18th December — International Migrants Day & World Arabic Language Day

On this day, 217 notable people were born on 18th December — spanning from 1406 to 2002. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

18/12/2002

Syd Hartha, Filipino singer-songwriter

Sonia del Rosario, known professionally as Syd Hartha, is a Filipino singer-songwriter. She released her debut extended play (EP) Gabay, released on March 22, 2023, which features the tracks "Kung Nag-aatubili" and "3:15". She is currently signed under Sony Music Philippines.

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Giuliano Simeone, Argentine footballer

Giuliano Simeone Baldini is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a winger for La Liga club Atlético Madrid and the Argentina national team.

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18/12/2001

Billie Eilish, American singer

Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her distinctive musical sound and vocal style, Eilish is a prominent figure in 2020s pop culture. She first gained public attention in 2015 with her debut single "Ocean Eyes" which was released on SoundCloud and written and produced by her brother Finneas O'Connell. In 2017, she released her debut EP, Don't Smile at Me, which was commercially successful in various countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

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Jalen Johnson, American basketball player

Jalen Tyrese Johnson is an American professional basketball player for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA), with whom he has been selected to one All-Star game to date. He played college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils. Johnson was a consensus five-star recruit and one of the best forwards in the 2020 class. He finished his high school career at Nicolet High School in Glendale, Wisconsin.

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18/12/2000

Jayden Daniels, American football player

Jayden Daniels is an American professional football quarterback for the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). Daniels played three seasons of college football for the Arizona State Sun Devils and two with the LSU Tigers. With LSU in 2023, he won the Heisman Trophy among other awards after leading the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) in total yards and setting its single-season passer rating record.

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Korapat Kirdpan, Thai actor and singer

Korapat Kirdpan, nicknamed Nanon, is a Thai actor and singer. He began his career as a child actor and has appeared in numerous television dramas and series. Korapat is known for his roles in productions such as Senior Secret Love (2016), My Dear Loser (2017), The Gifted (2018), Blacklist (2019), The Gifted: Graduation (2020), Bad Buddy Series (2021), and The Jungle (2023).

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Travon Walker, American football player

Yury Travon Walker is an American professional football defensive end for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Georgia Bulldogs, winning the 2022 National Championship prior to being selected first overall by the Jaguars in the 2022 NFL draft.

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18/12/1997

Ronald Acuña Jr., Venezuelan baseball player

Ronald José Acuña Blanco Jr. is a Venezuelan professional baseball outfielder for the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball (MLB). After signing with the Braves as an international free agent in 2014, Acuña made his MLB debut in 2018, and won the National League Rookie of the Year Award.

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Alex DeBrincat, American ice hockey player

Alexander Lloyd DeBrincat is an American professional ice hockey player who is a winger for the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected by the Chicago Blackhawks in the second round, 39th overall, of the 2016 NHL entry draft. He has previously played for the Blackhawks and the Ottawa Senators.

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18/12/1995

Barbora Krejčíková, Czech tennis player

Barbora Krejčíková is a Czech professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 2 in singles and world No. 1 in doubles by the WTA. Krejčíková has won eight singles, 20 doubles, and three mixed doubles titles at the WTA Tour level. She is known for her aggressive playing style and her smooth, powerful groundstrokes.

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Lim Na-young, South Korean singer and actress

Lim Na-young is a South Korean actress, singer and rapper. She was best known for finishing tenth in Mnet's reality survival show Produce 101. She is a former member and leader of the South Korean girl groups I.O.I and Pristin.

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18/12/1994

Gerard Gumbau, Spanish footballer

Gerard Gumbau Garriga is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a defensive or central midfielder for Rayo Vallecano, on loan from Granada CF.

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Natália Kelly, American-Austrian singer

Natália Kelly is an American-Austrian singer. She currently resides in Bad Vöslau, Lower Austria. Kelly represented Austria at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden, with the song "Shine".

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18/12/1993

Byron Buxton, American baseball player

Byron Keiron Buxton is an American professional baseball center fielder and designated hitter for the Minnesota Twins of Major League Baseball (MLB). Buxton was considered by some baseball analysts to be the most talented player available in the 2012 MLB draft, and was selected as the second overall pick. He won Baseball America's Minor League Player of the Year Award in 2013. Buxton made his MLB debut in 2015. He won the Gold Glove Award in 2017 and is a two-time MLB All-Star.

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Thomas Lam, Finnish footballer

Thomas Anton Rudolph Lam is a professional footballer who plays as a centre-back or defensive midfielder. Born in the Netherlands, he represents the Finland national team. He began his senior club career playing for AZ Alkmaar, before signing with PEC Zwolle at age 20 in 2014.

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18/12/1992

Ryan Crouser, American shot putter

Ryan Crouser is an American track and field athlete who competes in the shot put and discus. He specializes in the shot put, in which he is the only three-time Olympic gold medalist, having won in Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Paris, and also a three-time outdoor World Champion. He holds the world record in the shot put, both indoors and outdoors. He set the outdoor world record at 23.56 meters in May 2023, improving upon his previous record of 23.37 m from July 2021. He has held the indoor record of 22.82 m since January 2021.

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Bridgit Mendler, American singer-songwriter and actress

Bridgit Claire Mendler is an American entrepreneur and former actress and singer-songwriter. She first became known as a child actress and continued acting into adulthood, which overlapped with a musical career in the 2010s. After enrolling at MIT and Harvard from 2017 to 2024, she co-founded Northwood Space, a satellite data startup.

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18/12/1991

Marcus Butler, English model and YouTuber

Marcus Lloyd Butler is an English model and former YouTuber, whose channels have reached over 5.4 million subscribers. In 2015, he released an autobiographical book, titled Hello Life!. Butler co-hosted a radio show with fellow YouTuber Alfie Deyes on BBC Radio 1.

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18/12/1990

Victor Hedman, Swedish ice hockey player

Victor Erik Olof Hedman is a Swedish professional ice hockey player who is a defenceman and captain for the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League (NHL). Hedman was selected second overall by the Lightning in the 2009 NHL entry draft and made his NHL debut that year.

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Sierra Kay, American singer-songwriter

Sierra Kay Kusterbeck, better known as Sierra Kay, is an American singer-songwriter and model. She rose to prominence as the lead vocalist of the rock band VersaEmerge.

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18/12/1989

Ashley Benson, American actress and singer

Ashley Benson is an American actress and singer. Her accolades include four Teen Choice Awards, a Young Hollywood Award, as well as three People's Choice Award nominations.

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18/12/1988

Lizzie Deignan, English cyclist

Elizabeth Mary Deignan is an English track and road racing cyclist, who last rode professionally for UCI Women's WorldTeam Lidl–Trek. She was the 2015 World road race champion. She is regarded as the best British female road cyclist of her generation, scoring a total of 43 UCI race wins.

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Seth Doege, American football player

Seth Colton Doege is an American college football coach and former quarterback, who is the current offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Arizona Wildcats. After playing college football for the Texas Tech Red Raider, he was signed by the Atlanta Falcons as an undrafted free agent in 2013. On February 27, 2014, he was signed to the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League. Doege was Texas Tech's starting quarterback for the 2011 and 2012 seasons.

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Brianne Theisen-Eaton, Canadian heptathlete

Brianne Theisen-Eaton, née Theisen, is a retired Canadian track and field athlete who competed in the heptathlon and women's pentathlon. She won the bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Theisen-Eaton holds the Canadian record for the heptathlon with 6,808 points, as well as the indoor pentathlon with a score of 4768 points. Theisen-Eaton is a heptathlon silver medallist from the 2013 World Championships and 2015 World Championships, as well as a pentathlon silver medalist from the 2014 World Indoor Championships. She is the first and only Canadian woman to podium in the multi-events at the World Championships. Theisen-Eaton won Commonwealth Games gold in the heptathlon at Glasgow 2014 and was the 2016 World Indoor Champion in the pentathlon. She also won a bronze medal as part of the women's 4 x 400 m relay at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto.

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Imad Wasim, Pakistani cricketer

Syed Imad Wasim Haider, commonly known as Imad Wasim, is a Pakistani cricketer who played for Pakistan national cricket team from 2015 to 2024. He is a left-handed all-rounder. Imad is considered as a Twenty20 specialist and played for many franchises around the world. He was a key member of the Pakistan team that won the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy.

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18/12/1987

Miki Ando, Japanese figure skater

Miki Ando is a retired Japanese figure skater. She is the 2007 and 2011 World champion, 2011 Four Continents champion, 2004 World Junior champion, and a three-time Japanese national champion.

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18/12/1986

Chris Carter, American baseball player

Vernon Christopher Carter is an American professional baseball first baseman and designated hitter for the Saraperos de Saltillo of the Mexican League. He previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, and New York Yankees. In 2016, while playing for the Brewers, Carter led the National League in home runs, along with Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado, with 41.

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François Hamelin, Canadian speed skater

François Hamelin is a Canadian former short-track speed skater from Sainte-Julie, Quebec, residing in Montreal. He won Olympic gold in 2010 in Vancouver in the men's 5000 m relay.

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Usman Khawaja, Pakistani-Australian cricketer

Usman Tariq Khawaja is a former Australian international cricketer who represented the Australia national cricket team in all formats from 2011 to 2026. Khawaja still plays for and captains the Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash League. Khawaja played domestic cricket for New South Wales from 2007 to 2012, before moving to Queensland where he would later become state captain.

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18/12/1984

Brian Boyle, American ice hockey player

Brian Paul Boyle is an American former professional ice hockey center who works as an analyst for NHL Network. Boyle has previously played for the Los Angeles Kings, New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, New Jersey Devils, Nashville Predators, Florida Panthers and Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL). He attended St. Sebastian's School in Needham, Massachusetts, before moving on to Boston College. Boyle grew up in Hingham, just south of Boston.

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Paul Harrison, English footballer

Paul Anthony Harrison is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He most notably played for The New Saints, having spent 15 years with the club.

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Giuliano Razzoli, Italian skier

Giuliano Razzoli is a retired World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist from Italy. He specializes in the slalom; he won the Slalom at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

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Derrick Tribbett, American bass player and singer

Derrick Tribbett, better known by his stage names Tripp Lee and Sinister, is an American musician who is the lead vocalist of heavy metal band Twisted Method. He is the younger brother of Audiotopsy and Mudvayne lead guitarist Greg Tribbett. He is also known for his role on the reality show Daisy of Love starring former Rock of Love 2 contestant Daisy De La Hoya.

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18/12/1983

Andy Fantuz, Canadian football player

Andrew Fantuz is a Canadian former professional football slotback. Fantuz spent the majority of his professional career with the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played for the Riders for six seasons after he was drafted by them in the first round of the 2006 CFL draft. He then played six seasons for the Tiger-Cats. Fantuz was also signed by the Chicago Bears in 2011. He played CIS football for the Western Ontario Mustangs.

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18/12/1980

Christina Aguilera, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress

Christina María Aguilera is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and television personality. An influential figure in music, Aguilera is noted for her four-octave vocal range, melismatic singing style, use of the whistle register, and continual reinvention of her image and sound. Referred to as the "Voice of a Generation", she was ranked among the greatest singers of all time by Rolling Stone. Her works have incorporated socially conscious and sexual themes, generating both controversy and critical acclaim.

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Neil Fingleton, English actor and basketball player, one of the tallest 25 men in the world (died 2017)

Neil Fingleton was an English actor and basketball player. Neil became the tallest living British-born man and the tallest man in the European Union at 7 ft 7.56 in (232.6 cm) and among the 25 tallest men in the world.

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Benjamin Watson, American football player

Benjamin Seth Watson is an American former professional football player who was a tight end in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Duke Blue Devils and Georgia Bulldogs. Watson was selected by the New England Patriots with the 32nd overall pick in the first round of the 2004 NFL draft and won Super Bowl XXXIX with the Patriots in his rookie year. He also played in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens, and New Orleans Saints.

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18/12/1978

Daniel Cleary, Canadian ice hockey player

Daniel Michael Cleary is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Chicago Blackhawks, Edmonton Oilers, Phoenix Coyotes and Detroit Red Wings. He currently serves as the Director of Player Development for Detroit.

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Ali Curtis, American soccer player

Ali Curtis is a sports executive and former American soccer player. He was the 1999 Hermann Trophy and 2000 MAC Award winner before playing in Major League Soccer from 2001 to 2004. Curtis became the first African American General Manager in Major League Soccer's history when he joined the New York Red Bulls in 2014. He was most recently the General Manager of Toronto FC.

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Josh Dallas, American actor

Joshua Paul Dallas is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Prince Charming/David Nolan in the ABC television series Once Upon a Time and starring as Ben Stone in the NBC/Netflix sci-fi drama series Manifest.

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Katie Holmes, American actress

Katie Holmes is an American actress and filmmaker. She first achieved fame as Joey Potter on the television series Dawson's Creek (1998–2003).

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18/12/1977

Axwell, Swedish DJ, record producer, member of Swedish House Mafia

Axel Christofer Hedfors, better known by his stage name Axwell, is a Swedish DJ, record producer, remixer and owner of Axtone Records. He is a member of Swedish House Mafia along with Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello. He is a two-time DJ Awards winner, and in 2013 he was placed 19th on the DJ Magazine Top 100 DJ Poll.

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Claudia Gesell, German runner

Claudia Andrea Barbara Gesell is a former German middle distance runner who specialised in the 800 metres.

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18/12/1975

Randy Houser, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Shawn Randolph Houser is an American country music singer and songwriter. Houser has racked up over half a dozen hits and over 1 billion streams. His album How Country Feels topped the country radio charts with the title track, “Runnin’ Outta Moonlight” and “Goodnight Kiss” and earned critical acclaim for his powerful delivery of the Top 5 smash and nominated CMA Song of the Year, “Like A Cowboy.”

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Sia, Australian singer-songwriter

Sia Kate Isobelle Furler is an Australian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Adelaide, she started her career as a singer in the acid jazz band Crisp in the mid-1990s. When Crisp disbanded in 1997, she released her debut studio album, OnlySee, in Australia. Sia moved to London and provided vocals for the English duo Zero 7. She released her second studio album, Healing Is Difficult, in 2001 and her third, Colour the Small One, in 2004.

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Trish Stratus, Canadian wrestler and actress

Patricia Anne Stratigeas, better known by the ring name Trish Stratus, is a Canadian professional wrestler, yoga instructor, actress and former fitness model. She is signed to WWE. Stratus's 448-day reign as WWF/WWE Women's Champion stands as the longest reign of any women's world champion in the 21st century.

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18/12/1974

Peter Boulware, American football player and politician

Peter Nicholas Boulware is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker for nine seasons with the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Florida State Seminoles, earning recognition as a consensus All-American. A first-round pick of Baltimore in the 1997 NFL draft, he played his entire pro career for the Ravens.

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Knut Schreiner, Norwegian singer, guitarist, and producer

Knut Schreiner is a Norwegian guitarist. Also known by his stage name Euroboy, he has been part of the Norwegian music scene since the early 1990s as a member of Kåre and the Cavemen and Turbonegro. Schreiner has also been a part the bands The Vikings, Black Diamond Brigade, and Mirror Lakes. He has also been in other musical projects and produced other bands, notably Euroboys, Amulet, and The Lovethugs.

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18/12/1973

Fatuma Roba, Ethiopian runner

Fatuma Roba is an Ethiopian long-distance runner, best known for being the first African woman to win a gold medal in the women's Olympic marathon race, at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and for winning three successive Boston Marathons.

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18/12/1972

Anzhela Balakhonova, Ukrainian pole vaulter

Anzhela Anatoliyivna Balakhonova is a retired female pole vaulter from Ukraine who won the silver medal at the 1999 World Championships in Athletics. She held the European record, and formerly held the world indoor record. She finished 6th at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

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Raymond Herrera, American drummer and songwriter

Raymond Herrera is an American musician, best known as the former drummer and founding member of the industrial metal band Fear Factory. He is also a former drummer for Brujeria and for industrial metal band Arkaea. He is a composer and producer of music for video games, television, feature films, and transmedia.

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DJ Lethal, Latvian-American musician

Leor Dimant, better known as DJ Lethal, is a Latvian-American DJ, musician, and record producer, best known as a member of the groups House of Pain and Limp Bizkit.

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Lawrence Wong, Singaporean civilist and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Singapore

Lawrence Wong Shyun Tsai is a Singaporean politician who has served as the fourth prime minister of Singapore since 2024. A member of the People's Action Party (PAP), he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Limbang Division of Marsiling–Yew Tee GRC since 2015. He also served as the minister of finance since 2021, and previously served as MP for Boon Lay Division of West Coast GRC from 2011 to 2015.

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18/12/1971

Barkha Dutt, Indian journalist

Barkha Dutt is an Indian television journalist and author. She has been a reporter and news anchor at NDTV and Tiranga TV. She currently runs her own digital news channel called 'MoJo Story'.

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Noriko Matsueda, Japanese pianist and composer

Noriko Matsueda is a Japanese former video game composer. She is best known for her work on the Front Mission series, The Bouncer, and Final Fantasy X-2. Matsueda collaborated with fellow composer Takahito Eguchi on several games. Composing music at an early age, she began studying the piano and electronic organ when she was three years old. She graduated from the Tokyo Conservatoire Shobi, where she met Eguchi.

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Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Spanish tennis player and sportscaster

Aránzazu Isabel María "Arantxa" Sánchez Vicario is a Spanish former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 12 weeks, as well as the world No. 1 in women's doubles for 111 weeks. A defensive baseliner, Sánchez Vicario won 29 WTA Tour-level singles titles and 69 doubles titles, including 14 major titles: four in singles, six in women's doubles, and four in mixed doubles. She also won four Olympic medals and five Fed Cup titles representing Spain. In 1994, Sánchez Vicario was crowned the ITF World Champion of the year.

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18/12/1970

Norman Brown, American singer and guitarist

Norman Brown is an American smooth jazz guitarist and singer.

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DMX, American rapper and actor (died 2021)

Earl Simmons, known professionally as DMX, was an American rapper, songwriter, and actor. His accolades included an American Music Award, a Billboard Music Award, and six Grammy Award nominations. Regarded as an influential figure in the late 1990s and early 2000s and one of the greats of hip-hop, his music is characterized by his "aggressive" rapping style, with lyrical content varying from hardcore themes to personal themes such as trauma or childhood abuse.

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Lucious Harris, American basketball player

Lucious H. Harris is an American former professional basketball player who was selected by the Dallas Mavericks in the second round of the 1993 NBA draft. Harris has played for the Mavericks, Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Nets, and Cleveland Cavaliers in 12 NBA seasons. He played in the 2002 and 2003 NBA Finals as a member of the Nets.

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Giannis Ploutarhos, Greek singer-songwriter

Yannis Ploutarchos is a Greek singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the most popular laïko singers of his time, and has been characterized with having a genuine laïko voice. To date, he has released 14 studio albums along with one greatest hits album.

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Rob Van Dam, American wrestler

Robert Szatkowski better known by his ring name Rob Van Dam is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE under a Legends contract. Known for his unique ring style—which includes his variety of kicks, acrobatic movements—and flexibility, Van Dam is one of the most popular wrestlers in the world. He is also known for his tenures in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).

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Jonathan Yeo, English painter

Jonathan Yeo is a British contemporary artist who specializes in both traditional and experimental forms of portraiture. His most celebrated paintings include King Charles III, Malala Yousafzai, Sir David Attenborough, Dennis Hopper, and Cara Delevingne, among others. GQ described him as "one of the world's most in-demand portraitists."

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18/12/1969

Santiago Cañizares, Spanish footballer

José Santiago Cañizares Ruiz is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

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Justin Edinburgh, English footballer and manager (died 2019)

Justin Charles Edinburgh was an English professional football manager and footballer who played as a left back.

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Akira Iida, Japanese race car driver

Akira Iida is a Japanese racing driver currently competing in the Super GT series. He won the 2002 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship GT500 title with Esso Toyota Team LeMans, co-driving with Juichi Wakisaka. He also won the 2013 Asian Le Mans Series GTE class title for Team Taisan Ken Endless.

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18/12/1968

Mario Basler, German footballer and manager

Mario Basler is a German football manager and former professional player who mainly played as a right midfielder.

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Rachel Griffiths, Australian actress

Rachel Anne Griffiths is an Australian actress. Raised primarily in Melbourne, she began her acting career appearing on the Australian series Secrets before being cast in a supporting role in the comedy Muriel's Wedding (1994), which earned her an AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. In 1997, she was the lead in Nadia Tass's drama Amy, followed by her portrayal of Hilary du Pré in Hilary and Jackie (1998), for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

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Alejandro Sanz, Spanish singer-songwriter and guitarist

Alejandro Sánchez Pizarro, better known as Alejandro Sanz, is a Spanish musician, singer and composer. He has won 24 Latin Grammy Awards and 4 Grammy Awards. He has received the Latin Grammy for Album of the Year three times. The singer is notable for his flamenco-influenced ballads, and has also experimented with several other genres including pop, rock, funk, R&B and jazz.

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Casper Van Dien, American actor and producer

Casper Robert Van Dien Jr. is an American actor, best known for his lead role as Johnny Rico in the science-fiction action film Starship Troopers (1997). Other credits include Sleepy Hollow (1999), Sanctimony (2000), The Curse of King Tut's Tomb (2006), Watch Over Me (2006–2007), Born to Ride (2011), Shiver (2012), Mortal Kombat: Legacy (2013), Star Raiders: The Adventures of Saber Raine (2017), Alita: Battle Angel (2019), and Mad Heidi (2022).

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18/12/1967

Mille Petrozza, German singer-songwriter and guitarist

Miland "Mille" Petrozza is a German musician. He is the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of thrash metal band Kreator, which he started playing in as Tyrant in 1982 and renamed into Tormentor in 1984. He is also the principal songwriter of the band and the only member to appear on every Kreator album.

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Toine van Peperstraten, Dutch journalist

Toine van Peperstraten is a Dutch sports journalist, best known for hosting the NOS TV sports program Studio Sport.

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18/12/1966

Gianluca Pagliuca, Italian footballer and sportscaster

Gianluca Pagliuca is an Italian football coach and former professional goalkeeper.

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18/12/1965

Shawn Christian, American actor, director, and screenwriter

Shawn Patrick Christian is an American television and film actor.

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Manolo Peña, Spanish footballer (died 2012)

Manuel "Manolo" Peña Escontrela was a Spanish professional footballer who played as a forward.

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18/12/1964

Stone Cold Steve Austin, American professional wrestler and producer

Steve Austin, also known by his ring name Stone Cold Steve Austin, is an American media personality, actor, producer, podcaster, and retired professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, as an ambassador. Widely regarded as the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he was integral to the development and success of the World Wrestling Federation during the Attitude Era, an industry boom period in the late 1990s and early 2000s where wrestling reached the peak of its mainstream popularity.

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Don Beebe, American football player and coach

Donald Lee Beebe is an American football coach and former professional wide receiver who is the head coach of the Aurora Spartans. He previously played in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills. Beebe played college football for the Western Illinois Leathernecks and Chadron State Eagles and was selected by the Bills in the third round of the 1989 NFL draft. Following six seasons with the Bills, he was a member of the Carolina Panthers during their inaugural year and played for the Green Bay Packers in his last two seasons.

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18/12/1963

Greg D'Angelo, American drummer

Greg D'Angelo, is an American drummer most famous for his work in the bands White Lion, Anthrax, and Pride & Glory.

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Karl Dorrell, American football player and coach

Karl James Dorrell is an American football coach. He has been the head coach for the UCLA Bruins and Colorado Buffaloes, being named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year for both. Dorrell led the UCLA Bruins to five bowl appearances and was the first African American head football coach in their history.

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Pierre Nkurunziza, Burundian soldier and politician, 9th President of Burundi (died 2020)

Pierre Nkurunziza was a Burundian politician, educator, and rebel leader who served as the ninth president of Burundi from 2005 until his death in 2020. He was the longest-serving president in Burundian history, having served for nearly 15 years.

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Charles Oakley, American basketball player and coach

Charles Oakley is an American former professional basketball player. Oakley is best known for playing ten of his nineteen seasons in the National Basketball Association with the New York Knicks. As a power forward, he consistently ranked as one of the best rebounders and defensive players in the NBA. He also played for the Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards, and Houston Rockets. From 2017-2025, he was the coach of the Killer 3's of the BIG3.

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Brad Pitt, American actor and producer

William Bradley Pitt is an American actor and film producer. In a film career spanning more than thirty years, Pitt has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and one Volpi Cup. His films as a leading actor have grossed over $7.5 billion worldwide.

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18/12/1961

Brian Orser, Canadian figure skater and coach

Brian Ernest Orser OLY is a Canadian former competitive and professional figure skater and coach to Olympic champions. He is the 1984 and 1988 Olympic silver medallist, 1987 World champion and eight-time (1981–88) Canadian national champion. At the 1988 Winter Olympics, the rivalry between Orser and American figure skater Brian Boitano, who were the two favorites to win the gold medal, captured media attention and was described as the "Battle of the Brians".

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Lalchand Rajput, Indian cricketer

Lalchand Sitaram Rajput; is an Indian cricket coach and former cricketer. He was appointed head coach of the United Arab Emirates national cricket team in 2024.

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Leila Steinberg, American singer, producer, author, and poet

Leila Steinberg is an American manager, business woman, educator, writer, poet, and founder of AIM4TheHeART, a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to helping at-risk youth find their voice using an emotional literacy curriculum and writing workshops. She is best known as the artist mentor and first manager for superstar rapper Tupac Shakur. They met when he was a student in her writing workshop, The Microphone Sessions, in the Oakland Bay area. Today Leila manages the rapper Earl Sweatshirt, formerly of Odd Future.

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Angie Stone, American singer, songwriter, and actress (died 2025)

Angela Laverne Stone was an American singer-songwriter, rapper, actress, and record producer. With a career spanning more than four decades, she has been credited with revolutionizing the sound of hip-hop and neo soul.

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18/12/1960

Kazuhide Uekusa, Japanese economist and academic

Kazuhide Uekusa is a Japanese economist, economic analyst, former senior economist at Nomura Research Institute, and chairman of the Three-Nations Research Institute. He was arrested for sexual offenses in 2004 and 2006.

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Naoko Yamano, Japanese singer, guitarist and composer

Naoko Yamano is a Japanese musician, best known as a founding member, singer/guitarist, and primary songwriter for the pop-punk band Shonen Knife. She is the only member of the band to have remained throughout its entire history. After briefly working as a receptionist in a doctor's office, she formed the band in late 1981 with her college friend Michie Nakatani and her younger sister Atsuko Yamano. Naoko Yamano is known for her songs about food and animals, with music that is primary influenced by the Ramones and the Beatles.

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18/12/1958

Geordie Walker, English guitarist (died 2023)

Kevin Walker, known professionally as Geordie Walker, was an English rock musician, songwriter and producer. He was best known as the guitarist of post-punk band Killing Joke. He joined the band in March 1979; his first recording was released in December of that year. Their debut eponymous studio album came out in October 1980. Walker recorded 15 studio albums with Killing Joke and also took part in various side-projects. His unorthodox style of electric guitar playing was widely acclaimed.

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Julia Wolfe, American composer and educator

Julia Wolfe is an American composer and professor of music at New York University. According to The Wall Street Journal, Wolfe's music has "long inhabited a terrain of its own, a place where classical forms are recharged by the repetitive patterns of minimalism and the driving energy of rock". Her work Anthracite Fields, an oratorio for chorus and instruments, was awarded the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Music. She has also received the Herb Alpert Award (2015) and was named a MacArthur Fellow (2016).

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18/12/1957

Jonathan Cainer, English astrologer and author (died 2016)

Jonathan Cainer was a British astrologer. He wrote astrological predictions six days a week for the Daily Mail, and forecasts for three Australian newspapers: the Sydney Daily Telegraph, the Melbourne Herald Sun, and the Perth Sunday Times. Cainer's predictions were also published in Hello, the Auckland Sunday News, the Botswana Echo, and Misty Magazine (Japan). It has been estimated that over twelve million people read his predictions.

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18/12/1956

T. K. Carter, American actor (died 2026)

Thomas Kent Carter was an American actor best known for his roles in the films Corvette Summer (1978), Southern Comfort (1981), The Thing (1982), Doctor Detroit (1983), Runaway Train (1985), Space Jam (1996) and The Corner (2000), as well as for the TV series Just Our Luck, Punky Brewster, The Sinbad Show, Dave, and Good Morning, Miss Bliss, also known as Saved by the Bell: The Junior High Years. He was also the voice of the animated character Anthony Julian from 1985 to 1988 on the series. ski patrol Jem.

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Ron White, American comedian

Ronald Dee White is an American stand-up comedian, actor and author, best known as a charter member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. Nicknamed "Tater Salad", he is the author of the book I Had the Right to Remain Silent But I Didn't Have the Ability, which appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list.

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18/12/1955

Vijay Mallya, Indian businessman and politician

Vijay Vittal Mallya is an Indian businessman and a former politician. He is the subject of an extradition effort by the Indian Government to bring him back from the UK to face charges of financial crimes in India. His last formal appeal against extradition was rejected in 2020, but as of April 2025 the order had not been enforced; the judge in a case rejecting his appeal against bankruptcy said "apparently Dr Mallya is still resisting extradition on other bases which have yet to be resolved".

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Bogusław Mamiński, Polish runner

Bogusław Mamiński is a retired long-distance runner from Poland, known for winning the silver medal in the men's 3,000m Steeplechase event at the 1982 European Championships in Athens, Greece. He did the same one year later at the inaugural World Championships. Mamiński set his personal best (8:09.18) in the event on 24 August 1984 at a meet in Brussels, Belgium.

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18/12/1954

John Booth, English race car driver

John Alfred Booth is the former Director of Racing at Scuderia Toro Rosso. He is the former team principal of the Virgin/Marussia Formula One team. He was initially the team's sporting director, but took over the role of team principal from Alex Tai less than one month after the team's launch.

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Ray Liotta, American actor (died 2022)

Raymond Allen Liotta was an American actor. He first gained attention for his role in the film Something Wild (1986), which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination. He was best known for his portrayals of Shoeless Joe Jackson in the film Field of Dreams (1989) and Henry Hill in the film Goodfellas (1990). Liotta appeared in numerous other films, including Unlawful Entry (1992), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal, Heartbreakers, John Q., Narc, Identity (2003), Killing Them Softly, The Place Beyond the Pines, and Marriage Story (2019). He was also known for providing the voice for Tommy Vercetti, the playable protagonist in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002).

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Willi Wülbeck, German runner

Wilhelm "Willi" Wülbeck is a retired German middle-distance runner. Competing in the 800 m he finished fourth at the 1976 Summer Olympics. He missed the 1980 Moscow Olympics due to the West German boycott and could not participate in the 1984 Summer Olympics because of an injury. He also finished eighth at the 1974 and 1982 European Championships.

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18/12/1953

Kevin Beattie, English footballer (died 2018)

Thomas Kevin Beattie was an English footballer. Born into poverty, he played at both professional and international levels, mostly as a centre-half. He spent the majority of his playing career at Ipswich Town, the club with which he won both the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup. He was also named the inaugural Professional Footballers' Association Young Player of the Year at the end of the 1972–73 season, and featured in the film Escape to Victory alongside many of his Ipswich teammates.

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Elliot Easton, American guitarist and singer

Elliot Easton is an American musician who is best known as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist for the American new wave band the Cars. His melodic guitar solos are an integral part of the band's music. Easton has also recorded music as a solo artist, and has played in other bands. He is a left-handed guitarist. In 2018, Easton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Cars.

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18/12/1952

John Leventhal, American songwriter and producer

John Leventhal is an American musician, producer, songwriter, and recording engineer who has produced albums for William Bell, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Michelle Branch, Rosanne Cash, Marc Cohn, Shawn Colvin, Sarah Jarosz, Rodney Crowell, Jim Lauderdale, Joan Osborne, Loudon Wainwright III and The Wreckers. He has won six Grammy Awards.

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18/12/1951

Bobby Jones, American basketball player

Robert Clyde Jones is an American former professional basketball player who played for the Denver Nuggets in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and the Philadelphia 76ers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "the Secretary of Defense", Jones won an NBA championship with the 76ers in 1983, was a four-time NBA All-Star, a nine-time member of the NBA All-Defensive Team, and was the NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 1983. In 2019, Jones was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

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18/12/1950

Gillian Armstrong, Australian director, producer, and screenwriter

Gillian May Armstrong is an Australian feature film and documentary director, best known for My Brilliant Career (1979), Mrs. Soffel (1984), High Tide (1987), The Last Days of Chez Nous (1992), and Little Women (1994). She is a Member of the Order of Australia. She has won many film awards, including an AFI Best Director Award, has been nominated for numerous others, and is the holder of several honorary doctorates.

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Randy Castillo, American drummer and songwriter (died 2002)

Randolpho Francisco Castillo was an American musician. He was Ozzy Osbourne's drummer during the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, and he was the drummer for Mötley Crüe, from 1999 to 2000.

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Sarath Fonseka, Sri Lankan general and politician

Field Marshal Gardihewage Sarath Chandralal Fonseka is a Sri Lankan retired army officer. He was the eighteenth Commander of the Sri Lankan Army from 2005 to 2009, and under his command the Sri Lankan Army ended the 26-year Sri Lankan civil war in 2009, defeating the militant group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam; he thereafter briefly served as the Chief of Defence Staff. After retiring from the Army with the rank of General, he entered politics as the common opposition candidate in the 2010 presidential election contesting against President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

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Lizmark, Mexican wrestler (died 2015)

Juan Baños was a Mexican professional wrestler better known by the ring name Lizmark. The name was taken from the German battleship Bismarck. He was a multiple-time champion, having held singles and tag team championships in both Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre / Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (EMLL/CMLL) and Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA). In 2001, Lizmark was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame. His nickname was El Geniecillo Azul, which is Spanish for "The Little Blue Genius". He has two sons who are also professional wrestlers, Lizmark, Jr. and El Hijo de Lizmark.

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Leonard Maltin, American historian, author, and critic

Leonard Michael Maltin is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide, published from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film critic on Entertainment Tonight from 1982 to 2012. Since 1998, he has taught film as a professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. In 2014, he began the weekly podcast Maltin on Movies. He served two terms as President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and votes for films to be selected for the National Film Registry.

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18/12/1949

David A. Johnston, American volcanologist and geologist (died 1980)

David Alexander Johnston was an American United States Geological Survey (USGS) volcanologist who was killed by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in the U.S. state of Washington. A principal scientist on the USGS monitoring team, Johnston was killed in the eruption while manning an observation post six miles (10 km) away on the morning of May 18, 1980. He was the first to report the eruption, transmitting "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!" before he was swept away by a lateral blast; despite a thorough search, Johnston's body was never found, but state highway workers discovered remnants of his USGS trailer in 1993.

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18/12/1948

George T. Johnson, American basketball player

George Thomas Johnson is an American retired professional basketball player. A 6'11" power forward/center born in Tylertown, Mississippi and from Dillard University, he played in 13 National Basketball Association (NBA) seasons as a member of the Golden State Warriors, the Buffalo Braves, the New Jersey Nets, the San Antonio Spurs, the Atlanta Hawks, and the Seattle SuperSonics.

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Bill Nelson, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

William Nelson is an English singer, guitarist, songwriter, producer, painter, video artist, writer and experimental musician. He rose to prominence as the chief songwriter, vocalist and guitarist of the rock group Be-Bop Deluxe, which he formed in 1972. Nelson has been described as "one of the most underrated guitarists of the seventies art rock movement". In 2015, he was recognised with the Visionary award at the Progressive Music Awards.

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Mimmo Paladino, Italian sculptor and painter

Mimmo Paladino is an Italian sculptor, painter and printmaker. He is a leading name in the Transvanguardia artistic movement and one of the many European artists to revive Expressionism in the 1980s.

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Laurent Voulzy, French-English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Lucien Voulzy, better known as Laurent Voulzy, is a French singer-songwriter, composer, and musician.

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18/12/1947

Leonid Yuzefovich, Russian author and screenwriter

Leonid Abramovich Yuzefovich is a Russian writer known for the series of crime fiction stories taking place in pre-Revolution Russian Empire. He also writes non-fiction books about history, and currently adapts his stories for TV serials.

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18/12/1946

Steve Biko, South African activist, founded the Black Consciousness Movement (died 1977)

Bantu Stephen Biko OMSG was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s. His ideas were articulated in a series of articles published under the pseudonym Frank Talk.

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Steven Spielberg, American director, producer, and screenwriter, co-founded DreamWorks

Steven Allan Spielberg is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema and is the highest-grossing film director of all time. Among other accolades, he has received three Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, four BAFTA Awards, twelve Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award, as well as the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1995, an honorary knighthood in 2001, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2006, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2009, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015, and the National Medal of Arts in 2023. According to Forbes, he is one of the world's wealthiest celebrities, with a net worth of at least $5.3 billion. He is one of 22 people to achieve EGOT status.

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18/12/1945

Jean Pronovost, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

Jean Joseph Denis Pronovost is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey right winger who played in the National Hockey League for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Atlanta Flames and Washington Capitals.

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18/12/1944

Crispian Steele-Perkins, English trumpet player and educator

Crispian Guy Steele-Perkins is an internationally acclaimed English classical trumpeter who was educated at Copthorne Preparatory School, Marlborough College and the Guildhall School of Music.

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18/12/1943

Bobby Keys, American saxophone player (died 2014)

Robert Henry Keys was an American saxophonist who performed as a member of several horn sections of the 1970s. He appears on albums by the Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Harry Nilsson, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, George Harrison, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Joe Ely, and other prominent musicians. Keys played on hundreds of recordings, and was a touring musician from 1956 until his death in 2014.

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Keith Richards, English musician

Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who is an original member, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-principal songwriter of the Rolling Stones. His songwriting partnership with the band's lead vocalist Sir Mick Jagger is one of the most successful in history. His career spans over six decades, and his guitar playing style has been a trademark of the Rolling Stones throughout the band's career. Richards gained press notoriety for his romantic involvements and illicit drug use, and he was often portrayed as a countercultural figure. First professionally known as Keith Richard, in 1978 he fully asserted his family name.

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Alan Rudolph, American director and screenwriter

Alan Steven Rudolph is an American film director and screenwriter.

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18/12/1942

Lenore Blum, American mathematician and academic

Lenore Carol Blum is an American computer scientist and mathematician who has made contributions to the theories of real number computation, cryptography, and pseudorandom number generation. She was a distinguished career professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University until 2019 and is currently a professor in residence at the University of California, Berkeley. She is also known for her efforts to increase diversity in mathematics and computer science.

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Bobby Keyes, Australian rugby league player (died 2022)

Robert John Keyes was an Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s and 1970s.

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18/12/1941

Sam Andrew, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2015)

Sam Houston Andrew III was an American rock musician, singer, songwriter, composer, artist and founding member and guitarist of Big Brother and the Holding Company. During his career as musician and composer, Andrew had three platinum albums and two hit singles. His songs have been used in numerous major motion picture soundtracks and documentaries.

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Wadada Leo Smith, American trumpet player and composer

Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith is an American trumpeter and composer, working primarily in the field of creative music. He was one of three finalists for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music for Ten Freedom Summers, released on May 22, 2012.

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Joan Wallach Scott, American historian, author, and academic

Joan Wallach Scott is an American historian of France with contributions in gender history. She is a professor emerita in the School of Social Science in the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Scott is known for her work in feminist history and gender theory, engaging post-structural theory on these topics. Geographically, her work focuses primarily on France, and thematically she deals with how power works, the relation between language and experience, and the role and practice of historians. Her work grapples with theory's application to historical and current events, focusing on how terms are defined and how positions and identities are articulated.

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18/12/1940

Ilario Castagner, Italian football manager (died 2023)

Ilario Castagner was an Italian football manager and player, who played as a striker.

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John Cooper, English sprinter and hurdler (died 1974)

John Hugh Cooper was a British athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metre hurdles and competed at two Olympic Games.

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18/12/1939

Pedro Jirón, Nicaraguan footballer (died 2018)

Pedro Jose Jirón Rugama "Peche Jirón" was a Nicaraguan professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

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Michael Moorcock, English author and songwriter

Michael John Moorcock is an English writer, originally of science fiction and fantasy, who has published many well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worked as an editor and is also a successful musician. He is best known for his novels about the character Elric of Melniboné, which were a seminal influence on the field of fantasy in the 1960s and 1970s.

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Harold E. Varmus, American biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

Harold Eliot Varmus is an American Nobel Prize-winning scientist. He is currently the Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and a senior associate at the New York Genome Center.

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18/12/1938

Chas Chandler, English bass player and producer (died 1996)

Bryan James "Chas" Chandler was an English musician, record producer, manager and the original bassist in the Animals, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He also managed the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Slade.

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Joel Hirschhorn, American songwriter and composer (died 2005)

Joel Hirschhorn was an American songwriter. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Song on two occasions. He also wrote songs for a number of musicians, including Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison. Hirschhorn was born in the Bronx and attended the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan. After graduating, Hirschhorn became a regular performer on New York's nightclub circuit, both as a solo singer and as a member of the rock & roll band, The Highlighters.

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18/12/1937

Nancy Ryles, American politician (died 1990)

Nancy Ann Ryles was an American politician. She served in the Oregon House of Representatives, the Oregon Senate and as one of three members of the state's Public Utility Commission. She was known as an advocate for education and for equality for women and minorities. An elementary school in Beaverton is named after her.

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18/12/1936

Malcolm Kirk, English rugby player and wrestler (died 1987)

Malcolm Kirk was an English professional wrestler who went by the ring name of "King Kong" Kirk as well as Kojak Kirk, Killer Kirk and "Mucky" Mal Kirk. He started as a professional rugby league player before becoming a professional wrestler. Kirk died of a heart attack on 23 August 1987 after collapsing in the ring during a tag team match at the Hippodrome in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England. The wrestling event was run by Joint Promotions with the main event being a tag team match between Kirk and King Kendo against Big Daddy and Greg Valentine in front of 1,500 people.

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18/12/1935

Rosemary Leach, English actress (died 2017)

Rosemary Anne Leach was a British stage, television and film actress. She won the 1982 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a New Play for 84, Charing Cross Road and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her roles in the films That'll Be the Day (1973) and A Room with a View (1985).

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Jacques Pépin, French-American chef and author

Jacques Pépin is a French chef, author, culinary educator, television personality, and artist. After having been the personal chef of French president Charles de Gaulle, he moved to the US in 1959 and after working in New York's top French restaurants, and took a culinary development job with Howard Johnson's. He has appeared on American television and authored more than 30 cookbooks, some of which have become best sellers. Pépin was a longtime friend of the American chef Julia Child, and their 1999 PBS series Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home won a Daytime Emmy Award.

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18/12/1934

Marc Rich, Belgian-American businessman, founded Glencore (died 2013)

Marc Rich was a Belgian-American commodities trader, financier, and businessman. He founded the commodities company Glencore and was later indicted in the United States on federal charges of tax evasion, wire fraud, racketeering, and selling Iranian oil to Israel during the Iran hostage crisis. He fled to Switzerland at the time of the indictment and never returned to the United States.

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Boris Volynov, Russian colonel, engineer, and cosmonaut

Boris Valentinovich Volynov is a Russian former cosmonaut who flew two space missions of the Soviet Union's Soyuz programme: Soyuz 5, and Soyuz 21. Following the death of Alexei Leonov in October 2019, he is the last surviving member of the original group of cosmonauts. He is also considered to be the first Jew in space.

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18/12/1933

Lonnie Brooks, American blues singer and guitarist (died 2017)

Lonnie Brooks was an American blues singer and guitarist. The musicologist Robert Palmer, writing in Rolling Stone, stated, "His music is witty, soulful and ferociously energetic, brimming with novel harmonic turnarounds, committed vocals and simply astonishing guitar work." Jon Pareles, a music critic for the New York Times, wrote, "He sings in a rowdy baritone, sliding and rasping in songs that celebrate lust, fulfilled and unfulfilled; his guitar solos are pointed and unhurried, with a tone that slices cleanly across the beat. Wearing a cowboy hat, he looks like the embodiment of a good-time bluesman." Howard Reich, a music critic for the Chicago Tribune, wrote, "...the music that thundered from Brooks' instrument and voice...shook the room. His sound was so huge and delivery so ferocious as to make everything alongside him seem a little smaller."

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18/12/1932

Norm Provan, Australian rugby league player, coach, and businessman (died 2021)

Norman Douglas Somerville Provan was an Australian professional rugby league footballer and coach. Also nicknamed "Sticks", he was a second-row forward with the St. George Dragons during the first ten of their eleven consecutive premiership-winning years (1956-1966). Named among the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century, he was a representative in the Australia national team from 1954 to 1960, winning 14 Tests and a World Cups. In 2018, he was inducted as the 13th Immortal of Australian rugby league.

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Roger Smith, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (died 2017)

Roger LaVerne Smith was an American television and film actor, producer, and screenwriter. He starred in the television detective series 77 Sunset Strip and in the comedy series Mister Roberts. Smith went on to manage the career of Ann-Margret, his wife of 50 years.

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18/12/1931

Allen Klein, American businessman and music publisher (died 2009)

Allen Klein was an American businessman whose aggressive negotiation tactics affected industry standards for compensating recording artists. He founded ABKCO Music & Records Incorporated. Klein increased profits for his musician clients by negotiating new record company contracts. He first scored monetary and contractual gains for Buddy Knox and Jimmy Bowen, one-hit rockabillies of the late 1950s, then parlayed his early successes into a position managing Sam Cooke, and eventually managed the Beatles and the Rolling Stones simultaneously, along with many other artists, becoming one of the most powerful individuals in the music industry during his era.

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Alison Plowden, English historian and author (died 2007)

Alison Margaret Chichele Plowden was an English historian and biographer well known for her popular non-fiction about the Tudor period.

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Gene Shue, American basketball player, coach, and executive (died 2022)

Eugene William Shue was an American professional basketball player and coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Shue was one of the top guards of the early days of the NBA and an influential figure in the development of basketball. He is credited with having invented the "spin move" while being an early harbinger of other plays and strategies. Shue was an NBA All-Star in five consecutive times from 1958 to 1962.

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Bill Thompson, American television host (died 2014)

William Earnest Thompson, better known as Wallace, co-hosted The Wallace and Ladmo Show, a daily children's variety show broadcast on KPHO-TV in Phoenix, Arizona for 36 years. The program featured short comedy skits and cartoons and was known for humor that appealed to adults as well as children.

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18/12/1930

Moose Skowron, American baseball player (died 2012)

William Joseph Skowron, nicknamed "Moose", was an American professional baseball first baseman. He played 14 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1954 to 1967 for the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Washington Senators, Chicago White Sox, and California Angels. He was an eight-time All-Star and a five-time World Series champion.

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18/12/1929

Gino Cimoli, American baseball player (died 2011)

Gino Nicholas Cimoli was an American professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Milwaukee Braves, Kansas City Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, and Los Angeles Angels from 1956 through 1965. He was an MLB All-Star in 1957, and a member of the 1960 World Series champions. He was the first major league baseball player to take an at bat in a West Coast game.

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Józef Glemp, Polish cardinal (died 2013)

Józef Glemp was a Polish cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was Archbishop of Warsaw from 1981 to 2006, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1983. He assumed the title of Primate of Poland following Stefan Wyszyński's death.

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18/12/1928

Mirza Tahir Ahmad, Indian-English caliph and author (died 2003)

Mirza Tahir Ahmad was the fourth caliph and the head of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. He was elected as the fourth successor of the founder of the community, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. He was elected on 10 June 1982, the day after the death of his predecessor, Mirza Nasir Ahmad.

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Harold Land, American tenor saxophonist (died 2001)

Harold de Vance Land was an American hard bop and post-bop tenor saxophonist. Land developed his hard bop playing with the Max Roach/Clifford Brown band into a personal, modern style, often rivalling Clifford Brown's instrumental ability with his own inventive and whimsical solos. His tone was strong and emotional, yet hinted at a certain introspective fragility.

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18/12/1927

Ramsey Clark, American lawyer and politician, 66th United States Attorney General (died 2021)

William Ramsey Clark was an American lawyer, activist, and federal government official. A progressive, New Frontier liberal, he occupied senior positions in the United States Department of Justice under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, serving as United States Attorney General from 1967 to 1969; previously, he was Deputy Attorney General from 1965 to 1967 and Assistant Attorney General from 1961 to 1965.

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Roméo LeBlanc, Canadian journalist and politician, 25th Governor General of Canada (died 2009)

Roméo-Adrien LeBlanc was a Canadian journalist and politician who served as the 25th governor general of Canada from 1995 to 1999.

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18/12/1923

Edwin Bramall, Baron Bramall, English field marshal and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Greater London (died 2019)

Field Marshal Edwin Noel Westby Bramall, Baron Bramall, also known as "Dwin", was a British Army officer. He served as Chief of the General Staff, the professional head of the British Army, between 1979 and 1982, and as Chief of the Defence Staff, professional head of the British Armed Forces, from 1982 to 1985.

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18/12/1922

Jack Brooks, American colonel, lawyer, and politician (died 2012)

Jack Bascom Brooks was an American Democratic Party politician from the state of Texas who served 42 years in the United States House of Representatives, initially representing Texas's 2nd congressional district from 1953 through 1967, and then, after district boundaries were redrawn in 1966, the 9th district from 1967 to 1995. He had strong political ties to other prominent Texas Democrats, including Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn and President Lyndon B. Johnson. For over fifteen years, he was the dean of the Texas congressional delegation.

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Esther Lederberg, American microbiologist (died 2006)

Esther Miriam Zimmer Lederberg was an American microbiologist and a pioneer of bacterial genetics. She discovered the bacterial virus lambda phage and the bacterial fertility factor F, devised the first implementation of replica plating, and furthered the understanding of the transfer of genes between bacteria by specialized transduction.

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18/12/1920

Robert Leckie, American soldier and author (died 2001)

Robert Hugh Leckie was an American author and journalist. After serving in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, Leckie worked as a writer and newspaperman, eventually writing more than 40 books, both non-fiction and fiction. His war memoir Helmet for My Pillow, along with Eugene B. Sledge's With the Old Breed, formed the basis for the HBO's 2010 television series The Pacific. In the series, Leckie is portrayed by James Badge Dale.

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18/12/1917

Ossie Davis, American actor and activist (died 2005)

Ossie Davis was an American actor, director, writer, and activist. He was married to Ruby Dee, with whom he frequently performed, from 1948 until his death. He received numerous accolades including an Emmy, a Grammy and a Writers Guild of America Award as well as nominations for four additional Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and Tony Award. Davis was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1994 and received the National Medal of Arts in 1995, then Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.

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18/12/1916

Douglas Fraser, Scottish-American trade union leader and academic (died 2008)

Douglas Andrew Fraser was a Scottish–American union leader. He was president of the United Auto Workers from 1977 to 1983 and an adjunct professor of labor relations at Wayne State University for many years.

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Betty Grable, American actress, singer, and dancer (died 1973)

Elizabeth Ruth Grable was an American actress, pin-up girl, dancer, model, and singer. Her 42 films during the 1930s and 1940s grossed more than $100 million, and for 10 consecutive years (1942–1951) she placed among the Quigley Poll's top 10 box office stars. The U.S. Treasury Department listed her as the highest-salaried American woman in 1946 and 1947, and she earned more than $3 million during her career.

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18/12/1913

Alfred Bester, American author and screenwriter (died 1987)

Alfred Bester was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor, and scriptwriter for comics. He is best remembered for his science fiction, including the novel The Demolished Man, winner of the inaugural Hugo Award in 1953.

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Willy Brandt, German politician, 4th Chancellor of Germany, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1992)

Willy Brandt was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and concurrently served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1969 to 1974. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for his efforts to strengthen cooperation in Western Europe through the EEC and to achieve reconciliation between West Germany and the countries of Eastern Europe. He was the first Social Democratic chancellor since 1930.

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Ray Meyer, American basketball player and coach (died 2006)

Raymond Joseph Meyer was an American men's collegiate basketball coach from Chicago, Illinois. He was well known for coaching at DePaul University from 1942 to 1984, compiling a 724–354 record.

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18/12/1912

Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American general and pilot (died 2002)

Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. was a United States Air Force (USAF) general and commander of the World War II Tuskegee Airmen.

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18/12/1911

Jules Dassin, American-Greek actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2008)

Julius "Jules" Dassin was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, where he continued his career. He was best-known for his noir and crime films, though he also worked in other genres. He won the Best Director Award at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival for his pioneering heist film Rififi, and received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Never on Sunday (1960).

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18/12/1910

Abe Burrows, American author, playwright, and director (died 1985)

Abe Burrows was an American writer, composer, humorist, director for radio and the stage, and librettist for Broadway musicals. His versatile career in radio, Broadway, and television spanned many decades. He is best known for co-writing the book to the award-winning musicals Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

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Eric Tindill, New Zealand rugby player, cricketer, and umpire (died 2010)

Eric William Thomas Tindill was a New Zealand sportsman. Tindill held a number of unique records: he was the oldest ever Test cricketer at the time of his death, the only person to play Tests for New Zealand in both cricket and rugby union, and the only person ever to play Tests in both sports, referee a rugby union Test, and umpire a cricket Test: a unique "double-double".

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18/12/1908

Celia Johnson, English actress (died 1982)

Dame Celia Elizabeth Johnson was an English actress, whose career included stage, television and film. She is especially known for her roles in the films In Which We Serve (1942), This Happy Breed (1944), Brief Encounter (1945) and The Captain's Paradise (1953). For Brief Encounter, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. A six-time BAFTA Award nominee, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969).

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Paul Siple, American geographer and explorer (died 1969)

Paul Allman Siple was an American Antarctic explorer and geographer who took part in six Antarctic expeditions, including the two Byrd expeditions of 1928–1931 and 1933–1935. Siple was also a Sea Scout. His first and third books covered these adventures. With Charles F. Passel he developed the wind chill factor, a term coined by Siple.

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18/12/1907

Bill Holland, American race car driver (died 1984)

Willard Saulsbury Holland was an American racing driver from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He won the Indianapolis 500 in 1949 and finished second in 1947, 1948, and 1950. He was runner-up in the 1947 American Automobile Association (AAA) National Championship.

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Lawrence Lucie, American guitarist and educator (died 2009)

Lawrence Lucie was an American jazz guitarist.

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18/12/1904

George Stevens, American director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer (died 1975)

George Cooper Stevens was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for A Place in the Sun (1951) and Giant (1956).

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18/12/1899

Peter Wessel Zapffe, Norwegian philosopher and author (died 1990)

Peter Wessel Zapffe was a Norwegian philosopher, author, artist, lawyer and mountaineer. He is often noted for his philosophically pessimistic and fatalistic view of human existence. His system of philosophy was inspired by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, as well as his firm advocacy of antinatalism. His thoughts regarding the error of human life are presented in the essay "The Last Messiah". This essay is a shorter version of his best-known work, the philosophical treatise On the Tragic.

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18/12/1897

Fletcher Henderson, American pianist and composer (died 1952)

James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. He was one of the most prolific black musical arrangers and, along with Duke Ellington, is considered one of the most influential arrangers and bandleaders in jazz history. Henderson's influence was vast. He helped bridge the gap between the Dixieland and the swing eras. He was often known as "Smack" Henderson.

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18/12/1896

Gerald Barry, English colonel and cricketer (died 1977)

Gerald Barry MC was a career officer in the British Army who played in one first-class cricket match for the Combined Services against Essex.

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18/12/1890

Edwin Howard Armstrong, American engineer, invented FM radio (died 1954)

Edwin Howard Armstrong was an American radio-frequency engineer and inventor who developed FM radio and the superheterodyne receiver system.

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18/12/1888

Gladys Cooper, English actress and singer (died 1971)

Dame Gladys Constance Cooper was an English actress, theatrical manager and producer, whose career spanned seven decades on stage, in films and on television.

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Robert Moses, American urban planner (died 1981)

Robert Moses was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid-20th century. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influential people in the history of New York City and New York state. Moses' construction projects transformed the New York area and revolutionized the way urban areas across the United States were designed and built. His philosophy of urban development influenced a generation of engineers, architects, and urban planners across the United States.

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18/12/1887

Bhikhari Thakur, Indian actor, singer, and playwright (died 1971)

Bhikari Thakur was an Indian Bhojpuri language poet, playwright, lyricist, actor, folk dancer, folk singer and social activist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the Bhojpuri language and most popular folk writer of Purvanchal and Bihar. Thakur is often called the "Shakespeare of Bhojpuri" and "Rai Bahadur". His works consist of more than a dozen plays, Monologues, poems, and Bhajans, which were printed in nearly three dozen books. His noteworthy works include Bidesiya, Gabarghichor, Beti Bechwa and Bhai Birodh. Gabarghichor is often compared with Bertolt Brecht's play The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Thakur is known as the father of the naach folk theatre tradition. He is also credited as the first person to cast male actors in female roles.

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18/12/1886

Ty Cobb, American baseball player and manager (died 1961)

Tyrus Raymond Cobb, nicknamed "the Georgia Peach", was an American professional baseball center fielder. A native of rural Narrows, Georgia, Cobb played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He spent 22 years with the Detroit Tigers and served as the team's player-manager for the last six, and he finished his career with the Philadelphia Athletics. In 1936, Cobb received the most votes of any player on the inaugural ballot for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, receiving 222 out of a possible 226 votes (98.2%); no other player received a higher percentage of votes until Tom Seaver in 1992. In 1999, The Sporting News ranked Cobb third on its list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players."

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18/12/1884

Emil Starkenstein, Czech pharmacologist, co-founded clinical pharmacology (died 1942)

Emil Starkenstein was a Czech-Jewish pharmacologist and one of the founders of clinical pharmacology. He was killed in the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp along with a few hundred refugees from Amsterdam after an incident in which a Dutch Jew resisted a Nazi patrol.

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18/12/1882

Richard Maury, American-Argentinian engineer, designed the Salta–Antofagasta railway (died 1950)

Richard Fontaine Maury was an American railway engineer and naturalized Argentine. He became known for the project of the Argentine "Ramal C-14" of the Ferrocarril General Manuel Belgrano and the touristic Tren a las Nubes.

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18/12/1879

Paul Klee, Swiss-German painter and educator (died 1940)

Paul Klee was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism.

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18/12/1878

Joseph Stalin, Georgian-Russian marshal and politician,General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (died 1953)

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was a Soviet revolutionary and politician who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held office as the General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1922 to 1952 and as the premier from 1941 until his death. Despite initially governing the country as part of a collective leadership, he eventually consolidated power to become a dictator by the 1930s. Stalin codified the Communist Party's official interpretation of Marxism as Marxism–Leninism, and his version of it is referred to as Stalinism.

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18/12/1875

Matt McGrath, Irish-American hammer thrower (died 1941)

Matthew John McGrath was a member of the Irish American Athletic Club, the New York Athletic Club, and the New York City Police Department. At the time of his death at age 64, he attained the rank of Police Inspector, and during his career received the NYPD's Medal of Valor twice. He competed for the U.S. team in the Olympics in 1908, 1912, 1920 and 1924. In his prime, he was known as "one of the world's greatest weight throwers."

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18/12/1873

Francis Burton Harrison, American general and politician, 6th Governor-General of the Philippines (died 1957)

Francis Burton Harrison was an American-Filipino statesman who served four terms in the United States House of Representatives between 1903 and 1913 and was appointed governor-general of the Philippines by President of the United States Woodrow Wilson. Harrison was a prominent adviser to the president of the Philippine Commonwealth, as well as the next four presidents of the Republic of the Philippines. He is the only former governor-general of the Philippines to be awarded Philippine citizenship.

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18/12/1870

Saki, British short story writer (died 1916)

Hector Hugh Munro, popularly known by his pen name Saki and also frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirise Edwardian society and culture. He is considered to be a master of the short story and is often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. Influenced by Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling, Munro himself influenced A. A. Milne, Noël Coward and P. G. Wodehouse.

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18/12/1869

Edward Willis Redfield, American painter and educator (died 1965)

Edward Willis Redfield was an American Impressionist landscape painter and member of the art colony at New Hope, Pennsylvania. He is best known today for his impressionist scenes of the New Hope area, often depicting the snow-covered countryside. He also spent his summers on Boothbay Harbor, Maine, where he interpreted the local coastline. He frequently painted Maine's Monhegan Island.

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18/12/1867

Foxhall P. Keene, American polo player and horse breeder (died 1941)

Foxhall Parker Keene was an American thoroughbred race horse owner and breeder, a world and Olympic gold medallist in polo, and an amateur tennis player. He was rated the best all-around polo player in the United States for eight consecutive years, a golfer who competed in the U.S. Open, and a pioneer racecar driver who vied for the Gordon Bennett Cup. In addition to his substantial involvement in flat racing, he was also a founding member of the National Steeplechase Association.

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18/12/1863

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (died 1914)

Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I.

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18/12/1861

Lionel Monckton, English composer and critic (died 1924)

Lionel John Alexander Monckton was an English composer of musical theatre. He became Britain's most popular composer of Edwardian musical comedy in the early years of the 20th century.

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18/12/1860

Edward MacDowell, American pianist and composer (died 1908)

Edward Alexander MacDowell was an American composer and pianist of the late Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites Woodland Sketches, Sea Pieces and New England Idylls. Woodland Sketches includes his most popular short piece, "To a Wild Rose". In 1904 he was one of the first seven Americans honored by membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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18/12/1856

J. J. Thomson, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1940)

Sir Joseph John Thomson was a British physicist. He received the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics "in recognition of the great merits of his theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases." In 1897, he showed that cathode rays were composed of previously unknown negatively charged particles, which he calculated must have bodies much smaller than atoms and a very large charge-to-mass ratio. The electron was the first subatomic particle to be discovered.

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18/12/1849

Henrietta Edwards, Canadian activist and author (died 1931)

Henrietta Muir Edwards was a Canadian women's rights activist, author and reformer. She was the eldest of "The Famous Five", along with Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney and Irene Parlby, who fought to have women recognized as "persons" under the law, and for the woman's right to vote in elections.

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18/12/1847

Augusta Holmès, French pianist and composer (died 1903)

Augusta Mary Anne Holmès was a French composer of Irish descent. In 1871, while living with the poet Catulle Mendès, Holmès became a French national and added the accent to her last name. She also published music under the name Hermann Zenta. She wrote the texts to almost all of her vocal music herself, including songs, oratorios, the libretto of her opera La Montagne noire and the programmatic poems for her symphonic poems including Irlande and Andromède.

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18/12/1835

Lyman Abbott, American minister, theologian, and author (died 1922)

Lyman J. Abbott was an American Congregationalist theologian, editor, and author.

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18/12/1825

Charles Griffin, American general (died 1876)

Charles Griffin was a career officer in the United States Army and a Union general in the American Civil War. He rose to command a corps in the Army of the Potomac and fought in many of the key campaigns in the Eastern Theater.

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John S. Harris, American surveyor and politician (died 1906)

John Spafford Harris was an American politician for the state of Louisiana and member of the Republican Party. Born to a farm family in Truxton, New York, Harris was a delegate to the Louisiana state constitutional convention in 1868. He was a member of Louisiana State Senate in 1868 and the first Republican U.S. Senator from Louisiana, serving from 1868 to 1871. Harris was buried at Forestvale Cemetery in Helena, Montana.

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Mariano Ignacio Prado, Peruvian general, twice President of Peru (died 1901)

Mariano Ignacio Prado Ochoa was a Peruvian army general who served twice as President of Peru.

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18/12/1824

John Hall, English-New Zealand politician, 12th Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1907)

Sir John Hall was a New Zealand politician who served as the 12th premier of New Zealand from 1879 to 1882. He was born in Kingston upon Hull, England, the third son of George Hall, a captain in the navy. At the age of ten he was sent to school in Switzerland and his education continued in Paris and Hamburg. After returning to England and being employed by the Post Office, at the age of 27 he decided to emigrate. He was also Mayor of Christchurch.

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18/12/1800

James Watney, English brewer and businessman (died 1884)

James Watney was an English brewer and landowner who resided at Haling Park, Croydon, and Beddington, Surrey.

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18/12/1734

Jean-Baptiste Rey, French conductor and composer (died 1810)

Jean-Baptiste Rey was a French conductor and composer.

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18/12/1725

Johann Salomo Semler, German historian and theologian (died 1791)

Johann Salomo Semler was a German church historian, biblical commentator, and critic of ecclesiastical documents and of the history of dogmas. He is sometimes known as "the father of German rationalism".

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18/12/1707

Charles Wesley, English missionary and composer (died 1788)

Charles Wesley was an English Anglican cleric and a principal leader of the Methodist movement. Wesley was a prolific hymnwriter who wrote over 6,500 hymns during his lifetime. His works include "And Can It Be", "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing", "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today", "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling", the carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", and "Lo! He Comes With Clouds Descending".

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18/12/1662

James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry, Scottish colonel and politician, Secretary of State for Scotland (died 1711)

James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry and 1st Duke of Dover was a Scottish statesman who was a leading politician in Scotland during the late 17th and the early 18th centuries. As Lord High Commissioner he was instrumental in negotiating and passing the Acts of Union 1707 with England, which created the Kingdom of Great Britain.

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18/12/1661

Christopher Polhem, Swedish physicist and inventor (died 1751)

Christopher Polhammar better known as Christopher Polhem, which he took after his ennoblement in 1716, was a Swedish scientist, inventor, and industrialist. He made significant contributions to the economic and industrial development of Sweden, particularly mining. He was ennobled by King Charles XII of Sweden for his contributions to Swedish technological development.

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18/12/1660

Countess Johanna Magdalene of Hanau-Lichtenberg (died 1715)

Countess Johanna Magdalene of Hanau-Lichtenberg was a German noblewoman, by birth member of the House of Hanau.

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18/12/1626

Christina, Queen of Sweden (died 1689)

Christina, a member of the House of Vasa, was Queen of Sweden from 1632 until her abdication in 1654. Her conversion to Catholicism and refusal to marry led her to relinquish her throne and move to Rome.

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18/12/1624

John Hull, colonial American merchant and politician (died 1683)

John Hull was an English-born merchant, silversmith, slave trader and politician who spent the majority of his life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. After arriving in North America, he worked as a silversmith in Boston before becoming the moneyer responsible for issuing the colony's pine tree shillings in the mid-17th century. Hull was also a successful merchant and engaged in slave-trading on multiple occasions. He was also an early benefactor of Harvard College and a co-founder of the Old South Church.

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18/12/1620

Heinrich Roth, German missionary and scholar (died 1668)

Heinrich Roth, also known as Henricus Rodius or Henrique Roa, was a German missionary and pioneering Sanskrit scholar.

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18/12/1610

Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange, French philologist and historian (died 1688)

Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange, also known simply as Charles Dufresne, was a French philologist and historian of the Middle Ages and Byzantium.

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18/12/1602

Simonds d'Ewes, English historian and politician (died 1650)

Sir Simonds d'Ewes, 1st Baronet was an English antiquary and politician. He was bred for the bar, was a member of the Long Parliament and left notes on its transactions. D'Ewes took the Puritan side in the Civil War. His Journal of all the Parliaments of Elizabeth is of value; he left an Autobiography and Correspondence.

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18/12/1590

William Louis, Count of Nassau-Saarbrücken (died 1640)

William Louis of Nassau-Saarbrücken, was a Count of Saarbrücken.

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18/12/1552

Ahmad Ibn al-Qadi, Moroccan writer, judge and mathematician (died 1616)

Shihab al-Din abu l-‘Abbas Ahmad ibn Mohammed ibn Mohammed ibn Ahmed ibn Ali ibn 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi'l-'Afiyya al-Miknasi az-Zanati, known simply as Ahmad ibn al-Qadi or Ibn al-Qadi (1552/1553–1616), was a Maghrebi polygraph. He was the leading writer from Ahmad al-Mansur's court next to Abd al-Aziz al-Fishtali.

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18/12/1507

Ōuchi Yoshitaka, Japanese daimyō (died 1551)

Ōuchi Yoshitaka was the daimyō of Suō Province and the head of the Ōuchi clan, succeeding Ōuchi Yoshioki.

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18/12/1505

Philipp von Hutten, German explorer (died 1546)

Philipp von Hutten was a German adventurer and an early European explorer and conquistador of Venezuela. He is a significant figure in the history of Klein-Venedig, the concession of Venezuela Province to the Welser banking family by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain.

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18/12/1499

Sebald Heyden, German musicologist and theologian (died 1561)

Sebald Heyden was a German musicologist, cantor, theologian, hymn-writer and religious poet. A member of the Haiden family of Nuremberg, he is perhaps best known for his De arte canendi which is considered to have had a major impact on scholarship and the teaching of singing to young boys. He wrote hymns such as "O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß". It has been speculated that Heyden was the world's first true musicologist.

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18/12/1481

Sophie of Mecklenburg, Duchess of Mecklenburg, Duchess of Saxony (died 1503)

Sophie of Mecklenburg, also spelled Sophia was a German noblewoman. She was a Duchess of Mecklenburg by birth and by marriage Electoral Princess of Saxony.

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18/12/1406

Richard Olivier de Longueil, French Roman Catholic bishop and cardinal (died 1470)

Richard Olivier de Longueil (1406–1470) was a French Roman Catholic bishop and cardinal.

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