Politzer is an American theoretical physicist. He shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics with David Gross and Frank Wilczek "for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction".
Rick Roberts, American country-rock singer-songwriter and guitarist
Richard James Roberts is an American country rock and soft rock singer-songwriter who recorded with many influential artists over several genres. He is best known as a founding member and lead singer of Firefall from 1974 to 1981, as well as for his work with the Flying Burrito Brothers on their 1971 self-titled album. He also recorded two solo albums, Windmills in 1972 and She Is a Song in 1973.
31/08/1948
Harald Ertl, Austrian race car driver and journalist (died 1982)
Harald Ertl was an Austrian racing driver and motorsport journalist. He was born in Zell am See and attended the same school as Grand Prix drivers Jochen Rindt, Helmut Marko and Niki Lauda.
Lowell Ganz, American screenwriter and producer
Lowell Ganz is an American writer and producer. He is the long-time writing partner of Babaloo Mandel and has written for television, film, and theatre.
Ken McMullen, English director, producer, and screenwriter
Ken McMullen is a film director, artist and since 2012 Anniversary Professor of Film Studies at Kingston University, London. McMullen's films are grounded in philosophy, history, psychoanalysis and literature. McMullen's exhibition Signatures of the Invisible brought together artists and scientists working at CERN, the European particle physics facility near Geneva. His other work includes filming conversations with physicists at Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre, which he describes as "making a diary of the transition in human culture" because he believes physics is arriving at another shifting point. His latest work Arrows of Time is a radical new form of cinema consisting of 40 interchangeable elements that deal with literature, philosophy, and contemporary physics, premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco in April 2007.
Holger Osieck, German footballer and manager
Holger Osieck is a German football manager who last managed the Australia national team. Prior to the Australian role, he most recently managed J. League club Urawa Red Diamonds, where he won the 2007 AFC Champions League. He served as an assistant coach of the West Germany national football team when they won the 1990 FIFA World Cup. He also led Canada in winning the 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Rudolf Schenker, German guitarist and songwriter
Rudolf Schenker is a German guitarist and songwriter, best known as the founder and leader of the hard rock band Scorpions. He is the rhythm and lead guitarist, primary songwriter and the sole constant member of the band. He is also the CEO/owner-manager of the Scorpions Musik-Produktions-und Verlagsgesellschaft mbH and owner/founder of the Scorpio-Sound-Studios in Lower Saxony. He is the older brother of Michael Schenker.
31/08/1947
Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Italian businessman
Luca Cordero di Montezemolo is an Italian businessman and motorsport executive who is best known as the former chairman of Ferrari, Fiat S.p.A., Confindustria and Alitalia.
Yumiko Ōshima, Japanese author and illustrator
Yumiko Ōshima is a Japanese manga artist and is associated with the Year 24 group that heavily influenced the development of shōjo manga in the 1970s.
Somchai Wongsawat, Thai lawyer and politician, 26th Prime Minister of Thailand
Somchai Wongsawat is a Thai politician who served as the 26th prime minister of Thailand in 2008. He is a former executive member of the People's Power Party (PPP) whose political rights were disenfranchised by the Constitutional Court for five years.
31/08/1946
Ann Coffey, Scottish social worker and politician
Margaret Ann Coffey is a British former politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Stockport from 1992 to 2019. A former member of the Labour Party, she defected to form Change UK.
Jerome Corsi, American conspiracy theorist and author
Jerome Robert Corsi is an American conspiracy theorist and author. His two New York Times best-selling books, Unfit for Command (2004) and The Obama Nation (2008), attacked Democratic presidential candidates and have been criticized for inaccuracies.
Tom Coughlin, American football player and coach
Thomas Richard Coughlin is an American former football coach and executive of the National Football League (NFL). He was the head coach for the New York Giants from 2004 to 2015. He led the Giants to victory in Super Bowl XLII and Super Bowl XLVI, both times against the New England Patriots. Coughlin was also the inaugural head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, serving from 1995 to 2002 and leading the team to two AFC Championship Game appearances. Prior to his head coaching career in the NFL, he was head coach of the Boston College Eagles football team from 1991 to 1993, and served in a variety of coaching positions in the NFL as well as coaching and administrative positions in college football.
31/08/1945
Van Morrison, Northern Irish singer-songwriter
Sir George Ivan "Van" Morrison is a Northern Irish musician, singer, and songwriter whose recording career started in the 1960s. Morrison's albums have performed well in the UK and Ireland, with more than 40 reaching the UK Top 40, as well as internationally, including in Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Itzhak Perlman, Israeli-American violinist and conductor
Itzhak Perlman is an Israeli-American violinist. He has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that have included a state dinner for Elizabeth II at the White House in 2007, and at the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama. He has conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Westchester Philharmonic. In 2015, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Perlman has won 16 Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and four Emmy Awards.
Bob Welch, American singer and guitarist (died 2012)
Robert Lawrence Welch Jr. was an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter who was a member of Fleetwood Mac from 1971 to 1974. He had a successful solo career in the late 1970s. His singles included "Hot Love, Cold World", "Ebony Eyes", "Precious Love", "Hypnotized", and his signature song, "Sentimental Lady".
31/08/1944
Roger Dean, English illustrator and publisher
William Roger Dean is an English artist, designer, and publisher. He began painting posters and album covers for musicians in the late 1960s, most notably the English rock bands Yes and Asia.
Liz Forgan, English journalist
Dame Elizabeth Anne Lucy Forgan, known as Liz Forgan, is an English journalist, and radio and television executive.
Christine King, English historian and academic
Christine Elizabeth King, CBE, FRHistS, DL is a British historian and university administrator. She was Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Staffordshire University from 1995 to 2011.
Clive Lloyd, Guyanese cricketer
Sir Clive Hubert Lloyd is a Guyanese-British former cricketer and captain of the West Indies cricket team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest captains of all time, Lloyd captained the West Indies between 1974 and 1985 and oversaw their rise to become among the greatest Test and One Day International teams of the 20th century. During his captaincy, West Indies won the 1975 Cricket World Cup and 1979 Cricket World Cup, while losing the 1983 Cricket World Cup final to India. He is also one of the most successful Test captains of all time: during his captaincy the team had a run of 27 matches without defeat, which included 11 wins in succession. He was the first West Indian player to earn 100 international caps. In 1971, he was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
31/08/1943
Leonid Ivashov, Russian general
Leonid Grigoryevich Ivashov is a Russian military and public official. He is a former President of the Academy for Geopolitical Problems and a retired colonel general.
31/08/1942
Isao Aoki, Japanese golfer
Isao Aoki is a Japanese professional golfer. He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2004.
31/08/1941
William DeWitt, Jr., American businessman
William Orville DeWitt Jr. is an American businessman who is currently the principal owner, managing partner and chairman of the St. Louis Cardinals, a professional baseball franchise which competes in Major League Baseball (MLB). The Cardinals have won two World Series — in 2006 and 2011 — during DeWitt's time as owner. In addition to the Cardinals, DeWitt has also owned or invested in the Cincinnati Stingers hockey club, Baltimore Orioles, the Cincinnati Reds and the Texas Rangers. Business interests outside baseball include Reynolds, DeWitt & Co., which owns Arby's franchises and invests in the U.S. Playing Card Company and the petroleum company Spectrum 7.
Emmanuel Nunes, Portuguese-French composer and educator (died 2012)
Emmanuel Nunes was a Portuguese composer who lived and worked in Paris from 1964.
31/08/1940
Robbie Basho, American guitarist, pianist, and composer (died 1986)
Robbie Basho was an American acoustic guitarist, pianist and singer.
Wilton Felder, American saxophonist and bass player (died 2015)
Wilton Lewis Felder was an American saxophone and bass player, and is best known as a founding member of the Jazz Crusaders, later known as the Crusaders. Felder played bass on the Jackson 5's hits "I Want You Back" (1969) and "ABC" (1970) and on Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" (1973).
Larry Hankin, American actor, director, and producer
Lawrence Alan Hankin is an American character actor. He has had major film roles as Charley Butts in Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Ace in Running Scared (1986), and Carl Alphonse in Billy Madison (1995). He had smaller roles as Doobby in Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), Sergeant Larry Balzak in Home Alone (1990), Mr. Heckles in Friends, and Joe in Breaking Bad and El Camino.
Roger Newman, English-American actor and screenwriter (died 2010)
Roger Newman was a British born-American soap opera actor and writer. He was born in London, and died in New York City.
Jack Thompson, Australian actor
John Hadley Thompson, AM is an Australian actor and a major figure of Australian cinema, particularly Australian New Wave. He is best known for his role as a lead actor in several acclaimed Australian films, including such classics as The Club (1980), Sunday Too Far Away (1975), The Man from Snowy River (1982) and Petersen (1974). He won Cannes and AFI acting awards for the latter film.
31/08/1939
Jerry Allison, American drummer and songwriter (died 2022)
Jerry Ivan Allison was an American musician. He was best known as the drummer and only constant member of the Crickets and co-writer of their hits "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue", recorded with Buddy Holly. He had a solo chart entry on the Billboard Hot 100, "Real Wild Child", which was issued in 1958 under the name Ivan. Allison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.
31/08/1938
Martin Bell, English journalist and politician
Martin Bell, is a British UNICEF Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and former independent politician who became the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton from 1997 to 2001. He is sometimes known as "the man in the white suit".
31/08/1937
Warren Berlinger, American actor (died 2020)
Warren Berlinger was an American character actor, with Broadway runs, movie and television credits, and much work in commercials.
Bobby Parker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2013)
Robert Lee Parker was an American blues-rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is best known for his 1961 song "Watch Your Step", a single for the V-Tone record label which reached the Billboard Hot 100; the song was performed by, and influenced, the Beatles among others.
31/08/1936
Vladimir Orlov, Russian journalist and author (died 2014)
Vladimir Viktorovich Orlov was a Russian novelist, notable for his fantasy novel Danilov, the Violist.
31/08/1935
Eldridge Cleaver, American activist and author (died 1998)
Leroy Eldridge Cleaver was an African American writer and political activist, fashion designer, convicted rapist and an early leader of the Black Panther Party serving as Minister of Information, and while in exile, Head of the International Section of the Panthers. As editor of the official Panthers' newspaper, The Black Panther, Cleaver's influence on the direction of the party was rivaled only by founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.
Bryan Organ, English painter
Bryan Organ is a British artist considered one of the leading and most innovative English portrait painters of the 20th century. His paintings have included portraits of prominent public figures and of members of the British royal family. Organ is also known for landscape paintings, such as St Pancras Station, and lithographic studies of animals (Tate). London's National Portrait Gallery holds a total of sixteen of his portraits of which six were commissioned by the Gallery's Trustees.
Frank Robinson, American baseball player and manager (died 2019)
Frank Robinson, nicknamed "the Judge", was an American professional baseball outfielder and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for five teams over 21 seasons: the Cincinnati Reds (1956–1965), Baltimore Orioles (1966–1971), Los Angeles Dodgers (1972), California Angels (1973–1974), and Cleveland Indians (1974–1976). In 1975, Robinson became the first Black manager in big-league history, as the player-manager of the Indians.
31/08/1932
Allan Fotheringham, Canadian journalist (died 2020)
Allan Fotheringham was a Canadian newspaper and magazine journalist. He styled himself Dr. Foth and "the Great Gatheringfroth". He was described as "never at a loss for words".
Roy Castle, English dancer, singer, comedian, actor, television presenter and musician (died 1994)
Roy Castle was an English dancer, singer, comedian, actor, television presenter and musician. An accomplished jazz trumpet player, he could also play many other instruments. In a career as a versatile performer on stage, television and film, he became best known to British television viewers as long-running presenter of the children's series Record Breakers.
31/08/1931
Jean Béliveau, Canadian ice hockey player (died 2014)
Joseph Arthur Jean Béliveau was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played parts of 20 seasons with the National Hockey League's (NHL) Montreal Canadiens from 1950 to 1971. Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972, "Le Gros Bill" Béliveau is widely regarded as one of the ten greatest NHL players of all time. Born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Béliveau first played professionally in the Quebec Major Hockey League (QMHL). He made his NHL debut with the Canadiens in 1950, but chose to remain in the QMHL full-time until 1953. From 1950 to 1971, he spent his entire NHL career with the Canadiens.
Rolf Just Nilsen, Norwegian singer and actor (died 1981)
Rolf Just Nilsen was a Norwegian singer, impressionist and actor. He was particularly known for his imitations of famous comedians at the time. He worked for the theatres Studioteatret, Chat Noir, Edderkoppen Theatre, Oslo Nye Teater and Det Norske Teatret, and for radio and television.
Noble Willingham, American actor (died 2004)
Noble Henry Willingham, Jr. was an American actor who appeared in more than thirty films and in many television shows, including a stint opposite Chuck Norris in Walker, Texas Ranger.
31/08/1930
Big Tiny Little, American pianist (died 2010)
Dudley "Big Tiny" Little, Jr. was an American musician who appeared on The Lawrence Welk Show from 1955 to 1959. His primary instrument was the piano.
31/08/1928
James Coburn, American actor (died 2002)
James Harrison Coburn III was an American actor who featured in more than 70 films, largely action roles, and made 100 television appearances during a 45-year career.
Jaime Sin, Filipino cardinal (died 2005)
Jaime Lachica Sin was a Filipino Catholic prelate who served as the 30th archbishop of Manila from 1974 until his retirement in 2003. He was elevated to the rank of cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1976.
31/08/1925
Ted Blakey, American historian, activist, and businessman (died 2004)
Theodore Robert Blakey was an American historian, businessman, and activist. He was instrumental in the civil rights movement in South Dakota and was leader of the committee that helped the state ratify the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Blakey was among the first African American leaders of Junior Chamber International, Kiwanis, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He was named the state's black historian in 1995 and was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in 1997.
Moran Campbell, English-Canadian physician and academic, invented the venturi mask (died 2004)
Edward James Moran Campbell, was a Canadian physician. He was the founding Chair of the Department of Medicine at McMaster Faculty of Health Sciences from 1968 to 1975. He was also the inventor of the Venturi mask.
Maurice Pialat, French actor and director (died 2003)
Maurice Pialat was a French film director, screenwriter and actor known for the rigorous and unsentimental style of his films. His work is often described as "realist", though many film critics acknowledge it does not fit the traditional definition of realism.
31/08/1924
John Davidson, American physician and politician (died 2012)
John A. Davidson was an American politician and practicing chiroprater.
Buddy Hackett, American actor and singer (died 2003)
Buddy Hackett was an American comedian and comic actor. Known for his raunchy material, heavy appearance and thick New York City accent, his notable roles include Marcellus Washburn in The Music Man (1962), Benjy Benjamin in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Tennessee Steinmetz in The Love Bug (1968) and the voice of Scuttle in The Little Mermaid (1989). He was also a frequent guest on TV game shows and variety shows.
Herbert Wise, Austrian-English director and producer (died 2015)
Herbert Wise was an Austrian-born film and television producer and director.
31/08/1921
Otis G. Pike, American judge and politician (died 2014)
Otis Grey Pike was an American lawyer and politician who served nine terms as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from New York, from 1961 to 1979.
Raymond Williams, Welsh author and academic (died 1988)
Raymond Henry Williams was a Welsh socialist writer, academic, novelist and critic influential within the New Left and in wider culture. His writings on politics, culture, the media and literature contributed to the Marxist critique of culture and the arts. Some 750,000 copies of his books were sold in UK editions alone, and there are many translations available. His work laid foundations for the field of cultural studies and cultural materialism.
31/08/1919
Amrita Pritam, Indian poet and author (died 2005)
Amrita Pritam was an Indian novelist, essayist and poet, who wrote in Punjabi and Hindi. A prominent figure in Punjabi literature, she is the recipient of the 1956 Sahitya Akademi Award. Her body of work comprised over 100 books of poetry, fiction, biographies, essays, a collection of Punjabi folk songs and an autobiography that were all translated into several Indian and foreign languages.
31/08/1918
Alan Jay Lerner, American songwriter and composer (died 1986)
Alan Jay Lerner was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, and later Burton Lane, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre both for the stage and on film. Lerner won three Tony Awards and three Academy Awards, among other honors.
31/08/1916
Danny Litwhiler, American baseball player and coach (died 2011)
Daniel Webster Litwhiler was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder from 1940 to 1951 for the Boston Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, and Cincinnati Reds. He was the first Major League Baseball player to have an error-free season while playing a full-time position on defense. That same season, 1942, he also became the first player to stitch together the fingers of his glove. After his playing career, he continued to work in baseball as a coach in college sports.
Daniel Schorr, American journalist and author (died 2010)
Daniel Louis Schorr was an American journalist who covered world news for more than 60 years. He was most recently a Senior News Analyst for National Public Radio (NPR). Schorr won three Emmy Awards for his television journalism.
John S. Wold, American geologist and politician (died 2017)
John Schiller Wold was an American business executive, philanthropist, World War II veteran, and Republican politician from Wyoming. He served a single term in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1971. He was the first professional geologist to have served in Congress.
31/08/1915
Pete Newell, American basketball player and coach (died 2008)
Peter Francis Newell was an American college men's basketball coach and basketball instructional coach. He coached for 15 years at the University of San Francisco, Michigan State University, and the University of California, Berkeley, compiling an overall record of 234 wins and 123 losses.
31/08/1914
Richard Basehart, American actor (died 1984)
John Richard Basehart was an American actor. Known for his "deep, resonant baritone voice and craggy good looks," he was active in film, theatre and television from 1947 until 1983. He won two National Board of Review Awards, for his performances in Fourteen Hours (1951) and Moby Dick (1956), and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Time Limit (1957).
31/08/1913
Helen Levitt, American photographer and cinematographer (died 2009)
Helen Levitt was an American photographer and cinematographer. She was particularly noted for her street photography around New York City. David Levi Strauss described her as "the most celebrated and least known photographer of her time."
Bernard Lovell, English physicist and astronomer (died 2012)
Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell was an English physicist and radio astronomer. He was the first director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, from 1945 to 1980.
31/08/1911
Edward Brongersma, Dutch journalist and politician (died 1998)
Edward Brongersma was a Dutch politician and doctor of law. For a number of years he was a member of the Dutch Senate for the Labour Party, and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He was primarily known for pedophilia advocacy and as an advocate of more lax legislation on public morality.
Arsenio Rodríguez, Cuban-American tres player, composer, and bandleader (died 1970)
Arsenio Rodríguez was a Cuban musician, composer and bandleader. He played the tres, as well as the tumbadora, and he specialized in son, rumba and other Afro-Cuban music styles. In the 1940s and 1950s Rodríguez established the conjunto format and contributed to the development of the son montuno, the basic template of modern-day salsa. He claimed to be the true creator of the mambo and was an important as well as a prolific composer who wrote nearly two hundred songs.
31/08/1909
Ferenc Fejtő, Hungarian-French journalist and political scientist (died 2008)
Ferenc Fejtő, also known as François Fejtő, was a Hungarian-born French journalist and political scientist specializing in Eastern Europe.
31/08/1908
William Saroyan, American novelist, playwright, and short story writer (died 1981)
William Saroyan was an American novelist, playwright, and short story writer of Armenian descent. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film The Human Comedy. When the studio rejected his original 240-page treatment, he turned it into a novel, The Human Comedy.
31/08/1907
Valter Biiber, Estonian footballer (died 1977)
Valter Biiber was an Estonian football player.
Augustus F. Hawkins, American lawyer and politician (died 2007)
Augustus Freeman Hawkins was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served in the California State Assembly from 1935 to 1963 and the U.S. House of Representatives from 1963 to 1991. Over the course of his career, Hawkins authored more than 300 state and federal laws, the most famous of which are Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1978 Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act. He was known as the "silent warrior" for his commitment to education and ending unemployment.
Ramon Magsaysay, Filipino captain, engineer, and politician, 7th President of the Philippines (died 1957)
Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay Sr. was a Filipino politician and military officer who was the seventh president of the Philippines, serving from 1953 until his death in 1957. An automobile mechanic by profession, Magsaysay was appointed military governor of Zambales after his outstanding service as a guerrilla leader during the Pacific War. He then served two terms as Liberal Party congressman for Zambales's at-large district before being appointed Secretary of National Defense by President Elpidio Quirino. He was eventually elected as president under the banner of the Nacionalista Party, the youngest to be elected to the position, and second youngest overall. He was the first Philippine president born in the 20th century and the first to be born after the Spanish colonial era. Magsaysay died in a plane crash on March 17, 1957, in Cebu. His successor, Carlos P. Garcia, assumed the presidency. He is the most recent Philippine president to have died in office.
William Shawn, American journalist (died 1992)
William Shawn was an American magazine editor who edited The New Yorker from 1952 until 1987.
Altiero Spinelli, Italian theorist and politician (died 1986)
Altiero Spinelli was an Italian politician, political theorist and European federalist, referred to as one of the founding fathers of the European Union. A communist and militant anti-fascist in his youth, Spinelli spent 10 years imprisoned by the Italian fascist regime. Having grown disillusioned with Stalinism, he broke with the Communist Party of Italy in 1937. Interned in Ventotene during World War II, he, along with fellow democratic socialists, drafted the manifesto For a Free and United Europe in 1941, considered a precursor of the European integration process.
31/08/1905
Robert Bacher, American physicist and academic (died 2004)
Robert Fox Bacher was an American nuclear physicist and one of the leaders of the Manhattan Project. Born in Loudonville, Ohio, Bacher obtained his undergraduate degree and doctorate from the University of Michigan, writing his 1930 doctoral thesis under the supervision of Samuel Goudsmit on the Zeeman effect of the hyperfine structure of atomic levels. After graduate work at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he accepted a job at Columbia University. In 1935 he accepted an offer from Hans Bethe to work with him at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. It was there that Bacher collaborated with Bethe on his book Nuclear Physics. A: Stationary States of Nuclei (1936), the first of three books that would become known as the "Bethe Bible".
Sanford Meisner, American actor and educator (died 1997)
Sanford Meisner was an American actor and acting teacher who developed an approach to acting instruction that is now known as the Meisner technique. While Meisner was exposed to method acting at the Group Theatre, his approach differed markedly in that he completely abandoned the use of affective memory, a distinct characteristic of method acting. Meisner maintained an emphasis on "the reality of doing", which was the foundation of his approach.
31/08/1903
Arthur Godfrey, American radio and television host (died 1983)
Arthur Morton Godfrey was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer. At the peak of his success, in the early to mid-1950s, Godfrey was heard on radio and seen on television up to six days a week, at times for as many as nine separate broadcasts for CBS. His programs included Arthur Godfrey Time, Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, Arthur Godfrey and His Friends, The Arthur Godfrey Digest and King Arthur Godfrey and His Round Table.
Vladimir Jankélévitch, French musicologist and philosopher (died 1985)
Vladimir Jankélévitch was a French philosopher and musicologist.
31/08/1902
Géza Révész, Hungarian general and politician, Hungarian Minister of Defence (died 1977)
Géza Révész was a Hungarian military officer and politician, who served as Minister of Defence between 1957 and 1960. During the Hungarian Soviet Republic and the Second World War he fought in the Red Army. From 1960 to 1963 he was the Hungarian ambassador to the Soviet Union.
31/08/1900
Gino Lucetti, Italian anarchist, attempted assassin of Benito Mussolini (died 1943)
Gino Lucetti was an Italian anarchist and anti-fascist who attempted to assassinate the Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in 1926.
31/08/1897
Fredric March, American actor (died 1975)
Fredric March was an American actor, regarded as one of Hollywood's most celebrated stars of the 1930s and 1940s. As a performer he was known for his versatility. He received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, two Tony Awards, two Volpi Cups, the Silver Bear, as well as nominations for three BAFTA Awards and three Emmy Awards.
31/08/1896
Brian Edmund Baker, English Air Marshal (died 1979)
Air Marshal Sir Brian Edmund Baker was an officer of the Royal Air Force who served in both World Wars. He was a flying ace in World War I credited, in conjunction with his gunners, with twelve victories, comprising one enemy aircraft captured, four destroyed, and seven "out of control".
Félix-Antoine Savard, Canadian priest and author (died 1982)
Félix-Antoine Savard, was a Canadian priest, academic, poet, novelist and folklorist.
31/08/1894
Albert Facey, Australian soldier and author (died 1982)
Albert Barnett Facey, publishing as A. B. Facey, was an Australian writer and World War I veteran, whose main work was his autobiography, A Fortunate Life, now considered a classic of Australian literature. As of 2020, it has sold over one million copies and was the subject of a television mini-series.
31/08/1893
Lily Laskine, French harp player (died 1988)
Lily Laskine was one of the most prominent harpists of the twentieth century who was born and died in Paris. Born Lily Aimée Laskine to Jewish parents in Paris, she studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Alphonse Hasselmans and became a frequent performing partner of several distinguished French flautists, including Marcel Moyse and Jean-Pierre Rampal. Laskine also served as professor of harp at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1948 to 1958. She was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1958. She died in Paris.
31/08/1890
August Alle, Estonian poet and author (died 1952)
August Alle was an Estonian writer.
Nätti-Jussi, Finnish lumberjack and forest laborer (died 1964)
Juho Vihtori Nätti, known as "Nätti-Jussi" was a Finnish forest laborer. The stories told by Nätti made him a legendary figure, particularly in Lapland. Nätti was born to a six-member family in Karstula, Central Finland, in August 1890. His parents were log driver Juho Nätti and hostess Maija Nätti. He had three sisters. Nätti migrated with other members of his family to the Northern logging sites, and worked there for most of his life. He was a well-known lumberjack who was known in Tervola, Pisa, Muurola and Rovaniemi.
31/08/1885
DuBose Heyward, American author and playwright (died 1940)
Edwin DuBose Heyward was an American author best known for his 1925 novel Porgy. He and his wife Dorothy, a playwright, adapted it as a 1927 play of the same name. The couple worked with composer George Gershwin to adapt the work as the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. It was later adapted as a 1959 film of the same name.
31/08/1884
George Sarton, Belgian-American historian of science (died 1956)
George Alfred Leon Sarton was a Belgian-American chemist and historian. He is considered the founder of the discipline of the history of science as an independent field of study. His most influential works were the Introduction to the History of Science, which consists of three volumes and 4,296 pages, and the journal Isis. Sarton ultimately aimed to achieve an integrated philosophy of science that provided a connection between the sciences and the humanities, which he referred to as "the new humanism".
31/08/1880
Wilhelmina, queen of the Netherlands (died 1962)
Wilhelmina was Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 until her abdication in 1948. She reigned for nearly 58 years, making her the longest-reigning monarch in Dutch history, as well as the longest-reigning female monarch outside of the United Kingdom. Her reign encompassed World War I, the Dutch economic crisis of 1933, and World War II.
31/08/1879
Alma Mahler, Austrian-American composer and author (died 1964)
Alma Mahler-Werfel was an Austrian composer, author, editor, and socialite. Musically active from her early years, she was the composer of nearly fifty songs for voice and piano, and works in other genres as well. 17 songs are known to have survived. At 15, she was mentored by Max Burckhard.
Taishō, Emperor of Japan (died 1926)
Emperor Taishō was Emperor of Japan from 29 July 1912 until his death in 1926. His reign was marked by a domestic political shift toward liberal democracy, called Taishō democracy. He oversaw Japan's participation in World War I on the side of the Allies, the Spanish flu epidemic, and the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923. His poor health limited his public duties and contributed to his death at age 47.
31/08/1878
Frank Jarvis, American sprinter and lawyer (died 1933)
Frank Washington Jarvis was an American sprinter, the 1900 Olympic 100 m champion, and a triple jumper.
31/08/1875
Rosa Lemberg, Namibian-born Finnish American teacher, singer and choral conductor (died 1959)
Rosa Emilia Lemberg was a Namibian-born Finnish American teacher, singer and choral conductor. She was the first African-born person in Finland to officially receive Finnish citizenship. She was also a significant influence in the Finnish-American labor movement of the first half of the 20th century.
31/08/1871
James E. Ferguson, American banker and politician, 26th Governor of Texas (died 1944)
James Edward Ferguson Jr., known as Pa Ferguson, was an American Democratic politician and the 26th governor of Texas, in office from 1915 to 1917. He was indicted and impeached during his second term, removed from office, and barred from holding further Texas office.
31/08/1870
Maria Montessori, Italian physician and educator (died 1952)
Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori was an Italian physician and educator best known for her philosophy of education and her writing on scientific pedagogy. At an early age, Montessori enrolled in classes at an all-boys technical school, with hopes of becoming an engineer. She soon had a change of heart and began medical school at the Sapienza University of Rome, becoming one of the first women to attend medical school in Italy; she graduated with honors in 1896. Her educational method is in use globally in many public and private schools.
31/08/1843
Georg von Hertling, German academic and politician, 7th Chancellor of the German Empire (died 1919)
Georg Friedrich Karl Freiherr von Hertling, from 1914 Count von Hertling, was a German politician of the Catholic Centre Party. He was foreign minister and minister president of Bavaria, then imperial chancellor of the German Reich and minister president of Prussia from 1 November 1917 to 30 September 1918. He was the first party politician to hold the two offices; all of his predecessors were career civil servants or military men.
31/08/1842
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, American journalist, publisher, and activist (died 1924)
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin was a publisher, journalist, civil rights leader, suffragist, abolitionist, and editor of the Woman's Era, the first national newspaper published by and for African American women.
31/08/1834
Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer and educator (died 1886)
Amilcare Ponchielli was an Italian opera composer, best known for his opera La Gioconda. He was married to the soprano Teresina Brambilla.
31/08/1823
Galusha A. Grow, American lawyer and politician, 28th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (died 1907)
Galusha Aaron Grow was the 24th speaker of the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1861 to 1863. Elected as a Democrat in the 1850 congressional elections, he switched to the newly organized Republican Party in the mid-1850s when the Democratic Party tried to force the extension of slavery into western territories.
31/08/1821
Hermann von Helmholtz, German physician and physicist (died 1894)
Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz was a German physicist and physician who made significant contributions in several scientific fields, particularly hydrodynamic stability. The Helmholtz Association, the largest German association of research institutions, was named in his honour.
31/08/1811
Théophile Gautier, French poet and critic (died 1872)
Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic.
31/08/1802
Husein Gradaščević, Ottoman general (died 1834)
Husein Gradaščević (Husein-kapetan), also known as Zmaj od Bosne, was an Ottoman Bosnian military commander who led an uprising against the Tanzimat, a system of political reforms with aim to modernise the Ottoman Empire. Born into a Bosnian noble family, Gradaščević became the captain of Gradačac in the early 1820s, succeeding his relatives in the position. He grew up surrounded by a political climate of turmoil in the western reaches of the Ottoman Empire. With the Russo-Turkish war (1828–29), Gradaščević's importance rose; the Bosnian governor gave him the task of mobilising an army between the Drina and Vrbas.
31/08/1797
Ramón Castilla, Peruvian military leader and politician, President of Peru (died 1867)
Ramón Castilla y Marquesado was a Peruvian caudillo who served twice as President of Peru, first in 1845–1851, and then in 1855–1862. He also led a Military junta in 1844, and was interim president for a couple of days in April 1863. His earliest prominent appearance in Peruvian history began with his participation in a commanding role of the army of the Libertadores that helped Peru become an independent nation. Later, he led the country when the economy boomed due to the exploitation of guano deposits. Castilla's governments are remembered for having abolished slavery and modernized the state.
Stephen Geary, English architect, inventor and entrepreneur (died 1854)
Stephen Geary was a British architect, inventor, entrepreneur, and, from 1850, Temperance activist.
31/08/1775
Agnes Bulmer, English poet and author (died 1836)
Agnes Bulmer was an English poet. Her work Messiah's Kingdom is thought to be the longest epic poem ever written by a woman, and took over nine years to complete.
31/08/1767
Henry Joy McCracken, Irish businessman and activist, founded the Society of United Irishmen (died 1798)
Henry Joy McCracken was an Irish republican executed in Belfast for his part in leading United Irishmen in the Rebellion of 1798. Convinced that the cause of representative government in Ireland could not be advanced under the British Crown, McCracken had sought to forge a revolutionary union between his fellow Presbyterians in Ulster and the country's largely dispossessed Catholic majority. In June 1798, following reports of risings in Leinster, he seized the initiative from a leadership that hesitated to act without French assistance and led a rebel force against a British garrison in Antrim Town. Defeated, he was returned to Belfast where he was court-martialled and hanged.
31/08/1748
Jean-Étienne Despréaux, French ballet dancer, choreographer, composer, and playwright (died 1820)
Jean-Étienne Despréaux was a French ballet dancer, choreographer, composer, singer and playwright.
31/08/1741
Jean-Paul-Égide Martini, French composer and educator (died 1816)
Jean-Paul-Égide Martini, also known as Jean-Paul-Gilles Martini was a French composer of German birth during the classical period. He is best known today for the vocal romance "Plaisir d'amour," on which the 1961 Elvis Presley pop standard "Can't Help Falling in Love" is based. He is often confused with the Italian composer Giovanni Battista Martini, so is sometimes known as Martini Il Tedesco.
31/08/1721
George Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (died 1775)
George William Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol was an English diplomat and politician who was the eldest son of John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey, by his marriage with Mary Hervey.
31/08/1663
Guillaume Amontons, French physicist and instrument maker (died 1705)
Guillaume Amontons was a French scientific instrument inventor and physicist. He was one of the pioneers in studying the problem of friction, which is the resistance to motion when bodies make contact. He is also known for his work on thermodynamics, the concept of absolute zero, and early engine design.
31/08/1652
Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga, Italian nobleman (died 1708)
Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga was the only child of Duke Charles II of Mantua and Montferrat, and the last ruler of the Duchy of Mantua of the House of Gonzaga.
31/08/1569
Jahangir, Mughal emperor (died 1627)
Nur ud-din Muhammad Salim, known by his royal name Jahangir, was the fourth emperor of the Mughal Empire, reigning from 1605 until his death in 1627.
31/08/1542
Isabella de' Medici, Italian princess (died 1576)
Princess Isabella Romola de' Medici, Duchess of Bracciano was a Tuscan noblewoman and the daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, first Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Eleanor of Toledo. Beautiful, intelligent, witty and refined, she was referred to as the Star of the House of Medici, in recognition of "her playfulness, vibrancy, often sarcastic sense of humour, sharpness and interest in a huge variety of topics - not to mention the great parties she held". Isabella de' Medici's influence on Renaissance Florence, through her patronage of the arts, political activities, and notable personal qualities, marks her as a significant figure within the Medici court of Grand Duke Cosimo I.
31/08/1168
Zhang Zong, Chinese emperor (died 1208)
Emperor Zhangzong of Jin, personal name Madage, sinicized name Wanyan Jing, was the sixth emperor of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty of China. He reigned from 20 January 1189 to 29 December 1208.
31/08/1018
Jeongjong II, Korean ruler (died 1046)
Jeongjong, personal name Wang Hyŏng, was the 10th king of Korea's Goryeo dynasty. He was the second son of King Hyeonjong, and the younger brother of King Deokjong. At the age of four in 1022, he was made Naesaryeong, a position of high rank, and designated the Prince of Pyongyang.
31/08/0161
Commodus, Roman emperor (died 192)
Commodus was Roman emperor from 177 to 192, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father Marcus Aurelius and then ruling alone from 180. Commodus's sole reign is commonly thought to mark the end of the Pax Romana, a golden age of peace and prosperity in the history of the Roman Empire.
31/08/0012
Caligula, Roman emperor (died 41)
AD 12 (XII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Caesar and Capito. The denomination AD 12 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.