Born on Thursday, 12th February – Famous Birthdays

12/02/2001

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Georgian footballer

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is a Georgian professional footballer who plays as a left winger for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Georgia national team. Regarded as one of the best players in the world and as one of the greatest Georgian players of all time, he is known for his dribbling, agility, and playmaking.

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12/02/2000

Kim Ji-min, South Korean actress

Kim Ji-min is a South Korean actress. She is best known for her roles in Goddess of Fire (2013) and Pluto Secret Society (2014). Since January 2020, she is part of SM C&C.

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12/02/1994

Kemal Bilmez, Belgian politician

Kemal Bilmez is a Belgian politician and member of the Chamber of Representatives. A member of the Workers' Party of Belgium, he has represented Flemish Brabant since June 2024.

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Arman Hall, American sprinter

Arman "Gino" Hall is an American sprinter specializing in the 400 m. He is a World and Olympic gold medalist as a member of USA's 2014 and 2016 4 × 400 m relay teams.

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Paxton Lynch, American football player

Paxton James Lynch is an American professional football quarterback for the Colorado Spartans of the National Arena League (NAL). He played college football for the Memphis Tigers, and was selected in the first round of the 2016 NFL draft by the Denver Broncos. Lynch played just two seasons in Denver and made four starts before being released prior to the 2018 season. Lynch was also a member of the Seattle Seahawks and Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL, the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League (CFL), the Michigan Panthers of the United States Football League (USFL), and the Orlando Guardians and San Antonio Brahmas of the XFL.

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12/02/1993

Bud Dupree, American football player

Alvin "Bud" Dupree Jr. is an American professional football linebacker for the Los Angeles Chargers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Kentucky Wildcats, and was selected in the first round of the 2015 NFL draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He has also played for the Tennessee Titans and Atlanta Falcons.

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Rafinha, Brazilian footballer

Rafael Alcântara do Nascimento, commonly known as Rafinha, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

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Jennifer Stone, American actress

Jennifer Stone is an American podcaster, social media personality and former actress. As a child actor, she became known for playing Harper Finkle on the Disney Channel sitcom Wizards of Waverly Place (2007–2012). She also had roles in the comedy films Secondhand Lions (2003) and Mean Girls 2 (2011).

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12/02/1992

Magda Linette, Polish tennis player

Magda Linette is a Polish professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 19, achieved in March 2023. She has reached eight finals on the WTA Tour, winning three titles, and the semifinals of the 2023 Australian Open, and the third round of the other majors.

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12/02/1991

Patrick Herrmann, German footballer

Patrick Herrmann is a German former professional footballer who played as a right winger. He spent his entire professional career with Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach.

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Kane Richardson, Australian cricketer

Kane William Richardson is a former Australian international cricketer who played domestic cricket for South Australia and Queensland and played in the Big Bash League for the Adelaide Strikers, Melbourne Renegades, and Sydney Sixers.

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12/02/1990

Katherine Barrell, Canadian actress, director, writer, and producer

Katherine Barrell is a Canadian actress, writer, producer, and director. She is best known for her role as Sheriff Nicole Haught in the Syfy supernatural weird West television series Wynonna Earp. In 2020, she joined the cast of the fantasy comedy-drama television series Good Witch as Joy Harper.

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Robert Griffin III, American football player

Robert Lee Griffin III, nicknamed RGIII or RG3, is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons, most notably with the Washington Redskins. He played college football for the Baylor Bears, winning the Heisman Trophy as a senior, and was selected second overall by the Redskins in the 2012 NFL draft.

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12/02/1989

Josh Harrellson, American basketball player

Josh Douglas Harrellson is an American professional basketball player for Saga Ballooners of the Japanese B.League. Standing 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m), he played center for the Kentucky Wildcats from 2008 to 2011. He was selected by the New Orleans Hornets as the 45th pick in the 2011 NBA draft, but was traded to the New York Knicks. He signed with the Miami Heat in 2012. In 2013, he joined the Brujos de Guayama in Puerto Rico, but he was released on May 18 so that he could join Chongqing Flying Dragons in the Chinese National Basketball League for a two-month period. In August 2013, Harrellson joined the Detroit Pistons.

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12/02/1988

DeMarco Murray, American football player

DeMarco Murray is an American football coach and former professional player who is currently the running backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). A running back in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons, Murray was a three-time Pro Bowl selection, one-time first-team All-Pro, and NFL Offensive Player of the Year in 2014 after leading the NFL in both rushing yards and rushing touchdowns.

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Nicolás Otamendi, Argentine footballer

Nicolás Hernán Gonzalo Otamendi is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Primeira Liga club Benfica, which he captains, and the Argentina national team.

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Josh Phegley, American baseball player

Joshua Aaron Phegley is an American former professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics, and Chicago Cubs.

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Mike Posner, American singer-songwriter and producer

Michael Robert Henrion Posner is an American singer, rapper, songwriter, poet, and record producer from Detroit. He signed with J Records in 2009 and released his debut single "Cooler Than Me" the following year. The song peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and received septuple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). His follow-up single, "Please Don't Go" peaked within the top 20 of the chart and received triple platinum certification; both songs preceded the release of his debut album, 31 Minutes to Takeoff (2010), which peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 200 and received mixed critical reception. In 2014, Posner parted ways with J Records in favor of Island Records.

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12/02/1987

Jérémy Chardy, French tennis player

Jérémy Chardy is a French tennis coach and a former professional player. He has won one ATP Tour singles title, in Stuttgart in 2009. His best major performance in singles was reaching the quarterfinals of the 2013 Australian Open, and in doubles was reaching the final at the 2019 French Open partnering Fabrice Martin. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 25 on 28 January 2013 and No. 24 on 3 February 2020 in doubles.

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Gabriela Mărginean, Romanian basketball player

Gabriela Mărginean is a Romanian professional women's basketball player who plays for the Turkey club İzmit Belediyespor.

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12/02/1986

Todd Frazier, American baseball player

Todd Brian Frazier, nicknamed "the Toddfather", is an American former professional baseball third baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, New York Mets, and Pittsburgh Pirates from 2011 to 2021. Frazier was an MLB All-Star in 2014 and 2015.

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12/02/1985

Konstantin Pushkaryov, Kazakhstani ice hockey player

Konstantin Vladimirovich Pushkaryov is a Kazakhstani former ice hockey winger. He played 17 games in the National Hockey League with the Los Angeles Kings during the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons. Most of his career, which lasted from 2001 to 2020, was spent with Barys Astana in the Kontinental Hockey League. Internationally, Puskharyov played for the Kazakhstani national team at multiple World Championships. In May 2022, he became a Parimatch expert.

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12/02/1984

Brad Keselowski, American race car driver

Bradley Aaron Keselowski is an American professional stock car racing driver, team owner, and entrepreneur. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 6 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for RFK Racing, a team he also co-owns. He was the owner of Brad Keselowski Racing, which fielded two full-time trucks in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for 10 years.

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Andrei Sidorenkov, Estonian footballer

Andrei Sidorenkov is an Estonian former professional footballer who played as a left-back.

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Peter Vanderkaay, American swimmer

Peter William Vanderkaay is an American former competition swimmer and four-time Olympic medalist who competed for the University of Michigan who specialized in middle and long distance freestyle events. He was a member of the United States Olympic team in 2004, 2008, and 2012, and won gold medals in the 4x200 meter freestyle relay at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He won bronze medals in the 200-meter freestyle at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the 400-meter freestyle at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

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12/02/1983

Carlton Brewster, American football player and coach

Carlton Brewster is a former National Football League (NFL) wide receiver. He was signed by the Cleveland Browns as an undrafted free agent in 2006. He played college football at Ferris State University.

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12/02/1982

Jonas Hiller, Swiss ice hockey player

Jonas Hiller is a Swiss former professional ice hockey goaltender. Hiller played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Anaheim Ducks and the Calgary Flames. He began his NHL career with the Ducks in 2007 after going undrafted in any NHL entry draft. Hiller also played in the National League (NL) for HC Davos and EHC Biel.

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Louis Tsatoumas, Greek long jumper

Louis Tsatoumas is a Greek long jumper.

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Anthony Tuitavake, New Zealand rugby player

Anthony Tuitavake is a New Zealand rugby union footballer. He plays as a centre or on the wing. Tuitavake, of Tongan descent, is a fast attacking centre.

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12/02/1981

Wade McKinnon, Australian rugby league player

Wade McKinnon is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. His position of preference was as a fullback.

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12/02/1980

Juan Carlos Ferrero, Spanish tennis player

Juan Carlos Ferrero Donat is a Spanish former professional tennis player and current coach. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for a total of eight weeks. Ferrero won 16 singles titles on the ATP Tour, including the 2003 French Open and four Masters events. He was also runner-up at the 2002 French Open and 2003 US Open. He was nicknamed el Mosquito for his speed and slender physical build. Ferrero retired as a professional player in 2012.

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Sarah Lancaster, American actress

Sarah Lancaster is an American actress and director. She is known for her long-running roles as Rachel Meyers in the series Saved by the Bell: The New Class and Ellie Bartowski in the comedy-spy series Chuck, as well as playing Chloe Grefe in Lovers Lane, Madison Kellner on Everwood, and Marjorie in the television drama What About Brian. In 2020, Lancaster starred as Elli Wise in the television film "Blue Ridge "., later reprising the role in the family crime drama series "Blue Ridge ". (2024), which premiered on INSP and was later released on Amazon Prime Video.

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Gucci Mane, American rapper

Radric Delantic Davis, known professionally as Gucci Mane, is an American rapper and music executive. He is credited, along with fellow Atlanta-based rappers T.I. and Jeezy, with pioneering the hip-hop subgenre trap music for mainstream audiences during the 2000s. His debut studio album, Trap House (2005), was released by the independent label Big Cat Records and entered the Billboard 200; it was followed by Hard to Kill (2006), which spawned his first Billboard Hot 100 entry with its single "Freaky Gurl". That same year, he released his third album, Trap-A-Thon, before signing with Atlantic Records to release his fourth album, Back to the Trap House (2007).

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Christina Ricci, American actress and producer

Christina Ricci is an American actress. Known for playing unusual characters with a dark edge, Ricci works mostly in independent productions, but she has also appeared in numerous box-office hits. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

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12/02/1979

Jesse Spencer, Australian actor and violinist

Jesse Gordon Spencer is an Australian actor and musician. He is known for his roles as Billy Kennedy on the Australian soap opera Neighbours, for which he was nominated for two Logie Awards, Dr. Robert Chase on the American medical drama House (2004–2012) and Captain Matthew Casey on the American drama Chicago Fire (2012–2024).

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12/02/1978

Paul Anderson, English actor

Paul Anderson is an English film and television actor who came to prominence for portraying Arthur Shelby Jr. in Peaky Blinders, Mr Anderson in the 2015 film The Revenant, and Sebastian Moran in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.

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12/02/1977

Jimmy Conrad, American soccer player and manager

James Paul Conrad is an American former soccer player who played as a defender. During his 13-year MLS career, he was four-time MLS Best XI and the 2005 MLS Defender of the Year. He also earned 27 caps with the United States men's national soccer team and went to the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

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12/02/1976

Christian Cullen, New Zealand rugby player

Christian Mathias Cullen is a retired New Zealand rugby union player. He played most of his rugby at fullback for New Zealand, for the Hurricanes in the Super 12, and for Manawatu, Wellington and later Munster at provincial level. He was nicknamed the Paekakariki Express and was considered to be one of the most potent running fullbacks rugby has ever seen. With 46 tries scored in 58 tests, Cullen is the equal-11th-highest try-scorer in international rugby.

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12/02/1975

Scot Pollard, American basketball player and actor

Scot L. Pollard is an American former professional basketball player. In an 11-year National Basketball Association (NBA) career, he played for five teams, spending the bulk of his career with the Sacramento Kings and the Indiana Pacers.

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12/02/1974

Naseem Hamed, English boxer

Naseem Hamed, nicknamed Prince Naseem and Naz, is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2002. He held multiple featherweight world championships between 1995 and 2000, and reigned as lineal champion from 1998 to 2001. In 2015, he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. The Ring magazine awarded Hamed an honorary featherweight title in 2019 to acknowledge his dominance of the division and the multiple champions he defeated; he is the only former world champion in any division thus far to receive this honour.

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12/02/1973

Gianni Romme, Dutch speed skater

Gianni Petrus Cornelis Romme is a Dutch marathoner and a former long track speed skater. He won two gold medals at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano and was the World all-round champion in 2000 and 2003. Romme has been a coach since the 2006–07 speed skating season.

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Tara Strong, Canadian-American voice actress and singer

Tara Lyn Strong is a Canadian and American actress. She is known for her voice work in animation, websites, and video games. Strong's voice roles include animated series such as The Powerpuff Girls, The Fairly OddParents, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Teen Titans, Xiaolin Showdown, Ben 10, Drawn Together, The New Batman Adventures, Rugrats, The Proud Family, Chowder, Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, Unikitty!, and DC Super Hero Girls. She has also voiced characters in the video games Mortal Kombat X, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Jak and Daxter, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2, Blue Dragon, and Batman: Arkham. Strong has earned Annie Award and Daytime Emmy nominations and won an award from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.

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12/02/1972

Owen Nolan, Northern Irish-Canadian ice hockey player

Owen Liam Nolan is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He was drafted first overall by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1990 NHL entry draft. During his 18-year NHL career, he played for the Nordiques, Colorado Avalanche, San Jose Sharks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Phoenix Coyotes, Calgary Flames, Minnesota Wild, as well as playing a season with the ZSC Lions of National League A. Born in Belfast, he was raised in Thorold, Ontario and played for Canada internationally. A five-time NHL All-Star, Nolan is widely known as a power forward.

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12/02/1971

Scott Menville, American voice actor, singer, actor and musician

Scott David Menville is an American actor and musician who is known for his work in animated films, television series and video games. He voices Robin in Cartoon Network's Teen Titans (2003–2006) and Teen Titans Go! (2013–present).

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12/02/1970

Jim Creeggan, Canadian singer-songwriter and musician

James Raymond Creeggan is the bassist for Canadian alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies.

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Bryan Roy, Dutch footballer and manager

Bryan Eduard Steven Roy is a Dutch football manager and a former professional player.

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Judd Winick, American author and illustrator

Judd Winick is an American cartoonist, comic book writer and screenwriter, as well as a former reality television personality. He first gained fame for his stint on MTV's The Real World: San Francisco in 1994, before finding success as a comic book creator with Pedro and Me, an autobiographical graphic novel about his friendship with The Real World castmate and AIDS educator Pedro Zamora. Winick wrote lengthy runs on DC Comics' Green Lantern and Green Arrow series and created The Life and Times of Juniper Lee animated TV series for Cartoon Network, which ran for three seasons.

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12/02/1969

Darren Aronofsky, American director, producer, and screenwriter

Darren Aronofsky is an American filmmaker. His films are noted for their surreal, dramatic, and often disturbing elements, frequently in the form of psychological realism. His accolades include a Golden Lion and a Primetime Emmy Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and the British Academy Film Award. Aronofsky studied film and social anthropology at Harvard University before studying directing at the AFI Conservatory. He won several film awards after completing his senior thesis film, Supermarket Sweep, which became a National Student Academy Award finalist. In 1997, he founded the film and TV production company Protozoa Pictures. His feature film debut, the surrealist psychological thriller Pi (1998), earned him the award for Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival and an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay.

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Alemayehu Atomsa, Ethiopian educator and politician (died 2014)

Alemayehu Atomsa was an Ethiopian politician who served as the president of the Oromia Region, the largest of the country's regions, from 2010 until his resignation due to illness in 2014, from which he died in Bangkok, Thailand, on 6 March 2014.

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Steve Backley, English javelin thrower

Stephen James Backley, OBE is an English retired track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. He formerly held the world record, and his 91.46-metre (300.1 ft) throw from 1992 is the British record. During his career, he was a firm fixture in the British national athletics team. He won four gold medals at the European Championships, three Commonwealth Games gold medals, two silvers and a bronze at the Olympic Games, and two silvers at the World Championships. Currently, he is an occasional commentator for athletics competitions, especially the field events.

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Anneli Drecker, Norwegian singer and actress

Anneli Marian Drecker is a Norwegian singer and actress from the city of Tromsø. She is the frontwoman for the dream pop band Bel Canto.

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Hong Myung-bo, South Korean footballer and manager

Hong Myung-bo is a South Korean football manager and former footballer who played as a sweeper. He is currently the manager of the South Korea national team.

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12/02/1968

Josh Brolin, American actor

Josh James Brolin is an American actor. A son of actor James Brolin, he gained fame in his youth for his role in the adventure film The Goonies (1985). Brolin had a resurgence with his starring role in the crime film No Country for Old Men (2007). Brolin received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for portraying Dan White in the biopic Milk (2008).

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Chynna Phillips, American singer and actress

Chynna Gilliam Phillips is an American singer and actress. She is a member of the pop vocal trio Wilson Phillips and is the daughter of the Mamas & the Papas band members John and Michelle Phillips and half-sister of Mackenzie and Bijou Phillips.

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Nathan Rees, Australian politician, 41st Premier of New South Wales

Nathan Rees is an Australian former politician who served as the 41st Premier of New South Wales and leader of the New South Wales Labor Party from September 2008 to December 2009. Rees was a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing Toongabbie for Labor from 2007 to 2015.

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12/02/1966

Greg Carberry, Australian rugby league player

Greg Carberry is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. Carberry played for the Illawarra Steelers and Cronulla Sharks in the NSWRL competition. His position of choice was wing.

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Paul Crook, American musician, songwriter, and producer

Paul Crook is an American guitarist known for recording and performing with Meat Loaf. He has also recorded and toured with Anthrax, Sebastian Bach and Marya Roxx.

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Lochlyn Munro, Canadian actor

Lochlyn Munro is a Canadian actor. His most notable film roles include A Night at the Roxbury (1998), Scary Movie (2000), Freddy vs. Jason (2003), White Chicks (2004), The Predator (2018) and Cosmic Sin (2021). For television, he is perhaps best known for his roles in the Canadian series Northwood, supernatural drama Charmed, teen drama Riverdale, and the DC comics series Peacemaker (2022).

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12/02/1965

Rubén Amaro, Jr., American baseball player and manager

Rubén Amaro Jr. is an American former professional baseball outfielder, coach and executive. Amaro played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1991 to 1998. He was named the GM of the Philadelphia Phillies on November 3, 2008, succeeding Pat Gillick and remained in that position until September 10, 2015. He was previously the first base coach for the Boston Red Sox (2016–2017) and New York Mets (2018). He is the son of former MLB infielder and coach, Rubén Amaro Sr. Amaro is currently a color commentator on Philadelphia Phillies television broadcasts and a contributor to the 94.1 WIP Morning Show in Philadelphia. He worked as an analyst for a 2024 AL Wild Card Series on ESPN Radio.

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Christine Elise, American actress and producer

Christine Elise McCarthy, professionally known as Christine Elise, is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her roles as Emily Valentine in Beverly Hills, 90210 and BH90210, and Kyle in the Child's Play franchise, first appearing in Child's Play 2 (1990) and reprising the role in Cult of Chucky (2017) and the Syfy/USA Network series Chucky (2021–2024).

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Brett Kavanaugh, American lawyer and jurist, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Brett Michael Kavanaugh is an American lawyer and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on July 9, 2018, and has served since October 6, 2018. He was previously a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2006 to 2018.

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David Westlake, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

David Westlake is an English singer/songwriter. He led indie band The Servants from 1985 to 1991.

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12/02/1964

Omar Hakim, American drummer, producer, arranger, and composer

Omar Hakim is an American drummer, producer, arranger and composer. His session work covers jazz, jazz fusion, and pop music. He has worked with Weather Report, David Bowie, Foo Fighters, Chic, Sting, Madonna, Dire Straits, Bryan Ferry, Journey, Kate Bush, George Benson, Miles Davis, Daft Punk, Mariah Carey, the Pussycat Dolls, David Lee Roth, Celine Dion, and Thundercat.

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Raphael Sbarge, American actor and director

Raphael Sbarge is an American actor and filmmaker. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Jake Straka in The Guardian (2001–04), Jiminy Cricket / Dr. Archibald Hopper in Once Upon a Time (2011–18) and Inspector David Molk in the TNT series Murder in the First (2014–16). He is also known for voicing Carth Onasi in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003), RC-1262 / "Scorch" in Star Wars: Republic Commando (2005) and Kaidan Alenko in the Mass Effect trilogy (2007–12).

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12/02/1963

John Michael Higgins, American actor and comedian

John Michael Higgins is an American actor, comedian and game show host whose film credits include Christopher Guest's mockumentaries, the role of David Letterman in HBO's The Late Shift, and a starring role in the American version of Kath & Kim. He portrayed Peter Lovett in the TV Land original sitcom Happily Divorced and provided the voice of Iknik Blackstone Varrick in The Legend of Korra and Mini-Max in Big Hero 6: The Series. He also starred in the NBC sitcom Great News as Chuck Pierce for two seasons. From 2018-2022, and 2026-present he hosted the game show America Says, which earned him a 2019 Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Game Show Host. Higgins attended Amherst College, graduating in 1985 and was a member of the a cappella group the Zumbyes. From 2023 to 2024, he hosted the new version of the game show Split Second on Game Show Network.

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12/02/1961

David Graeber, American anthropologist and activist (died 2020)

David Rolfe Graeber was an American anthropologist and anarchist social and political activist. His influential work in social and economic anthropology, particularly his books Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011), The Utopia of Rules (2015), Bullshit Jobs (2018), and The Dawn of Everything (2021), and his leading role in the Occupy movement earned him recognition as one of the foremost anthropologists and left-wing thinkers of his time.

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Jim Harris, Canadian environmentalist and politician

James R. M. Harris is a Canadian author, environmentalist, and politician. He was leader of the Green Party of Canada from 2003 to 2006, when he was succeeded by Elizabeth May.

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Michel Martelly, Haitian singer and politician, 56th President of Haiti

Michel Joseph Martelly is a Haitian musician and politician who served as the 47th president of Haiti from 2011 until his resignation in 2016. On 20 August 2024, the United States sanctioned him for trafficking drugs, in particular cocaine, into the United States, and for sponsoring several gangs based in Haiti.

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12/02/1959

Larry Nance, American basketball player

Larry Donnell Nance Sr. is an American former professional basketball player. A power forward from Clemson University, Nance played 14 seasons (1981–1994) in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Phoenix Suns and Cleveland Cavaliers. He was a three-time NBA All-Star.

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12/02/1958

Bobby Smith, Canadian ice hockey player and executive

Robert David Smith is a Canadian professional ice hockey executive and former player. He played for the Minnesota North Stars and Montreal Canadiens in the National Hockey League (NHL). In 184 Stanley Cup playoff games, he recorded 160 points, which is currently the 25th most in league history. He played in four Stanley Cup Finals and won the 1986 Stanley Cup with the Canadiens. He was the 32nd player to record 1,000 points in NHL history, doing so on November 30, 1991. Smith was the majority owner of the Halifax Mooseheads junior hockey team for twenty years until February 2023.

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12/02/1956

Arsenio Hall, American actor and talk show host

Arsenio Hall is an American comedian, actor and talk show host. He hosted a late-night talk show, The Arsenio Hall Show, from 1989 until 1994, and again from 2013 to 2014.

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Ad Melkert, Dutch lawyer and politician, Dutch Minister of Social Affairs and Employment

Adrianus Petrus Wilhelmus "Ad" Melkert is a Dutch politician and diplomat of the Labour Party (PvdA) who has served as a Member of the Council of State since 20 January 2016.

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Brian Robertson, Scottish musician and songwriter

Brian David Robertson is a Scottish rock guitarist, best known as a former member of Thin Lizzy from 1974 to 1978, and Motörhead from 1982 to 1983, replacing Fast Eddie Clarke.

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12/02/1955

Bill Laswell, American musician and producer

William Otis Laswell is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, world music, jazz, dub, and ambient styles.

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Chet Lemon, American baseball player and coach

Chester Earl Lemon was an American professional baseball outfielder. He played sixteen seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), beginning with the Chicago White Sox in 1975, where he played for six years. He was then traded to the Detroit Tigers, where he played the rest of his career from 1982 to 1990.

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12/02/1954

Zach Grenier, American actor

Zach Grenier is an American actor. He is known for his work with director David Fincher, and his roles as Andy Cramed on the television series Deadwood (2004–06) and David Lee on The Good Wife (2010–16) and its spinoff The Good Fight (2020–22). He has also starred in various Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for 33 Variations.

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Joseph Jordania, Georgian-Australian musicologist and academic

Joseph Jordania is an Australian–Georgian ethnomusicologist and evolutionary musicologist and professor. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne and the Head of the Foreign Department of the International Research Centre for Traditional Polyphony at Tbilisi State Conservatory. Jordania is known for his model of the origins of human choral singing in the wide context of human evolution and was one of founders of the International Research Centre for Traditional Polyphony in Georgia.

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Tzimis Panousis, Greek comedian, singer, and author (died 2018)

Tzimis Panousis was a Greek musician, stand-up comedian and occasional film and theater actor born in Athens, where he spent most of his life. He is often seen as the modern-day Aristophanes. His fans usually refer to him as “Tzimakos”. His first wife was Lili Achladioti with whom he had a son, Aris. He later married Athina Aidini and they had a daughter, Fotini.

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Phil Zimmermann, American cryptographer and programmer

Philip R. Zimmermann is an American computer scientist and cryptographer. He is the creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), the most widely used email encryption software in the world. He is also known for his work in VoIP encryption protocols, notably ZRTP and Zfone. Zimmermann is co-founder and Chief Scientist of the global encrypted communications firm Silent Circle.

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12/02/1953

Joanna Kerns, American actress and director

Joanna Kerns is an American actress and director best known for her role as Maggie Seaver on the ABC sitcom Growing Pains from 1985 to 1992.

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12/02/1952

Simon MacCorkindale, English actor, director, and producer (died 2010)

Simon Charles Pendered MacCorkindale was a British actor, film director, writer, and producer from Ely, England. He spent much of his childhood moving around owing to his father's career as an officer with the Royal Air Force. Poor eyesight prevented him from following a similar career in the RAF, so he instead planned to become a theatre director. Training at Studio 68 of Theatre Arts in London, he started work as an actor, making his West End debut in 1974. He went on to appear in numerous roles in television, including the series I, Claudius and Jesus of Nazareth, before starring as Simon Doyle in the film Death on the Nile (1978). This proved to be a breakthrough role. He appeared in a variety of films and TV series including Quatermass (1979), The Riddle of the Sands (1979), The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982) and Jaws 3-D (1983).

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Michael McDonald, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player

Michael H. McDonald is an American singer, keyboardist, and songwriter. Known for his distinctive, soulful voice, he was a backing vocalist for Steely Dan from 1973 to 1980 and the lead vocalist of the Doobie Brothers across various stints. McDonald wrote and sang several hit singles with the Doobie Brothers, including "What a Fool Believes", "Minute by Minute", "Takin' It to the Streets", "Real Love" and "It Keeps You Runnin'". McDonald has also performed as a prominent backing vocalist on numerous recordings by artists including Toto, Christopher Cross, and Kenny Loggins.

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12/02/1950

Angelo Branduardi, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist

Angelo Branduardi is an Italian folk/folk rock singer-songwriter and composer who scored relative success in Italy and European countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Greece.

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Steve Hackett, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

Stephen Richard Hackett is an English guitarist who gained prominence as the lead guitarist of the progressive rock band Genesis from 1971 to 1977. Hackett contributed to six Genesis studio albums, three live albums, seven singles and one EP before he left to pursue a solo career. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010.

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Michael Ironside, Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter

Frederick Reginald Ironside, known professionally as Michael Ironside, is a Canadian actor. A prominent character actor with over 270 film and television credits, he is known for playing villains and antiheroes, but has also portrayed sympathetic characters. He is best known for his roles in action and science fiction films, and had his breakthrough performance in the 1981 David Cronenberg film Scanners.

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12/02/1949

Lenny Randle, American baseball player

Leonard Shenoff Randle was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers franchise, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, and Seattle Mariners from 1971 to 1982. He also played in the Italian Baseball League. The National Baseball Hall of Fame wrote that "Randle may have seen more memorable moments than any other player of his era."

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Gundappa Viswanath, Indian cricketer

Gundappa Ranganath Viswanath is a former Indian cricketer. Vishwanath is rated as one of India's finest batsmen throughout the 1970s. Viswanath played Test cricket for India from 1969 to 1983, making 91 appearances and scoring more than 6,000 runs. He also played in One Day Internationals from 1974 to 1982, including the World Cups of 1975 and 1979.

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12/02/1948

Ray Kurzweil, American computer scientist and engineer

Raymond Kurzweil is an American computer scientist, author, entrepreneur, futurist, and inventor. He is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology and electronic keyboard instruments. He has written books on health technology, artificial intelligence (AI), transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurism. Kurzweil is an advocate for the futurist and transhumanist movements and gives public talks to share his optimistic outlook on life extension technologies and the future of nanotechnology, robotics, and biotechnology.

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Nicholas Soames, English politician, Minister of State for the Armed Forces

Arthur Nicholas Winston Soames, Baron Soames of Fletching, is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Sussex from 1997 to 2019, having previously served as the MP for Crawley from 1983 to 1997.

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12/02/1946

Jean Eyeghé Ndong, Gabonese politician, Prime Minister of Gabon

Jean Eyeghé Ndong is a Gabonese politician. He was the Prime Minister of Gabon from January 20, 2006 to July 17, 2009. He was also the First Vice-president of the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) until 2009.

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Ajda Pekkan, Turkish singer-songwriter and actress

Ayşe Ajda Pekkan is a Turkish singer. She is known by the title "superstar" in the Turkish media. Pekkan became a prominent figure of Turkish pop music with her songs, in which she tried to create a strong female figure. By keeping her works updated and getting influence from Western elements, she managed to become one of Turkey's modern and enduring icons in different periods. Her musical style has kept her popular for more than 50 years and has inspired many of her successors. Pekkan is highly respected in the music industry and her vocal techniques together with many of her albums were praised by music critics.

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12/02/1945

Maud Adams, Swedish model and actress

Maud Solveig Christina Adams is a Swedish actress and model, best known for her roles as two different Bond girls, first in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) and then as the title character in Octopussy (1983).

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David D. Friedman, American economist, physicist, and scholar

David Director Friedman is an American economist, physicist, and legal scholar. He is known for his textbook writings on microeconomics and the libertarian theory of anarcho-capitalism, which is the subject of his most popular book, The Machinery of Freedom. Described by Walter Block as a "free-market anarchist" theorist, Friedman has also authored several other books and articles, including Price Theory: An Intermediate Text (1986), Law's Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters (2000), Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life (1996), and Future Imperfect (2008).

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12/02/1942

Ehud Barak, Israeli general and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Israel

Ehud Barak is an Israeli former general and politician who served as the prime minister and Minister of Defense from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party between 1997 and 2001 and between 2007 and 2011. He was also Minister of Defense from 2007 to 2013.

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Terry Bisson, American science fiction and fantasy author (died 2024)

Terry Ballantine Bisson was an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was best known for his short stories, including "Bears Discover Fire", which won the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, and "They're Made Out of Meat".

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Pat Dobson, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 2006)

Patrick Edward Dobson, Jr. was an American right-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Detroit Tigers (1967–69), San Diego Padres (1970), Baltimore Orioles (1971–72), Atlanta Braves (1973), New York Yankees (1973–75) and Cleveland Indians (1976–77). He was best known for being one of four Orioles pitchers to win 20 games in their 1971 season.

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12/02/1941

Dominguinhos, Brazilian singer-songwriter and accordion player (died 2013)

José Domingos de Morais, better known as Dominguinhos, was a Brazilian composer, accordionist and singer. His principal musical influences were the music of Luiz Gonzaga, Forró and in general the music of the Sertão in the Brazilian Northeast. He further developed this typical Brazilian musical style, born out of the European, African and Indian influences in north-eastern Brazil, creating a unique style of Brazilian Popular Music.

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Naomi Uemura, Japanese mountaineer and explorer (died 1984)

Naomi Uemura was a Japanese adventurer who was known particularly for his solo exploits. For example, he was the first person to reach the North Pole solo, the first person to raft the Amazon River solo, and the first person to climb Denali solo.

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12/02/1939

Leon Kass, American physician, scientist, and educator

Leon Richard Kass is an American physician, biochemist, educator, and public intellectual. Kass is best known as a proponent of liberal arts education via the "Great Books," as a critic of human cloning, life extension, euthanasia and embryo research, and for his tenure as chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics from 2001 to 2005. Although Kass is often referred to as a bioethicist, he eschews the term and refers to himself as "an old-fashioned humanist. A humanist is concerned broadly with all aspects of human life, not just the ethical."

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Ray Manzarek, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (died 2013)

Raymond Daniel Manzarek Jr. was an American keyboardist. He is best known as a member of the rock band the Doors, co-founding the group in 1965 with fellow UCLA Film School graduate Jim Morrison. Manzarek is credited for his innovative playing and abilities on organ-style keyboard instruments.

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12/02/1938

Judy Blume, American author and educator

Judith Marcia Blume is an American writer of children's, young adult, and adult fiction. She began writing in 1959 and has published more than 26 novels. Among her best-known works are Superfudge (1980), Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (1970), Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (1972), Deenie (1973), Blubber (1974) and Double Fudge (2002). Blume's books have significantly contributed to children's and young adult literature. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.

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12/02/1936

Joe Don Baker, American actor (died 2025)

Joe Don Baker was an American actor, known for playing "tough guy" characters on both sides of the law. He established himself as an action star with supporting roles in the Westerns Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969) and Wild Rovers (1971), before his breakthrough role as real-life Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser in the film Walking Tall (1973).

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Alan Ebringer, Australian immunologist

Alan Martin Ebringer is an Australian immunologist, professor at King's College London. He is also an Honorary Consultant Rheumatologist in the Middlesex Hospital, now part of the UCH School of Medicine. He is known for his research in the field of autoimmune disease.

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12/02/1935

Gene McDaniels, American singer-songwriter and producer (died 2011)

Eugene Booker McDaniels was an American singer, producer and songwriter. He had his greatest recording success in the early 1960s, reaching number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "A Hundred Pounds of Clay" and number five with "Tower of Strength", both hits in 1961. He had continued success as a songwriter with "Compared to What".

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12/02/1934

Annette Crosbie, Scottish actress

Annette Crosbie is a Scottish actress. She is best known for her role as Margaret Meldrew in the BBC sitcom One Foot in the Grave (1990–2000). She twice won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress, for The Six Wives of Henry VIII in 1971 and in 1976 for Edward the Seventh.

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Anne Osborn Krueger, American economist and academic

Anne Osborn Krueger is an American economist. She was the World Bank Chief Economist from 1982 to 1986, and the first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2001 to 2006. She is currently the senior research professor of international economics at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. She also is a senior fellow of Center for International Development and the Herald L. and Caroline Ritch Emeritus Professor of Sciences and Humanities' Economics Department at Stanford University.

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Bill Russell, American basketball player and coach (died 2022)

William Felton Russell was an American professional basketball player who played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. He was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that played for 12 NBA championships and won 11 during his 13-year career. Russell is widely considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

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12/02/1933

Ivan Anikeyev, Soviet cosmonaut (died 1992)

Ivan Nikolayevich Anikeyev was a Soviet cosmonaut who was dismissed from the Soviet space program for disciplinary reasons.

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Costa-Gavras, Greek-French director and producer

Konstantinos "Kostas" Gavras, known professionally as Costa-Gavras, is a Greek-French film director, screenwriter, and producer who lives and works in France. He is known for political films, such as the political thriller Z (1969), which won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Missing (1982), for which he won the Palme d'Or and an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Most of his films have been made in French, but six have been in English, including Hanna K.

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12/02/1932

Axel Jensen, Norwegian author and poet (died 2003)

Axel Buchardt Jensen was a Norwegian author. From 1957 until 2002, he published both fiction and non-fiction texts which include novels, poems, essays, a biography, and manuscripts for cartoons and animated films.

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Julian Simon, American economist, author, and academic (died 1998)

Julian Lincoln Simon was an American economist. He was a professor of economics and business administration at the University of Illinois from 1963 to 1983 before later moving to the University of Maryland, where he taught for the remainder of his academic career.

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12/02/1931

Janwillem van de Wetering, Dutch-American author and translator (died 2008)

Jan Willem Lincoln van de Wetering was the author of a number of works in English and Dutch.

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12/02/1930

John Doyle, Irish hurler and politician (died 2010)

John Doyle was an Irish hurler who played as a left corner-back at senior level for the Tipperary county team.

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Arlen Specter, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician (died 2012)

Arlen Specter was an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as a United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1981 to 2011. Specter was a Democrat from 1951 to 1965, then a Republican from 1965 until 2009, when he switched back to the Democratic Party. First elected in 1980, he was the longest-serving senator from Pennsylvania, having represented the state for 30 years.

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12/02/1928

Vincent Montana, Jr., American drummer and composer (died 2013)

Vincent Montana Jr., known as Vince Montana, was an American composer, arranger, vibraphonist, and percussionist. He is best known as a member of MFSB and as the founder of the Salsoul Orchestra. He has been called "the Godfather of disco". Montana was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2016.

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12/02/1926

Rolf Brem, Swiss sculptor and illustrator (died 2014)

Rolf Brem was a Swiss sculptor, illustrator and graphic artist. He worked in Meggen close to Lake Lucerne.

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Joe Garagiola, American baseball player and sportscaster (died 2016)

Joseph Henry Garagiola Sr. was an American professional baseball catcher, and later a radio and television personality with a varied career.

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Charles Van Doren, American academic (died 2019)

Charles Lincoln Van Doren was an American writer and editor who was involved in a television quiz show scandal in the 1950s. In 1959 he testified before the United States Congress that he had been given the correct answers by the producers of the NBC quiz show Twenty-One. Terminated by NBC, he joined Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. in 1959, becoming a vice-president and writing and editing many books before retiring in 1982.

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12/02/1925

Anthony Berry, English politician (died 1984)

Sir Anthony George Berry was a British Conservative politician. He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Enfield Southgate and a Whip in Margaret Thatcher's government.

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Joan Mitchell, American-French painter (died 1992)

Joan Mitchell was an American artist who worked primarily in painting and printmaking, and also used pastel and made other works on paper. She was an active participant in the New York School of artists in the 1950s. A native of Chicago, she is associated with the American abstract expressionist movement, even though she lived in France for much of her career.

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12/02/1923

Franco Zeffirelli, Italian director, producer, and politician (died 2019)

Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli was an Italian stage and film director, producer, production designer and politician. He was one of the most significant opera and theatre directors of the post–World War II era, gaining both acclaim and notoriety for his lavish stagings of classical works, as well as his film adaptations of the same.

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12/02/1922

Hussein Onn, Malaysian lawyer and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Malaysia (died 1990)

Hussein bin Onn was a Malaysian lawyer and politician who served as the third prime minister of Malaysia from 1976 to 1981.

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12/02/1920

Raymond Mhlaba, South African anti-apartheid and ANC activist (died 2005)

Raymond Mphakamisi Mhlaba OMSG was an anti-apartheid activist, Communist and leader of the African National Congress (ANC) who became the first premier of the Eastern Cape. Mhlaba spent 25 years of his life in prison. Well-known for being sentenced with Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu and others in the Rivonia Trial, he was an active member of the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP) all his adult life. His kindly manner brought him the nickname "Oom Ray”.

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12/02/1919

Forrest Tucker, American actor (died 1986)

Forrest Meredith Tucker was an American actor in movies and television who appeared in nearly a hundred films. Tucker worked in vaudeville as a straight man at the age of fifteen. While he was on a trip to California, party hostess Cobina Wright persuaded guest Wesley Ruggles to give Tucker a screen test because of Tucker's photogenic good looks, thick wavy hair and height of six feet, five inches.

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12/02/1918

Norman Farberow, American psychologist and academic (died 2015)

Norman Louis Farberow was an American psychologist, and one of the founding fathers of modern suicidology. He was among the three founders in 1958 of the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center, which became a base of research into the causes and prevention of suicide.

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Julian Schwinger, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1994)

Julian Seymour Schwinger was an American theoretical physicist. He shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics with Richard Feynman and Shin'ichirō Tomonaga "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics (QED), with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles". He developed a relativistically invariant perturbation theory, and renormalized QED to one loop order. Schwinger was a physics professor at several universities.

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12/02/1917

Al Cervi, American basketball player and coach (died 2009)

Alfred Nicholas Cervi was an American professional basketball player and coach in the National Basketball League (NBL) and National Basketball Association (NBA). One of the strongest backcourt players of the 1940s and 1950s, he was always assigned to defend against the opposing team's best scoring threat. He earned the nickname "Digger" because of his hard-nosed style of defense. He won the National Basketball League championship in 1946 with the Rochester Royals while being an All-NBL First Team in three straight seasons. He stayed with the NBL with the Syracuse Nationals in 1948, where he became player-coach that same year, which was the last one prior to joining the NBA. In that first year in the NBA, the Nationals won 51 games and reached the Finals, where they lost to the Minneapolis Lakers in six games. Cervi led the team back to the Finals in 1954 and 1955, which each saw the Nationals play in a Game 7; denied in 1954 to Minneapolis, the Nationals won Game 7 in 1955 for their first NBA championship. After twelve games in 1956, Cervi was fired from the Nationals, having coached them to eight postseason appearances in nine seasons. He coached one season with the Philadelphia Warriors in 1958 but elected to leave coaching for more lucrative ventures. Cervi was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1985.

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Dom DiMaggio, American baseball player (died 2009)

Dominic Paul DiMaggio, nicknamed "the Little Professor", was an American Major League Baseball center fielder. He played his entire 11-year baseball career for the Boston Red Sox (1940–1953). DiMaggio was the youngest of three brothers who each became major league center fielders, the others being Joe and Vince.

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12/02/1916

Joseph Alioto, American lawyer and politician, 36th Mayor of San Francisco (died 1998)

Joseph Lawrence Alioto was an American politician who served as the 36th mayor of San Francisco, California, from 1968 to 1976.

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12/02/1915

Lorne Greene, Canadian-American actor (died 1987)

Lorne Hyman Greene was a Canadian actor, singer, and radio personality. His notable television roles include Ben Cartwright on the Western Bonanza and Commander Adama in the original science-fiction television series Battlestar Galactica and Galactica 1980. He also worked on the Canadian television nature documentary series Lorne Greene's New Wilderness and in television commercials.

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Olivia Hooker, American sailor (died 2018)

Olivia Juliette Hooker was an American psychologist and professor. She was a survivor of the Tulsa race massacre of 1921, and the first African-American woman to enter the U.S. Coast Guard. During World War II, she became a member of the United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve, earning the rank of Yeoman Third Class during her service. She served in the Coast Guard until her unit was disbanded in mid-1946. Hooker then used her G.I. Bill to obtain her master's degree in psychological services and went on earn her PhD in clinical psychology. In 1973, she helped form the American Psychological Association's Division 33: IDD/ASD, which is dedicated to "advancing psychological research, professional education, and clinical services that increase quality of life in individuals with IDD/ASD across the life course."

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12/02/1914

Tex Beneke, American singer, saxophonist, and bandleader (died 2000)

Gordon Lee "Tex" Beneke was an American saxophonist, singer, and bandleader. His career is a history of associations with bandleader Glenn Miller and former musicians and singers who worked with Miller. His band is also associated with the careers of Eydie Gormé, Henry Mancini, and Ronnie Deauville. Beneke also solos on the recording the Glenn Miller Orchestra made of their popular song "In the Mood" and sings on another popular Glenn Miller recording, "Chattanooga Choo Choo". Jazz critic Will Friedwald considers Beneke to be one of the major blues singers who sang with the big bands of the early 1940s.

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Hanna Neumann, German-Canadian mathematician (died 1971)

Johanna (Hanna) Neumann was a German-born mathematician who worked on group theory.

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12/02/1912

R. F. Delderfield, English author and playwright (died 1972)

Ronald Frederick Delderfield was an English novelist and dramatist, some of whose works have been adapted for television and film.

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12/02/1911

Charles Mathiesen, Norwegian speed skater (died 1994)

Charles Mathiesen was a speed skater who was active from 1930 to 1948.

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12/02/1909

Zoran Mušič, Slovene painter and illustrator (died 2005)

Zoran Mušič, baptised as Anton Zoran Musič, was a Slovene painter, printmaker, and draughtsman. He was the only painter of Slovene descent who managed to establish himself in the elite cultural circles of Italy and France, particularly Paris in the second half of the 20th century, where he lived for most of his later life. He painted landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and self-portraits, as well as scenes of horror from the Dachau concentration camp and vedute of Venice.

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Sigmund Rascher, German physician (died 1945)

Sigmund Rascher was a German Schutzstaffel (SS) doctor. He conducted deadly experiments on humans pertaining to high altitude, freezing and blood coagulation under the patronage of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, to whom his wife Karoline "Nini" Diehl had direct connections. When police investigations uncovered that the couple had defrauded the public with their supernatural fertility by 'hiring' and kidnapping babies, she and Rascher were arrested in April 1944. He was accused of financial irregularities, murder of his former lab assistant, and scientific fraud, and brought to Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps before being executed. After his death, the Nuremberg trials judged his experiments as inhumane and criminal.

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12/02/1908

Jean Effel, French painter, caricaturist, illustrator and journalist (died 1982)

Jean Effel, real name François Lejeune, was a French painter, caricaturist, illustrator and journalist. Mostly he considered himself to be a journalist and political commentator. His pseudonym is created by his initials F. L.

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Jacques Herbrand, French mathematician and philosopher (died 1931)

Jacques Herbrand was a French mathematician. Although he died at age 23, he was already considered one of "the greatest mathematicians of the younger generation" by his professors Helmut Hasse and Richard Courant.

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12/02/1907

Joseph Kearns, American actor (died 1962)

Joseph Sherrard Kearns was an American actor, who is best remembered for his role as George Wilson on the CBS television series Dennis the Menace from 1959 until his death in 1962. He was also a prolific radio actor, and provided the voice of the Doorknob in the 1951 animated Disney film, Alice in Wonderland.

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12/02/1904

Ted Mack, American radio and television host (died 1976)

William Edward Maguiness was an American radio and television host and musician, best known for hosting Ted Mack and The Original Amateur Hour.

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12/02/1903

Jorge Basadre, Peruvian historian (died 1980)

Jorge Alfredo Basadre Grohmann was a Peruvian historian known for his extensive publications about the independent history of his country. He served during two different administrations as Minister of Education and was also director of the Peruvian National Library.

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Chick Hafey, American baseball player and manager (died 1973)

Charles James "Chick" Hafey was an American player in Major League Baseball (MLB). Playing for the St. Louis Cardinals (1924–1931) and Cincinnati Reds, Hafey was a strong line-drive hitter who batted for a high average on a consistent basis.

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12/02/1902

William Collier, Jr., American actor, producer, and screenwriter (died 1987)

William Collier Jr. was an American stage performer, producer, and a film actor who in the silent and sound eras was cast in no fewer than 89 motion pictures.

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12/02/1900

Roger J. Traynor, American lawyer and jurist, 23rd Chief Justice of California (died 1983)

Roger John Traynor was an American lawyer who served as Chief Justice of California from 1964 to 1970 and was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California from 1940 to 1964. Traynor had served as a deputy attorney general of California under Earl Warren, and an acting dean and professor at the UC Berkeley School of Law.

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12/02/1898

Wallace Ford, English-American actor and singer (died 1966)

Wallace Ford was an English–American vaudevillian, stage performer and screen actor. Usually playing wise-cracking characters, he combined a tough but friendly-faced demeanor with a small but powerful, stocky physique.

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12/02/1897

Charles Groves Wright Anderson, South African-Australian colonel and politician (died 1988)

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Groves Wright Anderson was a South African-born Australian soldier, farmer, and politician. He was a recipient of the Victoria Cross and a member of the Australian House of Representatives.

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Lincoln LaPaz, American astronomer and academic (died 1985)

Lincoln LaPaz was an American astronomer from the University of New Mexico and a pioneer in the study of meteors.

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12/02/1895

Kristian Djurhuus, Faroese lawyer and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (died 1984)

Kristian Djurhuus was a Faroese politician. He was a member of the Union Party.

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12/02/1893

Omar Bradley, American general (died 1981)

Omar Nelson Bradley was a senior officer of the United States Army during and after World War II, rising to the rank of General of the Army. He was the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and oversaw the U.S. military's policy-making in the Korean War.

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12/02/1889

Bhante Dharmawara, Cambodian monk, lawyer, and judge (died 1999)

Samdach Vira Dharmawara Bellong Mahathera, also known simply as Bhante Dharmawara, was a Cambodian-born Theravada monk and teacher who died at the age of 110.

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12/02/1885

James Scott, American composer (died 1938)

James Sylvester Scott was an American ragtime composer and pianist. He is regarded as one of the "Big Three" composers of classical ragtime along with Scott Joplin and Joseph Lamb.

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Julius Streicher, German publisher, founded Der Stürmer (died 1946)

Julius Sebastian Streicher was a German publicist, politician and convicted war criminal. A member of the Nazi Party, he served as the Gauleiter of Franconia and a member of the Reichstag, the national legislature. He was the founder and publisher of the virulently antisemitic newspaper Der Stürmer, which became a central element of the Nazi propaganda machine. The publishing firm was financially very successful and made Streicher a multimillionaire.

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12/02/1884

Max Beckmann, German painter and sculptor (died 1950)

Max Carl Friedrich Beckmann was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement. In the 1920s, he was associated with the New Objectivity, an outgrowth of Expressionism that opposed its introverted emotionalism. Even when dealing with light subject matter like circus performers, Beckmann often had an undercurrent of moodiness or unease in his works. By the 1930s, his work became more explicit in its horrifying imagery and distorted forms with combination of brutal realism and social criticism, coinciding with the rise of Nazism in Germany.

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Johan Laidoner, Estonian-Russian general (died 1953)

Johan Laidoner was an Estonian general and statesman. He served as Commander‑in‑Chief of the Estonian Armed Forces during the Estonian War of Independence and was among the most influential people in the Estonian politics between the world wars.

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Alice Roosevelt Longworth, American author (died 1980)

Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth was an American writer and socialite. She was the eldest child of U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt and his only child with his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt. Longworth led an unconventional and controversial life. Her marriage to Representative Nicholas Longworth III, a Republican Party leader and the 38th speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, was shaky, and her only child, Paulina, was from her affair with Senator William Borah.

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Marie Vassilieff, Russian-French painter (died 1957)

Mariya Ivanovna Vassilieva, gallicised and known in Western sources as Marie Vassilieff, was a Russian-born painter and set designer active in Paris.

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12/02/1882

Walter Nash, English-New Zealand lawyer and politician, 27th Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1968)

Sir Walter Nash was a New Zealand politician who served as the 27th prime minister of New Zealand in the Second Labour Government from 1957 to 1960. He is noted for his long period of political service, having been associated with the New Zealand Labour Party since its creation.

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12/02/1881

Anna Pavlova, Russian-English ballerina and actress (died 1931)

Anna Pavlovna Pavlova was a Russian prima ballerina. She was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, but is most recognized for creating the role of The Dying Swan and, with her own company, being the first ballerina to tour the world, including South America, India, Mexico and Australia.

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12/02/1880

George Preca, Maltese priest and saint (died 1962)

George Franco Preca, T.OCarm was a Maltese Catholic priest, the founder of the Society of Christian Doctrine and a Third Order Carmelite. Pope John Paul II dubbed him "Malta’s second father in faith".

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John L. Lewis, American miner and union leader (died 1969)

John Llewellyn Lewis was an American leader of organized labor who served as the ninth president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) from 1920 to 1960 and the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which organized millions of industrial workers during the Great Depression, from 1935 to 1940. Lewis was a major figure in the history of coal mining and the American labor movement; his supporters credited him with high wages, pensions, and medical benefits in the mining industry. Throughout his career in the public eye, Lewis was frequently caricatured and came to represent the broader American labor movement.

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12/02/1877

Louis Renault, French engineer and businessman, co-founded Renault (died 1944)

Louis Renault was a French industrialist, one of the founders of Renault, and a pioneer of the automobile industry.

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12/02/1876

13th Dalai Lama (died 1933)

The 13th Dalai Lama was the 13th Dalai Lama of Tibet enthroned during a turbulent modern era. He presided during the collapse of the Qing dynasty, and is referred to as "the Great Thirteenth", responsible for redeclaring Tibet's national independence, and for his national reform and modernization initiatives.

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12/02/1870

Marie Lloyd, English actress and singer (died 1922)

Matilda Alice Victoria Wood, professionally known as Marie Lloyd, was an English music hall singer, comedian and musical theatre actress. She was best known for her performances of songs such as "The Boy I Love Is Up in the Gallery", "Don't Dilly Dally on the Way" and "Oh Mr Porter What Shall I Do". She received both criticism and praise for her use of innuendo and double entendre during her performances, but enjoyed a long and prosperous career, during which she was affectionately called the "Queen of the Music Hall".

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12/02/1869

Kiến Phúc, Vietnamese emperor (died 1884)

Kiến Phúc was a child emperor of Vietnam, who reigned for less than 8 months, 1883–1884, as the 7th emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty.

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12/02/1866

Lev Shestov, Russian philosopher (died 1938)

Lev Isaakovich Shestov, born Yeguda Lev Shvartsman, was a Russian existentialist and religious philosopher. He is best known for his critiques of both philosophical rationalism and positivism. His work advocated a movement beyond reason and metaphysics, arguing that these are incapable of conclusively establishing truth about ultimate problems, including the nature of God or existence. Contemporary scholars have associated his work with the label "anti-philosophy."

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12/02/1861

Lou Andreas-Salomé, Russian-German psychoanalyst and author (died 1937)

Lou Andreas-Salomé was a Russian-born psychoanalyst and a well-traveled author, narrator, and essayist from a French Huguenot-German family. Her diverse intellectual interests led to friendships with a broad array of distinguished thinkers, including Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Paul Rée, and Rainer Maria Rilke.

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12/02/1857

Eugène Atget, French photographer (died 1927)

Eugène Atget was a French flâneur and a pioneer of documentary photography, determined to document all of the architecture and street scenes of Paris before their disappearance to modernization. Most of his photographs were first published by Berenice Abbott after his death. Though he sold his work to artists and craftspeople, and became an inspiration for the surrealists, he did not live to see the wide acclaim his work would eventually receive.

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Bobby Peel, English cricketer and coach (died 1943)

Robert Peel was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire between 1883 and 1897. Primarily a left-arm spin bowler, Peel was also an effective left-handed batsman who played in the middle order. Between 1884 and 1896, he was regularly selected to represent England, playing 20 Test matches in which he took 101 wickets. Over the course of his career, he scored 12,191 runs and took 1,775 wickets in first-class cricket. A match-winning bowler, particularly when conditions favoured his style, Peel generally opened the attack, an orthodox tactic for a spinner at the time, and was highly regarded by critics.

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12/02/1837

Thomas Moran, British-American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School (died 1926)

Thomas Moran was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family, wife Mary Nimmo Moran and daughter Ruth, took residence in New York where he obtained work as an artist. He was a younger brother of the noted marine artist Edward Moran, with whom he shared a studio. A talented illustrator and exquisite colorist, Thomas Moran was hired as an illustrator at Scribner's Monthly. During the late 1860s, he was appointed the chief illustrator for the magazine, a position that helped him launch his career as one of the premier painters of the American landscape, in particular, the American West.

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12/02/1828

George Meredith, English novelist and poet (died 1909)

George Meredith was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. At first, his focus was poetry, influenced by John Keats among others, but Meredith gradually established a reputation as a novelist. The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859) briefly scandalised Victorian literary circles. Of his later novels, the most enduring is The Egoist (1879), though in his lifetime his greatest success was Diana of the Crossways (1885). His novels were innovative in their attention to characters' psychology, and also portrayed social change. His style, in both poetry and prose, was noted for its syntactic complexity; Oscar Wilde likened it to "chaos illumined by brilliant flashes of lightning". Meredith was an encourager of other novelists, as well as an influence on them; among those to benefit were Robert Louis Stevenson and George Gissing. Meredith was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times.

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12/02/1824

Dayananda Saraswati, Indian monk and philosopher, founded Arya Samaj (died 1883)

Dayanand Saraswati born Mool Shankar Tiwari, was a Hindu philosopher, social leader and founder of the Arya Samaj, a reform movement of Hinduism. His book Satyarth Prakash has remained one of the influential texts on the philosophy of the Vedas and clarifications of various ideas and duties of human beings. He was the first to give the call for Swaraj as "India for Indians" in 1876, a call later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak. Denouncing the idolatry and ritualistic worship, he worked towards reviving Vedic religion. Subsequently, the philosopher and President of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, called him one of the "makers of Modern India", as did Sri Aurobindo.

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12/02/1819

William Wetmore Story, American sculptor, architect, poet and editor (died 1895)

William Wetmore Story was an American sculptor, art critic, poet, and editor.

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12/02/1809

Charles Darwin, English naturalist, geologist, biologist and theorist (died 1882)

Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended from a common ancestor is now generally accepted and considered a fundamental scientific concept. In a joint presentation with Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding. Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history and was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey.

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Abraham Lincoln, American lawyer and statesman, 16th President of the United States (died 1865)

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War, defeating the Confederate States and playing a major role in the abolition of slavery.

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12/02/1804

Heinrich Lenz, German-Italian physicist and academic (died 1865)

Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz, usually cited as Emil Lenz or Heinrich Lenz in some countries, was a Russian physicist of Baltic German descent who is most noted for formulating Lenz's law in electrodynamics in 1834.

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12/02/1794

Alexander Petrov, Russian chess player and composer (died 1867)

Alexander Dmitrievich Petrov was a Russian chess player, chess composer, and chess writer.

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Valentín Canalizo, Mexican general and politician (died 1850)

José Valentín Raimundo Canalizo Bocadillo, was a Mexican general and statesman who served twice as interim president during the Centralist Republic of Mexico and was later made Minister of War during the Mexican American War.

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12/02/1791

Peter Cooper, American businessman and philanthropist, founded Cooper Union (died 1883)

Peter Cooper was an American industrialist, inventor, philanthropist, and politician. He designed and built the first American steam locomotive, the Tom Thumb, founded the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, served as its first president, and stood for election as the Greenback Party's candidate in the 1876 presidential election.

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12/02/1788

Carl Reichenbach, German chemist and philosopher (died 1869)

Karl Ludwig Freiherr von Reichenbach, known as Carl Reichenbach, was a German chemist, geologist, metallurgist, naturalist, industrialist and philosopher, and a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. He is best known for his discoveries of several chemical products of economic importance, extracted from tar, such as eupione, waxy paraffin, pittacal and phenol. He also dedicated his last years to researching an unproved field of energy combining electricity, magnetism and heat, emanating from all living things, which he called the Odic force.

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12/02/1787

Norbert Provencher, Canadian bishop and missionary (died 1853)

Joseph-Norbert Provencher was a Canadian clergyman and missionary and one of the founders of the modern province of Manitoba. He was the first Bishop of Saint Boniface and was an important figure in the history of the Franco-Manitoban community.

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12/02/1785

Pierre Louis Dulong, French physicist and chemist (died 1838)

Pierre Louis Dulong FRS FRSE was a French physicist and chemist. He is remembered today largely for the law of Dulong and Petit, although he was much-lauded by his contemporaries for his studies into the elasticity of steam, conduction of heat, and specific heats of gases. He worked most extensively on the specific heat capacity and the expansion and refractive indices of gases. His collaboration with Alexis Thérèse Petit led to the discovery of the Dulong–Petit law on heat capacity.

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12/02/1777

Bernard Courtois, French chemist and academic (died 1838)

Bernard Courtois, also spelled Barnard Courtois, was a French chemist credited with first isolating iodine, making early photography possible.

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Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, German author and poet (died 1843)

Friedrich Heinrich Karl de la Motte, Baron Fouqué was a German writer of the Romantic style.

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12/02/1775

Louisa Adams, 6th First Lady of the United States (died 1852)

Louisa Catherine Adams was the first lady of the United States from 1825 to 1829 during the presidency of John Quincy Adams. She was born in England and raised in France. Her father was an influential American merchant, and she was regularly introduced to prominent Americans. After her family returned to England, she met John Quincy Adams in 1795, and the two began a tenuous courtship. They married in 1797 after being engaged for a year, beginning a marriage of disagreements and personality conflicts. She joined her husband on his diplomatic mission to Prussia, where she was popular with the Prussian court. When they returned to the United States, her husband became a senator and she gave birth to three sons. John was appointed minister to the Russian Empire in 1809, and they traveled to Russia without their two older sons, against Louisa's wishes. Though she was again popular with the court, she detested living in Russia, especially after the death of her infant daughter in 1812. She lived in Russia alone for a year while John negotiated the Treaty of Ghent, and when he asked her to join him in 1815, she made the dangerous 40-day journey across war-torn Europe.

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12/02/1768

Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1835)

Francis II and I was the last Holy Roman Emperor as Francis II from 1792 to 1806, and the first Emperor of Austria as Francis I from 1804 to 1835. He was also King of Germany, Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, and served as the first president of the German Confederation following its establishment in 1815.

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12/02/1761

Jan Ladislav Dussek, Czech pianist and composer (died 1812)

Jan Ladislav Dussek was a Czech classical period composer and virtuoso pianist. He was an important representative of Czech music abroad in the second half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Some of his more forward-looking piano works have traits often associated with Romanticism.

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12/02/1753

François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers, French admiral (died 1798)

Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers, Comte de Brueys was a French Navy officer who served in the American Revolutionary War and French Revolutionary Wars. He commanded the French fleet in the Mediterranean campaign of 1798 until his death at the Battle of the Nile.

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12/02/1728

Étienne-Louis Boullée, French architect (died 1799)

Étienne-Louis Boullée was a visionary French neoclassical architect whose work greatly influenced contemporary architects.

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12/02/1706

Johann Joseph Christian, German Baroque sculptor and woodcarver (died 1777)

Johann Joseph Christian was a German Baroque sculptor and woodcarver. His masterworks are considered to be the choir stalls in Zwiefalten Abbey and Ottobeuren Abbey. He was one of the few sculptors to work with wood, stone and stucco; and remains "the most important and versatile sculptor of the late Baroque period in Swabia."

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12/02/1704

Charles Pinot Duclos, French author (died 1772)

Charles Pinot Duclos was a French writer and contributor to the Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers.

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12/02/1665

Rudolf Jakob Camerarius, German botanist and physician (died 1721)

Rudolf Jakob Camerarius or Camerer was a German botanist and physician.

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12/02/1663

Cotton Mather, English-American minister and author (died 1728)

Cotton Mather was a Puritan clergyman and author in colonial New England, who wrote extensively on theological, historical, and scientific subjects. After being educated at Harvard College, he joined his father Increase as minister of the Congregationalist Old North Meeting House in Boston, then part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where he preached for the rest of his life. He has been referred to as the "first American Evangelical".

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12/02/1637

Jan Swammerdam, Dutch biologist and zoologist (died 1680)

Jan or Johannes Swammerdam was a Dutch biologist and microscopist. His work on insects demonstrated that the various phases during the life of an insect—egg, larva, pupa, and adult—are different forms of the same animal. As part of his anatomical research, he carried out experiments on muscle contraction. In 1658, he was the first to observe and describe red blood cells. He was one of the first people to use the microscope in dissections, and his techniques remained useful for hundreds of years.

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12/02/1608

Daniello Bartoli, Italian Jesuit priest (died 1685)

Daniello Bartoli was an Italian Jesuit writer and historiographer, celebrated by the poet Giacomo Leopardi as the "Dante of Italian prose"

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12/02/1606

John Winthrop the Younger, English-American lawyer and politician, Governor of Connecticut (died 1676)

John Winthrop the Younger, FRS, was an English-born physician, colonial administrator, and alchemist. He was an early governor of the Connecticut Colony who played a large role in the unification of numerous settlements and obtaining a royal charter for the unified colony.

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12/02/1584

Caspar Barlaeus, Dutch historian, poet, and theologian (died 1648)

Caspar Barlaeus was a Flemish polymath and Renaissance humanist, a theologian, poet, and historian.

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12/02/1567

Thomas Campion, English composer, poet, and physician (died 1620)

Thomas Campion was an English composer, poet, and physician. He was born in London, educated at Cambridge, and studied law in Gray's Inn. He wrote over a hundred lute songs, masques for dancing, and an authoritative technical treatise on music. A famous poem by Campion is There Is a Garden in Her Face.

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12/02/1540

Wŏn Kyun, Korean general and admiral (died 1597)

Wŏn Kyun was a military commander during the Imjin War. At the time of the Japanese invasion, he was the Naval Commander of Gyeongsang Right Province and led the navy, defeating the Japanese fleet together with Yi Sun-sin (李舜臣), the Naval Commander of Jeolla Left Province, and Yi Eok-gi (李億祺), the Naval Commander of Jeolla Right Province. He later served as Commander of Chungcheong Province, Naval Commander of Jeolla Left Province, and during the second invasion, replaced Yi Sun-sin as Commander-in-Chief of the Three Provinces Navy. However, he suffered a disastrous defeat and was killed in the Battle of Chilcheollyang.

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12/02/1480

Frederick II of Legnica, Duke of Legnica (died 1547)

Frederick II, Duke of Legnica, also known as the Great of Legnica, was a Duke of Legnica from 1488, of Brzeg from 1521. The most notorious of all Legnica Piast rulers, thanks to his excellent financial politics his Duchy was expanded to the Oder River, and he became the founder of the Duchy of Legnica-Wołów-Brzeg.

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12/02/1443

Giovanni II Bentivoglio, Italian noble (died 1508)

Giovanni II Bentivoglio was an Italian nobleman who ruled as lord of Bologna from 1463 until 1506. He had no formal position, but held power as the city's "first citizen." The Bentivoglio family ruled over Bologna from 1443, and repeatedly attempted to consolidate their hold of the Signoria of the city.

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12/02/1322

John Henry, Margrave of Moravia (died 1375)

John Henry of Luxembourg, a member of the House of Luxembourg, was Count of Tyrol from 1335 to 1341 and Margrave of Moravia from 1349 until his death.

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12/02/1218

Kujo Yoritsune, Japanese shōgun (died 1256)

Kujō Yoritsune , also known as Fujiwara no Yoritsune , was the fourth shōgun of the Kamakura shogunate of Japan. His father was kanpaku Kujō Michiie and his grandmother was a niece of Minamoto no Yoritomo. His wife was a granddaughter of Yoritomo and daughter of Minamoto no Yoriie. He was born in the year, month and on the day of the Tiger, and so was given the birth name Mitora.

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12/02/1074

Conrad II of Italy (died 1101)

Conrad II of Italy, also known as Conrad (III) (12 February 1074 – 27 July 1101), was the Duke of Lower Lorraine (1076–1087), King of Germany (1087–1098) and King of Italy (1093–1098). He was the second son of Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and Bertha of Savoy, and their eldest son to reach adulthood, his older brother Henry having been born and died in the same month of August 1071. Conrad's rule in Lorraine and Germany was nominal. He spent most of his life in Italy and there he was king in fact as well as in name.

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12/02/0661

Princess Ōku of Japan (died 702)

Ōku was a Japanese princess during the Asuka period in Japanese history. She was the daughter of Emperor Tenmu and sister of Prince Ōtsu. As a young girl, she witnessed the Jinshin War. According to the Man'yōshū, she became the first Saiō to serve at Ise Grand Shrine. After the death of her brother Prince Ōtsu in 686, she returned from Ise to Yamato to enshrine his remains on Mt. Futakami, before a quiet end to her life at age 40.

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12/02/0528

Daughter of Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei, nominal empress regnant of Northern Wei

Empress Yuan, personal name unknown, was briefly an emperor of the Xianbei-led Chinese Northern Wei dynasty. She bore the surname Yuan, originally Tuoba. Yuan was the only child of Emperor Xiaoming, born to his concubine Consort Pan. Soon after her birth, her grandmother the Empress Dowager Hu, who was also Xiaoming's regent, falsely declared that she was a boy and ordered a general pardon. Emperor Xiaoming died soon afterwards. On 1 April 528, Empress Dowager Hu installed the infant on the throne for a matter of hours before replacing her with Yuan Zhao the next day. Emperor Xiaoming's daughter was not recognised as a legitimate emperor (huangdi) by later generations. No further information about her or her mother is available.

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12/02/0041

Britannicus, Roman son of Claudius (died 55)

AD 41 (XLI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of C. Caesar Augustus Germanicus and Cn. Sentius Saturninus. The denomination AD 41 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

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