Born on Friday, 26th December – Famous Birthdays

26/12/2002

Josh Wilson-Esbrand, English footballer

Joshua Darius Kamani Wilson-Esbrand is an English professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Ekstraklasa club Radomiak Radom, on loan from Premier League club Manchester City.

---

26/12/2001

Aleksej Pokuševski, Serbian basketball player

Aleksej Pokuševski is a Serbian professional basketball player and the vice-captain for Partizan Belgrade of the Basketball League of Serbia (KLS), the ABA League and the EuroLeague. Standing at 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) and weighing 210 pounds (95 kg), he plays at the power forward position.

---

26/12/1997

Tamara Zidanšek, Slovenian tennis player

Tamara Zidanšek is a Slovenian professional tennis player. She has career-high rankings of world No. 22 in singles and No. 47 in doubles. She has won one singles title, as well as four doubles titles on the WTA Tour and three singles titles along with one doubles title on the WTA Challenger Tour. Additionally, she has won 18 titles in singles and six in doubles on the ITF Circuit. She is currently the second highest WTA-ranked player from Slovenia.

---

26/12/1994

Colby Cave, Canadian ice hockey player (died 2020)

Colby Alexander Cave was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He was a centre in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Boston Bruins and the Edmonton Oilers.

---

Souleymane Coulibaly, Ivorian footballer

Souleymane Coulibaly is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a striker for English non-league club Pickering Town.

---

26/12/1992

Cecilia Costa Melgar, Chilean tennis player

Cecilia Raquel Costa Melgar is a Chilean former tennis player.

---

Jade Thirlwall, English singer

Jade Amelia Thirlwall is an English singer. Her music career began at the age of 15, when she auditioned for The X Factor on three occasions before rising to prominence as a member of the girl group Little Mix. Formed during the show's eighth series, Little Mix became the first group to win the competition, and together went on to release six studio albums and amassed nineteen UK top-ten singles, five of which reached number one. Before going into hiatus in 2022, they became the first girl group to win the Brit Award for British Group.

---

26/12/1991

Brandon Scherff, American football player

Brandon Scherff is an American former professional football player who was a guard for 10 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Iowa Hawkeyes, earning unanimous All-American honors in 2014. He was selected by the Washington Redskins in the first round of the 2015 NFL draft, where he played for seven seasons and earned five Pro Bowls and one All-Pro selection. He also played for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

---

Eden Sher, American actress

Eden Rebecca Sher is an American actress. The accolades she has received include a Critics' Choice Television Award, alongside a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.

---

Trevor Siemian, American football player

Trevor John Siemian is an American professional football quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Northwestern Wildcats and was selected by the Denver Broncos in the seventh round of the 2015 NFL draft. Siemian was part of the Broncos when they won Super Bowl 50, serving as the third-string quarterback behind starter Peyton Manning and backup Brock Osweiler. He has also been a member of the Minnesota Vikings, New York Jets, Tennessee Titans, New Orleans Saints, Chicago Bears, and Cincinnati Bengals

---

26/12/1990

Denis Cheryshev, Russian footballer

Denis Dmitriyevich Cheryshev is a Russian professional footballer who plays as a left winger for Cypriot First Division club Krasava ENY Ypsonas.

---

Cory Jefferson, American basketball player

Cory Allen Jefferson is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for Baylor University and represented the United States at the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan, Russia.

---

Aaron Ramsey, Welsh footballer

Aaron James Ramsey is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He mainly played as a box-to-box midfielder, but had also been deployed on the left and right wings.

---

26/12/1989

Yohan Blake, Jamaican sprinter

Yohan Blake is a Jamaican sprinter specialising in the 100-metre and 200-metre sprint races. He won gold at the 100 m at the 2011 World Athletics Championships as the youngest 100 m world champion ever, and a silver medal in the 2012 Olympic Games in London in the 100 m and 200 m races for the Jamaican team behind Usain Bolt. His times of 9.75 in 100 m and 19.44 in 200 m are the fastest 100 m and 200 m Olympic sprints in history to place second.

---

Sofiane Feghouli, Algerian footballer

Sofiane Feghouli is a professional footballer who plays for the Algeria national team. He mainly operates as a winger, but can also play as an attacking midfielder.

---

Tomáš Kundrátek, Czech ice hockey player

Tomáš Kundrátek is a Czech professional ice hockey player who is a defenceman for HC Oceláři Třinec of the Czech Extraliga (ELH). He has previously played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Washington Capitals.

---

26/12/1987

Oskar Osala, Finnish ice hockey player

Oskar Osala is a Finnish former professional ice hockey player. He played in three National Hockey League (NHL) games with the Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes and represented Finland in Olympic Winter Games 2018.

---

26/12/1986

Joe Alexander, American-Israeli basketball player

Joseph Anthony Alexander is a Taiwan-born American-Israeli former professional basketball player. Alexander, at 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) played both forward positions, was selected for the 2007 All-Big East squad during his collegiate career with West Virginia and was an All-American Honorable Mention. He was selected eighth overall in the 2008 NBA draft by the Milwaukee Bucks, and became the first Taiwanese-born NBA player.

---

Kit Harington, English actor

Christopher Catesby Harington, known professionally as Kit Harington, is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Jon Snow in the HBO fantasy television series Game of Thrones (2011–2019), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination and two nominations for Primetime Emmy Awards and Critics' Choice Television Awards.

---

Hugo Lloris, French footballer

Hugo Hadrien Dominique Lloris is a French professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Major League Soccer club Los Angeles FC.

---

Selen Soyder, Turkish actress and beauty queen

Mükerrem Selen Soyder is a Turkish actress, activist, model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss World Turkey 2007 and represented her country in the Miss World 2007 in Sanya, China.

---

26/12/1985

Damir Markota, Croatian basketball player

Damir Markota is a Croatian professional basketball player who last played for Dinamo Zagreb in the Croatian League. Standing at 2.08 m, he plays at the power forward position.

---

26/12/1984

Ahmed Barusso, Ghanaian footballer

Ahmed Apimah Barusso is a Ghanaian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Italian club A.S.D. Terme Monticelli.

---

Leonardo Ghiraldini, Italian rugby player

Leonardo Ghiraldini is a retired Italian international rugby union player. Ghiraldini's playing position is hooker.

---

Alex Schwazer, Italian race walker

Alex Schwazer, OMRI, is an Italian race walker. He was the 2008 Olympic 50k walk champion.

---

26/12/1983

Jeroen Soete, Belgian politician

Jeroen B. Soete is a Belgian politician and member of the Chamber of Representatives. A member of Vooruit, he has represented West Flanders since June 2024.

---

Yu Takahashi, Japanese singer-songwriter

Yu Takahashi is a Japanese singer-songwriter. He debuted on a major label in 2010, with his singles "Subarashiki Nichijō" and "Honto no Kimochi".

---

Alexander Wang, American fashion designer

Alexander Wang is an American fashion designer. Wang launched his eponymous fashion brand in 2005 and came to prominence after being awarded the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in 2008. He is known for his urban-inspired designs and use of black.

---

26/12/1982

Kenneth Darby, American football player

Kenneth Darby is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide. He was selected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the seventh round of the 2007 NFL draft. Darby was also a member of the Atlanta Falcons and St. Louis Rams.

---

Noel Hunt, Irish footballer

Noel Hunt is an Irish football manager and former professional footballer who was formerly the head coach at Reading.

---

Aksel Lund Svindal, Norwegian skier

Aksel Lund Svindal is a Norwegian former World Cup alpine ski racer. Born in Lørenskog in Akershus county, Svindal is a two-time overall World Cup champion, an Olympic gold medalist in super-G at the 2010 Winter Olympics and in downhill at the 2018 Winter Olympics, and a five-time World Champion in downhill, giant slalom, and super combined. With his victory in the downhill in 2013, Svindal became the first male alpine racer to win titles in four consecutive world championships.

---

26/12/1981

Pablo Canavosio, Argentine-Italian rugby player

Pablo Canavosio is an Italian Argentine rugby union footballer. Canavosio played for Rovigo, Calvisano, Castres Olympique and Aironi. His usual position is at scrum half or wing.

---

Omar Infante, Venezuelan baseball player

Omar Rafael Infante is a Venezuelan former professional baseball second baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Detroit Tigers, Atlanta Braves, Miami Marlins, and Kansas City Royals. He was an All-Star in 2010, and won a World Series in 2015. While primarily a second baseman, he has experience at every position except for pitcher, catcher, and first base.

---

26/12/1980

Todd Dunivant, American soccer player

Todd Dunivant is an American soccer executive and former defender who played 13 years in Major League Soccer winning 5 MLS Cup trophies. After retirement he spearheaded the San Francisco Deltas professional soccer team as the Director of Soccer Operations and Business Development, winning the NASL Championship in its expansion season. He served as the president and general manager of Sacramento Republic FC from 2018 to 2025, leading the team to the 2022 U.S. Open Cup Final. Beginning in 2026, Dunivant will be the new sporting director of Major League Soccer side New York City FC.

---

Ceylan Ertem, Turkish singer

Ceylan Ertem, sometimes stylized as Ceyl'an Ertem is a Turkish singer-songwriter.

---

26/12/1979

Fabián Carini, Uruguayan footballer

Héctor Fabián Carini Hernández is a Uruguayan former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

---

Chris Daughtry, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Christopher Adam Daughtry is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actor, and comic book artist. He is the lead vocalist and a guitarist for the rock band Daughtry, which he formed after placing fourth on the fifth season of American Idol. Released by RCA Records, Daughtry's self-titled debut album became the fastest selling debut rock album in Nielsen SoundScan history, selling more than one million copies within five weeks of release, and music's top-selling album of 2007. The album was recorded before the band was officially formed, making him the only official member present on the album.

---

Dimitry Vassiliev, Russian ski jumper

Dimitry Viktorovich Vassiliev is a Russian former ski jumper who has competed at World Cup level from 1998 to 2021.

---

Craig Wing, Australian rugby player

Craig Wing, also known by the nickname of "Wingy", is an Australian-born former professional rugby league and rugby union footballer. He began his career in rugby league, playing for the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Sydney Roosters in the NRL, representing Australia internationally and New South Wales in State of Origin. He switched to rugby union, playing in Japan for the NTT Communications Shining Arcs and the Kobelco Steelers, earning selection for the Japanese national team after completing three years residency.

---

26/12/1978

Karel Rüütli, Estonian lawyer and politician

Karel Rüütli was Chairman of the Estonian People's Union and also leader of Estonian People's Union faction in the Estonian Parliament. He left the ERL and joined the Social Democratic Party of Estonia on 14 June 2010.

---

Kaoru Sugayama, Japanese volleyball player

Kaoru Sugayama is a Japanese volleyball player. Although her nickname is "yuu", Ai Otomo already had that nickname on the All-Japan women's Team, so she was given the new nickname "kaoru". Her nickname in television broadcasts is "koushuni kagayaku Kaoru-hime",. Also, she is sometimes known as "shiroi yousei" due in part to her fair skin. However, she is embarrassed to be called "Princess Kaoru" or "White fairy". She belongs to the volleyball team JT Marvelous of the V.League. In May 2008, she retired from the team and from organized volleyball.

---

26/12/1977

Fatih Akyel, Turkish footballer and manager

Fatih Akyel is a Turkish football manager and former professional player. He played as a defender for clubs such as Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe during his 15-year career. He was capped by the Turkey national team 64 times from 1997 to 2004, and also won a silver medal with the Olympic team at the 1997 Mediterranean Games.

---

Adrienn Hegedűs, Hungarian tennis player

Adrienn Hegedűs is a Hungarian former tennis player. In her career, she won a total of 18 titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. On 24 September 2001, she reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 178.

---

26/12/1976

Simon Goodwin, Australian footballer and coach

Simon Goodwin is a retired Australian rules football player and coach, who played 275 games for the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He went on to become the interim senior coach of the Essendon Football Club in 2013 and the senior coach of the Melbourne Football Club between 2017 and 2025, helping lead the club to its first premiership in 57 years in 2021.

---

26/12/1975

Chris Calaguio, Filipino basketball player

Christian Jay Calaguio is a Filipino former professional basketball player. He last played for the San Miguel Beermen in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). He is a former San Beda Red Cub cager and was one of the star players of the Colegio de San Juan de Letran Knights during his college days in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. After playing for the Knights, he went on to play in the defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association as a member of the San Juan Knights.

---

Marcelo Ríos, Chilean tennis player

Marcelo Andrés Ríos Mayorga is a Chilean former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the first Latin American Male to reach the top position. Ríos won 18 ATP Tour-level singles titles, including five Masters events, and was the runner-up at the 1998 Australian Open. He is the only man to have been world No. 1 on the ATP singles rankings without ever winning a major singles tournament.

---

María Vasco, Spanish race walker

María del Monte Vasco Pes Gallardo is a Spanish race walker. She won the bronze medal in the 20 km at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2007 World Championships in Osaka. Vasco was also a gold and bronze medalist at the IAAF Race Walking Championships. She was born in Viladecans near Barcelona, Spain.

---

26/12/1974

Joshua John Miller, American actor, director, and screenwriter

Joshua John Miller is an American actor, screenwriter, author, and director. Miller co-writes with his life partner M. A. Fortin; the two wrote the screenplay for the 2015 horror comedy The Final Girls, and the USA Network drama series Queen of the South.

---

26/12/1973

Paulo Frederico Benevenute, Brazilian footballer

Paulo Frederico Benevenute, known as Paulão, is a retired Brazilian footballer.

---

Gianluca Faliva, Italian rugby player

Gianluca Faliva is a retired Italian rugby union player. He played as a loosehead prop forward.

---

Nobuhiko Matsunaka, Japanese baseball player

Nobuhiko Matsunaka is a former left fielder and designated hitter for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. He is currently the hitting coach for the Chunichi Dragons in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league.

---

Steve Prescott, English rugby player (died 2013)

Stephen Prescott was a professional rugby league footballer who played as a fullback during the 1990s and 2000s.

---

26/12/1972

Gaby Colebunders, Belgian politician

Gaby Colebunders is a Belgian trade unionist, politician and member of the Flemish Parliament. A member of the Workers' Party of Belgium, he has represented Limburg since July 2024. He had previously been a member of the Chamber of Representatives from June 2019 to May 2024.

---

Esteban Fuertes, Argentinian footballer

Esteban Óscar Fuertes is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a forward.

---

Robert Muchamore, English author

Robert Kilgore Muchamore is an English author of young adult fiction, best known for his CHERUB, Henderson's Boys and Rock War series.

---

26/12/1971

Jared Leto, American actor and musician

Jared Joseph Leto is an American actor and musician. Known for his method acting in a variety of roles, he has received numerous accolades over a career spanning three decades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Additionally, he is recognized for his musicianship and eccentric stage persona as frontman of the rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars.

---

Mika Nurmela, Finnish footballer

Mika Nurmela is a Finnish football coach and former professional footballer, who played as a midfielder or winger. He is currently the sporting director of AC Oulu.

---

Tatiana Sorokko, Russian-American model and journalist

Tatiana Sorokko is a Russian-born American model, fashion journalist, and haute couture collector. She walked the runways for the world's most prominent designers and fashion houses, appeared on covers of leading fashion magazines, and became the first Russian model of the post-Soviet period to gain international recognition. After modeling, Sorokko worked as contributing editor for Vogue, Vanity Fair and Harper's Bazaar. Her distinct personal style and her private collection of historically important haute couture clothing were subjects of museum exhibitions in Russia and the U.S.

---

26/12/1970

James Mercer, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

James Russell Mercer is an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is the founder, vocalist, lead songwriter, and sole remaining original member of the indie rock group The Shins. In 2009, Mercer and producer Danger Mouse formed the side project Broken Bells, for which they released a self-titled album in March 2010, followed by After the Disco in 2014, and then Into the Blue in 2022. Mercer also has acted, appearing in Matt McCormick's feature film Some Days Are Better Than Others, which premiered in 2010.

---

26/12/1969

Isaac Viciosa, Spanish runner

Isaac Viciosa is a Spanish former middle distance runner.

---

26/12/1968

Matt Zoller Seitz, American film critic and author

Matt Zoller Seitz is an American film and television critic, author and filmmaker.

---

26/12/1966

Jay Farrar, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Jay Stuart Farrar is an American songwriter and musician based in St. Louis. A member of two critically acclaimed music groups, Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt, he began his solo music career in 2001. Beyond being a songwriter, Farrar plays guitar, piano, harmonica, and sings.

---

Tim Legler, American basketball player and sportscaster

Timothy Eugene Legler, nicknamed "Legs", is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is currently an ESPN basketball analyst and co-host/analyst on SiriusXM NBA Radio.

---

26/12/1964

Elizabeth Kostova, American author

Elizabeth Johnson Kostova is an American author best known for her debut novel The Historian.

---

26/12/1963

Craig Teitzel, Australian rugby league player

Craig Teitzel is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. Primarily a prop, he played for the Western Suburbs Magpies, Illawarra Steelers, Warrington Wolves and was a foundation player for the North Queensland Cowboys.

---

Lars Ulrich, Danish-American drummer, songwriter, and producer

Lars Ulrich is a Danish musician who is the drummer and a founding member of American heavy metal band Metallica. Along with James Hetfield, Ulrich has songwriting credits on almost all of the band's songs, and the two of them are the only remaining original members of the band.

---

26/12/1962

James Kottak, American drummer (died 2024)

James Kottak was an American drummer, best known for his work with the German hard rock band Scorpions, which he joined in 1996. At the time of his firing from the band in 2016, he was their longest-serving drummer. Kottak was also an original member of Kingdom Come, of whom he was their drummer from 1987 to 1989 and again from 2018 to his death in 2024.

---

Mark Starr, English wrestler (died 2013)

Mark Ashford-Smith, best known by his ring name Mark Starr, was an English professional wrestler.

---

26/12/1961

Andrew Lock, Australian mountaineer

Andrew James Lock OAM is an Australian mountaineer. He became the first, and still remains the only, Australian to climb all 14 "eight-thousanders" on 2 October 2009, and is the 18th person to ever complete this feat. He climbed 13 of the 14 without bottled oxygen, only using it on Mount Everest, which he has summited three times. He retired from eight-thousander climbing in 2012.

---

26/12/1960

Keith Martin Ball, American mathematician and academic

Keith Martin Ball is a mathematician and professor at the University of Warwick. He was scientific director of the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS) from 2010 to 2014.

---

Ruud Kaiser, Dutch footballer and manager

Ruud Kaiser is a Dutch football manager, coach and former player who played as a midfielder. He is currently the coach of Helmond Sport's under-19 team.

---

Cem Uzan, Turkish businessman and politician

Cem Cengiz Uzan is a Turkish businessman and politician involved in the media and banking industries, while also chairing the social liberal Young Party (GENÇPARTİ). His family's media empire at one time included both television stations and print media. His family was one of Turkey's most influential families. His supporters claim Uzan's political rivalry resulted in the group's companies being seized by the government under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, eventually resulting in Uzan's flight to France to escape what he claimed was political persecution. He has been sentenced in absentia to jail terms in the United Kingdom, United States and Turkey for fraud-related offences. Uzan attempted to buy three units of Trump World Tower, but he ultimately defaulted on the contract and lost an $8 million deposit.

---

26/12/1959

Wang Lijun, Chinese police officer and politician

Wang Lijun is a Chinese former police chief. He served as vice-mayor and police chief of the megacity of Chongqing. Wang is ethnically Mongol and was born in Arxan, Inner Mongolia. Prior to taking on positions in Chongqing, Wang served as vice-mayor and police chief of Jinzhou, Liaoning, and the police chief of Tieling, Liaoning.

---

Kōji Morimoto, Japanese animator and director

Kōji Morimoto is a Japanese anime director. Some of his works include being an animator in the Akira film; shorts in Robot Carnival, Short Peace, and The Animatrix; and key animation in anime such as Kiki's Delivery Service, City Hunter, and Fist of the North Star. He is the co-founder of Studio 4°C. He has hosted the independent creative team "phy" since 2009.

---

Hans Nielsen, Danish motorcycle racer

Hans Hollen Nielsen is a Danish former professional motorcycle speedway rider. He competed in the Speedway World Championships from 1977 to 1999. Nielsen is notable for winning four Speedway World Championship titles. During his career, he won a total of 22 world championships, making him arguably the most successful speedway rider of all time. In 2012, Nielsen was named an FIM Legend for his motorcycling achievements. He later managed the Danish national team.

---

26/12/1958

Adrian Newey, English aerodynamicist and engineer

Adrian Martin Newey is a British engineer, aerodynamicist, automotive designer, and motorsport executive. Since 2026, Newey has served as team principal, technical director, and co-owner of Aston Martin in Formula One; he previously served as technical director of Leyton House and McLaren, chief designer of March and Williams, and chief technical officer of Red Bull Racing. Widely regarded as one of the greatest engineers in Formula One history, Newey's designs have won 14 Drivers' and 12 Constructors' titles and 223 Grands Prix between 1991 and 2024.

---

26/12/1957

Dermot Murnaghan, English-Northern Irish journalist and game show host

Dermot John Murnaghan is an English media personality, notable as a journalist, news reporter and television host. He has been a presenter for numerous networks, including at Channel 4, a news presenter at CNBC Europe, Independent Television News and BBC News. He presented news programmes in a variety of time slots from when he joined Sky News in 2007, until the end of February 2023. Murnaghan also presented the BBC quiz show Eggheads between 2003 and 2014.

---

26/12/1956

David Sedaris, American comedian, author, and radio host

David Raymond Sedaris is an American humorist, comedian, author, and radio contributor. He was publicly recognized in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcast his essay "Santaland Diaries". He published his first collection of essays and short stories, Barrel Fever, in 1994. His next book, Naked (1997), became his first of a series of New York Times Bestsellers, and his 2000 collection Me Talk Pretty One Day won the Thurber Prize for American Humor.

---

26/12/1955

Evan Bayh, American lawyer and politician, 46th Governor of Indiana

Birch Evans "Evan" Bayh III is an American politician who served as the 46th governor of Indiana from 1989 to 1997 and as a United States senator representing Indiana from 1999 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he served on the President's Intelligence Advisory Board under President Joe Biden.

---

26/12/1954

Peter Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer and philanthropist

Peter Edmund Hillary, born 26 December 1954 is a New Zealand mountaineer and philanthropist. He is the son of Sir Edmund Hillary, who, along with mountaineer Tenzing Norgay, completed the first successful ascent of Mount Everest. When Peter Hillary summited Everest in 1990, he and his father were the first father/son duo to achieve the feat. Hillary has achieved two summits of Everest, an 84-day trek across Antarctica to the South Pole, and an expedition guiding astronaut Neil Armstrong to land a small aircraft at the North Pole. He has climbed many of the world's major peaks, and on 19 June 2008, completed the Seven Summits, reaching the top of the highest mountains on all seven continents, when he summited Denali in Alaska.

---

Ozzie Smith, American baseball player and sportscaster

Osborne Earl Smith is an American former professional baseball player. Nicknamed "the Wizard of Oz", Smith played shortstop for the San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals in Major League Baseball (MLB). Renowned for his acrobatic athletic ability, Smith is now widely regarded as one of the greatest defensive players of all time, winning the National League (NL) Gold Glove Award for defensive play at shortstop for 13 consecutive seasons. He was also a 15-time All-Star, accumulated 2,460 hits and 580 stolen bases during his career, and won the National League Silver Slugger Award as the best hitter at shortstop in 1987.

---

26/12/1953

Leonel Fernández, Dominican lawyer and politician, 51st President of the Dominican Republic

Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna, or Leonel Fernández for short, is a Dominican lawyer, academic, and was the 50th and 52nd President of the Dominican Republic from 1996 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2012. From 2016 until 2020, he was the President of the EU–LAC Foundation.

---

Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Swedish-Estonian journalist and politician, 4th President of Estonia

Toomas Hendrik Ilves is an Estonian politician who served as the fourth president of Estonia from 2006 until 2016.

---

Makis Katsavakis, Greek footballer and manager

Makis Katsavakis is a Greek professional football manager and former player.

---

Henning Schmitz, German drummer

Kraftwerk is a German electronic band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk was among the first successful acts to popularise the genre. The group began as part of West Germany's experimental krautrock scene in the early 1970s before embracing electronic instrumentation, including synthesizers, drum machines, and vocoders. Wolfgang Flür joined in 1973 and Karl Bartos in 1975.

---

26/12/1950

Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Pakistani businessman and politician, 17th Prime Minister of Pakistan

Raja Pervez Ashraf is a Pakistani politician, businessman and agriculturist who served as the 17th prime minister of Pakistan from June 2012 to March 2013 and as the Speaker of the National Assembly from April 2022 to March 2024. Ashraf was a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from NA-58 (Rawalpindi-II). He has also served as the Senior Vice President of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance of political parties opposed to Imran Khan's PTI party.

---

Mario Mendoza, Mexican baseball player and manager

Mario Mendoza Aizpuru is a Mexican former professional baseball infielder who is currently the manager of Saraperos de Saltillo of the Mexican League. Mendoza, a lifetime .215 hitter, is best known for being the source of the name for the threshold for batting ineptitude, the "Mendoza Line", meaning a batting average of .200. Mendoza managed in the minor leagues and in Mexico after his nine-year Major League Baseball (MLB) playing career. He is a member of the Mexican Professional Baseball Hall of Fame.

---

26/12/1949

José Ramos-Horta, East Timorese lawyer and politician, 2nd President of East Timor, Nobel Prize laureate

José Manuel Ramos-Horta is an East Timorese politician who has been the seventh president of Timor-Leste since 2022, having previously been the fourth president from 2007 to 2012. He was a co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, for working "towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor".

---

26/12/1948

Candy Crowley, American journalist

Candy Alt Crowley is an American news anchor who was employed as CNN's chief political correspondent, specializing in American national and state elections. She was based in CNN's Washington, D.C. bureau and was the anchor of its Sunday morning talk show State of the Union with Candy Crowley. She has covered elections for over two decades.

---

26/12/1947

James T. Conway, American general

James Terry Conway is a retired United States Marine Corps four-star general who served as the 34th Commandant of the Marine Corps. Among his previous postings were Director of Operations (J-3) on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Commanding General of 1st Marine Division and I Marine Expeditionary Force, taking part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the First Battle of Fallujah.

---

Jean Echenoz, French author

Jean Echenoz is a French writer.

---

Carlton Fisk, American baseball player

Carlton Ernest Fisk, nicknamed "Pudge" and "the Commander", is an American former professional baseball catcher who played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox. In 1972, he was the first player to be unanimously voted American League (AL) Rookie of the Year. Fisk is best known for his game-winning home run in the 12th inning of Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, during which he memorably waved his arms hoping for the batted ball to remain fair.

---

Josef Janíček, Czech singer-songwriter, guitarist, and keyboard player

Josef Janíček is a Czech rock keyboardist, singer, accordion and guitar player. He was a former guitarist of The Primitives Group; from 1969 he played with The Plastic People of the Universe. He was also a member of Milan Hlavsa's band called Půlnoc. Since 1990, he is a member of The Velvet Underground Revival Band.

---

Liz Lochhead, Scottish poet and playwright

Liz Lochhead Hon FRSE is a Scottish poet, playwright, translator and broadcaster. Between 2011 and 2016 she was the Makar, or National Poet of Scotland, and served as Poet Laureate for Glasgow between 2005 and 2011.

---

Richard Levis McCormick, American historian and academic

Richard Levis McCormick is an American historian and university administrator. He served as the interim president of Stony Brook University from 2024 to 2025, as the 19th president of Rutgers University from 2002 to 2012, as the 28th president of the University of Washington from 1995 to 2002, and as the provost of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1992 to 1995.

---

26/12/1946

Alan Frumin, American lawyer and politician

Alan Scott Frumin is a former parliamentarian of the United States Senate.

---

Tiit Rosenberg, Estonian historian and academic

Tiit Rosenberg is an Estonian historian and professor of Estonian History in University of Tartu. In 1996–2008, was he also chairman of Õpetatud Eesti Selts.

---

26/12/1945

John Walsh, American television host, producer, and activist, created America's Most Wanted

John Edward Walsh, Jr. is an American television presenter, victims' rights activist, and the host/creator of America's Most Wanted. He is known for his anti-crime activism, with which he became involved following the murder of his son, Adam, in 1981; in 2008, deceased serial killer Ottis Toole was officially named as Adam's killer. Walsh was part-owner of the now defunct National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington, D.C. He also anchored an investigative documentary series, The Hunt with John Walsh, which debuted on CNN in 2014.

---

26/12/1944

William Ayers, American academic and activist

William Charles Ayers is an American retired professor and former community organizer. In 1969, Ayers co-founded the far-left militant organization the Weather Underground, a revolutionary group that sought to overthrow the United States government which they viewed as American imperialism. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Weather Underground conducted a campaign of bombing public buildings in opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The bombings resulted in the deaths of three members, who were killed when one of the group's devices accidentally exploded. The FBI described the Weather Underground as a domestic terrorist group. Ayers was hunted as a fugitive for several years, until charges were dropped due to illegal actions by the FBI agents pursuing him and others.

---

26/12/1942

Vinicio Cerezo, Guatemalan politician, 28th President of Guatemala

Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo is a Guatemalan politician who served as the 40th President of Guatemala from 1986 to 1991. He also served as the Secretary General of the Central American Integration System (SICA) from 2017 to 2021.

---

Catherine Coulter, American author

Jean Catherine Coulter is an American author of romantic suspense thrillers and historical romances who lives in northern California.

---

Gray Davis, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 37th Governor of California

Joseph Graham "Gray" Davis Jr. is an American attorney and former politician who served as the 37th governor of California from 1999 until he was recalled and removed from office in 2003. He is the second state governor in U.S. history to have been recalled, after Lynn Frazier of North Dakota.

---

26/12/1941

Daniel Schmid, Swiss actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2006)

Daniel Walter Schmid was a Swiss theatre and film director.

---

26/12/1940

Edward C. Prescott, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2022)

Edward Christian Prescott was an American economist. He received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 2004, sharing the award with Finn E. Kydland, "for their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles". This research was primarily conducted while both Kydland and Prescott were affiliated with the Graduate School of Industrial Administration at Carnegie Mellon University. According to the IDEAS/RePEc rankings, he was the 19th most widely cited economist in the world in 2013. In August 2014, Prescott was appointed an Adjunct Distinguished Economic Professor at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia. Prescott died of cancer on November 6, 2022, at the age of 81.

---

Ray Sadecki, American baseball player (died 2014)

Raymond Michael Sadecki was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. He is best remembered as the left-handed complement to Bob Gibson, who in 1964, won 20 games to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to their first World Series title in eighteen years. He was notable for throwing the palmball.

---

26/12/1939

Fred Schepisi, Australian director and screenwriter

Frederic Alan Schepisi is an Australian film director, producer, and screenwriter. His credits include The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Plenty, Roxanne, A Cry in the Dark, Mr. Baseball, Six Degrees of Separation, and Last Orders.

---

Phil Spector, American singer-songwriter and producer (died 2021)

Harvey Phillip Spector was an American record producer and songwriter primarily known for his Wall of Sound production style in the 1960s, followed by his trials and imprisonment for murder after the 2000s. Considered the first music producer auteur, he is the most successful American producer of the 1960s and widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in pop music history.

---

26/12/1938

Bahram Beyzai, Iranian director, screenwriter, and playwright (died 2025)

Bahrām Beyzai was an Iranian filmmaker, playwright, theatre director, researcher, and ostād ("master") of Persian literature, mythology, and Iranian studies.

---

Robert Hamerton-Kelly, South African-American pastor, scholar, and author (died 2013)

Robert Gerald Hamerton-Kelly was a Christian theologian, ordained United Methodist pastor, ethics scholar, and author and editor of several books on religion and violence. He served as Dean of the Chapel at Stanford Memorial Church at Stanford University for 14 years and was on the faculty of the university for more than 30 years. A leading advocate of the work of René Girard's theory of mimetic desire, Hamerton-Kelly co-founded several organizations dedicated to the study of the theory and edited several important texts about it.

---

Alamgir Kabir, Bangladeshi director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1989)

Alamgir Kabir was a Bangladeshi film director and cultural activist. Three of his feature films are featured in the "Top 10 Bangladeshi Films" list by British Film Institute.

---

Mirko Kovač, Yugoslav-Croatian author, playwright, and screenwriter (died 2013)

Mirko Kovač was a Montenegrin writer. In his rich career he wrote novels, short stories, essays, film scripts, TV and radio plays. Among his best known works are the novella Životopis Malvine Trifković, the novels Vrata od utrobe, Grad u zrcalu, the short story collection Ruže za Nives Koen, the book of essays Europska trulež and the scripts for some of the most successful films of Yugoslav cinema like Handcuffs, Playing Soldiers and Occupation in 26 Pictures among others. He was one quarter of the infamous Belgrade quartet, the other three being Danilo Kiš, Borislav Pekić and Filip David.

---

26/12/1937

John Horton Conway, English mathematician, known for Conway's Game of Life (died 2020)

John Horton Conway was an English mathematician. He was active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, combinatorial game theory and coding theory. He also made contributions to many branches of recreational mathematics, most notably the invention of the cellular automaton called the Game of Life.

---

26/12/1936

Kitty Dukakis, American author, First Lady of Massachusetts (died 2025)

Katharine Virginia "Kitty" Dukakis was an American author and activist for various social causes. She served as the First Lady of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and 1983 to 1991, as the wife of the Governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis.

---

Peep Jänes, Estonian architect

Peep Jänes is an Estonian architect.

---

Trevor Taylor, English race car driver (died 2010)

Trevor Patrick Taylor was a British motor racing driver from England.

---

26/12/1935

Rohan Kanhai, Guyanese cricketer

Rohan Bholalall Kanhai is a Guyanese former cricketer of Indo-Guyanese origin, who represented the West Indies in 79 Test matches. He is widely considered to be one of the best batsmen of the 1960s. Kanhai featured on several great West Indian teams, playing alongside Sir Garfield Sobers, Roy Fredericks, Lance Gibbs, Clive Lloyd, and Alvin Kallicharran among others. C. L. R. James wrote in the New World Journal that Kanhai was "the high peak of West Indian cricketing development", and praised his "adventuresome" attitude. Kanhai was part of the West Indian team that won the inaugural, 1975 Cricket World Cup without losing a match.

---

Norm Ullman, Canadian ice hockey player

Norman Victor Alexander Ullman is a Canadian former ice hockey forward. He previously played for the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1955 to 1975, and with the Edmonton Oilers of the World Hockey Association from 1975 to 1977. His career statistics rank him among the greatest centres to ever play in the NHL, with 490 career regular-season goals and 739 assists for 1229 points. Ullman was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1982.

---

26/12/1933

Caroll Spinney, American puppeteer and voice actor (died 2019)

Caroll Edwin Spinney was an American puppeteer, cartoonist, author, artist and speaker, most famous for playing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street from its inception in 1969 until 2018.

---

26/12/1930

Jean Ferrat, French singer-songwriter and poet (died 2010)

Jean Ferrat was a French singer-songwriter and poet. He specialized in singing poetry, particularly that of Louis Aragon.

---

Harry Gamble, American football player, coach, and manager (died 2014)

Harry T. Gamble was an American football coach and executive. He was the head coach at the Lafayette College and University of Pennsylvania and general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles.

---

Donald Moffat, English-American actor (died 2018)

Donald Moffat was a British-American actor with a decades-long career in film and stage in the United States.

---

26/12/1929

Kathleen Crowley, American actress (died 2017)

Kathleen Crowley was an American actress. She appeared in over 100 movies and television series in the 1950s and 1960s, almost always as a leading lady.

---

Régine Zylberberg, Belgian-French singer and actress (died 2022)

Régine Zylberberg, often known mononymously as Régine, was a Belgian-born French singer, actress, nightclub impresario, and businesswoman.

---

26/12/1928

Martin Cooper, American engineer, invented the mobile phone

Martin Cooper is an American engineer. He is a pioneer in the wireless communications industry, especially in radio spectrum management, with eleven patents in the field.

---

26/12/1927

Denis Gifford, English journalist and historian (died 2000)

Denis Gifford was a British writer, broadcaster, journalist, comic artist and historian of film, comics, television and radio. In his lengthy career, he wrote and drew for British comics; wrote more than fifty books on the creators, performers, characters and history of popular media; devised, compiled and contributed to popular programmes for radio and television; and directed several short films. Gifford was also a major comics collector, owning what was perhaps the largest collection of British comics in the world.

---

Alan King, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (died 2004)

Alan King was an American comedian, actor and satirist known for his biting wit and often angry humorous rants. He was also a serious actor who appeared in a number of films and television shows. King wrote several books, produced films, and appeared in plays. In his later years, he helped many philanthropic causes.

---

Stu Miller, American baseball player (died 2015)

Stuart Leonard Miller, nicknamed "the Butterfly Man", was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the St. Louis Cardinals (1952–56), Philadelphia Phillies (1956), New York/San Francisco Giants (1957–62), Baltimore Orioles (1963–67) and Atlanta Braves (1968). He batted and threw right-handed. In a 16-season career, Miller posted a 105–103 record with a 3.24 earned run average, 1164 strikeouts, and 154 saves in 704 games pitched.

---

Denis Quilley, English actor (died 2003)

Denis Clifford Quilley was an English actor and singer. From a family with no theatrical connections, Quilley was determined from an early age to become an actor. He was taken on by the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in his teens, and after a break for compulsory military service he began a West End career in 1950, succeeding Richard Burton in The Lady's Not For Burning. In the 1950s he appeared in revue, musicals, operetta and on television as well as in classic and modern drama in the theatre.

---

26/12/1926

Earle Brown, American composer (died 2002)

Earle Brown was an American music composer, producer, and educator who, as a composer, was a close associate of John Cage, and established his own formal and notational systems. As such, he created "open form," a style of musical construction that influenced composers like John Zorn and the downtown New York scene of the 1980s, as well as later generations of composers.

---

26/12/1924

Frank Broyles, American football player, coach, and sportscaster (died 2017)

John Franklin Broyles was an American college football player and coach, college athletics administrator, and broadcaster. He served as the head football coach for one season at the University of Missouri in 1957 and at the University of Arkansas from 1958 to 1976, compiling a career coaching record of 149–62–6. Broyles was also the athletic director at Arkansas from 1974 to 2007. His mark of 144–58–5 in 19 seasons at the helm of the Arkansas Razorbacks football gives him the most wins and the most coached games of any head coach in program history. With Arkansas, Broyles won seven Southwest Conference titles and his 1964 team was named a national champion by a number of selectors including the Football Writers Association of America.

---

26/12/1923

Richard Artschwager, American painter, illustrator, and sculptor (died 2013)

Richard Ernst Artschwager was an American painter, illustrator and sculptor. His work has associations with Pop Art, Conceptual art and Minimalism.

---

26/12/1922

Richard Mayes, English actor (died 2006)

Derek Leonard Richard Mayes was an English stage, film and television actor. He trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. A well-known face on British television, he was primarily a theatrical actor, described by The Stage as "an RSC stalwart." He appeared in many roles on stage and small screen, including roles in Doctor Who and as Jedediah Dingle in Emmerdale. He suffered a stroke in 2004.

---

26/12/1921

Steve Allen, American actor, singer, talk show host, and screenwriter (died 2000)

Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen was an American television and radio personality, comedian, musician, composer, writer, and actor. Though he got his start in radio, he is best known for his extensive network television career.

---

John Severin, American illustrator (died 2012)

John Powers Severin was an American comics artist noted for his distinctive work with EC Comics, primarily on the war comics Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat; for Marvel Comics, especially its war and Western comics; and for his 45-year stint with the satiric magazine Cracked. He was one of the founding cartoonists of Mad in 1952.

---

26/12/1918

Olga Lopes-Seale, Guyanese-Barbadian singer and radio host (died 2011)

Dame Olga Lopes-Seale DA MBE, was a Guyanese-born Barbados-based social and community worker, radio broadcaster and singer.

---

Georgios Rallis, Greek lieutenant and politician, 173rd Prime Minister of Greece (died 2006)

Georgios Ioannou Rallis, anglicised to George Rallis, was a Greek conservative politician and Prime Minister of Greece from 1980 to 1981.

---

26/12/1915

Rolf Botvid, Swedish actor and screenwriter (died 1998)

Rolf Botvid was a Swedish actor and screenwriter. He appeared in over 30 films. He was the son of actor and comedian John Botvid and was married to actress Marianne Gyllenhammar.

---

26/12/1914

Richard Widmark, American actor (died 2008)

Richard Weedt Widmark was an American actor and film producer. For his debut film role as the villainous Tommy Udo in the film noir Kiss of Death (1947), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and won the inaugural Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer.

---

26/12/1913

Frank Swift, English footballer and journalist (died 1958)

Frank Victor Swift was an English footballer, who played as a goalkeeper for Manchester City and England. After starting his career with Fleetwood, near his hometown of Blackpool, in 1932 he was signed by First Division Manchester City, with whom he played his entire professional career.

---

26/12/1912

Arsenio Lacson, Filipino journalist and politician, Mayor of Manila (died 1962)

Arsenio Hilario Sison Lacson Sr. was a Filipino lawyer, journalist and politician who gained widespread attention as the 17th Mayor of Manila and the first to be democratically elected. An active executive likened by Time and The New York Times to New York City's Fiorello La Guardia, he was the first Manila mayor to be reelected to three terms, remaining in office for over a decade from January 1952 to April 1962. Nicknamed "Arsenic" and described as "a good man with a bad mouth", Lacson's fiery temperament became a trademark of his political and broadcasting career. He died suddenly from a stroke amidst talk that he was planning to run in the 1965 presidential election.

---

26/12/1910

Imperio Argentina, Argentine-Spanish actress and singer (died 2003)

María Magdalena Nile del Río was an Argentine professional singer and movie actress, better known as Imperio Argentina; she became a citizen of Spain in 1999.

---

Marguerite Churchill, American actress (died 2000)

Marguerite Graham Churchill was an American stage and film actress whose career spanned 30 years, from 1922 to 1952. Marguerite made her debut as a child actress on Broadway in 1922. She debuted onscreen in 1929, and appeared in more than 25 films. She frequently appeared in westerns such as Riders of the Purple Sage (1931) and was John Wayne's first leading lady in The Big Trail (1930). She also appeared in action films and in mysteries such as Charlie Chan Carries On (1931).

---

26/12/1909

Matt Gordy, American pole vaulter (died 1989)

Matthew Bell Gordy was an American pole vaulter. In 1933 Gordy shared first place at both the NCAA championships and the national championships and helped Louisiana State University win the NCAA team title.

---

26/12/1908

Ralph Hill, American runner (died 1994)

Ralph Anthony Hill was an American runner. He set an American record over the mile in 1930 and won a silver medal in the 5000 m event at the 1932 Olympics.

---

26/12/1907

Albert Gore, Sr., American lawyer and politician (died 1998)

Albert Arnold Gore Sr. was an American politician who served as a United States senator from Tennessee from 1953 to 1971. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a U.S. representative from the state's 4th congressional district from 1939 to 1953. He was the father of Al Gore, who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 until 2001, and who held Tennessee's other U.S. Senate seat from 1985 to 1993. A native of Granville, Tennessee, Gore graduated from Middle Tennessee State Teachers College and taught school. From 1932 to 1936 he was superintendent of schools for Smith County. He attended the Nashville Y.M.C.A. Night Law School, now the Nashville School of Law, from which he graduated in 1936.

---

26/12/1905

William Loeb III, American publisher (died 1981)

William Loeb III was an American newspaper publisher. He is remembered for his unyieldingly conservative political views, which helped made the Manchester Union Leader of Manchester, New Hampshire, one of the best-known small papers in the country. The newspaper also benefited from nationwide attention every four years during the New Hampshire presidential primary. Loeb was publisher of the Union Leader from 1946 until his death, a period of 35 years.

---

26/12/1904

Alejo Carpentier, Swiss-Cuban musicologist and author (died 1980)

Alejo Carpentier y Valmont was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, of French and Russian parentage, Carpentier grew up in Havana, Cuba, and despite his European birthplace, he strongly identified as Cuban throughout his life. He traveled extensively, particularly in France, and to South America and Mexico, where he met prominent members of the Latin American cultural and artistic community. Carpentier took a keen interest in Latin American politics and often aligned himself with revolutionary movements, such as Fidel Castro's Communist Revolution in Cuba in the mid-20th century. Carpentier was jailed and exiled for his leftist political philosophies.

---

26/12/1903

Elisha Cook, Jr., American actor (died 1995)

Elisha Vanslyck Cook Jr. was an American character actor famed for his work in film noir. He played cheerful, brainy collegiates until he was cast against type as the bug-eyed baby-faced killer Wilmer Cook in the 1941 version of The Maltese Falcon. He went on to play deceptively mild-mannered villains. Cook's acting career spanned more than 60 years, with roles in productions including The Big Sleep, Shane, The Killing, House on Haunted Hill and Rosemary's Baby.

---

26/12/1902

Anatoli Lvovich Kaplan, Russian painter and sculptor (died 1980)

Anatoli Lvovich Kaplan, was a Soviet-era Russian painter, sculptor and printmaker, whose works often reflect his Jewish origins.

---

26/12/1901

Elmar Muuk, Estonian linguist and author (died 1941)

Elmar Muuk was an Estonian linguist, lexicographer, and author of a number of dictionaries and textbooks of the Estonian language, and was, together with Johannes Voldemar Veski and Johannes Aavik, responsible for development of Estonian as a modern European language.

---

26/12/1900

Evelyn Bark, leading member of the British Red Cross, first female recipient of the CMG (died 1993)

Evelyn Elizabeth Patricia Bark, was a leading member of the British Red Cross.

---

26/12/1894

Jean Toomer, American author and poet (died 1967)

Jean Toomer was an American poet and novelist commonly associated with modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, though he actively resisted the latter association. His reputation stems from his novel Cane (1923), which Toomer wrote during and after a stint as a school principal at a black school in rural Sparta, Georgia. The novel intertwines the stories of six women and includes an apparently autobiographical thread; sociologist Charles S. Johnson called it "the most astonishingly brilliant beginning of any Negro writer of his generation". He resisted being classified as a "Negro" writer and he identified as "American". For more than a decade Toomer was an influential follower and representative of the pioneering spiritual teacher G.I. Gurdjieff.

---

26/12/1893

Mao Zedong, Chinese politician, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (died 1976)

Mao Zedong, also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese revolutionary, politician, writer, political theorist and the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC). He led China from the PRC's establishment in October 1949 until his death in September 1976, primarily through his role as the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). His theories, which he advocated as a Chinese adaptation of Marxism–Leninism, are known as Maoism.

---

26/12/1892

Don Barclay, American actor and illustrator (died 1975)

Don Barclay was an American actor, artist and caricaturist whose many roles spanned the period from the Keystone Cops in 1915 to Mary Poppins in 1964 and whose many paintings and caricatures of celebrities filled establishments worldwide and are archived in the Library of Congress.

---

26/12/1891

Henry Miller, American author and painter (died 1980)

Henry Valentine Miller was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blends character study, social criticism, philosophical reflection, stream of consciousness, explicit language, sex, surrealist free association, and mysticism. His most characteristic works of this kind are Tropic of Cancer, Black Spring, Tropic of Capricorn, and the trilogy The Rosy Crucifixion, which are based on his experiences in New York City and Paris, and all of which were banned in the United States until 1961. He also wrote travel memoirs and literary criticism and painted watercolors.

---

26/12/1890

Konstantinos Georgakopoulos, Greek lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Greece (died 1973)

Konstantinos Georgakopoulos was a Greek lawyer, politician and Prime Minister of Greece.

---

Percy Hodge, English runner (died 1967)

Percy Hodge was a British athlete, winner of the 3000 m steeplechase at the 1920 Summer Olympics.

---

26/12/1889

Ragnhild Kaarbø, Norwegian painter (died 1949)

Ragnhild Kaarbø was a Norwegian painter. Influenced by Fauvism, she painted expressionistic portraits. She was also influenced by Cubism, but as her cubistic paintings were criticized by the press, she eventually focused on impressionistic landscape paintings.

---

26/12/1888

Marius Canard, French orientalist and historian (died 1982)

Marius Canard FBA was a French Orientalist and historian.

---

26/12/1887

Arthur Percival, English general (died 1966)

Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival, was a British Army officer. He saw service in the First World War and built a successful military career during the interwar period, but is best known for his defeat in the Second World War, when Percival commanded British Commonwealth forces during the Malayan campaign, which culminated in a catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Singapore.

---

26/12/1885

Bazoline Estelle Usher, African-American educator (died 1992)

Bazoline Estelle Usher was an American educator known for her work in the Atlanta Public Schools. As director of education for African-American children in the district prior to integration, she was the first African American to have an office at Atlanta City Hall. She founded the first Girl Scout troop for African-American girls in Atlanta in 1943. Her career as an educator lasted over 50 years, over 40 of which were in the Atlanta schools. A school in Atlanta is named for her, and in 2014 she was posthumously named a Georgia Woman of Achievement.

---

26/12/1883

Maurice Utrillo, French painter (died 1955)

Maurice Utrillo was a French painter of the School of Paris who specialized in cityscapes. From the Montmartre quarter of Paris, France, Utrillo is one of the few famous painters of Montmartre to have been born there.

---

26/12/1874

Khan Bahadur Ahsanullah, Bangladeshi theologian and academic (died 1965)

Khan Bahadur Ahsanullah was an educator, litterateur, Islamic theologist and social reformer of pre-partition India.

---

26/12/1873

Thomas Wass, English cricketer (died 1953)

Thomas George Wass was a Nottinghamshire cricketer, a bowler best remembered, alongside Albert Hallam, for bowling that gave Nottinghamshire a brilliant County Championship win in 1907. Wass also holds the record for the most wickets taken for Nottinghamshire — 1633 for 20.34 each.

---

26/12/1872

Norman Angell, English journalist, academic, and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1967)

Sir Ralph Norman Angell was a lecturer, journalist, author and Member of Parliament for the Labour Party. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to promote peace, particularly through writings that argued that modern economic interdependence made war irrational and self-defeating.

---

26/12/1870

Virginia Bolten, Argentine feminist and trade unionist (died 1960)

Virginia Bolten (1870–1960) was an Argentine journalist and anarchist feminist activist. An anarchist agitator from an early age, she became a leading figure among the working women of Rosario, organising for the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (FORA) and leading the first women's strike in the country's history. After being recruited into the anarchist movement in Buenos Aires by the Italian anarchist Pietro Gori, she joined some of the country's first anarchist women's organisations and established one of the world's first anarchist feminist periodicals: La Voz de la Mujer.

---

26/12/1869

Mathieu Cordang, Dutch cyclist (died 1942)

Mathieu Cordang was a Dutch professional cyclist. His specialties were track racing and endurance racing.

---

26/12/1867

Phan Bội Châu, Vietnamese activist (died 1940)

Phan Bội Châu was a Vietnamese nationalist and revolutionary. In 1904, he formed a revolutionary organization called Duy Tân Hội and initiated the Đông Du movement. From 1905 to 1908, he lived in Japan where he wrote political tracts calling for the independence of Vietnam from French colonial rule. After being forced to leave Japan, he moved to China where he was influenced by Sun Yat-sen and gradually shifted his political position from monarchist to democrat. In 1912, he disbanded Duy Tân Hội to form Việt Nam Quang Phục Hội, modeled after Sun Yat-sen's republican party. In 1925, French agents seized him in Shanghai. He was convicted of treason and spent the rest of his life under house arrest in Huế.

---

26/12/1864

Yun Chi-ho, Korean activist and politician (died 1945)

Yun Ch'iho was a Korean politician. His name is sometimes spelled Yun Tchi-Ho, his art name was Chwaong (좌옹), and his courtesy name was Sŏnghŭm (성흠).

---

26/12/1863

Charles Pathé, French record producer, co-founded Pathé Records (died 1957)

Charles Morand Pathé was a pioneer of the French film and recording industries. As the founder of Pathé Frères, its roots lie in 1896 Paris, France, when Pathé and his brothers pioneered the development of the moving image. Pathé adopted the national emblem of France, the cockerel, as the trademark for his company. The firm, as Compagnie Générale des Éstablissements Pathé Frères Phonographes & Cinématographes, invented the cinema newsreel with Pathé-Journal.

---

26/12/1859

William Stephens, American lawyer and politician, 24th Governor of California (died 1944)

William Dennison Stephens was an American federal and state politician. A three-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1911 to 1916, Stephens was the 24th governor of California from 1917 to 1923. Prior to becoming Governor, Stephens served as the 27th lieutenant governor of California from 1916 to 1917, due to the death of John Morton Eshleman, and served a brief time as Mayor of Los Angeles in 1909 due to the resignation of Arthur C. Harper. He served as the 27th Mayor of Los Angeles in 1909.

---

26/12/1854

José Yves Limantour, Mexican financier and politician, Mexican Secretary of Finance (died 1935)

José Yves Limantour Marquet was a Mexican financier and politician who served as Secretary of the Finance of Mexico from 1893 until the fall of the Porfirio Díaz regime in 1911. One of the most prominent politicians of the Porfiriato era, he was a key member of Díaz's technocratic advisors known as Los Científicos.

---

26/12/1853

René Bazin, French author and academic (died 1932)

René François Nicolas Marie Bazin was a French novelist.

---

26/12/1852

Johannes François Snelleman, Dutch zoologist, orientalist, and ethnographer (died 1938)

Johannes François Snelleman was a Dutch zoologist, orientalist, ethnographer and museum director. He was a son of Christiaan Snelleman and Sara Lacombe. Snelleman was married three times, to Josepha Hendrika Dupont, Catharina Johanna Elisabeth Augusta Inckel, and Theodora Maria Beun.

---

26/12/1837

Morgan Bulkeley, American soldier and politician, 54th Governor of Connecticut (died 1922)

Morgan Gardner Bulkeley was an American politician of the Republican Party, businessman, and insurance executive. In 1876, he served as the first president of baseball's National League and, because of that, was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937, a choice that remains controversial, since his time as a baseball executive was short.

---

George Dewey, American admiral (died 1917)

George Dewey was Admiral of the Navy, the only person in United States history to have attained that rank. He is best known for his victory at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish–American War, with the loss of only a single crewman on the American side.

---

26/12/1820

Dion Boucicault, Irish actor and playwright (died 1890)

Dionysius Lardner "Dion" Boucicault was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the most successful actor-playwright-managers then in the English-speaking theatre. The New York Times hailed him in his obituary as "the most conspicuous English dramatist of the 19th century"; he and his second wife, Agnes Robertson Boucicault, applied for, and received, American citizenship in 1873.

---

26/12/1819

E. D. E. N. Southworth, American author and educator (died 1899)

Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth was an American writer of more than 60 novels in the latter part of the 19th century. She was the most popular American novelist of her day.

---

26/12/1803

Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, Estonian physician and author (died 1882)

Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald was an Estonian writer who is considered to be the father of the national literature for the country. He is the author of Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg.

---

26/12/1791

Charles Babbage, English mathematician and engineer, invented the Difference engine (died 1871)

Charles Babbage was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer.

---

26/12/1785

Étienne Constantin de Gerlache, Belgian lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Belgium (died 1871)

Étienne Constantin, Baron de Gerlache was a lawyer and politician in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and later became in 1831 the first prime minister of the newly founded Belgian state.

---

26/12/1782

Philaret Drozdov, Russian metropolitan and saint (died 1867)

Metropolitan Philaret was Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna and the most influential figure in the Russian Orthodox Church for more than 40 years, from 1821 to 1867.

---

26/12/1780

Mary Somerville, Scottish mathematician, astronomer, and author (died 1872)

Mary Somerville was a Scottish scientist, writer, and polymath. She studied mathematics and astronomy, and in 1835 she and Caroline Herschel were elected as the first female Honorary Members of the Royal Astronomical Society.

---

26/12/1769

Ernst Moritz Arndt, German writer and poet (died 1860)

Ernst Moritz Arndt was a German nationalist historian, writer and poet. Early in his life, he fought for the abolition of serfdom, later against Napoleonic dominance over Germany. Arndt had to flee to Sweden for some time due to his anti-French positions. He is one of the main founders of German nationalism during the Napoleonic wars and the 19th century movement for German unification. After the Carlsbad Decrees, the forces of the restoration counted him as a demagogue.

---

26/12/1751

Lord George Gordon, English lieutenant and politician (died 1793)

Lord George Gordon was a British nobleman and politician best known for lending his name to the Gordon Riots of 1780. An eccentric and flighty personality, he was born into the Scottish nobility and sat in the House of Commons from 1774 to 1780. His life ended after a number of controversies, notably one surrounding his conversion to Judaism, for which he was ostracised. He died in Newgate Prison.

---

Clemens Maria Hofbauer, Austrian priest, missionary, and saint (died 1820)

Clement Mary Hofbauer was a Moravian hermit and later a priest of the Redemptorist congregation. He established his congregation, founded in Italy, north of the Alps. For this, he is considered a co-founder of the congregation. He was widely known for his lifelong dedication to care of the poor during a tumultuous period in Europe, that had left thousands destitute. He laboured in the care of the Polish people until expelled, when he moved to Austria.

---

26/12/1737

Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (died 1815)

Prince Frederick Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was a military commander in the army of the Holy Roman Empire. He began his career at the age of 18 in a cavalry regiment with which he took part in the Seven Years' War. Coburg's bravery allowed him to quickly rise through the ranks. Promoted to colonel in 1759, he became a general officer in the following years and, in this capacity, took command of an army corps during the Austro-Turkish War. Coburg campaigned successfully in Moldavia where he won the battles of Focşani, Rymnik and Martinestje against the Ottomans, which earned him the rank of field marshal in 1789.

---

26/12/1723

Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm, German-French author and playwright (died 1807)

Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm was a German-born French-language journalist, art critic, diplomat and contributor to the Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. In 1765 Grimm wrote Poème lyrique, an influential article for the Encyclopédie on lyric and opera librettos. Like Christoph Willibald Gluck and Ranieri de' Calzabigi, Grimm became interested in opera reform. According to Martin Fontius, a German literary theorist, "sooner or later a book entitled The Aesthetic Ideas of Grimm will have to be written."

---

26/12/1716

Thomas Gray, English poet and scholar (died 1771)

Thomas Gray was an English poet, letter-writer, and classical scholar at Cambridge University, being a fellow first of Peterhouse then of Pembroke College. He is widely known for his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, published in 1751. Gray was a self-critical writer who published only 13 poems in his lifetime, despite being very popular. He was even offered the position of Poet Laureate in 1757 after the death of Colley Cibber, though he declined.

---

Jean François de Saint-Lambert, French soldier and philosopher (died 1803)

Jean François de Saint-Lambert was a French poet, philosopher and military officer.

---

26/12/1687

Johann Georg Pisendel, German violinist and composer (died 1755)

Johann Georg Pisendel was a German Baroque violinist and composer who, for many years, led the Court Orchestra in Dresden as concertmaster, then the finest instrumental ensemble in Europe. He was the leading violinist of his time, and composers such as Tomaso Albinoni, Georg Philipp Telemann and Antonio Vivaldi all dedicated violin compositions to him.

---

26/12/1646

Robert Bolling, English/English Colonial merchant and planter (died 1709)

Robert Bolling was an English-born merchant, planter and politician. He was the founder of the Bolling family of Virginia, one of the First Families of Virginia, with at least fifteen descendants serving in the Virginia General Assembly as well as holding local offices, as did he.

---

26/12/1628

John Page, English Colonial politician (died 1692)

Colonel John Page was an English-born planter, merchant, slave trader and politician who spent most of his life in North America. Born in Bedfont, Middlesex, Page eventually migrated to the English colony of Virginia, where he lived in Middle Plantation and served as a member of the House of Burgesses from 1665 to 1677 and a member of the Virginia Governor's Council from 1677 to 1692. A wealthy landowner, Page donated land and funds towards construction of the Bruton Parish Church. Page was also involved in the establishment of the College of William & Mary in 1693, as well as being a chief proponent of Middle Plantation being designated the colony's capital in 1698.

---

26/12/1618

Elisabeth of the Palatinate, German princess, philosopher, and Calvinist (died 1680)

Elisabeth of the Palatinate, also known as Elisabeth of Bohemia, Princess Elisabeth of the Palatinate, or Princess-Abbess of Herford Abbey, was the eldest daughter of Frederick V, Elector Palatine, and Elizabeth Stuart. Elisabeth of the Palatinate was a philosopher best known for her correspondence with René Descartes. She was critical of Descartes' dualistic metaphysics and her work anticipated the metaphysical concerns of later philosophers.

---

26/12/1581

Philip III, Landgrave of Hesse-Butzbach (died 1643)

Landgrave Philip III of Hesse-Butzbach was Landgrave of Hesse-Butzbach from 1609 to 1643.

---

26/12/1537

Albert, Count of Nassau-Weilburg (died 1593)

Albert of Nassau-Weilburg-Ottweiler, was a count of the House of Nassau. His territory included the areas around Weilburg, Ottweiler and Lahr in the Black Forest. Like his father, Philip III of Nassau-Weilburg he was an advocate of the Reformation.

---

26/12/1536

Yi I, Korean philosopher and scholar (died 1584)

Yi I was a Korean philosopher, writer, and Confucian scholar of the Joseon period. Yi is often referred to by his art name Yulgok. He was also a politician and was the academical successor of Cho Kwangjo.

---

26/12/1532

Wilhelm Xylander, German scholar and academic (died 1576)

Wilhelm Xylander was a German classical scholar and humanist. He served as rector of Heidelberg University in 1564.

---

26/12/1526

Rose Lok, businesswoman and Protestant exile (died 1613)

Rose Lok was an English businesswoman and Protestant exile during the Tudor period. At the age of eighty-four, she wrote an account covering the first part of her life.

---

26/12/1446

Charles de Valois, Duke de Berry, French noble (died 1472)

Charles, Duke of Berry, later Duke of Normandy and Duke of Aquitaine, was a son of Charles VII, King of France. He spent most of his life in conflict with his elder brother, King Louis XI.

---

26/12/1194

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1250)

Frederick II was King of Sicily from 1198, King of Germany from 1212, King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor from 1220, and King of Jerusalem from 1225 to 1228. He was the son of Emperor Henry VI, of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, and Queen Constance I of Sicily, of the Hauteville dynasty.

---