5th December — World Soil Day & International Volunteer Day

On this day, 244 notable people were born on 5th December — spanning from 852 to 2009. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

05/12/2009

Owen Cooper, English actor

Owen Patrick Cooper is an English actor. He gained international recognition and acclaim for his debut role portraying teenage murder suspect Jamie Miller in the Netflix miniseries Adolescence (2025). For the role, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, making him the youngest male actor to win a Primetime Emmy Award. Cooper also won the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film, becoming the youngest winner in both categories, as well as the Actor Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series for the same role, which made him the youngest recipient of the award in any category.

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05/12/2008

Ediz Gürel, Turkish chess grandmaster

Ediz Gürel is a Turkish chess player who received the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in 2024.

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05/12/2000

Soobin, South Korean singer-songwriter

Choi Soo-bin, known mononymously as Soobin, is a South Korean singer and songwriter. He is the leader of the South Korean boy band Tomorrow X Together, formed by Big Hit Entertainment in 2019.

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05/12/1998

Conan Gray, American singer-songwriter

Conan Lee Gray is an American singer, songwriter and former YouTuber. He was born in Lemon Grove, California, and raised in Georgetown, Texas, where he began uploading vlogs, covers, and original songs to YouTube as a teenager. In 2018, Gray signed a record deal with Republic Records, which released his debut EP, Sunset Season (2018).

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Randal Kolo Muani, French footballer

Randal Kolo Muani is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and the France national team.

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05/12/1997

Maddie Poppe, American singer-songwriter and musician

Madeline Mae Poppe is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and the sixteenth season winner of American Idol. She is a multi-instrumentalist—playing the guitar, piano, and ukulele. Prior to winning American Idol in 2018, Poppe released an independent album titled Songs from the Basement. Poppe released her second studio album, Whirlwind, with Hollywood Records in 2019.

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Quinnen Williams, American football player

Quinnen Williams is an American professional football defensive tackle for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide and was selected by the New York Jets with the third overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft. He is the younger brother of linebacker Quincy Williams.

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05/12/1995

Danny Levi, New Zealand rugby league player

Daniel Levi is a professional rugby league footballer who played as a hooker for the Leeds Rhinos in the Super League He has played for New Zealand, New Zealand Māori and Samoa at international level.

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Anthony Martial, French footballer

Anthony Jordan Martial is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward. He last played for Liga MX club Monterrey.

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Kaetlyn Osmond, Canadian figure skater

Kaetlyn Osmond is a retired competitive Canadian figure skater who competed in ladies' singles. A three-time Canadian national champion, Osmond competed internationally at the senior level from 2012 to 2018, winning three Olympic medals, two World Championship medals, and one Grand Prix Final medal (bronze).

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Levy Rozman, American chess International Master, streamer and YouTuber

Levy Rozman, known online as GothamChess, is an American chess international master, entrepreneur, content creator, commentator, and author. Often referred to as "The Internet's Chess Teacher", he produces content on the online platforms Twitch, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

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Alexander Sørloth, Norwegian footballer

Alexander Sørloth is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a striker for La Liga club Atlético Madrid and the Norway national team.

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05/12/1994

Ondrej Duda, Slovak footballer

Ondrej Duda is a Slovak professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Saudi Pro League club Al-Ettifaq and the Slovakia national team.

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Semi Ojeleye, American basketball player

Jesusemilore Talodabijesu "Semi" Ojeleye is a Nigerian-American professional basketball player for Crvena zvezda of the Basketball League of Serbia (KLS), the ABA League, and the EuroLeague. He played college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils and SMU Mustangs.

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05/12/1993

Ross Barkley, English footballer

Ross Barkley is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Aston Villa.

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Luciano Vietto, Argentine footballer

Luciano Darío Vietto is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for San Lorenzo.

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05/12/1992

Natalie Sourisseau, Canadian field hockey player

Natalie Sourisseau is a Canadian field hockey player.

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05/12/1991

Cam Fowler, Canadian-American ice hockey player

Cameron Matthew Fowler is a Canadian-born American professional ice hockey player who is a defenseman for the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected 12th overall by the Anaheim Ducks in the 2010 NHL entry draft, for whom he played the first 15 seasons of his NHL career.

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Christian Yelich, American baseball player

Christian Stephen Yelich is an American professional baseball left fielder for the Milwaukee Brewers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Miami Marlins. Internationally, Yelich represents the United States. In the 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC), he helped win Team USA's first gold medal in a WBC tournament and was named to the All-World Baseball Classic Team.

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05/12/1990

Montee Ball, American football player

Montee Ball Jr. is an American former professional football player who was a running back for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Wisconsin Badgers, twice earning consensus All-American honors. Until November 2015, Ball held NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) records for the most career rushing touchdowns with 77 and the most career total touchdowns with 83. He was selected by the Broncos in the second round of the 2013 NFL draft. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2025.

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05/12/1989

Jurrell Casey, American football player

Jurrell Juel Casey is an American former professional football player in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the USC Trojans, and was selected by the Tennessee Titans in the third round of the 2011 NFL draft. In nine seasons with the Titans as both a defensive tackle and a defensive end, he was an All-Pro in 2013 and a five-time Pro Bowl selection from 2015 to 2019. He played his 10th and final professional season for the Denver Broncos, but missed most of the season due to injury.

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Kwon Yu-ri, South Korean singer-songwriter and actress

Kwon Yu-ri, known mononymously as Yuri, is a South Korean singer, actress, and songwriter. She debuted as a member of girl group Girls' Generation in August 2007, which went on to become one of the best-selling artists in South Korea and one of South Korea's most widely known girl groups worldwide. Apart from her group's activities, she has acted in several television dramas such as Fashion King (2012), Local Hero (2016), Innocent Defendant (2017), Dae Jang Geum Is Watching (2018), Bossam: Steal the Fate (2021), Good Job (2022) and Parole Examiner Lee (2024). In 2013, she made her film debut in No Breathing. In 2018, she made her debut as a soloist with her first extended play The First Scene.

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05/12/1988

Ross Bagley, American actor

Ross Bagley is an American former actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Nicky Banks in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as well as Dylan Dubrow in Independence Day. He also played Buckwheat in The Little Rascals (1994).

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Tina Charles, American basketball player

Tina Alexandria Charles is an American former professional basketball player. Originally from Jamaica, Queens, New York City, Charles was drafted first overall in the 2010 WNBA draft by the Connecticut Sun. In 2009 and 2010, she and teammate Maya Moore led the Connecticut Huskies to two undefeated national championships. She has won three Olympic gold medals with Team USA and was inducted into the NYC Basketball Hall of Fame at the head of the Class of 2024 - the first female to head a class at any major basketball hall of fame and the first active player ever inducted.

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Kyle Long, American football player

Kyle Howard Long is an American former professional football guard who played in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons with the Chicago Bears. The son of Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end Howie Long and the younger brother of former defensive end Chris Long, he played college football for the Oregon Ducks following a stint with the Florida State Seminoles. He was selected by the Bears in the first round of the 2013 NFL draft.

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Joanna Rowsell, English cyclist

Joanna Katie Rowsell MBE is a retired English cyclist on the Great Britain Cycling Team who competed on track and road.

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05/12/1987

A. J. Pollock, American baseball player

Allen Lorenz "A. J." Pollock is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, Seattle Mariners, and San Francisco Giants.

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05/12/1986

LeGarrette Blount, American football player

LeGarrette Montez Blount is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons. He played college football at the University of Oregon after transferring from East Mississippi Community College. Not selected in the 2010 NFL draft, he began his NFL career as an undrafted free agent.

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James Hinchcliffe, Canadian Indycar racing driver

James Douglas Meredith Hinchcliffe is a Canadian racing driver. He is best known for competing in the IndyCar Series from 2011 until 2021. He is also a commentator for IndyCar broadcasts on FOX Sports and occasional Formula One broadcasts on F1TV.

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Justin Smoak, American baseball player

Justin Kyle Smoak is an American former professional baseball first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays, Milwaukee Brewers, and San Francisco Giants and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yomiuri Giants.

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05/12/1985

Shikhar Dhawan, Indian cricketer

Shikhar Dhawan is an Indian former cricketer who played as an opening batter. He was a regular member of the Indian team in limited-overs formats for over a decade and represented Delhi in domestic cricket. He was leading run scorer and also named as the Player of the Tournament in the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy and even he was leading run-scorer by an indian at the 2015 World Cup. Across ICC World Cups and Champions Trophies, he averaged 65.15, the highest among players with over 1000 runs.

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André-Pierre Gignac, French footballer

André-Pierre Christian Gignac is a French professional footballer who played as a striker for Liga MX club Tigres UANL.

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Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum, Emirati princess

Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is an Emirati princess and a member of the Dubai ruling family. She is the daughter of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of the UAE, and an Algerian woman named Huriah Ahmed al M'aash.

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Frankie Muniz, American actor, drummer, and race car driver

Francisco James Muniz IV is an American actor and professional stock car racing driver. Muniz came to prominence in the 2000s playing the titular character of the Fox sitcom Malcolm in the Middle (2000–2006), for which he was nominated for an Emmy and two Golden Globe Awards. He also worked in the films Big Fat Liar (2002), Deuces Wild (2002), Agent Cody Banks (2003), and Racing Stripes (2005). At the height of his fame in 2003, Muniz was considered one of the most popular child actors and "one of Hollywood's most bankable teens".

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Josh Smith, American basketball player

Joshua Smith is an American former professional basketball player who played 13 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Entering the NBA straight out of high school, Smith played nine seasons with the Atlanta Hawks, for the Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers between 2013 and 2016. His final stint in the NBA came in November 2017 with the New Orleans Pelicans. He is sometimes referred to by his nickname "J-Smoove".

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Danny Wicks, Australian rugby league player

Danny Wicks is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a prop in the NRL for the St. George Illawarra Dragons, Newcastle Knights and the Parramatta Eels.

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05/12/1984

Lauren London, American actress

Lauren Nicole London is an American actress. She is known for her roles in films and televisions shows including ATL (2006), This Christmas (2007), Madea's Big Happy Family (2011), Baggage Claim (2013), The Game (2013–2015), Games People Play (2019), Without Remorse (2021), and You People (2023).

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05/12/1983

Joakim Lindström, Swedish ice hockey player

Joakim Claes Lindström is a Swedish former professional ice hockey winger who last played for Skellefteå AIK of the Swedish Hockey League. Lindström previously played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Columbus Blue Jackets, Phoenix Coyotes, Colorado Avalanche, St. Louis Blues and, most recently, for the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was drafted in the second round, 41st overall, by Columbus in 2002.

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05/12/1982

Eddy Curry, American basketball player

Eddy Anthony Curry Jr. is an American former professional basketball player. A 7 ft 0 in center, he came directly out of Thornwood High School in South Holland, Illinois, and was selected fourth overall in the 2001 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls. Curry played for the Bulls until 2005, then played for the New York Knicks from 2005 to 2010. He played for the Miami Heat in the 2011–12 season and was part of the Heat's 2012 championship team. He played for the Dallas Mavericks for the early part of the 2012–13 season before playing out the season for the Zhejiang Golden Bulls of the Chinese Basketball Association.

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Keri Hilson, American singer-songwriter and actress

Keri Lynn Hilson is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Born and raised in Decatur, Georgia, she began her musical career as a songwriter and backing vocalist for other artists under the wing of record producer Anthony Dent in 2002. At the age of 14, Hilson secured a record deal with the girl group D'Signe, who disbanded without any releases. She attended Oxford College of Emory University while contributing to material for popular artists, including Britney Spears, Usher, Ciara, The Pussycat Dolls, and Mary J. Blige; she joined the songwriting-production group the Clutch in 2004.

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Gabriel Luna, American actor

Gabriel Isaac Luna is an American actor and producer. He is known for his roles as Robbie Reyes / Ghost Rider on the ABC superhero series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2016–2017), Tony Bravo on the El Rey Network drama series Matador (2014), Paco Contreras on the ABC crime drama series Wicked City (2015), Rev-9 in the Terminator film Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), and Tommy Miller in the HBO post-apocalyptic drama series The Last of Us (2023–present). He has also starred in the films Bernie (2011), Balls Out (2014), Freeheld (2015), Gravy (2015), and Transpecos (2016).

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05/12/1981

Adan Canto, Mexican actor (died 2024)

Adan Canto was a Mexican actor. He portrayed Sunspot in the 2014 superhero film X-Men: Days of Future Past, Paul Torres on the Fox drama series The Following, and A.J. Menendez in the ABC prime-time series Blood & Oil. He appeared as Rodrigo Lara Bonilla in the Netflix drama series Narcos, Aaron Shore in the ABC/Netflix political drama Designated Survivor, and starred on Fox's The Cleaning Lady until his death.

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05/12/1980

Jessica Paré, Canadian actress

Jessica Paré is a Canadian actress and singer, known for her roles on the AMC series Mad Men and the CBS series SEAL Team. She has also appeared in the films Stardom (2000), Lost and Delirious (2001), Wicker Park (2004), Suck (2009), Hot Tub Time Machine (2010), and Brooklyn (2015).

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05/12/1979

Matteo Ferrari, Italian footballer

Matteo Ferrari is an Italian former footballer who played as a defender He played top-flight football for several Italian clubs in Serie A, Everton of the Premier League, and for the Montreal Impact in Major League Soccer. He was usually deployed as a centre-back, although he was capable of playing anywhere along the back-line.

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Niklas Hagman, Finnish ice hockey player

Niklas Hagman is a Finnish former professional ice hockey forward. He was a third round pick of the Florida Panthers, 70th overall, at the 1999 NHL entry draft and made his National Hockey League (NHL) debut with Florida in 2001. He has also played for the Dallas Stars, Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames and Anaheim Ducks in the NHL, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the KHL, HIFK, Espoo Blues and Kärpät in the SM-liiga and HC Davos in the Swiss National League A.

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Gareth McAuley, Northern Irish footballer

Gareth Gerald McAuley is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who played as a centre back. He represented Northern Ireland at senior international level, being capped on 80 occasions and scoring nine times. He is the manager of the Northern Ireland national under-19 football team.

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Nick Stahl, American actor

Nicolas Kent Stahl is an American actor. Starting out as a child actor, he gained recognition for his performance in the 1993 film The Man Without a Face, in which he was directed by and starred alongside Mel Gibson.

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05/12/1978

Neil Druckmann, American video game designer and author

Neil Druckmann is an Israeli–American writer, creative director, designer, and programmer. He is the studio head and head of creative of the video game developer Naughty Dog, and is best known for his work on the game franchises Uncharted and The Last of Us, having co-created the latter as well as its television adaptation.

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Olli Jokinen, Finnish ice hockey player

Olli Veli Pekka Jokinen is a Finnish former professional ice hockey player. He was selected by the Los Angeles Kings third overall in the 1997 NHL entry draft, with whom he made his NHL debut. He has also played for the New York Islanders, Florida Panthers, Phoenix Coyotes, Calgary Flames, New York Rangers, Winnipeg Jets, Nashville Predators, Toronto Maple Leafs, and St. Louis Blues. He began his professional career with KalPa and then HIFK of the Finnish SM-liiga. Additionally, he played for EHC Kloten of Switzerland's National League A and Södertälje SK of Sweden's Elitserien. He previously held the franchise records for most goals, assists, and points for the Florida Panthers.

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Marcelo Zalayeta, Uruguayan footballer

Marcelo Danubio Zalayeta is a Uruguayan former professional footballer who played as a striker. At international level, Zalayeta represented the Uruguay national team on 32 occasions between 1997 and 2005, scoring ten goals. At youth level, he was a member of the team that finished second in the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship. At senior level, he helped Uruguay reach the 1999 Copa América final.

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05/12/1977

Peter van der Vlag, Dutch footballer

Peter van der Vlag is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Later he was the goalkeeper coach of SC Cambuur.

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05/12/1976

Amy Acker, American actress

Amy Louise Acker is an American actress. She is best known for starring as Winifred Burkle and Illyria on the supernatural drama series Angel (2001–2004), as Kelly Peyton on the action drama series Alias (2005–2006), and as Root on the science-fiction drama series Person of Interest (2012–2016). From 2017 to 2019, she starred as Caitlin Strucker on the superhero drama series The Gifted, based on Marvel Comics' X-Men.

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Xavier Garbajosa, French rugby player

Xavier Garbajosa is a retired French rugby player who was most recently the manager of Top 14 side Lyon.

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Norishige Kanai, Japanese doctor and astronaut

Norishige Kanai is a Japanese doctor and JAXA astronaut.

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Sachiko Kokubu, Japanese actress and model

Sachiko Kokubu is a Japanese actress and fashion model. She has starred in several TV dramas and movies, including the 2004 horror film Tokyo Psycho.

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Rachel Komisarz, American swimmer and coach

Rachel Komisarz, also known by her married name Rachel Komisarz-Baugh, is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic gold medalist, world record-holder and collegiate swimming coach.

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05/12/1975

Ronnie O'Sullivan, English snooker player and radio host

Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan is an English professional snooker player. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in snooker history, he has won the World Snooker Championship seven times, a modern-era record he holds jointly with Stephen Hendry. He has also won a record eight Masters titles and a record eight UK Championship titles for a total of 23 Triple Crown titles, the most achieved by any player. He holds the record for the most ranking titles, with 41, and he has been ranked world number one on five occasions throughout his career.

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Paula Patton, American actress

Paula Maxine Patton is an American actress and producer. Patton made her feature film debut in the 2005 comedy Hitch, and has had starring and supporting roles in the films Déjà Vu (2006), Idlewild (2006), Precious (2009), Jumping the Broom (2011), Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), 2 Guns (2013), Warcraft (2016), and Sacrifice (2019).

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05/12/1974

Ravish Kumar, Indian journalist and author

Ravish Kumar is an Indian journalist, author, media personality and YouTuber. He was the Senior Executive Editor of NDTV India. He hosted a number of programmes including the channel's flagship weekday show Prime Time, Hum Log, Ravish Ki Report, and Des Ki Baat.

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Brian Lewis, American sprinter

Brian M. Lewis is an American athlete, winner of gold medal in 4 × 100 m relay at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

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05/12/1973

Argo Arbeiter, Estonian footballer

Argo Arbeiter is an Estonian football manager and former Estonian international footballer. Currently he is the sporting director of Nõmme Kalju.

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Arik Benado, Israeli footballer

Ariel "Arik" Benado is an Israeli football manager and former player who played as a centre-back.

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Mikelangelo Loconte, Italian singer-songwriter, producer, and actor

Mikelangelo Loconte is an Italian singer, writer, composer, musician, performer and artistic director. He was born in Cerignola, but began his acting and performing career in France, in the musical Les Nouveaux Nomades by Claude Barzotti and Anne-Marie Gaspard. Without speaking French, he recorded all his songs in a studio using phonetic writing in the early years of his career.

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Luboš Motl, Czech physicist and academic

Luboš Motl is a Czech blogger. He was an assistant professor in physics at Harvard University from 2004 to 2007. His scientific publications were focused on string theory.

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05/12/1972

Cliff Floyd, American baseball player and sportscaster

Cornelius Clifford Floyd Jr. is an American former Major League Baseball left fielder who played for 17 seasons, most notably for the Montreal Expos, Florida Marlins and New York Mets. He is currently a baseball analyst who co-hosts on Sirius XM Radio and appears for both MLB Network and the Chicago Cubs on Marquee Sports Network.

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Duane Ross, American hurdler and coach

Randolph Duane Ross Sr. is an American collegiate track and field coach, and former athlete, specializing in the 110 meters hurdles. He is currently the Director of Track and Field programs for the University of Tennessee and is best known for winning the bronze medal at the 1999 World Championships in Athletics and representing the United States at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Ross also won the 1995 NCAA championship in the 110-meter hurdles, and as a 7-time All-American and 5 Time ACC champion is Clemson University's most decorated male hurdler.

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05/12/1971

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, German businessman and politician, German Federal Minister of Defence

Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Buhl-Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg, known professionally as Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, is a German businessman, author, journalist, podcaster, and former politician of the Christian Social Union (CSU). He served as a member of the Bundestag from 2002 to 2011, as Secretary-General of the CSU from 2008 to 2009, as Federal Minister for Economics and Technology in 2009 and as Federal Minister of Defence from 2009 to 2011.

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Ashia Hansen, American-English triple jumper

Ashia Kate Nana Korantima Hansen, is a retired British triple jumper. Fourth in the 1996 Olympic final, she broke the world indoor record when winning the 1998 European Indoor title, and went on to win gold medals at the World Indoor Championships in 1999 and 2003, at the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and 2002, and at the 2002 European Championships. Her British records of 15.15 metres and 15.16 metres, still stand. Injury forced her into retirement.

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Gabriel Hjertstedt, Swedish golfer

Gabriel Hjertstedt is a Swedish professional golfer. In 1997, he became the first Swede to win on the U.S.-based PGA Tour.

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Kali Rocha, American actress

Kali Rocha is an American actress. She is known for portraying Karen Rooney, the mother of the four Rooney children and the school's vice principal, on the Disney Channel sitcom Liv and Maddie. She also co-wrote four episodes of the show.

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05/12/1970

Kevin Haller, Canadian ice hockey player

Kevin Wade Haller is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played 13 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with seven teams between 1990 and 2002. He won the Stanley Cup in 1993 while with the Montreal Canadiens. Internationally Haller played for the Canadian national junior team, winning a gold medal at the 1990 World Junior Championships.

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Michel'le, American singer-songwriter

Michel'le Denise Toussant, also spelled Toussaint, is an American R&B singer known for her songs from 1989 to the early 1990s. Her highest charting song is the top ten US Hot 100 hit "No More Lies". Between 2013 and 2015, Michel'le was one of six members on the TV One reality show R&B Divas: Los Angeles. She is also the subject of the 2016 biopic Surviving Compton: Dre, Suge & Michel'le.

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05/12/1969

Eric Etebari, American actor, director, and producer

Eric Etebari is an American actor. He appeared in Witchblade, 2 Fast 2 Furious and The Lincoln Lawyer. He is also known for his physical portrayal of Dallas in Payday: The Web Series and the video game PAYDAY 2; the latter portrayal is voiced by Simon Kerr.

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Morgan J. Freeman, American director, producer, and screenwriter

Morgan J. Freeman is an American film and television director, producer, and screenwriter. In 1997, his debut feature Hurricane Streets won three awards at the Sundance Film Festival.

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Sajid Javid, British Pakistani banker and politician, former Chancellor of the Exchequer

Sir Sajid Javid is a British former politician who served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from June 2021 to July 2022, having previously served as Home Secretary from 2018 to 2019 and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2019 to 2020. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament for Bromsgrove between 2010 and 2024.

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Lewis Pugh, English swimmer and lawyer

Lewis William Gordon Pugh, OIG, is a British-South African endurance swimmer and ocean advocate. Dubbed the "Sir Edmund Hillary of swimming", he is the first person to complete a long-distance swim in every ocean of the world, and he frequently swims in vulnerable ecosystems to draw attention to their plight.

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Ramón Ramírez, Mexican footballer

Jesús Ramón Ramírez Ceceña is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

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Catherine Tate, English actress, comedian, and writer

Catherine Tate is an English actress, comedian and writer. She has won numerous awards for her work on the BBC sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show (2004–2007), as well as being nominated for an International Emmy Award and seven British Academy Television Awards. Tate played Donna Noble in the 2006 Christmas special of the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, and reprised her role for the fourth series in 2008, and the 60th anniversary episodes in 2023.

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05/12/1968

Margaret Cho, American comedian, actress, producer, and screenwriter

Margaret Moran Cho is an American stand-up comedian, actress and musician. In her stand-up routines she critiques social and political problems, especially about race and sexuality. She starred in the ABC sitcom All-American Girl (1994–95).

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Lisa Marie, American model and actress

Lisa Marie Smith, known professionally as Lisa Marie, is an American actress, model and producer. She is best known for her roles with Tim Burton: as Vampira in Ed Wood (1994), the Martian Girl in Mars Attacks! (1996), Lady Crane in Sleepy Hollow (1999), and Nova in Planet of the Apes (2001).

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Lydia Millet, American novelist

Lydia Millet is an American novelist. Her 2020 novel A Children's Bible was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and named one of the ten best books of the year by the New York Times Book Review. She has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Salon wrote of Millet's work, "The writing is always flawlessly beautiful, reaching for an experience that precedes language itself."

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Falilat Ogunkoya, Nigerian sprinter

Falilat Ogunkoya-Osheku, née Falilat Ogunkoya, is a Nigerian former track and field athlete who holds the distinction of becoming the first Nigerian to win an individual track and field medal at the Olympic Games.

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05/12/1967

Gary Allan, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Gary Allan Herzberg is an American country music singer. Signed to Decca Records in 1996, he made his country music debut with the release of his single "Her Man", the lead-off to his gold-certified debut album Used Heart for Sale, which was released in 1996 on Decca. His second album, It Would Be You, followed in 1998. His third album, Smoke Rings in the Dark, was his first one for MCA Nashville and his first platinum album. His next albums, Alright Guy (2001) and See If I Care (2003), both were also certified platinum while Tough All Over (2005) and Greatest Hits (2007) and Living Hard (2007) were all certified gold.

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05/12/1965

Manish Malhotra, Indian fashion designer

Manish Malhotra is an Indian fashion designer, couturier, costume stylist, entrepreneur, filmmaker, and revivalist based in Mumbai, India.

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John Rzeznik, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

John Joseph Theodore Rzeznik is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and producer. He is best known as the founder, guitarist and frontman of the rock band Goo Goo Dolls, with whom he has recorded several chart-topping hits, including "Iris", "Slide", and "Name".

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Wayne Smith, Jamaican rapper (died 2014)

Wayne Smith was a Jamaican reggae and dancehall musician best known for his 1985 hit "Under Me Sleng Teng", which is regarded as the track which initiated the digital era of reggae.

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Valeriy Spitsyn, Russian race walker

Valeriy Anatolyevich Spitsyn is a retired male race walker from Russia.

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05/12/1964

Martin Vinnicombe, Australian cyclist

James “Martin” Vinnicombe is an Australian former professional track cyclist who competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, winning a silver medal in 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) time trial. He tested positive for steroids in 1991, but accusations were overturned and Vinnicombe received $240,000 in compensation for false allegations in defamation. His former manager, Phill Bates, told the Sydney Morning Herald in 1996: "If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying." At 22 years of age, Vinnicombe won the world championship in 1 km (0.62 mi) time trial in 1987, being the first ever Australian to become world champion, He also won the silver medal three times and the bronze medal once (1985). Vinnicombe has placed 9 times at the world championships in 1,000m time trial event.

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05/12/1963

Doctor Dré, American television and radio host

André Brown, better known as Doctor Dré, is an American rapper, radio personality and former MTV VJ.

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Carrie Hamilton, American actress and playwright (died 2002)

Carrie Louise Hamilton was an American actress, playwright and singer. Hamilton was a daughter of comedian Carol Burnett and producer Joe Hamilton. She was the elder sister of actress Jody Hamilton and singer-producer Erin Hamilton.

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Alberto Nisman, Argentinian lawyer (died 2015)

Natalio Alberto Nisman was an Argentine lawyer who worked as a federal prosecutor, noted for being the chief investigator of the 1994 car bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people, the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentina's history. On 18 January 2015, Nisman was found dead at his home in Buenos Aires, one day before he was scheduled to report on his findings before a Congress inquiry, with supposedly incriminating evidence against high-ranking officials of the then-current Argentinian government, including former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, regarding the Memorandum of Understanding between Argentina and Iran.

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05/12/1962

José Cura, Argentinian tenor, conductor, and director

José Luis Victor Cura Gómez is an Argentine operatic tenor, conductor, director, scenographer and photographer known for intense and original interpretations of opera characters, notably Otello in Verdi’s Otello, Samson in Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila, Canio in Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, and Stiffelio in Giuseppe Verdi's Stiffelio.

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Pablo Morales, American swimmer and coach

Pedro Pablo Morales Jr. is an American former competitive swimmer. He set world records in the 100-meter butterfly in 1984 and 1986. He was the 100-meter butterfly gold medalist at the 1992 Olympic Games, as well as winning 4 × 100 meter medley relay gold medals at both the 1984 and 1992 Olympic Games. He also won 100-meter butterfly and 4 × 100 meter medley relay gold medals at the 1986 World Championships.

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Nivek Ogre, Canadian singer-songwriter

Kevin Graham Ogilvie, known professionally as Nivek Ogre, is a Canadian musician, performance artist and actor, best known for his work with the industrial music group Skinny Puppy, which he co-founded with cEvin Key. From 1982 to 1996, and again from 2003 to 2023, he served as Skinny Puppy's primary lyricist and vocalist, occasionally providing instrumentation and samples. Ogre's charismatic personality, guttural vocals and use of costumes, props, and fake blood on stage helped widen Skinny Puppy's fanbase and has inspired numerous other musicians.

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Fred Rutten, Dutch footballer and manager

Fredericus Jacobus Rutten is a Dutch football coach and former player, who has most recently been the manager of the Curaçao national team. As a player, he spent his entire career with Twente during the years 1979 to 1992. Following his playing career, Rutten also managed Twente, before moving on to clubs like Schalke 04, PSV Eindhoven, SBV Vitesse, Feyenoord, Al Shabab, Maccabi Haifa and more recently Anderlecht.

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05/12/1961

Ralf Dujmovits, German mountaineer

Ralf Dujmovits is a German mountaineer. In May 2009 he became the 16th person, and the first German, to climb the 14 eight-thousanders.

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Laura Flanders, British journalist

Laura Flanders is an English broadcast journalist living in the United States who presents the weekly, long-form interview show The Laura Flanders Show. Flanders has described herself as a "lefty person".

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05/12/1960

Frans Adelaar, Dutch footballer and manager

Frans Adelaar is a Dutch football manager and former professional player.

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Osvaldo Golijov, Argentinian-American composer and educator

Osvaldo Noé Golijov is an Argentine composer of classical music and music professor known for his vocal and orchestral work.

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Jack Russell, American singer-songwriter and producer (died 2024)

Jack Patrick Russell was an American rock vocalist. He was a founding member of the hard rock band Great White.

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Matthew Taylor, English businessman and politician

Matthew Taylor is a British former political strategist, broadcaster and writer, and current chief executive of the NHS Confederation.

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05/12/1959

Lee Chapman, English footballer

Lee Roy Chapman is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker from 1978 until 1996, in which he scored over 200 first team goals.

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Oleksandr Yaroslavsky, Ukrainian businessman

Oleksandr Vladylenovych Yaroslavskyi is a Ukrainian businessman. He was formerly co-owner of UkrSibbank and president of FC Metalist Kharkiv (2005–2012). Yaroslavskyi is the president of DCH and one of the most influential people in Ukraine according to Ukrainian and Eastern European media. In 2016, Forbes ranked him among the top ten richest people in Ukraine. In November 2018, Russia imposed sanctions against 322 citizens of Ukraine, including Yaroslavskyi.

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05/12/1958

Dynamite Kid, English wrestler (died 2018)

Thomas Billington, best known by the ring name the Dynamite Kid, was a British professional wrestler.

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05/12/1957

Raquel Argandoña, Chilean model, actress, and politician

Raquel Eliana Argandoña de la Fuente is a Chilean actress, politician, TV host and beauty pageant titleholder. She was mayor of Pelarco in Chile's Maule Region after the 2000 Municipal Elections. She is best known for her role as the La Quintrala in the 1986 TV mini-series of the same name. Raquel Argandoña was the 1975 Miss Universo Chile. Raquel is the mother of the actress-singer Raquel Calderón. She, and her best friend Patricia Maldonado were dancers at private partys for Pinochet and other militars.

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Art Monk, American football player

James Arthur Monk is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for the Washington Redskins, the New York Jets and the Philadelphia Eagles. He is considered by many NFL players, coaches, and analysts to be one of the greatest wide receivers of all time. Monk was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008.

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05/12/1956

Klaus Allofs, German footballer and manager

Klaus Allofs is a German former professional football player, manager, and executive.

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Butch Lee, Puerto Rican basketball player

Alfred "Butch" Lee Jr. is a Puerto Rican former professional basketball player. Lee was the first Puerto Rican and first Latin American-born athlete to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA), accomplishing this after being selected in the first round of the 1978 NBA draft.

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Adam Thorpe, French-English author, poet, and playwright

Adam Thorpe is a British poet and novelist whose works also include short stories, translations, radio dramas and documentaries. He is a frequent contributor of reviews and articles to various newspapers, journals and magazines, including the Guardian, the Poetry Review and the Times Literary Supplement.

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Krystian Zimerman, Polish virtuoso pianist

Krystian Zimerman is a Polish concert pianist, conductor and pedagogue who has been described as one of the greatest pianists of his generation. In 1975, he won the IX International Chopin Piano Competition.

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05/12/1955

Miyuki Kawanaka, Japanese singer

Miyuki Kawanaka is a Japanese enka singer. Her singing career spanned over four decades. She married Katsuo Yamada in 1991.

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Juha Tiainen, Finnish hammer thrower (died 2003)

Juha Tiainen was a hammer thrower from Finland who won the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics. The same year he achieved his personal best throw, 81.52 metres.

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05/12/1954

Hanif Kureishi, English author and playwright

Hanif Kureishi is a British playwright, screenwriter and novelist.

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05/12/1953

Gwen Lister, South African-Namibian journalist, publisher, and activist

Gwen Lister is a Namibian journalist, publisher, anti-apartheid and press freedom activist.

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05/12/1951

Morgan Brittany, American actress

Morgan Brittany is an American actress. She began her career as a child appearing in the film Gypsy (1962), in a 1960 episode of The Twilight Zone entitled "Nightmare as a Child" and another in 1963 entitled "Valley of the Shadow". She went on to appear in Stage to Thunder Rock (1964) and Yours, Mine and Ours. In the 1970s, Brittany began work as a model joining Ford Models. She played Vivien Leigh in films The Day of the Locust (1975), Gable and Lombard (1976) and The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980). Brittany is best-known for portraying Katherine Wentworth, the scheming younger half-sister of Pamela Ewing and Cliff Barnes, on the primetime soap opera Dallas.

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Link Byfield, Canadian journalist and author (died 2015)

Eric Linkord Byfield was a Canadian news columnist, author, and politician.

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Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven, Belgian painter and illustrator

Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven is a Belgian artist whose work involves painting, drawing, computer art and video art.

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05/12/1949

John Altman, English composer and conductor

John Altman is an English film composer, music arranger, orchestrator and conductor.

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David Manning, English civil servant and diplomat, British Ambassador to the United States

Sir David Geoffrey Manning, is a former British diplomat, who was the British Ambassador to the United States from 2003 to 2007. He authored the so-called "Manning Memo", that summarized the details of a meeting between American president George W. Bush and British prime minister Tony Blair during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Until 2019, he was appointed to the Household of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

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05/12/1948

Denise Drysdale, Australian television host and actress

Denise Anne Christina Drysdale is an Australian television presenter, variety entertainer, actress, singer, dancer and comedian. She is often affectionately known as "Ding Dong", a nickname invented by fellow performer Ernie Sigley. She was formerly a co-host of the morning show Studio 10.

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05/12/1947

Rudy Fernandez, Filipino triathlete (died 2022)

Rodolfo Fernandez, commonly known as Rudy and referred to as the "Iron Man of Asia", was a multi-awarded, one-legged Filipino triathlete from Iloilo who had finished a degree in Physical Education at the University of Baguio.

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Bruce Golding, Jamaican lawyer and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Jamaica

Orette Bruce Golding is a former Jamaican politician who served as eighth Prime Minister of Jamaica from 11 September 2007 to 23 October 2011. He is a member of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which he led from 2005 to his resignation in 2011.

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Tony Gregory, Irish activist and politician (died 2009)

Tony Gregory was an Irish independent politician, and a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Central constituency from 1982 to 2009.

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Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa, Mongolian cosmonaut and military leader

Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa is a Mongolian cosmonaut and military leader. He was the first Mongol and second Asian to go into space. He also was Mongolia's Defense Minister from 2000 to 2004.

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Jim Messina, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

James Messina is an American musician, songwriter, singer, guitarist, recording engineer, and record producer. He was a member of the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield, a founding member of the country rock band Poco, and half of the soft rock duo Loggins and Messina with Kenny Loggins.

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Jim Plunkett, American football player and radio host

James William Plunkett is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons. He achieved his greatest success during his final eight seasons with the Raiders franchise, whom he led to two Super Bowl wins.

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Kim Simmonds, Welsh blues-rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (died 2022)

Kim Maiden Simmonds was a Welsh musician. He was the founder, guitarist, primary songwriter and sole constant member of the blues rock band Savoy Brown, which he formed in 1965. Simmonds had led Savoy Brown since its inception, appearing on every Savoy Brown release.

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Don Touhig, Welsh journalist and politician

James Donnelly Touhig, Baron Touhig, known as Don Touhig, is a British politician and life peer who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Islwyn from 1995 to 2010. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, he served in government as an Assistant Whip from 1999 to 2001 and a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State from 2001 to 2006.

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05/12/1946

José Carreras, Spanish tenor and actor

Josep Maria Carreras Coll, better known as José Carreras, is a Spanish operatic tenor who is particularly known for his performances in the operas of Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini.

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Andy Kim, Canadian pop singer-songwriter

Androwis Youakim, better known as Andy Kim, is a Canadian pop rock singer and songwriter. He grew up in Montreal, Quebec. He is known for hits that he released in the late 1960s and 1970s: the international hit "Baby, I Love You" in 1969, and "Rock Me Gently", which topped the U.S. singles chart in 1974. He co-wrote "Sugar, Sugar" in 1968 and sang on the recording as part of the Archies; it was #1 for four weeks in the USA and was "Record of the Year" for 1969.

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Sarel van der Merwe, South African racing driver

Sarel Daniel van der Merwe is a former rally and racing driver, who was a multiple South African Rally Drivers Champion. He is sometimes referred to by his nickname "Supervan".

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05/12/1945

Serge Chapleau, Canadian cartoonist

Serge Chapleau is a Canadian political cartoonist.

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Moshe Katsav, Iranian-Israeli educator and politician, 8th President of Israel

Moshe Katsav is an Israeli former politician who was the president of Israel from 2000 to 2007. He was also a leading Likud member of the Israeli Knesset and a minister in its cabinet. He was the first Mizrahi Jew to be elected to the presidency, and second non-Ashkenazi president after Yitzhak Navon. He is also the only ex-Israeli president to have been convicted of a crime.

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05/12/1944

Jeroen Krabbé, Dutch actor, director, and producer

Jeroen Aart Krabbé is a Dutch actor, film director and painter with a successful career in both Dutch- and English-language films. He is best known to international audiences for his leading roles in the Paul Verhoeven films Soldier of Orange (1977) and The Fourth Man (1983), for playing the villain General Georgi Koskov in the James Bond film The Living Daylights (1987) and his parts in The Prince of Tides (1991), The Fugitive (1993), and Immortal Beloved (1994). His 1998 directorial debut, Left Luggage, was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival.

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05/12/1943

Eva Joly, Norwegian-French judge and politician

Eva Joly is a Norwegian-born French juge d'instruction (magistrate) and politician for Europe Écologie–The Greens. She represented that party as a candidate for the presidency of France in the 2012 elections. She also served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2009 until 2019.

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Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, South Korean cardinal

Andrew Yeom Soo-jung is a Korean prelate of the Catholic Church who was the Archbishop of Seoul from 2012 to 2021, while also holding the title of Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Pyongyang in North Korea. Pope Francis made him a cardinal in 2014. He was also the chairman of Catholic Peace Broadcasting Corporation (CPBC).

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05/12/1942

Bryan Murray, Canadian ice hockey coach (died 2017)

Bryan Clarence Murray was a Canadian professional ice hockey executive and coach. He served as general manager of the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 2007 to 2016. He had previously been general manager of the NHL's Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Florida Panthers, and Detroit Red Wings. He was also the head coach for the Washington Capitals, Detroit Red Wings, Florida Panthers, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, and Ottawa Senators, for a total of 17 full or partial seasons.

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05/12/1940

Tony Crafter, Australian cricket umpire

Anthony Ronald (Tony) Crafter,, is a former Australian Test cricket match umpire.

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Boris Ignatyev, Russian footballer and manager (died 2026)

Boris Petrovich Ignatyev was a Russian football manager and player.

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Peter Pohl, Swedish author, director, and screenwriter

Peter Pohl is a Swedish author and former director and screenwriter of short films. He has received prizes for several of his books and films, as well as for his entire work. From 1966 until his retirement in 2005, he was lecturer in Numerical analysis at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.

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Frank Wilson, American singer-songwriter and producer (died 2012)

Frank Edward Wilson was an American songwriter, singer, and record producer for Motown Records.

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05/12/1938

J. J. Cale, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2013)

John Weldon "JJ" Cale was an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Though he avoided the limelight, his influence as a musical artist has been acknowledged by figures such as Neil Young, Mark Knopfler, Waylon Jennings, and Eric Clapton, who described him as one of the most important artists in rock history. He is one of the originators of the Tulsa sound, a loose genre drawing on blues, rockabilly, country, and jazz. According to AllMusic, he was known for his "laconic delivery and shuffling boogie rhythm," as well as for his "laid-back rootsy style". He rarely diverted from this style throughout his career.

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05/12/1936

James Lee Burke, American journalist, author, and academic

James Lee Burke is an American author, best known for his Dave Robicheaux series. The Robicheaux character has been portrayed twice on screen, first by Alec Baldwin and then Tommy Lee Jones.

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05/12/1935

Calvin Trillin, American novelist, humorist, and journalist

Calvin Marshall Trillin is an American journalist, humorist, food writer, poet, memoirist and novelist. He is a winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor (2012) and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2008).

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Yury Vlasov, Ukrainian-Russian weightlifter and politician (died 2021)

Yury Petrovich Vlasov was a Soviet and Russian heavyweight weightlifter, writer and politician. He competed at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics and won a gold medal in 1960 and a silver in 1964; at both games, he was the Olympic flag bearer for the Soviet Union. During his career, Vlasov won four world titles and set 31 ratified world records. He retired in 1968 and became a prominent writer and later a politician. He was a member of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union (1989) and then of the Russian State Duma (1993) and took part in the 1996 Russian presidential election.

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05/12/1934

Joan Didion, American novelist and screenwriter (died 2021)

Joan Didion was an American writer and journalist. She is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism, along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe.

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05/12/1933

Gennadiy Agapov, Russian race walker (died 1999)

Gennadiy Mikhailovich Agapov was a Soviet Russian race walker. Agapov held the unofficial world records in both the 20 km walk and the 50 km walk and placed second in the 50 km walk at the 1966 European Championships.

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Harry Holgate, Australian politician, 36th Premier of Tasmania (died 1997)

Harold Norman Holgate AO was an Australian politician. He was premier of Tasmania from 1981 to 1982, serving as state leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) during that period. He succeeded Doug Lowe as party leader and premier during internal conflict over the Franklin Dam controversy, leading the ALP to defeat at the 1982 state election just over six months after taking office.

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05/12/1932

Alf Dubs, Baron Dubs, British politician

Alfred Dubs, Baron Dubs is a Labour life peer in the British House of Lords.

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Sheldon Glashow, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

Sheldon Lee Glashow is an American theoretical physicist. He shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics with Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg "for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current". He is the Metcalf Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Boston University, and a Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics, emeritus, at Harvard University. Glashow is a member of the board of sponsors for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

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Jim Hurtubise, American race car driver (died 1989)

James Ernest Hurtubise was an American racing driver who competed in Championship Cars, sprint cars and stock cars. Hurtubise enjoyed much success in sprint cars, champ dirt cars, and stock cars, and was the winner of the 1966 Atlanta 500; however, he never achieved the success at the Indianapolis 500 which his rookie qualifying run promised, when he out qualified pole-sitter Eddie Sachs by three mph, nearly breaking the 150-mph mark.

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Nadira, Indian actress (died 2006)

Nadira, was an Indian actress who worked in the Hindi film industry. She appeared in films from the 1950s and 1960s, including Aan (1952), Shree 420 (1955), Pakeezah (1972), and Julie (1975), which won her the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award.

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Little Richard, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor (died 2020)

Richard Wayne Penniman, better known by his stage name Little Richard, was an American singer-songwriter and pianist. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Referred to as the "Architect of Rock and Roll", Richard's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding backbeat and powerful raspy vocals, laid the foundation for rock and roll. Richard's innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk. He influenced singers and musicians across musical genres and his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations.

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05/12/1931

Ladislav Novák, Czech footballer and manager (died 2011)

Ladislav Novák was a Czech football defender and later a football manager. He played 75 matches for Czechoslovakia, 71 of them as a team captain.

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05/12/1930

Yi-Fu Tuan, Chinese-American geographer (died 2022)

Yi-Fu Tuan was a Chinese-born American geographer and writer. He was one of the key figures in human geography and an important originator of humanistic geography.

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05/12/1929

Madis Kõiv, Estonian physicist, philosopher, and author (died 2014)

Madis Kõiv was an Estonian physicist, philosopher and writer.

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05/12/1927

Bhumibol Adulyadej, King of Thailand (died 2016)

Bhumibol Adulyadej, titled Rama IX, was King of Thailand from 9 June 1946 until his death in 2016. His reign of 70 years and 126 days is the longest of any Thai monarch, the longest on record of any independent Asian sovereign, and the third-longest of any sovereign state.

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W.D. Amaradeva, Sri Lankan musician and composer (died 2016)

Sri Lankabhimanya Wannakuwattawaduge Don Albert Perera, better known by his adopted name Amaradeva, was a prominent Sri Lankan Sinhalese vocalist, violinist and composer. Primarily using traditional instruments like sitars, tablas and harmoniums, he incorporated Sinhala folk music with Indian ragas in his work. Many consider his contribution to the development of Sinhala music as unmatched; hence, he is occasionally cited as the "Maestro of Sri Lankan Music".

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05/12/1926

Adetoun Ogunsheye, first female Nigerian professor and university dean

Felicia Adetowun Omolara Ogunsheye is a Nigerian academic. The first female professor in Nigeria, she served as a professor of library and information science at the University of Ibadan.

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05/12/1925

Anastasio Somoza Debayle, Nicaraguan politician, 73rd President of Nicaragua (died 1980)

Anastasio "Tachito" Somoza Debayle was a Nicaraguan politician, military officer, hydraulic engineer, and dictator who served as the 53rd President of Nicaragua from 1967 to 1972 and again from 1974 until his fall in 1979. As head of the National Guard, he was de facto ruler of the country between 1967 and 1979, even during the period when he was not the de jure ruler.

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05/12/1924

Robert Sobukwe, South African banker and politician (died 1978)

Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe OMSG was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and founding member of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), serving as the first president of the organization.

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05/12/1922

Casey Ribicoff, American philanthropist (died 2011)

Casey Ribicoff was an American philanthropist, socialite and the second wife and widow of United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and later United States Senator from Connecticut, Abraham Ribicoff. Ribicoff was the President of the ladies auxiliary of Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida and in 1963 became the first woman to be selected to serve on the hospital's board of trustees.

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Don Robertson, American songwriter and pianist (died 2015)

Donald Irwin Robertson was an American songwriter and pianist, in country and popular music genres. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972. As a performer, he hit the US Top 10 with "The Happy Whistler" in 1956. The track reached No. 8 in the UK Singles Chart the same year. It sold more than one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.

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05/12/1921

Alvy Moore, American actor and producer (died 1997)

Jack Alvin "Alvy" Moore was an American actor best known for his role as scatterbrained county agricultural agent Hank Kimball on the CBS television series Green Acres. His character would often make a statement, only to immediately negate the statement himself and then negate the corrected statement until his stream of statements was interrupted by a frustrated Oliver Wendell Douglas portrayed by Eddie Albert. One such statement was, "Good morning, Mr. Douglas! Well, it's not a good morning ... but it's not a bad morning either!" Moore appeared in 142 of the 170 total Green Acres episodes.

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05/12/1919

Alun Gwynne Jones, Baron Chalfont, English historian and politician (died 2020)

Alun Arthur Gwynne Jones, Baron Chalfont, was a British Army officer, politician and historian.

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05/12/1917

Ken Downing, English racing driver (died 2004)

Kenneth Henry Downing was a British racing driver. From a wealthy family connected to G.H. Downing & Co., he began racing as a privateer in the late 1940s, and with Connaught in 1951, winning 17 races throughout the year. He then competed in the 1952 Formula One championship.

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05/12/1916

Hilary Koprowski, Polish-American virologist and immunologist, created the world's first effective live polio vaccine (died 2013)

Hilary Koprowski was a Polish virologist and immunologist active in the United States who demonstrated the world's first effective live polio vaccine. He authored or co-authored over 875 scientific papers and co-edited several scientific journals.

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Walt McPherson, American basketball player and coach (died 2013)

Walter James McPherson was an American basketball coach and was regarded as one of the best at San Jose State University, and former West Coast Athletic Conference commissioner. McPherson graduated from San Jose State in 1939 and played as a fullback through 1936 and 1938 trained by Dudley DeGroot. He became a basketball coach and assistant football coach, he also managed to get his basketball team in the NCAA Tournament which was the team's first time in the tournament. He also taught Carroll Williams and Billy Wilson who also started their own sport careers. McPherson retired from coaching in 1960.

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05/12/1914

Helen Dettweiler, American golfer (died 1990)

Elizabeth Helen Dettweiler was an American professional golfer. She was one of the co-founders of the Ladies Professional Golf Association. She won the Women's Western Open in 1939.

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Hans Hellmut Kirst, German lieutenant and author (died 1989)

Hans Hellmut Kirst was a German novelist and the author of 46 books, many of which were translated into English. Kirst is best remembered as the creator of the "Gunner Asch" series which detailed the ongoing struggle of an honest individual to maintain his identity and humanity amidst the criminality and corruption of Nazi Germany.

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05/12/1913

Esther Borja, Cuban soprano and actress (died 2013)

Esther Borja Lima was a Cuban operatic soprano.

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Bruce Conde, American army officer, mercenary, stamp collector, and royalty claimant (died 1992)

Bruce Conde was a US Army officer, stamp collector, royal imposter, and a general for Royalist forces during the North Yemen Civil War.

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05/12/1912

Kate Simon, American travel writer (died 1990)

Kate Simon was a Polish-born American writer.

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Sonny Boy Williamson II, American singer-songwriter and harmonica player (died 1965)

Alex or Aleck Miller, known later in his career as Sonny Boy Williamson, was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. He was an early and influential blues harp stylist who recorded successfully in the 1950s and 1960s. Miller used various names, including Rice Miller and Little Boy Blue, before calling himself Sonny Boy Williamson, which was also the name of a popular Chicago blues singer and harmonica player. To distinguish the two, Miller has been referred to as Sonny Boy Williamson II.

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05/12/1911

Władysław Szpilman, Polish pianist and composer (died 2000)

Władysław Szpilman was a Polish Jewish pianist, classical composer and Holocaust survivor. Szpilman is widely known as the central figure in the Roman Polanski film The Pianist, which was based on his autobiographical account of how he survived the German occupation of Warsaw and the Warsaw Uprising.

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05/12/1910

Abraham Polonsky, American director and screenwriter (died 1999)

Abraham Lincoln Polonsky was an American film director, screenwriter, essayist and novelist. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Body and Soul (1947). The following year, he wrote and directed Force of Evil (1948), which was later hailed by Martin Scorsese and others as one of the finest achievements of American film noir. However, it was to be Polonsky's last credited film for more than twenty years. In April 1951, he refused to cooperate or "name names" to the House Un-American Activities Committee and was blacklisted by the movie studios.

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05/12/1907

Lin Biao, Chinese general and politician, 2nd Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China (died 1971)

Lin Biao was a Chinese military commander and politician. Pivotal to the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, he commanded the Liaoshen and Pingjin campaigns at the head of the Manchurian Field Army, led the People's Liberation Army into Beijing, and swept the Kuomintang from the coastal provinces of Southeast China. He was ranked third among the Ten Marshals of the People's Republic of China, behind Zhu De and Peng Dehuai.

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Giuseppe Occhialini, Italian-French physicist and academic (died 1993)

Giuseppe Paolo Stanislao "Beppo" Occhialini was an Italian experimental physicist who contributed to the discovery of the pion or pi-meson decay in 1947 with César Lattes and Cecil Powell, the latter winning the Nobel Prize in Physics for this work. At the time of this discovery, they were all working in the H. H. Wills Laboratory at the University of Bristol.

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05/12/1905

Francisco Javier Arana, Guatemalan Army colonel and briefly Guatemalan head of state (died 1949)

Francisco Javier Arana Castro was a Guatemalan military leader and one of the three members of the revolutionary junta that ruled Guatemala from 20 October 1944 to 15 March 1945 during the early part of the Guatemalan Revolution. A major in the Guatemalan army under the dictator Jorge Ubico, he allied with a progressive faction of the army to topple Ubico's successor Federico Ponce Vaides. He led the three-man junta that oversaw the transition to a democratic government, although he was personally reluctant to allow the elected President Juan José Arévalo to take office in 1945. He served as the Chief of the Armed Forces in the new government until 1949. On 18 July 1949 he was killed in a shootout with supporters of the Arévalo government after he threatened to launch a coup.

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Otto Preminger, Austrian-American actor, director, and producer (died 1986)

Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austrian-American film and theatre director, film producer and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre, and was one of the most influential directors in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, twice for Best Director and once for Best Picture, among many other accolades.

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05/12/1903

Johannes Heesters, Dutch-German actor and singer (died 2011)

Johan Marius Nicolaas Heesters, known professionally as Johannes Heesters, was a Dutch-German actor of stage, television and film, as well as a vocalist of numerous recordings and performer on the concert stage with a career dating back to the 1920s. He worked as an actor until his death and is one of the oldest performing entertainers in history, performing shortly before his death at the age of 108. Heesters was almost exclusively active in the German-speaking world from the mid-1930s and became a film star in Nazi Germany, which later led to controversy in his native country. He was able to maintain his popularity in Germany in the decades until his death.

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C. F. Powell, English-Italian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1969)

Cecil Frank Powell was a British experimental physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1950 for heading the team that developed the photographic method of studying nuclear processes, and for the resulting discovery of the pion (pi-meson).

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05/12/1902

Emeric Pressburger, Hungarian-English director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1988)

Emeric Pressburger was a Hungarian-British screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is best known for his series of film collaborations with Michael Powell, in a collaboration partnership known as the Archers, and produced a series of films, including 49th Parallel, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948), and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951).

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Strom Thurmond, American educator, general, and politician, 103rd Governor of South Carolina (died 2003)

James Strom Thurmond Sr. was an American politician who represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from late 1954 to early 2003, with a seven-month break in 1956. Before his 47 years as a senator, he served as the 103rd governor of South Carolina from 1947 to 1951. Thurmond was officially a member of the Democratic Party in the Senate until 1964, when he joined the Republican Party. He had earlier run for president in 1948 as the Dixiecrat candidate in opposition to Democratic president Harry S. Truman, receiving over a million votes and winning four states.

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05/12/1901

Walt Disney, American animator, director, producer, and screenwriter, co-founded The Walt Disney Company (died 1966)

Walter Elias Disney was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film producer, he holds the record for most Academy Awards won (22) and nominations (59) by an individual. He was presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honors. Several of his films are included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress and have also been named as some of the best by the American Film Institute.

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Milton H. Erickson, American psychiatrist and author (died 1980)

Milton Hyland Erickson was an American psychiatrist and psychologist specializing in medical hypnosis and family therapy. He was the founding president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis. He is noted for his approach to the unconscious mind as creative and solution-generating. He is also noted for influencing brief therapy, strategic family therapy, family systems therapy, solution focused brief therapy, and neuro-linguistic programming.

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Werner Heisenberg, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1976)

Werner Karl Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist, one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics and a principal scientist in the German nuclear program during World War II.

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05/12/1900

Jimmy Dimmock, English footballer (died 1972)

James Henry Dimmock was a footballer who scored the winning goal for Tottenham Hotspur in the 1921 FA Cup Final. He played as an outside left and became the fans' favourite with his mazy runs and trickery, and also won three caps for England.

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05/12/1898

Josh Malihabadi, Indian-Pakistani poet and translator (died 1982)

Josh Malihabadi popularly known as Shayar-e-Inqalab was a Pakistani Urdu poet.

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Grace Moore, American soprano and actress (died 1947)

Mary Willie Grace Moore was an American operatic lyric soprano and actress in musical theatre and film. She was nicknamed the "Tennessee Nightingale." Her films helped to popularize opera by bringing it to a larger audience. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in One Night of Love.

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05/12/1897

Nunnally Johnson, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1977)

Nunnally Hunter Johnson was an American screenwriter, film director, producer and playwright. As a filmmaker, he wrote the screenplays to more than fifty films in a career that spanned from 1927 to 1967. He also produced more than half of the films he wrote scripts for and directed eight of those movies. In 1940 he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Grapes of Wrath and in 1956, he was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film for The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. Some of his other notable films include Tobacco Road (1941), The Moon Is Down (1943), Casanova Brown (1944), The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), The Woman in the Window (1944), The Mudlark (1950), The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951), My Cousin Rachel (1952), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), The Three Faces of Eve (1957), Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962), and The Dirty Dozen (1967). As a playwright he wrote the books for several Broadway musicals, including the musical revue Shoot the Works (1931), Arthur Schwartz's Park Avenue (1946), Bob Merrill's Henry, Sweet Henry (1967), and Jule Styne's Darling of the Day (1968). He also wrote the 1943 Broadway play The World's Full of Girls.

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Gershom Scholem, German-Israeli philosopher and historian (died 1982)

Gershom Scholem was an Israeli philosopher and historian. Widely regarded as the founder of modern academic study of the Kabbalah, Scholem was appointed the first professor of Jewish mysticism at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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05/12/1896

Ann Nolan Clark, American historian, author, and educator (died 1995)

Ann Nolan Clark, born Anna Marie Nolan, was an American writer who won the 1953 Newbery Medal.

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Carl Ferdinand Cori, Czech-American biochemist and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1984)

Carl Ferdinand Cori, ForMemRS was a Czech-American biochemist and pharmacologist. He, together with his wife Gerty Cori and Argentine physiologist Bernardo Houssay, received a Nobel Prize in 1947 for their discovery of how the glucose derivative glycogen is broken down and resynthesized in the body for use as a store and source of energy. In 2004, both Coris were designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark in recognition of their work that elucidated carbohydrate metabolism.

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05/12/1895

Elbert Frank Cox, American mathematician and academic (died 1969)

Elbert Frank Cox was an American mathematician. He was the first African American to receive a PhD in mathematics, which he earned at Cornell University in 1925.

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05/12/1894

Charles Robberts Swart, South African lawyer and politician, 1st State President of South Africa (died 1982)

Charles Robberts Swart, nicknamed "Blackie", was a South African politician who served as the last governor-general of the Union of South Africa from 1959 to 1961 and the first state president of the Republic of South Africa from 1961 to 1967.

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05/12/1891

Paul Kogerman, Estonian chemist and academic (died 1951)

Paul Nikolai Kogerman was an Estonian chemist and founder of modern research in oil shale.

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05/12/1890

David Bomberg, English painter, illustrator, and academic (died 1957)

David Garshen Bomberg was a British painter, and one of the Whitechapel Boys.

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Fritz Lang, Austrian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1976)

Friedrich Christian Anton Lang, better known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked in Germany and later the United States. One of the best-known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute. He has been cited as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time.

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05/12/1888

Sabás Reyes Salazar, Mexican Catholic priest (died 1927)

Sabás Reyes Salazar was a Mexican Catholic vicar and one of many priests martyred during the Cristero War. Reyes was canonized by Pope John Paul II on 21 May 2000 as one the Martyrs of the Cristero War.

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05/12/1886

Rose Wilder Lane, American journalist and author (died 1968)

Rose Wilder Lane was an American writer and daughter of American writer Laura Ingalls Wilder. Along with two other female writers, Ayn Rand and Isabel Paterson, Lane was one of the more influential advocates of the American libertarian movement.

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Pieter Oud, Dutch historian, academic, and politician, Minister of Finance of the Netherlands (died 1968)

Pieter Jacobus Oud was a Dutch politician of the Free-thinking Democratic League (VDB) and later co-founder of the Labour Party (PvdA) and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and historian. He was granted the honorary title of Minister of State on 9 November 1963.

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Nikolai Uglanov, Soviet politician (died 1937)

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Uglanov was a Russian Bolshevik politician and Soviet statesman who played an important role in the government of the Soviet Union as a Communist Party leader in the city of Moscow during the 1920s. Uglanov was closely associated with the so-called "Right Opposition" associated with Soviet party leader Nikolai Bukharin and he fell from his leadership position during the mass collectivization campaign of 1929. Uglanov was arrested in the summer of 1936 and was executed the following spring during the secret police terror of 1937–1938.

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05/12/1881

René Cresté, French actor and director (died 1922)

René Auguste Cresté was a French stage and film actor and director of the silent film era. Cresté is possibly best recalled as Judex, the title character in the Louis Feuillade-directed crime-adventure serial Judex, which ran in twelve installments in theaters from 1917 until 1918.

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05/12/1879

Clyde Vernon Cessna, American pilot and businessman, founded the Cessna Aircraft Corporation (died 1954)

Clyde Vernon Cessna was an American aircraft designer, aviator, and early aviation entrepreneur. He is best known as the principal founder of the Cessna Aircraft Corporation, which he started in 1927 in Wichita, Kansas.

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05/12/1875

Arthur Currie, Canadian general (died 1933)

General Sir Arthur William Currie was a senior officer of the Canadian Army who fought during World War I. He had the unique distinction of starting his military career on the very bottom rung as a pre-war militia gunner before rising through the ranks to become the first Canadian commander of the Canadian Corps. Currie's success was based on his ability to rapidly adapt brigade tactics to the exigencies of trench warfare, using set piece operations and bite-and-hold tactics. He is generally considered to be among the most capable commanders of the Western Front, and one of the finest commanders in Canadian military history.

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05/12/1872

Harry Nelson Pillsbury, American chess player (died 1906)

Harry Nelson Pillsbury was a leading American chess player. At the age of 22, he won the Hastings 1895 chess tournament, one of the strongest tournaments of the time, but his illness and early death prevented him from challenging for the World Chess Championship.

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05/12/1870

Vítězslav Novák, Czech composer and educator (died 1949)

Vítězslav Augustín Rudolf Novák was a Czech composer and academic teacher at the Prague Conservatory. Stylistically, he was part of the neo-romantic tradition, and his music is considered an important example of Czech modernism. He worked towards a strong Czech identity in culture after the country became independent in 1918. His compositions include operas and orchestral works.

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05/12/1869

Ellis Parker Butler, American author and poet (died 1937)

Ellis Parker Butler was an American author. He was the author of more than 30 books and more than 2,000 stories and essays and is most famous for his short story "Pigs Is Pigs", in which a bureaucratic stationmaster insists on levying the livestock rate for a shipment of two pet guinea pigs, which soon start proliferating exponentially. His most famous character was Philo Gubb.

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05/12/1868

Arnold Sommerfeld, German physicist and academic (died 1951)

Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in both atomic and quantum physics, and also educated and mentored many students for the new era of theoretical physics.

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05/12/1867

Antti Aarne, Finnish author and academic (died 1925)

Antti Amatus Aarne was a Finnish folklorist.

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Józef Piłsudski, Polish field marshal and politician, 15th Prime Minister of Poland (died 1935)

Józef Klemens Piłsudski was a Polish statesman who served as the Chief of State (1918–1922) and first Marshal of Poland. In the aftermath of World War I, he became an increasingly dominant figure in Polish politics and exerted significant influence on shaping the country's foreign policy. Piłsudski is viewed as a father of the Second Polish Republic, which was re-established in 1918, 123 years after the final partition of Poland in 1795, and was considered de facto leader (1926–1935) of the Second Republic as the Minister of Military Affairs.

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05/12/1866

John Beresford, Irish polo player (died 1944)

John Graham Hope Horsley de la Poer Beresford, 5th Baron Decies PC, styled The Hon. John Beresford until 1910, was an Anglo-Irish army officer, civil servant, and polo player in the 1900 Summer Olympics.

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Traian Demetrescu, Romanian poet and author (died 1896)

Traian Rafael Radu Demetrescu was a Romanian poet, novelist and literary critic, considered one of the first symbolist authors in local literature. Influenced by French writers such as François Coppée and the Decadent Maurice Rollinat, as well as by the local poet Mihai Eminescu, he was made popular by his poems, many of which served as the basis of popular romanzas. Receptive to impressionism and naturalism, he wrote a number of psychological novels and several short stories, some of which are remembered for their melancholic and occasionally macabre themes.

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05/12/1863

Paul Painlevé, French mathematician and politician, 84th Prime Minister of France (died 1933)

Paul Painlevé was a French mathematician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of the French Third Republic in 1917 and 1925. After working as a professor at the Sorbonne University, he entered politics in 1906.

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05/12/1862

John Henry Leech, English entomologist (died 1900)

John Henry Leech was an English entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera and Coleoptera.

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05/12/1861

Konstantin Korovin, Russian-French painter and set designer (died 1939)

Konstantin (Constantin) Alekseyevich Korovin was a leading Russian Impressionist painter.

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05/12/1859

John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, English admiral and politician, 2nd Governor-General of New Zealand (died 1935)

Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe was a Royal Navy officer. He fought in the Anglo-Egyptian War and the Boxer Rebellion and commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 during the First World War. His handling of the fleet at that battle was controversial. Jellicoe made no serious mistakes and the German High Seas Fleet retreated to port, at a time when defeat would have been catastrophic for Britain, but the public was disappointed that the Royal Navy had not won a more dramatic victory given that they outnumbered the enemy. Jellicoe later served as First Sea Lord, overseeing the expansion of the Naval Staff at the Admiralty and the introduction of convoys, but was relieved at the end of 1917. He also served as the governor-general of New Zealand in the early 1920s.

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05/12/1855

Clinton Hart Merriam, American zoologist, ornithologist, entomologist, and ethnographer (died 1942)

Clinton Hart Merriam was an American zoologist, mammalogist, ornithologist, entomologist, ecologist, ethnographer, geographer, naturalist and physician. He was commonly known as the "father of mammalogy," a branch of zoology referring to the study of mammals.

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05/12/1849

Eduard Seler, German anthropologist, ethnohistorian, linguist, and academic (died 1922)

Eduard Georg Seler was a prominent German anthropologist, ethnohistorian, linguist, epigrapher, academic and American scholar, who made extensive contributions in these fields towards the study of pre-Columbian era cultures in the America.

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05/12/1841

Marcus Daly, Irish-American businessman (died 1900)

Marcus Daly was an Irish-born American businessman known as one of the four Copper Kings of Butte, Montana, United States. In 1943, SS Marcus Daly was launched in honor of his achievements.

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05/12/1839

George Armstrong Custer, American general (died 1876)

George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars.

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05/12/1830

Christina Rossetti, English poet and author (died 1894)

Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English writer of romantic and devotional poems, including "Goblin Market" and "Remember".

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05/12/1829

Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière, French-Canadian lawyer and politician, 4th Premier of Quebec (died 1908)

Sir Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière,, lawyer, businessman and politician, served as the fourth premier of Quebec, a federal Cabinet minister, and the seventh Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.

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05/12/1822

Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, American philosopher and academic, co-founded Radcliffe College (died 1907)

Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz was an American educator, naturalist, writer, and the co-founder and first president of Radcliffe College. A researcher of natural history, she was an author and illustrator of natural history texts as well as a co-author of natural history texts with her husband, Louis Agassiz, and her stepson Alexander Agassiz.

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05/12/1820

Afanasy Fet, Russian poet and author (died 1892)

Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet, later known as Shenshin, was a Russian poet regarded as the finest master of lyric verse in Russian literature.

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05/12/1803

Fyodor Tyutchev, Russian poet and diplomat (died 1873)

Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev was a Russian poet and diplomat.

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05/12/1784

George Shepherd, English illustrator and painter (died 1862)

George "Sidney" Shepherd was a British draughtsman and watercolourist. At one time, George Shepherd and George Sidney Shepherd were thought to be two different people; it is now believed that they are one and the same person.

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05/12/1782

Martin Van Buren, American lawyer and politician, 8th President of the United States (died 1862)

Martin Van Buren was the eighth president of the United States, serving from 1837 to 1841. Van Buren co-founded the Democratic Party with Andrew Jackson and became Jackson's vice president from 1833 to 1837.

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05/12/1697

Giuseppe de Majo, Italian organist and composer (died 1771)

Giuseppe de Majo was an Italian composer and organist. He was the father of the composer Gian Francesco de Majo. His compositional output consists of 10 operas, an oratorio, a concerto for 2 violins, and a considerable amount of sacred music.

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05/12/1687

Francesco Geminiani, Italian violinist and composer (died 1762)

Francesco Xaverio Geminiani was an Italian violinist, composer, and music theorist. BBC Radio 3 once described him as "now largely forgotten, but in his time considered almost a musical god, deemed to be the equal of Handel and Corelli".

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05/12/1666

Francesco Scarlatti, Italian violinist and composer (died 1741)

Francesco Scarlatti was an Italian Baroque composer and musician and the younger brother of the better known Alessandro Scarlatti.

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05/12/1661

Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, English lawyer and politician, Secretary of State for the Northern Department (died 1724)

Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, KG, PC, FRS was a British statesman of the late Stuart and early Georgian periods. He began his career as a Whig, before defecting to a new Tory ministry. He was raised to the peerage of Great Britain as an earl in 1711. Between 1711 and 1714 he served as Lord High Treasurer, effectively Queen Anne's chief minister. He has been called a prime minister, although it is generally accepted that the de facto first minister to be a prime minister was Robert Walpole in 1721.

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05/12/1596

Henry Lawes, English composer (died 1662)

Henry Lawes was the leading English songwriter of the mid-17th century. He was elder brother of fellow composer William Lawes.

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05/12/1556

Anne Cecil, Countess of Oxford, English countess (died 1588)

Anne de Vere, Countess of Oxford was the daughter of the statesman William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, chief adviser to Queen Elizabeth I of England, and the translator Mildred Cooke. In 1571 she became the first wife of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. She served as a Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth before her marriage.

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05/12/1547

Ubbo Emmius, Dutch historian and geographer (died 1625)

Ubbo Emmius was a German historian and geographer.

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05/12/1539

Fausto Sozzini, Italian theologian and author (died 1604)

Fausto Paolo Sozzini, often known in English by his Latinized name Faustus Socinus, was an Italian Renaissance humanist and theologian, and, alongside his uncle Lelio Sozzini, founder of the Nontrinitarian Christian belief system known as Socinianism. His doctrine was developed among the Polish Brethren in the Polish Reformed Church between the 16th and 17th centuries, and embraced by the Unitarian Church of Transylvania during the same period.

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05/12/1537

Ashikaga Yoshiaki, Japanese shōgun (died 1597)

Ashikaga Yoshiaki was a Japanese samurai, daimyo and the 15th and final shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate in Japan who reigned from 1568 to 1573 when he staged a revolt and was overthrown. His father, Ashikaga Yoshiharu, was the twelfth shōgun, and his brother, Ashikaga Yoshiteru, was the thirteenth shōgun.

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05/12/1495

Nicolas Cleynaerts, Flemish philologist and lexicographer (died 1542)

Nicolas Cleynaerts was a Flemish grammarian and traveler. He was born in Diest, in the Duchy of Brabant.

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05/12/1470

Willibald Pirckheimer, German lawyer and author (died 1530)

Willibald Pirckheimer was a German Renaissance lawyer, author and Renaissance humanist, a wealthy and prominent figure in Nuremberg in the 16th century, imperial counsellor and a member of the governing City Council for two periods. One of the most important cultural patrons of Germany in his own right, he was the closest friend of the artist Albrecht Dürer, who made a number of portraits of him, and a close friend of the great humanist and theologian Erasmus.

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05/12/1443

Pope Julius II (died 1513)

Pope Julius II was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 1503 to his death, in February 1513.

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05/12/1389

Zbigniew Oleśnicki, Polish cardinal and statesman (died 1455)

Zbigniew Oleśnicki, known in Latin as Sbigneus, was a high-ranking Roman Catholic clergyman and an influential Polish statesman and diplomat. He served as Bishop of Kraków from 1423 until his death in 1455. He took part in the management of the country's most important affairs, initially as a royal secretary under King Władysław II Jagiełło and later as the effective regent during King Władysław III's minority. In 1439, he became the first native Polish cardinal.

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05/12/1377

Jianwen Emperor of China (died 1402)

The Jianwen Emperor, personal name Zhu Yunwen, was the second emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1398 to 1402. Zhu Yunwen's father was Zhu Biao, the eldest son and heir apparent of the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming dynasty. Zhu Biao died in 1392, after which the Hongwu Emperor named Zhu Yunwen as his successor. Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne after the Hongwu Emperor's death in June 1398.

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05/12/0852

Zhu Wen, Chinese emperor (died 912)

Emperor Taizu of Later Liang (後梁太祖), personal name Zhu Quanzhong (朱全忠), né Zhu Wen (朱溫), name later changed to Zhu Huang (朱晃), nickname Zhu San, was a Chinese military general, monarch, and politician. He was a Jiedushi and warlord who in 907 overthrew the Tang dynasty and established the Later Liang dynasty, ruling as its first emperor, ushering in the era of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. The last two Tang emperors, Emperor Zhaozong of Tang and Emperor Ai of Tang, who "ruled" as his puppets from 903 to 907, were both murdered by him.

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