Born on Monday, 8th December – Famous Birthdays

08/12/2004

Billie Starkz, American professional wrestler

Lillian Bridget, better known by the ring name Billie Starkz, is an American professional wrestler. She is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), but predominantly appears in AEW's sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), where she is a member of the M.I.T stable and a former one-time and the inaugural ROH Women's World Television Champion.

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08/12/2002

Sunghoon, South Korean singer

Park Sung-hoon, known mononymously as Sunghoon, is a South Korean singer and former figure skater. He competed as a figure skater from 2010 to early 2020; while simultaneously being a K-pop trainee since 2018. He retired from the sport and debuted as a member of the South Korean boy band Enhypen in November 2020. Sunghoon is the 2016–2017 junior silver medalist and the 2015 novice gold medalist of Asian Figure Skating Trophy, and the 2015 novice gold medalist of Lombardia Trophy. He also won silver medals at the 2013 novice competition and the 2014 junior competition of South Korean Figure Skating Championships.

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08/12/2001

Josh Christopher, American basketball player

Joshua Evan Christopher is an American professional basketball player for the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the NBA G League. He played college basketball for the Arizona State Sun Devils. He is a 6-foot-4-inch (1.93 m), 215-pound (98 kg) shooting guard.

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08/12/2000

DeMario Douglas, American football player

DeMario "Pop" Douglas is an American professional football wide receiver for the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Liberty Flames, and was selected by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2023 NFL draft.

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Bayron Matos, Dominican American football player

Bayron Matos is a Dominican professional American football offensive tackle for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League (NFL). After growing up in the Dominican Republic, he moved to the U.S. in high school and played basketball. He played college basketball for the New Mexico Lobos and South Florida Bulls from 2019–20 to 2021–22, before switching to football in 2022. He is a participant in the NFL's International Player Pathway Program (IPPP).

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Andy Pages, Cuban baseball player

Andy Pages is a Cuban professional baseball outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2024.

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08/12/1999

Reece James, English footballer

Reece Lewis James is an English professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Premier League club Chelsea, which he captains, and the England national team.

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Tyrus Wheat, American football player

Tyrus Darrell Wheat Sr. is an American professional football defensive end for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

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08/12/1998

Josh Dunne, American ice hockey player

Josh Dunne is an American professional ice hockey forward for the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL). His elder sister Jincy, currently plays for the New York Sirens, and his younger sister Joy currently plays for Ohio State.

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Owen Teague, American actor

Owen William Teague is an American actor. He has played roles in Mrs. Fletcher (2019), Inherit the Viper (2019), The Stand (2020–2021), Montana Story (2021), To Leslie (2022), Gone in the Night (2022), Bloodline (2015–2017), and the episode "Arkangel" of the fourth season of Black Mirror (2017). Teague also appeared as Patrick Hockstetter in It (2017) and It Chapter Two (2019), and had key roles in the drama Every Day (2018) and the thriller I See You (2019). He starred in his first lead film role as Noa in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024).

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08/12/1997

Hakeem Adeniji, American football player

Hakeem Adeniji is an American professional football offensive tackle. He played college football for the Kansas Jayhawks, making the first-team in 2019 and second-team in 2018 before being selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the sixth round of the 2020 NFL draft.

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Sam Hauser, American basketball player

Samuel David Hauser is an American professional basketball player for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for Marquette and, in his senior season, the Virginia Cavaliers, where he posted a stellar 50% FG, 42% 3FG, and 90% FT shooting season but came up just .004 short in free throw percentage from officially qualifying for the 50–40–90 club.

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08/12/1996

Scott McTominay, Scottish footballer

Scott Francis McTominay is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Serie A club Napoli and the Scotland national team.

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08/12/1995

Thatcher Demko, American ice hockey player

Thatcher Douglas Demko is an American professional ice hockey player who is a goaltender for the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League (NHL). Demko was selected by the Canucks in the second round of the 2014 NHL entry draft.

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08/12/1994

Cyriel Dessers, Belgian-Nigerian footballer

Cyriel Kolawole Dessers is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for Greek Super League club Panathinaikos. Born in Belgium, he plays for the Nigeria national team.

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Conseslus Kipruto, Kenyan runner

Conseslus Kipruto is a Kenyan middle-distance runner who specializes in the 3000 metres steeplechase. He was the 2016 Rio Olympic champion in the event. At the World Athletics Championships, Kipruto won gold medals in 2017 and 2019, silver medals in 2013 and 2015, and a bronze in 2022. In 2018, he captured gold medals at the African Championships and Commonwealth Games. He is a four-time Diamond League winner.

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Raheem Sterling, English footballer

Raheem Shaquille Sterling is an English professional footballer who plays as a winger for Eredivisie club Feyenoord. Regarded as one of the best wingers to ever play in the Premier League, he is known for his pace, dribbling skills and versatility.

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08/12/1993

Janari Jõesaar, Estonian basketball player

Janari Jõesaar is an Estonian professional basketball player for Bosna of the Bosnian League and the ABA League. He is a 1.98 m tall small forward. He played college basketball for the Ole Miss Rebels and the Texas–Pan American Broncs. He also represents the Estonian national basketball team internationally.

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Cara Mund, American model, Miss America 2018

Cara D. Mund is an American attorney and former Miss America from Bismarck, North Dakota. In June 2017, she was crowned Miss North Dakota 2017. On September 10, 2017, she was crowned Miss America 2018 in Atlantic City and became the first contestant from North Dakota to win the competition.

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Jordan Obita, English footballer

Jordan John Obita is a professional footballer who plays as left-back or winger for Scottish Premiership club Hibernian, and the Uganda national football team.

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AnnaSophia Robb, American actress

AnnaSophia Robb is an American actress, model, and singer. She began her career as a child actress making her feature film debut in Because of Winn-Dixie (2005). Robb then starred in a string of successful films playing notable roles such as Violet Beauregarde in Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Leslie Burke in Bridge to Terabithia (2007), Sara in Race to Witch Mountain (2009), and surfer Bethany Hamilton in Soul Surfer (2011). She has also acted in Jumper (2008), The Way, Way Back (2013), and Rebel Ridge (2024).

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08/12/1992

Mattias Janmark, Swedish ice hockey player

Mattias Janmark Nylén is a Swedish professional ice hockey player who is a centre for the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL). He has previously played in the NHL for the Dallas Stars, Chicago Blackhawks and Vegas Golden Knights. Janmark was drafted 79th overall by the Detroit Red Wings in the 2013 NHL entry draft.

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Yui Yokoyama, Japanese idol, model, and actress

Yui Yokoyama is a Japanese actress, YouTuber and former singer. She is a former member of the idol group AKB48. She was the second General Manager of the AKB48 Group. She had served as the captain of AKB48 Team A, and was a former member of AKB48 sister group NMB48. From 2011 to 2015, Yokoyama was also a member of the group Not Yet.

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08/12/1991

Philip Holm, Swedish ice hockey player

Philip Holm is a Swedish professional ice hockey defenseman who is currently playing with Djurgårdens IF of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL).

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08/12/1989

Drew Doughty, Canadian ice hockey player

Drew Doughty is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a defenceman and alternate captain for the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected second overall by the Kings in the 2008 NHL entry draft from the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), where he was twice voted the league's top offensive defenceman. He is considered to be one of the NHL's top defencemen of the 2010's.

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Jen Ledger, English musician and singer

Jennifer Carole Ledger is an English and American musician who serves as the drummer and co-vocalist for the Christian rock band Skillet. At the age of 18, she became Skillet's drummer when previous drummer Lori Peters retired.

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Andrew Nicholson, Canadian basketball player

Andrew Fabian Nicholson is a Canadian professional basketball player for the Seoul Samsung Thunders of the Korean Basketball League (KBL). He played college basketball for the St. Bonaventure Bonnies before being selected by the Orlando Magic with the 19th overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft.

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Jesse Sene-Lefao, New Zealand rugby league player

Jesse Sene-Lefao is a Samoa international rugby league footballer who plays as a prop or second-row forward for the Sheffield Eagles in the RFL Championship.

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08/12/1986

Enzo Amore, American wrestler and rapper

Eric Arndt is an American professional wrestler. He is performing on the independent circuit under the ring name Real1. He is best known for his tenure in WWE under the ring name Enzo Amore and came to prominence for his partnership with Big Cass, whom he teamed with from 2013 to 2017. Together, they won the NXT Year-End Award for Tag Team of the Year in 2015. He was later moved to the 205 Live brand, where he was a two-time WWE Cruiserweight Champion. Since leaving WWE for controversial reasons in January 2018, he has also embarked on a rap music career under the name Real1.

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Amir Khan, English boxer

Amir Iqbal Khan is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2005 to 2022. Born and raised in Bolton, Khan began to box competitively at the age of 11. He rose to fame during the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he won a silver medal in the lightweight division and became at the age of 17, Britain's youngest boxing Olympic medalist. He turned professional in 2005. In 2007, he was named ESPN prospect of the year. He later became one of the youngest ever British professional world champions, winning the World Boxing Association (WBA) title at the age of 22.

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Sam Tagataese, New Zealand-Samoan rugby league player

Sam Tagataese pronounced is a Samoa international rugby league footballer who last played as a prop forward for the Brisbane Broncos in the NRL.

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Kate Voegele, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress

Kate Elizabeth Voegele is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She made her musical debut in 2003, with the release of her extended play The Other Side. She performed numerous local live shows to promote the album, and toured with artists such as John Mayer. In 2005, she released her second extended play, Louder Than Words. Both had local success, and helped raise awareness of Voegele as an artist. During this time period, Voegele performed at events such as Farm Aid to promote her music, and began posting her music on popular social media network MySpace. She also won numerous awards and honors for her songwriting abilities.

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08/12/1985

Josh Donaldson, American baseball player

Joshua Adam Donaldson is an American former professional baseball third baseman. In his 13-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he played for the Oakland Athletics, Toronto Blue Jays, Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, and Milwaukee Brewers.

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Meagan Duhamel, Canadian figure skater

Meagan Duhamel is a retired Canadian pair skater. With partner Eric Radford, she is a two-time world champion, a 2018 Olympic gold medallist in the team event, a 2014 Olympic silver medallist in the team event, a 2018 Olympic bronze medallist in the pairs event, a two-time Four Continents champion, the 2014–15 Grand Prix Final champion, and a seven-time Canadian national champion (2012–18).

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Dwight Howard, American basketball player

Dwight David Howard II is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Superman" for his athletic prowess, he is an NBA champion, eight-time All-Star, eight-time All-NBA Team honoree, five-time All-Defensive Team member, and three-time Defensive Player of the Year.

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Oleksiy Pecherov, Ukrainian basketball player

Oleksiy Ivanovych Pecherov is a Ukrainian former professional basketball player. He was also a member of the Ukraine national basketball team.

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08/12/1984

Emma Green Tregaro, Swedish high jumper

Emma Anna-Maria Green, also known as Emma Green Tregaro is a retired Swedish high jumper. She won a bronze medal in the event at the 2005 IAAF World Championships. She represented Sweden at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. She finished 2nd at the 2010 European Athletics Championships with a new personal best of 2.01 m.

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Greg Halford, English footballer

Gregory Halford is an English former footballer. He was naturally a right-back or centre-back but could play in numerous positions including central midfield, right midfield and even as a striker.

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Sam Hunt, American singer-songwriter

Sam Lowry Hunt is an American country music singer and songwriter. Born in Cedartown, Georgia, Hunt played football in his high school and college years and once attempted to pursue a professional sports career before signing with MCA Nashville in 2014.

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08/12/1983

Neel Jani, Swiss race car driver

Neel Jani is a Swiss professional racing driver.

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08/12/1982

Alfredo Aceves, Mexican baseball player

Alfredo Aceves Martínez is a Mexican former professional baseball pitcher. He pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.

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Halil Altıntop, Turkish footballer

Halil Altıntop is a Turkish former professional footballer. During his playing days, he was deployed as an attacking midfielder, centre-forward, or winger. Halil is the identical twin brother of Hamit Altıntop.

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Hamit Altıntop, Turkish footballer

Hamit Altıntop is a Turkish former professional footballer and current board member of the Turkish Football Federation. He was a versatile midfielder who could play either in a defending or attacking role and on both flanks, known for his creative flair and long-range shooting ability. He is the identical twin brother of footballer Halil Altıntop.

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Chrisette Michele, American singer-songwriter

Chrisette Michele Payne is an American R&B and soul singer. She won a Grammy Award for Best Urban/Alternative Performance in 2009 for her song "Be OK".

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Nicki Minaj, Trinidadian-American rapper and actress

Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, known professionally as Nicki Minaj, is a Trinidadian rapper, singer, and songwriter. Dubbed the "Queen of Rap" and one of the most influential rappers of all time, she is noted for her dynamic rap flow, witty lyrics, musical versatility, and alter egos, and is credited as a driving force in the mainstream resurgence of female rap since the 2010s.

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Serena Ryder, Canadian singer-songwriter

Serena Lauren Ryder is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Born in Toronto, she grew up in Millbrook, Ontario. Ryder first gained national recognition with her ballad "Weak in the Knees" in 2007 and has released eight studio albums.

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08/12/1981

Philip Rivers, American football player

Philip Michael Rivers is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Chargers franchise. He played college football for the NC State Wolfpack, winning ACC Player of the Year and ACC Athlete of the Year between 2003 and 2004. Rivers was selected fourth overall in the 2004 NFL draft by the New York Giants, who traded him to the San Diego Chargers during the draft.

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08/12/1980

Yuliya Krevsun, Ukrainian runner

Yuliya Krevsun is a Ukrainian middle-distance running athlete who specialises in the 800 metres. She is a member of Fenerbahçe Athletics club in Turkey.

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Brandt Snedeker, American golfer

Brandt Newell Snedeker is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He won the 2012 FedEx Cup with a victory in the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club, a win that moved Snedeker into the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time in his career. In February 2013, after winning the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, he moved to a career high of No. 4 in the world. On August 16, 2018, he shot the 10th sub-60 round in the history of the PGA Tour, scoring an opening round 59 at the Wyndham Championship.

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08/12/1979

Daniel Fitzhenry, Australian rugby player

Daniel Fitzhenry is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s. He played for the Wests Tigers in the NRL and Hull Kingston Rovers in the Super League. He primarily played on the wing.

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Johan Forssell, Swedish lawyer and politician

Carl Johan Henrik Forssell is a Swedish politician of the Moderate Party. He has served as Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy in the cabinet of Ulf Kristersson since 10 September 2024, having served as Minister for Foreign Trade and International Development Cooperation prior to that. and has been Member of the Riksdag since the 2010 general election, representing Stockholm Municipality. He was chairman of the Moderate Youth League, the youth wing of the Moderate Party, from 2004 to 2006.

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Raymond Lam, Chinese actor and singer

Raymond Lam is a Hong Kong actor and singer who is best known for roles in the television dramas A Step into the Past, Twin of Brothers, Moonlight Resonance, Highs and Lows and Line Walker and was dubbed the King of Chok after his role in The Mysteries of Love.

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Ingrid Michaelson, American singer-songwriter and pianist

Ingrid Ellen Michaelson is an American singer-songwriter. She is best known for her 2006 single "The Way I Am" and her 2014 single "Girls Chase Boys", both of which achieved success on Billboard's Adult Contemporary and Adult Top 40 charts, and received platinum certifications by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She has released eight independent albums.

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Christian Wilhelmsson, Swedish footballer

Christian Ulf Wilhelmsson is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a winger. Beginning his career with Mjällby AIF in 1997, he went on to represent clubs in Norway, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, England, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Qatar before retiring at Mjällby in 2015. Wilhelmsson won 79 caps for the Sweden national team between 2001 and 2012, and represented his country at the 2006 FIFA World Cup and at Euro 2004, 2008, and 2012.

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08/12/1978

John Oster, English-Welsh footballer

John Morgan Oster is a football coach and former professional player who played as a midfielder.

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Frédéric Piquionne, French footballer

Frédéric Michel Piquionne is a French former professional footballer who played as a forward.

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Anwar Siraj, Ethiopian footballer

Anwar Siraj is retired Ethiopian footballer.

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Ian Somerhalder, American actor

Ian Joseph Somerhalder is a retired American actor. He is known for playing Boone Carlyle in ABC's science fiction adventure drama television series Lost (2004–2010) and Damon Salvatore in the CW supernatural teen drama series The Vampire Diaries (2009–2017).

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Vernon Wells, American baseball player

Vernon Wells III is an American former professional baseball center fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and the New York Yankees.

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08/12/1977

Ryan Newman, American race car driver

Ryan Joseph Newman, nicknamed "Rocket Man", is an American professional stock car racing driver that competed in the NASCAR Cup Series from 2000 to 2023. He claimed 18 official wins including the 2008 Daytona 500 and 2013 Brickyard 400, as well as 117 top-fives, 51 pole positions, and a non-points win at the 2002 Winston. Newman was runner-up in 2014, and ranked sixth in 2002, 2003, and 2005. Newman currently competes in the SMART Modified Tour for Coulter Motorsports.

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Aleksandra Olsza, Polish tennis player

Aleksandra Olsza is a Polish former tennis player. Her career highlights include winning of the 1995 Wimbledon Championships in both girls' singles and doubles. At the 1996 US Open, Olsza defeated world No. 12, Magdalena Maleeva.

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Anita Weyermann, Swiss runner and journalist

Anita Weyermann is a Swiss former middle- and long-distance runner.

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08/12/1976

Brettina, Bahamian-American singer-songwriter and actress

Brettina Lorena Robinson is a Bahamian singer-songwriter, model, and actress, based in Los Angeles.

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Reed Johnson, American baseball player

Reed Cameron Johnson is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, Miami Marlins, and Washington Nationals.

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Zoe Konstantopoulou, Greek lawyer and politician

Zoe Konstantopoulou is a Greek politician and lawyer who served as Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament from February to October 2015. Since 2016 she serves as the president of the Course of Freedom.

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Dominic Monaghan, German-British actor

Dominic Bernard Patrick Luke Monaghan is a British actor. He is best known for playing Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck in Peter Jackson's film trilogy The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003), and Charlie Pace on the ABC television drama Lost (2004–2010).

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08/12/1975

Kevin Harvick, American race car driver

Kevin Michael Harvick is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver and commentator for NASCAR on Fox.

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08/12/1974

Cristian Castro, Mexican singer

Cristian Sáinz Castro is a Mexican pop singer. He is the son of actors Verónica Castro and Manuel "El Loco" Valdés, and nephew of actors Ramón Valdés and Germán "Tin-Tan" Valdés. Castro has sold over 12 million records, making him one of the best-selling Latin music artists of all-time.

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Nick Zinner, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer

Nicholas Joseph Zinner is the guitarist and record producer for the New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Zinner is also a photographer.

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08/12/1973

Corey Taylor, American singer-songwriter, musician, and actor

Corey Todd Taylor is an American musician, songwriter, author and actor. He is best known as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Slipknot, in which he is designated #8, as well as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the rock band Stone Sour.

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08/12/1972

Indrek Allmann, Estonian architect

Indrek Allmann is an Estonian architect and city planner.

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Janae Kroc, American powerlifter

Janae Marie Kroczaleski is an American who previously competed as a professional powerlifter and competitive bodybuilder.

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Édson Ribeiro, Brazilian sprinter

Édson Luciano Ribeiro is a Brazilian sprinter competing mostly in 100 metres. He has been successful on regional level, and won two Olympic medals with the Brazilian 4 x 100 metres relay team.

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08/12/1971

Abdullah Ercan, Turkish footballer and manager

Abdullah Ercan is a retired Turkish international footballer and manager.

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08/12/1969

Kristin Lauter, American mathematician and cryptographer

Kristin Estella Lauter is an American mathematician and cryptographer whose research interest is broadly in application of number theory and algebraic geometry in cryptography. She is particularly known for her work in the area of elliptic curve cryptography. She was a researcher at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington, from 1999–2021 and the head of the Cryptography Group from 2008–2021; her group developed Microsoft SEAL. In April 2021, Lauter joined Facebook AI Research (FAIR) as the West Coast Head of Research Science. She became the President-Elect of the Association for Women in Mathematics in February 2014 and served as President February 1, 2015 - January 31, 2017.

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08/12/1968

Michael Cole, American sportscaster and journalist

Sean Michael Coulthard, better known by his ring name Michael Cole, is an American professional wrestling commentator and journalist. Since 1997, he has been signed to WWE, where he serves as the play-by-play commentator for the Raw brand, and was the vice president of announcing between 2020 and 2024.

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Mike Mussina, American baseball player and coach

Michael Cole Mussina, nicknamed "Moose", is an American former baseball starting pitcher who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Baltimore Orioles (1991–2000) and the New York Yankees (2001–2008). In 2019, Mussina was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

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Doriano Romboni, Italian motorcycle racer (died 2013)

Doriano Romboni was an Italian Grand Prix motorcycle road racer.

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08/12/1967

Jeff George, American football player

Jeffrey Scott George is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. He played college football for the Illinois Fighting Illini, winning the Sammy Baugh Trophy, and was selected first overall by the Indianapolis Colts in the 1990 NFL draft. A member of seven NFL teams, George helped the Atlanta Falcons in 1995 and the Minnesota Vikings in 1999 reach the playoffs and led the league in passing yards in 1997 with the Oakland Raiders. George's NFL career would also be marked by frequent conflicts with coaches and management, which resulted in his departure from most of his teams.

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Andy Kapp, German curler

Andreas "Andy" Kapp is a German curler from Unterthingau. After participating in several tournaments at the Junior, Olympic, and World Championship levels, Kapp surprised many by winning the 1992 European championship. The following year, he finished 7th at the European Championships, but at the 1994 World Championships, he and his team won the bronze medal. The next year, Kapp won another bronze medal. In 1997, at the World Championships, Kapp achieved his best showing by leading his team to a silver medal, losing to Sweden's Peja Lindholm in the final. In December of the same year, Kapp won his second European Championship, shortly before the first official medal event for curling at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. However, he had a disappointing 1998 Olympics, where, as one of the top medal favorites, he finished 1-6, placing last in the 8-team field.

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Kotono Mitsuishi, Japanese voice actress and singer

Kotono Mitsuishi is a Japanese actress and narrator. She was affiliated with Arts Vision and Lasley Arrow, but is now freelance. Mitsuishi lived in Nagareyama, Chiba. She graduated from high school and entered the Katsuta Voice Actor's Academy in 1986. She is well known for her roles as Usagi Tsukino in Sailor Moon series, Misato Katsuragi in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Sayaka Mine in Yaiba, Boa Hancock in One Piece, Murrue Ramius, Haro and Narrator in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY, Rena Mizunashi in Detective Conan and Mei Mei in Jujutsu Kaisen.

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Darren Sheridan, English footballer and manager

Darren Stephen Sheridan is an English former footballer and manager. As a player, Sheridan played as a centre midfielder. He had one spell as a player-manager, with Barrow, before managing Salford City.

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08/12/1966

Bushwick Bill, Jamaican-American rapper (died 2019)

Richard William Stephen Shaw, better known by his stage name Bushwick Bill, was a Jamaican rapper. He was a member of the Texas hip hop group Geto Boys, a group he originally joined as a breakdancer in 1986 as Little Billy. He went on to become one third of the most popular incarnation of the group, alongside Willie D and Scarface.

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Les Ferdinand, English footballer and coach

Leslie Ferdinand is an English football coach, former professional footballer and television pundit.

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Matthew Labyorteaux, American actor

Matthew Charles Labyorteaux is an American film, television and voice actor. In many of his credits, his last name is spelled as "Laborteaux". He is also credited as Matthew Charles for his work in animation.

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Tyler Mane, Canadian wrestler and actor

Daryl Karolat is a Canadian actor and retired professional wrestler, better known by the name Tyler Mane. He is known for playing supervillain Sabretooth in X-Men (2000), X-Men: The Official Game (2006) and Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), Ajax in Troy (2004), slasher villain Michael Myers in Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009), supervillain Blackstar in the Netflix series Jupiter's Legacy (2021) and supervillain Richard Frank / Torminox in the Max series Doom Patrol (2022–2023).

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Sinéad O'Connor, Irish singer-songwriter (died 2023)

Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor, also known as Shuhada' Sadaqat, was an Irish singer, musician and activist. During her musical career, which encompassed several hit records and artist collaborations, O'Connor drew attention to issues such as child abuse, human rights, racism, and women's rights. She was also known for her outspoken public image, openly discussing her spiritual journey, activism, socio-political viewpoints, and struggles with mental health.

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08/12/1965

David Harewood, English actor

David Michael Harewood OBE is an English actor and presenter who has served as president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art since February 2024. He is known for his television roles as David Estes in Homeland (2011–2012), J'onn J'onzz / Martian Manhunter and Hank Henshaw / Cyborg Superman in Supergirl (2015–2021). He has also appeared in films such as Blood Diamond, The Merchant of Venice, and Strings, whilst his video game roles include Usef Omar in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (2016) and Warlin Door in Alan Wake II (2023).

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Theo Maassen, Dutch actor, producer, and screenwriter

Theodorus Wilhelmus (Theo) Maassen is a Dutch comedian and actor who grew up in the village of Zijtaart in the Dutch province of North Brabant. He currently lives in Eindhoven. In addition to his shows, he has also made a number of appearances in films.

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Teresa Weatherspoon, American basketball player and coach

Teresa Gaye Weatherspoon is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach for Vinyl BC of the Unrivaled basketball league. She was previously the head coach of the Chicago Sky of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She played for the New York Liberty and Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA and served as the head basketball coach of the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters. Weatherspoon was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010, and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019. In 2011, she was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in WNBA history. In 2016, Weatherspoon was chosen to the WNBA Top 20@20, a list of the league's best 20 players ever in celebration of the WNBA's twentieth anniversary.

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08/12/1964

James Blundell, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist

James Blundell is an Australian country music singer. Born in Stanthorpe, Queensland, Blundell first rose to prominence after being named "best new talent" at the 1987 Country Music Awards of Australia. Blundell has since released several albums in both Australia and the United States, with his most successful album This Road selling more than 145,000 copies in Australia. Blundell was an unsuccessful candidate for the Senate in Queensland at the 2013 federal election, running for Katter's Australian Party. At the 2019 Country Music Awards of Australia, Blundell was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

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Teri Hatcher, American actress

Teri Lynn Hatcher is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Lois Lane on the television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993–1997). She also played Paris Carver in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), Mel Jones and the Beldam in Coraline (2009) and Susan Mayer on the television series Desperate Housewives (2004–2012), for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy and three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

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Chigusa Nagayo, Japanese wrestler

Chigusa Nagayo is a Japanese professional wrestler best known for her mainstream popularity in the 1980s as a member of the Crush Gals with long-time tag team partner Lioness Asuka. In 1995 she founded GAEA Japan and in 2014 created its successor Marvelous That's Women Pro Wrestling. Nagayo is often regarded as the most popular and one of the greatest and most influential female wrestlers of all time. Wrestling Journalist and historian Dave Meltzer has stated that in the 1980s, the Crush Gals reached a level of popularity in Japan equatable to Hulk Hogan in the United States in the same period, and thereafter Chigusa Nagayo was the most popular woman in wrestling for an extended period until her first retirement in 1989.

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Óscar Ramírez, Costa Rican footballer and coach

Óscar Antonio Ramírez Hernández, is a Costa Rican former footballer who played as a midfielder and is the manager of the Alajuelense.

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08/12/1963

Greg Howe, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer

Gregory Howe is an American guitarist and composer. An active musician across four decades, he has released ten studio albums in addition to collaborating with a wide variety of artists.

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Toshiaki Kawada, Japanese wrestler

Toshiaki Kawada is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his work in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), whom he worked for from his debut in 1982 up until 2008. In the promotion, he was a five-time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, a nine-time World Tag Team Champion, three-time winner of the Real World Tag League and a two-time winner of the Champion Carnival. He was also recognized as the ace of the promotion from 2000 to 2005.

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Wendell Pierce, American actor

Wendell Edward Pierce is an American actor and businessman. Having trained at Juilliard School, Pierce rose to prominence as a character actor of stage and screen. He first gained recognition portraying Detective Bunk Moreland in the HBO drama series The Wire from 2002 to 2008.

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Ricky Walford, Australian rugby league player

Ricky Walford is an Indigenous Australian former professional and state representative rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. He played for the Sydney Roosters, North Sydney Bears and the St. George Dragons. He was a goal-kicking Winger.

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08/12/1962

Steve Elkington, Australian-American golfer

Stephen John Elkington is an Australian professional golfer on the PGA Tour Champions. Formerly on the PGA Tour, he spent more than fifty weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Ranking from 1995 to 1998. Elkington won a major title at the PGA Championship in 1995, and is a two-time winner of The Players Championship.

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Marty Friedman, American-Japanese guitarist, songwriter, and television host

Martin Adam Friedman is an American guitarist, best known for his tenure as the lead guitarist of thrash metal band Megadeth from 1990 to 2000. He is also known for playing alongside Jason Becker in Cacophony from 1986 until 1989, as well as his 13 solo albums and tours. Friedman has resided in Tokyo since 2003, where he has appeared on over 700 Japanese television programs such as Rock Fujiyama, Hebimeta-san, Kōhaku Uta Gassen and Jukebox English. He has released albums with several record labels, including Avex Trax, Universal, EMI, Prosthetic, and Shrapnel Records.

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Nikos Karageorgiou, Greek footballer and manager

Nikos Karageorgiou is a Greek professional football manager and former player.

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Berry van Aerle, Dutch footballer

Berry van Aerle is a Dutch former professional footballer who played mainly as a right-back but also as a midfielder.

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08/12/1961

Mark Bugden, Australian rugby league player

Mark Bugden, nicknamed "Buggo", is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who primarily played as a hooker. The teams he played for at a club level were: the Newtown Jets (1981−83), the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs (1984−88), and the Parramatta Eels (1989−90).

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Ann Coulter, American political commentator and author

Ann Hart Coulter is an American conservative political activist, author, syndicated columnist, and lawyer. She became known as a media pundit in the late 1990s, appearing in print and on cable news as an outspoken critic of the Clinton administration. Her first book concerned the impeachment of Bill Clinton and drew from her experience writing legal briefs for Paula Jones's attorneys, as well as columns she wrote about the cases. Coulter's syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate appears in newspapers and is featured on conservative websites. Coulter has also written 13 books.

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Conceição Lima, São Toméan poet

Maria da Conceição de Deus Lima is a São Toméan poet.

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Mikey Robins, Australian comedian and television host

Mikel Mason "Mikey" Robins is an Australian media personality, comedian and writer. He is best known for the satirical game show Good News Week, which ran on the ABC and Network Ten between 1996 and 2000, and returned again when the series was resurrected in February 2008.

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08/12/1960

Aaron Allston, American game designer and author (died 2014)

Aaron Dale Allston was an American game designer and author of many science fiction books, notably Star Wars novels. His works as a game designer include game supplements for role-playing games, several of which served to establish the basis for products and subsequent development of TSR's Dungeons & Dragons game setting Mystara. His later works as a novelist include those of the X-Wing series: Wraith Squadron, Iron Fist, Solo Command, Starfighters of Adumar, and Mercy Kill. He wrote two entries in the New Jedi Order series: Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream and Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand. Allston wrote three of the nine Legacy of the Force novels: Betrayal, Exile, and Fury, and three of the nine Fate of the Jedi novels: Outcast, Backlash, and Conviction.

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Lim Guan Eng, Malaysian accountant and politician

Lim Guan Eng is a Malaysian politician and accountant who served as the Minister of Finance of Malaysia from 2018 to 2020. A member of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), he has served as the party's second advisor since 2025.

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08/12/1959

Stephen Jefferies, South African cricketer and coach

Stephen Thomas Jefferies is a former South African first-class cricketer.

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Mark Steyn, Canadian-American author and critic

Mark Steyn is a Canadian author and a radio, television, and on-line presenter. He has written several books, including The New York Times bestsellers America Alone, After America, and Broadway Babies Say Goodnight. In the US he has guest-hosted the nationally syndicated Rush Limbaugh Show, as well as Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News, on which he regularly appeared as a guest and fill-in host.

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08/12/1958

Rob Byrnes, American author and blogger

Robert Charles "Rob" Byrnes Jr. is a 21st-century gay American, novelist and blogger, whose fiction focuses primarily on gay men and other sexual minorities. He serves on the Steering Committee for The Publishing Triangle, and was also a member of the Executive Council of the International Association of Crime Writers/North American Branch from 2011 to 2015.

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Rob Curling, Malayan-English journalist

Rob Curling is a British television presenter and journalist. He presents the sport for Sky News. He also fronts the tennis coverage for British Eurosport. Up to and including 2011, he anchored BBC Sport's interactive television coverage of: Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Wimbledon, Open Golf, Six Nations Rugby and World Athletics Championships. He was the host of the game show Turnabout, which aired on BBC One for eight series between 1990 and 1996. He presented the Halford Tour Series cycling for ITV4, and commentated on table tennis on the BBC at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

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Arlette Sombo-Dibélé, Central African lawyer and politician

Arlette Sombo-Dibélé is a Central African lawyer and politician.

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Michel Ferté, French race car driver (died 2023)

Michel Ferté was a French professional racing driver. He was the younger brother of Alain Ferté, who is also a professional racing driver.

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Bob Greene, American physiologist and author

Bob Greene is an American exercise physiologist and certified personal trainer specializing in fitness, metabolism, and weight loss. Greene is the creator of Best Life, a diet and fitness plan, and Best Life Foods, which sells a line of butter substitutes.

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Mirosław Okoński, Polish footballer

Mirosław Okoński is a Polish former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder.

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George Rogers, American football player

George Washington Rogers Jr. is an American former professional football player who was a running back for seven seasons in the National Football League (NFL) from 1981 to 1987. He played college football for the South Carolina Gamecocks, earning unanimous All-American honors and winning the Heisman Trophy in 1980. He was the first overall pick in the 1981 NFL draft, and he played for the New Orleans Saints and the Washington Redskins.

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08/12/1957

Mike Buchanan, British men's rights advocate

Gordon Michael Alexander Buchanan is a retired businessman and men's rights activist, who founded and for two separate periods has led the organisation Justice for Men and Boys (J4MB), which formerly operated as a minor political party, in the United Kingdom.

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James Cama, American martial artist and educator (died 2014)

James Cama Sr. was an American martial arts practitioner and teacher.

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Phil Collen, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Philip Kenneth Collen is an English musician who is best known as the co-lead guitarist for the rock band Def Leppard. Collen joined the band in 1982 during the recording of the Pyromania album. Before joining Def Leppard, Collen had performed with a number of bands in the burgeoning British glam metal scene. Outside of Def Leppard, he has been involved in a number of side projects; those projects include the trio Man Raze, with which he is the lead singer and sole guitarist.

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08/12/1956

Warren Cuccurullo, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Warren Bruce Cuccurullo is an American musician, songwriter, restaurant owner, and former bodybuilder who first worked with Frank Zappa during the 1970s. He was also a founding member of Missing Persons in the 1980s. In 1989, Cuccurullo joined Duran Duran, becoming a long-term member of the band until 2001. In 2022, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Duran Duran.

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Andrius Kubilius, Lithuanian academic and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Lithuania

Andrius Kubilius is a Lithuanian politician who is currently serving as the European Commissioner for Defence and Space in the Second von der Leyen Commission. He previously served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2019 to 2024 and as Prime Minister of Lithuania from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. He was the leader of the conservative political party Homeland Union from 2003 to 2015, of which he continues to be a member.

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Slick, American wrestler and manager

Kenneth Wayne Johnson is an American retired professional wrestling manager, better known by his ring name, Slick. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) between 1986 and 1993. He is the son of professional wrestler Rufus R. Jones.

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08/12/1955

Milenko Zablaćanski, Serbian actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2008)

Milenko Zablaćanski,, , was a Serbian actor, director, and screenwriter.

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08/12/1954

Harold Hongju Koh, American lawyer, academic, and politician

Harold Hongju Koh is an American diplomat, lawyer, legal scholar, politician, and writer. Except for his periods of government service, he has taught at Yale Law School from 1985 to the present, including as the law school's 15th Dean from 2004 to 2009, and currently as a Sterling Professor of international law. From 1998 to 2001, he served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor under President Bill Clinton. From 2009 to 2013, he served as the legal adviser of the Department of State in the Obama administration. He has published more than ten books on topics including international law, the U.S. Constitution, and international relations. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2007.

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Frits Pirard, Dutch cyclist

Frits Pirard was a Dutch professional road bicycle racer. Pirard won stage 1 of the 1983 Tour de France. He also competed in the team time trial event at the 1976 Summer Olympics.

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08/12/1953

Kim Basinger, American actress

Kimila Ann Basinger is an American actress. She has garnered acclaim for her work in film, for which she has received various accolades including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Initially a TV starlet, she shot to fame as a Bond girl in 1983 and enjoyed a long heyday over the next two decades.

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Norman Finkelstein, American author, academic, and activist

Norman Gary Finkelstein is an American political scientist and activist. His primary fields of research are the politics of the Holocaust and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

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Roy Firestone, American sportscaster and journalist

Roy Firestone is an American sports commentator and journalist. Firestone is a graduate of Miami Beach High School and the University of Miami.

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Sam Kinison, American comedian (died 1992)

Samuel Burl Kinison was an American stand-up comedian and actor. A former Pentecostal preacher, he performed stand-up routines that were characterized by intense sudden tirades, punctuated with his distinctive scream. Initially performing for free, Kinison became a regular fixture at The Comedy Store, where he met and eventually befriended such comics as Robin Williams and Jim Carrey.

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Władysław Kozakiewicz, Lithuanian-Polish pole vaulter and coach

Władysław Kozakiewicz is a Lithuanian-born retired Polish athlete who specialised in the pole vault. He is best known for winning the gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow and the bras d'honneur gesture which he showed to the hostile Soviet crowd. In Poland, where the gesture was viewed as a symbol of resistance against Soviet dominance, it became known as "Kozakiewicz's gesture". In addition, he won several medals at continental level, won two Summer Universiades and broke the pole vault world record three times, twice outdoors and once indoors. He is also a ten-time Polish champion.

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Steve Yates, English footballer

Steve Yates is an English former professional footballer who played as a left back. He made nearly 300 appearances in the Football League mainly for Southend United.

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08/12/1952

Steve Atkinson, English-Hong Kong cricketer

Stephen Robert Atkinson is an English-born former cricketer who represented both the Netherlands and Hong Kong in international cricket.

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Khaw Boon Wan, Malayan-Singaporean politician, Singaporean Minister of Health

Khaw Boon Wan is a Malaysian-born Singaporean former politician who served as Minister for Transport between 2015 and 2020, Minister for National Development between 2011 and 2015, and Minister for Health between 2003 and 2011. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Moulmein division of Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency (GRC) between 2001 and 2006, and the Sembawang division of Sembawang GRC between 2006 and 2020.

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08/12/1951

Bill Bryson, American essayist, travel and science writer

William McGuire Bryson is an American-British journalist and author. Bryson has written nonfiction books on topics including travel, the English language, and science. Born in the United States, he has resided in Britain for most of his adult life, returning to the U.S. between 1995 and 2003, and holds dual American and British citizenship. He was the chancellor of Durham University from 2005 to 2011.

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Richard Desmond, English publisher and businessman, founded Northern & Shell

Richard Clive Desmond is a British ex-publisher, businessman and former pornographer. He is the founder of Northern & Shell, a publisher that started by publishing music magazines in the 1970s, followed by variety of pornographic magazines in the 1980s. In the 1990s, it launched celebrity magazines and Portland TV that produced pornographic television channels. In the early 2000s, the company sold the pornographic magazine titles and purchased the Express Newspapers, followed by Britain's Channel 5 in 2010. It launched The Health Lottery in 2011. Channel 5 was sold in 2014, Portland TV in 2016 and the Express Newspapers in 2018.

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Jan Eggum, Norwegian singer-songwriter and guitarist

Jan Eggum is a Norwegian singer-songwriter. He has been characterized as a "face for the melancholy", and the themes in his songs often revolve around broken hearts, loneliness, and sorrow. Sometimes, his lyrics include social criticism, but he also reveals trivial and funny sides of himself.

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08/12/1950

Rick Baker, American actor and makeup artist

Richard Alan "Rick" Baker is an American actor and retired special make-up effects creator. He is mostly known for his creature designs and effects. Baker has won the Academy Award for Best Makeup a record seven times from a record eleven nominations, beginning with his win in the first year of the category's existence, for the 1981 horror comedy An American Werewolf in London.

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Tim Foli, American baseball player, coach, and manager

Timothy John Foli is an American former professional baseball player, coach and minor league manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop for the New York Mets, Montreal Expos, San Francisco Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates, California Angels and New York Yankees from 1970 to 1985. At age 17, Foli was the first pick in the Major League Baseball draft in 1968 and went on to be a member of the 1979 World Series champion Pirates. Foli was known as a fiery player who was a reliable fielder but only an average hitter. Foli was a free swinger, especially in 1982 when he walked only 14 times, the lowest total ever for 150 or more games played. His free swinging did not aim for the fences, however, as he averaged less than two home runs per season.

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Dan Hartman, American singer-songwriter and producer (died 1994)

Daniel Earl Hartman was an American pop rock musician. Among songs he wrote and recorded were "Free Ride" as a member of the Edgar Winter Group, and the solo hits "Relight My Fire", "Instant Replay", "I Can Dream About You", "We Are the Young" and "Second Nature". "I Can Dream About You", his most successful US hit, reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984. The James Brown song "Living in America", which Hartman co-wrote and produced, reached No. 4 on March 1, 1986.

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08/12/1949

Mary Gordon, American author, critic, and academic

Mary Catherine Gordon is an American writer from Queens and Valley Stream, New York. She is the McIntosh Professor of English at Barnard College. She is best known for her novels, memoirs and literary criticism. In 2008, she was named Official State Author of New York.

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Nancy Meyers, American director, producer, and screenwriter

Nancy Jane Meyers is an American filmmaker. She has written, produced, and directed many critically and commercially successful films. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Private Benjamin (1980). Her film Baby Boom (1987) was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. She co-wrote Father of the Bride (1991), Father of the Bride Part II (1995), and both wrote and directed The Parent Trap (1998), What Women Want (2000), Something's Gotta Give (2003), The Holiday (2006), It's Complicated (2009), and The Intern (2015).

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Robert Sternberg, American psychologist and academic

Robert J. Sternberg is an American psychologist and psychometrician. He is a professor of Human Development at Cornell University. Sternberg received his BA from Yale University and a PhD from Stanford University under advisor Gordon Bower. He is a distinguished associate of the Psychometrics Centre at the University of Cambridge.

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08/12/1948

Luis Caffarelli, Argentinian-American mathematician and academic

Luis Ángel Caffarelli is an Argentine-American mathematician. He studies partial differential equations and their applications. Caffarelli is a professor of mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin, and the winner of the 2023 Abel Prize.

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John Waters, English-Australian actor, singer-songwriter, and guitarist

John Waters is an English-born Australian film, theatre and television actor, presenter, singer, songwriter, musician and playwright. He is the son of British actor Russell Waters. John Waters was part of the Australian children's television series Play School for 18 years.

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08/12/1947

Gregg Allman, American musician (died 2017)

Gregory LeNoir Allman was an American musician, singer and songwriter. He was known for performing in the Allman Brothers Band. Allman grew up with an interest in rhythm and blues music, and the Allman Brothers Band fused it with rock music, jazz, and country. He wrote several of the band's most popular songs, including "Whipping Post", "Melissa", and "Midnight Rider". Allman also had a successful solo career, releasing eight studio albums. He was born and spent much of his childhood in Nashville, Tennessee, before relocating to Daytona Beach, Florida, and then Macon, Georgia.

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Gérard Blanc, French singer, guitarist, and actor (died 2009)

Gérard Blanc was a French singer, guitarist and actor.

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Thomas Cech, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

Thomas Robert Cech is an American chemist who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Sidney Altman for their discovery of the catalytic properties of RNA.

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Kati-Claudia Fofonoff, Finnish author and poet (died 2011)

Kati-Claudia Fofonoff was a Skolt Sámi author and translator who wrote in Skolt Sámi and Finnish. Her books have also been translated into Northern Sámi, Norwegian and Icelandic.

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Margaret Geller, American astrophysicist, astronomer, and academic

Margaret J. Geller is an American astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. Her work has included pioneering maps of the nearby universe, studies of the relationship between galaxies and their environment, and the development and application of methods for measuring the distribution of matter in the universe.

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08/12/1946

Chava Alberstein, Polish-Israeli singer-songwriter and guitarist

Chava Alberstein is an Israeli musician, lyricist, composer, and musical arranger. She moved to Israel in 1950 and started her music career in 1964. Alberstein has released over sixty albums in Hebrew, English, and Yiddish. She is known for her liberal activism and advocacy for human rights and Arab-Israeli unity, which has sometimes stirred controversy, such as the ban of her song "Had Gadya" by Israel State Radio in 1989. Alberstein has received numerous accolades, including the Kinor David Prize, the Itzik Manger Prize, and honorary doctorates from several universities.

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John Rubinstein, American actor, director, and composer

John Rubinstein is an American actor, composer and director.

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08/12/1945

John Banville, Irish novelist and screenwriter

William John Banville is an Irish novelist, short story writer, adapter of dramas, and screenwriter. He also had a 30-year career working in the Irish newspaper industry and served as literary editor of The Irish Times from 1988 until 1999.

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Julie Heldman, American tennis player

Julie Heldman is an American tennis player who won 22 singles titles. In 1968 and 1969, she was ranked No. 2 in the U.S. She was Canadian National 18 and Under Singles Champion at age 12, U.S. Champion in Girls' 15 Singles and Girls' 18 Singles, Italian Open Singles Champion, Canadian Singles and Doubles Champion, and U.S. Clay Court Doubles Champion. She won three medals at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, and three gold medals at the 1969 Maccabiah Games.

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08/12/1944

George Baker, Dutch singer-songwriter

Johannes "Hans" Bouwens, known as George Baker, is a Dutch singer and songwriter who, with his band George Baker Selection, scored three international hits: "Little Green Bag" (1969), "Paloma Blanca" (1975) and "Santa Lucia by Night" (1985).

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Bertie Higgins, American singer-songwriter

Elbert Joseph "Bertie" Higgins is an American singer-songwriter. In 1982, Higgins had a top 40 album with Just Another Day in Paradise. It spawned the hit song "Key Largo", which referenced the Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall film of the same name and reached No. 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100, No. 1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and No. 50 on the Billboard Country chart.

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Ted Irvine, Canadian ice hockey player

Edward Amos Irvine is a Canadian former professional hockey player. He played in the National Hockey League from 1964 to 1977.

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Vince MacLean, Canadian educator and politician

Vincent James MacLean was leader of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party in 1985 and again from 1986 to 1992. He was replaced by John Savage.

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08/12/1943

Larry Martin, American paleontologist and ornithologist (died 2013)

Larry Dean Martin was an American vertebrate paleontologist and curator of the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center at the University of Kansas. Among Martin's work is research on the Triassic reptile Longisquama and theropod dinosaur Caudipteryx and Dakotaraptor. According to the University of Kansas, he "has been a leading opponent of the theory that birds are 'living dinosaurs.'" Later he acknowledged a correlation and further contributed. He has also appeared in a few television documentaries about dinosaurs, including Jurassic Fight Club.

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Jim Morrison, American singer-songwriter and poet (died 1971)

James Douglas Morrison was an American singer-songwriter and poet who was the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band the Doors. Due to his charismatic persona, poetic lyrics, distinctive voice, and unpredictable performances, along with the dramatic circumstances surrounding his life and early death, Morrison is regarded by music critics and fans as one of the most influential frontmen in rock history. Since his death, his fame has endured as one of popular culture's top rebellious and oft-displayed icons, representing the generation gap and youth counterculture.

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James Tate, American poet (died 2015)

James Vincent Tate was an American poet. His work earned him the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He was a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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Bodo Tümmler, German runner

Bodo Tümmler is a German former middle-distance runner. He competed for West Germany at the 1968 and 1972 Olympics in the 1500 meter event, and won a bronze medal in 1968.

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Mary Woronov, American actress, director, and screenwriter

Mary Woronov is an American actress, writer, and figurative painter. She is primarily known as a cult film star because of her work with Andy Warhol and her roles in Roger Corman's cult films. Woronov has appeared in over 80 movies and on stage at Lincoln Center and off-Broadway productions as well as numerous times in mainstream American TV series, such as Charlie's Angels and Knight Rider. She frequently co-starred with friend Paul Bartel; the pair appeared in 17 films together, often playing a married couple.

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08/12/1942

Bob Love, American basketball player (died 2024)

Robert Earl Love was an American professional basketball player who spent the prime of his career with the National Basketball Association's Chicago Bulls. A versatile forward who could shoot with either his left or right hand, Love later worked as the Bulls' director of community affairs and goodwill ambassador. Love was nicknamed "Butterbean", which dates back to his boyhood when he was fond of the legume.

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08/12/1941

Ed Brinkman, American baseball player and coach (died 2008)

Edwin Albert Brinkman was an American professional baseball player, coach and scout. He played as a shortstop in Major League Baseball from 1961 to 1975, most prominently as a member of the Washington Senators and the Detroit Tigers.

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Bob Brown, American football player (died 2023)

Robert Stanford Brown, nicknamed "the Boomer", was an American professional football offensive tackle who played in the National Football League (NFL) from 1964 through 1973. He played college football for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, earning unanimous All-American honors. Brown was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles as the second overall pick in the 1964 NFL draft. A six-time Pro Bowl selection, he played for the Eagles from 1964 to 1968, the Los Angeles Rams from 1969 to 1970, and the Oakland Raiders from 1971 to 1973. Brown was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004.

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Duke Cunningham, American commander and politician (died 2025)

Randall Harold "Duke" Cunningham was an American politician, Vietnam War veteran and fighter ace. A member of the Republican Party, Cunningham represented three California districts in the United States House of Representatives from 1991 to 2005, and later served prison time for accepting bribes from defense contractors.

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Bobby Elliott, English drummer

Robert Hartley Elliott is an English rock drummer, best known for playing with the Hollies. He has been described as "one of the very finest drummers in all of pop/rock".

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Geoff Hurst, English footballer and manager

Sir Geoffrey Charles Hurst is an English former professional footballer. A striker, he became the first player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final, as England recorded a 4–2 victory over West Germany at Wembley in 1966. With the death of Sir Bobby Charlton in October 2023, Hurst is the last living player from the team that won the 1966 final.

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08/12/1940

Brant Alyea, American baseball player (died 2024)

Garrabrant Ryerson Alyea was an American professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Washington Senators, Minnesota Twins, Oakland Athletics, and St. Louis Cardinals. In 1965, he became the ninth player to hit a home run on his first MLB pitch.

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08/12/1939

Red Berenson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

Gordon Arthur "Red" Berenson is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre, world champion, Stanley Cup champion and head coach of the Michigan Wolverines men's ice hockey team from 1984 to 2017. Berenson was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2005 and the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018.

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Jerry Butler, American singer-songwriter and producer (died 2025)

Jerry Butler Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, producer, musician, and politician. He was the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group the Impressions, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. After leaving the group in 1960, Butler achieved over 55 Billboard Pop and R&B Chart hits as a solo artist including "He Will Break Your Heart," "Let It Be Me," and "Only the Strong Survive." He was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2015.

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James Galway, Irish flute player

Sir James Galway is an Irish virtuoso flute player from Belfast, nicknamed "The Man with the Golden Flute". After several years working as an orchestral musician, he established an international career as a solo flute player. In 2005, he received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music at the Classic Brit Awards.

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Felipe Gozon, Filipino lawyer and businessman

Felipe Enrique "Henry" Lapuz Gozon, is a Filipino lawyer, business executive, and the current chairman and adviser of the board of GMA Network Inc., one of the largest media conglomerate in the Philippines.

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Dariush Mehrjui, Iranian director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2023)

Dariush Mehrjui was an Iranian filmmaker, screenwriter, and a member of the Iranian Academy of the Arts.

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Soko Richardson, American drummer (died 2004)

Eulis Soko Richardson was an American rhythm and blues drummer. His career spanned almost fifty years, during which he performed and recorded with seminal groups including John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. He is perhaps best known for his innovative arrangement of Ike & Tina Turner's version of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song "Proud Mary."

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08/12/1937

James MacArthur, American actor (died 2010)

James Gordon MacArthur was an American actor and recording artist.

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Arne Næss Jr., German-Norwegian mountaineer and businessman (died 2004)

Arne Næss Jr. was a Norwegian businessman and the second husband of actress and singer Diana Ross.

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08/12/1936

David Carradine, American actor, director, and producer (died 2009)

David Carradine was an American actor, director, and producer, whose career included over 200 major and minor roles in film, television and on stage. He was widely known to television audiences as the star of the series Kung Fu (1972–1975), playing Kwai Chang Caine, a peace-loving Shaolin monk traveling through the American Old West.

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Michael Hobson, American publisher (died 2020)

Michael Zametkin Hobson was an American publisher who was an executive vice president for Marvel Comics.

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Peter Parfitt, English cricketer

Peter Howard Parfitt is an English former cricketer. He attended Fakenham Grammar School, and King Edward VII Grammar School, in Kings Lynn, Norfolk.

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Juan Ricardo Faccio, Uruguayan football player and manager (died 2024)

Juan Ricardo Faccio Porta was a Uruguayan football player and manager.

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08/12/1935

Dharmendra, Indian actor, producer, and politician (died 2025)

Dharmendra was an Indian actor, producer and politician, primarily known for his work in Hindi films. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most commercially successful actors in the history of Indian cinema. In a career spanning 65 years, he worked in over 300 films, holding the record for starring in the highest number of hit films in Hindi cinema.

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Tatiana Zatulovskaya, Russian-Israeli chess player (died 2017)

Tatiana Zatulovskaya was an Israeli chess player. She was a three-time Soviet women's champion and twice the world women's senior champion. She was awarded the titles Woman International Master (WIM) in 1961 and Woman Grandmaster (WGM) in 1976 by FIDE. Her last name may also be spelled as Zatulovskaia or Zatulovskaja.

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08/12/1933

Johnny Green, American basketball player (died 2023)

John Michael Green, nicknamed "Jumpin' Johnny", was an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Michigan State Spartans, earning consensus second-team All-American honors. He was a four-time NBA All-Star.

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Flip Wilson, American actor and comedian (died 1998)

Clerow "Flip" Wilson Jr. was an American comedian and actor best known for his television appearances during the late 1960s and 1970s. From 1970 to 1974, Wilson hosted his own weekly variety series The Flip Wilson Show, and introduced viewers to his recurring character Geraldine. The series earned Wilson a Golden Globe and two Emmy Awards, and it was the second highest-rated show on network television for a time.

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08/12/1932

Claus Luthe, German automotive designer (died 2008)

Claus Luthe was a German car designer, noted for his design work on the NSU Ro 80, Volkswagen K70 and numerous seminal models from Audi and BMW. Luthe was a pioneer of aerodynamics and digital design within the automotive field.

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08/12/1931

Bob Arum, American boxing promoter, founded Top Rank

Robert Arum is an American lawyer and boxing promoter. He is the founder and CEO of Top Rank, a professional boxing promotion company based in Las Vegas. Prior to becoming a boxing promoter, Arum was employed as an attorney in the tax division of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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08/12/1930

Julian Critchley, English journalist and politician (died 2000)

Sir Julian Michael Gordon Critchley was a British journalist, author and Conservative Party politician. He was the member of parliament for Rochester and Chatham from 1959 to 1964 and Aldershot from 1970 to 1997.

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Maximilian Schell, Austrian-Swiss actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2014)

Maximilian Schell was a Swiss actor, theatre director, filmmaker, and musician of Austrian origin. He was one of the most internationally acclaimed German-speaking actors of his generation, earning accolades for his work on both screen and stage. Born and initially raised in Vienna, where his parents were involved in the arts, he grew up surrounded by performance and literature. While he was still a child, his family fled to Switzerland in 1938 when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany, and they settled in Zürich. After the Second World War, Schell took up acting and directing full-time.

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08/12/1929

Victor Nosach, chronicler of the history of workers and trade union of Russia (died 2011)

Victor Ivanovich Nosach was a Soviet and Russian historian, Doctor of Historian Sciences, Member of the Academy of Humanitarian Sciences, Honored Scientist of Russian Federation.

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08/12/1928

Bill Hewitt, Canadian journalist and sportscaster (died 1996)

Foster William Alfred Hewitt was a Canadian radio and television sportscaster. He was the son of hockey broadcaster Foster Hewitt and the grandson of Toronto Star journalist W. A. Hewitt.

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Ulric Neisser, German-American psychologist, neuroscientist, and academic (died 2012)

Ulric Richard Gustav Neisser (December 8, 1928 – February 17, 2012) was a German-American psychologist, Cornell University professor, and member of the US National Academy of Sciences. He has been referred to as the "father of cognitive psychology". Neisser researched and wrote about perception and memory. He posited that a person's mental processes could be measured and subsequently analyzed.

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08/12/1927

Niklas Luhmann, German thinker and social theorist (died 1998)

Niklas Luhmann was a German sociologist, philosopher of social science, and systems theorist.

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Vladimir Shatalov, Kazakhstani general, pilot, and astronaut (died 2021)

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Shatalov was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew three space missions of the Soyuz programme: Soyuz 4 (1969), Soyuz 8 (1969), and Soyuz 10 (1971). From 1987 to 1991, he headed the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. Lieutenant General, Soviet Air Force (1975).

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08/12/1926

Ralph Puckett, American Army officer (died 2024)

Ralph Puckett Jr. was a United States Army officer. He led the Eighth Army Ranger Company during the Korean War and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions on November 25, 1950, when his company of 51 Rangers was attacked by several hundred Chinese soldiers at the battle for Hill 205. He later served in the Vietnam War and retired from the army in 1971 as a colonel. After being appointed on July 19, 1996, he served as the Honorary Colonel of the 75th Ranger Regiment.

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08/12/1925

Sammy Davis Jr., American actor, singer, and dancer (died 1990)

Samuel George Davis Jr. was an American singer, actor, comedian, dancer, and musician.

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Nasir Kazmi, Pakistani Urdu poet (died 1972)

Nasir Raza Kazmi was an Urdu poet from Pakistan. Kazmi was born in Ambala, Punjab, British India.

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Carmen Martín Gaite, Spanish author and poet (died 2000)

Carmen Martín Gaite was a Spanish author who wrote many novels, short stories, screenplays, and essays across multiple genres. Her work has received significant recognition: in 1957, she was awarded the Premio Nadal for Entre visillos; in 1988 she won the Prince of Asturias Award;in 1992 she received the Premio Castilla y León de las Letras, and she also was awarded the Premio Acebo de Honor for her life's work.

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Jimmy Smith, American organist (died 2005)

James Oscar Smith was an American jazz musician who helped popularize the Hammond B-3 organ, creating a link between jazz and 1960s soul music.

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08/12/1924

Lionel Gilbert, Australian historian, author, and academic (died 2015)

Lionel Arthur Gilbert CF was an Australian historian, author, curator, lecturer, and biographer, specializing in applied, natural, and local history. Born in Burwood, New South Wales, he studied at Sydney Teachers College and, beginning in 1946, worked as a teacher and later a headmaster in state schools in various locations around New South Wales until 1961. In 1963 Gilbert graduated from the University of New England with a Bachelor of Arts in History. That same year, he was appointed a lecturer and curator at the Armidale Teachers' College Museum of Education, in which capacity he served until his retirement in 1984, overseeing several expansions of the museum and establishment of a historical research centre.

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08/12/1923

Dewey Martin, American actor (died 2018)

Dewey Dallas Martin was an American film and television actor.

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Rudolph Pariser, Chinese-American soldier and chemist (died 2021)

Rudolph Israel Pariser was an American physical and polymer chemist.

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08/12/1922

Lucian Freud, German-English painter and illustrator (died 2011)

Lucian Michael Freud was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, who is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists.

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Jean Ritchie, American singer-songwriter (died 2015)

Jean Ruth Ritchie was an American folk singer, songwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player, called by some the "Mother of Folk". In her youth she learned hundreds of folk songs in the traditional way, many of which were Appalachian variants of centuries-old British, Scottish and Irish songs, including dozens of Child Ballads. In adulthood, she shared these songs with wide audiences, as well as writing some of her own songs using traditional foundations.

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08/12/1920

McDonald Bailey, Trinidadian-English sprinter and rugby player (died 2013)

Emmanuel McDonald Bailey was a British and Trinidadian athlete, who was born in Williamsville, Trinidad and Tobago and competed at two Olympic Games.

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08/12/1919

Peter Tali Coleman, Samoan-American lawyer and politician, 43rd Governor of American Samoa (died 1997)

Peter Tali Coleman was an American Samoan politician and lawyer. Coleman was the first and only person of Samoan descent to be appointed governor of American Samoa between 1956 and 1961 and later became the territory's first and third popularly elected governor from 1978 to 1985 and 1989 to 1993, serving a total of three elected terms. In between, he had served in different administrative positions for Pacific islands.

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Julia Bowman Robinson, American mathematician and theorist (died 1985)

Julia Hall Bowman Robinson was an American mathematician noted for her contributions to the fields of computability theory and computational complexity theory—most notably in decision problems. Her work on Hilbert's tenth problem played a crucial role in its ultimate resolution. Robinson was a 1983 MacArthur Fellow.

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Kateryna Yushchenko, Ukrainian computer scientist and academic (died 2001)

Kateryna Lohvynivna Yushchenko was a Ukrainian computer and information research scientist, corresponding member of USSR Academy of Sciences (1976), and member of The International Academy of Computer Science. She developed one of the world's first high-level languages with indirect address in programming, called the Address programming language. Over the period of her academic career, Yushchenko supervised 47 Ph.D. students. Further professional achievements include Yushchenko being awarded two USSR State Prizes, The USSR Council of Ministers Prize, The Academician Glushkov Prize, and The Order of Princess Olga. Yushchenko was the first woman in the USSR to become a Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences in programming.

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08/12/1917

Ian Johnson, Australian cricketer and administrator (died 1998)

Ian William Geddes Johnson, was an Australian cricketer who played 45 Test matches as a slow off-break bowler between 1946 and 1956. Johnson captured 109 Test wickets at an average of 29.19 runs per wicket and as a capable lower order batsman made 1,000 runs at an average of 18.51 runs per dismissal. He captained the Australian team in 17 Tests, winning seven and losing five, with a further five drawn. Despite this record, he is better known as the captain who lost consecutive Ashes series against England. Urbane, well-spoken and popular with his opponents and the public, he was seen by his teammates as a disciplinarian and his natural optimism was often seen as naive.

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08/12/1916

Richard Fleischer, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2006)

Richard Owen Fleischer was an American film director. His career spanned more than four decades, beginning at the height of the Golden Age of Hollywood and lasting through the American New Wave. He was the son of animation pioneer Max Fleischer, and served as chairman of Fleischer Studios.

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08/12/1915

Ernest Lehman, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2005)

Ernest Paul Lehman was an American screenwriter and film producer. He was nominated six times for Academy Awards for his screenplays during his career, but did not win. At the 73rd Academy Awards in 2001, he received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of his achievements and his influential works for the screen. He was the first screenwriter to receive that honor.

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08/12/1914

Floyd Tillman, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2003)

Floyd Tillman was an American country musician who, in the 1930s and 1940s, helped create the Western swing and honky tonk genres. Tillman was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1984.

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Ernie Toshack, Australian cricketer (died 2003)

Ernest Raymond Herbert Toshack was an Australian cricketer who played in 12 Tests from 1946 to 1948. A left arm medium paced bowler known for his accuracy and stamina in the application of leg theory, Toshack was a member of Don Bradman's "Invincibles" that toured England in 1948 without being defeated. Toshack reinforced the Australian new ball attack of Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller.

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08/12/1913

Delmore Schwartz, American poet and short story writer (died 1966)

Delmore Schwartz was an American poet and short story writer.

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08/12/1911

Lee J. Cobb, American actor (died 1976)

Lee J. Cobb was an American actor, known both for film roles and his work on the Broadway stage, as well as for his starring role on the television series The Virginian. He often played arrogant, intimidating, and abrasive characters, but he also acted as respectable figures such as judges and police officers. He was nominated for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards, all in the Best Supporting Actor category.

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Nikos Gatsos, Greek poet and songwriter (died 1992)

Nikos Gatsos was a Greek poet, translator and lyricist.

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08/12/1908

Concha Piquer, Spanish singer and actress (died 1990)

María de la Concepción Piquer López, better known as Concha Piquer, was a Spanish singer and actress. She was known for her work in the copla form, and she performed her own interpretations of some of the key pieces in the Spanish song tradition, mostly works of the mid-20th century trio of composers Antonio Quintero, Rafael de León y Manuel Quiroga.

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John A. Volpe, American soldier and politician, 61st Governor of Massachusetts (died 1994)

John Anthony Volpe was an American businessman, diplomat, and politician from Massachusetts. A son of Italian immigrants, he founded and owned a large construction firm. Politically, he was a Republican in increasingly Democratic Massachusetts, serving as its 61st and 63rd Governor from 1961 to 1963 and 1965 to 1969, as the United States Secretary of Transportation from 1969 to 1973, and as the United States Ambassador to Italy from 1973 to 1977. As Secretary of Transportation, Volpe was an important figure in the development of the Interstate Highway System at the federal level.

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08/12/1903

Zelma Watson George, Black American opera singer (died 1994)

Zelma Watson George was an African-American philanthropist who was famous for being an alternate in the United Nations General Assembly and as a headliner in Gian Carlo Menotti's opera The Medium in 1949, the first African-American to play a role that was typically played by a white actress.

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08/12/1902

Wifredo Lam, Cuban-French painter (died 1982)

Wifredo Óscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla, better known as Wifredo Lam, was a Cuban artist who sought to portray and revive the enduring Afro-Cuban spirit and culture. Inspired by and in contact with some of the most renowned artists of the 20th century, including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Frida Kahlo, and Diego Rivera, Lam melded his influences and created a unique style, which was ultimately characterized by the prominence of hybrid figures. This distinctive visual style of his also influenced many artists. Though he was predominantly a painter, he also worked with sculpture, ceramics, and printmaking in his later life.

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08/12/1900

Sun Li-jen, Chinese general and politician (died 1990)

Sun Li-jen was a Chinese National Revolutionary Army general best known for his leadership in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. His military achievements earned him the laudatory nickname "Rommel of the East". Sun's commands were credited with effectively confronting Japanese troops in the 1937 Battle of Shanghai and in 1943–1944 during the Burma campaign; his New 1st Army was known as the "Best Army under heaven" (天下第一軍).

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Ants Oras, Estonian-American author and academic (died 1982)

Ants Oras was an Estonian translator and writer.

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08/12/1899

Arthur Leslie, English-Welsh actor and playwright (died 1970)

Arthur Leslie Scottorn Broughton, better known as Arthur Leslie, was a British actor and playwright, best known for original character of public house landlord Jack Walker in television soap Coronation Street.

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John Qualen, Canadian-American actor (died 1987)

John Qualen was a Canadian-American character actor of Norwegian heritage who specialized in Scandinavian roles.

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08/12/1894

E. C. Segar, American cartoonist, created Popeye (died 1938)

Elzie Crisler Segar, known by the pen name E. C. Segar, was an American cartoonist. He created Popeye in 1929, introducing the character in his comic strip Thimble Theatre.

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James Thurber, American humorist and cartoonist (died 1961)

James Grover Thurber was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist, and playwright. He was born in Columbus, Ohio, and attended Ohio State University (OSU), leaving in 1918 without graduating. He spent over a year in Paris, working for the US State Department as a code clerk, and on his return to Columbus in 1920 was hired as a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch. He married his first wife, Althea Adams, in 1922. Thurber was hired by The New Yorker in early 1927, and soon became a prolific and popular contributor.

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08/12/1892

Marcus Lee Hansen, American historian, author, and academic (died 1938)

Marcus Lee Hansen was an American historian, who won the 1941 Pulitzer Prize for History for The Atlantic Migration, 1607–1860 (1940).

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08/12/1890

Bohuslav Martinů, Czech-American pianist and composer (died 1959)

Bohuslav Jan Martinů was a Czech composer of modern classical music. He wrote 6 symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores, and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal, and instrumental works. He became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and briefly studied under Czech composer and violinist Josef Suk. After leaving Czechoslovakia in 1923 for Paris, Martinů deliberately withdrew from the Romantic style in which he had been trained. During the 1920s he experimented with modern French stylistic developments, exemplified by his orchestral works Half-time and La Bagarre. He also adopted jazz idioms, for instance in his Kitchen Revue.

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08/12/1887

Elizabeth Daryush, English poet (died 1977)

Elizabeth Daryush was an English poet.

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08/12/1886

Diego Rivera, Mexican painter and educator (died 1957)

Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the mural movement in Mexican and international art.

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08/12/1884

Francis Balfour, English colonel and politician (died 1965)

Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Cecil Campbell Balfour was a British military officer and colonial administrator.

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08/12/1881

Tuomas Bryggari, Finnish politician (died 1964)

Tuomas Bryggari was a Finnish trade unionist, politician and member of the Parliament of Finland, the national legislature of Finland. A member of the Social Democratic Party, he represented Vaasa Province East between September 1922 and July 1948. Prior to being elected, he was imprisoned for political reasons following the Finnish Civil War.

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Albert Gleizes, French painter (died 1953)

Albert Gleizes was a French artist, theoretician, philosopher, a self-proclaimed founder of Cubism and an influence on the School of Paris. Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger wrote the first major treatise on Cubism, Du "Cubisme", 1912. Gleizes was a founding member of the Section d'Or group of artists. He was also a member of Der Sturm, and his many theoretical writings were originally most appreciated in Germany, where especially at the Bauhaus his ideas were given thoughtful consideration. Gleizes spent four crucial years in New York, and played an important role in making America aware of modern art. He was a member of the Society of Independent Artists, founder of the Ernest-Renan Association, and both a founder and participant in the Abbaye de Créteil. Gleizes exhibited regularly at Léonce Rosenberg's Galerie de l’Effort Moderne in Paris; he was also a founder, organizer and director of Abstraction-Création. From the mid-1920s to the late 1930s much of his energy went into writing, e.g., La Peinture et ses lois, Vers une conscience plastique: La Forme et l’histoire and Homocentrisme.

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08/12/1880

Johannes Aavik, Estonian linguist and philologist (died 1973)

Johannes Aavik was an Estonian linguist and innovator of the Estonian language.

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08/12/1877

Paul Ladmirault, French pianist, violinist, and composer (died 1944)

Paul Émile Ladmirault was a French composer and music critic whose music expressed his devotion to Brittany. Claude Debussy wrote that his work possessed a "fine dreamy musicality", commenting on its characteristically hesitant character by suggesting that it sounded as if it was "afraid of expressing itself too much". Florent Schmitt said of him: "Of all the musicians of his generation, he was perhaps the most talented, most original, but also the most modest". Peter Warlock dedicated his Capriol Suite to him and Swan Hennessy his Trio, Op. 54.

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08/12/1875

Frederik Buch, Danish actor and screenwriter (died 1925)

Frederik Buch was a Danish film actor of the silent era in Denmark. He starred in over 100 films, and prolifically worked under Lau Lauritzen Sr. for thirty years.

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08/12/1874

Ernst Moro, Austrian physician and pediatrician (died 1951)

Ernst Moro (1874–1951) was a Slovenian physician and pediatrician who was the first in western medicine to describe an infant reflex that was named after him.

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08/12/1865

Rüdiger von der Goltz, German general (died 1946)

Gustav Adolf Joachim Rüdiger Graf von der Goltz was a German army general during the First World War. He commanded the Baltic Sea Division, which intervened decisively in the Finnish Civil War in the spring of 1918, landing at Hanko and capturing Helsinki. After the armistice Goltz remained in Finland until December 1918, exercising significant political influence; the Quartermaster General of the White Army, Hannes Ignatius, described him as the "true regent of Finland". In 1919 he commanded German and Baltic German forces in Latvia, defeating the Bolsheviks and capturing Riga, before being recalled under Allied pressure in October 1919. After the war he was active in right-wing nationalist politics in Germany, participating in the Kapp Putsch and later the Harzburg Front.

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Jacques Hadamard, French mathematician and academic (died 1963)

Jacques Salomon Hadamard was a French mathematician who made major contributions in number theory, complex analysis, differential geometry, and partial differential equations.

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Jean Sibelius, Finnish violinist and composer (died 1957)

Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often credited with having helped Finland develop a stronger national identity when the country was struggling from several attempts at Russification in the late 19th century.

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08/12/1864

Camille Claudel, French illustrator and sculptor (died 1943)

Camille Rosalie Claudel was a French sculptor known for her figurative works in bronze and marble. She died in relative obscurity. Later in the 20th century, she gained renewed attention and recognition for the originality and quality of her work.

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08/12/1863

Charles Lincoln Edwards, American zoologist (died 1937)

Charles Lincoln Edwards was an American zoologist. His research included studies of development in reptiles and sea cucumbers, chromosomes of Ascaris roundworms, and taxonomy of sea cucumbers and copepods, naming at least five species of copepods found in sea cucumber body cavities.

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08/12/1862

Georges Feydeau, French playwright (died 1921)

Georges-Léon-Jules-Marie Feydeau was a French playwright of the Belle Époque era, remembered for his farces, written between 1886 and 1914.

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08/12/1861

William C. Durant, American businessman, founded General Motors and Chevrolet (died 1947)

William Crapo Durant was an American businessman. A leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry, he was the founder of General Motors and a co-founder of Chevrolet. He created a system in which a company held multiple brands – each seemingly independent, with different automobile lines – bound under a unified corporate holding company. He also founded Frigidaire.

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Aristide Maillol, French sculptor and painter (died 1944)

Aristide Joseph Bonaventure Maillol was a French Catalan sculptor, painter, and printmaker.

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Georges Méliès, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1938)

Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès was a French filmmaker, actor, magician, and toymaker. He led many technical and narrative developments in the early days of cinema, primarily in the fantasy and science fiction genres. Méliès rose to prominence creating "trick films" and became well known for his innovative use of special effects, popularizing such techniques as substitution splices, multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves, and hand-painted colour. He was also one of the first filmmakers to use storyboards in his work. His most important films include A Trip to the Moon (1902) and The Impossible Voyage (1904).

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08/12/1860

Amanda McKittrick Ros, Irish author and poet (died 1939)

Anna Margaret Ross, known by her pen-name Amanda McKittrick Ros, was an Irish writer. She published her first novel Irene Iddesleigh at her own expense in 1897. However, it was reprinted by Nonesuch Press in 1926; the reprint sold out immediately. She wrote poetry and a number of novels. She has been described as a "writer with an immense power of words but uncertain use of them."

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08/12/1832

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian-French author and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1910)

Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson was a Norwegian writer who received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished by both the freshness of its inspiration and the rare purity of its spirit". The first Norwegian Nobel laureate, he was a prolific polemicist and extremely influential in Norwegian public life and Scandinavian cultural debate. Bjørnson is considered to be one of the four great Norwegian writers, alongside Ibsen, Lie, and Kielland. He is also celebrated for his lyrics to the Norwegian national anthem, "Ja, vi elsker dette landet". The composer Fredrikke Waaler based a composition for voice and piano on a text by Bjørnson, as did Anna Teichmüller.

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08/12/1822

Jakov Ignjatović, Hungarian-Serbian author (died 1889)

Jakov Ignjatović was a novelist and prose writer, who primarily wrote in Serbian but also in Hungarian. He was also an active member of Matica Srpska.

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08/12/1818

Charles III, Prince of Monaco (died 1889)

Charles III was Prince of Monaco and Duke of Valentinois from 20 June 1856 to his death. He was the founder of the famous casino in Monte Carlo, as his name in Monegasque and Italian was Carlo III. He was born in Paris, the only son of Florestan, Prince of Monaco, and Caroline Gibert de Lametz.

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08/12/1817

Christian Emil Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs, Danish lawyer and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Denmark (died 1896)

Christian Emil Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs was a Danish nobleman and politician. He was Council President of Denmark from 1865 to 1870 as the leader of the Frijs Cabinet.

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08/12/1815

Adolph Menzel, German painter and illustrator (died 1905)

Adolph Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel was a German Realist artist noted for drawings, etchings, and paintings. Along with Caspar David Friedrich, he is considered one of the two most prominent German painters of the 19th century, and was the most successful artist of his era in Germany. First known as Adolph Menzel, he was knighted in 1898 and changed his name to Adolph von Menzel.

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08/12/1813

August Belmont, Prussian-American financier and diplomat, 16th United States Ambassador to the Netherlands (died 1890)

August Belmont Sr. was a German-American financier, diplomat, and Democratic Party politician. As chair of the Democratic National Committee from 1860 to 1872, during a period of turmoil and reconciliation for the party following the American Civil War, Belmont was one of the longest serving party leaders in American history. During his life, he was one of the wealthiest men in the United States. He was also a thoroughbred racehorse owner and the founder and namesake of the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown of American Thoroughbred horse racing.

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08/12/1807

Friedrich Traugott Kützing, German pharmacist, botanist and phycologist (died 1893)

Friedrich Traugott Kützing was a German pharmacist, botanist and phycologist.

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08/12/1795

Peter Andreas Hansen, Danish astronomer and mathematician (died 1874)

Peter Andreas Hansen was a Danish-born German astronomer.

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08/12/1765

Eli Whitney, American engineer, invented the cotton gin (died 1825)

Eli Whitney Jr. was an American inventor, widely known for inventing the cotton gin in 1793, one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution that shaped the economy of the Antebellum South. Whitney's invention made upland short cotton into a profitable crop, which strengthened the economic foundation of slavery in the United States and prolonged the institution. Despite the social and economic impact of his invention, Whitney lost much of his profits in legal battles over patent infringement for the cotton gin. Thereafter, he turned his attention to securing contracts with the government in the manufacture of muskets for the newly formed United States Army. He continued making arms and inventing until his death in 1825.

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08/12/1756

Archduke Maximilian Francis of Austria (died 1801)

Archduke Maximilian Francis of Austria was Elector of Cologne and Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights from 1780 until his death. Influenced by Enlightenment ideals, he sought to implement reforms in various political fields. During the First Coalition War, his territories on the left bank of the Rhine were occupied and later annexed by France. He was the youngest child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor. He was the last fully functioning Elector of Cologne and the second employer and patron of the young Ludwig van Beethoven.

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08/12/1731

František Xaver Dušek, Czech pianist and composer (died 1799)

František Xaver Dušek ; 8 December 1731 – 12 February 1799) was a Czech composer and musician. He was one of the most important harpsichordists and pianists of his time.

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08/12/1730

Jan Ingenhousz, Dutch physician, physiologist, and botanist (died 1799)

Jan Ingenhousz was a Dutch-British physiologist, biologist and chemist.

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08/12/1724

Claude Balbastre, French organist and composer (died 1799)

Claude Balbastre was a French composer, organist, harpsichordist and fortepianist. He was one of the most famous musicians of his time.

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08/12/1708

Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1765)

Francis I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1745 to 1765, Archduke of Austria from 1740 to 1765, Duke of Lorraine and Bar from 1729 to 1737, and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1737 to 1765. He became the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire and Tuscany through his marriage to his second cousin Maria Theresa of Austria, daughter of Emperor Charles VI. Francis was the last non-Habsburg monarch of the Empire. The couple were the founders of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty, and their marriage produced sixteen children.

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08/12/1699

Maria Josepha of Austria, Queen Consort of Poland (died 1757)

Maria Josepha of Austria was the Queen of Poland, Grand Duchess of Lithuania and Electress of Saxony by marriage to Augustus III. From 1711 to 1717, she was heiress presumptive to the Habsburg monarchy.

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08/12/1678

Antonio de Benavides, colonial governor of Florida (died 1762)

Antonio Benavides Bazán y Molina was a Lieutenant General in the Spanish Army who held administrative positions in the Americas as Royal Governor of Spanish Florida (1718–1734), Governor of Veracruz (1734–1745), Governor and Captain General of Yucatán province, as well as Governor of Manila in the Philippines. Before his successive appointments to these various positions, he served with distinction in several campaigns of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1710, and perhaps saved the life of Philip V, the first Bourbon King of Spain, at Guadalajara.

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Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole, English politician and diplomat, British Ambassador to France (died 1757)

Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole, was a British diplomat and politician who served as the British ambassador to France from 1724 to 1730. He was the son of Robert Walpole and the younger brother of Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain.

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08/12/1558

François de La Rochefoucauld, Catholic cardinal (died 1645)

François de La Rochefoucauld was a French Cardinal and an "important figure in the French Counter Reformation church".

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08/12/1542

Mary, Queen of Scots, daughter of James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise (died 1587)

Mary, Queen of Scots, also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication on 24 July 1567.

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08/12/1538

Miklós Istvánffy, Hungarian politician (died 1615)

Baron Miklós Istvánffy de Baranyavár et Kisasszonyfalva was a Hungarian politician, Humanist historian and poet, who served as Palatinal Governor of Hungary from 19 January 1582 to November 1608.

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08/12/1424

Anselm Adornes, Belgian merchant, politician and diplomat (died 1483)

Anselm Adornes, also known as Anselm Adorno, was a merchant, patron, politician and diplomat, who belonged to the fifth generation of the Adornes family to live in Bruges.

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08/12/1418

Queen Jeonghui, Queen consort of Korea (died 1483)

Queen Jeonghui, of the Papyeong Yun clan, was a posthumous name bestowed on the wife and queen of Yi Yu, King Sejo. She was Queen of Joseon from 1455 until her husband's death in 1468, after which she was honoured as Queen Dowager Jaseong (자성왕대비) during the reign of her son, Yi Hwang, King Yejong, She was later honoured as Grand Queen Dowager Jaseong (자성대왕대비) during the reign of her grandson, Yi Hyeol, King Seongjong.

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08/12/1412

Astorre II Manfredi, Italian lord (died 1468)

Astorre II Manfredi was lord of Imola from 1439 and of Faenza from 1443.

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08/12/1021

Wang Anshi, Chinese economist and chancellor (died 1086)

Wang Anshi, courtesy name Jiefu, was a Chinese economist, philosopher, poet, and politician during the Song dynasty. He served as chancellor and attempted major and controversial socioeconomic reforms known as the New Policies. These reforms constituted the core concepts of the Song-dynasty Reformists, in contrast to their rivals, the Conservatives, led by the Chancellor Sima Guang.

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01/01/1970

Horace, Roman poet (died 8 BC)

Quintus Horatius Flaccus, commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his Odes as the only Latin lyrics worth reading: "He can be lofty sometimes, yet he is also full of charm and grace, versatile in his figures, and felicitously daring in his choice of words."

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