Born on Friday, 16th January – Famous Birthdays

16/01/2000

Andrew Nembhard, Canadian basketball player

Andrew William Nembhard is a Canadian professional basketball player for the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Florida Gators and Gonzaga Bulldogs. He was selected by the Pacers with the 31st overall pick in the second round of the 2022 NBA draft.

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16/01/1998

Boo Seung-kwan, South Korean singer

Boo Seung-kwan, known mononymously as Seungkwan, is a South Korean singer. Managed by Pledis Entertainment, he is a member of the South Korean boy band Seventeen, its vocal team, and the subunit BSS alongside Hoshi and DK.

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16/01/1996

Jennie, South Korean singer

Jennie Kim, known mononymously as Jennie, is a South Korean singer, rapper, songwriter, and actress. Born in South Korea, she moved to New Zealand in 2004 and returned to South Korea to successfully audition for YG Entertainment in 2010. She rose to prominence as a member of the South Korean girl group Blackpink, which debuted in August 2016 and became one of the best-selling girl groups of all time.

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Zhou Qi, Chinese basketball player

Zhou Qi is a Chinese professional basketball player for the Beijing Ducks of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He has been a regular member of the China men's national basketball team since 2014, winning a gold team medal in the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship and the 2018 Asian Games.

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16/01/1995

Jonathan Allen, American football player

Jonathan Allen is an American professional football defensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide, winning a national championship in 2015 and several defensive player of the year awards in 2016. Allen was selected by the Washington Redskins in the first round of the 2017 NFL draft, where he made two Pro Bowls in his eight seasons with the team.

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Mikaela Turik, Australian-Canadian cricketer

Mikaela Jade Turik,, is a former international cricket player. She played for the Canada women's national cricket team as an all-rounder from 2009 to 2013, including for a period as captain.

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Tre'Davious White, American football player

Tre'Davious White Sr. is an American professional football cornerback. He played college football for the LSU Tigers, earning consensus All-American as a senior in 2016. He was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the first round of the 2017 NFL draft. Since earning a starting position as a rookie, White became one of the league's top cornerbacks as part of a resurgent Bills defense, having garnered two Pro Bowl selections and All-Pro honors. Following three injury-riddled seasons and his subsequent release, White signed with the Los Angeles Rams and was traded to the Baltimore Ravens at the trade deadline in 2024, before returning to the Bills in 2025.

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16/01/1994

Mikko Lehtonen, Finnish ice hockey player

Mikko Lehtonen is a Finnish professional ice hockey player who is a defenceman for the ZSC Lions of the National League (NL). He has previously played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League (NHL).

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16/01/1993

Hannes Anier, Estonian footballer

Hannes Anier is an Estonian professional footballer who plays as a forward.

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Amandine Hesse, French tennis player

Amandine Hesse is a French professional tennis player.

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Sungjin, South Korean musician

Park Sung-jin, known mononymously as Sungjin, is a South Korean musician, singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known as the leader, guitarist and vocalist of South Korean pop rock band Day6.

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16/01/1992

Jason Zucker, American ice hockey player

Jason Alan Zucker is an American professional ice hockey player who is a left winger for the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL).

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16/01/1991

Matt Duchene, Canadian ice hockey player

Matthew David Duchene is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a forward for the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League (NHL). He has previously played in the NHL for the Colorado Avalanche, Ottawa Senators, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Nashville Predators. While with the Predators, he set a new franchise record for most goals scored in a single season.

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16/01/1990

Dennis Kelly, American football player

Dennis Andrew Kelly is an American former professional football player who was an offensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Purdue Boilermakers and was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the fifth round of the 2012 NFL draft.

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16/01/1988

Nicklas Bendtner, Danish footballer

Nicklas Bendtner is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a striker. A large, tall, and physically strong player, he was known for his ability in the air and possessed a powerful header.

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Jorge Torres Nilo, Mexican footballer

Jorge Emmanuel Torres Nilo, also known as Pechu, is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a left-back.

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FKA Twigs, English singer-songwriter and actress

Tahliah Debrett Barnett, known professionally as FKA Twigs, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and dancer. She was a backup dancer for numerous musicians, and made her musical debut with EP1 (2012). Barnett's debut studio album, LP1 (2014), reached number 16 on the UK Albums Chart and number 30 on the US Billboard 200. It was nominated for that year's Mercury Prize. She then released the EP M3LL155X (2015).

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16/01/1987

Jake Epstein, Canadian actor

Jacob Lee Epstein is a Canadian actor and singer. He is known for playing Craig Manning, a musician with bipolar disorder, on Degrassi: The Next Generation. He has also had recurring roles in the television series Designated Survivor and The Hardy Boys.

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Charlotte Henshaw, English swimmer

Charlotte Sarah Henshaw is a British Paralympic full-time athlete across multiple disciplines. Originally a swimmer, she changed to canoeing from 2017, becoming the reigning World champion in the KL2 (seven-time) and VL3 (four-time) 200m events. In September 2021, at the delayed 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, she became a Paralympic champion at her fourth games, winning the Women's KL2 event. In Paris at the 2024 Summer Paralympics, Henshaw was the only Paracanoe athlete to win double gold - winning the inaugural VL3 event and retaining her KL2 title.

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Greivis Vásquez, Venezuelan basketball player

Greivis Josué Vásquez Rodríguez is a Venezuelan former professional basketball player, who spent eight seasons in the NBA. He is currently a coach, most recently working as the associate head coach for the Erie BayHawks of the NBA G League. Vásquez also represented the Venezuela national team in international competitions, as he was born in Caracas and moved to the United States to attend high school at Montrose Christian School in Rockville, Maryland in 2004.

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16/01/1986

Johannes Rahn, German footballer

Johannes Rahn is a German footballer who plays for SV Eintracht Windhagen.

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Mark Trumbo, American baseball player

Mark Daniel Trumbo is an American former professional baseball outfielder and first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Arizona Diamondbacks, Seattle Mariners, and Baltimore Orioles. Trumbo was an All-Star in 2012 and 2016.

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Reto Ziegler, Swiss footballer

Reto Pirmin Ziegler is a Swiss former professional footballer who played as a left-back. He played top-flight football in seven countries. He earned 35 international caps for Switzerland and played at both the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups.

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16/01/1985

Joe Flacco, American football player

Joseph Vincent Flacco is an American professional football quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Pittsburgh Panthers and the Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens before being selected by the Baltimore Ravens in the first round of the 2008 NFL draft.

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Jayde Herrick, Australian cricketer

Jayde Matthew Herrick is a former Australian cricketer who played for Victoria. He is a right-arm fast-medium bowler and a right-hand batsman.

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Gintaras Januševičius, Russian-Lithuanian pianist

Gintaras Januševičius is a Lithuanian pianist, music educator, event producer and radio presenter. He performs narrative recitals and original interpretations; particularly that of Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Beethoven, and Shostakovich. His repertoire also includes work by Lithuanian composers.

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Sidharth Malhotra, Indian actor

Sidharth Malhotra is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. He is the recipient of several accolades, has received nominations for two Filmfare Awards, and appeared in Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list from 2016 to 2018.

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Jonathan Richter, Danish-Gambian footballer

Jonathan Richter is a Danish disabled professional football midfielder, who played for the Danish Superliga side FC Nordsjælland. He is the son of a Gambian father and a Danish mother and the twin brother of Simon Richter.

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Simon Richter, Danish-Gambian footballer

Simon Richter is a Danish-born Gambian professional football defender, who plays for Tårnby FF. He also represented the Gambia national team.

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Renée Felice Smith, American actress

Renée Felice Smith is an American actress, director, and producer best known for her lead role as Nell Jones on the CBS military action drama series NCIS: Los Angeles (2010–19). Smith made her first appearance during its second season and remained a series regular until its twelfth season, but returned for a guest appearance in the series finale. She is also known for her role as Missy in the psychological drama film Detachment (2011).

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16/01/1984

Stephan Lichtsteiner, Swiss footballer

Stephan Lichtsteiner is a Swiss football manager and former professional footballer. He is currently the head coach of Swiss Super League club FC Basel. An attacking right-back or wing-back during his playing career, he was known for his energetic runs down the right wing, as well as his stamina and athleticism, which earned him the nicknames "Forrest Gump" and "The Swiss Express".

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Miroslav Radović, Serbian footballer

Miroslav Radović is a Serbian former professional footballer who played as a winger.

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16/01/1983

Emanuel Pogatetz, Austrian footballer

Emanuel Pogatetz is an Austrian professional football coach and a former player. He is currently first-team coach at Premier League club Crystal Palace.

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Andriy Rusol, Ukrainian footballer

Andriy Anatoliyovych Rusol is a Ukrainian retired footballer who formerly played as a defender for Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and the Ukraine national team.

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16/01/1982

Preston, English singer-songwriter

Samuel Dylan Murray Preston, more commonly known simply as Preston, is an English singer-songwriter and reality TV contestant. He is a member of the band the Ordinary Boys, finding fame appearing in the reality television show Celebrity Big Brother in 2006, in which he finished fourth. After the Ordinary Boys split in 2008, he embarked on a songwriting career. In 2013, he officially reunited the Ordinary Boys and in 2015 they released their self-titled comeback album, which peaked at #27 in the charts, spending 1 week on the chart.

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Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Danish actress

Birgitte Hjort Sørensen is a Danish actress. She has been nominated for three Robert Awards and one Bodil Award. Born in Hillerød and raised in Birkerød, Sørensen aspired to an acting career after visiting London while at school and watching the West End production of the musical Chicago. She graduated from the Danish National School of Performing Arts. Her acting debut was in a minor role in the television series The Eagle in 2005. She followed this by playing Roxie Hart in a Copenhagen production of Chicago, and later on the West End. Sørensen's breakthrough role was as television journalist Katrine Fønsmark in the Danish political drama television series Borgen.

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Tuncay, Turkish footballer

Tuncay Şanlı, often known mononymously as Tuncay, is a Turkish former footballer.

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16/01/1981

Jamie Lundmark, Canadian ice hockey player

Jamie Lundmark is a Canadian former professional ice hockey forward. A first-round draft pick of the New York Rangers, Lundmark played 295 games in the National Hockey League (NHL).

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Paul Rofe, Australian cricketer

Paul Cameron Rofe is a former first-class cricketer who played for South Australia and Northamptonshire. A right-arm fast bowler, Rofe took 181 first-class wickets at an average of 29.66, with a best of 7/52. His limited overs career has been less successful, taking 37 wickets at 35.97. He made his first class debut in 2001 against Western Australia having previously represented Australia under-19s from 1999 until 2000.

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Nick Valensi, American musician and songwriter

Nicholas Valensi is an American musician, best known for his role as lead and rhythm guitarist in the American rock band The Strokes. Since 2001, the band has released six studio albums, some of which Valensi has also contributed keyboards and backing vocals.

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Bobby Zamora, English footballer

Robert Lester Zamora is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward. Zamora began his career at Barking Abbey School. Then he moved to Football League club Bristol Rovers, but was soon signed by Brighton & Hove Albion, where he found first-team success. Zamora scored 77 goals in three seasons and helped the club achieve two successive promotions.

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16/01/1980

Lin-Manuel Miranda, American actor, playwright, and composer

Lin-Manuel Miranda is an American songwriter, actor, filmmaker and librettist. He created the Broadway musicals In the Heights and Hamilton, and the soundtracks for the animated films Moana, Vivo, and Encanto. He has received numerous accolades including a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, three Tony Awards, two Laurence Olivier Awards, two Emmy Awards, and five Grammy Awards, along with nominations for two Academy Awards. He received the Kennedy Center Honor in 2018.

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Albert Pujols, Dominican-American baseball player

José Alberto Pujols Alcántara is a Dominican-American professional baseball manager and former first baseman and designated hitter who is the manager of the Estrellas Orientales of the Dominican Professional Baseball League. He played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim / Los Angeles Angels, and Los Angeles Dodgers. Nicknamed "the Machine", Pujols is considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time.

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Seydou Keita, Malian footballer

Seydou Keïta is a Malian former professional footballer. A versatile midfielder, he operated as both a central or defensive midfielder. He is both the record appearance holder and scorer of the Mali national football team.

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16/01/1979

Aaliyah, American singer and actress (died 2001)

Aaliyah Dana Haughton was an American singer, actress, dancer, and model. Known as the "Princess of R&B" and "Queen of Urban Pop", she is credited with helping to redefine contemporary R&B, pop, and hip hop. Aaliyah's accolades include three American Music Awards and two MTV VMAs, along with five Grammy Award nominations.

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Brenden Morrow, Canadian ice hockey player

Brenden Blair Morrow is a Canadian former professional ice hockey left winger. Morrow was drafted in the first round, 25th overall, by the Dallas Stars at the 1997 NHL entry draft, the organization he would play with for 13 seasons before brief stints with the Pittsburgh Penguins, St. Louis Blues, and Tampa Bay Lightning.

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Jason Ward, Canadian ice hockey player

Jason Robert Ward is a Canadian former professional ice hockey right winger. He has played 336 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, and Tampa Bay Lightning. He was born in Chapleau, Ontario.

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16/01/1978

Alfredo Amézaga, Mexican baseball player

Alfredo Amézaga Delgado is a Mexican former professional baseball center fielder and infielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2004 to 2011 for the Anaheim Angels, Colorado Rockies, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Florida Marlins. He is currently a coach for the Diablos Rojos del México of the Mexican League, and has previously coached for the Detroit Tigers.

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16/01/1977

Jeff Foster, American basketball player

Jeffrey Douglas Foster is an American former professional basketball player who spent the entirety of his 13-year career with the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

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16/01/1976

Viktor Maslov, Russian racing driver

Viktor Vladimirovich Maslov is a Russian race car driver. Maslov spent six years in top-level karting, debuting in 1989, before competing in the premiere ice racing event Trophy Andros in 1996. In 1996, Maslov also competed in Russian Formula Three. In 1997, Maslov again competed in both categories, staying with the Daewoo team in Andros, before landing a 1998 seat with Italian Formula Three team Lukoil.

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Martina Moravcová, Slovak swimmer

Martina Moravcová is a Slovak medley, butterfly, and freestyle swimmer. She made her international swimming debut in 1991 for Czechoslovakia, and went on to compete in five consecutive Summer Olympics (1992–2008). She is a two-time Olympic silver medalist, both achieved at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. In the 100 metre butterfly, she finished second to Inge de Bruijn, and in the 200 metre freestyle, she finished eight one-hundredths of a second to home favourite Susie O'Neill.

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16/01/1975

Marc Jackson, American basketball player and sportscaster

Marc Anthony Jackson is an American former professional basketball player who played seven seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 2000 to 2007. He is a current television analyst of the Philadelphia 76ers for NBC Sports Philadelphia.

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16/01/1974

Kate Moss, English model and fashion designer

Katherine Ann Moss is an English model. Arriving towards the end of the "supermodel era", Moss rose to fame in the early 1990s as part of the heroin chic fashion trend. Her collaborations with Calvin Klein brought her to fashion icon status. She is known for her waifish figure, and role in size zero fashion. Moss has had her own clothing range, has been involved in musical projects, and is also a contributing fashion editor for British Vogue. In 2012, she came second on the Forbes top-earning models list, with estimated earnings of $9.2 million in one year. The accolades she has received for modelling include the 2013 British Fashion Awards acknowledging her contribution to fashion over 25 years, while Time named her one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2007.

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16/01/1973

Josie Davis, American actress

Josie Davis is an American actress, screenwriter and producer, best known for her role as Sarah Powell in the television sitcom Charles in Charge from 1987 to 1990.

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16/01/1972

Ruben Bagger, Danish footballer

Ruben Bagger is a Danish former footballer who spent his entire professional career for Brøndby in the Danish Superliga, and played more than 300 matches for the club. He won five Danish Superliga championships and three Danish Cup trophies with Brøndby. Bagger played in the position of left winger or forward.

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Ang Christou, Australian footballer

Ang Christou is a former Australian rules footballer for Carlton in the Australian Football League.

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Yuri Alekseevich Drozdov, Russian footballer and manager

Yuri Alekseyevich Drozdov is a Russian association football coach and a former player who spent most of his playing career at FC Lokomotiv Moscow.

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Ezra Hendrickson, Vincentian footballer and manager

Ezra Hendrickson is a Vincentian professional football coach and former player. He was the head coach of Major League Soccer club Chicago Fire FC from November 24, 2021, until his dismissal on May 8, 2023 and is now the manager of the Vincentian national team.

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Joe Horn, American football player and coach

Joseph Horn is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Kansas City Chiefs in the fifth round of the 1996 NFL draft, and also played for the New Orleans Saints, the Atlanta Falcons, and the Memphis Mad Dogs of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football for the Itawamba Indians. After his playing career, he became an assistant coach at Northeast Mississippi Community College.

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Richard T. Jones, American actor

Richard Timothy Jones is an American actor. He has worked extensively in both film and television productions since the early 1990s. His television roles include Ally McBeal (1997), Judging Amy (1999–2005), CSI: Miami (2006), Girlfriends (2007), Grey's Anatomy (2010), Hawaii Five-0 (2011–2014), Narcos (2015), and Criminal Minds (2017). Since 2018, he has played Police Lieutenant Wade Grey on the ABC police drama The Rookie.

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16/01/1971

Sergi Bruguera, Spanish tennis player and coach

Sergi Bruguera i Torner is a Spanish former professional tennis player and coach. Bruguera won consecutive men's singles titles at the French Open in 1993 and 1994, a silver medal in men's singles at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and reached a career-high ranking of world No. 3 in August 1994.

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Josh Evans, American film producer, screenwriter and actor

Joshua Evans is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, author, and actor best known for his role in Born on the Fourth of July (1989).

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Jonathan Mangum, American actor

Jonathan Joseph Mangum is an American actor and comedian. He was a cast member of the variety show The Wayne Brady Show and is the announcer for the game show Let's Make a Deal.

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16/01/1970

Don MacLean, American basketball player and sportscaster

Donald James MacLean is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins, and became the all-time scoring leader of both the school and the Pac-12 Conference. In 1994, MacLean won the NBA Most Improved Player Award as a member of the Washington Bullets. He currently works as a basketball color analyst.

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16/01/1969

Marinus Bester, German footballer

Marinus Bester is a German former professional footballer who played as a striker.

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Stevie Jackson, Scottish guitarist and songwriter

Stephen Thomas Jackson is a Scottish musician and songwriter. He plays lead guitar and sings in the Glasgow-based indie band Belle and Sebastian.

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Roy Jones Jr., American boxer

Roy Levesta Jones Jr. is an American former professional boxer that competed from 1989 to 2018, and again in 2023. He held multiple world championships in four weight classes, including middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight. As an amateur he represented the United States at the 1988 Summer Olympics, winning the light middleweight silver medal.

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16/01/1968

David Chokachi, American actor

David Chokachi is an American film and television actor. He is known for his roles in the TV series Witchblade, Baywatch, and Beyond the Break.

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Rebecca Stead, American author

Rebecca Stead is an American writer of fiction for children and teens. She won the American Newbery Medal in 2010, the oldest award in children's literature, for her second novel When You Reach Me.

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16/01/1966

Jack McDowell, American baseball player

Jack Burns McDowell is an American former baseball player. A right-handed pitcher, McDowell played for the Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, and Anaheim Angels of the Major League Baseball (MLB). Nicknamed "Black Jack", he was a three-time All-Star and won the American League Cy Young Award in 1993.

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16/01/1964

Gail Graham, Canadian golfer

Gail Anderson Graham is a Canadian professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour.

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16/01/1963

James May, English journalist and television presenter

James Daniel May is an English television presenter, author and journalist. He is best known as a co-presenter, alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond, of the motoring programme Top Gear from 2003 until 2015 and the television series The Grand Tour for Amazon Prime Video from 2016 to 2024. He also served as a director of the production company W. Chump & Sons.

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16/01/1962

Joel Fitzgibbon, Australian electrician and politician, 51st Australian Minister of Defence

Joel Andrew Fitzgibbon is a retired Australian politician. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and represented the New South Wales seat of Hunter in the Australian House of Representatives from 1996 to 2022, a period of 26 years. He served as Minister for Defence (2007–2009) in the First Rudd Government and as Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (2013) in the Second Rudd Government. He was also Chief Government Whip in the House of Representatives (2010–2013) during the Gillard Government.

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Maxine Jones, American R&B singer–songwriter and actress

Maxine Jones is an American singer, songwriter, actress and businesswoman, best known as a founding member of the R&B-pop group En Vogue, one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. She sang lead vocals on the group's signature singles "My Lovin' " and "Don't Let Go (Love)", both of which garnered international success and sold over a million copies. Throughout her career, Jones has sold over 20 million records with En Vogue. Her work has earned her several awards and nominations, including two American Music Awards, a Billboard Music Award, four MTV Video Music Awards, and four Soul Train Music Awards.

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16/01/1961

Kenneth Sivertsen, Norwegian guitarist and composer (died 2006)

Kenneth Sivertsen was a Norwegian musician, composer, poet, and comedian.

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16/01/1959

Lisa Milroy, Canadian painter and educator

Lisa Milroy is an Anglo-Canadian artist known for her still life paintings of everyday objects. In the 1980s, Milroy’s paintings featured ordinary objects depicted against an off-white background. Subsequently her imagery expanded, which led to a number of different series including landscapes, buildings and portraits. As her approaches to still life diversified, so did her manner of painting, giving rise to a range of stylistic innovations. Throughout her practice, Milroy has been fascinated by the relation between stillness and movement, and the nature of making and looking at painting.

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Sade, Nigerian-English singer-songwriter and producer

Helen Folasade Adu, known professionally as Sade or Sade Adu, is a Nigerian-British singer-songwriter. She is the principal songwriter and lead vocalist of her own namesake band, Sade. One of the most successful British female artists in history, she is often recognised as an influence on contemporary music. Her success in the music industry was recognised with the honour Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2002 New Year Honours, and she was made Commander in the 2017 Birthday Honours.

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16/01/1958

Anatoli Boukreev, Russian mountaineer and explorer (died 1997)

Anatoli Nikolaevich Boukreev was a Russian-born Kazakh mountaineer who made ascents of 10 of the 14 eight-thousander peaks—those above 8,000 m (26,247 ft)—without supplemental oxygen. From 1989 through 1997, he made 18 successful ascents of peaks above 8,000 m.

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Lena Ek, Swedish lawyer and politician, ninth Swedish Minister for the Environment

Lena Ek is a Swedish politician who served as Minister for the Environment from 2011 to 2014. She is a former Member of the European Parliament and Member of the Riksdag. She is a member of the Centre Party, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

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Andris Šķēle, Latvian businessman and politician, fourth Prime Minister of Latvia

Andris Šķēle is a Latvian former politician and business oligarch. He served two terms as Prime Minister of Latvia from 1995 to 1997, and again from 1999 to 2000.

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16/01/1957

Jurijs Andrejevs, Latvian footballer and manager

Jurijs Andrejevs is a Latvian former football player and manager who is the sporting director of Riga FC academy. Previously he was the manager of the team but was released in 2008 after an unsuccessful season. He was the manager of Latvia national team from 2004 to 2007, having succeeded Aleksandrs Starkovs in December 2004.

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Ricardo Darín, Argentinian actor, director, and screenwriter

Ricardo Alberto Darín is an Argentine actor, film director and film producer, considered one of the best and most prolific actors of Argentine cinema.

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16/01/1956

Wayne Daniel, Barbadian cricketer

Wayne Wendell Daniel is a Barbadian former cricketer, who played as a right arm fast bowler. Daniel featured for the West Indies, Middlesex, Barbados and Western Australia in his cricketing career. He was the first person to hit a six and take a wicket on the last ball of his test career. He was a part of the West Indian squad which finished as runners-up at the 1983 Cricket World Cup.

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Gerald Henderson, American basketball player

Jerome McKinley "Gerald" Henderson Sr. is an American former professional basketball player. He was a combo guard who had a 13-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1979 until 1992. He played for the Boston Celtics, Seattle SuperSonics, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Milwaukee Bucks, Detroit Pistons, and Houston Rockets. Henderson was born in Richmond, Virginia and attended Virginia Commonwealth University.

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Martin Jol, Dutch footballer and manager

Maarten Cornelis "Martin" Jol is a Dutch football manager and former midfielder. He played over 400 games during his career which included spells in the Netherlands, Germany and England, as well as earning three caps with the Netherlands national team. He subsequently became a manager and has worked for Roda JC, RKC Waalwijk and Ajax in his homeland, as well as German Bundesliga club Hamburger SV and English Premier League clubs Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham and Egypt's Al Ahly.

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Greedy Smith, Australian singer-songwriter and keyboardist (died 2019)

Andrew McArthur "Greedy" Smith was an Australian vocalist, keyboardist, harmonicist and songwriter with Australian pop/new wave band Mental As Anything. Smith wrote many of their hit songs including "Live It Up" which peaked at No. 2 on the Australian singles chart. Smith had a solo music career, had worked with other bands and was also an artist and television personality.

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16/01/1955

Jerry M. Linenger, American captain, physician, and astronaut

Jerry Michael Linenger is a retired Captain in the United States Navy Medical Corps, and a former NASA astronaut who flew on the Space Shuttle and Space Station Mir.

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16/01/1954

Robin Davies, Welsh actor (died 2010)

Robert Richard "Robin" Davies was a Welsh television and film actor.

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Wolfgang Schmidt, German discus thrower

Wolfgang Schmidt is a German former track and field athlete who competed for East Germany at the 1976 Summer Olympics and won the silver medal in the discus throw. A former world record holder, he also won several medals at the European Athletics Championships. Schmidt made headlines in 1982 due to his failed attempt to escape from East Germany. He later competed for the Federal Republic of Germany and won third place in the 1990 European Athletics Championships. Born in Berlin, he competed for the SC Dynamo Berlin / Sportvereinigung (SV) Dynamo.

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Vasili Zhupikov, Russian footballer and coach (died 2015)

Vasili Mikhailovich Zhupikov was a Soviet football player and a Russian coach.

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16/01/1953

Robert Jay Mathews, American militant, founded The Order (died 1984)

Robert Jay Mathews was an American neo-Nazi and the leader of The Order, an American white supremacist militant group that committed counterfeiting, several bank robberies, car heists, murders, and assassinations. Mathews is believed to have served as a lookout in the murder of Alan Berg. Before founding The Order, Mathews was a member of the neo-Nazi groups the National Alliance and Aryan Nations.

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16/01/1952

Fuad II, King of Egypt

Fuad II, or alternatively Ahmed Fuad II, is a member of the Egyptian Muhammad Ali dynasty. As an infant, he formally reigned as the last King of Egypt and the Sudan from July 1952 to June 1953, when he was deposed.

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Piercarlo Ghinzani, Italian racing driver and manager

Piercarlo Ghinzani is an Italian former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from 1981 to 1989.

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16/01/1950

Debbie Allen, American actress, dancer, and choreographer

Deborah Kaye Allen is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, singer, director, producer, and a former member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. She has been nominated for 22 Emmy Awards, and two Tony Awards. She has won a Golden Globe Award, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991. In 2026, she received an Academy Honorary Award.

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Robert Schimmel, American comedian, actor, and producer (died 2010)

Robert George Schimmel was an American stand-up comedian who was known for his blue comedy. While the extremely profane nature of his act limited his commercial appeal, he had a reputation as a "comic's comic" due to his relentless touring, comedy albums and frequent appearances on HBO and The Howard Stern Show. Schimmel is number 76 on the 2004 program Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time.

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16/01/1949

Anne F. Beiler, American businesswoman, founded Auntie Anne's

Anne F. Beiler is an American businesswoman who founded Auntie Anne's pretzels.

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R. F. Foster, Irish historian and academic

Robert Fitzroy Foster, publishing as R. F. Foster, is an Irish historian and academic. He was the Carroll Professor of Irish History from 1991 until 2016 at Hertford College, Oxford.

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Andrew Refshauge, Australian physician and politician, 13th Deputy Premier of New South Wales

Andrew John Refshauge is a former Australian politician who was Deputy Premier of New South Wales from 1995 to 2005, a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly between 1983 and 2005, and a senior minister in the Carr ministry.

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16/01/1948

John Carpenter, American director, producer, screenwriter, and composer

John Howard Carpenter is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is generally recognized as a master of the horror genre. At the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, the French Directors' Guild gave him the Golden Coach Award and lauded him as "a creative genius of raw, fantastic, and spectacular emotions". On April 3, 2025, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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Ants Laaneots, Estonian general

Ants Laaneots is an Estonian politician and former military officer. He was previously the Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces and a veteran officer in the Soviet Army. Laaneots previously served as the Commandant of the Estonian National Defence College from 2001 to 2006. He was appointed the Commander-in-Chief on 5 December 2006 and was promoted to general in 2011. After retiring from the military, he became a politician.

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Ruth Reichl, American journalist and critic

Ruth Reichl is an American chef, food writer and editor. In addition to two decades as a food critic, mainly spent at the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, Reichl has also written cookbooks, memoirs and a novel, and has been co-producer of PBS's Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie, culinary editor for the Modern Library, host of PBS's Gourmet's Adventures With Ruth, and editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine. She has won six James Beard Foundation Awards.

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Cliff Thorburn, Canadian snooker player

Clifford Charles Devlin Thorburn is a Canadian retired professional snooker player. Nicknamed "The Grinder" because of his slow, determined style of play, he won the World Snooker Championship in 1980, defeating Alex Higgins 18–16 in the final. He is generally recognised as the sport's first world champion from outside the United Kingdom—since Australian Horace Lindrum's 1952 title is usually disregarded—and he remains the only world champion from the Americas. He was runner-up in two other world championships, losing 21–25 to John Spencer in the 1977 final and 6–18 to Steve Davis in the 1983 final. At the 1983 tournament, Thorburn became the first player to make a maximum break in a World Championship match, achieving the feat in his second-round encounter with Terry Griffiths.

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16/01/1947

Elaine Murphy, Baroness Murphy, English academic and politician

Elaine Murphy, Baroness Murphy is a British psychiatrist, academic, and politician who sits as a crossbench member of the House of Lords.

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Harvey Proctor, English politician

Keith Harvey Proctor is a British former Conservative Member of Parliament. A member of the Monday Club, he represented Basildon from 1979 to 1983 and Billericay from 1983 to 1987. Proctor became embroiled in a scandal involving sexual relationships with males under 21, which were illegal at the time. This culminated in criminal convictions and ended his parliamentary career.

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Laura Schlessinger, American physiologist, talk show host, and author

Laura Catherine Schlessinger, commonly known as Dr. Laura, is an American talk radio host and author. The Dr. Laura Program, heard weekdays for three hours on Sirius XM Radio, consists mainly of her responses to callers' requests for personal advice and often features her short monologues on social and political topics. Her website says that her show "preaches, teaches, and nags about morals, values, and ethics." She is an inductee to the National Radio Hall of Fame in Chicago.

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16/01/1946

Kabir Bedi, Indian actor

Kabir Bedi is an Indian actor. His career has spanned three continents covering India, the United States and especially Italy among other Western countries in three media: film, television and theatre. He is noted for his role as Emperor Shah Jahan in Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story and the villainous Sanjay Verma in the 1988 film Khoon Bhari Maang. He is best known in Italy and Europe for playing the pirate Sandokan in the Italian TV miniseries and for his role as the villainous Gobinda in the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy. Bedi is based in India and lives in Mumbai.

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Katia Ricciarelli, Italian soprano and actress

Katiuscia Maria Stella "Katia" Ricciarelli is an Italian soprano and actress.

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16/01/1945

Wim Suurbier, Dutch footballer and manager (died 2020)

Wilhelmus Lourens Johannes Suurbier was a Dutch professional footballer and among others assistant coach of the Albania national team. He played as a right back and was part of the Netherlands national team and AFC Ajax teams of the 1970s.

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16/01/1944

Dieter Moebius, Swiss-German keyboard player and producer (died 2015)

Dieter Moebius was a Swiss-born German electronic musician and composer, best known as a member of the influential krautrock bands Cluster and Harmonia.

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Jim Stafford, American singer-songwriter and actor

James Wayne Stafford is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and comedian. While prominent in the 1970s for his recordings "Spiders & Snakes", "Swamp Witch", "Under the Scotsman's Kilt", "My Girl Bill", and "Wildwood Weed", Stafford headlined at his own theater in Branson, Missouri, from 1990 to 2020. Stafford is self-taught on guitar, fiddle, piano, banjo, organ, and harmonica.

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Jill Tarter, American astronomer and biologist

Jill Cornell Tarter is an American astronomer who works on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Tarter is the former director of the Center for SETI Research, holding the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI at the SETI Institute. In 2002, Discover magazine recognized her as one of the 50 most important women in science.

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Judy Baar Topinka, American journalist and politician (died 2014)

Judy Baar Topinka was an American politician and member of the Republican Party from the U.S. State of Illinois.

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16/01/1943

Michael Attwell, English actor (died 2006)

Michael John Attwell was an English film and television actor. He is possibly best known for his role as Kenny Beale in the television soap opera EastEnders.

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Gavin Bryars, English bassist and composer

Richard Gavin Bryars is an English composer and double bassist. He has worked in jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, historicism, avant-garde, and experimental music.

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Brian Ferneyhough, British composer

Brian John Peter Ferneyhough is an English composer. Ferneyhough is typically considered the central figure of the New Complexity movement. Ferneyhough has taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and the University of California, San Diego; he teaches at Stanford University and is a regular lecturer in the summer courses at Darmstädter Ferienkurse. He has resided in California since 1987.

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Ronnie Milsap, American singer and pianist

Ronnie Lee Milsap is an American country music singer and pianist. He was one of country music's most popular and influential performers of the 1970s and 1980s. Nearly completely blind from birth, he became one of the most successful and versatile country "crossover" singers of his time, appealing to both country and pop music markets with hit songs that incorporated pop, R&B, and rock and roll elements. His biggest crossover hits include "It Was Almost Like a Song", "Smoky Mountain Rain", "(There's) No Gettin' Over Me", "I Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World", "Any Day Now", "Is It Over" and "Stranger in My House". He is credited with six Grammy Awards and 35 number-one country hits, fourth to George Strait, Conway Twitty, and Merle Haggard. He was selected for induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2014.

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16/01/1942

René Angélil, Canadian singer and manager (died 2016)

René Angélil was a Canadian musical producer, talent manager and singer. He was the husband and manager of singer Celine Dion.

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Barbara Lynn, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Barbara Lynn is an American rhythm and blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. She is best known for her R&B chart-topping hit, "You'll Lose a Good Thing" (1962). In 2018, Lynn received a National Heritage Fellowship. In 2026 Lynn was further honored by being inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

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16/01/1941

Claire Gordon, English actress and comedian (died 2015)

Claire Gordon was an English film actress and comedian known for leading and cameo roles in many British films from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s, and for working with most of the television comedy stars of that time. She was best known for her leading roles in the cult films Konga and Beat Girl, Gordon was the subject of singer Scott Walker's song "Archangel".

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Christine Truman, English tennis player and sportscaster

Christine Clara Truman Janes is a former tennis player from the United Kingdom who was active from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. She won a singles Grand Slam title at the French Championships in 1959 and was a finalist at Wimbledon and the U.S. Championships. She helped Great Britain win the Wightman Cup in 1958, 1960 and 1968.

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16/01/1939

Ralph Gibson, American photographer

Ralph Gibson is an American art photographer best known for his photographic books. His images often incorporate fragments with erotic and mysterious undertones, building narrative meaning through contextualization and surreal juxtaposition.

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16/01/1938

Marina Vaizey, American journalist and critic

Marina Alandra Vaizey, Baroness Vaizey, is an Anglo-American art critic, broadcaster, exhibition curator, author and journalist based in the UK.

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16/01/1937

Luiz Bueno, Brazilian racing driver (died 2011)

Luiz Pereira Bueno also known as Luiz Bueno was a race car driver from Brazil. He participated in one World Championship Formula One Grand Prix, on 11 February 1973. He scored no championship points. He also participated in several non-championship Formula One races.

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Francis George, American cardinal (died 2015)

Francis Eugene George was an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Chicago from 1997 to 2014. He previously served as Bishop of Yakima and Archbishop of Portland in Oregon. A member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, George was created a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1998. He served as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) from 2007 to 2010.

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16/01/1936

Michael White, Scottish actor and producer (died 2016)

Michael Simon White was a British theatrical impresario and film producer. White was responsible for the productions of 101 stage shows and 27 theatrical films over the span of 50 years.

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16/01/1935

A. J. Foyt, American race car driver

Anthony Joseph Foyt Jr. is an American former racing driver who competed in numerous disciplines of motorsport. He is best known for his open wheel racing career, and for becoming the first four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500. He holds the most American National Championship titles in history, winning seven.

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Udo Lattek, German footballer, manager, and sportscaster (died 2015)

Udo Lattek was a German professional football player and coach.

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16/01/1934

Bob Bogle, American rock guitarist and bass player (died 2009)

Robert Lenard Bogle was an American musician who was a founding member of the instrumental rock band the Ventures. He and Don Wilson founded the group in 1958. Bogle was the lead guitarist and later bassist of the group. In 2008, Bogle and other members of the Ventures were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Performer category.

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Marilyn Horne, American soprano and actress

Marilyn Berneice Horne is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages. She is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors, and has won four Grammy Awards.

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16/01/1933

Susan Sontag, American novelist, essayist, and critic (died 2004)

Susan Lee Sontag was an American writer and critic. She primarily wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp' ", in 1964. Her best-known works include the critical works Against Interpretation (1966), On Photography (1977), Illness as Metaphor (1978) and Regarding the Pain of Others (2003), the short story "The Way We Live Now" (1986) and the novels The Volcano Lover (1992) and In America (1999).

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16/01/1932

Victor Ciocâltea, Romanian chess player (died 1983)

Victor Ciocâltea was a Romanian chess player. He was awarded the International Master title in 1957 and the International Grandmaster title in 1978. Among his notable games is the one at the 15th Chess Olympiad, held in Varna in 1962, where he defeated Bobby Fischer.

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Dian Fossey, American zoologist and anthropologist (died 1985)

Dian Fossey was an American primatologist and conservationist known for undertaking an extensive study of mountain gorilla groups from 1966 until her murder in 1985. She studied them daily in the mountain forests of Rwanda, initially encouraged to work there by paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey. Gorillas in the Mist, a book published two years before her death, is Fossey's account of her scientific study of the gorillas at the Karisoke Research Center and prior career. It was adapted into a 1988 film of the same name.

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16/01/1931

John Enderby, English physicist and academic (died 2021)

Sir John Edwin Enderby was a British physicist, and was Professor of Physics at University of Bristol from 1976 to 1996. He developed innovative ways of using neutrons to study matter at the microscopic level. His research has particularly advanced our understanding of the structure of multicomponent liquids— those made up of two or more types of atoms – including commonly used liquid alloys and glasses.

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Robert L. Park, American physicist and academic (died 2020)

Robert Lee Park was an American professor of physics at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a former director of public information at the Washington office of the American Physical Society. Park was most noted for his critical commentaries on alternative medicine and pseudoscience, as well as his criticism of how legitimate science is distorted or ignored by the media, some scientists, and public policy advocates as expressed in his book Voodoo Science. He was also noted for his preference for robotic over crewed space exploration.

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Johannes Rau, German journalist and politician, eighth Federal President of Germany (died 2006)

Johannes Rau was a German politician who served as President of Germany from 1999 to 2004. A member of the Social Democratic Party, he previously served as the Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 1978 to 1998. In the latter role, he also served as President of the Bundesrat in 1982–1983 and in 1994–1995.

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16/01/1930

Mary Ann McMorrow, American lawyer and judge (died 2013)

Mary Ann McMorrow was an Illinois Supreme Court chief justice.

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Norman Podhoretz, American journalist and author (died 2025)

Norman Harold Podhoretz was an American magazine editor, writer, and conservative political commentator. He described his views as "paleo-neoconservative", but only "because [he'd] been one for so long". He was a writer for Commentary magazine, and served as the publication's editor-in-chief from 1960 to 1995.

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Paula Tilbrook, English actress (died 2019)

Paula Tilbrook was an English actress who played Betty Eagleton in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale from 1994 to 2015.

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16/01/1929

Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah, Sri Lankan anthropologist and academic (died 2014)

Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah was a social anthropologist and Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor (Emeritus) of Anthropology at Harvard University. He specialised in studies of Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Tamils, as well as the anthropology of religion and politics.

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16/01/1928

William Kennedy, American novelist and journalist

William Joseph Kennedy is an American writer and journalist who won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for his 1983 novel Ironweed.

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Pilar Lorengar, Spanish soprano and actress (died 1996)

Lorenza Pilar García Seta, known professionally as Pilar Lorengar, was a Spanish (Aragonese) soprano. She was best known for her interpretations of opera and the Spanish genre Zarzuela, and as a soprano she was known for her full register, a youthful timbre as well as a distinctive vibrato.

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16/01/1925

Peter Hirsch, German-English metallurgist and academic (died 2025)

Sir Peter Bernhard Hirsch was a British metallurgist who made fundamental contributions to the application of transmission electron microscopy to metals.

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James Robinson Risner, American general and pilot (died 2013)

Brigadier General James Robinson "Robbie" Risner was a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force, and a senior leader among U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War.

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16/01/1924

Katy Jurado, Mexican actress (died 2002)

María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García, known professionally as Katy Jurado, was a Mexican actress. She followed in the footsteps of earlier Mexican actresses in Hollywood, including Dolores Del Rio, Lupe Velez, and María Félix. And her talent for playing a variety of characters helped to promote later Mexican actresses in American cinema. She acted in popular Western films of the 1950s and 1960s. She was the first Latin American actress nominated for an Oscar, as Best Supporting Actress for her work in Broken Lance (1954), and was the first to win a Golden Globe Award, for her performance in High Noon (1952).

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Allen Swift, American actor, writer, playwright, and magician (died 2010)

Ira J. Stadlen, known professionally as Allen Swift, was an American actor, writer and magician, best known as a voiceover artist who voiced cartoon characters Simon Bar Sinister and Riff-Raff on the Underdog cartoon show. He took his professional name from radio comedian Fred Allen and 18th century satirist Jonathan Swift.

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16/01/1923

Gene Feist, American director and playwright, co-founded the Roundabout Theatre Company (died 2014)

Gene Feist was an American playwright, theater director and co-founder of the Roundabout Theater Company. He authored 15 plays or adaptations, of which two were published by Samuel French Inc. – James Joyce's Dublin and The Lady from Maxim's.

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Anthony Hecht, American poet (died 2004)

Anthony Evan Hecht was an American poet. His work combined a deep interest in form with a passionate desire to confront the horrors of 20th century history, with the Second World War, in which he fought, and the Holocaust being recurrent themes in his work.

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16/01/1921

Francesco Scavullo, American photographer (died 2004)

Francesco Scavullo was an American fashion photographer. He was best known for his work on the covers of Cosmopolitan from 1965 to 1995 and his celebrity portraits.

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16/01/1920

Elliott Reid, American actor and screenwriter (died 2013)

Edgeworth Blair "Elliott" Reid was an American actor.

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16/01/1919

Jerome Horwitz, American chemist and academic (died 2012)

Jerome Phillip Horwitz was an American scientist; his affiliations included the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, the Wayne State University School of Medicine and the Michigan Cancer Foundation.

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16/01/1918

Nel Benschop, Dutch poet and educator (died 2005)

Nelly Anna Benschop was a Dutch poet. She was a best selling poet in the Netherlands.

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Allan Ekelund, Swedish director, producer, and production manager (died 2009)

Allan Ekelund was a Swedish film producer. He produced 50 films between 1947 and 1964.

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Clem Jones, Australian surveyor and politician, eighth Lord Mayor of Brisbane (died 2007)

Clem Jones AO was an Australian politician who was the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Queensland, representing the Labor Party. He was the longest serving mayor from 1961 to 1975. He was chair of the Darwin Reconstruction Commission from 1975 to 1978. He was a businessman and philanthropist.

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Stirling Silliphant, American screenwriter and producer (died 1996)

Stirling Dale Silliphant was an American screenwriter and producer. He is best remembered for his screenplay for In the Heat of the Night, for which he won an Academy Award in 1967, and for creating the television series Naked City, Perry Mason, and Route 66. Other features as screenwriter include the Irwin Allen productions The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure.

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16/01/1917

Carl Karcher, American businessman, founded Carl's Jr. (died 2008)

Carl Nicholas Karcher was an American businessman who founded the Carl's Jr. hamburger chain, now owned by parent company Snow Star LP. Karcher served in the U.S. military during WWII.

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16/01/1916

Philip Lucock, English-Australian minister and politician (died 1996)

Philip Ernest Lucock, CBE was an Australian politician and Presbysterian minister. He served in the House of Representatives from 1952 to 1980, representing the Division of Lyne for the Country Party. He was Deputy Speaker for a record span of over 13 years.

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16/01/1915

Leslie H. Martinson, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2016)

Leslie Herbert Martinson was an American television and film director.

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16/01/1914

Roger Wagner, French-American conductor and educator (died 1992)

Roger Wagner, was an American choral musician, administrator and educator. In 1946 he founded the Roger Wagner Chorale, which became one of America's premier vocal ensembles. He also founded the Los Angeles Master Chorale, one of the three original resident companies of the Los Angeles Music Center, in 1964.

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16/01/1911

Ivan Barrow, Jamaican cricketer (died 1979)

Ivanhoe Mordecai Barrow was a Jamaican cricketer who played 11 Tests for the West Indies in the 1930s.

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Eduardo Frei Montalva, Chilean lawyer and politician, 28th President of Chile (died 1982)

Eduardo Nicanor Frei Montalva was a Chilean political leader. In his long political career, he was Minister of Public Works, president of his Christian Democratic Party, senator, President of the Senate, and the 28th president of Chile from 1964 to 1970. His eldest son, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, also became president of Chile (1994–2000).

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Roger Lapébie, French cyclist (died 1996)

Roger Lapébie was a French racing cyclist who won the 1937 Tour de France. In addition, Lapébie won the 1934 and 1937 editions of the Critérium National. He was born at Bayonne, Aquitaine, and died in Pessac.

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16/01/1910

Dizzy Dean, American baseball player and sportscaster (died 1974)

Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean, also known as Jerome Herman Dean, was an American professional baseball pitcher. During his Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he played for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Browns.

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16/01/1909

Clement Greenberg, American art critic (died 1994)

Clement Greenberg, occasionally writing under the pseudonym K. Hardesh, was an American essayist known mainly as an art critic closely associated with American modern art of the mid-20th century and a formalist aesthetician. He is best remembered for his association with the art movement abstract expressionism and the painter Jackson Pollock.

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16/01/1908

Sammy Crooks, English footballer (died 1981)

Samuel Dickinson Crooks was an English footballer who played as outside forward or outside right for Derby County in the mid-war era. He was one of the best-known footballers of the 1920s and 1930s and was capped 26 times by England.

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Ethel Merman, American actress and singer (died 1984)

Ethel Merman was an American singer and actress. Known for her distinctive, powerful voice, and her leading roles in musical theater, she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage." She performed on Broadway in Anything Goes, Annie Get Your Gun, Gypsy, and Hello, Dolly!

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Günther Prien, German captain (died 1941)

Günther Prien was a German U-boat commander during World War II. He was the first U-boat commander to receive the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and the first member of the Kriegsmarine to receive the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves of Nazi Germany. It was Germany's highest military decoration at the time of its presentation to Prien.

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16/01/1907

Alexander Knox, Canadian-English actor and screenwriter (died 1995)

Alexander Knox was a Canadian actor and writer. He appeared in over 100 film, television, and theatrical productions over a career spanning from the 1920s until the late 1980s. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for his performance as Woodrow Wilson in the biopic Wilson (1944). However, his career in the United States was hampered by McCarthyism, and he spent the rest of his career in the United Kingdom.

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Paul Nitze, American banker and politician, tenth United States Secretary of the Navy (died 2004)

Paul Henry Nitze was an American businessman and government official who served as United States Deputy Secretary of Defense, U.S. Secretary of the Navy, and Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. State Department. He is best known for being the principal author of NSC 68 and the co-founder of Team B. He helped shape U.S. Cold War defense policy over the course of numerous presidential administrations.

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16/01/1906

Johannes Brenner, Estonian footballer and pilot (died 1975)

Johannes Brenner was an Estonia football forward, who played for ESS Kalev Tallinn, Tallinna Jalgpalli Klubi and the Estonia national football team.

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Diana Wynyard, English actress (died 1964)

Diana Wynyard was an English stage and film actress.

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16/01/1905

Ernesto Halffter, Spanish composer and conductor (died 1989)

Ernesto Halffter Escriche was a Spanish composer and conductor. He was the brother of Rodolfo Halffter and part of the Grupo de los Ocho, which formed a sub-set of the Generation of '27.

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16/01/1903

William Grover-Williams, English-French racing driver (died 1945)

William Charles Frederick Grover-Williams, also known as "W Williams", was a British Grand Prix motor racing driver. He is best known for winning the first Monaco Grand Prix.

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16/01/1902

Eric Liddell, Scottish runner, rugby player, and missionary (died 1945)

Eric Henry Liddell was a Scottish sprinter, rugby player and a Christian missionary. Born in Tianjin, China to Scottish missionary parents, he attended a boarding school near London, spending time when possible with his family in Edinburgh, and afterwards attended the University of Edinburgh.

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16/01/1901

Fulgencio Batista, Cuban colonel and politician, ninth President of Cuba (died 1973)

Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was a Cuban military officer, political leader, and dictator who played a dominant role in Cuban politics from his initial rise to power in the 1930s until his overthrow in the Cuban Revolution in 1959. He served as president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944, and again from 1952 to his 1959 resignation.

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Frank Zamboni, American businessman and inventor (died 1988)

Frank Joseph Zamboni Jr. was an American businessman and inventor whose most famous invention is the modern ice resurfacer, with his surname being registered as a trademark for these devices.

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16/01/1900

Kiku Amino, Japanese author and translator (died 1978)

Kiku Amino was a Japanese writer and translator of English and Russian literature. She was a recipient of the Women's Literature Prize, the Yomiuri Prize, and Japan Academy of the Arts prize.

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Edith Frank, German-Dutch mother of Anne Frank (died 1945)

Edith Frank was the mother of Holocaust diarist Anne Frank and her older sister Margot. After the family were discovered in hiding in Amsterdam during the German occupation, she was transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where she died of weakness and disease.

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16/01/1898

Margaret Booth, American producer and editor (died 2002)

Margaret Booth was an American film editor. In a career lasting seven decades, Booth was most associated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

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Irving Rapper, American film director and producer (died 1999)

Irving Rapper was a British-born American film director.

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16/01/1897

Carlos Pellicer, Mexican poet and academic (died 1977)

Carlos Pellicer Cámara was part of the first wave of modernist Mexican poets and was active in the promotion of Mexican art, pictures, and literature. An enthusiastic traveler, his work is filled with depictions of nature and a certain sexual energy that is shared with his contemporary Octavio Paz.

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16/01/1895

Evripidis Bakirtzis, Greek soldier and politician (died 1947)

Evripidis Bakirtzis, born in Serres, Ottoman Empire, was a Hellenic Army officer and politician. Dismissed from the army twice due to his participation in pro-republican coup attempts and sentenced to death, later during the Axis Occupation of Greece, in World War II he co-founded the National and Social Liberation (EKKA) resistance group along with Dimitrios Psarros and was the military head of the organization. He later joined and was a prominent member of the National Liberation Front (EAM) and its military wing the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS). He served as head of the Political Committee of National Liberation (PEEA), a government of Greek Resistance-held territories also called the "Mountain Government", from 10 March to 18 April 1944. He was nicknamed "the Red Colonel", from his pen name in the newspaper of the Communist Party of Greece, the Rizospastis.

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T. M. Sabaratnam, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician (died 1966)

Thambaiyah Mudaliyar Sabaratnam was a Ceylon Tamil lawyer, politician and member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon.

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Nat Schachner, American lawyer, chemist, and author (died 1955)

Nathaniel Schachner, who published under the names Nat Schachner and Nathan Schachner, was an American writer, historian, and attorney, as well as an early advocate of the development of rockets for space travel. A prominent author of historical works on figures from America's Revolutionary Era, Schachner also was a regular contributor to the genre leading up to and during the early years of what came to be referred to as the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

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16/01/1894

Irving Mills, American publisher (died 1985)

Irving Harold Mills was a Ukrainian-American music publisher, musician, lyricist, and jazz promoter. He often used the pseudonyms Goody Goodwin and Joe Primrose.

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16/01/1893

Daisy Kennedy, Australian-English violinist (died 1981)

Daisy Fowler Kennedy was an Australian-born concert violinist.

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16/01/1892

Homer Burton Adkins, American chemist (died 1949)

Homer Burton Adkins was an American chemist who studied the hydrogenation of organic compounds. Adkins was regarded as top in his field and a world authority on the hydrogenation of organic compounds. Adkins is known for his wartime work, where he experimented with chemical agents and poisonous gasses. Renowned for his work, Adkins eventually suffered a series of heart attacks and died in 1949.

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16/01/1888

Osip Brik, Russian avant garde writer and literary critic (died 1945)

Osip Maksimovich Brik was a Russian avant garde writer, literary critic and lawyer, known for being an important member of the Russian formalist school, though he also identified himself as one of the Futurists.

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16/01/1885

Zhou Zuoren, Chinese author and translator (died 1967)

Zhou Zuoren was a Chinese writer, primarily known as an essayist and a translator. He was a major figure in the genre of prose essays. Zhou was a younger brother of Lu Xun, the second of three brothers.

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16/01/1882

Margaret Wilson, American author (died 1973)

Margaret Wilhelmina Wilson was an American novelist. She was awarded the 1924 Pulitzer Prize for The Able McLaughlins.

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16/01/1880

Samuel Jones, American high jumper (died 1954)

Samuel Symington Jones was an American athlete who competed mainly in the high jump. He competed for the United States in the 1904 Summer Olympics held in St Louis, United States in the high jump where he won the gold medal.

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16/01/1878

Harry Carey, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1947)

Henry DeWitt Carey II was an American actor and one of silent film's earliest superstars, usually cast as a Western hero. One of his best-known performances is as the president of the United States Senate in the drama film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was the father of Harry Carey Jr., who was also a prominent actor.

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16/01/1876

Claude Buckenham, English cricketer and footballer (died 1937)

Claude Percival Buckenham was an English first-class cricketer who played for Essex and England. He also won a gold medal playing football at the Olympic Games in 1900.

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16/01/1875

Leonor Michaelis, German biochemist and physician (died 1949)

Leonor Michaelis was a German biochemist, physical chemist, and physician. He is known for his work with Maud Menten on enzyme kinetics in 1913, as well as for work on enzyme inhibition, pH and quinones.

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16/01/1874

Robert W. Service, English-Canadian poet and author (died 1958)

Robert William Service was an English-born Canadian poet and writer, often called “The Bard of the Yukon" and "The Canadian Kipling". Born in Lancashire of Scottish descent, he was a bank clerk by trade, but spent long periods travelling in the west in the United States and Canada, often in poverty. When his bank sent him to the Yukon, he was inspired by tales of the Klondike Gold Rush, and wrote two poems, "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee", which showed remarkable authenticity from an author with no experience of the gold rush or mining, and enjoyed immediate popularity. Encouraged by this, he quickly wrote more poems on the same theme, which were published as Songs of a Sourdough, and achieved a massive sale. When his next collection, Ballads of a Cheechako, proved equally successful, Service could afford to travel widely and live a leisurely life, basing himself in Paris and the French Riviera.

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16/01/1872

Henri Büsser, French organist, composer, and conductor (died 1973)

Paul Henri Büsser was a French classical composer, organist, conductor and teacher. Among his teachers were César Franck, Charles Gounod and Jules Massenet. In addition to his own compositions Büsser edited and orchestrated a wide range of music – mostly but not exclusively French – dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries. He was at various times in his career the conductor of the Paris Opéra and the Opéra-Comique, and professor of composition at the Conservatoire de Paris.

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16/01/1870

Jüri Jaakson, Estonian businessman and politician, State Elder of Estonia (died 1942)

Jüri Jaakson was an Estonian lawyer and statesman.

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16/01/1853

Johnston Forbes-Robertson, English actor and manager (died 1937)

Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson was an English actor and theatre manager and husband of the actress Gertrude Elliott. Considered by some the finest Hamlet of the Victorian era and one of the finest actors of his time, he disliked acting and believed throughout his career that he was temperamentally unsuited to it.

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Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton, Greek-English general (died 1947)

General Sir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton, was a senior British Army officer who had an extensive British Imperial military career in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Hamilton was twice recommended for the Victoria Cross, but on the first occasion was considered too young, and on the second too senior. He was wounded in action at the Battle of Majuba during the First Boer War, which rendered his left hand permanently injured. Near the end of his career, he commanded the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in the Gallipoli campaign of the First World War.

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André Michelin, French businessman, co-founded the Michelin Tyre Company (died 1931)

André Jules Michelin was a French industrialist who, with his brother Édouard (1859–1940), founded the Michelin Tyre Company in 1888 in the French city of Clermont-Ferrand.

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16/01/1851

William Hall-Jones, English-New Zealand politician, 16th Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1936)

Sir William Hall-Jones was the 16th prime minister of New Zealand from June 1906 until August 1906.

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16/01/1844

Ismail Kemal, Albanian politician and statesman, first prime minister of Albania (died 1919)

Ismail Qemali, or Ismail Kemal Bey Vlora, was an Albanian politician and statesman who is regarded as the founder of modern Albania. He served as the first prime minister of Albania from December 1912 until his resignation in January 1914.

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16/01/1838

Franz Brentano, German philosopher and psychologist (died 1917)

Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Josef Brentano was a German philosopher and psychologist. His 1874 Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint, considered his magnum opus, is credited with having reintroduced the medieval scholastic concept of intentionality into contemporary philosophy.

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16/01/1836

Francis II of the Two Sicilies (died 1894)

Francis II was the last king of the Two Sicilies before the Italian unification, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia. After he was deposed, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Kingdom of Sardinia were merged into the newly formed Kingdom of Italy.

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16/01/1834

Robert R. Hitt, American lawyer and politician, 13th United States Assistant Secretary of State (died 1906)

Robert Roberts Hitt was an American diplomat and Republican politician from Illinois. He served briefly as assistant secretary of state in the short-lived administration of James A. Garfield but resigned alongside Secretary of State James G. Blaine after Garfield's assassination in 1881. He returned to Washington to represent Northwestern Illinois in the United States House of Representatives from 1882 to his death. After 1885, he was the senior Republican on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, which he chaired from 1889 to 1891 and 1895 until his death in 1906.

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16/01/1821

John C. Breckinridge, American general and politician, 14th Vice President of the United States (died 1875)

John Cabell Breckinridge was an American politician who served as the 14th vice president of the United States, with President James Buchanan, from 1857 to 1861, and as a general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Assuming office at the age of 36, Breckinridge is the youngest vice president in U.S. history. He was also the Southern Democratic candidate in the 1860 presidential election, losing to antislavery Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln.

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16/01/1815

Henry Halleck, American lawyer, general, and scholar (died 1872)

Henry Wager Halleck was a senior United States Army officer, scholar, and lawyer. A noted expert in military studies, he was known by a nickname that became derogatory: "Old Brains". He was an important participant in the admission of California as a state and became a successful lawyer and land developer. Halleck served as the General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States from 1862 to 1864, and then became Chief of Staff for the remainder of the war when Ulysses S. Grant was appointed to that position.

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16/01/1807

Charles Henry Davis, American admiral (died 1877)

Charles Henry Davis was a self-educated American astronomer and rear admiral of the United States Navy. While working for the United States Coast Survey, he researched tides and currents, and located an uncharted shoal that had caused wrecks off of the coast of New York. During the American Civil War, he commanded the Western Gunboat Flotilla, where he won an important engagement in the First Battle of Memphis before capturing enemy supplies on a successful expedition up the Yazoo River. Davis was also one of the founders of the National Academy of Sciences in 1863 and he wrote several scientific books.

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16/01/1757

Richard Goodwin Keats, English admiral and politician, third Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland (died 1834)

Admiral of the Blue Sir Richard Goodwin Keats, GCB was a Royal Navy officer and colonial administrator who served in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He retired in 1812 due to ill health and was made Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland, serving from 1813 to 1816. In 1821 Keats was made Governor of Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich, London. He held the post until his death at Greenwich in 1834. Keats is remembered as a capable and well respected officer, in particular due to his actions at the Algeciras campaign.

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16/01/1749

Vittorio Alfieri, Italian poet and playwright (died 1803)

Count Vittorio Amedeo Alfieri was an Italian dramatist and poet, considered the "founder of Italian tragedy." He wrote nineteen tragedies, sonnets, satires, a notable autobiography, and translated Virgil and other works from Latin and Greek. Alfieri's work exerted a profound influence on British Romantic poetry.

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16/01/1728

Niccolò Piccinni, Italian composer and educator (died 1800)

Niccolò Piccinni was an Italian composer of symphonies, sacred music, chamber music, and opera. Although he is somewhat obscure today, Piccinni was one of the most popular composers of opera—particularly the Neapolitan opera buffa—of the Classical period.

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16/01/1691

Peter Scheemakers, Belgian sculptor and educator (died 1781)

Peter Scheemakers or Pieter Scheemaeckers II or the Younger was a Flemish sculptor who worked for most of his life in London. His public and church sculptures in a classicist style had an important influence on the development of modern sculpture in England.

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16/01/1675

Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, French soldier and diplomat (died 1755)

Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, GE, was a French courtier and memoirist, who also spent time as a soldier and diplomat. He was born in Paris at the Hôtel Selvois, 6 rue Taranne. The family's ducal peerage (duché-pairie), granted in 1635 to his father Claude de Rouvroy (1608–1693), served as both perspective and theme in Saint-Simon's life and writings. He was the second and last Duke of Saint-Simon.

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16/01/1653

Johann Conrad Brunner, Swiss anatomist (died 1727)

Johann Conrad Brunner was a Swiss anatomist, especially cited for his work on the pancreas and duodenum.

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16/01/1634

Dorothe Engelbretsdatter, Norwegian author and poet (died 1716)

Dorothe Engelbretsdatter was a Norwegian author. She principally wrote hymns and poems which were strongly religious. She has been described as Norway's first recognized female author as well as Norway's first feminist before feminism became a recognized concept.

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16/01/1630

Guru Har Rai, Sikh Guru (died 1661)

Guru Har Rai revered as the seventh Nanak, was the seventh of ten Gurus of the Sikh religion. He became the Sikh leader at age 14, on 3 March 1644, after the death of his grandfather and the sixth Sikh leader Guru Hargobind. He guided the Sikhs for about seventeen years, till his death at age 31.

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16/01/1626

Lucas Achtschellinck, Belgian painter and educator (died 1699)

Lucas Achtschellinck was a Flemish landscape painter. He is counted among the landscape painters active in Brussels referred to as the School of Painters of the Sonian Forest who all shared an interest in depicting scenes set in the Sonian Forest, which is located near Brussels.

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16/01/1616

François de Vendôme, duke of Beaufort (died 1669)

François de Vendôme, duc de Beaufort was the son of César, Duke of Vendôme, and Françoise de Lorraine. He was a prominent figure in the Fronde, and later went on to fight in the Mediterranean. He is sometimes called François de Vendôme, though he was born into the House of Bourbon, Vendôme coming from his father's title of Duke of Vendôme.

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16/01/1558

Jakobea of Baden, Margravine of Baden by birth, Duchess of Jülich-Cleves-Berg by marriage (died 1597)

Princess Jakobea of Baden was daughter of the Margrave Philibert of Baden-Baden and Mechthild of Bavaria.

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16/01/1516

Bayinnaung, king of Burma (died 1581)

Bayinnaung Kyawhtin Nawrahta; 16 January 1516 – 10 October 1581), personal name Maung Yeh Htut (ရှင်ရဲထွတ်), was King of Burma from 30 April 1550 until his death in 1581, during the Toungoo dynasty. His reign is considered one of the most momentous in Burmese history, famously described as "the greatest explosion of human energy ever seen in Burma". During his rule, he assembled the largest empire in Southeast Asian history, which encompassed much of present-day Myanmar, as well as the Shan States, Lan Na, Lan Xang, Manipur, and the Ayutthaya Kingdom.

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16/01/1501

Anthony Denny, confidant of Henry VIII of England (died 1559)

Sir Anthony Denny was Groom of the Stool to King Henry VIII of England, thus his closest courtier and confidant. In 1539 he was appointed a gentleman of the privy chamber and was its most prominent member in King Henry's last years, having together with his brother-in-law, John Gates, charge of the "dry stamp" of the King's signature, and attended the King on his deathbed. He was a member of the Reformist circle that offset the conservative religious influence of Bishop Gardiner. He was a wealthy man, having acquired several manors and former religious sites distributed by the Court of Augmentations after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

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16/01/1477

Johannes Schöner, German astronomer and cartographer (died 1547)

Johannes Schöner was a German polymath. It is best to refer to him using the usual 16th-century Latin term "mathematicus", as the areas of study to which he devoted his life were very different from those now considered to be the domain of the mathematician. He was a priest, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, cosmographer, cartographer, mathematician, globe and scientific instrument maker and editor and publisher of scientific texts. In his own time he enjoyed a Europe-wide reputation as an innovative and influential globe maker and cosmographer and as one of the continent's leading and most authoritative astrologers. Today he is remembered as an influential pioneer in the history of globe making, and as a man who played a significant role in the events that led up to the publishing of Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, 'On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres' in the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg in 1543.

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16/01/1409

René of Anjou, king of Naples (died 1480)

René I of Anjou was Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence from 1434 to 1480, who also reigned as King of Naples from 1435 to 1442. Having spent his last years in Aix-en-Provence, he is known in France as the Good King René.

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16/01/1362

Robert de Vere, duke of Ireland (died 1392)

Robert de Vere, 9th Earl of Oxford, KG was a favourite and court companion of King Richard II of England. He was the ninth Earl of Oxford and the first Duke of Ireland and the only Marquess of Dublin. He was also the first person to be created a Marquess.

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16/01/1245

Edmund Crouchback, English politician, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (died 1296)

Edmund Crouchback was a member of the royal Plantagenet Dynasty and the founder of the House of Lancaster. He was Earl of Leicester (1265–1296), Lancaster (1267–1296) and Derby (1269–1296) in England and Count Palatine of Champagne (1276–1284) in France.

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16/01/1093

Isaac Komnenos, son of Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos (died 1152)

Isaac Komnenos or Comnenus was the third son of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Empress Irene Doukaina. He was raised to the high rank of sebastokrator by his older brother John II Komnenos in reward for his support, but they later fell out, as Isaac began to covet the throne.

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16/01/0972

Sheng Zong, emperor of the Liao Dynasty (died 1031)

Emperor Shengzong of Liao, personal name Wenshunu, sinicised name Yelü Longxu, was the sixth emperor of the Khitan-led Chinese Liao dynasty and its longest reigning monarch.

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