1st January — New Year's Day & World Peace Day & Global Family Day

On this day, 269 notable people were born on 1st January — spanning from 766 to 2007. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

01/01/2007

Ian Subiabre, Argentine footballer

Ian Martín Subiabre is an Argentine footballer who plays as a winger for Argentine Primera Division club River Plate and the Argentina national U20 team.

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01/01/2004

Lamine Camara, Senegalese footballer

Lamine Camara is a Senegalese professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Ligue 1 club Monaco and the Senegal national team.

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01/01/2003

Daria Trubnikova, Russian rhythmic gymnast

Daria Sergeyevna Trubnikova is a retired Russian individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2018 Youth Olympic Games individual all-around champion, the 2018 European Junior Clubs and Team champion, the 2019 Grand Prix Final all-around gold medallist and the 2021 World Cup Baku all-around gold medallist. On the national level, she is the 2018 Russian Junior all-around bronze medalist. In January 2023, Trubnikova announced her retirement.

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01/01/2002

Simon Adingra, Ivorian footballer

Simon Adingra is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Ligue 1 club Monaco, on loan from Premier League club Sunderland, and the Ivory Coast national team.

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01/01/2001

Angourie Rice, Australian actress

Angourie Isabel Teresa Rice is an Australian actress. She began her career as a child actress, coming to attention for her roles in These Final Hours (2013) and The Nice Guys (2016). She played Betty Brant in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). For her starring role in Ladies in Black (2018), she won the AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. In 2024, she starred as Cady Heron in the musical film Mean Girls.

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Winter, South Korean singer

Kim Min-jeong, known professionally as Winter (윈터), is a South Korean singer and dancer. She is a member of the South Korean girl group Aespa which debuted under SM Entertainment in November 2020. In January 2022, she became a member of Got the Beat, a supergroup of female singers under SM.

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01/01/2000

Nicolas Kühn, German footballer

Nicolas-Gerrit Kühn is a German professional footballer who plays as a winger or forward for Serie A club Como.

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Ice Spice, American rapper

Isis Naija Gaston, known professionally as Ice Spice, is an American rapper and songwriter. Born and raised in the Bronx, New York City, she began her musical career during college in 2020, after meeting record producer RiotUSA. Her rapping style has been noted by music journalists, who have described her as a "breakout star".

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01/01/1999

Tomás Chancalay, Argentine footballer

Tomás Alejandro Chancalay is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a winger for Major League Soccer club Minnesota United.

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Azmy Qowimuramadhoni, Indonesian-Azerbaijani badminton player

Azmy Qowimuramadhoni is an Indonesian-born Azerbaijani badminton player. Playing in men's singles and men's doubles, he became an Azerbaijani naturalized citizen in 2018.

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01/01/1998

Cristina Bucșa, Moldovan-Spanish tennis player

Cristina Bucsa Bucsa is a Moldovan-Spanish professional tennis player. She has a career-high WTA singles ranking of world No. 30 and No. 16 in doubles, both achieved on 16 March 2026. She is the current No. 1 Spanish WTA player.

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Edwuin Cetré, Colombian footballer

Edwuin Steven Cetré Angulo, is a Colombian footballer who currently plays as a winger for Estudiantes de La Plata.

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Enock Mwepu, Zambian footballer

Enock Mwepu is a Zambian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

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Frank Onyeka, Nigerian footballer

Ogochukwu Franklin Onyeka is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Premier League club Coventry City, on loan from Brentford, and the Nigeria national team.

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01/01/1997

Noah Kahan, American singer-songwriter

Noah Berkenkamp Kahan is an American singer-songwriter. His breakthrough single, "Hurt Somebody", achieved gold status in the United States and charted in multiple international markets. The single and EP of the same name preceded the release of his debut album, Busyhead (2019). Within five years, two more albums followed: I Was / I Am (2021) and Stick Season (2022), the second of which went on to be his mainstream commercial breakthrough and led to his nomination in 2023 for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. In 2026, his fourth album The Great Divide was released and achieved record-breaking streaming and vinyl sales for a number-one rock album debut on the Billboard 200. This preceded The Great Divide Tour, his first stadium tour.

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Keegan Hipgrave, Australian rugby league player

Keegan Hipgrave is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who last played as a second-row forward for the Parramatta Eels in the NRL. He since retired from rugby league after five years playing first grade.

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Gonzalo Montiel, Argentine footballer

Gonzalo Ariel Montiel is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as right-back for the Argentine Primera División club River Plate and the Argentina national team.

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01/01/1996

Andreas Pereira, Brazilian footballer

Andreas Hugo Hoelgebaum Pereira is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Palmeiras. Born in Belgium, he represents the Brazil national team.

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Mahmoud Dahoud, German footballer

Mahmoud Dahoud is a professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt.

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Mathias Jensen, Danish footballer

Mathias Jensen is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Premier League club Brentford and the Denmark national team.

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01/01/1995

Sardar Azmoun, Iranian footballer

Sardar Azmoun ; born 1 January 1995) is an Iranian professional footballer who plays as a forward for UAE Pro League club Shabab Al Ahli.

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Poppy, American singer and YouTube personality

Moriah Rose Pereira, known professionally as Poppy and formerly as That Poppy, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and YouTuber. She earned recognition for her performance art videos on YouTube beginning in 2014, in which she played an uncanny valley-like android satirizing Internet culture and modern society. She collaborated with Titanic Sinclair during this period, and ended the partnership in 2019 after accusing him of emotional abuse. She launched the web series Improbably Poppy in 2024. She is known for her experimentation and versatility within her artistry, public image, and music.

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01/01/1994

Brendan Elliot, Australian rugby league player

Brendan Elliot is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a winger.

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LaMonte Wade Jr., American baseball player

LaMonte Aaron Wade Jr., nicknamed "Late Night LaMonte," is an American professional baseball first baseman for the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Minnesota Twins, San Francisco Giants, and Los Angeles Angels. He played college baseball for the Maryland Terrapins. The Twins selected Wade in the ninth round of the 2015 MLB draft, and made his MLB debut with them in 2019.

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01/01/1993

Larry Nance Jr., American basketball player

Larry Donnell Nance Jr. is an American professional basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Considered by many as one of the best big men ever to play in the Mountain West Conference, he played college basketball for the Wyoming Cowboys before being drafted 27th overall in the 2015 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. Nance has also played for the Portland Trail Blazers, New Orleans Pelicans, and Atlanta Hawks.

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Abdoulaye Doucouré, Malian footballer

Abdoulaye Doucouré is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder. Born near Paris to Malian parents, he played for France at youth level before earning two caps for Mali at senior level.

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01/01/1992

Nathaniel Peteru, New Zealand rugby league player

Nathaniel Peteru is a New Zealand professional rugby league footballer who last played as a prop and second-row forward for the Leigh Leopards in the Super League. He previously played for the Gold Coast Titans in the NRL, and for Hull Kingston Rovers and the Leeds Rhinos in the Super League.

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Shane Duffy, Irish footballer

Shane Patrick Michael Duffy is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for EFL Championship club Norwich City and the Republic of Ireland national team.

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01/01/1991

Glen Rice Jr., American basketball player

Glen Anthony Rice Jr. is an American professional basketball player for the Hapoel Safed of the Liga Leumit. He was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2013 NBA draft, but was immediately traded on draft night to the Washington Wizards. Rice played college basketball for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, but was dismissed from the team during his junior season. He is the son of NBA All-Star Glen Rice.

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Darius Slay, American football player

Darius Demetrius Slay Jr. is an American former professional football player who was a cornerback for 13 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Itawamba Indians before transferring to the Mississippi State Bulldogs. He was selected by the Detroit Lions in the second round of the 2013 NFL draft. Nicknamed "Big Play Slay", Slay won Super Bowl LIX with the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2024 season. He also played one season for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

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Xavier Su'a-Filo, American football player

Xavier Filoitumua Suʻa-Filo is an American former professional football player who was a guard in the National Football League (NFL). He currently is the offensive line coach for the Dallas Renegades of the United Football League (UFL). He played college football for the UCLA Bruins, earning second-team All-American honors in 2013. He was selected by the Houston Texans in the second round of the 2014 NFL draft.

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01/01/1990

Julia Glushko, Israeli tennis player

Julia Glushko is an Israeli former tennis player.

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Ali Maâloul, Tunisian football player

Ali Maâloul is a Tunisian professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 club CS Sfaxien and the Tunisia national team.

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01/01/1989

Jason Pierre-Paul, American football player

Jason Andrew Pierre-Paul is an American professional football linebacker. He played college football for the South Florida Bulls and was selected by the Giants in the first round of the 2010 NFL draft. With the Giants, Pierre-Paul made two Pro Bowls, was first-team All-Pro and won Super Bowl XLVI. With the Buccaneers, he made his third Pro Bowl and won Super Bowl LV.

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01/01/1988

Marcel Gecov, Czech footballer

Marcel Gecov is a Czech former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

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Dallas Keuchel, American baseball player

Dallas Keuchel is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Astros, Atlanta Braves, Chicago White Sox, Arizona Diamondbacks, Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins, and Milwaukee Brewers, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Chiba Lotte Marines.

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01/01/1987

Gia Coppola, American director and screenwriter

Gian-Carla Coppola, known professionally as Gia Coppola, is an American film director and screenwriter. A member of the Coppola family, she is the granddaughter of director Francis Ford Coppola. She made her feature film directorial debut with Palo Alto (2013), and has since directed Mainstream (2020) and The Last Showgirl (2024).

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Gilbert Brulé, Canadian ice hockey player

Gilbert Jean Marco Brulé is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre.

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Meryl Davis, American ice dancer

Meryl Davis is an American former competitive ice dancer. With partner Charlie White, she is the 2014 Olympic champion, the 2010 Olympic silver medalist, a two-time World champion, five-time Grand Prix Final champion (2009–2013), three-time Four Continents champion and six-time U.S. national champion (2009–2014). They also won a bronze medal in the team event at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

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Patric Hörnqvist, Swedish ice hockey player

Patric Gösta Hörnqvist is a Swedish former professional ice hockey player. He played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Nashville Predators, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Florida Panthers.

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01/01/1986

Pablo Cuevas, Uruguayan tennis player

Pablo Gabriel Cuevas Urroz is a Uruguayan tennis coach and a former professional player. Cuevas won the 2008 French Open men's doubles title with Luis Horna, and was especially noted throughout his career for spectacular trickshots.

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Glen Davis, American basketball player

Ronald Glen Davis is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Big Baby", he played for the Boston Celtics, Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Clippers, and St. John’s Edge.

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Colin Morgan, Northern Irish actor

Colin Morgan is an actor from Northern Ireland. He is known for playing the title character in the BBC fantasy series Merlin (2008–2012), Leo Elster in Humans (2015–2018), and Billy Clanton in Kenneth Branagh's Belfast (2021).

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Lee Sung-min, South Korean singer

Lee Sung-min, known mononymously as Sungmin and also LIU, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, and actor. He is a member of the South Korean boy band Super Junior and its sub-groups Super Junior-T, Super Junior-H, and Super Junior-M, though he hasn't performed with the group since 2014.

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01/01/1985

Jeff Carter, Canadian ice hockey player

Jeffrey J. Carter is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre who played 19 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Los Angeles Kings, and Pittsburgh Penguins. He was drafted 11th overall by the Flyers in the 2003 NHL entry draft.

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Steven Davis, Northern Irish footballer

Steven Davis is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He made his full international debut in 2005 and made 140 appearances at senior level, scoring 13 goals, to become the most capped Northern Ireland player, also a record for any man from the British home nations. He captained his country at UEFA Euro 2016 where they reached the last 16.

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Kenoh, Japanese professional wrestler

Daisuke Nakae is a Japanese professional wrestler and martial artist, better known by the ring name Kenoh . He currently wrestles in Pro Wrestling Noah, where he is a former 4-time GHC Heavyweight Champion. He is also a former GHC National Champion.

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Tiago Splitter, Brazilian basketball player

Tiago Splitter Beims is a Brazilian professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach for the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A three-time All-EuroLeague Team selection prior to his NBA career, he became the first Brazilian-born player to win an NBA championship, in 2014, as a member of the San Antonio Spurs.

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01/01/1984

Paolo Guerrero, Peruvian footballer

José Paolo Guerrero González is a Peruvian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Liga 1 club Alianza Lima and the Peru national team. Known as one of the best Peruvian and South American strikers of his time, he was key to Peru's successes in the 2000s through 2010s, giving him the nickname, el Depredador.

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Fernando San Emeterio, Spanish basketball player

Fernando San Emeterio Lara is a Spanish professional basketball coach and former player. He is currently working as an assistant coach for Valencia of the Spanish Liga ACB and the EuroLeague.

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Michael Witt, Australian rugby league player

Michael Witt is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in Australasia's National Rugby League (NRL) competition for the Parramatta Eels, Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and the New Zealand Warriors, before a season playing rugby union in the Air New Zealand Cup. He then returned to rugby league, playing in the Super League for Crusaders RL and the London Broncos. Witt then played one more season in Australia for the St. George Illawarra Dragons.

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01/01/1983

Calum Davenport, English footballer

Calum Ray Paul Davenport is an English former professional footballer who last played for Tavistock. During his career he has played for Coventry City, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United, Southampton, Norwich City, Watford, Sunderland, Wootton Blue Cross and Elstow Abbey. He played as a defender.

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Park Sung-hyun, South Korean archer

Park Sung-hyun is an archer from South Korea who competed in two Olympic Games, winning three gold medals. Park made her international archery debut in 2001, winning the women's recurve title at that year's World Archery Championships. Her Olympic debut came at the 2004 Summer Olympics, where she won gold medals in both the women's individual and women's team events. She won two further medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics, achieving her third Olympic gold in the women's team event before earning the silver medal as the runner-up in the women's individual event.

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01/01/1982

Egidio Arévalo, Uruguayan footballer

Egidio Raúl Arévalo Ríos, nicknamed El Cacha, is a Uruguayan former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. He also holds Mexican citizenship.

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David Nalbandian, Argentine tennis player

David Pablo Nalbandian is an Argentine former professional tennis player. He reached his highest ranking in singles of world No. 3 in March 2006, during a career that spanned from 2000 to 2013. Nalbandian was runner-up in the singles event at the 2002 Wimbledon Championships. During his career, he won 11 singles titles, including the Tennis Masters Cup in 2005 and two Masters 1000 tournaments. Nalbandian is the only Argentine man in history to reach the semifinals or better at all four majors and to reach the Wimbledon final. He was a member of the Argentinian Davis Cup team who reached the finals of the World Group in 2006, 2008 and 2011. Nalbandian played right-handed with a two-handed backhand, regarded at the time to be one of the best on tour. Nalbandian was considered one of the greatest players to have never won a Grand Slam title. Since his retirement, Nalbandian has taken up the sport of rally racing and has competed in Rally Argentina.

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01/01/1981

Jonas Armstrong, Irish-English actor

Jonas Armstrong is an Irish actor, based in the United Kingdom. He rose to prominence playing the title character on the BBC's Robin Hood (2006–2009). He has since appeared in miniseries such as Dark Angel (2016), Troy: Fall of a City (2018), The Drowning, Hollington Drive, After the Flood and Coma, and starred as Sean Meredith on the first season of ITV's The Bay (2019). Armstrong won critical acclaim for his portrayal of Barry Bennell in the 2022 television film Floodlights. His feature film credits include Book of Blood (2009), Twenty8k (2012), and Edge of Tomorrow (2014).

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Zsolt Baumgartner, Hungarian racing driver

Zsolt Baumgartner is a Hungarian former racing driver who raced for the Jordan and Minardi teams in Formula One. He remains the only Hungarian driver to have competed and to have scored a point in Formula One.

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Mladen Petrić, Croatian footballer

Mladen Petrić is a retired professional footballer who played as a forward. During his career, he played for Grasshoppers, Basel, Borussia Dortmund, Hamburger SV, Fulham, West Ham United and Panathinaikos. Born in Socialist Bosnia, he represented Switzerland on youth levels internationally before opting for Croatia on senior level.

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Eden Riegel, American actress

Eden Sonja Jane Riegel is an American actress. She portrayed Bianca Montgomery in the daytime drama All My Children, and propelled the character into a gay icon, as well as a popular figure within the medium. Nominated previously on multiple occasions, she received a Daytime Emmy Award for the role in 2005.

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01/01/1980

Elin Nordegren, Swedish-American model

Elin Maria Pernilla Nordegren is a Swedish former model and nanny. She was married to professional golfer Tiger Woods from 2004 until their divorce in 2010.

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01/01/1979

Vidya Balan, Indian actress

Vidya Balan is an Indian actress. Known for pioneering a change in the portrayal of women in Hindi cinema with her roles in female-led films, she is the recipient of several awards, including a National Film Award and seven Filmfare Awards. She was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2014. She was invited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to join the Actors Branch in 2021.

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Ibrahim Benli, Danish politician

Ibrahim Benli is a Danish politician and Member of the Folketing. A member of the Red–Green Alliance, he has represented Greater Copenhagen since March 2026.

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01/01/1978

Arilson Chiorato, Brazilian politician

Arilson Maroldi Chiorato is a Brazilian politician serving as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Paraná since 2019. He has served as leader of the opposition since 2025, having previously served in 2022.

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01/01/1976

Tank, American singer, songwriter, producer, and actor

Durrell Artaze Babbs, better known by his stage name Tank, is an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, and podcaster. He began his career as a backing vocalist for Aaliyah and Ginuwine, and signed a recording contract with the former's record label, Blackground Records as a performing act in 1998. His 2001 single, "Maybe I Deserve" peaked within the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 and led his debut studio album, Force of Nature (2001). It peaked within the top ten of the Billboard 200, while his second album, One Man (2002), peaked within the top 20 and was met with mixed critical reception.

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01/01/1975

Chris Anstey, Australian basketball player and coach

Christopher John Anstey is an Australian former professional basketball player. His career included stints in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Russia and Spain. Anstey was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the 1997 NBA draft. He also played for the Melbourne Tigers, South East Melbourne Magic and Victoria Titans in the NBL. He retired at the end of the 2009–10 season while with the Tigers and later became the team's head coach in 2012.

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Joe Cannon, American soccer player and sportscaster

Joseph Cannon is an American former professional soccer player. He spent the majority of his 16 professional seasons playing in Major League Soccer. His 86 MLS career shutouts rank him fourth in league history. He won the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year Award twice, and finished runner-up for the award three times.

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Becky Kellar-Duke, Canadian ice hockey player

Rebecca "Becky" Kellar is a retired ice hockey defender. She played for the Toronto Aeros and Oakville Ice in the NWHL, the Burlington Barracudas in the Canadian Women's Hockey League, and the Canadian national team.

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Fernando Tatís, Dominican baseball player

Fernando Gabriel Tatís Medina Sr. is a Dominican former professional baseball third baseman who currently serves as the manager for the Algodoneros de Unión Laguna of the Mexican League. Over his 11-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, Tatís played for the Texas Rangers, St. Louis Cardinals, Montreal Expos, Baltimore Orioles, and New York Mets. He holds the major league record for runs batted in (RBI) in an inning, a feat that he achieved by hitting two grand slams in one inning during a game on April 23, 1999, becoming the only player in MLB history to do so. His son, Fernando Jr., plays for the San Diego Padres.

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01/01/1974

Christian Paradis, Canadian lawyer and politician, 9th Canadian Minister of Industry

Christian Paradis is a Canadian politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mégantic—L'Érable from 2006 to 2015. A member of the Conservative Party of Canada, he was first elected in the 2006 federal election and served as parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources until January 4, 2007, when he was appointed Secretary of State for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Rural Secretariat. On June 25, 2008, Paradis was appointed Minister of Public Works and Government Services, retaining his position as Secretary of State for Agriculture until October that same year. On October 30, 2008, in a cabinet shuffle following the election, he retained the Public Works portfolio. In addition, he succeeded Lawrence Cannon as Quebec Lieutenant. On January 19, 2010, in a cabinet shuffle, Prime Minister Harper appointed him Minister of Natural Resources. On May 18, 2011, in a cabinet shuffle he was appointed to be the Minister of Industry. On July 15, 2013, in a cabinet shuffle, he was appointed as Minister of International Development and Minister for La Francophonie.

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01/01/1972

Lilian Thuram, French footballer

Ruddy Lilian Thuram-Ulien is a French author, philanthropist and former professional footballer who played as a defender. He was capable of playing both as a centre-back or as a right-back, and helped both offensively and defensively.

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01/01/1971

Sammie Henson, American wrestler and coach

Samuel "Sammie" Henson is a 5’8 World Champion wrestler, winning a gold medal in freestyle for the USA at the 1998 FILA Wrestling World Championships, held in Tehran, Iran. He was also a silver medallist at the 2000 Summer Olympics in the freestyle 54 kg category, losing to Abdullayev in the finals of that event, held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. At the age of 36, he competed at the 2006 FILA Wrestling World Championships held in Guangzhou, China, earning a bronze medal. He was named USA Wrestling's Man of the Year in 1998.

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Bobby Holík, Czech-American ice hockey player and coach

Robert Holík is a Czech-American former professional ice hockey center who played 18 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL). Holík is the son of Jaroslav Holík, a Czechoslovak ice hockey world champion in 1972 and Czech national team head coach who led the under-20 team to world titles in 2000 and 2001. Holík is the current head coach of the Israel men's national ice hockey team.

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Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia, Indian politician

Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia is an Indian politician who is serving as the 56th Minister of Communications and 10th Minister of Development of North Eastern Region since 2024. He was a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha representing the state of Madhya Pradesh from 2020 till his win in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He was a Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha, representing the Guna constituency in Madhya Pradesh from 2002 until his defeat in the 2019 Indian general election, and then since 4 June 2024. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2020 and was a former member of the Indian National Congress (INC) from 2001 to 2020. While a member of the INC, he was the Union Minister for Power and Corporate in the second Manmohan Singh ministry from 2012 to 2014.

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01/01/1970

Sergei Kiriakov, Russian footballer and coach

Sergei Vyacheslavovich Kiriakov is a Russian football coach and a former player.

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01/01/1969

Morris Chestnut, American actor

Morris Lamont Chestnut is an American actor. He first came to prominence for his role as Ricky Baker in the 1991 film Boyz n the Hood. He has appeared in feature films such as G.I. Jane, The Brothers, Like Mike, Ladder 49, The Game Plan, The Call, and Kick-Ass 2. He has also played Lance Sullivan in The Best Man (1999), reprising the role in the 2013 sequel film The Best Man Holiday, and 2022 follow-up series The Best Man: The Final Chapters.

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Verne Troyer, American actor (died 2018)

Verne Jay Troyer was an American actor, comedian and occasional stunt coordinator and performer. He was best known for playing Mini-Me in the Austin Powers film series. He had cartilage–hair hypoplasia and was 2 ft 8 in (81 cm) tall.

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01/01/1968

Davor Šuker, Croatian footballer

Davor Šuker is a Croatian football administrator and former professional player who played as a striker. He served as the president of the Croatian Football Federation (HNS) from 2012 to 2021. As Croatia's all-time top scorer with 45 goals, Šuker is generally regarded as one of the greatest Croatian players of all time. Under his leadership of the Croatian Football Federation, Croatia reached runner-up at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the nation's highest international achievement.

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01/01/1967

Tawera Nikau, New Zealand rugby league player

Tawera Nuieia Nikau is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. A New Zealand international representative forward, he played club football at a number of different clubs in New Zealand, England and Australia during his career, including the Melbourne Storm's victory in the 1999 NRL season Grand Final.

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01/01/1966

Anna Burke, Australian businesswoman and politician, 28th Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives

Anna Elizabeth Burke is an Australian former politician who served as the 28th speaker of the Australian House of Representatives from October 2012 to August 2013, and was Acting Speaker from May to October 2012. A member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), she was the member of parliament (MP) for the division of Chisholm from 1998 to 2016.

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Ivica Dačić, Serbian journalist and politician, 95th Prime Minister of Serbia

Ivica Dačić is a Serbian politician who has served various governmental positions since 2008. He has been deputy prime minister of Serbia since 2022, having previously served that role from 2008 to 2012 and again from 2014 to 2020, and the minister of internal affairs since 2024, having previously served that role from 2008 to 2014. The leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) since 2006, he was the prime minister of Serbia from 2012 to 2014 and president of the National Assembly of Serbia from 2020 to 2022.

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Tihomir Orešković, Croatian–Canadian businessman, 11th Prime Minister of Croatia

Tihomir "Tim" Orešković is a Croatian-Canadian businessman who was Prime Minister of Croatia from January to October 2016, before a no-confidence vote filed by one of the two parties in the ruling coalition brought his government down.

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01/01/1964

Dedee Pfeiffer, American actress

Dorothy Diane "Dedee" Pfeiffer is an American actress. She began her career appearing in films including Vamp (1986), The Allnighter (1987) and The Horror Show (1989). Pfeiffer later starred as Cybill's daughter, Rachel, in the CBS sitcom Cybill (1995–1998) and as Sheri DeCarlo-Winston in the NBC/The WB sitcom For Your Love (1998–2002). In 2020, she began starring as Denise Brisbane in the ABC crime drama series, Big Sky.

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01/01/1963

Milo Aukerman, American singer and songwriter

Milo Jay Aukerman is an American singer, songwriter, and former research molecular biologist. Aukerman is most widely known for being the lead vocalist of the punk rock band the Descendents, a group widely considered to be pioneers of pop-punk. A caricature of Aukerman serves as the band's mascot.

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Jean-Marc Gounon, French racing driver

Jean-Marc André Gounon is a French racing driver. He raced in Formula One in 1993 and 1994, participating in a total of 9 Grands Prix and scoring no championship points. He is the father of fellow racing driver Jules Gounon.

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01/01/1962

Anton Muscatelli, Italian-Scottish economist and academic

Sir Vito Antonio Muscatelli is the President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and former Principal of the University of Glasgow.

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01/01/1961

Sam Backo, Australian rugby league player (died 2025)

Samson Backo was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played as a prop in the 1980s and 1990s.

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01/01/1959

Abdul Ahad Mohmand, Afghan colonel, pilot, and astronaut

Abdul Ahad Momand is an Afghan-German and former Afghan Air Force aviator who became the first, and currently only, Afghan astronaut to journey to outer space. He became one of Soyuz TM-6 crew members and spent nine days aboard the Mir space station in 1988 as an Interkosmos research cosmonaut.

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Azali Assoumani, Comorian colonel and politician, President of the Comoros

Azali Assoumani is a Comorian politician and military officer who has served as the seventh President of the Comoros from 2002 to 2006 and again since 2016, except for a brief period in 2019. He became head of state after staging a coup d'état in 1999 and was elected president in 2002, 2016, 2019 and 2024. He also served as Chairperson of the African Union from February 2023 to February 2024. Assoumani's current presidency has been described as increasingly authoritarian.

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Panagiotis Giannakis, Greek basketball player and coach

Panagiotis "Notis" Giannakis, alternatively spelled Panayiotis Yiannakis or Yannakis, is a former Greek professional basketball player and coach. He is considered to be one of the greatest sportspeople of Greece. He started his senior career at the age of just 13 at Ionikos Nikaias and after noticeable success, he achieved extraordinary success as a player with Aris Thessaloniki from 1984 to 1993, in partnership with Greek basketball's biggest star Nikos Galis, while achieving victory as the national team captain in EuroBasket 1987 in Athens, Greece's first major tournament win in non-Olympic sport which, along with Aris' extraordinary success, cultivated the sport in the country. At the end of his career, he won the EuroLeague with Panathinaikos in 1996. As head coach, he most prominently led Greece to its second European trophy in EuroBasket 2005 at Serbia and Montenegro, where a team of new and talented stars shone brightest under the nurturship of Giannakis. He would repeat the success the next year, acquiring the silver medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan, where the team most notably scored a decisive win against the USA stars of the NBA in the semi-final, which would be USMNBT's last loss in a tournament until 2019. However, Greece's arch rivals Spain would defeat Giannakis' team in the final, as they would do again in the semi-finals of the 2007 EuroBasket. Outside of the Greek national team, he would coach Greek clubs like Aris, where he had the most success as player, Olympiacos, where he achieved renewed success, and the China men's national basketball team. As a player, he was primarily a point guard, but he could also play at the shooting guard position. During his playing career, Giannakis was also widely-known under his nickname of "O Drákos", or "The Dragon" in English.

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Adrian Hall, English director and former actor

Adrian Hall is an English former actor and co-director. He is best known for the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), in which he portrayed the part of Jeremy Potts. He was later Principal of the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA) until 2020, 2 years before ALRA closed.

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01/01/1958

Grandmaster Flash, Barbadian rapper and DJ

Joseph Robert Saddler, known by his stage name Grandmaster Flash, is a Barbadian-American DJ. He created a DJ technique called the Quick Mix Theory. This technique serviced the break-dancer and the rapper by elongating the drum breaks through the use of duplicate copies of vinyl. This technique gave birth to cutting and scratching. It also gave rappers better music with a seamless elongated bed of beats to speak on. He also invented the slipmat.

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Dave Silk, American ice hockey player

David Mark Silk is an American former professional ice hockey player. His professional career, which spanned 13 years, included 249 NHL regular season games with the Boston Bruins, Winnipeg Jets, Detroit Red Wings and New York Rangers. Silk is arguably most famous for being a member of the 1980 US Men's hockey team that won the gold medal at the Olympics in Lake Placid. He is the cousin of former NHL and Boston Bruins player Mike Milbury.

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01/01/1957

Evangelos Venizelos, Greek lawyer and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Greece

Evangelos Venizelos is a Greek academic and retired politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Greece from 2011 to 2015, as well as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 25 June 2013 to 27 January 2015 and Minister for Finance of Greece from 17 June 2011 to 21 March 2012. He was a member of the Hellenic Parliament for the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) for the first electoral district of Thessaloniki. He is a Professor of Constitutional Law at the Law School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

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01/01/1956

Sergei Avdeyev, Russian engineer and astronaut

Sergei Vasilyevich Avdeyev is a former Russian engineer and cosmonaut.

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Royce Ayliffe, Australian rugby league player

David Royce Ayliffe is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s and 1980s. An Australian international and New South Wales State of Origin representative, he played for and captained the Eastern Suburbs club. Ayliffe also played for the South Sydney Rabbitohs club. During the 1976 NSWRFL season, Brass played in the forwards, helping Eastern Suburbs to victory in their unofficial 1976 World Club Challenge match against British champions St. Helens in Sydney. While attending Wollongong Keira High School, Ayliffe played for the Australian Schoolboys team in 1972. He also gained selection for the Australian Kangaroos in 1981. Since retirement he has served on the NRL Judiciary.

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Christine Lagarde, French lawyer and politician; Managing Director, International Monetary Fund

Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde is a French politician and lawyer who has been the president of the European Central Bank since 2019. She previously served as the 11th Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2011 to 2019. Lagarde had also served in the Government of France, most prominently as Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry from 2007 until 2011. She is the first woman to hold each of those posts.

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Mike Mitchell, American basketball player (died 2011)

Michael Anthony Mitchell was an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA), over eleven seasons, from 1978 to 1990.

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Martin Plaza, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist

Martin Edward Murphy, commonly known by the pseudonym Martin Plaza, is an Australian singer-songwriter, musician and visual artist who is a founding member, vocalist and guitarist of the new wave band Mental As Anything. He has also worked with other bands and is an accomplished artist. Plaza also has a solo music career and had a No. 2 hit in Australia with his 1986 cover of the song "Concrete and Clay".

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01/01/1955

Mary Beard, English classicist, academic and presenter

Dame Winifred Mary Beard is an English classicist specialising in Ancient Rome. She is a trustee of the British Museum and formerly held a personal professorship of classics at the University of Cambridge. She is a fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge, and Royal Academy of Arts Professor of Ancient Literature.

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LaMarr Hoyt, American baseball player (died 2021)

Dewey LaMarr Hoyt Jr. was an American professional baseball right-handed pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball for the Chicago White Sox and San Diego Padres from 1979 to 1986. He won the 1983 American League Cy Young Award and was an All-Star in 1985.

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01/01/1954

Richard Edson, American actor

Richard Edson is an American actor and musician.

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Bob Menendez, American lawyer and politician

Robert Menendez is an American former politician and lawyer who represented New Jersey in the United States Senate from 2006 until his resignation in 2024. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented New Jersey's 13th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1993 to 2006. His political career ended after he was convicted in a political corruption case in 2024, making him the first sitting member of Congress convicted of conspiracy to act as a foreign agent.

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Dennis O'Driscoll, Irish poet and critic (died 2012)

Dennis O'Driscoll was an Irish poet, essayist, critic and editor. Regarded as one of the best European poets of his time, Eileen Battersby considered him "the lyric equivalent of William Trevor" and a better poet "by far" than Raymond Carver. Gerard Smyth regarded him as "one of poetry's true champions and certainly its most prodigious archivist. His book on Seamus Heaney is regarded as the definitive biography of the Nobel laureate.

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Yannis Papathanasiou, Greek engineer and politician, Greek Minister of Finance

Yannis Papathanasiou is a Greek politician, former Minister for Economy and Finance of Greece. He is a member of the Hellenic Parliament with the conservative New Democracy party since 2002.

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01/01/1953

Gary Johnson, American businessman and politician, 29th Governor of New Mexico

Gary Earl Johnson is an American businessman and politician who served as the 29th governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003 as a member of the Republican Party. He has been a member of the Libertarian Party since 2011 and was the party's nominee in the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections. He was also the Libertarian nominee in the 2018 U.S. Senate election in New Mexico.

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01/01/1952

Shaji N. Karun, Indian director and cinematographer (died 2025)

Shaji Neelakantan Karunakaran ISC, better known as Shaji N. Karun, was an Indian film director and cinematographer. His debut film Piravi (1988) won the Caméra d'Or – Mention d'honneur at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. He was the inaugural chairman of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, the first academy for film and TV in India and was also the executive chairman of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) from 1998 to 2001. He is best known for his award-winning films Piravi (1988), Swaham (1994), Vanaprastham (1999) and Kutty Srank (2009). He won the National Award for Best Director for his debut film Piravi. He also won two Kerala State Film Awards for Best Director for his films Swaham and Vanaprastham. He was the Chairman of Kerala State Film Development Corporation from 2019 to 2025 until his death.

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01/01/1950

Wayne Bennett, Australian rugby league player and coach

Wayne James Bennett is an Australian professional rugby league football coach who is the head coach of the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the NRL and a former player. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest coaches of all time. Bennett has previously coached the Dolphins, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, the Brisbane Broncos, the Newcastle Knights, the St George Illawarra Dragons, the Canberra Raiders, the Queensland Maroons State of Origin team, the NRL All Stars and the Australian Kangaroos national team as well as the England and Great Britain national teams.

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Tony Currie, English footballer

Anthony William Currie is an English former footballer who had significant spells for Sheffield United, Leeds United and Queens Park Rangers as well as representing England.

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01/01/1949

Borys Tarasyuk, Ukrainian politician and diplomat

Borys Ivanovych Tarasyuk is a Ukrainian politician who twice served as the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and a former MP who is since December 2019 Ukraine's permanent representative to the Council of Europe.

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01/01/1948

Devlet Bahçeli, Turkish economist, academic, and politician, 57th Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey

Devlet Bahçeli is a Turkish politician, economist, former deputy prime minister, and current chairman of the far-right, ultranationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Bahçeli has been described as a kingmaker in Turkish politics.

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Pavel Grachev, Russian general and politician, 1st Russian Minister of Defence (died 2012)

Pavel Sergeyevich Grachev, sometimes transliterated as Grachov or Grachyov, was a Russian Army General and the Defence Minister of the Russian Federation from 1992 to 1996; in 1988 he was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union gold star.

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Dick Quax, New Zealand runner and politician (died 2018)

Theodorus Jacobus Leonardus Quax, known as Dick Quax, was a Dutch-born New Zealand runner, one-time world record holder in the 5000 metres, and local-body politician.

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01/01/1947

Jon Corzine, American sergeant and politician, 54th Governor of New Jersey

Jon Stevens Corzine is an American financial executive and retired politician who served as a United States senator from New Jersey from 2001 to 2006, and the 54th governor of New Jersey from 2006 to 2010. Corzine ran for a second term as governor in 2009 but was defeated for re-election by Republican Chris Christie. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously worked at Goldman Sachs; after leaving politics, he was CEO of MF Global from 2010 until its collapse in 2011.

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01/01/1946

Rivellino, Brazilian footballer and manager

Roberto Rivellino, known as just Rivellino, is a Brazilian football pundit and former player who was one of the key members of Brazil's 1970 FIFA World Cup-winning team.

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Claude Steele, American social psychologist and academic

Claude Mason Steele is a social psychologist and emeritus professor at Stanford University, where he is the I. James Quillen Endowed Dean, emeritus at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education, and Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences, emeritus.

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01/01/1945

Victor Ashe, American politician and former United States Ambassador to Poland

Victor Henderson Ashe II is an American former diplomat and politician who served as United States Ambassador to Poland. From 1987 to 2004, he was mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee. A Republican, Ashe concluded his service as Ambassador to Poland on September 26, 2009.

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Jacky Ickx, Belgian racing driver

Jacques Bernard Edmon Martin Henri "Jacky" Ickx is a Belgian former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1966 to 1979. Ickx twice finished runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1969 and 1970, and won eight Grands Prix across 14 seasons. In endurance racing, Ickx won two World Endurance Championships with Porsche and is a six-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, as well as a two-time winner of the 12 Hours of Sebring. In rallying, Ickx won the Paris–Dakar Rally in 1983 with Mercedes.

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Jimmy Jones, American basketball player

James Jones is an American former professional basketball player who was a six-time All-Star in the American Basketball Association (ABA), one of only four players to be named an ABA All-Star six times in its nine-year history.

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01/01/1944

Barry Beath, Australian rugby league player

Barry Beath is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer, a second-row forward for the St. George Dragons in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership competition. He represented for New South Wales and in the Australia national rugby league team.

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Jimmy Hart, American professional wrestling manager

James Ray "Jimmy" Hart is an American professional wrestling manager, executive, composer, and musician. He is signed to WWE in a Legends deal. He is best known for his work in the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He is known by the nickname "the Mouth of the South". He was the AWA Southern Heavyweight Champion for five days in 1981.

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Zafarullah Khan Jamali, Pakistani field hockey player and politician, 13th Prime Minister of Pakistan (died 2020)

Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali was a Pakistani politician who served as the 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 2002 to 2004. He was the first and only elected prime minister from Balochistan, Pakistan.

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Teresa Torańska, Polish journalist and author (died 2013)

Teresa Sławomira Torańska was a Polish journalist and writer. She was perhaps best known for her award winning monograph, Oni.

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Mati Unt, Estonian author, playwright, and director (died 2005)

Mati Unt was an Estonian writer, essayist and theatre director.

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01/01/1943

Tony Knowles, American soldier and politician, 7th Governor of Alaska

Anthony Carroll Knowles is an American politician and businessman who served as the seventh governor of Alaska from 1994 to 2002. Term limited from seeking a third consecutive term as governor in 2002, he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2004 and again for governor in 2006. In September 2008, Knowles became president of the National Energy Policy Institute, a non-profit energy policy organization funded by billionaire George Kaiser's family foundation, and located at the University of Tulsa. As of 2026, Knowles is the most recent Governor of Alaska from the Democratic Party.

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Don Novello, American comedian, screenwriter and producer

Don Novello is an American comedian, actor, writer, singer, film director and producer.

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Vladimir Šeks, Croatian lawyer and politician, 16th Speaker of the Croatian Parliament

Vladimir Šeks is a Croatian lawyer and politician. He has been a representative in the Croatian Parliament since the nation's independence, and has held the posts of the Speaker of the Parliament, as well as Deputy Prime Minister in the government. He also served as acting President of the Croatian Democratic Union and Leader of the Opposition from 5 January to 30 April 2000.

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01/01/1942

Dennis Archer, American lawyer and politician, 67th Mayor of Detroit

Dennis Wayne Archer is an American lawyer, jurist and politician from Michigan. A Democrat, Archer served as Justice on the Michigan Supreme Court and as mayor of Detroit. He later served as president of the American Bar Association, becoming the first black president of the organization, which, until 1943, had barred African-American lawyers from membership.

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Anthony Hamilton-Smith, 3rd Baron Colwyn, English dentist and politician (died 2024)

Ian Anthony Hamilton-Smith, 3rd Baron Colwyn,, commonly known as Anthony Hamilton-Smith, was a British peer, politician and dentist.

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Country Joe McDonald, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Joseph Allen "Country Joe" McDonald was an American singer, songwriter, musician and film composer, who was the lead singer and co-founder of the 1960s psychedelic folk-rock group Country Joe and the Fish. He wrote some of the group's most well-known songs, including "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine" and "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag", the latter a protest song against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

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Alassane Ouattara, Ivorian economist and politician, President of the Ivory Coast

Alassane Dramane Ouattara is an Ivorian politician and economist who has been President of Ivory Coast since 2010. An economist by profession, he worked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Central Bank of West African States, and was the Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire from November 1990 to December 1993, appointed to that post by then-President Félix Houphouët-Boigny. Ouattara became the president of the Rally of the Republicans (RDR), an Ivorian political party, in 1999.

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Gennadi Sarafanov, Russian pilot and cosmonaut (died 2005)

Gennady Vasiliyevich Sarafanov was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 15 spaceflight in 1974. This mission was intended to dock with the space station Salyut 3, but failed to do so after the docking system malfunctioned.

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01/01/1940

Prathia Hall, American civil rights movement activist (died 2002)

Prathia Laura Ann Hall Wynn was an American leader and activist in the Civil Rights Movement, a womanist theologian, and ethicist. She was the key inspiration for Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

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01/01/1939

Michèle Mercier, French actress

Michèle Mercier is a French actress. In the course of her career she has worked with leading directors like François Truffaut, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jacques Deray, Dino Risi, Mario Monicelli, Mario Bava, Peter Collinson and Ken Annakin. Her leading men have included Marcello Mastroianni, Vittorio Gassman, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Gabin, Charles Aznavour, Robert Hossein, Charles Bronson, Tony Curtis and Charlton Heston. She has appeared in over fifty films, and is best known for her starring role in Angelique, Marquise des Anges.

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Phil Read, English motorcycle racer and businessman (died 2022)

Phillip William Read, was an English professional motorcycle racer. He competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing from 1961 to 1976. Read is notable for being the first competitor to win world championships in the 125 cc, 250 cc and 500 cc classes. Although he was often overshadowed by his contemporary, Mike Hailwood, he won seven FIM Grand Prix road racing world championships.

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Senfronia Thompson, American politician

Senfronia Paige Thompson is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she has represented the 141st district in the Texas House of Representatives since 1973. She is the former dean of women legislators in Texas and is the longest-serving African American or female lawmaker in state history. She has been elected to 25 terms in office.

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Younoussi Touré, Malian politician, Prime Minister of Mali (died 2022)

Younoussi Touré was a Malian politician. He was Prime Minister of Mali from 9 June 1992 to 12 April 1993 and was the first prime minister appointed under President Alpha Oumar Konaré. Touré was the president of the Union for the Republic and Democracy (URD), a political party, from 2003 to 2014. He was First Vice-President of the National Assembly from 2007 to 2012 and President of the National Assembly from 2012 to 2013.

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01/01/1938

Frank Langella, American actor

Frank Alexander Langella Jr. is an American actor. He has received numerous accolades, including four Tony Awards and an Actor Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Golden Globes.

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01/01/1936

James Sinegal, American businessman, co-founded Costco

James D. Sinegal is an American businessman, co-founder and former CEO of the Costco Wholesale Corporation, an international retail chain. He served as Costco's president and CEO from 1983 until 2011. As CEO of Costco, Sinegal was known for his hands-on humanitarian approach to business. He prioritized customer and employee satisfaction over shareholder interests and is also known for his philanthropic efforts.

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01/01/1935

Om Prakash Chautala, Indian politician (died 2024)

Om Prakash Chautala was an Indian politician who served as the Chief Minister of Haryana from 1999 to 2005. A member of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), he became the chief minister of Haryana for five terms. He served as the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Haryana Legislative Assembly from 2005 to 2014. He holds the record for being the oldest prisoner of the Tihar Jail, at the age of 89. He was son of Devi Lal, former deputy prime minister of India.

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01/01/1934

Alan Berg, American lawyer and radio host (died 1984)

Alan Harrison Berg was a Jewish-American talk radio show host in Denver, Colorado. He had outspoken atheistic and liberal views and a confrontational interview style. Berg was assassinated by members of the white supremacist group The Order, which believed in killing all Jews and sending all black people to Africa. Those involved in the killing were part of a group planning to kill prominent Jews such as Berg. Two of Berg's killers, David Lane and Bruce Pierce, were convicted on charges of federal civil rights violations for killing him. They were sentenced to 190 years and 252 years in prison, respectively.

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Lakhdar Brahimi, Algerian politician, Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs

Lakhdar Brahimi is an Algerian United Nations diplomat who served as the United Nations and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria until 14 May 2014. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Algeria from 1991 to 1993. He served as chairman of the United Nations Panel on United Nations Peace Operations in 2000. Its highly influential report "Report of the Panel on United Nations Peacekeeping" is known as "The Brahimi Report".

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01/01/1933

James Hormel, American philanthropist and diplomat (died 2021)

James Catherwood Hormel was an American philanthropist, LGBT activist, diplomat, and heir to the Hormel meatpacking fortune. He served as the United States Ambassador to Luxembourg from 1999 to 2001, and was the first openly gay man to represent the United States as an ambassador.

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Joe Orton, English dramatist (died 1967)

John Kingsley "Joe" Orton, was an English playwright, author, and diarist.

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01/01/1932

Giuseppe Patanè, Italian conductor (died 1989)

Giuseppe Patanè was an Italian opera conductor.

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01/01/1930

Ty Hardin, American actor (died 2017)

Ty Hardin was an American actor. He is best known as the star of ABC/Warner Bros. Western television series Bronco (1958–1962).

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Frederick Wiseman, American director and producer (died 2026)

Frederick Wiseman was an American filmmaker, documentarian, theater director, editor, and actor. His work primarily explored American institutions. His most notable documentaries include Titicut Follies (1967), Hospital (1970), Welfare (1975), and In Jackson Heights (2015). His films were noted for their dramatic structure despite appearing to eschew narrative devices and for tackling social and economic issues in the United States.

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01/01/1929

Larry L. King, American journalist, author, and playwright (died 2012)

Lawrence Leo King was an American playwright, journalist, and novelist, best remembered for his 1978 Tony Award-nominated play The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which became a long-running production on Broadway and was later turned into a feature film starring Burt Reynolds, Charles Durning, and Dolly Parton.

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Haruo Nakajima, Japanese actor and stuntman, portrayed Godzilla from 1954 to 1972 (died 2017)

Haruo Nakajima was a Japanese actor and stuntman. A pioneer of suit acting, he is best known for playing Godzilla in 12 consecutive films, starting from the original Godzilla (1954) until Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972). Nakajima also played various other kaiju in Toho's tokusatsu films, including: Rodan (1956), Mothra (1961) and The War of the Gargantuas (1966) and also appeared in a minor roles in Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954), Yojimbo, and Stray Dog.

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01/01/1928

Ernest Tidyman, American author and screenwriter (died 1984)

Ernest Ralph Tidyman was an American author and screenwriter, best known for his novels featuring the African-American detective John Shaft. His screenplay for The French Connection garnered him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as a Golden Globe Award, a Writers Guild of America Award, and an Edgar Award. In 1971, he also co-wrote the screenplay for the film version of Shaft with John D. F. Black.

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Gerhard Weinberg, German-American historian, author, and academic

Gerhard Ludwig Weinberg is a German-born American diplomatic and military historian noted for his studies in the history of Nazi Germany and World War II. Weinberg is the William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has been a member of the history faculty at that institution since 1974. Previously he served on the faculties of the University of Michigan (1959–1974) and the University of Kentucky (1957–1959).

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01/01/1927

Maurice Béjart, French-Swiss dancer, choreographer, and director (died 2007)

Maurice Béjart was a French dancer, choreographer and opera director who ran the Béjart Ballet Lausanne in Switzerland. He developed a popular expressionistic form of modern ballet, tackling vast themes. He was awarded Swiss citizenship posthumously.

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James Reeb, American clergyman and political activist (died 1965)

James Joseph Reeb was an American Unitarian Universalist minister, pastor, and activist during the civil rights movement in Washington, D.C., and Boston, Massachusetts. While participating in the Selma to Montgomery marches actions in Selma, Alabama, in 1965, he was murdered by white segregationists and white supremacists, dying of head injuries in the hospital two days after being severely beaten. Three men were tried for Reeb's murder but were acquitted by an all-white jury. His murder remains officially unsolved.

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Vernon L. Smith, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

Vernon Lomax Smith is an American economist who is currently a professor of economics and law at Chapman University. He was formerly the McLellan/Regent's Professor of Economics at the University of Arizona, a professor of economics and law at George Mason University, and a board member of the Mercatus Center. Along with Daniel Kahneman, Smith won the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to behavioral economics and his work in the field of experimental economics, which helped establish "laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis, especially in the study of alternative market mechanisms."

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Doak Walker, American football player and businessman (died 1998)

Ewell Doak Walker II was an American football player who was a halfback and kicker. He played college football for the SMU Mustangs, winning the Maxwell Award in 1947 and the Heisman Trophy in 1948. He then played professionally for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL) from 1950 to 1955. Walker was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1959 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986. The Doak Walker Award, awarded annually since 1990 to the top running back in college football, is named after him.

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01/01/1926

Kazys Petkevičius, Lithuanian basketball player and coach (died 2008)

Kazimieras "Kazys" Petkevičius was a Lithuanian basketball player who competed for the Soviet Union in the 1952 Summer Olympics and in the 1956 Summer Olympics. He played for Žalgiris in Kaunas and later for Spartak Leningrad in Leningrad.

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01/01/1925

Matthew Beard, American child actor (died 1981)

Matthew Beard Jr. was an American actor. As a child actor, he was most famous for playing Stymie in the Our Gang short comedy films of 1930–1935. The role was so well known that he adopted the name Stymie Beard, and was so credited in some later roles, such as his 1978 appearance in The Buddy Holly Story.

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Paul Bomani, Tanzanian politician and diplomat, 1st Tanzanian Minister of Finance (died 2005)

Paul Lazaro Bomani was a Tanzanian politician and ambassador to the United States and Mexico.

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01/01/1924

Francisco Macías Nguema, Equatorial Guinean politician, 1st President of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea (died 1979)

Francisco Macías Nguema, often referred to as Macías Nguema or simply Macías, was an Equatoguinean politician who served as the first president of Equatorial Guinea from the country's gaining of independence in 1968, until his overthrow in 1979. He is widely remembered as one of the most brutal dictators in history. As president, he exhibited bizarre and erratic behavior, to the point that many of his contemporaries believed he was insane.

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01/01/1923

Barbara Baxley, American actress (died 1990)

Barbara Angie Rose Baxley was an American actress and singer.

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Valentina Cortese, Italian actress (died 2019)

Valentina Elena Cortese Rossi di Coenzo, sometimes credited as Valentina Cortesa, was an Italian film and theatre actress. Her screen career spanned over 100 productions across over five decades, from 1941 until 1993. Cortese won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and was nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for her performance in the film Day for Night (1973). In 2013, she received the French Order of Arts and Letters.

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Milt Jackson, American jazz vibraphonist and composer (died 1999)

Milton Jackson, nicknamed "Bags", was an American jazz vibraphonist. He is especially remembered for his cool swinging solos as a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet and his penchant for collaborating with hard bop and post-bop players.

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01/01/1922

Ernest Hollings, American soldier and politician, 106th Governor of South Carolina (died 2019)

Ernest Frederick "Fritz" Hollings was an American politician from the U.S. state of South Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives representing Charleston County, South Carolina from 1949 to 1954, the 77th lieutenant governor of South Carolina from 1955 to 1959, the 106th governor of South Carolina from 1959 to 1963, and a member of the United States Senate from 1966 to 2005. He served alongside Democrat-turned-Republican U.S. Senate member Strom Thurmond for 36 years, making them the longest-serving duo in U.S. Senate history. At the time of his death, he was the oldest living former U.S. senator and the second-oldest living former American governor. As of 2026, he is the last Democrat to hold or win a U.S. Senate seat in South Carolina.

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01/01/1921

Ismail al-Faruqi, Palestinian-American philosopher and academic (died 1986)

Ismaʿil Raji al-Faruqi was a Palestinian-American Muslim philosopher and scholar of religion. He contributed significantly to Islamic studies, ethics, and interfaith dialogue, and is best known for pioneering the Islamization of knowledge and articulating tawhid (monotheism) as a comprehensive worldview. He proposed a model of meta-religion based on shared ethical values and the universal concept of divine unity.

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César Baldaccini, French sculptor and academic (died 1998)

César, also occasionally referred to as César Baldaccini, was a French sculptor.

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Regina Bianchi, Italian actress (died 2013)

Regina Bianchi was an Italian stage and film actress.

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Johnny Logan, American basketball player (died 1977)

John Arnold Logan was an American professional basketball player and coach born in Richmond, Indiana. A 6'2" guard who played at Indiana University, Logan played for four seasons with the now-defunct St. Louis Bombers, and a fifth season with the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. While with the Blackhawks, he served three games as an interim player-coach.

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01/01/1920

Osvaldo Cavandoli, Italian cartoonist (died 2007)

Osvaldo Cavandoli, also known by his pen name Cava, was an Italian cartoonist. His most famous work is his series of short animated cartoons, La Linea.

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01/01/1919

Rocky Graziano, American boxer and actor (died 1990)

Thomas Rocco Barbella, better known as Rocky Graziano, was an American professional boxer and actor who competed in the Welterweight and Middleweight divisions. He held the lineal World Middleweight title from 1947 to 1948.

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Carole Landis, American actress (died 1948)

Carole Landis was an American actress. She worked as a contract player for Twentieth Century-Fox in the 1940s. Her breakout role was as the female lead in the 1940 film One Million B.C. from United Artists. She was known as "The Ping Girl", a nickname given to her by Frank Seltzer that she disliked and would try to disassociate herself from, and also "The Chest" because of her curvy figure.

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Sheila Mercier, British actress, Emmerdale Farm (died 2019)

Sheila Betty Mercier was an English actress, of stage and television, best known for playing Annie Sugden in the soap opera Emmerdale for over 20 years, from the programme's first episode in 1972 until 1994, with a guest return in 2009.

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Bones McKinney, American basketball player (died 1997)

Horace Albert "Bones" McKinney was an American professional basketball player and coach.

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J. D. Salinger, American soldier and author (died 2010)

Jerome David Salinger was an American author best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger published several short stories in Story magazine in 1940, before serving in World War II. In 1948, his critically acclaimed story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" appeared in The New Yorker, which published much of his later work.

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01/01/1918

Patrick Anthony Porteous, Scottish colonel, Victoria Cross recipient (died 2000)

Colonel Patrick Anthony Porteous VC, who as a Scottish captain in the British commandos, received the Victoria Cross – the British Commonwealth's highest award for valour – for leading a bayonet charge against a German battery in the Dieppe Raid in 1942. He also saw action with the Royal Artillery in France, being evacuated from Dunkirk, and with No. 4 Commando in the D-Day Normandy landings.

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Willy den Ouden, Dutch swimmer (died 1997)

Willemijntje den Ouden was a competitive swimmer from the Netherlands, who held the 100-meter freestyle world record for nearly 23 years, from 1933 to 1956.

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01/01/1917

Shannon Bolin, American actress and singer (died 2016)

Shannon Bolin was an American actress and singer. A March 10, 1941, article in The Mason City Globe-Gazette said that she was "known as 'The Lady with the Dark Blue Voice'".

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01/01/1914

Noor Inayat Khan, British SOE agent (died 1944)

Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan, GC, also known as Nora Inayat-Khan and Nora Baker, was a British-Indian agent in France in the Second World War who served in the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers, especially those occupied by Nazi Germany.

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01/01/1912

Boris Vladimirovich Gnedenko, Russian mathematician and historian (died 1995)

Boris Vladimirovich Gnedenko was a Soviet mathematician and a student of Andrey Kolmogorov. He was born in Simbirsk, Russia, and died in Moscow. He is perhaps best known for his work with Kolmogorov, and his contributions to the study of probability theory, particularly extreme value theory, with such results as the Fisher–Tippett–Gnedenko theorem. Gnedenko was appointed as Head of the Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry Section of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in 1949, and became Director of the NASU Institute of Mathematics in 1955.

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Kim Philby, British spy (died 1988)

Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963, he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring that had divulged British secrets to the Soviets during World War II and in the early stages of the Cold War. Of the five, Philby is widely considered to have been the most successful in providing secret information to the Soviets.

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Nikiforos Vrettakos, Greek poet and academic (died 1991)

Nikiforos Vrettakos was a Greek writer and poet.

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01/01/1911

Basil Dearden, English director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1971)

Basil Dearden was an English film director.

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Hank Greenberg, American baseball player (died 1986)

Henry Benjamin Greenberg, nicknamed "Hammerin' Hank", "Hankus Pankus", and "the Hebrew Hammer", was an American professional baseball player and team executive. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily for the Detroit Tigers as a first baseman in the 1930s and 1940s. A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and a two-time Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award winner, he was one of the premier power hitters of his generation and is widely considered one of the greatest sluggers in baseball history.

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Roman Totenberg, Polish-American violinist and educator (died 2012)

Roman Totenberg was a Polish-American violinist and educator. A child prodigy, he lived in Poland, Moscow, Berlin, and Paris, before formally immigrating to the U.S. in 1938, at age 27. He performed and taught nationally and internationally throughout his life.

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Audrey Wurdemann, American poet and author (died 1960)

Audrey Wurdemann Auslander was an American poet. She was the youngest winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry at the age of 24, for her collection Bright Ambush.

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01/01/1909

Dana Andrews, American actor (died 1992)

Carver Dana Andrews was an American film actor who became a major star in what is now known as film noir and later in Western films. A leading man during the 1940s, he continued acting in less prestigious roles and character parts into the 1980s. He is best known for his portrayal of obsessed police detective Mark McPherson in the noir mystery Laura (1944) and his critically acclaimed performance as World War II veteran Fred Derry returning home in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).

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Stepan Bandera, Ukrainian soldier and politician (died 1959)

Stepan Andriiovych Bandera was a Ukrainian far-right leader of the radical militant faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the OUN-B.

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Peggy Dennis, American-Russian journalist, author, and activist (died 1993)

Peggy Dennis was an American–Russian journalist, author, and Communist activist known for her association with the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). She wrote a memoir, The Autobiography of an American Communist: A Personal View of a Political Life, that provides information about the CPUSA and the life of its female leaders.

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01/01/1907

Kinue Hitomi, Japanese sprinter and long jumper (died 1931)

Kinue Hitomi was a Japanese track and field athlete. She was the world record holder in several events in the 1920s – 1930s. Hitomi was also the first Japanese and Asian woman to win an Olympic medal. She was also the first woman to represent Japan at the Olympics.

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01/01/1906

Manuel Silos, Filipino filmmaker and actor (died 1988)

Manuel Silos was a Filipino filmmaker from the 1920s through the 1950s. He began his career by making silent movies together with his brothers. As a bodabil (vaudeville) actor and comedian, Silos used the stage and screen name Santo Tulia. He appeared in romantic-comedy films such as Victory Joe in 1946, Puppy Love in 1956, and Tuloy and Ligaya in 1958. He became known for his FAMAS-awarded film Biyaya ng Lupa. In 1979, Silos received the Natatanging Gawad Urian. In 1985, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP).

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01/01/1905

Stanisław Mazur, Ukrainian-Polish mathematician and theorist (died 1981)

Stanisław Mieczysław Mazur was a Polish mathematician and a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

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Lise Lindbæk, Norwegian journalist and war correspondent (died 1961)

Lise Lindbæk was a Norwegian freelance journalist and foreign correspondent, and writer of several books. She is commonly regarded as Norway's first female war correspondent.

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01/01/1904

Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry, Pakistani lawyer and politician, 5th President of Pakistan (died 1982)

Fazal Elahi Chaudhry was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the fifth president of Pakistan from 1973 until his resignation in 1978, due to Zia-ul-Haq's martial law following the 1977 coup d'état which overthrew Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government. He was the first legislatively-elected president in the country's history, serving as a constitutional figurehead.

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01/01/1902

Buster Nupen, Norwegian-South African cricketer and lawyer (died 1977)

Eiulf Peter "Buster" Nupen was a cricketer who played in 17 Test matches for South Africa between 1921–22 and 1935–36. He was born in Norway, lost an eye in a childhood accident, and was shot through both knees during the Rand Rebellion when he was 20.

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Hans von Dohnányi, German jurist and political dissident (died 1945)

Hans von Dohnanyi was a German jurist. He used his position in the Abwehr to help Jews escape Germany, worked with German resistance against the Nazi régime, and after the failed 20 July Plot, he was accused of being the "spiritual leader" of the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler, and executed by the SS in 1945.

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01/01/1900

Chiune Sugihara, Japanese soldier and diplomat (died 1986)

Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat who served as vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, Lithuania. During the Second World War, Sugihara helped thousands of Jews flee Europe by issuing transit visas to them so that they could travel through Japanese territory, risking his career and the lives of his family. The fleeing Jews were refugees from German-occupied Western Poland and Soviet-occupied Eastern Poland, as well as residents of Lithuania.

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Xavier Cugat, Spanish-American singer-songwriter and actor (died 1990)

Xavier Cugat was an American musician and bandleader who was a leading figure in the spread of Latin music in the United States. Originally from Girona, Catalonia in Spain, he spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba, before arriving in New York City in 1915. A trained violinist and arranger, he was the leader of the resident orchestra at the Waldorf–Astoria hotel from 1933 to 1949 and a prolific recording artist for 40 years. He became known as the "Rumba King." A restaurateur in West Hollywood and New York, he and his band appeared in numerous motion pictures in the 1930s and 1940s. He was also a caricature artist.

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01/01/1899

Randolfo Pacciardi, centre-left Italian politician (died 1991)

Randolfo Pacciardi was an Italian politician.

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01/01/1895

J. Edgar Hoover, American law enforcement official; 1st Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (died 1972)

John Edgar Hoover was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the fifth and final director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). President Calvin Coolidge first appointed Hoover as director of the BOI, the predecessor to the FBI, in 1924. After 11 years in the post, Hoover became instrumental in founding the FBI in June 1935, where he remained as director for an additional 37 years until his death in May 1972 – serving a total of 48 years leading both the BOI and the FBI under eight presidents.

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01/01/1894

Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian physicist and mathematician (died 1974)

Satyendra Nath Bose was an Indian theoretical physicist and mathematician. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, in developing the foundation for Bose–Einstein statistics, and the theory of the Bose–Einstein condensate. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he was awarded India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1954 by the Government of India.

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Edward Joseph Hunkeler, American clergyman (died 1970)

Edward Joseph Hunkeler was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as bishop of the Diocese of Grand Island in Nebraska (1945–1951), and bishop and archbishop of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas (1951–1969).

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01/01/1893

Mordechai Frizis, Greek colonel (died 1940)

Mordechai Frizis was a Hellenic Army officer, who fought in World War I, distinguished himself in World War II, and was killed on 5 December 1940, fighting against the Julia Division.

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Heinie Miller, American football player and coach (died 1964)

Henry John "Heinie" Miller was an American football player and coach from 1920 to 1942. He played in The National Football League (NFL) for the Buffalo All-Americans and the Milwaukee Badgers.

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01/01/1892

Mahadev Desai, Indian author and activist (died 1942)

Mahadev Haribhai Desai was an Indian independence activist, scholar and writer best remembered as Mahatma Gandhi's personal secretary. He has variously been described as "Gandhi's Boswell, a Plato to Gandhi's Socrates, as well as an Ānanda to Gandhi's Buddha".

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Artur Rodziński, Polish-American conductor (died 1958)

Artur Rodziński was a Polish and American conductor of orchestral music and opera. He began his career after World War I in Poland, where he was discovered by Leopold Stokowski, who invited him to be his assistant with the Philadelphia Orchestra. This engagement led to Rodziński becoming music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He also prepared the NBC Symphony Orchestra for Arturo Toscanini before the Italian conductor's debut with them. A dispute in Chicago led to Rodziński's dismissal in 1948, whereupon he shifted his career to Europe, eventually settling in Italy, although continuing to maintain a home in Lake Placid, New York. In November 1958, beset by heart disease, he made his professional return to the United States for the first time in a decade, conducting acclaimed performances of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Exhausted, he checked into Massachusetts General Hospital where he died 11 days later.

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Manuel Roxas, Filipino lawyer and politician, 5th President of the Philippines (died 1948)

Manuel Acuña Roxas was the fifth president of the Philippines, serving from 1946 until his death in 1948. He served briefly as the third and last President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines from May 28, 1946, to July 4, 1946, and became the first President of the Independent Third Philippine Republic after the United States ceded its sovereignty over the Philippines.

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01/01/1891

Sampurnanand, Indian educator and politician, 3rd Governor of Rajasthan (died 1969)

Sampurnanand was an Indian teacher and politician who served as the second Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 1954 until 1960, and later as Governor of Rajasthan. Serving for five years and 344 days, he had the longest single tenure of any Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister until surpassed by Yogi Adityanath in 2023.

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01/01/1890

Anton Melik, Slovenian geographer and academic (died 1966)

Anton Melik was a Slovene geographer.

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01/01/1889

Charles Bickford, American actor (died 1967)

Charles Ambrose Bickford was an American actor known for supporting roles. He was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Song of Bernadette (1943), The Farmer's Daughter (1947) and Johnny Belinda (1948). His other roles include Whirlpool (1950), A Star Is Born (1954) and The Big Country (1958).

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Seabury Quinn, American author (died 1969)

Seabury Grandin Quinn was an American government lawyer, journalist, and pulp magazine author, most famous for his stories of the occult detective Jules de Grandin, published in Weird Tales.

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01/01/1888

Chesley Bonestell, American painter, designer, and illustrator (died 1986)

Chesley Knight Bonestell Jr. was an American painter, designer, and illustrator, best known for his realistic-looking paintings of space exploration, including future spacecraft and scenes set on moons and planets in the Solar System. His work helped inspire the American space program and appeared in popular magazines and books from the 1940s into the 1970s. He is considered one of the founders of "space art" for scientific illustration and his style has been influential in science fiction art, illustration, and cinema.

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John Garand, Canadian-American engineer, designed the M1 Garand rifle (died 1974)

Jean Cantius Garand, also known as John C. Garand, was a Canadian-American designer of firearms who created the M1 Garand, a semi-automatic rifle that was widely used by the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps during World War II and the Korean War.

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Georgios Stanotas, Greek general (died 1965)

Georgios Stanotas was a Greek cavalry officer who rose to the rank of lieutenant general.

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01/01/1887

Wilhelm Canaris, German admiral (died 1945)

Wilhelm Franz Canaris was a German admiral and the chief of the Abwehr from 1935 to 1944. Initially a supporter of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, Canaris turned against Hitler and committed acts of both passive and active resistance during World War II following the German invasion of Poland in 1939.

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01/01/1884

Chikuhei Nakajima, Japanese lieutenant, engineer, and politician, founded Nakajima Aircraft Company (died 1949)

Chikuhei Nakajima , was a Japanese businessman, naval engineer, naval officer, and politician who was most notable for having founded Nakajima Aircraft Company in 1917, a major supplier of airplanes in the Empire of Japan. He also served as a cabinet minister.

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01/01/1883

William J. Donovan, American general, lawyer, and politician (died 1959)

William Joseph "Wild Bill" Donovan was an American soldier, lawyer, intelligence officer and diplomat. He is best known for serving as the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), during World War II. He is regarded as the founding father of the CIA, and a statue of him stands in the lobby of the CIA headquarters building in Langley, Virginia.

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Noe Khomeriki, Georgian Social Democrat politician (died 1924)

Noe Khomeriki was a Georgian politician involved in the Social Democrat movement who was arrested for anti-soviet activity and shot during an uprising against the Soviet state.

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01/01/1879

E. M. Forster, English author and playwright (died 1970)

Edward Morgan Forster was an English author. He is best known for his novels, particularly A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910) and A Passage to India (1924). He also wrote numerous short stories, essays, speeches and broadcasts, as well as biographies and pageant plays. His short story "The Machine Stops" (1909) is often viewed as the beginning of technological dystopian fiction. He also co-authored the libretto to Benjamin Britten's opera Billy Budd (1951). Many of his novels examine class differences and hypocrisy. His views as a humanist are at the heart of his work.

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William Fox, Hungarian-American screenwriter and producer, founded the Fox Film Corporation and Fox Theatres (died 1952)

Vilmos Fried, known professionally as William Fox, was a Hungarian-American film industry executive who founded the Fox Film Corporation in 1915 and the Fox West Coast Theatres chain in the 1920s. Although he lost control of his film businesses in 1930, his name was used by 20th Century Fox and continues to be used in the trademarks of the present-day Fox Corporation, including the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox News, Fox Sports, and Foxtel.

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01/01/1878

Agner Krarup Erlang, Danish mathematician, statistician, and engineer (died 1929)

Agner Krarup Erlang was a Danish mathematician, statistician and engineer, who invented the fields of traffic engineering and queueing theory.

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01/01/1877

Alexander von Staël-Holstein, German sinologist and orientalist (died 1937)

Alexander Wilhelm Freiherr Staël von Holstein was a Baltic German aristocrat, Russian and Estonian orientalist, sinologist, and Sanskritologist specializing in Buddhist texts.

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01/01/1874

Frank Knox, American publisher and politician, 46th United States Secretary of the Navy (died 1944)

William Franklin Knox was an American politician, soldier, newspaper editor, and publisher. He was the Republican vice presidential candidate in 1936 and Secretary of the Navy under Franklin D. Roosevelt during most of World War II.

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Gustave Whitehead, German-American pilot and engineer (died 1927)

Gustave Albin Whitehead was a German–American aviation pioneer. Between 1897 and 1915, he designed and built gliders, flying machines, and engines. Controversy surrounds published accounts and Whitehead's own claims that he flew a powered machine successfully several times in 1901 and 1902, predating the first flights by the Wright brothers in 1903.

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01/01/1867

Mary Acworth Evershed, English astronomer and scholar (died 1949)

Mary Acworth Evershed was a British astronomer and scholar. Her work on Dante Alighieri was written under the pen name M.A. Orr.

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01/01/1865

Harry Coulby, American businessman (died 1929)

Harry Coulby was an American businessman known as the "Czar of the Great Lakes" for his expertise in managing the Great Lakes shipping fleet of Pickands Mather & Company and the Pittsburgh Steamship Company. After retiring, he served as the first mayor of the newly incorporated town of Wickliffe, Ohio. His former home, Coulallenby, now serves as the city hall of Wickliffe. He chose the design for Great Lakes ore carriers in 1905 that became the standard for the next 65 years, and was elected to the National Maritime Hall of Fame in 1984.

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01/01/1864

Alfred Stieglitz, American photographer and curator (died 1946)

Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was known for the New York art galleries that he ran in the early part of the 20th century, where he introduced many avant-garde European artists to the U.S. He was married to painter Georgia O'Keeffe.

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Qi Baishi, Chinese painter (died 1957)

Qi Baishi was a Chinese painter, noted for the whimsical, often playful style of his works. Born to a peasant family from Xiangtan, Hunan, Qi taught himself to paint, sparked by the Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden. After he turned 40, he traveled, visiting various scenic spots in China. After 1917 he settled in Beijing. Qi was the master of Hu Jieqing, the wife of Lao She.

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01/01/1863

Pierre de Coubertin, French historian and educator, founded the International Olympic Committee (died 1937)

Charles Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin, also known as Pierre de Coubertin and Baron de Coubertin, was a French educator and historian, co-founder of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and its second president. He is known as the father of the modern Olympic Games. He was particularly active in promoting the introduction of sport in French schools.

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01/01/1860

Michele Lega, Italian cardinal (died 1935)

Michele Lega S.T.D. J.U.D. was a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Prefect of the Congregation for the Discipline of Sacraments.

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01/01/1859

Michael Joseph Owens, American inventor (died 1923)

Michael Joseph Owens was an inventor of machines to automate the production of glass bottles.

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Thibaw Min, Burmese king (died 1916)

Thibaw Min, also Thebaw, was the last king of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma (Myanmar) and also the last Burmese monarch in the country's history. His reign ended when the Royal Burmese armed forces were defeated by the forces of the British Empire in the Third Anglo-Burmese War, on 29 November 1885, prior to its official annexation on 1 January 1886.

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01/01/1858

Heinrich Rauchinger, Kraków-born painter (died 1942)

Heinrich Rauchinger (Polish name Henryk, pronounced /xɛnrɨk/, 1858–1942) was a Kraków-born history painter and portrait painter.

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01/01/1857

Tim Keefe, American baseball player (died 1933)

Timothy John Keefe, nicknamed "Smiling Tim" and "Sir Timothy", was an American professional baseball pitcher in Major League Baseball. He stood 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) tall and weighed 185 pounds (84 kg). He was one of the most dominating pitchers of the 19th century and posted impressive statistics in one category or another for almost every season he pitched. He was the second MLB pitcher to record 300 wins. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964.

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01/01/1854

James George Frazer, Scottish anthropologist and academic (died 1941)

Sir James George Frazer was a Scottish social anthropologist and folklorist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion.

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Thomas Waddell, Irish-Australian politician, 15th Premier of New South Wales (died 1940)

Thomas Waddell, an Australian politician, was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1887 to 1917, was briefly the premier of New South Wales during 1904, and was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1917 to 1934. His 75 days in office marks the shortest tenure of any New South Wales premier.

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01/01/1852

Eugène-Anatole Demarçay, French chemist and academic (died 1904)

Eugène-Anatole Demarçay was a French chemist who designed an apparatus to produce a spark using an induction coil and used it to generate the spectra of rare earth elements which he examined using spectroscopy, thus detecting the element europium in 1896, and isolated it as the oxide europia in 1901. He helped Marie Curie to confirm the existence of another new element, radium, in 1898.

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01/01/1848

John W. Goff, Irish-American lawyer and politician (died 1924)

John William Goff Sr. was an American lawyer and judge from New York City.

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01/01/1839

Ouida, English-Italian author and activist (died 1908)

Maria Louise Ramé, going by the name Marie Louise de la Ramée and known by the pseudonym Ouida, was an English novelist. Ouida wrote more than 40 novels, as well as short stories, children's books and essays. Moderately successful, she lived a life of luxury, entertaining many of the literary figures of the day.

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01/01/1834

Ludovic Halévy, French author and playwright (died 1908)

Ludovic Halévy was a French author and playwright, known for his collaborations with Henri Meilhac on the libretti for Georges Bizet's Carmen and comic operas by Jacques Offenbach, including La belle Hélène (1864), La vie parisienne (1866), La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (1867) and La Périchole (1868)

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01/01/1833

Robert Lawson, Scottish-New Zealand architect, designed the Otago Boys' High School and Knox Church (died 1902)

Robert Arthur Lawson was one of New Zealand's pre-eminent 19th century architects. The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography states that he did more than any other designer to shape the face of the Victorian era architecture of the city of Dunedin. He is the architect of over forty churches, including Dunedin's First Church for which he is best remembered, but also other buildings, such as Larnach Castle, a country house, with which he is also associated.

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01/01/1823

Sándor Petőfi, Hungarian poet and activist (died 1849)

Sándor Petőfi was a Hungarian poet and liberal revolutionary. He is considered Hungary's national poet, and was one of the key figures of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. He is the author of the Nemzeti dal, which is said to have inspired the revolution in the Kingdom of Hungary that grew into a war for independence from the Austrian Empire. It is most likely, albeit unknown, that he died in the Battle of Segesvár, one of the last battles of the war.

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01/01/1819

Arthur Hugh Clough, English-Italian poet and academic (died 1861)

Arthur Hugh Clough was an English poet, an educationalist, and the devoted assistant to Florence Nightingale. He was the brother of suffragist Anne Clough and father of Blanche Athena Clough, who both became principals of Newnham College, Cambridge. Clough's notable poetic works include The Bothie of Toper-na-fuosich (1848), a long narrative poem, and "Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth" (1855), a short poem of 16 lines.

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George Foster Shepley, American general (died 1878)

George Foster Shepley was an American attorney and Union General. During the Civil War he became the acting mayor of New Orleans in 1862, the military governor of Louisiana from 1862 until 1864 and the military governor of Richmond in 1865. After the war he was nominated as United States circuit judge of the United States Circuit Courts for the First Circuit.

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01/01/1818

William Gamble, Irish-born American general (died 1866)

William Gamble was a civil engineer and a United States Army cavalry officer. He served during the Second Seminole War, and fought for the Union during the American Civil War. He commanded one of two brigades in Brigadier General John Buford's Division of Cavalry, in which he played an important role in defending Union positions during the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

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01/01/1814

Hong Xiuquan, Chinese rebellion leader and king (died 1864)

Hong Xiuquan, born Hong Huoxiu and with the courtesy name Renkun, was a Chinese revolutionary and religious leader who led the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing dynasty. He established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom over large portions of southern China, with himself as its "Heavenly King".

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01/01/1813

George Bliss, American politician (died 1868)

George Bliss was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio for two non-consecutive terms in the 1850s and 1860s.

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01/01/1809

Achille Guenée, French lawyer and entomologist (died 1880)

Achille Guenée was a French lawyer and entomologist.

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01/01/1806

Lionel Kieseritzky, Estonian-French chess player (died 1853)

Lionel Adalbert Bagration Felix Kieseritzky was a Baltic German chess master and theoretician, known for his contributions to chess theory, as well for a game he lost against Adolf Anderssen, known as the "Immortal Game". Kieseritzky's name became associated with several openings and opening variations, such as the Kieseritzky Gambit, Kieseritzky Attack, and the Boden–Kieseritzky Gambit.

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01/01/1803

Edward Dickinson, American politician and father of poet Emily Dickinson (died 1874)

Edward Dickinson was an American politician from Massachusetts. He is also known as the father of the poet Emily Dickinson; their family home in Amherst, the Emily Dickinson Museum, is a museum dedicated to her.

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01/01/1779

William Clowes, English publisher (died 1847)

William Clowes was a British printer who developed the use of steam-powered printing presses in the industry. He founded the printing firm that became William Clowes Ltd. in London in 1803.

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01/01/1774

André Marie Constant Duméril, French zoologist and academic (died 1860)

André Marie Constant Duméril was a French zoologist. He was professor of anatomy at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle from 1801 to 1812, when he became professor of herpetology and ichthyology. His son Auguste Duméril was also a zoologist, and the author citation Duméril is used for both André and his son.

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01/01/1769

Marie-Louise Lachapelle, French obstetrician (died 1821)

Marie-Louise Lachapelle was a French midwife, head of obstetrics at the Hôtel-Dieu, the oldest hospital in Paris. She published textbooks about women's bodies, gynecology, and obstetrics. She argued against forceps deliveries and wrote Pratique des accouchements, long a standard obstetric text, which promoted natural deliveries. Lachapelle is generally regarded as the mother of modern obstetrics.

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01/01/1768

Maria Edgeworth, Anglo-Irish author (died 1849)

Maria Edgeworth was an Anglo-Irish novelist of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and a significant figure in the evolution of the novel in Europe. She held critical views on estate management, politics, and education, and corresponded with some of the leading literary and economic writers, including Sir Walter Scott and David Ricardo. During the first decade of the 19th century she was one of the most widely read novelists in Britain and Ireland. Her name today is most commonly associated with Castle Rackrent, her first novel, in which she, while Anglican herself, used the voice of an Irish Catholic character to narrate the dissipation and decline of a family from her own landed Anglo-Irish class.

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01/01/1752

Betsy Ross, American seamstress, sewed flags for the Pennsylvania Navy during the Revolutionary War (died 1836)

Elizabeth Griscom Ross, also known by her second and third married names, Ashburn and Claypoole, was an American upholsterer who was credited by her relatives in 1870 with designing and making the first U.S. flag, commonly known as the Betsy Ross flag. Though historians dismissed the story both then and now, Ross family tradition holds that General George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and two members of a congressional committee—Robert Morris and George Ross—visited Ross in 1776. Ross convinced Washington to change the shape of the stars in a sketch of a flag he showed her from six-pointed to five-pointed by demonstrating that it was easier and speedier to cut the latter. However, there is no archival evidence or other recorded verbal tradition to substantiate this story of the first U.S. flag. It appears that the story first surfaced in the writings of her grandson in the 1870s, with no mention or documentation in earlier decades. The myth was later incorporated into a large oil painting that appeared at the 1893 Chicago World's fair. The painter, Charles Weisgerber, subsequently promoted the myth, even buying a house he deemed The Betsy Ross House. He solicited money nationwide for the upkeep of the house as a tourist attraction. With the solicitations, he provided a synopsis of the myth with reproductions of his painting.

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01/01/1745

Anthony Wayne, American general and politician (died 1796)

Anthony Wayne was an American soldier, officer, statesman, and a Founding Father of the United States. He adopted a military career at the outset of the American Revolutionary War, where his military exploits and fiery personality quickly earned him a promotion to brigadier general and the nickname "Mad Anthony". He later served as the Senior Officer of the Army on the Ohio Country frontier and led the Legion of the United States.

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01/01/1735

Paul Revere, American silversmith and engraver (died 1818)

Paul Revere was an American silversmith, military officer and industrialist who played a major role during the opening months of the American Revolutionary War in Massachusetts, engaging in a midnight ride in 1775 to alert nearby minutemen of the approach of British troops prior to the battles of Lexington and Concord.

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01/01/1714

Giovanni Battista Mancini, Italian soprano and author (died 1800)

Giovanni Battista Mancini was an Italian soprano castrato, voice teacher, and author of books on singing.

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Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian pastor and poet (died 1780)

Kristijonas Donelaitis was a Prussian Lithuanian poet and Lutheran pastor. He lived and worked in Lithuania Minor, a territory in the Kingdom of Prussia, that had a sizable Lithuanian-speaking minority. He wrote the first classic Lithuanian language poem, The Seasons, which became one of the principal works of Lithuanian poetry. The poem, a classic work of Lithuanian literature, depicts everyday life of Lithuanian peasants, their struggle with serfdom, and the annual cycle of life.

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01/01/1711

Baron Franz von der Trenck, Austrian soldier (died 1749)

Baron Franz von der Trenck was an Austrian soldier whose unit is considered one of the most ruthless in modern European history. A law unto itself, the unit took property, livestock, and women as it saw fit.

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01/01/1704

Soame Jenyns, English author, poet, and politician (died 1787)

Soame Jenyns was an English writer and Member of Parliament. He was an early advocate of the ethical consideration of animals.

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01/01/1684

Arnold Drakenborch, Dutch scholar and author (died 1748)

Arnold Drakenborch was a Dutch classical scholar.

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01/01/1655

Christian Thomasius, German jurist and philosopher (died 1728)

Christian Thomasius was a German jurist and philosopher. The German Enlightenment "supposedly" began with him.

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01/01/1628

Christoph Bernhard, German composer and theorist (died 1692)

Christoph Bernhard was born in Kolberg, Pomerania, and died in Dresden. He was a German Baroque composer and musician. He studied with former Sweelinck-pupil Paul Siefert in Danzig and in Warsaw. By the age of 20, he was singing at the electoral court in Dresden under Heinrich Schütz and composed some of the music for the Master's funeral. He then spent a year in Copenhagen to study singing with Agostino Fontana.

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01/01/1600

Friedrich Spanheim, Dutch theologian and academic (died 1649)

Friedrich Spanheim the Elder was a Calvinistic theology professor at the University of Leiden.

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01/01/1557

Stephen Bocskay, Prince of Transylvania (died 1606)

Stephen Bocskai or Bocskay was Prince of Transylvania and Hungary from 1605 to 1606. He was born to a Hungarian noble family. His father's estates were located in the eastern regions of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, which developed into the Principality of Transylvania in the 1570s. He spent his youth in the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian, who was also the ruler of Royal Hungary.

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01/01/1511

Henry, Duke of Cornwall, first-born child of Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon (died 1511)

Henry, Duke of Cornwall was the first living child of King Henry VIII of England and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and though his birth was celebrated as that of the heir apparent, he died within weeks. His death and the failure of Henry VIII and Catherine to produce another surviving male heir led to succession and marriage crises that affected the relationship between the Church of England and Roman Catholicism, giving rise to the English Reformation.

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01/01/1484

Huldrych Zwingli, Swiss pastor and theologian (died 1531)

Huldrych Zwingli was a Swiss Christian theologian, musician, and leader of the Reformation in Switzerland. Born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary system, he attended the University of Vienna and the University of Basel, a scholarly center of Renaissance humanism. He continued his studies while he served as a pastor in Glarus and later in Einsiedeln, where he was influenced by the writings of Erasmus. During his tenures at Basel and Einsiedeln, Zwingli began to familiarize himself with many criticisms Christian institutions were facing regarding their reform guidance and garnered scripture which aimed to address such criticisms.

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01/01/1467

Sigismund I the Old, Polish king (died 1548)

Sigismund I the Old was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1506 until his death in 1548. He was a member of the Jagiellonian dynasty, the son of Casimir IV and younger brother of Kings John I Albert and Alexander Jagiellon. He was nicknamed "the Old" in later historiography to distinguish him from his son and successor, Sigismund II Augustus. Before ascending to the Polish and Lithuanian thrones, he was Duke of Głogów from 1499, Duke of Opava from 1501, and governor of Silesia from 1504 on behalf of his brother, King Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary.

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01/01/1449

Lorenzo de' Medici, Italian politician (died 1492)

Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici, known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, was an Italian statesman, de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic, and the most powerful patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Lorenzo held the balance of power within the Italic League, an alliance of states that stabilized political conditions on the Italian Peninsula for decades, and his life coincided with the mature phase of the Italian Renaissance and the golden age of Florence. As a patron, he is best known for his sponsorship of artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo. On the foreign policy front, Lorenzo manifested a clear plan to stem the territorial ambitions of Pope Sixtus IV, in the name of the balance of the Italic League of 1454. For these reasons, Lorenzo was the subject of the Pazzi conspiracy (1478), in which his brother Giuliano was assassinated. The Peace of Lodi of 1454 that he supported among the various Italian states collapsed with his death. He is buried in the Medici Chapel in Florence.

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01/01/1431

Pope Alexander VI (died 1503)

Pope Alexander VI was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 11 August 1492 until his death in 1503.

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01/01/0766

Ali al-Ridha, 8th Imam of Twelver Shia Islam (died 818)

Ali ibn Musa al-Rida, also known as Abū al-Ḥasan al-Thānī, was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and the eighth Imam in Twelver Shia Islam, succeeding his father, Musa al-Kazim, in 799 CE. He is also part of the chain of mystical authority in Sunni Sufi orders. He was known for his piety and learning, and a number of works are attributed to him, including Al-Risalah al-Dhahabiah, Sahifah of al-Ridha, and Fiqh al-Rida. Uyoun Akhbar Al-Ridha by Ibn Babawayh is a comprehensive collection that includes his religious debates and sayings, biographical details, and even the miracles which have occurred at his tomb. He is buried in Mashhad, Iran, site of a large shrine.

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