9th December — International Anti-Corruption Day

On this day, 263 notable people were born on 9th December — spanning from 1392 to 2005. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

09/12/2005

Ni-Ki, Japanese singer

Nishimura Riki , known professionally as Ni-Ki, is a Japanese singer and dancer based in South Korea. He is a member of the boy band Enhypen under Belift Lab, formed through the reality survival show I-Land in 2020.

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09/12/2003

Yuna, South Korean rapper, singer and dancer

Shin Yu-na, known mononymously as Yuna, is a South Korean singer, dancer, rapper, and actress. She is a member of the South Korean girl group Itzy, formed by JYP Entertainment in 2019. She made her acting debut in 2026 in Undercover Miss Hong and is set to appear in My Bias, My Boss. Yuna released her solo debut extended play (EP), Ice Cream, in March 2026.

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09/12/2000

Diāna Ņikitina, Latvian figure skater

Diāna Ņikitina is a Latvian former figure skater. She is the 2017 Golden Bear of Zagreb champion, the 2018 Cup of Tyrol silver medalist, and the 2018 Latvian national champion. She competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, placing 26th.

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09/12/1997

Harvey Barnes, English footballer

Harvey Lewis Barnes is an English professional footballer who plays as a winger for Premier League club Newcastle United and the England national team.

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09/12/1996

Mackenzie Blackwood, Canadian ice hockey player

Mackenzie Blackwood is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a goaltender for the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League (NHL). Blackwood was the top-rated North American goaltender ranked in the NHL Central Scouting Bureau's final rankings for the 2015 NHL entry draft. He was selected by the New Jersey Devils in the second round, 42nd overall, in the 2015 NHL entry draft.

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Kyle Connor, American ice hockey player

Kyle David Connor is an American professional ice hockey player for the Winnipeg Jets of the National Hockey League (NHL). Connor was drafted 17th overall by the Jets in the 2015 NHL entry draft.

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MyKayla Skinner, American gymnast

MyKayla Brooke Skinner Harmer is an American former artistic gymnast. She was the 2020 Olympic vault silver medalist, competing as an individual, and was an alternate for the 2016 Olympic team. Skinner competed at the 2014 World Championships, where she contributed to the U.S. team's gold medal, also winning an individual bronze medal on vault. She won 11 total medals at the USA National Championships during her senior career. She also competed for the University of Utah's gymnastics team and was a two-time NCAA champion while also setting Pac-12 records for conference honors.

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AleXa, American singer based in South Korea

Alexaundra Christine Schneiderman, known professionally as AleXa (Korean: 알렉사) or Kim Se-ri (김세리), formerly Alex Christine, is an American singer based in South Korea. She debuted as a K-pop singer in October 2019. In 2022, she represented her home state Oklahoma in NBC's American Song Contest with the song "Wonderland" where she won with 710 points.

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09/12/1995

Simone Fontecchio, Italian basketball player

Simone Fontecchio is an Italian professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He plays at the small forward position.

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McKayla Maroney, American gymnast

McKayla Rose Maroney is an American former artistic gymnast. She was a member of the American women's gymnastics team, dubbed the Fierce Five, that won a gold medal in the team competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics. There, she also won an individual silver medal on the vault. Maroney was also a member of the gold-winning American team at the 2011 World Championships, where she also won the vault title. She then became the first U.S. female gymnast to defend a World Championship vault title at the 2013 World Championships. Earlier in her career, she won three gold medals at the 2010 Pan American Championships.

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Kelly Oubre Jr., American basketball player

Kelly Paul Oubre Jr. is an American professional basketball player for the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Oubre played one season of college basketball for the University of Kansas before being selected by the Atlanta Hawks with the 15th overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft, who then traded him to the Washington Wizards. Oubre has also played for the Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors, and Charlotte Hornets.

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09/12/1994

Ryan Lomberg, Canadian ice hockey player

Ryan Lomberg is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a left winger for the Calgary Flames of the National Hockey League (NHL). Lomberg won the Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers in 2024.

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09/12/1993

Cem Ince, German politician

Cem Hamit Ince is a German politician and member of the Bundestag. A member of The Left, he has represented Lower Saxony since 2025.

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Mark McMorris, Canadian snowboarder

Mark Lee McMorris is a Canadian professional snowboarder who specializes in slopestyle and big air events. A three-time Olympic bronze medallist, he placed third in each of the 2014 Winter Olympics, 2018 Winter Olympics, and 2022 Winter Olympics in the slopestyle event. While filming for Transworld Snowboarding's "Park Sessions" video in March 2011, Mark became the first person to land a Backside Triple Cork 1440. More recently, on April 28, 2018, Mark landed the world's first Double Cork off a rail, the Front-Board Double Cork 1170, with a melancholy grab. Mark McMorris has won a record-setting 25 X Games medals, In 2012 and 2013, Mark won back-to-back gold medals in Winter X Games in the slopestyle event. In 2023 he defended his Winter X Games gold medal in the men's slopestyle to set a record for the most Winter X Games medals with 22.

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Laura Smulders, Dutch cyclist

Laura Smulders is a Dutch racing cyclist who represents the Netherlands in BMX. She competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the women's BMX event where she won the bronze medal.

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09/12/1991

Langston Galloway, American basketball player

Langston Arnold Galloway is an American professional basketball player who last played for Esenler Erokspor of the Basketbol Süper Ligi (BSL). He played college basketball for the Saint Joseph's Hawks.

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Choi Min-ho, South Korean singer and actor

Choi Min-ho, known mononymously as Minho, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, rapper and actor. In May 2008, he debuted as a member of South Korean boy band Shinee which later became one of the best-selling Korean artists. Aside from group activities, he debuted as an actor in November 2010 in KBS2's drama special Pianist. He has since landed roles in television series such as Salamander Guru and The Shadows (2012), To the Beautiful You (2012), Medical Top Team (2013), My First Time (2015), and Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth (2016). He made his feature film debut in 2016 with Canola. As a soloist, he has released the digital singles "I'm Home" (2019) and "Heartbreak" (2021). He released his debut solo EP Chase in 2022.

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09/12/1990

Ashleigh Brewer, Australian actress

Ashleigh May Brewer (born 9 December 1990) is an Australian actress. She had a recurring role in The Sleepover Club, before she joined the cast of H2O: Just Add Water. Brewer played the role of Kate Ramsay in the long-running Australian soap opera Neighbours from 2009 until 2014. She portrayed Ivy Forrester on the CBS Daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful from 2014 until 2018. She returned in a recurring capacity from 2024 until 2026. She joined the cast of Home and Away as Chelsea Campbell for six months in 2018.

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Denise Hannema, Dutch cricketer

Denise van Deventer is a Dutch international cricketer who debuted for the Dutch national team in 2008, and was appointed its captain in 2015. In June 2018, she was named in the Netherlands' squad for the 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 Qualifier tournament. In August 2019, she was named in the Dutch squad for the 2019 ICC Women's World Twenty20 Qualifier tournament in Scotland.

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09/12/1989

Eric Bledsoe, American basketball player

Eric Bledsoe is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He plays the point guard position. After a season of college basketball with the Kentucky Wildcats, he was selected by the Oklahoma City Thunder with the 18th overall pick in the 2010 NBA draft and subsequently traded to the Los Angeles Clippers. Bledsoe had a four-year tenure with the Phoenix Suns between 2013 and 2017, before being traded to the Milwaukee Bucks.

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09/12/1988

Kwadwo Asamoah, Ghanaian footballer

Kwadwo Asamoah is a Ghanaian former professional footballer. Mainly a left midfielder or left-back, he was also occasionally deployed as a central midfielder.

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09/12/1987

Kostas Giannoulis, Greek footballer

Kostas Giannoulis is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a defender.

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Gerald Henderson Jr., American basketball player

Jerome McKinley "Gerald" Henderson Jr. is an American former professional basketball player who played eight seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils. Henderson was drafted with the 12th overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft by the Charlotte Bobcats. He is the son of former NBA player Gerald Henderson.

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Mat Latos, American baseball player

Mathew Adam Latos is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres from 2009 through 2011, the Cincinnati Reds from 2012 through 2014, and the Miami Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2015, the Chicago White Sox and Washington Nationals in 2016, and the Toronto Blue Jays in 2017.

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Hikaru Nakamura, Japanese-American chess player

Christopher Hikaru Nakamura is an American chess grandmaster, internet personality, five-time U.S. Chess Champion, and the 2022 World Fischer Random Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he earned his grandmaster title at the age of 15, the youngest American at the time to do so. With a peak rating of 2816, Nakamura is tied as the tenth-highest-rated player in history.

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Jeff Petry, American ice hockey player

Jeffrey Petry is an American professional ice hockey player who is a defenseman for the Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League (NHL).

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Joshua Sasse, English actor

Joshua Seymour Sasse is a British actor. He is known for playing Sir Gary Galavant in ABC's Galavant (2015-2016). Other credits include The Big I Am (2010), Frankenstein's Army (2012), Rogue (2013–2014), The Neighbors (2014), No Tomorrow (2016–2017), Monarch (2022), Love Is in the Air (2023), and Outrageous (2024).

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09/12/1986

Aron Baynes, Australian basketball player

Aron John Baynes is an Australian former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for Washington State University before starting his professional career in Europe. In 2013, he joined the San Antonio Spurs, and a year later, won an NBA championship with the Spurs. He has also played with the Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns and Toronto Raptors. In the National Basketball League (NBL), he played for the Brisbane Bullets between 2022 and 2024. Baynes also played for the Australian national team.

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09/12/1985

Wil Besseling, Dutch golfer

Wil Besseling is a Dutch professional golfer.

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09/12/1984

Ángel Guirado, Spanish–Filipino footballer

Ángel Aldeguer Guirado is a former professional footballer who played as a forward. He represented the Philippines at senior level.

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Leon Hall, American football player

Leon Lastarza Hall is an American former professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Michigan Wolverines and earned consensus All-American honors. Hall was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the first round of the 2007 NFL draft and also played for the New York Giants, San Francisco 49ers, and Oakland Raiders.

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09/12/1983

Jermaine Beckford, English-Jamaican footballer

Jermaine Paul Alexander Beckford is a football pundit and former professional footballer who played as a striker. He began his career as a trainee at Chelsea, and played for Wealdstone, Uxbridge, Leeds United, Carlisle United, Scunthorpe United, Everton, Leicester City, Huddersfield Town, Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End and Bury. He also represented Jamaica at international level.

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Neslihan Demir Darnel, Turkish volleyball player

Neslihan Demir is a retired Turkish volleyball star. She is one of the most successful athletes of Turkey and has been among FIVB Heroes. She represented her country as the flag bearer at the 2012 Summer Olympics and the official advertisement face of Turkey for the 2020 Summer Olympics candidateship along with basketballer Hedo Türkoğlu. She was a left-handed opposite hitter and won numerous individual awards in the international tournaments. She studied at Gazi University.

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Dariusz Dudka, Polish footballer

Dariusz Dudka is a Polish former professional footballer. He played as a defensive midfielder or full-back and also as a centre-back. He is currently the assistant coach of the Poland U21 national team.

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Jolene Purdy, American actress

Jolene Purdy is an American actress. Purdy starred as Cherita Chen in the 2001 film Donnie Darko. Among her television credits is the Fox sitcom Do Not Disturb, which debuted in 2008, as well as the ABC Family comedy series 10 Things I Hate About You, playing Mandella in eight episodes. Purdy has also guest starred on Judging Amy and Boston Public. Purdy is also known for her role as Piper Katins on the TeenNick drama series Gigantic. She had a recurring role in the Netflix drama series Orange Is The New Black as well as Marvel's WandaVision.

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09/12/1982

Tamilla Abassova, Russian cyclist

Tamilla Rashidovna Abassova is a Russian racing cyclist who won the silver medal in the women's sprint event at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and the silver medal at the 2005 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in the same event.

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Nathalie De Vos, Belgian runner

Nathalie De Vos is a Belgian long-distance runner who specializes in the 5000 and 10,000 metres.

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Ryan Grant, American football player

Ryan Brett Grant is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). Grant played college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, rushing for over 1,000 yards in his only year as the starting running back. He originally signed with the New York Giants as an undrafted free agent in 2005, but never played a game for them. Shortly before the 2007 season, Grant was traded to the Green Bay Packers in exchange for a future sixth-round draft pick. He would go on to play for the Packers for six seasons.

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Jim Slater, American ice hockey player

James Parker Slater is an American former professional ice hockey forward. He spent the entirety of his National Hockey League (NHL) career with the Atlanta Thrashers/Winnipeg Jets organization.

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Bastian Swillims, German sprinter

Bastian Swillims is a German sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres. He was born in Dortmund.

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09/12/1981

Mardy Fish, American tennis player

Mardy Simpson Fish is an American former professional tennis player. He was a hardcourt specialist. He is one of several American tennis players who rose to prominence in the early 2000s.

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09/12/1980

Simon Helberg, American actor, comedian, and musician

Simon Maxwell Helberg is an American actor and comedian. From 2007 to 2019, he played Howard Wolowitz on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory and won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for the role. His performance as Cosmé McMoon in the film Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. Helberg has also appeared on the sketch comedy series MADtv as a cast member in season 8 (2002–2003), and his other film roles including Old School (2003); Good Night, and Good Luck (2005); Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007); A Serious Man (2009); and Annette (2021).

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Ryder Hesjedal, Canadian cyclist

Eric Ryder Hesjedal is a Canadian retired professional racing cyclist who competed in mountain biking and road racing between 1998 and 2016. Hesjedal won a silver medal at the 1998 Junior, 2001 Under-23, and Elite world championship in mountain biking. He turned professional with U.S. Postal Service in 2004 after several years with the Rabobank continental team. Having previously finished in fifth place at the 2010 Tour de France, Hesjedal won his first and only Grand Tour at the 2012 Giro d'Italia, the first Grand Tour win by a Canadian. Other major wins include two stages at the Vuelta a España, the first such stage wins by a Canadian.

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Mark Riddell, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster

Mark Robert Riddell is an Australian rugby league commentator and former professional player who played as a hooker in the 2000s and 2010s. A City New South Wales representative goal-kicker, he played in the National Rugby League for the St. George Illawarra Dragons, Parramatta Eels and the Sydney Roosters, and in the Super League with the Wigan Warriors.

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09/12/1979

Olivia Lufkin, Japanese-American singer-songwriter

Olivia Lufkin, known professionally as Olivia, is a Japanese singer and songwriter. Lufkin began her solo career after singing in the Japanese girl group D&D. She gained mainstream success in 2006 after creating songs for the fictional band Trapnest under the alias "Olivia Inspi' Reira (Trapnest)." The songs were used for the popular anime adaptation of Nana.

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Stephen McPhail, Irish footballer

Stephen John Paul McPhail is an Irish former professional footballer. A play-making central midfielder, McPhail started his career at Leeds United in the Premier League. He subsequently found success at Cardiff City, making over 150 appearances and being part of their promotion-winning 2012–13 Football League Championship side. McPhail was capped ten times for the Republic of Ireland national team, scoring one goal.

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Aiko Uemura, Japanese skier

Aiko Uemura is a Japanese freestyle skier. She participates in moguls and dual moguls.

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09/12/1978

Gastón Gaudio, Argentinian tennis player

Gastón Norberto Gaudio is an Argentine former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 5 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals, achieved in April 2005. Gaudio won eight ATP Tour-level singles titles, including a major at the 2004 French Open, coming from two sets down in the final to defeat compatriot Guillermo Coria.

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Jesse Metcalfe, American actor and musician

Jesse Eden Metcalfe is an American actor. He is known for playing John Rowland on Desperate Housewives. Metcalfe has also had notable roles on Passions and played the title role in John Tucker Must Die. He starred as Christopher Ewing in the TNT continuation of Dallas, based on the 1978 series of the same name. From 2016 to 2021, Metcalfe starred as Trace Riley in Hallmark Channel's hit series Chesapeake Shores.

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09/12/1977

Shayne Graham, American football player

Michael Shayne Graham is an American former professional football player who was a placekicker for 15 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Virginia Tech Hokies. He made his professional debut in May 2000 with the Richmond Speed of the Arena Football League's developmental league, af2.

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Imogen Heap, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player

Imogen Jennifer Jane Heap is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and entrepreneur. She is considered a pioneer in pop music, particularly electropop, and in music technology.

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09/12/1976

Mona Hanna-Attisha, American pediatrician, professor, and public health advocate

Mona Hanna, formerly known as Mona Hanna-Attisha, is a pediatrician, professor, and public health advocate whose research exposed the Flint water crisis. In January 2024, she launched the first-in-the-nation community-wide universal prenatal and infant cash prescription program, Rx Kids. She is the author of the 2018 book What the Eyes Don't See, which The New York Times named as one of the 100 most notable books of the year.

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09/12/1974

David Akers, American football player

David Roy Akers is an American former professional football player who was a kicker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons, primarily with the Philadelphia Eagles. He began his career in 1998 with the Washington Redskins. The following year, he signed with the Eagles, where he spent 12 seasons. Akers was also a member of the San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions before retiring in 2013.

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Canibus, Jamaican-American rapper

Germaine Williams, better known by his stage name Canibus, is a Jamaican-American rapper. First having gained recognition for his freestyling abilities, he signed with Universal Records to release his debut studio album, Can-I-Bus (1998). He has since released 13 solo studio albums, and several collaborative projects with other rappers as a member of the Four Horsemen, Refugee Camp All-Stars, Sharpshooterz, Cloak N Dagga, the Undergods and one-half of T.H.E.M.

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Aloísio da Silva Filho, Brazilian footballer

Aloísio da Silva Filho, known as Aloísio, is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Potiguar de Mossoró.

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Wendy Dillinger, American soccer player, coach, and manager

Wendy Dillinger is an American former professional soccer player and coach. She served as the head soccer coach at Washington University in St. Louis, Iowa State University, and the University of Missouri–St. Louis, and as an assistant at Indiana University.

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Fiona MacDonald, Scottish curler

Fiona MacDonald MBE is a Scottish curler and Olympic champion, born in Paisley. She received a gold medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

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09/12/1973

Stacey Abrams, American politician and activist

Stacey Yvonne Abrams is an American politician, lawyer, voting rights activist, and author who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017, serving as minority leader from 2011 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Abrams founded Fair Fight Action, an organization to address voter suppression, in 2018. Her efforts have been widely credited with boosting voter turnout in Georgia, including in the 2020 presidential election, when Joe Biden narrowly won the state, and in Georgia's 2020–21 regularly scheduled and special U.S. Senate elections, which gave Democrats control of the Senate.

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Fabio Artico, Italian footballer

Fabio Artico is an Italian former footballer.

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Vénuste Niyongabo, Burundian runner

Vénuste Niyongabo is a Burundian former long and middle-distance runner. In 1996, he became the first Olympic medalist from Burundi by winning the 5000 metres at the 1996 Summer Olympics. He had only competed twice before in that event prior to winning the gold medal.

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Bárbara Padilla, Mexican-American soprano

Bárbara Padilla is a Mexican-American operatic soprano. She was the runner-up on the fourth season of America's Got Talent. She is well known as a survivor of Hodgkin's lymphoma.

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09/12/1972

Reiko Aylesworth, American actress

Reiko M. Aylesworth is an American actress. She is known for playing Michelle Dessler in the action television series 24.

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Tré Cool, German-American drummer and songwriter

Frank Edwin Wright III, better known by his stage name Tré Cool, is a German-American musician and songwriter, best known as the long-time drummer for the rock band Green Day. He replaced the band's former drummer John Kiffmeyer in 1990. Cool has also played in the Lookouts, Samiam, Dead Mermaids, Bubu and the Brood and the Green Day side projects the Network and the Foxboro Hot Tubs.

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Michael Corcoran, American singer-songwriter and producer

Michael Thomas Corcoran, known professionally as Backhouse Mike or Ken Lofkoll, is an American musician, record producer, and composer. He has composed music for Nickelodeon's Drake & Josh, Zoey 101, iCarly, Victorious, The Troop, Sam & Cat, Henry Danger and Game Shakers, Disney Channel's Shake It Up and Liv and Maddie, Netflix's The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show, and VH1's Hit the Floor.

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Fabrice Santoro, Tahitian-French tennis player and sportscaster

Fabrice Vetea Santoro is a French former professional tennis player. Successful in both singles and doubles, he had a lengthy professional career, with many of his accomplishments coming towards the end of his career, and he is popular among spectators and other players alike for his demeanor and shot-making abilities; he also plays two-handed on both the forehand and backhand sides.

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Saima Wazed, Bangladeshi psychologist

Saima Wazed, also known as Putul, is the daughter of Bangladesh's former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. She served as the South East Asian regional director for the World Health Organization from 1 November 2023, to 11 July 2025.

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09/12/1971

Geoff Barrow, English drummer, DJ, composer, and producer

Geoffrey Paul Barrow is an English music producer, composer, and DJ. He is a member of the bands Portishead, Beak, and Quakers, and he has scored several films.

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Nick Hysong, American pole vaulter and coach

Nick E. Hysong is an American athlete competing in the men's pole vault. Best known for winning the Olympic gold medal in 2000 with a personal best jump of 5.90 metres, he also won a bronze medal at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics. Hysong is also a respectable sprinter, having run 100 m in 10.27 s.

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Petr Nedvěd, Czech-Canadian ice hockey player

Petr Nedvěd is a Czech-Canadian former professional ice hockey player who spent 15 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1990 and 2007.

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09/12/1970

Kara DioGuardi, American singer-songwriter and producer

Kara Elizabeth DioGuardi is an American songwriter, record producer, music publisher, A&R executive, and singer. She primarily writes music in the pop rock genre. She has worked with many popular artists; sales of albums on which her songs appear exceed 160 million worldwide. DioGuardi is a 2011 NAMM Music for Life Award winner, 2009 NMPA Songwriter Icon Award winner, 2007 BMI Pop Songwriter of the Year, and has received 20 BMI Awards for co-writing songs.

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Lance Krall, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

Lance Krall is an American producer, screenwriter, and actor. He became well known after his portrayal as "Kip" in the role in faux-reality show The Joe Schmo Show. He went on to create and star in The Lance Krall Show and Free Radio. He is the co-founder of Picture It Productions, a television development and production company based in Atlanta.

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09/12/1969

Jakob Dylan, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Jakob Luke Dylan is an American singer-songwriter. He rose to fame as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and principal songwriter of the rock band the Wallflowers, which he formed in 1989.

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Saskia Garel, Jamaican-Canadian singer-songwriter

Saskia Garel is a Jamaican-Canadian musician and actress.

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Lori Greiner, American businesswoman and television personality

Lori Greiner is an American television personality and entrepreneur. She is known for her QVC show Clever & Unique Creations (2000–present), for which she has been called the "Queen of QVC" and additionally being an investor on the reality series Shark Tank (2012–present) on ABC. She has hundreds of inventions and holds over 120 patents. She is the president and founder of For Your Ease Only, Inc.

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Annick Lambrecht, Belgian politician

Annick Lambrecht is a Belgian politician and member of the Chamber of Representatives. A member of Vooruit, she has represented West Flanders since June 2024. She had previously been a member of the Chamber of Representatives from January 2017 to May 2019. She was a member of the Senate from July 2019 to May 2024 and a member of the Flemish Parliament from June 2019 to June 2024.

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Bixente Lizarazu, French footballer

Bixente Jean Michel Lizarazu is a French former professional footballer who played as a left-back.

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Raphaël Rouquier, French mathematician and academic

Raphaël Alexis Marcel Rouquier is a French mathematician and a professor of mathematics at UCLA.

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Allison Smith, American actress

Allison Smith is an American actress, singer, writer and director, best known for her work on television as Mallory O'Brien in Aaron Sorkin's Emmy Award-winning NBC drama The West Wing and for starring on Broadway in the title role Annie. She also played the role of Jennie Lowell on the 1980s Emmy Award-winning sitcom Kate & Allie. In addition to starring in Annie, Smith has also appeared on stage in a host of other roles, including a part in the original Broadway production of Evita, a starring role in the Los Angeles premiere production of David Mamet's Oleanna, and supporting roles in Peter Parnell's QED, and the musical The Education Of Randy Newman, in which she played Randy Newman's first wife.

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09/12/1968

Kurt Angle, American freestyle and professional wrestler

Kurt Steven Angle is an American retired professional wrestler and former amateur wrestler. He is currently a sports analyst for Real American Freestyle. He first earned recognition for winning a gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 1996 Summer Olympics despite competing with a broken neck, and achieved wider fame and recognition for his tenures in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) from 1998 to 2006, and 2017 to 2019, and in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) from 2006 to 2016.

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Brian Bell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Brian Lane Bell is an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist of the rock band Weezer, with whom he has recorded twenty studio albums. Bell also fronted the rock band The Relationship and was the lead vocalist and guitarist of the indie rock band Space Twins.

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Brent Price, American basketball player

Hartley Brent Price is an American former professional basketball player who played for four teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is the brother of 4-time NBA All-Star, Mark Price.

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09/12/1967

Joshua Bell, American violinist and conductor

Joshua David Bell is an American violinist and conductor. He is the music director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

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Jason Dozzell, English footballer and manager

Jason Irvin Winans Dozzell is an English football manager and former professional footballer.

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09/12/1966

Kirsten Gillibrand, American lawyer and politician

Kirsten Elizabeth Gillibrand is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from New York since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2009.

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Dave Harold, English snooker player

David William Harold is an English former professional snooker player from Stoke-on-Trent. He was known by the nicknames of "the Hard Man" and "the Stoke Potter". As an amateur he played as David Harold, but after turning professional in 1991 he was registered as Dave Harold.

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Gideon Sa'ar, Israeli lawyer and politician, 24th Israeli Minister of Internal Affairs

Gideon Moshe Sa'ar is an Israeli politician currently serving as Israel's Foreign Minister. Sa'ar was first elected to the Knesset as a member of Likud in 2003, serving until 2014. During that period, he served as Education Minister (2009–2013) and Minister of the Interior (2013–2014) under Benjamin Netanyahu's governments.

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Martin Taylor, English footballer and coach

Martin Taylor is an English former footballer. He was a goalkeeper. During his time at Wycombe, Taylor went on to miss just seven League games in four seasons, culminating in a clean sweep of the Player of the Season awards in May 2001. This followed a season where the ex-Derby 'keeper was not only ever-present with a staggering 63 appearances but also achieved hero status during the record breaking FA Cup run. The Fifth Round replay against Wimbledon at Selhurst Park is an evening that will never be forgotten for Taylor and the Wycombe fans who were there. Taylor saved a penalty from Neal Ardley in the last minute of normal time and then scored from the spot himself in the penalty shoot-out.

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09/12/1965

Joe Ausanio, American baseball player and coach

Joseph John Ausanio is an American former Major League Baseball relief pitcher who appeared in 41 games for the New York Yankees in 1994 and 1995. He is the current Director of Baseball Operations for the New York Yankees High A affiliate Hudson Valley Renegades in the New York Penn League. He is also the current head coach of the Marist Red Foxes softball team.

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09/12/1964

Michael Foster, American drummer

Michael Foster is an American musician best known as the drummer and founding member of rock band FireHouse. Foster and guitarist/founding member Bill Leverty are the only original members still active in the band, following the death of vocalist CJ Snare.

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Ross Harrington, Australian rugby league player

Ross Harrington is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. He primarily played at wing he played club football with the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Eastern Suburbs Roosters

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Hape Kerkeling, German actor and singer

Hans Peter Wilhelm "Hape" Kerkeling is a German comedian, TV presenter, author, and actor.

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Johannes B. Kerner, German journalist and sportscaster

Johannes Baptist Kerner is a German television host, journalist, and former sportscaster.

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Les Kiss, Australian rugby league player

Les Kiss is an Australian rugby union coach and former rugby league coach and professional rugby league footballer, representing Queensland in State of Origin. Kiss is the current head coach of Super Rugby Pacific side, the Queensland Reds. Prior to this he was head coach of London Irish in the Gallagher Premiership until the club went into administration in June 2023.

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Paul Landers, German guitarist

Paul Landers is a German musician, best known as the rhythm guitarist of Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein, and punk rock bands Feeling B and First Arsch. Landers has released eight studio albums and three live albums with Rammstein.

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09/12/1963

Dave Hilton Jr., Canadian boxer

Dave "Davey" Hilton Jr. is a Canadian former boxing world champion. He is also known for being convicted of sexually assaulting two of his daughters.

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Empress Masako, Japanese consort of Emperor Naruhito

Masako is Empress of Japan as the wife of Emperor Naruhito.

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09/12/1962

Felicity Huffman, American actress and producer

Felicity Kendall Huffman is an American actress. She is known for her role as Lynette Scavo in the ABC comedy-drama Desperate Housewives and her role as Sabrina "Bree" Osbourne, a transgender woman, in the film Transamerica (2005). She has received numerous accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award as well as a nomination for an Academy Award.

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Roxanne Swentzell, Santa Clara Pueblo (Native American) ceramic sculptor

Roxanne Swentzell is a Santa Clara Tewa Native American sculptor, ceramic artist, Indigenous food activist, and gallerist. Her artworks are in major public collections and she has won numerous awards.

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09/12/1961

David Anthony Higgins, American actor and screenwriter

David Anthony Higgins is an American actor. He is known for his television roles as Craig Feldspar on Malcolm in the Middle, Joe on Ellen, and Reginald Bitters on Big Time Rush. He also had a recurring role as Harry on the television series Mike & Molly.

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Joe Lando, American actor

Joseph John Lando is an American actor, known for playing Jake Harrison on daytime's One Life to Live (1990–1992) and Byron Sully on the television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993–1998).

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09/12/1960

Stefen Fangmeier, American visual effects designer and director

Stefen Markus Fangmeier is an American visual effects supervisor and film director. He worked on numerous major feature films, including Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Saving Private Ryan, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Twister, The Perfect Storm and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. He also has been a second unit director for two films, Dreamcatcher (2003) and Galaxy Quest (1999). After more than 15 years of visual effects work, Fangmeier moved into feature film directing with his debut on Eragon, which was released in 2006 to negative critic reviews but was a box office success.

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Caroline Lucas, English activist and politician

Caroline Patricia Lucas is a British politician who was the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales from 2003 to 2006, 2007 to 2012, and from 2016 to 2018. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Brighton Pavilion from 2010 to 2024. She was the Green Party's first MP and their only MP until the 2024 general election.

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Dobroslav Paraga, Croatian politician

Dobroslav Paraga is a Croatian far-right politician. He was the first president of the far-right Croatian Party of Rights, after the party was reestablished in 1991. In 1993 he founded the Croatian Party of Rights 1861 following a political split from Anto Đapić.

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Juan Samuel, Dominican baseball player and manager

Juan Milton Samuel is a Dominican former professional baseball second baseman and outfielder who played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). A three-time National League (NL) All-Star, he appeared in the 1983 World Series with the Philadelphia Phillies. Samuel served as interim manager for the Baltimore Orioles during the 2010 MLB season, as well as many years in MLB coaching ranks. Known widely for his unique combination of speed and power, Samuel was inducted into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame, in 2010.

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09/12/1959

Susan Bullock, English soprano

Susan Margaret Bullock is a British soprano. She has performed dramatic soprano parts at major opera houses, and also sung in concert and recital.

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Mario Cantone, American comedian, actor, and writer

Mario Cantone is an American comedian, writer, actor, singer, and television host widely known for his role as Anthony Marentino in Sex and the City (2000–2004), its revival And Just Like That... (2021–2025) and Terri in Men in Trees (2006–2008). He hosted the children's television program Steampipe Alley, which aired on WWOR-TV from 1988 to 1993.

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09/12/1957

Peter O'Mara, Australian guitarist and composer

Peter John O'Mara is an Australian-born jazz guitarist, composer, arranger, teacher and author. He has been based in Germany since late 1981.

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Donny Osmond, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor

Donald Clark Osmond is an American singer, actor, television host and former teen idol. He gained fame performing with four of his elder brothers as the Osmonds, earning several top ten hits and gold albums. In the early 1970s, Osmond began a solo career, earning several additional top ten songs.

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Steve Taylor, American singer-songwriter and producer

Roland Stephen Taylor is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, music executive, filmmaker, assistant professor, and actor. A figure in what has come to be known as Christian alternative rock, Taylor enjoyed a successful solo career during the 1980s, and also served in the short-lived group Chagall Guevara.

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09/12/1956

Sylvia, American country singer-songwriter

Sylvia Jane Kirby, known professionally as Sylvia, is an American singer, songwriter and life coach. In the 1980s decade, she had 11 US top ten country chart songs, including "Nobody" (1982), which crossed over onto the pop charts around the world.

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Jean-Pierre Thiollet, French journalist and author

Jean-Pierre Thiollet is a French writer and journalist. He is also affiliated with the European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions, a European trade union.

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09/12/1955

Otis Birdsong, American basketball player and radio host

Otis Lee Birdsong is an American former professional basketball player. He spent twelve seasons (1977–1989) in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and appeared in four NBA All-Star Games.

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Chamras Saewataporn, Thai singer-songwriter

Chamras Saewataporn, is an accomplished Thai musician and composer who first turned professional at the age of 18. He began his musical career working in night clubs and later joined one of the Thai bands of that era, "Grand X" (1976–1980). In 1981, he began composing music and started his own band, "The Radio". His debut album was in 1982, Nok Jao Pho Bin. Between 1986 and 1997, he composed theme songs for over 100 Thai movies. He is inspired by his beliefs in Buddhism, and began composing music for relaxation, healing and meditation in 1993. He has won numerous domestic and international awards.

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09/12/1954

Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourger lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Luxembourg

Jean-Claude Juncker is a Luxembourgish politician who was prime minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013 and president of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. He was also Luxembourg's Finance Minister from 1989 to 2009 and President of the Eurogroup from 2005 to 2013.

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Henk ten Cate, Dutch footballer and manager

Hendrik Willem ten Cate is a Dutch football coach and former player who is head coach of the Suriname national team.

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09/12/1953

Cornelis de Bondt, Dutch composer and educator

Cornelis de Bondt is a Dutch composer. Born in The Hague, de Bondt attended the Royal Conservatory there and currently teaches composition and music theory at the same institution.

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World B. Free, American basketball player

World B. Free is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1975 to 1988. He went by his first name before early December, 1981. Free also was called "The Prince of Mid-Air", "Brownsville Bomber" and most often "All-World".

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John Malkovich, American actor and producer

John Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer and director. His accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award and nominations for two Academy Awards, two Actor Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, and three Golden Globe Awards.

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09/12/1952

Liaqat Baloch, Pakistani politician

Liaqat Baloch is a Pakistani political leader, who is currently serving as the Naib Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, a Pakistani Islamic religio-political party.

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Michael Dorn, American actor and voice artist

Michael Dorn is an American actor best known for his role as the Klingon character Worf in the Star Trek franchise, appearing in all seven seasons of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), and later reprising the role in seasons four through seven of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1995–1999) and season three of Star Trek: Picard (2023). Dorn has appeared more times as a regular cast member than any other Star Trek actor in the franchise's history, spanning five films and 284 television episodes.

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09/12/1950

Joan Armatrading, Kittian-English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. Her first major commercial success came with her third and fourth albums, Joan Armatrading (1976) and Show Some Emotion (1977), and she continues to play live and record studio albums. A three-time Grammy Award nominee, Armatrading has also been nominated twice for BRIT Awards as Best Female Artist. She received an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contemporary Song Collection in 1996.

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09/12/1949

Tom Kite, American golfer and architect

Thomas Oliver Kite Jr. is an American professional golfer and golf course architect. He won the U.S. Open in 1992 and spent 175 weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Ranking between 1989 and 1994.

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09/12/1948

Marleen Gorris, Dutch director and screenwriter

Marleen Gorris is a Dutch former writer and director. Gorris is known as an outspoken feminist and supporter of gay and lesbian issues which is reflected in much of her work. Her film, Antonia's Line, won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1995 making her first woman to win in this category. She has won 2 Golden Calf awards and received numerous other nominations, including one nomination for BAFTA Awards.

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Jonathan Sumption, English historian, author, and judge

Jonathan Philip Chadwick Sumption, Lord Sumption,, is a British author, medieval historian, barrister and former senior judge who sat on the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2018 and on the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal between 2019 and 2024.

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09/12/1947

Tom Daschle, American soldier, academic, and politician

Thomas Andrew Daschle is an American politician and lobbyist who represented South Dakota in the United States Senate from 1987 to 2005. A member of the Democratic Party, he led the Senate Democratic Caucus during the final ten years of his tenure, during which time he served as Senate Majority Leader and Minority Leader.

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Jaak Jõerüüt, Estonian politician, 24th Estonian Minister of Defense

Jaak Jõerüüt is an Estonian writer and politician. He was the defense minister of Estonia from November 2004 to 10 October 2005.

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Allan Jones, English cricketer and umpire

Allan Arthur Jones is an English cricket umpire and a former cricketer. When he joined Glamorgan in 1980 he became the first cricketer to represent four English first-class counties.

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09/12/1946

David Currie, Baron Currie of Marylebone, English economist and academic

David Anthony Currie, Baron Currie of Marylebone is a British economist specialising in regulation, and a cross-bench member of the House of Lords. Currie was the inaugural Chairman of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

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Dennis Dunaway, American bass player and songwriter

Dennis Dunaway is an American musician, best known as the original bass guitarist for the rock band Alice Cooper. He co-wrote some of the band's most notable songs, including "I'm Eighteen" and "School's Out".

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Sonia Gandhi, Italian-Indian politician

Sonia Gandhi is an Indian politician. She is the longest-serving president of the Indian National Congress, a big-tent liberal political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independence history. She took over as the party leader in 1998, seven years after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, her husband and a former Prime Minister of India, and remained in office until 2017 after serving for twenty-two years. She returned to the post as interim president in 2019 and remained the President for another three years until 2022.

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Nicholas Reade, English bishop

Nicholas Stewart Reade is a retired British Anglican bishop. He was the Bishop of Blackburn in the Province of York from 2004 to 2012.

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09/12/1945

Michael Nouri, American actor

Michael Nouri is an American screen and stage actor. He is best known for his television roles, including Dr. Neil Roberts on The O.C., Phil Grey on Damages, Caleb Cortlandt on All My Children, Eli David in NCIS, and Bob Schwartz on Yellowstone. He is also known for his starring roles in the films Flashdance (1983) and The Hidden (1987), and has appeared in several Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, including the original production of Victor/Victoria. He is a Saturn Award and Daytime Emmy Award nominee.

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09/12/1944

Neil Innes, English singer-songwriter (died 2019)

Neil James Innes was an English songwriter, writer, comedian and musician. He first came to prominence in the comedy rock group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later became a frequent collaborator with the Monty Python troupe on their BBC television series and films, and is often called the "seventh Python" along with performer Carol Cleveland. Along with Eric Idle of Monty Python, he co-created the Rutles, a Beatles parody/pastiche project; Innes wrote the band's songs. He also wrote and voiced the 1980s ITV children's cartoon adventures of The Raggy Dolls.

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Ki Longfellow, American author, playwright, and producer (died 2022)

Ki Longfellow was an American novelist, playwright, theatrical producer, theatre director and entrepreneur with dual citizenship in Britain. She is best known in the United States for her novel The Secret Magdalene (2005). This is the first of her works exploring the divine feminine. In England, she is likely best known as the widow of Vivian Stanshall, musician, lead singer of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, songwriter, author, radio broadcaster and wit.

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Bob O'Connor, American businessman and politician, 57th Mayor of Pittsburgh (died 2006)

Robert E. O'Connor Jr. was an American politician who was the Mayor of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from January 3, 2006, until his death.

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09/12/1943

Pit Martin, Canadian ice hockey player (died 2008)

Hubert Jacques "Pit" Martin was a Canadian professional ice hockey centre who served as captain for the Chicago Black Hawks of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1975 to 1977. He was an NHL All-Star and Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy winner.

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Joanna Trollope, English author, playwright, and director (died 2025)

Joanna Trollope was an English writer. She also wrote under the pseudonym of Caroline Harvey. Her novel Parson Harding's Daughter won the 1980 Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association.

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Kenny Vance, American singer-songwriter and music producer

Kenny Vance is an American singer, songwriter, and music producer who was a founding member of Jay and the Americans. His career spans from the 1950s to today, with projects ranging from starting doo-wop groups to music supervising to creating solo albums.

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09/12/1942

Billy Bremner, Scottish footballer and manager (died 1997)

William John Bremner was a Scottish professional footballer and manager. Regarded as one of the game's great midfielders, he combined precision passing skills with tenacious tackling and physical stamina. He played for Leeds United from 1959 to 1976, serving as captain from 1965, in the most successful period in the club's history.

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Dick Butkus, American football player, sportscaster, and actor (died 2023)

Richard Marvin Butkus was an American professional football linebacker, sports commentator, and actor. He played football for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) from 1965 to 1973. He was invited to eight Pro Bowls in nine seasons, named a first-team All-Pro five times, and was twice recognized by his peers as the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year. Butkus was renowned as a fierce tackler and for the relentless effort with which he played. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most intimidating linebackers in professional football history.

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Germain Gagnon, Canadian ice hockey player (died 2014)

Joseph Adrien Germain Gagnon was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played 259 games in the National Hockey League. He played for the Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders, Chicago Black Hawks, and Kansas City Scouts. An original Islander, Gagnon recorded three points, including the winning goal, in the Islanders first win on October 12, 1972. The full name was found in his Baptism document. Gagnon returned to Chicoutimi and died there after a long illness on October 26, 2014.

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Fred Jones, Australian rugby league player (died 2021)

Frederick Jones was an Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s and 1970s. An Australian international and New South Wales interstate representative hooker, he played his club football for Manly-Warringah, with whom he won the 1972 and 1973 NSWRFL Premierships.

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Joe McGinniss, American journalist and author (died 2014)

Joseph Ralph McGinniss Sr. was an American non-fiction writer and novelist. He was the author of twelve books.

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William Turnage, American conservationist (died 2017)

William Albert Turnage was the director of The Wilderness Society from 1978 to 1985 and business manager of photographer Ansel Adams. He was known for turning the Wilderness Society into a more professional advocacy group, and was an outspoken critic of James G. Watt, the Interior Secretary in the Reagan Administration. Born in Tucson and raised in Washington, D.C., Turnage earned a degree in history from Yale University in 1965 and entered Yale Law School before switching to the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He met Adams while working with Yale Chubb Fellowship and left school shortly after Adams invited him to manage his photography.

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09/12/1941

Mehmet Ali Birand, Turkish journalist and author (died 2013)

Mehmet Ali Birand was a Turkish journalist, political commentator and writer.

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Beau Bridges, American actor, director, and producer

Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor. He is a three-time Emmy, two-time Golden Globe and one-time Grammy Award winner, as well as a two-time Screen Actors Guild Award nominee. Bridges also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to television. He is the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and the elder brother of fellow actor Jeff Bridges.

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Dan Hicks, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2016)

Daniel Ivan Hicks was an American singer-songwriter and musician, and the leader of Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. His idiosyncratic style combined elements of cowboy folk, jazz, country, swing, bluegrass, pop, and gypsy music. He is perhaps best known for the songs "I Scare Myself" and "Canned Music". His songs are frequently infused with humor, as evidenced by the title of his tune "How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away?" His album Live at Davies (2013) capped over forty years of music.

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09/12/1940

Clancy Eccles, Jamaican singer-songwriter and producer (died 2005)

Clancy Eccles was a Jamaican ska and reggae singer, songwriter, arranger, promoter, record producer and talent scout. Known mostly for his early reggae works, he brought a political dimension to this music. His house band was known as The Dynamites.

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09/12/1938

Deacon Jones, American football player, sportscaster, and actor (died 2013)

David D. "Deacon" Jones was an American professional football defensive end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. He played for the Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers, and Washington Redskins. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980.

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Dimitrios Trichopoulos, Greek epidemiologist, oncologist, and academic (died 2014)

Dimitrios Trichopoulos was a Mediterranean Diet expert and tobacco harms researcher. He was Vincent L. Gregory Professor of Cancer Prevention and Professor of Epidemiology, and a past chair of the Department of Epidemiology, in the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

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09/12/1935

David Houston, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1993)

Charles David Houston was an American country music singer. His peak in popularity came between the mid-1960s and the early 1970s.

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09/12/1934

Judi Dench, English actress

Dame Judith Olivia Dench is an English actress. Widely considered one of Britain's greatest actresses, she is noted for her versatile roles on stage and screen. Dench has garnered various accolades throughout a career that spans seven decades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Television Awards, six British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs), and seven Olivier Awards.

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Alan Ridout, English composer and teacher (died 1996)

Alan Ridout was a British composer and teacher.

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Junior Wells, American blues singer-songwriter and harmonica player (died 1998)

Junior Wells was an American singer, harmonica player, and recording artist. He is best known for his signature song "Messin' with the Kid" and his 1965 album Hoodoo Man Blues, described by the critic Bill Dahl as "one of the truly classic blues albums of the 1960s". Wells himself categorized his music as rhythm and blues.

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09/12/1933

Ashleigh Brilliant, English-American author and illustrator (died 2025)

Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant was a British epigrammatist and cartoonist. He was best known for his Pot-Shots, single-panel illustrations with one-line humorous remarks, which began syndication in the United States in 1975.

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Milt Campbell, American decathlete and football player (died 2012)

Milton Gray Campbell was an American decathlete of the 1950s. In 1956, he became the first African American to win the gold medal in the decathlon of the Summer Olympic Games.

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Morton Downey Jr., American actor and talk show host (died 2001)

Morton Downey Jr. was an American television talk show host and actor who pioneered the "trash TV" format in the late 1980s on his program The Morton Downey Jr. Show.

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Orville Moody, American golfer (died 2008)

Orville James Moody was an American professional golfer who won numerous tournaments in his career. He won the U.S. Open in 1969, the last champion in the 20th century to win through local and sectional qualifying.

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09/12/1932

Donald Byrd, American trumpet player and academic (died 2013)

Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II was an American jazz and rhythm & blues trumpeter, composer and vocalist. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was one of the few hard bop musicians who successfully explored funk and soul while remaining a jazz artist. As a bandleader, Byrd was an influence on the early career of Herbie Hancock and many others.

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Bill Hartack, American jockey (died 2007)

William John Hartack Jr. was an American jockey.

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Billy Edd Wheeler, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and playwright (died 2024)

Billy Edd Wheeler was an American songwriter, performer, writer, and visual artist.

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09/12/1931

Cliff Hagan, American basketball player-coach

Clifford Oldham Hagan is an American former professional basketball player. A 6′ 4″ forward who excelled with the hook shot, Hagan, nicknamed "Li’l Abner", played his entire 10-year NBA career (1956–1966) with the St. Louis Hawks. He was also a player-coach for the Dallas Chaparrals in the first two-plus years of the American Basketball Association's existence (1967–1970). Hagan is a five-time NBA All-Star and an ABA All-Star. He won an NCAA basketball championship in 1951 as a member of the Kentucky Wildcats, and he won an NBA championship with the Hawks in 1958.

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William Reynolds, American actor (died 2022)

William DeClercq Reynolds was an American actor. He was best known for his role as Special Agent Tom Colby in the 1960s television series The F.B.I. and his film and television roles during the 1950s through the 1970s.

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Ladislav Smoljak, Czech actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2010)

Ladislav Smoljak was a Czech film and theatre director, actor and screenwriter.

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09/12/1930

Buck Henry, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2020)

Buck Henry was an American actor, screenwriter, and director. Henry's contributions to film included his work as a co-writer for Mike Nichols's The Graduate (1967) for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He appeared in acting roles in Nichols's Catch-22 (1970)—also co-written with Nichols—Herbert Ross's The Owl and the Pussycat (1970), and Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up, Doc? (1972). In 1978, he co-directed Heaven Can Wait (1978) with Warren Beatty, receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director. He later appeared in Albert Brooks's Defending Your Life (1991), and the Robert Altman films The Player (1992) and Short Cuts (1993).

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Óscar Humberto Mejía Víctores, Guatemalan soldier and politician, 27th President of Guatemala (died 2016)

Óscar Humberto Mejía Víctores was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as the Head of Government from August 1983 to January 1986. A member of the military, he was head of state during the apex of repression and death squad activity in the Central American nation. When he was minister of defense, he rallied a coup against President Ríos Montt, which he justified by declaring that religious fanatics were abusing the government. He allowed for a return to democracy, with elections for a constituent assembly being held in 1984, followed by general elections in 1985.

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09/12/1929

John Cassavetes, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1989)

John Nicholas Cassavetes was an American filmmaker and actor. He began as an actor in film and television before helping to pioneer modern American independent cinema as a writer and director, often self-financing, producing, and distributing his own films. He received nominations for three Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and an Emmy Award.

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Bob Hawke, Australian union leader and politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Australia (died 2019)

Robert James Lee Hawke was an Australian politician, trade unionist, economist and central banker who served as the 23rd prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991. He held office as the leader of the Labor Party (ALP), having previously served as president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions from 1969 to 1980 and president of the Labor Party national executive from 1973 to 1978.

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09/12/1928

Joan Blos, American author and educator (died 2017)

Joan Winsor Blos was an American writer, teacher and advocate for children's literacy.

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André Milhoux, Belgian race car driver

André Milhoux is a former racing driver from Belgium. He participated in one Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, the 1956 German Grand Prix on 5 August 1956, but had to retire after 15 laps due to an engine failure. He scored no championship points.

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Dick Van Patten, American actor (died 2015)

Richard Vincent Van Patten was an American actor, comedian, businessman, and animal welfare advocate whose career spanned seven decades of television. He was best known for his role as patriarch Tom Bradford on the television series Eight Is Enough.

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09/12/1927

Pierre Henry, French composer (died 2017)

Pierre Georges Albert François Henry was a French composer known for his significant contributions to musique concrète.

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09/12/1926

Henry Way Kendall, American physicist, photographer, and mountaineer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1999)

Henry Way Kendall was an American particle physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1990 jointly with Jerome Isaac Friedman and Richard E. Taylor "for their pioneering investigations concerning deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons, which have been of essential importance for the development of the quark model in particle physics."

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Jan Křesadlo, Czech-English psychologist and author (died 1995)

Václav Jaroslav Karel Pinkava, better known by his pen name Jan Křesadlo, was a Czech psychologist who was also a prizewinning novelist and poet.

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David Nathan, British journalist (died 2001)

David Nathan was a British journalist.

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Lorenzo Wright, American sprinter and coach (died 1972)

Lorenzo Christopher Wright was an American athlete. A Detroit native, he started at Miller High School and Wayne State University; Wright is renowned for his noteworthy track and field accomplishments.

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09/12/1925

Roy Rubin, American basketball player and coach (died 2013)

Roy Rubin was a former college and professional basketball coach.

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09/12/1922

Redd Foxx, American actor (died 1991)

John Elroy Sanford, better known by his stage name Redd Foxx, was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Foxx gained success with his raunchy nightclub act before and during the civil rights movement. Known as the "King of the Party Records", he performed on more than 50 records in his lifetime. He portrayed Fred G. Sanford on the television show Sanford and Son and starred in The Redd Foxx Show and The Royal Family.

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09/12/1920

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Italian economist and politician, 10th President of Italy (died 2016)

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi was an Italian politician, statesman and banker who was the president of Italy from 1999 to 2006 and prime minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994.

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Bruno Ruffo, Italian motorcycle racer and race car driver (died 2007)

Bruno Ruffo was an Italian Grand Prix motorcycle road racer born in Verona. He won three Grand Prix World Championships.

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09/12/1919

V. Dakshinamoorthy, Indian singer-songwriter (died 2013)

Venkateswaran Dakshinamoorthy was a veteran carnatic musician and composer and music director of Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi films. His work was predominantly in Malayalam cinema.

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William Lipscomb, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2011)

William Nunn Lipscomb Jr. was a Nobel Prize-winning American inorganic and organic chemist working in nuclear magnetic resonance, theoretical chemistry, boron chemistry, and biochemistry.

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09/12/1917

James Jesus Angleton, American CIA agent (died 1987)

James Jesus Angleton was an American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer who served as chief of the counterintelligence department of the CIA from 1954 to 1975. According to the director of central intelligence, Richard Helms, Angleton was "recognized as the dominant counterintelligence figure in the non-communist world".

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James Rainwater, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1986)

Leo James Rainwater was an American physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1975 for his part in determining the asymmetrical shapes of certain atomic nuclei.

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09/12/1916

Jerome Beatty Jr., American soldier, journalist, and author (died 2002)

Jerome M. Beatty Jr. was a twentieth-century American author of children's literature. He was also an accomplished feature writer for magazines. Beatty served in the United States Army, achieving the rank of corporal, and is buried at the Massachusetts National Cemetery.

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Kirk Douglas, American actor, singer, and producer (died 2020)

Kirk Douglas was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Douglas soon developed into a leading box-office star throughout the 1950s, known for serious dramas, including westerns and war films. During his career, he appeared in more than 90 films and was known for his explosive acting style. He was named by the American Film Institute the 17th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood cinema.

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Colin McCool, Australian cricketer (died 1986)

Colin Leslie McCool was an Australian cricketer who played in 14 Test matches between 1946 and 1950. McCool, born in Paddington, New South Wales, was an all-rounder who bowled leg spin and googlies with a round arm action and as a lower order batsman was regarded as effective square of the wicket and against spin bowling. He made his Test début against New Zealand in 1946, taking a wicket with his second delivery. He was part of Donald Bradman's Invincibles team that toured England in 1948 but injury saw him miss selection in any of the Test matches.

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09/12/1915

Eloise Jarvis McGraw, American author (died 2000)

Eloise Jarvis McGraw was an American author of children's books and young adult novels.

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Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, German-Austrian soprano and actress (died 2006)

Dame Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf, was a German-born Austro-British lyric soprano. She was among the foremost singers of lieder, and is renowned for her performances of Viennese operetta, as well as the operas of Mozart, Wagner and Richard Strauss. After retiring from the stage, she was a voice teacher internationally. She is considered one of the greatest sopranos of the 20th century.

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09/12/1914

Max Manus, Norwegian lieutenant (died 1996)

Maximo Guillermo Manus DSO, MC & Bar was a Norwegian resistance fighter during World War II, specialising in sabotage in occupied Norway. After the war he wrote several books about his adventures and started the successful office supply company Max Manus AS.

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Frances Reid, American actress (died 2010)

Frances Reid was an American dramatic actress. Reid acted on television for nearly all of the second half of the 20th century. Her career continued into the early 2000s.

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Ljubica Sokić, Serbian painter and illustrator (died 2009)

Ljubica "Cuca" Sokić was a prominent Serbian and Yugoslav painter of the twentieth century.

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09/12/1912

Tip O'Neill, American lawyer and politician, 55th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (died 1994)

Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill Jr. was an American Democratic Party politician from Massachusetts who served as the 47th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987, the third-longest tenure in history and the longest uninterrupted tenure. He represented northern Boston in the House from 1953 to 1987.

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Jim Turnesa, American golfer (died 1971)

James R. Turnesa was an American professional golfer and winner of the 1952 PGA Championship, beating Chick Harbert 1-up in the match-play final.

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09/12/1911

Broderick Crawford, American actor (died 1986)

William Broderick Crawford was an American actor. Known for his "bulldog face and barking voice", he was initially a character actor often cast tough-guy or slob roles, but gained widespread acclaim for his portrayal of Willie Stark in the 1949 film adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men. His performance earned him both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Actor. He was later known for his starring role as Dan Mathews on the television series Highway Patrol (1955–59).

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Ryūzō Sejima, Japanese colonel and businessman (died 2007)

Ryūzō Sejima was a Japanese army officer and business leader.

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09/12/1910

Vere Bird, first Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda (died 1999)

Sir Vere Cornwall Bird was an Antiguan politician who was the first Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda. His son, Lester Bryant Bird, succeeded him as prime minister. In 1994, he was declared a "National Hero".

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09/12/1909

Douglas Fairbanks Jr., American captain, actor, and producer (died 2000)

Douglas Elton Fairbanks Jr. was an American actor, producer, and United States Navy officer. He was a leading man during the Golden Age of Hollywood, notably in adventure and swashbuckling roles like in The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Gunga Din (1939), and The Corsican Brothers (1941). He was the son of Douglas Fairbanks and the stepson of Mary Pickford. Fairbanks, Jr. "picked up his father's swashbuckling style and later cut a dash in high society and royal circles." His first marriage was to actress Joan Crawford.

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09/12/1906

Grace Hopper, American admiral and computer scientist, designed COBOL (died 1992)

Grace Brewster Hopper was an American computer scientist, mathematician, and United States Navy rear admiral. She was a pioneer of computer programming. Hopper was the first to devise the theory of machine-independent programming languages, and used this theory to develop the FLOW-MATIC programming language and COBOL, an early high-level programming language still in use today. She was also one of the first programmers on the Harvard Mark I computer. She is credited with writing the first computer manual, "A Manual of Operation for the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator."

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Freddy Martin, American bandleader and tenor saxophonist (died 1983)

Frederick Alfred Martin was an American bandleader and tenor saxophonist.

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09/12/1905

Dalton Trumbo, American author, screenwriter, and blacklistee (died 1976)

James Dalton Trumbo was an American screenwriter who scripted many award-winning films, including Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Roman Holiday (1953), Spartacus (1960), and Exodus (1960). One of the Hollywood Ten, he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 during the committee's investigation of Communist influences in the motion picture industry.

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09/12/1904

Robert Livingston, American actor and singer (died 1988)

Robert Edward Randall was an American film actor known under his stage name, Robert Livingston. He appeared in 136 films between 1921 and 1975. He was one of the original Three Mesquiteers. He also played The Lone Ranger and Zorro.

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09/12/1902

Margaret Hamilton, American schoolteacher, actress and voice artist (died 1985)

Margaret Brainard Hamilton was an American character actress, vaudevillian and educator, whose fifty-year career in entertainment spanned theater, film, radio and television. She often played villains and is best known to modern audiences for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West and her Kansas counterpart Almira Gulch in the 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz.

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09/12/1901

Jean Mermoz, French pilot and politician (died 1936)

Jean Mermoz was a French aviator, viewed as a hero by other pilots such as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and in his native France, where many schools bear his name. In Brazil, he also is recognized as a pioneer aviator.

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Ödön von Horváth, Hungarian-German author and playwright (died 1938)

Edmund Josef von Horváth was an Austro-Hungarian playwright and novelist who wrote in German, and went by the nom de plume Ödön von Horváth. He was one of the most critically admired writers of his generation prior to his untimely death. He enjoyed a series of successes on the stage with socially poignant and romantic plays, including Revolte auf Côte 3018 (1927), Sladek (1929), Italienische Nacht (1930), Hin und Her (1934), and Der Jüngste Tag (1937). His novels include Der ewige Spießer (1930), Ein Kind unserer Zeit (1938), and Jugend ohne Gott (1937).

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09/12/1900

Margaret Brundage, American illustrator, known for illustrating pulp magazine Weird Tales (died 1976)

Margaret Brundage, was an American illustrator and painter who is remembered chiefly for having illustrated the pulp magazine Weird Tales. Working in pastels on illustration board, she created most of the covers for Weird Tales between 1933 and 1938.

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Albert Weisbord, American activist, founded the Communist League of Struggle (died 1977)

Albert Weisbord was an American political activist and union organizer. He is best remembered, along his wife Vera Buch, as one of the primary union organizers of the seminal 1926 Passaic Textile Strike and as the founder of a small Trotskyist political organization of the 1930s called the Communist League of Struggle.

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09/12/1899

Jean de Brunhoff, French author and illustrator (died 1937)

Jean de Brunhoff was a French writer and illustrator remembered best for creating the Babar series of children's books concerning a fictional elephant, the first of which was published in 1931.

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09/12/1898

Irene Greenwood, Australian radio broadcaster, feminist and peace activist (died 1992)

Irene Greenwood was an Australian radio broadcaster and feminist and peace activist.

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Emmett Kelly, American clown and actor (died 1979)

Emmett Leo Kelly was an American circus performer who created the clown character "Weary Willie", based on the hobos of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

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09/12/1897

Hermione Gingold, English actress and singer (died 1987)

Hermione Ferdinanda Gingold was an English actress known for her sharp-tongued, eccentric character. Her signature drawling, deep voice was a result of nodules on her vocal cords she developed in the 1920s and early 1930s.

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09/12/1895

Dolores Ibárruri, Spanish activist, journalist and politician (died 1989)

Isidora Dolores Ibárruri Gómez, also known as Pasionaria, was a Spanish Republican politician during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and a communist. She is renowned for her slogan ¡No Pasarán!, which she issued during the Battle for Madrid in November 1936.

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Conchita Supervía, Spanish soprano and actress (died 1936)

Conchita Supervía was a highly popular Spanish mezzo-soprano singer who appeared in opera in Europe and America and also gave recitals.

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09/12/1892

André Randall, French actor (died 1974)

André Randall was a French screen actor. He was born André Ayaïs in Bordeaux and died at Sainte-Foy-la-Grande.

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09/12/1891

Maksim Bahdanovič, Belarusian poet and critic (died 1917)

Maksim Adamavich Bahdanovich was a Belarusian poet, journalist, translator, literary critic and historian of literature. He is considered one of the founders of the modern Belarusian literature.

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09/12/1890

Laura Salverson, Canadian author (died 1970)

Laura Goodman Salverson was a Canadian author. Her work reflected her Icelandic heritage. Two of her books won Governor General's awards for literature.

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09/12/1889

Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish-American runner (died 1966)

Juho Pietari "Hannes" Kolehmainen was a Finnish four-time Olympic gold medalist and a world record holder in middle- and long-distance running. He was the first in a generation of great Finnish long-distance runners, often named the "Flying Finns". Kolehmainen competed for a number of years in the United States, wearing the Winged Fist of the Irish American Athletic Club. He also enlisted in the 14th Regiment of the National Guard of New York, and became a U.S. citizen in 1921.

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09/12/1887

Tim Moore, American actor (died 1958)

Tim Moore was an American vaudevillian and comic actor of the first half of the 20th century. He gained his greatest recognition in the starring role of George "Kingfish" Stevens in the CBS TV's The Amos 'n' Andy Show. He proudly stated, "I've made it a point never to tell a joke on the stage that I couldn't tell in front of my mother."

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09/12/1886

Clarence Birdseye, American businessman, founded Birds Eye (died 1956)

Clarence Birdseye was an American inventor, entrepreneur, and naturalist, who is widely considered the founder of the modern frozen food industry. He developed methods for quick-freezing food products that led to the commercial success of frozen foods in the United States. He founded several companies that later became associated with the '''Birds Eye''' brand.

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09/12/1883

Nikolai Luzin, Russian mathematician, theorist, and academic (died 1950)

Nikolai Nikolayevich Luzin was a Soviet and Russian mathematician known for his work in descriptive set theory and aspects of mathematical analysis with strong connections to point-set topology. He was the eponym of Luzitania, a loose group of young Moscow mathematicians of the first half of the 1920s. They adopted his set-theoretic orientation, and went on to apply it in other areas of mathematics.

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Alexander Papagos, Greek general and politician, 152nd Prime Minister of Greece (died 1955)

Alexandros Papagos was a Greek military officer who led the Hellenic Army in World War II and in the later stages of the subsequent Greek Civil War. Afterwards, he served as Prime Minister of Greece from 1952 to 1955.

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Joseph Pilates, German-American fitness expert, developed Pilates (died 1967)

Joseph Hubertus Pilates was a German physical trainer, writer, and inventor. He is credited with inventing and promoting the Pilates method of physical fitness. He patented a total of 26 apparatuses in his lifetime.

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09/12/1882

Elmer Booth, American actor (died 1915)

William Elmer Booth was an American stage and film actor. He was born in Los Angeles, California and was the elder brother of Margaret Booth, a renowned film editor for Hollywood productions for nearly 70 years.

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Joaquín Turina, Spanish-French composer, critic, and educator (died 1949)

Joaquín Turina Pérez was a Spanish composer of classical music.

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09/12/1876

Berton Churchill, Canadian-American actor and singer (died 1940)

Berton Churchill was a Canadian stage and film actor.

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09/12/1875

Harry Miller, American engineer (died 1943)

Harold Arminius Miller, commonly called Harry, was an American race car designer and builder who was most active in the 1920s and 1930s. Griffith Borgeson called him "the greatest creative figure in the history of the American racing car". Cars built by Miller won the Indianapolis 500 nine times, and other cars using his engines won three more. Millers accounted for 83% of the Indy 500 fields between 1923 and 1928.

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09/12/1873

George Blewett, Canadian philosopher, author, and academic (died 1912)

George John Blewett was a Canadian philosopher and theologian. He was English Canada's first native-born philosopher.

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09/12/1871

Joe Kelley, American baseball player and manager (died 1943)

Joseph James Kelley was an American left fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB) who starred in the outfield of the Baltimore Orioles teams of the 1890s. Making up the nucleus of the Orioles along with John McGraw, Willie Keeler, and Hughie Jennings, Kelley received the nickname "Kingpin of the Orioles".

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09/12/1870

Ida S. Scudder, Indian physician and missionary (died 1960)

Ida Sophia Scudder was a third-generation American medical missionary in India. She sought to improve the plight of Indian women by fighting against bubonic plague, cholera and leprosy. In 1918, she started a teaching hospital, the Christian Medical College & Hospital, in Vellore, India.

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Francisco S. Carvajal, Mexican lawyer and politician, president 1914 (died 1932)

Francisco Sebastián Carvajal y Gual, sometimes spelled Carbajal was a Mexican lawyer and politician who served briefly as president in 1914, during the Mexican Revolution. In his role as foreign minister, he succeeded Victoriano Huerta as president upon the latter's resignation.

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09/12/1868

Fritz Haber, Polish-German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1934)

Fritz Jakob Haber was a German chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his invention of the Haber process, a method used in industry to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas. This invention is important for the large-scale synthesis of fertilizers and explosives. It is estimated that a third of annual global food production uses ammonia from the Haber–Bosch process, and that this food supports nearly half the world's population. For this work, Haber has been called one of the most important scientists and industrial chemists in human history. Haber also, along with Max Born, proposed the Born–Haber cycle as a method for evaluating the lattice energy of an ionic solid.

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09/12/1867

Gregorios Xenopoulos, Greek journalist and author (died 1951)

Gregorios Xenopoulos was a novelist, journalist and playwright from Zakynthos.

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09/12/1861

Hélène Smith, French psychic and occultist (died 1929)

Catherine-Elise Müller, known professionally as Hélène Smith, was a famous late-19th-century French medium. She was known as "the Muse of Automatic Writing" by the Surrealists, who viewed Smith as evidence of the power of the surreal, and a symbol of surrealist knowledge. Late in life, Smith claimed to communicate with Martians, and to be a reincarnation of a Hindu princess and Marie Antoinette.

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09/12/1850

Emma Abbott, American soprano and actress (died 1891)

Emma Abbott was an American operatic soprano and impresario known for her pure, clear voice of great flexibility and volume.

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09/12/1845

Joel Chandler Harris, American journalist and author (died 1908)

Joel Chandler Harris was an American journalist and folklorist best known for his collection of Uncle Remus stories. Born in Eatonton, Georgia, where he served as an apprentice on a plantation during his teenage years, Harris spent most of his adult life in Atlanta working as an associate editor at The Atlanta Constitution.

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09/12/1842

Peter Kropotkin, Russian zoologist, economist, geographer, and philosopher (died 1921)

Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a Russian anarchist political philosopher and geographer known as a proponent of anarchist communism.

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09/12/1837

Émile Waldteufel, French pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1915)

Charles Émile Waldteufel was a French composer, pianist, and conductor known for his numerous popular salon pieces. Among his best known works is "Les Patineurs" (1882), known as "The Skater's Waltz".

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09/12/1813

Thomas Andrews, Irish chemist and physicist (died 1885)

Thomas Andrews FRS FRSE was an Irish chemist and physicist who did important work on phase transitions between gases and liquids. He was a longtime professor of chemistry at Queen's University of Belfast.

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09/12/1806

Jean-Olivier Chénier, Canadian physician (died 1838)

Jean-Olivier Chénier was a medical doctor in Lower Canada. Born in Lachine. During the Lower Canada Rebellion, he commanded the Patriote forces in the Battle of Saint-Eustache. Trapped with his men in a church by the government troops who set fire to the building, he was shot to death while attempting to escape through a window. He died to shouts of "Remember Weir!", a reference to George Weir, a government spy executed by the Patriotes. The government forces mutilated Chénier's corpse to intimidate the remaining Patriote supporters:

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09/12/1787

John Dobson, English architect, designed Eldon Square and Lilburn Tower (died 1865)

John Dobson was a 19th-century English neoclassical architect. During his life, he was the most noted architect in Northern England. He designed more than 50 churches and 100 private houses, but he is best known for designing Newcastle railway station and his work with Richard Grainger developing the neoclassical centre of Newcastle. Other notable structures include Nunnykirk Hall, Meldon Park, Mitford Hall, Lilburn Tower, St John the Baptist Church in Otterburn, Northumberland, and Beaufront Castle.

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09/12/1779

Tabitha Babbitt, American tool maker and inventor (died 1853)

Sarah "Tabitha" Babbitt was a Shaker credited as a tool maker and inventor. Inventions attributed to her by the Shakers include the circular saw in lumber milling, an improved spinning wheel head, and a process for manufacturing false teeth. She became a member of the Harvard Shaker community in 1793.

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09/12/1768

Joseph Desha, American politician (died 1842)

Joseph Desha was an American politician who was a U.S. Representative from Kentucky from 1807 to 1819 and the ninth governor of Kentucky from 1824 to 1828. First known as an Indian fighter from Middle Tennessee, Desha settled in Mason County, Kentucky, where he parlayed his military record into several terms in the state legislature.

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09/12/1752

Antoine Étienne de Tousard, French general and engineer (died 1813)

Antoine Étienne de Tousard was a French general and military engineer during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He was also the last military engineer of the Order of Saint John. He is the brother of Louis de Tousard.

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09/12/1748

Claude Louis Berthollet, French chemist and academic (died 1822)

Claude Louis Berthollet was a Savoyard-French chemist who became vice president of the French Senate in 1804. He is known for his scientific contributions to the theory of chemical equilibria via the mechanism of reverse chemical reactions, and for his contribution to modern chemical nomenclature. On a practical basis, Berthollet was the first to demonstrate the bleaching action of chlorine gas, and was first to develop a solution of sodium hypochlorite as a modern bleaching agent.

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09/12/1745

Maddalena Laura Sirmen, Italian violinist and composer (died 1818)

Maddalena Laura Sirmen, commonly known as Madame Sirmen, was an Italian composer, violinist, and opera singer of the musical Classical period.

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09/12/1742

Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish Pomeranian and German pharmaceutical chemist (died 1786)

Carl Wilhelm Scheele was a German-Swedish pharmaceutical chemist.

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09/12/1728

Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi, Italian composer (died 1804)

Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi was an Italian opera composer of the classical period.

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09/12/1721

Peter Pelham, English-American organist and composer (died 1805)

Peter Pelham was an English-born American organist, harpsichordist, teacher and composer.

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09/12/1717

Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German archaeologist and historian (died 1768)

Johann Joachim Winckelmann was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the differences between Greek, Greco-Roman and Roman art. "The prophet and founding hero of modern archaeology", Winckelmann was one of the founders of scientific archaeology and first applied the categories of style on a large, systematic basis to the history of art. Many consider him the father of the discipline of art history. He was one of the first to separate Greek art into periods and time classifications.

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09/12/1667

William Whiston, English mathematician, historian, and theologian (died 1752)

William Whiston was an English theologian, historian, natural philosopher, and mathematician, a leading figure in the popularisation of the ideas of Isaac Newton. He is now probably best known for helping to instigate the Longitude Act in 1714 and his important translations of the Antiquities of the Jews and other works by Josephus. He was a prominent exponent of Arianism and wrote A New Theory of the Earth.

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09/12/1652

Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, German physician and botanist (died 1723)

Augustus Quirinus Rivinus is the professional name of August Bachmann or A. Q. Bachmann who was a German physician and botanist who helped to develop better ways of classifying plants.

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09/12/1617

Richard Lovelace, English poet (died 1657)

Richard Lovelace was an English poet in the seventeenth century. He was a cavalier poet who fought on behalf of Charles I during the English Civil War. His best known works are "To Althea, from Prison", and "To Lucasta, Going to the Warres".

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09/12/1610

Baldassare Ferri, Italian singer and actor (died 1680)

Baldassare Ferri was an Italian castrato singer. He is said to have possessed "extraordinary endurance of breath, flexibility of voice and depth of emotion".

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09/12/1608

John Milton, English poet and philosopher (died 1674)

John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. His 1667 epic poem Paradise Lost was written in blank verse and included 12 books, written in a time of immense religious flux and political upheaval. It addressed the fall of man, including the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan, and God's expulsion of them from the Garden of Eden. Paradise Lost elevated Milton's reputation as one of history's greatest poets. He also served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under its Council of State and later under Oliver Cromwell.

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09/12/1594

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (died 1632)

Gustavus Adolphus, also known as Gustav II Adolf or Gustav II Adolph, was King of Sweden from 1611 to 1632. He is credited with the rise of Sweden as a great European power. During his reign, Sweden became one of the primary military forces in Europe during the Thirty Years' War, helping to determine the political and religious balance of power in Europe. He was formally and posthumously given the name Gustavus Adolphus the Great by the Riksdag of the Estates in 1634.

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09/12/1579

Martin de Porres, Peruvian saint (died 1639)

Martín de Porras Velázquez was a Peruvian lay brother of the Dominican Order who was beatified in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI and canonized in 1962 by Pope John XXIII. He is the patron saint of Black people, mixed-race people, barbers, innkeepers, public health workers, all those seeking racial harmony, and animals.

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09/12/1571

Metius, Dutch mathematician and astronomer (died 1635)

Adriaan Adriaanszoon, called Metius, was a Dutch geometer and astronomer born in Alkmaar. The name "Metius" comes from the Dutch word meten ("measuring"), and therefore means something like "measurer" or "surveyor".

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09/12/1561

Edwin Sandys, English lawyer and politician (died 1629)

Sir Edwin Sandys was an English politician who was a member of the House of Commons at various times between 1589 and 1626. He was also one of the founders of the proprietary Virginia Company of London, which in 1607 established the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States in the colony of Virginia, based at Jamestown. The parish of Sandys, in Bermuda is named after him.

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09/12/1508

Gemma Frisius, Dutch mathematician and cartographer (died 1555)

Gemma Frisius was a Dutch physician, mathematician, cartographer, philosopher, and instrument maker. He created important globes, improved the mathematical instruments of his day and applied mathematics in new ways to surveying and navigation. Gemma's rings, an astronomical instrument, are named after him. Along with Gerardus Mercator and Abraham Ortelius, Frisius is often considered one of the founders of the Netherlandish school of cartography, and significantly helped lay the foundations for the school's golden age.

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09/12/1493

Íñigo López de Mendoza, 4th Duke of the Infantado (died 1566)

Íñigo Lopez de Mendoza y Pimentel, 4th Duke of the Infantado was a Spanish nobleman. He was made a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1546, the 193rd to receive that distinction. Duke of the Infantado is a title first granted in 1475 and was inherited upon his father's death in 1531. He was also 5th Count of Saldaña, 4th Marquess of Argüeso, 4th Marquess of Campóo, 5th Marquess of Santillana, 5th Count of Real de Manzanares, Señor de Mendoza, Señor de Hita, and Señor de Buitrago.

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09/12/1482

Frederick II, Elector Palatine (died 1556)

Frederick II, Count Palatine of the Rhine, also Frederick the Wise, a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty, was Prince-elector of the Palatinate from 1544 to 1556, and pretender to the Norwegian Throne from 1535 to 1556.

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09/12/1447

Chenghua Emperor of China (died 1487)

The Chenghua Emperor, personal name Zhu Jianshen, changed to Zhu Jianru in 1457, was the ninth emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1464 to 1487. He succeeded his father, Emperor Yingzong.

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09/12/1392

Peter, Duke of Coimbra (died 1449)

Dom Peter, Duke of Coimbra, KG was a Portuguese infante (prince) of the House of Aviz, son of King Dom John I of Portugal and his wife, Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt. In Portugal, he is known as Infante Dom Pedro das Sete Partidas [do Mundo], "of the Seven Parts [of the World]" because of his travels. Possibly the best-travelled prince of his time, he was regent between 1439 and 1448. He was also 1st Lord of Montemor-o-Velho, Aveiro, Tentúgal, Cernache, Pereira, Condeixa and Lousã.

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