17th February — World Human Spirit Day

On this day, 176 notable people were born on 16th February — spanning from 624 to 1998. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

17/02/1998

Devin White, American football player

Devin Marcel White is an American professional football linebacker. He played college football for the LSU Tigers, and was selected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers fifth overall in the 2019 NFL draft. He spent five seasons with the Buccaneers and won a Super Bowl championship with the team in Super Bowl LV.

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17/02/1997

Gaetano Castrovilli, Italian footballer

Gaetano Castrovilli is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Serie B club Cesena.

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17/02/1996

Sebastian Aho, Swedish ice hockey player

Sebastian Johannes Aho is a Swedish professional ice hockey defenceman for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the American Hockey League (AHL) while under contract to the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL). Aho was drafted by the New York Islanders, 139th overall, in the 2017 NHL entry draft.

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Sasha Pieterse, South African-American actress and singer-songwriter

Sasha Pieterse Sheaffer is a South African-born American actress and singer. She is known for portraying Alison DiLaurentis in the Freeform series Pretty Little Liars (2010–2017), and its spin-off Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists (2019), in which she achieved global stardom and critical acclaim.

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17/02/1995

Madison Keys, American tennis player

Madison Marie Keys is an American professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 5 by the WTA. Keys has won ten career singles titles, including a Major at the 2025 Australian Open. She was also a finalist at the 2017 US Open.

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17/02/1994

Mason Jobst, American ice hockey player

Mason Kane Jobst is an American professional ice hockey left winger who is currently an unrestricted free agent. He most recently played for the Rochester Americans in the American Hockey League (AHL) while under contract to the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL).

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17/02/1993

Marc Márquez, Spanish motorcycle racer

Marc Márquez Alentà is a Spanish Grand Prix motorcycle road racer who races for the Ducati Lenovo Team. He previously raced for Honda's factory team from 2013 to 2023, and for the Ducati satellite team Gresini in 2024. Widely considered one of the greatest motorcycle racers of all time, he has won nine Grand Prix World Championships, including seven in the MotoGP class.

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17/02/1992

Meaghan Martin, American actress and singer

Meaghan Jette Martin is an American actress and singer best known for her work in film, television, and theatre. She is best known for her starring role in the ABC Family television series, 10 Things I Hate About You as Bianca Stratford. She is also well known for her role as Tess Tyler in the Disney Channel television films Camp Rock and its sequel Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam. She has also had guest starring roles in House and Jessie, and played the recurring role of Julie #2 in Awkward. Martin also starred as Jo Mitchell in Mean Girls 2. Martin is also known for voicing Naminé in the video game series Kingdom Hearts and Jessica in Until Dawn. In 2019, Martin made her professional London stage debut in The Actor's Nightmare at the Park Theatre in London.

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17/02/1991

Phil Pressey, American basketball player and coach

Phillip Michael Pressey is an American professional basketball coach and former player who played at the point guard position. He is currently the head coach for the Maine Celtics of the NBA G League.

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Ed Sheeran, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

Edward Christopher Sheeran is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently released the extended play No. 5 Collaborations Project. He signed with Asylum Records the same year.

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Jeremy Allen White, American actor

Jeremy Allen White is an American actor. His breakthrough role was juvenile delinquent Lip Gallagher in the comedy-drama series Shameless from 2011 to 2021, which earned him a nomination for a Critics' Choice Television Award. White received wider acclaim for playing troubled star cook Carmen Berzatto in the psychological dramedy series The Bear (2022–present), for which he received three consecutive Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Critics' Choice Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards.

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Bonnie Wright, English actress, filmmaker, and activist

Bonnie Francesca Wright is an English actress, filmmaker, and environmental activist. She is best known for her role as Ginny Weasley in the Harry Potter film series.

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17/02/1990

Marianne St-Gelais, Canadian speed skater

Marianne St-Gelais is a Canadian former short track speed skater. She won two silver medals in the 500 m and 3,000 m relay at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, and a third silver in the 3,000 m relay at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

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Edin Višća, Bosnian footballer

Edin Višća is a Bosnian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Süper Lig club Trabzonspor.

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17/02/1989

Rebecca Adlington, English swimmer

Rebecca Adlington is an English former competitive swimmer who raced in freestyle events. She won two gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics, in the 400 m and 800 m freestyle events, breaking the 19-year-old world record of Janet Evans in the latter. Adlington was Great Britain's first Olympic swimming champion since 1988, and the first British swimmer to win multiple Olympic gold medals at a single Games since 1908.

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Chord Overstreet, American actor and singer

Chord Paul Overstreet is an American actor and musician. He is best known for his role as Sam Evans on the Fox television series Glee (2009–2015). He has starred in the Apple TV+ comedy series Acapulco (2021–2025).

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17/02/1988

Michael Frolík, Czech ice hockey player

Michael Frolík is a former Czech professional ice hockey right winger.

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Case Keenum, American football player

Casey Austin Keenum is an American professional football quarterback for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Houston Cougars, where he became the NCAA's all-time leader in total passing yards, touchdowns, and completions. In the 2008 college football season, Keenum ranked first nationally in total offense and second in total passing yards.

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Vasyl Lomachenko, Ukrainian boxer

Vasiliy Anatolyevich Lomachenko is a Ukrainian former professional boxer who competed between 2013 and 2024. He has held multiple world championships in three weight classes, including the World Boxing Organization (WBO) featherweight title from 2014 to 2016, the WBO super featherweight title from 2016 to 2018, the unified World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Council (WBC), WBO, and Ring magazine lightweight titles from 2018 to 2020, and the International Boxing Federation (IBF) lightweight title from 2024 to 2025.

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17/02/1987

Ísis Valverde, Brazilian actress

Isis Nable Valverde is a Brazilian actress who played a lead role in the 2010 telenovela Ti Ti Ti and has participated in several other telenovelas.

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17/02/1986

Brett Kern, American football player

Brett Alan Kern is an American former professional football player who was a punter in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Toledo Rockets and was signed by the Denver Broncos as an undrafted free agent in 2008.

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17/02/1985

Anders Jacobsen, Norwegian ski jumper

Anders Jacobsen is a Norwegian former ski jumper. He competed at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics and won a team bronze medal in the large hill event in 2010. He is the youngest Norwegian winner of Four Hills Tournament.

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17/02/1984

AB de Villiers, South African cricketer

Abraham Benjamin de Villiers is a South African former international cricketer. He is regarded as one of the greatest batters of his generation. de Villiers was named as the ICC ODI Player of the Year three times during his 15-year international career. He was one of the five Wisden cricketers of the decade at the end of 2019. He began his international career as a wicket-keeper-batter, but he has most often played only as a batter.

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Marcin Gortat, Polish basketball player

Marcin Janusz Gortat, also known as "the Polish Hammer", or "the Polish Machine", is a Polish former professional basketball player, and current player development and assistant coach at the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m), 240 pounds (110 kg) center is the son of boxer Janusz Gortat. He was drafted in the second round by the Phoenix Suns in the 2005 NBA draft and played for the Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, Washington Wizards, and Los Angeles Clippers. He retired from professional basketball in 2020.

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Katie Hill, Australian 3.0 point wheelchair basketball player

Katie Hill is an Australian 3.0 point wheelchair basketball player. She participated in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, where she won a bronze medal, and the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, where she won a silver medal. She has over 100 international caps playing for Australia.

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17/02/1982

Adriano, Brazilian footballer

Adriano Leite Ribeiro is a Brazilian former professional footballer. He had four prolific seasons in Italy with Italian clubs Parma and Inter Milan, being considered one of the best strikers in the world during this time and earning the nickname "L'Imperatore".

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Brian Bruney, American baseball player

Brian Anthony Bruney is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Yankees, Washington Nationals, and Chicago White Sox. He won the 2009 World Series with the Yankees, beating the Philadelphia Phillies.

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17/02/1981

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, American actor, director, and producer

Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for his leading performances in 500 Days of Summer (2009) and 50/50 (2011). He is the founder of the online media platform HitRecord whose projects such as HitRecord on TV (2014–15) and Create Together (2020) won him two Primetime Emmy Awards in the category of Outstanding Interactive Program.

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Paris Hilton, American model, media personality, actress, singer, DJ, author and businesswoman

Paris Whitney Hilton is an American media personality, socialite, and businesswoman. Born in New York City, she is a great-granddaughter of Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton. She first attracted tabloid attention in the late 1990s for her presence in New York City's social scene, ventured into fashion modeling in 2000, and was proclaimed "New York's leading It Girl" in 2001. The reality television series The Simple Life (2003–2007), in which she co-starred with her friend Nicole Richie, and a leaked 2003 sex tape with her then-boyfriend Rick Salomon, later released as 1 Night in Paris (2004), catapulted her to global fame.

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Pontus Segerström, Swedish footballer (died 2014)

Pontus Segerström was a Swedish footballer who played as a defender.

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17/02/1980

Al Harrington, American basketball player

Albert Harrington is an American former professional basketball player. Selected with the 25th overall pick in the 1998 NBA draft, Harrington played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Indiana Pacers, Atlanta Hawks, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks, Denver Nuggets, Orlando Magic, and Washington Wizards. He also spent a short stint with the Fujian Sturgeons of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).

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Jason Ritter, American actor

Jason Morgan Ritter is an American actor. The son of John Ritter and Nancy Morgan, he is known for his work in television series such as Joan of Arcadia (2003–2005), Gravity Falls (2012–2016), Another Period (2015–2018), Kevin (Probably) Saves the World (2017–2018), Raising Dion (2019–2022), and Matlock (2024–). For his portrayal of Mark Cyr on Parenthood (2010–2014), Ritter was nominated for the 2012 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor.

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Klemi Saban, Israeli footballer

Klemi Saban,, is a retired Israeli football defender. Saban is mostly known for playing at Maccabi Netanya, there he played 6 years, captained the club and won over 200 caps in all club competitions.

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17/02/1979

Conrad Ricamora, American actor

Conrad Wayne Ricamora-Jensen is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Oliver Hampton on the ABC television series How to Get Away with Murder (2014–20). As a stage actor, he is noted for his roles in the original Off-Broadway musicals Here Lies Love and Soft Power, which premiered in 2013 and 2019, respectively, as well as his role in Oh, Mary!, for which he received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He made his Broadway debut in the 2015 revival of The King and I. In addition to his Tony nomination, Ricamora is also a two-time Grammy Award, Drama Desk Award and Lucille Lortel Award nominee.

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Josh Willingham, American baseball player

Joshua David Willingham is an American former professional baseball left fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Florida Marlins, Washington Nationals, Oakland Athletics, Minnesota Twins, and Kansas City Royals.

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17/02/1978

Rory Kinnear, English actor and playwright

Rory Michael Kinnear is an English actor. He won two Olivier Awards, both at the National Theatre, in 2008 for his portrayal of Sir Fopling Flutter in The Man of Mode, and for playing the William Shakespeare villain Iago in Othello in 2014.

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17/02/1976

Kelly Carlson, American actress and model

Kelly Carlson is an American actress, model and martial artist. She is best known for her role as Kimber Henry in the FX drama series Nip/Tuck.

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17/02/1975

Kaspars Astašenko, Latvian ice hockey player (died 2012)

Kaspars Astašenko was a Latvian professional ice hockey player. Astašenko was born in Riga, Latvia. Astašenko was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 1999 NHL entry draft, 127th overall. Astašenko played parts of two seasons in the National Hockey League with the Lightning.

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Václav Prospal, Czech ice hockey player

Václav "Vinny" Prospal is a Czech former professional ice hockey player, currently a hockey coach. He played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Philadelphia Flyers, Ottawa Senators, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, New York Rangers and Columbus Blue Jackets from. 1997 to 2013. He is currently serving as an assistant coach of the Rochester Americans in the American hockey league.

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17/02/1974

Kaoru, Japanese guitarist, songwriter, and producer

Dir En Grey is a Japanese heavy metal band formed in February 1997 and currently signed to Firewall Div., a sub-division of Free-Will. With a consistent lineup of vocalist Kyo, guitarists Kaoru and Die, bassist Toshiya, and drummer Shinya, they have released twelve full-length albums. Numerous stylistic changes have made the genre of their music difficult to determine, though it is generally considered to be a form of metal. Originally a visual kei band, the members later opted for more subtle attire, but have continued to maintain a dramatic image on stage.

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Jerry O'Connell, American actor, director, and producer

Michael Jeremiah Witkowski O’Connell is a British-American actor and TV show host. He is known for his roles as Quinn Mallory in the television series Sliders, Andrew Clements in My Secret Identity, Vern Tessio in the film Stand by Me (1986), Joe in Joe's Apartment (1996), Frank Cushman in Jerry Maguire (1996), Derek in Scream 2 (1997), Michael in Tomcats (2001), Charlie Carbone in Kangaroo Jack (2003), and Detective Woody Hoyt on the NBC drama Crossing Jordan. He starred as Pete Kaczmarek in the single 2010–2011 season of The Defenders. He also had a starring role in the comedy horror film Piranha 3D (2010). O'Connell voiced Commander Jack Ransom on the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks and hosted a version of Pictionary syndicated on Fox stations.

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17/02/1973

Drew Barry, American basketball player

Drew William Barry is an American former professional basketball player.

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Goran Bunjevčević, Serbian footballer (died 2018)

Goran Bunjevčević was a Serbian footballer who played as a defender in Serbia, England and the Netherlands.

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Raphaël Ibañez, French rugby player

Raphaël Ibañez is a retired French rugby union footballer. A hooker, he played for the France national team 98 times, and as captain 41 times. After a career in club rugby management, he became Team Manager for France in 2020.

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17/02/1972

Billie Joe Armstrong, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, and producer

Billie Joe Armstrong is an American musician and actor. He is best known for being the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Green Day, which he co-founded with Mike Dirnt in 1987. He is also a guitarist and vocalist for the punk rock band Pinhead Gunpowder, and provides lead vocals for Green Day's side projects Foxboro Hot Tubs, the Network, the Longshot and the Coverups. Armstrong has been considered by critics as one of the greatest punk rock guitarists of all time, as well as one of the greatest punk rock singers of all time.

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Philippe Candeloro, French figure skater

Philippe Candeloro is a French former competitive figure skater. He is a two-time Olympic bronze medalist, a two-time World medalist, a two-time European silver medalist, and a four-time French national champion (1994–1997). He has been a commentator for French television during figure skating events at the Olympics. He also made special appearance as himself and a villain's victim named "Frozer" in Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir.

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Taylor Hawkins, American singer-songwriter and musician (died 2022)

Oliver Taylor Hawkins was an American musician who was the drummer and a vocalist of the rock band Foo Fighters, sharing vocals with Dave Grohl. He joined the band in 1997, and remained the band's drummer until his death in March 2022. He recorded eight studio albums with Foo Fighters between 1999 and 2021. Before joining the band, he was a touring drummer for Sass Jordan and Alanis Morissette, as well as the drummer of the progressive experimental band Sylvia.

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Valeria Mazza, Argentine model and businesswoman

Valeria Raquel Mazza is an Argentine model and businesswoman. Mazza rose to prominence in the 1990s and became a household name after appearing on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue of 1996 and in the same year was one of the special co-hosters of Sanremo Music Festival 1996.

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17/02/1971

Denise Richards, American model and actress

Denise Lee Richards is an American actress, model and television personality. She rose to prominence with roles in the science fiction film Starship Troopers (1997), the erotic thriller film Wild Things (1998), and the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999). Her performance as the Bond girl Christmas Jones, gave Richards her mainstream breakthrough.

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17/02/1970

Dominic Purcell, English-Australian actor and producer

Dominic Haakon Myrtvedt Purcell is an Australian actor. He is best known as Lincoln Burrows in Prison Break, Mick Rory / Heat Wave in The Flash (2014–16) and Legends of Tomorrow (2016–21), and Drake / Dracula in Blade: Trinity (2004). He is also known for his role as Lewis "Lew" Brookbank in Three Way. In August 2023, he married Tish Cyrus, the ex-wife of country music star Billy Ray Cyrus, in Malibu, California after they were engaged in April 2023, becoming the stepfather of Brandi, Trace, Miley, and Noah Cyrus; he has four biological children from his first marriage.

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17/02/1969

David Douillet, French martial artist and politician

David Donald Hubert Roger Douillet is a French politician and retired judoka.

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Vasily Kudinov, Russian handball player (died 2017)

Vasily Alexandrovich Kudinov was a Russian handball player, born in Ilyinka, Astrakhan Oblast, Russian SFSR. He has won all three major international tournaments; European and World Championships and Olympic gold.

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17/02/1968

Giuseppe Signori, Italian footballer

Giuseppe "Beppe" Signori is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a forward.

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Wu'erkaixi, Chinese journalist and activist

Uerkesh Davlet, commonly known by his pinyin name Wu'er Kaixi, is a Chinese political commentator known for his leading role during the Tiananmen protests of 1989. He achieved prominence while studying at Beijing Normal University as a leader of the Beijing Students' Autonomous Federation and as a hunger striker who rebuked Chinese Premier Li Peng on national television.

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17/02/1966

Luc Robitaille, Canadian ice hockey player, manager, and actor

Luc Jean-Marie Robitaille is a Canadian-American professional ice hockey executive and former player who serves as president of the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL).

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17/02/1965

Michael Bay, American director and producer

Michael Benjamin Bay is an American film director and producer. He is best known for making big-budget high-concept action films with fast cutting, stylistic cinematography and visuals, and extensive use of special effects, including frequent depictions of explosions. The films he has directed include Bad Boys (1995) and its sequel Bad Boys II (2003), The Rock (1996), Armageddon (1998), Pearl Harbor (2001), the first five films in the Transformers film series, Pain & Gain (2013), 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016), and Ambulance (2022). His films have grossed over US$6.6 billion worldwide, making him the fifth-most commercially successful director in history.

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17/02/1964

Sherry Hawco, Canadian gymnast (died 1991)

Sherry Louise Hawco was a Canadian gymnast.

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17/02/1963

Larry the Cable Guy, American comedian and voice actor

Daniel Lawrence Whitney, known professionally as Larry the Cable Guy, is an American stand-up comedian, actor and former radio personality. He was one of the members of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, a comedy troupe which included Bill Engvall, Ron White, and Jeff Foxworthy.

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Alison Hargreaves, English mountaineer (died 1995)

Alison Jane Hargreaves was a British mountaineer. Her accomplishments included scaling Mount Everest alone, without supplementary oxygen or support from a Sherpa team, in 1995. She soloed all the great north faces of the Alps in a single season—a first for any climber. This feat included climbing the difficult north face of the Eiger in the Alps. Hargreaves also climbed 6,812-metre (22,349 ft) Ama Dablam in Nepal.

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Jen-Hsun Huang, Taiwanese-American businessman, co-founded Nvidia

Jen-Hsun "Jensen" Huang is a Taiwanese and American business executive and electrical engineer who is the founder, president, and CEO of Nvidia, the world's most valuable company. As of 2026, Forbes estimates his net worth at over US$200 billion, making him the seventh-wealthiest individual in the world.

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Michael Jordan, American basketball player, executive, and businessman

Michael Jeffrey Jordan, also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and retired professional basketball player who is a minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played 15 seasons in the NBA between 1984 and 2003, winning six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls. Widely considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time, he was integral in popularizing basketball and the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s. He is the wealthiest athlete of all time, and one of the world's richest celebrities, with a $4.3 billion net worth as of 2026.

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17/02/1962

Lou Diamond Phillips, American actor and director

Louis Diamond Phillips is an American actor, director, and writer. His breakthrough came when he starred as Ritchie Valens in the biographical drama film La Bamba (1987). For his performance as Angel David Guzman in Stand and Deliver (1988), he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture and won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male.

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17/02/1961

Angela Eagle, English politician, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons

Dame Angela Eagle DBE is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wallasey since 1992. She has served as Minister of State for Food Security and Rural Affairs since 2025.

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Maria Eagle, English politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Defence

Maria Eagle is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Garston, previously Garston and Halewood, since 1997. She served as a junior minister in the governments of Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Keir Starmer.

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Andrey Korotayev, Russian anthropologist, historian, and sociologist

Andrey Vitalievich Korotayev is a Russian anthropologist, economic historian, comparative political scientist, demographer and sociologist, with major contributions to world-systems theory, cross-cultural studies, Near Eastern history, Big History, and mathematical modelling of social and economic macrodynamics.

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17/02/1960

Lindy Ruff, Canadian hockey player and coach

Lindy Cameron Ruff is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and former player who is the head coach for the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL). Ruff was previously the head coach of the Sabres from 1997 to 2013, winning the Jack Adams Award in 2006, and has also served as head coach of the Dallas Stars and New Jersey Devils. Ruff has won over 600 games with the Sabres, making him one of three coaches to win that many games for one team in NHL history. During his playing career, Ruff played in the NHL for the Sabres and New York Rangers, the former of which he captained.

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17/02/1959

Aryeh Deri, Moroccan-Israeli rabbi and politician, Israeli Minister of Internal Affairs

Aryeh Makhlouf Deri, also Arie Deri, Arye Deri, or Arieh Deri, is an Israeli politician and one of the founders of the Shas political party who served as the Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Health, and Minister of the Interior and Periphery under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from December 2022 to January 2023. Previously he served as the Minister of the Interior, Minister of the Development of the Negev and Galilee, Minister of the Economy, as well as a member in the Security Cabinet of Israel.

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Rowdy Gaines, American swimmer and sportscaster

Ambrose "Rowdy" Gaines IV is an American former competitive swimmer, U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame member, three-time Olympic gold medalist, and member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. He is referred to as "The Voice of Swimming", having covered swimming at the Olympic Games since 1992 in Barcelona and is currently a swimming analyst for television network NBC.

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17/02/1957

Loreena McKennitt, Canadian singer-songwriter, accordion player, and pianist

Loreena McKennitt is a Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer who writes, records, and performs world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern influences. McKennitt is known for her refined and clear soprano vocals. She has sold more than 16 million records worldwide.

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17/02/1956

Richard Karn, American actor and game show host

Richard Karn is an American actor, author and former game show host. He starred as Al Borland in the ABC series Home Improvement and as Fred Peters in the Hulu series Pen15. Karn was also the fourth host of Family Feud from 2002 to 2006.

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17/02/1955

Mo Yan, Chinese author and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

Mo Yan, born Guan Moye, is a Chinese writer. He gained attention for his 1984 novella, A Transparent Radish, and rose to international fame for his 1986 novel Red Sorghum, the first two parts of which were adapted into the Golden Bear-winning film Red Sorghum (1988). In 2012, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work which "with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary".

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17/02/1954

Lou Ann Barton, American singer-songwriter

Lou Ann Barton is an American blues singer based in Austin, Texas since the 1970s. AllMusic noted that "The grace, poise, and confidence she projects on-stage is part of a long tradition for women blues singers".

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Miki Berkovich, Israeli basketball player

Moshe "Miki" Berkovich is an Israeli former professional basketball player. A 193 cm shooting guard, he is considered to be one of the greatest Israeli basketball players of all time.

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Rene Russo, American actress

Rene Marie Russo is an American actress and model. She began her career as a fashion model in the 1970s, appearing on magazine covers such as Vogue and Cosmopolitan. She made her film debut in the 1989 comedy Major League, and rose to international prominence in a number of thrillers and action films throughout the 1990s, including Lethal Weapon 3 (1992), In the Line of Fire (1993), Outbreak (1995), Get Shorty (1995), Ransom (1996), Lethal Weapon 4 (1998), and The Thomas Crown Affair (1999).

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17/02/1953

Becky Ann Baker, American actress

Becky Ann Baker is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Jean Weir on the NBC comedy-drama series Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000) and as Loreen Horvath on the HBO comedy-drama series Girls (2012–2017); she earned two Critics' Choice Television Award nominations and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for the latter.

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17/02/1952

Karin Büttner-Janz, German gymnast and physician

Karin Büttner-Janz is a German medical doctor and former gymnast who won World and Olympic gold medals in artistic gymnastics for East Germany. She is co-inventor of the first artificial intervertebral disc, and from 1990 to 2012, she was chief physician of clinics in Berlin, Germany. She has a foundation named Spinefoundation.

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Vladimír Padrůněk, Czech musician (died 1991)

Vladimír Padrůněk was a Czech jazz and rock bass guitarist. He is known for his work with the groups Jazz Q, Energit, Etc..., Abraxas, and others.

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17/02/1951

Rashid Minhas, Pakistani soldier and pilot (died 1971)

Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas NH was a Pakistani fighter pilot and the fifth recipient of Pakistan's highest military award, the Nishan-e-Haider. Minhas was the first and only officer from the Pakistan Air Force to receive the Nishan-e-Haider, and was also the youngest person and the shortest-serving officer to have received the award. During a routine training mission in August 1971, Minhas attempted to gain control of his jet trainer when his superior officer Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman BS took control over the plane to join the Bangladesh War of Independence but Minhas resisted his efforts to control the aircraft and crashed it in Sujawal District in Pakistan.

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17/02/1949

Fred Frith, English guitarist and songwriter

Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Best known for his guitar playing, Frith first came to attention as a founding member of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. He was also a member of the groups Art Bears, Massacre, and Skeleton Crew. He has collaborated with numerous musicians, including Robert Wyatt, Derek Bailey, the Residents, Lol Coxhill, John Zorn, Brian Eno, Mike Patton, Lars Hollmer, Bill Laswell, Iva Bittová, Jad Fair, Kramer, the ARTE Quartett, and Bob Ostertag. He has also composed several long works, including Traffic Continues and Freedom in Fragments. Frith produces most of his own music, and has also produced many albums by other musicians, including Curlew, the Muffins, Etron Fou Leloublan, and Orthotonics.

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Dennis Green, American football player and coach (died 2016)

Dennis Earl Green was an American professional football coach. During his National Football League (NFL) career, Green coached the Minnesota Vikings from 1992 to 2001 and the Arizona Cardinals from 2004 to 2006. He coached the Vikings to eight playoff appearances in nine years, despite having seven different starting quarterbacks in those postseasons. He was posthumously inducted into the Minnesota Vikings Ring of Honor in 2018.

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17/02/1948

José José, Mexican singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (died 2019)

José Rómulo Sosa Ortiz, known professionally as José José was a Mexican singer and actor. Dubbed as "El Príncipe de la Canción", his performance and vocal style have influenced many Latin pop artists in a career that spanned more than four decades. Due to his vocals and popularity, José José was considered by Latin audiences and media as an icon of Latin pop music and one of the most emblematic Latin singers of his time.

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17/02/1946

Shahrnush Parsipur, Iranian-American author and academic

Shahrnush Parsipur is an Iranian-born writer and translator.

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17/02/1945

Zina Bethune, American actress, dancer, and choreographer (died 2012)

Zina Bianca Bethune was an American actress, dancer, and choreographer. She was the daughter of actress Ivy Bethune.

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Brenda Fricker, Irish actress

Brenda Fricker is an Irish actress, whose career has spanned six decades on stage and screen. She has appeared in more than 30 films and television roles. In 1990, she became the first Irish actress to win an Academy Award, earning the award for Best Supporting Actress for the biopic My Left Foot (1989). She also appeared in films such as The Field (1990), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993), Angels in the Outfield (1994), A Time to Kill (1996), Veronica Guerin (2003), Inside I'm Dancing (2004) and Albert Nobbs (2011).

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17/02/1944

Karl Jenkins, Welsh saxophonist, keyboard player, and composer

Sir Karl William Pamp Jenkins,, HonFLSW is a Welsh multi-instrumentalist and composer. His best known works include the song "Adiemus", Palladio (1995), The Armed Man (2000), his Requiem (2005) and his Stabat Mater (2008).

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17/02/1942

Huey P. Newton, American activist, co-founded the Black Panther Party (died 1989)

Huey Percy Newton was an African American revolutionary and political activist who co-founded the Marxist–Leninist political and militant organization the Black Panther Party (BPP) with fellow activist Bobby Seale in 1966. He ran the party as its main leader and crafted its ten-point manifesto with Seale. Under his leadership, the party organized numerous social programs and community events, advocated for collective defense, and threatened political violence in service of their goals.

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17/02/1941

Julia McKenzie, English actress, singer, and director

Julia Kathleen Nancy McKenzie is an English actress, singer, presenter, and theatre director. She has premièred leading roles written by both Alan Ayckbourn and Stephen Sondheim. On television, she is known for her BAFTA Award nominated role as Hester Fields in the sitcom Fresh Fields (1984–1986) and its sequel French Fields (1989–1991), as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's Marple (2009–2013) and for her appearance in the BBC One costume drama series Cranford.

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17/02/1940

Vicente Fernández, Mexican singer-songwriter, actor, and producer (died 2021)

Vicente Fernández Gómez was a Mexican mariachi singer, actor and film producer. Nicknamed "Chente", "El Charro de Huentitán", "El Ídolo de México", and "El Rey de la Música Ranchera", Fernández started his career as a busker, and went on to become a cultural icon, having recorded more than 100 albums and contributing to more than 150 films. His repertoire consisted of rancheras and other Mexican classics such as waltzes.

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Gene Pitney, American singer-songwriter (died 2006)

Gene Francis Alan Pitney was an American pop and country singer, songwriter, and musician. Pitney charted 16 top-40 hits in the United States, four in the top ten. In the United Kingdom, he had 22 top-40 hit singles, including 11 in the top ten.

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17/02/1937

Mary Ann Mobley, American model and actress, Miss America 1959 (died 2014)

Mary Ann Mobley was an American actress, television personality, and Miss America 1959.

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17/02/1936

Jim Brown, American football player and actor (died 2023)

James Nathaniel Brown was an American professional football player, civil rights activist, and actor. He played as a fullback for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL) from 1957 to 1965. Widely considered one of the greatest running backs of all time, as well as one of the greatest players in NFL history, Brown was selected to a Pro Bowl and All-Pro team every season he was in the league, and was recognized as the AP NFL Most Valuable Player three times. Brown won an NFL championship with the Browns in 1964. He led the league in rushing yards in eight out of his nine seasons, and by the time he retired, he held most major rushing records. In 1999, he was named the greatest professional football player ever by The Sporting News and the Associated Press.

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17/02/1935

Christina Pickles, English-American actress

Christina Pickles is an English actress, known for her work in the United States. She is known for her role as Nurse Helen Rosenthal in the NBC medical drama St. Elsewhere (1982–1988), for which she received five nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She is also known for her recurring role as Judy Geller on the NBC sitcom Friends, for which she was nominated for the 1995 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.

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17/02/1934

Alan Bates, English actor (died 2003)

Sir Alan Arthur Bates was an English actor who came to prominence in the 1960s, when he appeared in films ranging from Whistle Down the Wind to the kitchen sink drama A Kind of Loving.

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Barry Humphries, Australian comedian, actor, and author (died 2023)

John Barry Humphries was an Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist. He was best known for writing and playing his stage and television characters Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. He appeared in numerous stage productions, films and television shows.

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17/02/1933

Craig L. Thomas, American captain and politician (died 2007)

Craig Lyle Thomas was an American politician who served as United States senator from Wyoming from 1995 until his death in 2007. He was a member of the Republican Party. In the Senate, Thomas was considered an expert on agriculture and rural development. He had served in key positions in several state agencies, including a long tenure as Vice President of the Wyoming Farm Bureau from 1965 to 1974. Thomas resided in Casper for twenty-eight years. In 1984, he was elected from Casper to the Wyoming House of Representatives, in which he served until 1989.

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17/02/1931

Jiřina Jirásková, Czech actress and singer (died 2013)

Jiřina Jirásková was a Czech actress. She was born and died in Prague, Czech Republic.

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Buddy Ryan, American football coach (died 2016)

James David "Buddy" Ryan was an American football coach in the National Football League (NFL) and American Football League (AFL). During his 35-season coaching career, Ryan served as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1986 to 1990, and of the Arizona Cardinals from 1994 to 1995. Ryan also served as the defensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears from 1978 to 1985, and of the Houston Oilers in 1993. Coaching multiple Hall of Fame defensive players throughout his career, Ryan is considered by many to be one of the greatest defensive minds in the history of American football.

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17/02/1930

Roger Craig, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 2023)

Roger Lee Craig was an American professional baseball pitcher, coach and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). After playing for the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies between 1955 and 1966, Craig became an acclaimed pitching coach, and a manager, between 1969 and 1992.

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Benjamin Fain, Ukrainian-Israeli physicist and academic (died 2013)

Benjamin Fain was an Israeli physicist, professor-emeritus, and former refusenik.

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Ruth Rendell, English author (died 2015)

Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, was an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries.

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17/02/1929

Alejandro Jodorowsky, Chilean-French director and screenwriter

Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky is a Chilean and French avant-garde filmmaker. Known for his films El Topo (1970), The Holy Mountain (1973) and Santa Sangre (1989), Jodorowsky has been "venerated by cult cinema enthusiasts" for his work which "is filled with violently surreal images and a hybrid blend of mysticism and religious provocation".

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Chaim Potok, American rabbi and author (died 2002)

Chaim Potok, was an American author, novelist, playwright, editor and rabbi. Among the more than a dozen books he authored, his first novel The Chosen (1967) was listed on The New York Times Best Seller list for 39 weeks and sold more than 3.4 million copies as of 2002, and was adapted into a well-received 1981 feature film by the same title.

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Nicholas Ridley, Baron Ridley of Liddesdale, English lieutenant and politician, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (died 1993)

Nicholas Ridley, Baron Ridley of Liddesdale, was a British Conservative Party politician and government minister.

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Patricia Routledge, English actress and singer (died 2025)

Dame Katherine Patricia Routledge was an English actress and singer. She was best known for her role as Hyacinth Bucket in the BBC One comedy series Keeping Up Appearances (1990–1995), for which she was twice nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance.

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17/02/1928

Marta Romero, Puerto Rican actress and singer (died 2013)

Marta Romero was a Puerto Rican actress and singer, and one of the pioneers in Puerto Rican television.

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Michiaki Takahashi, Japanese virologist (died 2013)

Michiaki Takahashi was a Japanese virologist, best known for inventing the first chickenpox vaccine. He developed the "Oka" vaccine by producing v-Oka, a live-attenuated virus strain of varicella zoster virus.

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17/02/1925

Ron Goodwin, English composer and conductor (died 2003)

Ronald Alfred Goodwin was an English composer and conductor known for his film music. He scored over 70 films in a career lasting over fifty years. His most famous works included Where Eagles Dare, Battle of Britain, 633 Squadron, Margaret Rutherford's Murder, She Said films, and Frenzy.

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Hal Holbrook, American actor and director (died 2021)

Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. was an American actor. He first received critical acclaim in 1954 for a one-man stage show, titled Mark Twain Tonight!, that he developed while studying at Denison University. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1966 for his portrayal of Twain. He continued to perform his signature role for more than 60 years, retiring the show in 2017 due to his failing health. Throughout his career, he also won five Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on television and was nominated for an Academy Award for his work in film.

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17/02/1924

Margaret Truman, American singer and author (died 2008)

Mary Margaret Truman Daniel was an American classical soprano, actress, journalist, radio and television personality, writer, and New York socialite. She was the only child of President Harry S. Truman and First Lady Bess Truman. While her father was president during the years 1945 to 1953, Margaret regularly accompanied him on campaign trips, such as the 1948 countrywide whistle-stop campaign lasting several weeks. She also appeared at important White House and political events during those years and was a favorite with the media.

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17/02/1923

Buddy DeFranco, American clarinet player and bandleader (died 2014)

Boniface Ferdinand Leonard "Buddy" DeFranco was an American jazz clarinetist. In addition to his work as a bandleader, DeFranco led the Glenn Miller Orchestra for almost a decade in the 1960s and 1970s.

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17/02/1922

Tommy Edwards, American R&B singer-songwriter (died 1969)

Thomas Jefferson Edwards was an American singer and songwriter. His most successful record was the multi-million-selling song "It's All in the Game", becoming the first African-American to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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17/02/1921

Duane Gish, American biochemist and academic (died 2013)

Duane Tolbert Gish was an American biochemist and a prominent member of the creationist movement. A young Earth creationist, Gish was a former vice-president of the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) and the author of numerous publications about creation science.

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17/02/1920

Ivo Caprino, Norwegian director and screenwriter (died 2001)

Ivo Caprino was a Norwegian film director and writer, best known for his puppet films. His most noted film, Flåklypa Grand Prix, was made in 1975.

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Annie Glenn, American disability and communication disorder advocate (died 2020)

Anna Margaret Glenn was an American advocate for people with disabilities and communication disorders and the wife of astronaut and senator John Glenn. A stutterer from an early age, Glenn promoted the awareness of stuttering and other disabilities among children and adults.

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Curt Swan, American illustrator (died 1996)

Douglas Curtis Swan was an American comics artist. The artist most associated with Superman during the period fans call the Bronze Age of Comic Books, Swan produced hundreds of covers and stories from the 1950s through the 1980s.

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17/02/1919

J. M. S. Careless, Canadian historian and academic (died 2009)

James Maurice Stockford Careless was a Canadian historian. He taught history at the University of Toronto for 39 years, from 1945 until his retirement in 1984, and served as Chairman of the History Department from 1959 to 1967. He was known for his work in Canadian history, particularly his elaboration of the metropolitan-hinterland thesis and his studies on urban history. He twice won the Governor General's Awards for English-language non-fiction books for Canada: A Story of Challenge (1953) and his biography Brown of the Globe (1963).

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Kathleen Freeman, American actress and singer (died 2001)

Kathleen Freeman was an American actress. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, she portrayed acerbic maids, secretaries, teachers, busybodies, nurses, and battle-axe neighbors and relatives, almost invariably to comic effect. In film, she is perhaps best remembered for appearing in 12 Jerry Lewis comedies in the 1950s and 1960s and The Blues Brothers (1980).

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Joe Hunt, American tennis player (died 1945)

Joseph Raphael Hunt was an American tennis player of the late 1930s and early 1940s from Southern California. He was the number one ranked American in 1943 and won the US singles championship in his final match. He died off the coast of Florida in an airplane crash during World War II. To date he is the only man to win the U.S. boys', junior, collegiate, and men's singles championship.

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17/02/1918

William Bronk, American poet and academic (died 1999)

William Bronk was an American poet. For his book, Life Supports (1981), he won the National Book Award for Poetry.

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Jacqueline Ferrand, French mathematician (died 2014)

Jacqueline Lelong-Ferrand was a French mathematician who worked on conformal representation theory, potential theory, and Riemannian manifolds. She taught at universities in Caen, Lille, and Paris.

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17/02/1916

Alexander Obolensky, Russian rugby player and pilot (died 1940)

Prince Alexander Sergeevich Obolensky was a Rurikid prince of Russian aristocratic descent who became a naturalised Briton, having spent most of his life in England, and who went on to represent England in international rugby union. He was, and remains, popularly known as "The Flying Prince", "The Flying Slav", or simply as "Obo" to many sports fans.

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Don Tallon, Australian cricketer (died 1984)

Donald Tallon was an Australian cricketer who played 21 Test matches as a wicket-keeper between 1946 and 1953. He was widely regarded by his contemporaries as Australia's finest ever wicket-keeper and one of the best in Test history, with an understated style, an ability to anticipate the flight, length and spin of the ball and an efficient stumping technique. Tallon toured England as part of Don Bradman's Invincibles of 1948 and was recognised as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1949 for his performances during that season. During his Test career, Tallon made 58 dismissals comprising 50 catches and 8 stumpings.

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Raf Vallone, Italian footballer and actor (died 2002)

Raffaele "Raf" Vallone was an Italian actor and footballer. One of the top male Italian stars of the 1950s and 1960s, he first became known for his association with the neorealist movement, and found success in several international productions. On stage, he was closely associated with the works of Arthur Miller. He played the role of Eddie Carbone in A View from the Bridge several times, including Sidney Lumet's 1962 film adaptation, for which he won the David di Donatello for Best Actor.

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17/02/1914

Arthur Kennedy, American actor (died 1990)

John Arthur Kennedy was an American actor, known for his versatility in supporting film roles and his ability to create "an exceptional honesty and naturalness on stage", especially in the original casts of Arthur Miller plays on Broadway.

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17/02/1912

Andre Norton, American author (died 2005)

Andre Alice Norton was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name Andre Norton, but also under Andrew North and Allen Weston. She was the first woman to be Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy, to be SFWA Grand Master, and to be inducted by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

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17/02/1911

Oskar Seidlin, German-American author, poet, and scholar (died 1984)

Oskar Seidlin was a Jewish emigre from Nazi Germany first to Switzerland and then to the U.S. He taught German language and literature as a professor at Smith College, Middlebury College, Ohio State University, and Indiana University from 1939 to 1979. He authored a number of fictional and non-fictional works.

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17/02/1910

Marc Lawrence, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2005)

Marc Lawrence was an American character actor who specialized in underworld types. He has also been credited as F. A. Foss, Marc Laurence and Marc C. Lawrence.

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17/02/1908

Bo Yibo, Chinese general and politician, Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China (died 2007)

Bo Yibo (Chinese: 薄一波; pinyin: Bó Yībō; Wade–Giles: Po2 I1-po1; 17 February 1908 – 15 January 2007) was one of the most senior political figures in China during the 1980s and 1990s.

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17/02/1906

Mary Brian, American actress (died 2002)

Mary Brian was an American actress who made the transition from silent films to sound films.

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17/02/1905

Rózsa Péter, Hungarian mathematician (died 1977)

Rózsa Péter, until January 1934 Rózsa Politzer, was a Hungarian mathematician and logician. She is best known as the "founding mother of recursion theory".

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17/02/1904

Hans Morgenthau, German-American political scientist, philosopher, and academic (died 1980)

Hans Joachim Morgenthau was a German-American jurist and political scientist who was one of the major 20th-century figures in the study of international relations. Morgenthau's works belong to the tradition of realism in international relations theory; he is usually considered among the most influential realists of the post-World War II period. Morgenthau made landmark contributions to international relations theory and the study of international law. His Politics Among Nations, first published in 1948, went through five editions during his lifetime and was widely adopted as a textbook in U.S. universities. While Morgenthau emphasized the centrality of power and "the national interest," the subtitle of Politics Among Nations—"the struggle for power and peace"—indicates his concern not only with the struggle for power but also with the ways in which it is limited by ethical and legal norms.

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17/02/1903

Sadegh Hedayat, Iranian-French author and translator (died 1951)

Sadegh Hedayat was an Iranian writer, translator, satirist, and poet. Best known for his novel The Blind Owl, he was one of the earliest Iranian writers to adopt literary modernism in their career. He is widely considered to be the father of the atheist movement in Iran.

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Joaquín Rodríguez Ortega, known as "Cagancho", Spanish bullfighter (died 1984)

Joaquín Rodríguez Ortega, professionally known as Cagancho, was a Spanish bullfighter much of whose career was spent in Mexico, although he did sometimes perform in his native Spain, and one of his performances there, in Almagro, Ciudad Real in 1927 even gave rise to a now well known expression in the Spanish language. Rodríguez also found himself appraised in English when he and his craft were described by Ernest Hemingway in his non-fiction work Death in the Afternoon, along with many other Spanish bullfighters of the early 20th century.

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17/02/1900

Ruth Clifford, American actress (died 1998)

Ruth Clifford was an American actress of leading roles in silent films whose career lasted from that era into the television era.

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17/02/1899

Jibanananda Das, Bangladeshi-Indian poet and author (died 1954)

Jibanananda Das was a Bengali poet, writer, and educationist widely regarded as one of the major figures of twentieth-century Bengali modernist poetry. Often called Rupashi Banglar Kabi, he received limited recognition during his lifetime but later came to be considered one of the most important and influential figures in Bengali literature after Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam.

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17/02/1893

Wally Pipp, American baseball player and journalist (died 1965)

Walter Clement Pipp Sr. was an American professional baseball player. A first baseman, Pipp played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, and Cincinnati Reds between 1913 and 1928.

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17/02/1891

Abraham Fraenkel, German-Israeli mathematician and academic (died 1965)

Abraham Fraenkel was a German-born Israeli mathematician. He was an early Zionist and the first Dean of Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is known for his contributions to axiomatic set theory, especially his additions to Ernst Zermelo's axioms, which resulted in the Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory.

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17/02/1890

Ronald Fisher, English-Australian statistician, biologist, and geneticist (died 1962)

Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher was a British polymath who was active as a mathematician, statistician, biologist, geneticist, and academic. He has been described as "a genius who almost single-handedly created the foundations for modern statistical science" and "the single most important figure in 20th century statistics". In genetics, Fisher was the one to most comprehensively combine the ideas of Gregor Mendel and Charles Darwin, as his work used mathematics to combine Mendelian genetics and natural selection; this contributed to the revival of Darwinism in the early 20th-century revision of the theory of evolution known as the modern synthesis. For his contributions to biology, Richard Dawkins declared Fisher to be the greatest of Darwin's successors. He is also considered one of the founding fathers of Neo-Darwinism. According to statistician Jeffrey T. Leek, Fisher is the most influential scientist of all time on the basis of the number of citations of his contributions.

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17/02/1888

Ronald Knox, English Catholic priest (died 1957)

Ronald Arbuthnott Knox was an English Catholic priest, theologian, author, and radio broadcaster. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, where he earned a high reputation as a classicist, Knox was ordained as a priest of the Church of England in 1912. He was a fellow and chaplain of Trinity College, Oxford until he resigned from those positions following his conversion to Catholicism in 1917. Knox became a Catholic priest in 1918, continuing in that capacity his scholarly and literary work.

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Otto Stern, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1969)

Otto Stern was a German–American experimental physicist. He is the second most nominated person for a Nobel Prize, with 82 nominations during the years 1925–1945. In 1943, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his contribution to the development of the molecular ray method and his discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton."

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17/02/1887

Joseph Bech, Luxembourgish lawyer and politician, 15th Prime Minister of Luxembourg (died 1975)

Joseph Bech was a Luxembourgish politician and lawyer. He was the prime minister of Luxembourg, serving for eleven years, from 16 July 1926 to 5 November 1937. He returned to the position after World War II, and served for another four years, from 29 December 1953 until 29 March 1958. The 1982–1983 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour.

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Leevi Madetoja, Finnish composer and critic (died 1947)

Leevi Antti Madetoja was a Finnish composer, music critic, conductor, and teacher of the late-Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely recognized as one of the most significant Finnish contemporaries of Jean Sibelius, under whom he studied privately from 1908 to 1910.

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17/02/1881

Mary Carson Breckinridge, American nurse midwife, founded Frontier Nursing Service (died 1965)

Mary Carson Breckinridge was an American nurse midwife and the founder of the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS), which provided comprehensive family medical care to the mountain people of rural Kentucky. FNS served remote and impoverished areas off the road and rail system but accessible by horseback. She modeled her services on European practices and sought to professionalize American nurse-midwives to practice autonomously in homes and decentralized clinics. Although Breckinridge's work demonstrated efficacy by dramatically reducing infant and maternal mortality in Appalachia, at a comparatively low cost, her model of nurse-midwifery never took root in the United States.

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17/02/1879

Dorothy Canfield Fisher, American educational reformer, social activist and author (died 1958)

Dorothy Canfield Fisher was an educational reformer, social activist, and best-selling American author in the early 20th century. She strongly supported women's rights, racial equality, and lifelong education. Eleanor Roosevelt named her one of the ten most influential women in the United States. Her writing helped increase understanding of the Montessori method of child-rearing in the U.S.; she presided over the country's first adult education program; and her service as a member of the Book of the Month Club selection committee from 1925 to 1951 helped shape literary tastes in the U.S.

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17/02/1877

Isabelle Eberhardt, Swiss explorer and author (died 1904)

Isabelle Wilhelmine Marie Eberhardt was a Swiss explorer and author. As a teenager, Eberhardt, educated in Switzerland by her father, published short stories under a male pseudonym. She became interested in North Africa, and was considered a proficient writer on the subject despite learning about the region only through correspondence. After an invitation from photographer Louis David, Eberhardt moved to Algeria in May 1897. She dressed as a man and converted to Islam, eventually adopting the name Si Mahmoud Saadi. Eberhardt's unorthodox behaviour made her an outcast among European settlers in Algeria and the French administration.

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André Maginot, French sergeant and politician (died 1932)

André Maginot was a French civil servant, soldier and Member of Parliament. He is best known for his advocacy of the string of forts known as the Maginot Line.

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17/02/1874

Thomas J. Watson, American businessman (died 1956)

Thomas John Watson Sr. was an American businessman who was the chairman and CEO of IBM. He oversaw the company's growth into an international force from 1914 to 1956. Watson developed IBM's management style and corporate culture from John Henry Patterson's training at NCR. He turned the company into a highly effective selling organization, based largely on punched card tabulating machines.

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17/02/1864

Jozef Murgaš, Slovak priest, botanist, and painter (died 1929)

Jozef Murgaš was a Slovak inventor, architect, botanist, painter and Roman Catholic priest. He contributed to radio development, which at the time was commonly known as "wireless telegraphy".

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Banjo Paterson, Australian journalist, author, and poet (died 1941)

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author, widely considered one of the greatest writers of Australia's colonial period.

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17/02/1862

Mori Ōgai, Japanese general, author, and poet (died 1922)

Lieutenant-General Mori Rintarō , known by his pen name Mori Ōgai , was a Japanese Army Surgeon general officer, translator, novelist, poet and father of famed author Mari Mori. He obtained his medical license at a very young age and introduced translated German language literary works to the Japanese public. Mori Ōgai also was considered the first to successfully express the art of western poetry in Japanese. He wrote many works and created many writing styles. The Wild Geese (1911–1913) is considered his major work. After his death, he was considered one of the leading writers who modernized Japanese literature.

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17/02/1861

Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont, duchess of Albany (died 1922)

Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont, later Duchess of Albany, was a member of the British royal family by marriage. She was the fifth daughter and child of George Victor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, and his first wife, Princess Helena of Nassau.

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17/02/1854

Friedrich Alfred Krupp, German businessman (died 1902)

Friedrich Alfred Krupp was a German steel manufacturer and head of the company Krupp. He was the son of Alfred Krupp and inherited the family business when his father died in 1887. Whereas his father had largely supplied iron and steel, Friedrich shifted his company's production back to arms manufacturing. Friedrich greatly expanded Krupp and acquired the Germaniawerft in 1896 which gave him control of warship manufacturing in Germany. He oversaw the development of nickel steel, U-boats, the diesel engine, and much more. He died in 1902, possibly by suicide, after being accused of homosexuality. His daughter Bertha inherited the company.

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17/02/1849

Joseph Favre, Swiss chef (died 1903)

Joseph Favre was a Swiss chef who worked in Switzerland, France, Germany, and England. Although he initially only received primary education because of his humble origins, as an adult he attended science and nutrition classes at the University of Geneva, and eventually published his four-volume Dictionnaire universel de cuisine pratique, an encyclopedia of culinary science, in 1895.

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17/02/1848

Louisa Lawson, Australian poet and publisher (died 1920)

Louisa Lawson was an Australian poet, writer, publisher, suffragist, and feminist. Her eldest son was the poet and author Henry Lawson.

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17/02/1843

Aaron Montgomery Ward, American businessman, founded Montgomery Ward (died 1913)

Aaron Montgomery Ward was an American entrepreneur based in Chicago who made his fortune through the use of mail order for retail sales of general merchandise to rural customers. In 1872 he founded Montgomery Ward & Company, which became nationally known.

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17/02/1836

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Spanish author, poet, and playwright (died 1870)

Gustavo Adolfo Claudio Domínguez Bastida, better known as Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, was a Spanish Romantic poet and writer, also a playwright, literary columnist, and talented in drawing. He is one of the most important figures in Spanish literature, with some considering him the most read Spanish writer after Miguel de Cervantes. He adopted the alias of Bécquer as his brother Valeriano Bécquer, a painter, had done earlier. He was associated with the romanticism and post-romanticism movements and wrote while realism enjoyed success in Spain. He was moderately well-known during his life, but it was after his death that most of his works were published. His best-known works are the Rhymes and the Legends, usually published together as Rimas y leyendas. These poems and tales are essential to studying Spanish literature and common reading for high-school students in Spanish-speaking countries.

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17/02/1832

Richard Henry Park, American sculptor (died 1902)

Richard Henry Park was an American sculptor who worked in marble and bronze. He was commissioned to do work by the wealthy of the nineteenth century. He did a marble bust of John Plankinton, an astute businessman who founded the meat industry in Wisconsin and was "Milwaukee's foremost citizen."

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17/02/1821

Lola Montez, Irish-American actress and dancer (died 1861)

Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, better known by the stage name Lola Montez, was an Irish dancer and actress who became famous as a Spanish dancer, courtesan, and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who made her Gräfin (Countess) von Landsfeld. At the start of the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states, she was forced to flee. She proceeded to the United States via Austria, Switzerland, France and London, to return to her work as an entertainer and lecturer.

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17/02/1820

Henri Vieuxtemps, Belgian violinist and composer (died 1881)

Henri François Joseph Vieuxtemps was a Belgian composer and violinist. He occupies an important place in the history of the violin as a prominent exponent of the Franco-Belgian violin school during the mid-19th century. He is also known for playing what is now known as the Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù, a violin of superior workmanship.

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17/02/1817

Édouard Thilges, Luxembourgish jurist and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Luxembourg (died 1904)

Jules Georges Édouard Thilges was a Luxembourgish politician. He served as prime minister of Luxembourg for over three years, from 20 February 1885 until 22 September 1888.

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17/02/1799

Carl Julian (von) Graba, German lawyer and ornithologist who visited and studied the Faroe Islands (died 1874)

Carl Julian (von) Graba was a German lawyer and Royal Danish judicial councillor, and was also a keen ornithologist and one of the first modern researchers to visit and study the Faroe Islands, where he described the local puffin which was subsequently named Fratercula arctica grabae after him. Graba's findings were mentioned in 1872 by Charles Darwin in his book On the Origin of Species.

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17/02/1796

Philipp Franz von Siebold, German physician and botanist (died 1866)

Jhr. Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold was a German physician, botanist and traveller. He achieved prominence by his studies of Japanese flora and fauna. He was the father of the first female Japanese doctor educated in Western medicine, Kusumoto Ine.

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17/02/1781

René Laennec, French physician, invented the stethoscope (died 1826)

René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec was a French medical doctor and musician. His skill at carving his own wooden flutes led him to invent the stethoscope in 1816, while working at the Hôpital Necker. He pioneered its use in diagnosing various chest conditions. He became a lecturer at the Collège de France in 1822 and professor of medicine in 1823. His final appointments were that of head of the medical clinic at the Hôpital de la Charité and professor at the Collège de France. He went into a coma and subsequently died of tuberculosis on 13 August 1826, at age 45.

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17/02/1762

John Cooke, English captain (died 1805)

Captain John Cooke was a Royal Navy officer who served in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Cooke is best known for his death in hand-to-hand combat with French forces during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. During the action, his ship HMS Bellerophon was badly damaged and boarded by sailors and marines from the French ship of the line Aigle. Cooke was killed in the ensuing melee, but his crew successfully drove off their opponents and ultimately forced the surrender of Aigle.

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17/02/1758

John Pinkerton, Scottish antiquarian, cartographer, author, numismatist and historian (died 1826)

John Pinkerton was a Scottish antiquarian, cartographer, author, numismatist, historian, and early advocate of Germanic racial supremacy theory.

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17/02/1754

Nicolas Baudin, French cartographer and explorer (died 1803)

Nicolas Thomas Baudin was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer, most notable for his explorations in Australia and the southern Pacific. He carried a few corms of Gros Michel banana from Southeast Asia, depositing them at a botanical garden on the Caribbean island of Martinique.

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17/02/1752

Friedrich Maximilian Klinger, German author and playwright (died 1831)

Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger was a German dramatist and novelist. His play Sturm und Drang (1776) gave its name to the Sturm und Drang artistic epoch. He was a childhood friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and is often closely associated with Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz. Klinger worked as a playwright for the Seylersche Schauspiel-Gesellschaft for two years, but eventually left the Kingdom of Prussia to become a General in the Imperial Russian Army.

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17/02/1740

Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, Swiss physicist and meteorologist (died 1799)

Horace Bénédict de Saussure was a Genevan geologist, meteorologist, physicist, mountaineer and Alpine explorer, often called the founder of alpinism and modern meteorology, and considered to be the first person to build a successful solar oven.

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17/02/1723

Tobias Mayer, German astronomer and academic (died 1762)

Tobias Mayer was a German astronomer famous for his studies of the Moon.

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17/02/1653

Arcangelo Corelli, Italian violinist and composer (died 1713)

Arcangelo Corelli was an Italian composer, musician, and violinist of the middle Baroque era. His music was key in the development of the modern genres of sonata and concerto, in establishing the preeminence of the violin, and as the first coalescing of modern tonality and functional harmony.

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17/02/1646

Pierre Le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert, French economist (died 1714)

Pierre le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert or Boisguillebert was a French lawmaker and a Jansenist, one of the inventors of the notion of an economic market.

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17/02/1524

Charles de Lorraine, French cardinal (died 1574)

Charles de Lorraine, Duke of Chevreuse, was a French cardinal and a member of the powerful House of Guise. He was known at first as the Cardinal of Guise, and then as the second Cardinal of Lorraine, after the death of his uncle, Jean, Cardinal of Lorraine (1550). He was the protector of François Rabelais and Pierre de Ronsard and founded Reims University. He is sometimes known as the Cardinal de Lorraine.

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17/02/1519

Francis, French Grand Chamberlain (died 1563)

François de Lorraine, 2nd Duke of Guise, 1st Prince of Joinville, and 1st Duke of Aumale, was a French general and statesman. A prominent leader during the Italian War of 1551–1559 and French Wars of Religion, he was assassinated during the siege of Orleans in 1563.

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17/02/1490

Charles III, duke of Bourbon (died 1527)

Charles III de Bourbon, comte de Montpensier, then duc de Bourbon was a French military commander, governor, prince of the royal blood and rebel during the early Italian Wars. The son of Gilbert de Bourbon and Clara Gonzaga, he was born into a junior branch of the royal house of France. The early death of his father and elder brother meant that he became the comte de Montpensier in 1501. He then secured a very advantageous marriage in 1505 to Suzanne de Bourbon, the heiress to the senior line of the house of Bourbon. By this means he became the greatest feudal lord in the French kingdom. He participated in the expeditions of king Louis XII seeing combat at Genoa in 1507 and at the famous battle of Agnadello in 1509. In 1512, he was established as the governor of Languedoc, and in the final years of Louis XII's reign he would fight the Spanish in Navarre and the English in Picardy.

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17/02/1028

Al-Juwayni, Persian scholar and imam (died 1085)

Dhia' ul-Dīn 'Abd al-Malik ibn Yūsuf al-Juwaynī al-Shafi'ī was an Iranian Sunni scholar famous for being the foremost leading jurisconsult, legal theoretician and Islamic theologian of his time. His name is commonly abbreviated as al-Juwayni; he is also commonly referred to as Imam al-Haramayn meaning "leading master of the two holy cities", that is, Mecca and Medina. He acquired the status of a mujtahid in the field of fiqh and usul al-fiqh. Highly celebrated as one of the most important and influential thinkers in the Shafi'i school of orthodox Sunni jurisprudence, he was considered as the virtual second founder of the Shafi'i school, after its first founder Imam al-Shafi'i. He was also considered a major figurehead within the Ash'ari school of theology where he was ranked equal to the founder, Imam al-Ash'ari. He was given the honorific titles of Shaykh of Islam, The Glory of Islam, The Absolute Imam of all Imams.

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17/02/0624

Wu Zetian, Chinese empress consort (died 705)

Empress Wu, commonly known as Wu Zetian, personal name Wu Zhao, was the only undisputed female sovereign in the history of China. She had previously held power as the empress consort of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang dynasty from 660 to 683 and as empress dowager during the reigns of her sons, Emperors Zhongzong and Ruizong, between 683 and 690. She was the sole ruler of the self-styled Zhou dynasty from 690 to 705.

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