20th December — International Human Solidarity Day

On this day, 172 notable people were born on 20th December — spanning from 1494 to 2001. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

20/12/2001

Facundo Pellistri, Uruguayan footballer

Facundo Pellistri Rebollo is a Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a winger for Greek Super League club Panathinaikos and the Uruguay national team.

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20/12/2000

Gaboro, Assyrian Swedish rapper and songwriter (died 2024)

Ninos Moses Khouri, better known as Gaboro, was a Swedish rapper and songwriter.

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20/12/1998

Kylian Mbappé, French footballer

Kylian Mbappé Lottin is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for La Liga club Real Madrid and captains the France national team. Widely regarded as one of the best players in the world, he is known for his pace, dribbling, and clinical finishing.

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20/12/1997

De'Aaron Fox, American basketball player

De'Aaron Martez Fox is an American professional basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats before being selected fifth overall by the Sacramento Kings in the 2017 NBA draft. Fox had a breakout season in 2023, earning his first All-Star selection, an All-NBA Team nod, and was named NBA Clutch Player of the Year while leading the Kings to their first postseason berth since 2006. He also led the league in steals in 2024. Traded to the Spurs at the 2025 trade deadline, Fox earned his second All-Star selection in 2026 and reached the NBA Finals with the team later that season.

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Suzuka Nakamoto, Japanese singer

Suzuka Nakamoto , better known by her stage name Su-metal, is a Japanese singer. She is best known as a member of the kawaii metal band Babymetal and was formerly a member of the idol groups Karen Girl's and Sakura Gakuin. She is represented by the talent agency Amuse Inc.

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20/12/1996

Jarrod Bowen, English football player

Jarrod Bowen is an English professional footballer who plays as a right winger or forward for EFL Championship club West Ham United and the England national team.

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20/12/1995

Anžejs Pasečņiks, Latvian basketball player

Anžejs Pasečņiks is a Latvian professional basketball player for the Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers of the Taiwan Professional Basketball League (TPBL).

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20/12/1994

Calvin Ridley, American football player

Calvin Orin Ridley is an American professional football wide receiver for the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide, where he was a part of the national championship-winning teams in 2015 and 2017. Drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in the first round of the 2018 NFL draft, he was named to the PFWA All-Rookie Team and earned second-team All-Pro honors in 2020.

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20/12/1993

Andrea Belotti, Italian footballer

Andrea Belotti is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club Cagliari.

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Robeisy Ramírez, Cuban boxer

Robeisy Eloy Ramírez Carrazana is a Cuban professional boxer who held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) featherweight title in 2023. As an amateur, Ramírez won gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

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20/12/1992

Ksenia Makarova, Russian-American figure skater

Ksenia Olegovna Makarova is a retired Russian, later an American, figure skater. She is the 2010 Skate Canada International silver medalist, 2009 Cup of Nice champion, and 2010 Russian national champion. She represented Russia at the 2010 Winter Olympics, where she placed 10th.

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20/12/1991

Rachael Boyle, Scottish footballer

Rachael Boyle is a Scottish international footballer who currently plays as midfielder for Hibernian in the Scottish Women's Premier League.

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Jorginho, Brazilian footballer

Jorge Luiz Frello Filho, known as Jorginho, is a professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Flamengo. Born in Brazil, he represented the Italy national team.

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Jillian Rose Reed, American actress

Jillian Rose Reed is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Tamara Kaplan in MTV's TV series Awkward.

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Fabian Schär, Swiss footballer

Fabian Lukas Schär is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Premier League club Newcastle United. He is known for his powerful free kicks, long shots and long passes.

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20/12/1990

JoJo, American singer and actress

Joanna Noëlle "JoJo" Levesque is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She began performing in singing competitions and local talent shows as a child. In 2003, record producer Vincent Herbert noticed her after she competed on the television show America's Most Talented Kids and asked her to audition for his record label Blackground Records. After signing with the label, JoJo released her debut album JoJo in 2004. It peaked at number four on the U.S. Billboard 200 and was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), selling over four million copies worldwide to date.

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Marta Xargay, Spanish basketball player

Marta Xargay Casademont is a retired Spanish professional basketball player. She played for Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA, and for several European teams in Czech Republic, Russia and Spain. She played for the Spain women's national basketball team from 2011 to 2020. She won EuroLeague Women 2010–11 with Perfumerías Avenida Baloncesto. She left Spain in 2015, joining both USK Praha of the Czech League in 2015 and the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA on 11 February 2015. In September 2018, she signed for Dynamo Kursk of the Russian Premier League and in January 2020, she returned to her youth club Uni Girona CB. After not playing in the 2020-21 season, she announced her retirement in July 2021.

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20/12/1987

Malcolm Jenkins, American football player

Malcolm Jenkins is an American former professional football player who was a safety for 13 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Ohio State Buckeyes, earning consensus All-American honors, and winning the Jim Thorpe Award as a senior. He was selected by the New Orleans Saints in the first round of the 2009 NFL draft and played for the Philadelphia Eagles from 2014 to 2019.

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20/12/1986

Chay Genoway, Canadian ice hockey player

Charles "Chay" Genoway is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman. He is currently playing with EC Red Bull Salzburg of the ICE Hockey League (ICEHL). He was selected and played for the Canadian men's ice hockey team at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

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20/12/1984

Bob Morley, Australian actor

Robert Alfred Morley is an Australian actor. He is known for his role as Bellamy Blake in The CW's The 100 (2014–2020).

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David Tavaré, Spanish singer and DJ

David Tavaré is a Spanish singer and house music DJ.

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20/12/1983

Jonah Hill, American actor, producer, and screenwriter

Jonah Hill is an American actor and filmmaker. Hill ranked 28th on Forbes's list of highest-paid actors from June 2014 to June 2015, at $16 million. Among his accolades are nominations for two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and two Golden Globe Awards.

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20/12/1982

Mohammad Asif, Pakistani cricketer

Mohammad Asif is a Pakistani former cricketer who played for the Pakistani national cricket team between 2005 and 2010.

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David Cook, American singer-songwriter

David Roland Cook is an American rock singer-songwriter. Cook rose to fame after winning the seventh season of American Idol in 2008.

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Kasper Klausen, Danish footballer

Kasper Klausen is a Danish professional football midfielder, who currently is playing for Hvidovre IF.

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David Wright, American baseball player

David Allen Wright is an American former professional baseball third baseman who spent his entire 14-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the New York Mets. Chosen by the Mets in the 2001 MLB draft, he made his MLB debut on July 21, 2004 at Shea Stadium. Internationally, Wright represented the United States. Wright was nicknamed "Captain America" after his performance in the 2013 World Baseball Classic where he led the tournament with 10 RBI and a .438 batting average and was named to the All-World Baseball Classic Team.

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20/12/1981

Royal Ivey, American basketball player and coach

Royal Terence Ivey is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is also the head coach of the South Sudan national team, who he coached at the 2023 World Cup and 2024 Olympics. He played college basketball for the Texas Longhorns before spending 10 years in the NBA.

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James Shields, American baseball player

James Anthony Shields, nicknamed "Big Game James", is an American former professional baseball starting pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Tampa Bay Rays from 2006 through 2012, the Kansas City Royals in 2013 and 2014, the San Diego Padres in 2015 and 2016, and the Chicago White Sox from 2016 to 2018. He was an All Star in 2011.

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20/12/1980

Israel Castro, Mexican footballer

Israel Castro Macías is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder.

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Ashley Cole, English footballer

Ashley Cole is an English football coach and former player, who is currently the head coach of Serie B club Cesena. As a player, he played as a left-back, most notably for Arsenal and Chelsea. Cole is considered by many critics and fellow professional players one of the best defenders of his generation, one of the greatest English players of all time as well as one of the greatest left-backs in the history of the sport.

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Anthony da Silva, French-Portuguese footballer

Anthony da Silva, commonly known as Tony, is a former professional footballer who played as a right-back.

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Martín Demichelis, Argentine footballer

Martín Gastón Demichelis is an Argentine football manager and former player who is the head coach of club RB Leipzig.

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20/12/1979

Michael Rogers, Australian cyclist

Michael Rogers is an Australian retired professional road bicycle racer who competed professionally between 1999 and 2016, for the Mapei–Quick-Step, Quick-Step–Innergetic, Team HTC–Columbia, Team Sky and Tinkoff teams. He is a three-time World Time Trial Champion, winning consecutively in 2003, 2004 and 2005, and won Grand Tour stages at the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia.

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20/12/1978

Yoon Kye-sang, South Korean singer

Yoon Kye-sang is a South Korean actor and singer. He began his career in 1999 as part of the K-pop boy band g.o.d, then left the group in 2004 and pursued an acting career. He made his acting debut in the film Flying Boys (2004), for which he won Best New Actor at the Baeksang Arts Awards. Yoon became active in both television and film, with leading roles in romantic comedies such as My 19 Year Old Sister-in-Law (2004) and Who Are You? (2008) and the melodrama Crazy for You (2007), as well as more serious fare in The Moonlight of Seoul (2008) and The Executioner (2009). After a supporting turn in the hit series The Greatest Love (2011), he returned to the big screen in the well-received indie Poongsan (2011).

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Andrei Markov, Russian-Canadian ice hockey player

Andrei Viktorovich Markov is a Russian–Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Nicknamed "the General", Markov played as a defenceman from 2000 to 2017 with the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL). He holds both Russian and Canadian citizenship.

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Geremi Njitap, Cameroon footballer

Geremi Sorele Njitap Fotso, known simply as Geremi, is a Cameroonian former professional footballer. He was a versatile player able to play at right-back, right midfield or defensive midfielder, known for his power, pace, combative style and free-kick ability.

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Bouabdellah Tahri, French runner

Bouabdellah Tahri, also known as Bob Tahri, is a retired middle-distance and long-distance French runner, who was born in Metz. He competed mainly in the 3000 m steeplechase distance. He also competes in the 2000 m steeplechase, 1500 m, mile, 3000 m, 5000 m, 10000 m and cross-country running. He has won several medals at major international championships such as the World Championships, European Championships and the European Indoor Championships. Moreover, he has won medals in the European Cup, European Team Championships, IAAF World Cup, IAAF Continental Cup and the IAAF World Athletics Final.

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20/12/1976

Nenad Vučković, Croatian footballer

Nenad Vučković is a Croatian retired footballer.

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20/12/1975

Bartosz Bosacki, Polish footballer

Bartosz Bosacki is a Polish former professional footballer who played as a centre-back.

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20/12/1974

Die, Japanese guitarist, songwriter, and producer

Dir En Grey is a Japanese heavy metal band formed in February 1997 and currently signed to Firewall Div., a sub-division of Free-Will. With a consistent lineup of vocalist Kyo, guitarists Kaoru and Die, bassist Toshiya, and drummer Shinya, they have released twelve full-length albums. Numerous stylistic changes have made the genre of their music difficult to determine, though it is generally considered to be a form of metal. Originally a visual kei band, the members later opted for more subtle attire, but have continued to maintain a dramatic image on stage.

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20/12/1972

Jan Čaloun, Czech ice hockey player

Jan Čaloun is a Czech former professional hockey player. He is 180 cm tall, 80 kg (180 lb) in weight. He shoots right and plays right wing. He was drafted by the San Jose Sharks in the fourth round, 75th overall in the 1992 NHL entry draft. Čaloun experienced success at the minor pro level, playing for the Kansas City Blades and Kentucky Thoroughblades, but was unable to make the big jump to the NHL. However, he did manage to score goals on his first four shots while playing for the Sharks. In 1998 he was a member of the Czech Olympic Team, which won the gold medal in Nagano.

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Anders Odden, Norwegian guitarist, songwriter, and producer

Anders Odden is a Norwegian musician.

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20/12/1970

Nicole de Boer, Canadian actress

Nicole de Boer is a Canadian actress. She is best known for starring in the cult film Cube as Joan Leaven, playing Ezri Dax on the final season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1998–1999), and as Sarah Bannerman on the series The Dead Zone (2002–2007). From 2016 to 2021, she had a recurring role as Becca D' Orsay, ex-wife of one of the series leads on the Canadian-produced crime drama Private Eyes.

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Grant Flower, Zimbabwean cricketer and coach

Grant William Flower is a Zimbabwean cricket coach and former cricketer. He has been the batting coach of the Sri Lanka cricket team, Pakistan cricket team, and Sussex.

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Jörg Schmidt, German footballer

Jörg Schmidt is a German former professional footballer who played as a right midfielder.

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20/12/1969

Alain de Botton, Swiss-English philosopher and author

Alain de Botton is a Swiss-born British author and public speaker. His books discuss various contemporary subjects and themes, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. He published Essays in Love (1993), which went on to sell two million copies. Other bestsellers include How Proust Can Change Your Life (1997), Status Anxiety (2004), and The Architecture of Happiness (2006).

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Zahra Ouaziz, Moroccan runner

Zahra Ouaziz is a Moroccan retired long-distance runner. She was the African record holder at 3000 metres and 5000 metres.

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20/12/1968

Karl Wendlinger, Austrian racing driver

Karl Wendlinger is an Austrian professional racing and former Formula One driver.

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20/12/1966

Veronica Pershina, Russian-American figure skater and coach

Veronica Petrovna Pershina or Voyk is a former competitive pair skater who competed for the Soviet Union. With Marat Akbarov, she is the 1985 European bronze medalist and 1979 World Junior champion.

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Chris Robinson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Christopher Mark Robinson is an American musician. He founded the rock band The Black Crowes, then known as Mr. Crowe's Garden, with his brother Rich Robinson in 1984. Chris is the lead singer of The Black Crowes, and he and his brother are the only continuous members of the Crowes. He was the vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the Chris Robinson Brotherhood, which toured and recorded from 2011 through 2019. The band broke up after the death of guitarist, Neal Casal, and the Crowes’ return from hiatus, respectively. Robinson is noted for his high tenor vocal range and bluesy vocal runs.

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20/12/1963

Joel Gretsch, American actor

Joel Gretsch is an American actor. His credits include The 4400 (2004–2007), Taken (2002), V (2009–2011), Friends (1995), Saved by the Bell: The New Class (1994), JAG (1999), Silk Stalkings, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Burn Notice, NCIS, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Journeyman, The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), Minority Report (2002), The Emperor's Club (2002), National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007), The Vampire Diaries (2016–2017), and All Rise (2020).

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20/12/1961

Mohammad Fouad, Egyptian singer-songwriter and actor

Mohamed Fouad Abd El Hamid Hassan is an Egyptian singer, actor and songwriter.

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20/12/1960

Nalo Hopkinson, Jamaican-Canadian author and educator

Nalo Hopkinson is a Jamaican-born Canadian speculative fiction writer and editor. Her novels – Brown Girl in the Ring (1998), Midnight Robber (2000), The Salt Roads (2003), The New Moon's Arms (2007) – and short stories such as those in her collection Skin Folk (2001) often draw on Caribbean history and language, and its traditions of oral and written storytelling.

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Kim Ki-duk, South Korean director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2020)

Kim Ki-duk was a South Korean filmmaker, noted for his idiosyncratic art-house cinematic works. His films have received many distinctions in the festival circuit, rendering him one of the most important contemporary Asian film directors.

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20/12/1959

George Coupland, Scottish scientist

George Michael Coupland FRS is a Scottish plant scientist, and Research Scientist and Director of the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research.

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Hildegard Körner, German runner

Hildegard Körner, née Hildegard Ullrich, is a retired East German middle distance runner who specialized in the 800 metres.

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Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, Polish physicist and politician, 12th Prime Minister of Poland

Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is a Polish conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of Poland from 31 October 2005 to 14 July 2006. He was a member of the Law and Justice party.

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20/12/1958

Doug Nordquist, American high jumper

Douglas Nordquist is a retired male high jumper from the United States, who competed at the 1984 Summer Olympics where he ended up in fifth place with a jump of 2.29 metres, one place behind distant cousin Dwight Stones. He was TAC high jump champion in 1986 and 1988, and placed second at the 1984 Olympic Trials behind Stones. He competed for Sonora High School, finishing a three-way tie for third place at the 1977 CIF California State Meet. While at Fullerton Community College he won the 1979 California Community College Championships, Washington State University where he was coached by 1968 Olympian Rick Sloan. After graduation he was coached by Jim Kiefer and competed for and Tiger International. He was a practitioner of Washington State's specialized weight training for high jumpers He set his personal record of 2.36m while finishing second in a jumpoff at the USATF National Championships at Cerritos College in Norwalk, California on June 15, 1990. Alan Hankle and Athleticorp was his coach.

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James Thomson, American biologist and academic

James Alexander Thomson is an American developmental biologist best known for deriving the first human embryonic stem cell line in 1998 and for deriving human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) in 2007.

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20/12/1957

Billy Bragg, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Stephen William Bragg is an English singer, songwriter, musician, author and political activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic themes. His activism is centred on social change and left-wing political causes.

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Anna Vissi, Cypriot singer-songwriter and actress

Anna Vissi is a Greek-Cypriot singer. She studied music at conservatories and performed locally before moving to the professional scene in Athens, in 1973, where she signed with Minos and simultaneously collaborated with other musical artists and released promotional singles of her own while studying at the University of Athens. She has represented Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1980 and 2006, and Cyprus in 1982.

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Mike Watt, American singer-songwriter and bass player

Michael David Watt is an American bassist, vocalist and songwriter. He co-founded and played bass guitar for the rock bands Minutemen (1980–1985), Dos (1985–present), and Firehose (1986–1994). He began a solo career with the 1995 album Ball-Hog or Tugboat? and has since released three additional solo albums, most recently in 2010 with Hyphenated-man. He is also the frontman for the supergroup Big Walnuts Yonder (2008–present), a member of the art rock group Banyan (1997–present) and is involved with several other musical projects. From 2003 until 2013, he was the bass guitarist for The Stooges.

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20/12/1956

Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Mauritanian general and politician, President of Mauritania

Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz is a retired Mauritanian military officer and politician who served as the 8th President of Mauritania from 2009 to 2019.

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Guy Babylon, American keyboard player and songwriter (died 2009)

Guy Babylon was an American keyboardist/composer, most noted for his work with Elton John.

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Blanche Baker, American actress and screenwriter

Blanche Baker is an American actress. She won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actress for her work in the television miniseries Holocaust. Baker is known for her role as Ginny Baker in Sixteen Candles; she also starred in the title role of Lolita on Broadway. In 2012, she produced and starred in a film about Ruth Madoff titled Ruth Madoff Occupies Wall Street.

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Junji Hirata, Japanese wrestler

Junji Hirata is a Japanese retired professional wrestler currently working as a trainer for the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion, known primarily by his ring name Super Strong Machine .

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Andrew Mackenzie, Scottish geologist and businessman

Sir Andrew Stewart Mackenzie is a Scottish businessman, who is the chairman of Shell plc and UK Research and Innovation, and formerly CEO of BHP, the world's largest mining company. He succeeded Marius Kloppers, on 10 May 2013, and was succeeded by Mike Henry, at the start of 2020.

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Anita Ward, American disco/R&B singer

Anita Ward (sources differ) is an American singer and musician from Memphis, Tennessee. Beginning her professional music career in the late 1970s, Ward is best known for her 1979 million-selling chart-topper R&B/Disco hit "Ring My Bell": it was no. 1 on the United States Hot 100, R&B, and Dance charts, and in the United Kingdom.

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20/12/1955

Martin Schulz, German politician

Martin Schulz is a German politician who was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Germany from 1994 to 2017 and a Member of the Bundestag (MdB) from 2017 to 2021. During his tenure he was Leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats from 2004 to 2012, President of the European Parliament from 2012 to 2017 and Leader of the Social Democratic Party from 2017 to 2018.

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Binali Yıldırım, Turkish lawyer and politician, Turkish Minister of Transport

Binali Yıldırım is a Turkish politician who served as the 27th and last prime minister of Turkey from 2016 to 2018 and Speaker of the Grand National Assembly from 2018 to 2019. He was leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) from 2016 to 2017, then becoming parliamentary leader until 2018.

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20/12/1954

Michael Badalucco, American actor

Michael Badalucco is an American actor. He made his screen debut in the film Raging Bull (1980) and subsequently appeared in many films such as Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Miller's Crossing (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), Mac (1992), Léon: The Professional (1994), Summer of Sam (1999), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023). His breakthrough role came as attorney Jimmy Berlutti in the television series The Practice (1997–2004), for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1999.

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Sandra Cisneros, American author and poet

Sandra Cisneros is an American writer. She is best known for her first novel, The House on Mango Street (1984), and her subsequent short story collection, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991). Her work includes experimentation with emerging subject positions, which Cisneros attributes to growing up in a context of cultural hybridity and economic inequality that endowed her with unique stories to tell. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, was awarded one of 25 new Ford Foundation Art of Change fellowships in 2017, and is regarded as a key figure in Chicano literature.

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20/12/1952

Jenny Agutter, English actress

Jennifer Ann Agutter is an English actress. She began her career as a child actress in 1964, appearing in East of Sudan, Star!, and two adaptations of The Railway Children: the BBC's 1968 television serial and the 1970 film version. In 1971 she also starred in the critically acclaimed film Walkabout and the TV film The Snow Goose, for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama.

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20/12/1951

Nuala O'Loan, Baroness O'Loan, Northern Irish academic and police ombudsman

Nuala Patricia O'Loan, Baroness O'Loan,, is a public figure in Northern Ireland. From 1999 to 2007, she was the first Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. In July 2009, it was announced that she was to be appointed to the House of Lords and she was so appointed in September 2009. In December 2010, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, appointed her as the chairwoman of its governing authority. She is a columnist with The Irish Catholic.

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Marta Russell, American author and activist (died 2013)

Marta Russell was an American writer and disability rights activist. Her book, Beyond Ramps: Disability at the End of the Social Contract, published in 1998 by Common Courage Press, analyzes the relationship between disability, social Darwinism, and austerity. Her political views, which she described as "left, not liberal," informed her writing on topics such as health care, the prison–industrial complex, assisted suicide, poverty, ableism, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

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20/12/1950

Arturo Márquez, Mexican-American composer

Arturo Márquez Navarro is a Mexican composer of orchestral music who uses musical forms and styles of his native Mexico and incorporates them into his compositions. His best known work is Danzón No. 2.

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20/12/1949

Soumaïla Cissé, Malian engineer and politician (died 2020)

Soumaïla Cissé was a Malian politician who served in the government of Mali as Minister of Finance from 1993 to 2000.

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Cecil Cooper, American baseball player and manager

Cecil Celester Cooper is an American former professional baseball player, coach, manager and sports agent. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a first baseman from 1971 to 1987 for the Boston Red Sox and the Milwaukee Brewers. Cooper was a member of the Red Sox team that won the 1975 American League pennant but he rose to prominence as a member of the Brewers, where he became a five-time American League All-Star player and a two-time American League RBI champion.

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20/12/1948

Alan Parsons, English keyboard player and producer

Alan Parsons is an English audio engineer, songwriter, musician, singer and record producer.

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Mitsuko Uchida, Japanese pianist

Dame Mitsuko Uchida, is a Japanese-English classical pianist and conductor. Born in Japan and naturalised in England, she is particularly notable for her interpretations of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.

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20/12/1947

Gigliola Cinquetti, Italian singer-songwriter

Gigliola Cinquetti is an Italian singer, songwriter and television presenter.

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20/12/1946

Uri Geller, Israeli-English magician and psychic

Uri Geller is an Israeli-British illusionist, magician, television personality, and self-proclaimed psychic. He is known for his trademark television performances of spoon bending and other illusions. Geller uses conjuring tricks to simulate the effects of psychokinesis and telepathy. Geller's career as an entertainer has spanned more than four decades, with television shows and appearances in many countries. Several magicians have dismissed Geller’s claims of possessing psychic powers, arguing that his effects can be replicated by others using standard stage magic techniques.

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Bill Hosket Jr., American basketball player

Wilmer Frederick Hosket is an American former professional basketball player. He played five seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and played college basketball for the Ohio State Buckeyes.

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Sonny Perdue, American politician, 31st United States Secretary of Agriculture, 81st Governor of Georgia

George Ervin "Sonny" Perdue III is an American politician, veterinarian, and businessman who served as the 31st United States secretary of agriculture from 2017 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 81st governor of Georgia from 2003 to 2011 and as a member of the Georgia State Senate from 1991 to 2002.

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Dick Wolf, American director, producer, and screenwriter

Richard Anthony Wolf is an American television producer best known for his Law & Order franchise. Since 1990, the franchise has included six police/courtroom dramas and four international spin-offs. He is also the co-creator and executive producer of the Chicago franchise and the co-creator and executive producer of the FBI franchise.

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20/12/1945

Peter Criss, American singer-songwriter, drummer, and producer

George Peter John Criscuola, better known by his stage name Peter Criss, is an American musician, best known as a co-founder, original drummer, and a vocalist of the hard rock band Kiss. Criss established the Catman character for his Kiss persona. In 2014 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Kiss.

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Sivakant Tiwari, Indian-Singaporean lawyer and author (died 2010)

Sivakant Tiwari, P.P.A.(E.), P.B.S., P.P.A.(E.)(L.), P.J.G., known professionally as S. Tiwari, was a senior legal officer of the Singapore Legal Service. He was educated at the University of Singapore, graduating in law in 1971. He then made the Legal Service his career, serving as head of the Ministry of Defence's legal department (1974), and head of the Attorney-General's Chambers' Civil Division (1987) and International Affairs Division (1995). He was lead counsel in three significant commissions of inquiry arising out of fatal incidents in the 1970s and 1980s. A skilled negotiator, Tiwari was a member of the Singapore delegation which dealt with the United States – Singapore Free Trade Agreement signed in 2003, and served as legal adviser to the delegation which established diplomatic relations between Singapore and the People's Republic of China. He was also on Singapore's legal team in a case concluded in 2003 that had been brought by Malaysia to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for provisional measures against alleged damage to its territorial waters due to land reclamation by Singapore, and in the territorial dispute with Malaysia over Pedra Branca before the International Court of Justice in 2007.

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20/12/1944

Ray Martin, Australian television host and journalist

Raymond George Martin AM is an Australian television journalist and entertainment personality. Having won the Gold Logie five times, he is the most awarded star of Australian television, along with Graham Kennedy.

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20/12/1942

Rana Bhagwandas, Pakistani lawyer and judge, Chief Justice of Pakistan (died 2015)

Rana Bhagwandas was a Pakistani jurist who served as a judge and acting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (CJP). He enjoyed extremely high reputation as a judge. He remained the acting CJP during the 2007 judicial crisis in Pakistan, and also briefly became the acting Chief Justice of Pakistan when the incumbent Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry went on foreign tours in 2005 and 2006, and thus became the first Hindu and the second non-Muslim to serve as chief of the highest court in Pakistan. Rana Bhagwandas also worked as the Chairman of Federal Public Service Commission of Pakistan. He headed the interview panel for the selection of the federal civil servants in 2009.

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Bob Hayes, American sprinter and football player (died 2002)

Robert Lee Hayes, nicknamed "Bullet Bob", was an American sprinter and professional football player. After winning gold medals at the 1964 Summer Olympics, he played as a split end in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys. Hayes is the only athlete to win both an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring. He was a two-sport standout in college in both track and field and football at Florida A&M University. Hayes was enshrined in the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor in 2001 and was selected for induction in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in January 2009. Hayes is the second Olympic gold medalist to be inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, after Jim Thorpe.

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Jean-Claude Trichet, French banker and economist

Jean-Claude Anne-Marie Louis Trichet is a French economist and senior official who was President of the European Central Bank (ECB) from 2004 to 2011. Previous to his assumption of the presidency he was Governor of the Bank of France from 1993 to 2004.

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Roger Woodward, Australian classical pianist, composer, conductor, teacher and human rights activist.

Roger Robert Woodward is an Australian classical pianist, composer, conductor, teacher and human rights activist. He is widely regarded as a leading advocate of contemporary music.

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20/12/1939

Kathryn Joosten, American actress (died 2012)

Kathryn Joosten was an American actress. Her best known roles include Delores Landingham on NBC's The West Wing from 1999 to 2002 and Karen McCluskey on ABC's Desperate Housewives from 2005 to 2012, for which she won two Primetime Emmy Awards in 2005 and 2008.

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Kim Weston, American soul singer

Kim Weston is an American soul singer and Motown alumna. In the 1960s, she scored hits with the songs "Love Me All the Way" and "Take Me in Your Arms ", and with her duet with Marvin Gaye, "It Takes Two".

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20/12/1935

Khalid Ibadulla, Pakistani cricketer and sportscaster (died 2024)

Khalid "Billy" Ibadulla was a Pakistani-New Zealander cricketer, cricket coach and umpire who later worked as a cricket commentator for TVNZ. He represented Pakistan four times at Test match level between 1964 and 1967, and was the first Pakistani to play in the County Championship.

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20/12/1933

Olavi Salonen, Finnish runner (died 2025)

Olavi Salonen was a Finnish athlete who was a world record holder of men's 1500-metre run.

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Rik Van Looy, Belgian cyclist (died 2024)

Henri "Rik" Van Looy was a Belgian professional cyclist of the post-war period. Nicknamed the King of the Classics or Emperor of Herentals, he dominated the classic cycle races in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

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20/12/1932

Antoine Mbary-Daba, Central African politician, bureaucrat, and diplomat (died c. 1997).

Antoine Mbary-Daba was a Central African politician, bureaucrat, and diplomat.

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John Hillerman, American actor (died 2017)

John Benedict Hillerman was an American actor best known for his starring role as Jonathan Quayle Higgins III on the television series Magnum, P.I. that aired from 1980 to 1988. For his role as Higgins, Hillerman earned five Golden Globe nominations, winning in 1981, and four Emmy nominations, winning in 1987. He retired from acting in 1999.

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20/12/1931

Mala Powers, American actress (died 2007)

Mary Ellen "Mala" Powers was an American actress.

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Hristina Obradović, Serbian hegumenia and abbess (died 2026)

Velika "Hristina Obradović was a Serbian hegumenia and abbess.

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20/12/1929

Don Sunderlage, American basketball player (died 1961)

Don J. Sunderlage was an American basketball player.

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20/12/1928

John Menkes, Austrian-American pediatric and writer (died 2008)

John Hans Menkes was an Austrian-American pediatric neurologist and author of fictional novels and plays. He identified two inherited diseases: maple syrup urine disease which is a defect in amino acid metabolism, and a defect in copper transport which bears his name. In addition to a career in academic medicine, he pursued a career in writing, publishing novels and plays.

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20/12/1927

Michael Beaumont, 22nd Seigneur of Sark, English engineer and politician (died 2016)

Seigneur John Michael Beaumont was the 22nd Seigneur of Sark in the Channel Islands. He worked as a civil engineer before succeeding his paternal grandmother, Sibyl Hathaway, the 21st Dame of Sark, in 1974. During his rule, Beaumont saw the loss of many feudal rights enjoyed by the seigneurs, and he was consequently often described as the "last feudal baron".

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Jim Simpson, American sportscaster (died 2016)

James Shores Simpson was an American sportscaster, known for his smooth delivery as a play-by-play man and his versatility in covering many different sports. In 1997, he won the Sports Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2000 he was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame.

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Kim Young-sam, South Korean soldier and politician, 7th President of South Korea (died 2015)

Kim Young-sam, also known by his initials YS, was a South Korean politician who served as the seventh president of South Korea from 1993 to 1998.

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James Lawrence King, American jurist (died 2026)

James Lawrence King was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, and one of the longest serving federal judges in the United States.

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20/12/1926

Marcel Douzima, Central African lawyer and politician (died 2012)

Marcel Douzima was a Central African politician and teacher who served in various ministerial positions under the David Dacko Presidency.

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Geoffrey Howe, Welsh lawyer and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 2015)

Richard Edward Geoffrey Howe, Baron Howe of Aberavon,, known from 1970 to 1992 as Sir Geoffrey Howe, was a British barrister and politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1989 to 1990. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Margaret Thatcher's longest-serving Cabinet minister, successively holding the posts of chancellor of the Exchequer, foreign secretary, and finally leader of the House of Commons, deputy prime minister and lord president of the Council. His resignation from Cabinet on 1 November 1990 is widely considered to have precipitated the leadership challenge that led to Thatcher's resignation three weeks later.

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Otto Graf Lambsdorff, German lawyer and politician, German Federal Minister of Economics (died 2009)

Otto Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von der Wenge Graf Lambsdorff, known as Otto Graf Lambsdorff, was a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). He was the German Federal Minister of Economics from 1977 to 1984, when he resigned due to corruption allegations.

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20/12/1925

Benito Lorenzi, Italian footballer (died 2007)

Benito "Veleno" Lorenzi was an Italian footballer born in Borgo a Buggiano, province of Pistoia. He played as a striker.

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20/12/1924

Charlie Callas, American actor and comedian (died 2011)

Charlie Callas was an American actor and comedian. He was most commonly known for his work with Mel Brooks, Jerry Lewis, and Dean Martin, and his many stand-up appearances on television talk shows in the 1970s. He was also known for his role as Malcolm Argos, the restaurant owner and former con man, on the Eddie Albert and Robert Wagner television series Switch (1975–1978). Callas was also known as the voice of Elliott the Dragon in Disney's live-action/animated musical film Pete's Dragon (1977).

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Judy LaMarsh, Canadian soldier, lawyer, and politician, 42nd Secretary of State for Canada (died 1980)

Julia Verlyn LaMarsh was a Canadian politician, lawyer, author and broadcaster. In 1963, she became the second woman to serve as a federal Cabinet minister. Under Prime Minister Lester Pearson's minority governments of the middle and late 1960s, she helped push through the legislation that created the Canada Pension Plan and Medicare. As Secretary of State, she was in charge of Canada's Centennial celebrations in 1967. After leaving politics in 1968, she wrote three books, and had her own radio show on CBC Radio. She was stricken with pancreatic cancer in 1979 and was given the Order of Canada at her hospital bed. She died a few days short of the 20th anniversary of her first political election victory, in 1980.

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20/12/1922

Beverly Pepper, American sculptor and painter (died 2020)

Beverly Pepper was an American sculptor known for her monumental works, site specific and land art. She remained independent from any particular art movement. She lived in Italy, primarily in Todi, since the 1950s.

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William Soeryadjaya, Chinese-Indonesian businessman and co-founder of Astra International (died 2010)

William Soeryadjaya, also known as Tjia Kian Liong, also known as Om (Uncle) William, born in Majalengka, was a Chinese Indonesian businessman who co-founded Astra International, Indonesia's largest conglomerate.

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20/12/1921

George Roy Hill, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2002)

George Roy Hill was an American film director. His films include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973), both starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Both films also earned him nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director; he won for the latter.

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20/12/1920

Väinö Linna, Finnish author (died 1992)

Väinö Valtteri Linna was a Finnish author and a former soldier who fought in the Continuation War (1941–44). Linna gained literary fame with his third novel, Tuntematon sotilas, and consolidated his position with the trilogy Täällä Pohjantähden alla. Both have been adapted to a film format on several occasions; The Unknown Soldier was first adapted into a film in 1955 and Under the North Star in 1968 as Here, Beneath the North Star, both directed by Edvin Laine.

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20/12/1918

Jean Marchand, Canadian trade union leader and politician, 43rd Secretary of State for Canada (died 1988)

Jean Marchand was a Québécois public figure, trade unionist and politician in Quebec, Canada.

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20/12/1917

David Bohm, American-English physicist, neuropsychologist, and philosopher (died 1992)

David Joseph Bohm was an American physicist who has been described as one of the most significant theoretical physicists of the 20th century and who contributed unorthodox ideas to quantum theory, neuropsychology and the philosophy of mind. Among his many contributions to physics is his causal and deterministic interpretation of quantum theory known as De Broglie–Bohm theory.

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Cahit Külebi, Turkish poet and author (died 1997)

Cahit Külebi was a leading Turkish poet and author. He has an important place in contemporary Turkish poetry due to his attachment to folk poetry traditions. His poetry is enriched with simple yet ironic language, embellished with original descriptions.

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Audrey Totter, American actress (died 2013)

Audrey Mary Totter was an American radio, film, and television actor and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player in the 1940s.

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20/12/1916

Michel Chartrand, Canadian trade union leader and activist (died 2010)

Michel Chartrand was a Canadian trade union leader from Quebec.

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20/12/1915

Aziz Nesin, Turkish author and poet (died 1995)

Aziz Nesin was a Turkish writer, humorist and the author of more than 100 books. Born in a time when Turks did not have official surnames, he had to adopt one after the Surname Law of 1934 was passed. Although his family carried the nickname "Topalosmanoğlu", after an ancestor named "Topal Osman", he chose the surname "Nesin". In Turkish, Nesin? means, What are you?.

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20/12/1914

Harry F. Byrd Jr., American lieutenant, publisher, and politician (died 2013)

Harry Flood Byrd Jr. was an American newspaper publisher and politician. He served in the Senate of Virginia and then represented Virginia in the United States Senate, succeeding his father, Harry F. Byrd Sr. His public service spanned 36 years, while he was a publisher of several Virginia newspapers. After the decline of the Byrd Organization due to its massive resistance to racial integration of public schools, he abandoned the Democratic Party in 1970, citing concern about its leftward tilt. He rehabilitated his political career, becoming the first independent in the history of the U.S. Senate to be elected by a majority of the popular vote.

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20/12/1911

Hortense Calisher, American author (died 2009)

Hortense Calisher was an American writer of fiction and the second female president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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20/12/1909

Vakkom Majeed, Indian journalist and politician (died 2000)

Vakkom Majeed was an Indian freedom fighter, politician and a former member of the Travancore-Cochin State Assembly. He was born into one of the most prominent aristocratic Muslim families in Travancore. Influenced by the works of his uncle, Vakkom Moulavi, he became involved in social and political reform movements. Majeed was one of the early architects of the Indian National Congress in Travancore, eventually becoming the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Attingal constituency (1948–1952). Regarded as one of the great Indian nationalists of 20th century, Majeed belonged to a tradition of politics that was intrinsically value-based, secular and humanistic.

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20/12/1908

Dennis Morgan, American actor and singer (died 1994)

Dennis Morgan was an American actor-singer. He used the acting pseudonym Richard Stanley before adopting the name under which he gained his greatest fame.

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20/12/1907

Paul Francis Webster, American soldier and songwriter (died 1984)

Paul Francis Webster was an American lyricist who won three Academy Awards for Best Original Song, and was nominated 16 times for the award.

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20/12/1905

Bill O'Reilly, Australian cricketer and sportscaster (died 1992)

William Joseph O'Reilly was an Australian cricketer, rated as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. Following his retirement from playing, he became a well-respected cricket writer and broadcaster.

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20/12/1904

Spud Davis, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 1984)

Virgil Lawrence "Spud" Davis was an American professional baseball player, coach, scout and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Reds, and Pittsburgh Pirates. Davis' .308 career batting average ranks fourth all-time among major league catchers.

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Yevgenia Ginzburg, Russian author (died 1977)

Yevgenia Solomonovna Ginzburg was a Soviet writer who served an 18-year sentence in the Kolyma Gulag. Her given name is often Latinized to Eugenia.

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20/12/1902

Prince George, Duke of Kent (died 1942)

Prince George, Duke of Kent, was a member of the British royal family, the fourth son of King George V and Queen Mary, and a younger brother of Kings Edward VIII and George VI. He served in the Royal Navy during the 1920s before briefly working as a civil servant, and in 1934 was created Duke of Kent. That same year he married Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, with whom he had three children: Edward, Alexandra and Michael.

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Sidney Hook, American philosopher and author (died 1989)

Sidney Hook was an American philosopher of pragmatism known for his contributions to the philosophy of history, the philosophy of education, political theory, and ethics. After embracing communism in his youth, Hook was later known for his criticisms of totalitarianism, both fascism and communism. A social democrat, Hook sometimes cooperated with conservatives, particularly in opposing Marxism–Leninism. After World War II, he argued that members of such groups as the Communist Party USA and Leninists like democratic centralists could ethically be barred from holding the offices of public trust because they called for the violent overthrow of democratic governments.

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20/12/1901

Robert J. Van de Graaff, American physicist and academic, invented the Van de Graaff generator (died 1967)

Robert Jemison Van de Graaff was an American applied physicist and inventor. He is best known for developing the Van de Graaff generator, a high-voltage electrostatic machine that became a fundamental tool in nuclear physics research.

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20/12/1900

Lissy Arna, German actress (died 1964)

Lissy Arna was a German film actress. She appeared in 63 films between 1918 and 1962. She starred in the 1931 film The Squeaker, which was directed by Martin Frič and Karel Lamač. She entered U.S. films in 1930 under the direction of William Dieterle, appearing in German-language versions of American films.

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Gabby Hartnett, American baseball player and manager (died 1972)

Charles Leo "Gabby" Hartnett, also nicknamed "Old Tomato Face", was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played almost his entire career in Major League Baseball as a catcher with the Chicago Cubs, from 1922 to 1940. He spent the final season of his career as a player-coach with the New York Giants in 1941. After his playing career, Hartnett continued his involvement in baseball as a coach and as a minor league manager.

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20/12/1899

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Welsh preacher and physician (died 1981)

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones was a Welsh Congregationalist minister and medical doctor who was influential in the Calvinist wing of the British evangelical movement in the 20th century. For almost 30 years, he was the minister of Westminster Chapel in London.

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20/12/1898

Konstantinos Dovas, Greek general and politician, 156th Prime Minister of Greece (died 1973)

Konstantinos Dovas was a Greek general and interim Prime Minister.

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Irene Dunne, American actress and singer (died 1990)

Irene Dunne was an American actress who appeared in films during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She is best known for her comedic roles, though she performed in films of other genres.

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20/12/1894

Robert Menzies, Australian lawyer and politician, 12th Prime Minister of Australia (died 1978)

Sir Robert Gordon Menzies was an Australian politician and lawyer who served as the 12th prime minister of Australia from 1939 to 1941 and from 1949 to 1966. He held office as the leader of the United Australia Party (UAP) in his first term, and subsequently as the inaugural leader of the Liberal Party of Australia in his second. He was the member of parliament (MP) for the Victorian division of Kooyong from 1934 to 1966. He is the longest-serving prime minister in Australian history.

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20/12/1891

Erik Almlöf, Swedish triple jumper (died 1971)

Erik Albin Almlöf was a Swedish athlete who specialized in the triple jump. He competed at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, where he won the bronze medal. Due to World War I no Olympics were held in 1916, but Almlöf returned to the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, where he won his second Olympic bronze medal.

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20/12/1890

Yvonne Arnaud, French pianist, actress and singer (died 1958)

Germaine Yvonne Arnaud was a French-born pianist, singer and actress, who was well known for her career in Britain, as well as her native land. After beginning a career as a concert pianist as a child, Arnaud acted in musical comedies. She switched to non-musical comedy and drama around 1920 and was one of the players in the second of the Aldwych farces, A Cuckoo in the Nest, a hit in 1925. She also had dramatic roles and made films in the 1930s and 1940s, and continued to act into the 1950s. She occasionally performed as a pianist later in her career. The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre was named in her memory in Guildford, Surrey.

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Jaroslav Heyrovský, Czech chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1967)

Jaroslav Heyrovský was a Czech chemist and inventor who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1959 for his invention of polarography.

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20/12/1888

Yitzhak Baer, German-Israeli historian and academic (died 1980)

Yitzhak (Fritz) Baer was a German-Israeli historian and an expert on medieval Spanish Jewish history.

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Fred Merkle, American baseball player and manager (died 1956)

Carl Frederick Rudolf Merkle, nicknamed "Bonehead", was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball from 1907 to 1926. Although he had a lengthy career, he is best remembered for a controversial base-running mistake he made as a rookie while still a teenager.

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20/12/1886

Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman, American tennis player and businessman (died 1974)

Hazel Virginia Hotchkiss Wightman, CBE was an American tennis player and founder of the Wightman Cup, an annual team competition for British and American women. She dominated American women's tennis before World War I and won 45 U.S. titles during her life.

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20/12/1884

Ruhana Kuddus, Indonesian activist and journalist (died 1972)

Ruhana Kuddus, or Rohana Kudus was the first female Indonesian journalist, founder of the newspaper Soenting Melajoe, and an activist for women's emancipation.

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20/12/1881

Branch Rickey, American baseball player and manager (died 1965)

Wesley Branch Rickey was an American professional baseball catcher, manager, sports executive, and team owner. He was instrumental in breaking the baseball color line by signing black player Jackie Robinson. He also created the framework for the modern minor league farm system, encouraged the major leagues to add new teams through his involvement in the proposed Continental League, introduced the batting helmet, and created the standard 20-80 scouting scale. He was posthumously elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967.

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20/12/1874

Mary Ann Bevan, English nurse who, after developing acromegaly, toured the circus sideshow circuit as "the ugliest woman in the world" (died 1933)

Mary Ann Bevan was an English nurse, who, after developing acromegaly, toured the circus sideshow circuit as "the ugliest woman in the world".

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20/12/1873

Kan'ichi Asakawa, Japanese historian, author, and academic (died 1948)

Kan'ichi Asakawa was a Japanese academic, author, historian, curator and peace advocate. Asakawa was Japanese by birth and citizenship though he lived the majority of his life in the United States.

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Mehmet Akif Ersoy, Turkish poet, academic, and politician (died 1936)

Mehmet Akif Ersoy was a Turkish poet, writer, academic, politician, and the author of the Turkish National Anthem. Widely regarded as one of the premiere literary minds of his time, Ersoy is noted for his command of the Turkish language, as well as his patriotism and role in the Turkish War of Independence.

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20/12/1871

Henry Kimball Hadley, American composer and conductor (died 1937)

Henry Kimball Hadley was an American composer and conductor.

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20/12/1869

Charley Grapewin, American actor (died 1956)

Charles Ellsworth Grapewin was an American vaudeville and circus performer, writer, and stage and film actor.

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20/12/1868

Harvey Samuel Firestone, American businessman, founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company (died 1938)

Harvey Samuel Firestone Sr. was an American businessman, and the founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, one of the first global makers of automobile tires.

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20/12/1865

Elsie de Wolfe, American actress and interior decorator (died 1950)

Elsie de Wolfe, Lady Mendl was an American actress who became a prominent interior designer and author. Born in New York City, de Wolfe was acutely sensitive to her surroundings from her earliest years and became one of the first female interior decorators, replacing dark and ornate Victorian decor with lighter, simpler styles and uncluttered room layouts.

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20/12/1861

Ferdinand Bonn, German actor (died 1933)

Ferdinand Bonn was a German stage and film actor.

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Ivana Kobilca, Slovenian painter (died 1926)

Ivana Kobilca was a Slovene painter, and is considered the most prominent painter and a key figure of Slovene cultural identity. She was a realist painter who studied and worked in Vienna, Munich, Paris, Sarajevo, Berlin, and Ljubljana. She mostly painted oil paintings and pastels, whereas her drawings are few. The themes include still life, portraits, genre works, allegories, and religious scenes. She was a controversial person, criticized for following movements that had not developed further in later periods.

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20/12/1851

Knut Wicksell, Swedish economist (died 1926)

Johan Gustaf Knut Wicksell was a Swedish economist of the Stockholm school. He was professor at Uppsala University and Lund University.

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20/12/1841

Ferdinand Buisson, French academic and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1932)

Ferdinand Édouard Buisson was a French educational public servant, pacifist, and Radical-Socialist politician. He presided over the League of Education from 1902 to 1906 and over the Human Rights League (LDH) from 1914 to 1926. In 1927, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to him jointly with Ludwig Quidde. A philosopher and educator, he was Director of Primary Education. He was the author of a thesis on Sebastian Castellio, in whom he saw a "liberal Protestant" in his image. Ferdinand Buisson was the president of the National Association of Freethinkers. In 1905, he chaired the parliamentary committee to implement the separation of church and state. Famous for his fight for secular education through the League of Education, he coined the term laïcité ("secularism").

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20/12/1838

Edwin Abbott Abbott, English theologian, author, and educator (died 1926)

Edwin Abbott Abbott was an English schoolmaster, theologian, and Anglican priest, best known as the author of the novella Flatland (1884).

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20/12/1812

Laura M. Hawley Thurston, American poet and educator (died 1842)

Laura M. Thurston was an American poet and educator. A prolific writer, most of her works were originally published in the Louisville Journal, and in William D. Gallagher's Hesperian. Among Indiana's early poets, she was a contemporary of Amanda Ruter Dufour, while among Kentucky poets, she was a friend of Amelia B. Coppuck Welby.

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20/12/1806

Martín Carrera, Mexican general and president (1855) (died 1871)

Antonio Martín Mariano Carrera Sabat was a Mexican general, senator, and interim president of the country for about a month in 1855. He was a moderate liberal.

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20/12/1792

Nicolas Toussaint Charlet, French painter and educator (died 1845)

Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet was a French painter and printmaker, more especially of military subjects.

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20/12/1786

Pietro Raimondi, Italian composer (died 1853)

Pietro Raimondi was an Italian composer, transitional between the Classical and Romantic eras. While he was famous at the time as a composer of operas and sacred music, he was also as an innovator in contrapuntal technique as well as in creation of gigantic musical simultaneities. He was the director of the Palermo Conservatory from 1833-1852.

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20/12/1740

Arthur Lee, American physician and diplomat (died 1792)

Arthur Lee was an American physician, diplomat and abolitionist who was born in the British colony of Virginia. He helped negotiate and signed the 1778 Treaty of Alliance with France, along with Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane, which allied France and the United States in fighting the war.

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20/12/1641

Urban Hjärne, Swedish chemist, geologist, and physician (died 1724)

Urban Hjärne was a Swedish chemist, geologist, physician and writer.

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20/12/1629

Pieter de Hooch, Dutch painter (died 1684)

Pieter Hendricksz. de Hooch, was a Dutch Golden Age painter famous for his genre works of quiet domestic scenes with an open doorway. He was a contemporary, in the Delft Guild of St. Luke, of Jan Vermeer with whom his work shares themes and style. De Hooch was first recorded in Delft on 5 August 1652, when he and another painter, Hendrick van der Burgh witnessed the signing of a will. He was last documented in 1679, but his date of death is unknown.

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20/12/1626

Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff, German scholar and politician (died 1692)

Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff or Seckendorf, German statesman and scholar, was a member of the House of Seckendorff, a noble family which took its name from the village of Seckendorf between Nuremberg and Langenzenn. The family was divided into eleven distinct lines, widely distributed throughout Prussia, Württemberg, and Bavaria.

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20/12/1576

John Sarkander, Moravian priest and saint (died 1620)

Jan Sarkander was a Polish-Czech Roman Catholic priest. Sarkander was married for a short period of time before he became widowed and pursued a path to the priesthood where he became active in defence of Catholicism during a period of anti-Catholic sentiment and conflict. He himself was arrested on false accusations as a means of silencing him and he refused to give in to his tormenters who tortured him for around a month before he died.

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20/12/1537

John III, king of Sweden (died 1592)

John III was King of Sweden from 1569 until his death. He attained the Swedish throne after a rebellion against his half-brother Erik XIV. He is mainly remembered for his attempts to close the gap between the newly established Lutheran Church of Sweden and the Catholic Church, as well as his conflict with and possible murder of his brother.

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20/12/1496

Joseph ha-Kohen, historian and physician (died 1575)

Joseph ben Joshua ben Meïr ha-Kohen (1496–1575/80) was a Jewish physician, historian and Renaissance scholar.

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20/12/1494

Oronce Finé, French mathematician and cartographer (died 1555)

Oronce Fine was a French mathematician, cartographer, editor and book illustrator.

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