What happened on 17th January?

On this day, 259 notable people were born on 17th January — spanning from 1342 to 2005. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

17/01/2005

Peio Canales, Spanish footballer

Peio Canales Urtasun is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Segunda División club Racing de Santander, on loan from Athletic Bilbao.

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17/01/2003

Robin Roefs, Dutch footballer

Robin Gerardus Petrus Roefs is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Sunderland and the Netherlands national team.

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17/01/2002

Samuel, American singer based in South Korea.

Samuel Kim Arredondo, better known by his stage name Samuel, is an American singer based in South Korea. He was a part of the short-lived hip hop duo 1Punch in 2015. He participated in the reality television series season 2 of Produce 101 during the first half of 2017. In the final episode, he ranked 18th and was not able to join the show's project group. One month after the show ended, he began his solo career, with the release of his debut extended play (EP) Sixteen on August 2, 2017.

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17/01/2001

Enzo Fernández, Argentinian footballer

Enzo Jeremías Fernández is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Chelsea and the Argentina national team. Primarily a central midfielder, he is also capable of playing as a defensive or attacking midfielder.

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17/01/2000

Kang Chan-hee, South Korean singer and actor

Kang Chan-hee, also known by his stage name Chani, is a South Korean singer and actor. He began his career as a child actor, in the television dramas Listen to My Heart (2011), The Innocent Man (2012), The Queen's Classroom (2013), interactive drama Click Your Heart (2016), crime drama Signal (2016), and high-rated drama Sky Castle (2018). In 2015, he was introduced as one of the first members of NEOZ, which was a first group of FNC Entertainment's pre-debut team Neoz School. He debuted in October 2016 with the boy group SF9 and the single "Fanfare".

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Devlin DeFrancesco, Canadian race car driver

Devlin DeFrancesco is a Canadian auto racing driver who last competed in the IndyCar Series for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. In January 2022, DeFrancesco won the sixtieth running of the Daytona 24, alongside his teammates Eric Lux, Patricio O'Ward and Colton Herta, in the LMP2 class.

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Ayo Dosunmu, American basketball player

Quamdeen Ayopo "Ayo" Dosunmu is an American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Illinois Fighting Illini, earning consensus first-team All-American honors in his junior season. The Chicago Bulls selected him with the 38th pick in the 2021 NBA draft.

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17/01/1999

Isa Briones, American actor and singer

Isabella Camille Briones is an American actor and singer, born in London and raised in Los Angeles. She rose to prominence for her starring roles in the CBS / Paramount+ series Star Trek: Picard (2020–2022), including Soji, an android "daughter" of Data. She also starred as Margot Stokes in the first season of the Disney+/Hulu series Goosebumps (2023) and as Dr. Trinity Santos in the HBO Max medical drama The Pitt (2025–present).

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17/01/1998

Sophie Molineux, Australian cricketer

Sophie Grace Molineux is an Australian cricketer. A left-arm orthodox bowling all-rounder, Molineux has been a member of the national women's team since 2018. At domestic level, she currently plays for Victoria in the Women's National Cricket League (WNCL) and captains the Melbourne Renegades in the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL). On 29 January 2026, Molineux was appointed Captain of the Australian Women’s national cricket team across all formats. Molineux has also represented WPL side Royal Challengers Bangalore

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Jeff Reine-Adélaïde, French footballer

Jeff Jason Reine-Adélaïde is a French professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Eredivisie club Heracles.

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17/01/1997

Jake Paul, American boxer, actor, rapper, and social media personality

Jake Joseph Paul is an American professional boxer, influencer, and former actor. He began his career posting videos on Vine in September 2013 and had amassed 5.3 million followers and 2 billion views before the app was discontinued. He launched his YouTube channel, Jake Paul, in May 2014, and was ranked by Forbes as one of the highest-paid YouTube creators of the 2010s and 2020s.

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Kyle Tucker, American baseball player

Kyle Daniel Tucker, nicknamed "King Tuck", is an American professional baseball right fielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs. Internationally, Tucker represents the United States.

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17/01/1996

Allonzo Trier, American basketball player

Allonzo Brian Trier is an American professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Arizona Wildcats. As a sophomore in 2016–17, he earned second-team all-conference honors in the Pac-12 and was named the most outstanding player in the Pac-12 tournament.

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17/01/1995

Indya Moore, American actor and model

Indya Adrianna Moore is an American actor and model. They are known for playing the role of Angel Evangelista in the FX television series Pose. Time named them one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019. Moore is transgender and non-binary, and uses "they/them" and "she/her" pronouns.

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17/01/1994

Lucy Boynton, American-English actress

Lucy Boynton is a British actress. Born in New York City and raised in London, she made her professional debut as the young Beatrix Potter in Miss Potter (2006).

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Mark Steketee, Australian cricketer

Mark Thomas Steketee is an Australian cricketer. He plays for Queensland. He plays his club cricket for Valley District Cricket Club in Brisbane. During the 2017–18 season, Steketee represented the Cricket Australia XI in the 2017–18 JLT One-Day Cup.

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17/01/1992

Stanislav Galiev, Russian ice hockey player

Stanislav Galiev is a Russian professional ice hockey right winger for HC CSKA Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). He previously played for the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL).

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17/01/1991

Trevor Bauer, American baseball player

Trevor Andrew Bauer is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, and Los Angeles Dodgers. Bauer has also played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars and in the Mexican League (LMB) for Diablos Rojos del México.

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Willa Fitzgerald, American actress

Willa Fitzgerald is an American actress. She is known for her starring role as Emma Duval in MTV's Scream. She has played cheer coach Colette French in the USA Network's television drama series Dare Me and officer Roscoe Conklin in the Amazon Prime Video television series Reacher. Her other notable roles include Amazon Studios' television series Alpha House, the USA Network's drama series Royal Pains, Netflix's horror miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher, and the lead role in the thriller film Strange Darling.

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Esapekka Lappi, Finnish rally driver

Esapekka Eemeli Lappi is a Finnish rally driver. He is the 2012 and 2025 Finnish Rally Champion, 2014 European Rally Champion and the 2016 WRC-2 Champion. He now drives for Hyundai Motorsport. In 2024, he won his second ever event in Rally Sweden, which broke the record for the longest gap between wins in terms of time and number of rallies, with his debut win coming from his home event in 2017 Rally Finland.

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Alise Post, American BMX rider

Alise Rose Willoughby is an American professional "Current School" BMX racing racer who has been racing competitively since 2002. She uses the moniker "The Beast".

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17/01/1990

Santiago Tréllez, Colombian footballer

Santiago Tréllez Vivero is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Brazilian club Operário-PR.

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Tyler Zeller, American basketball player

Tyler Paul Zeller is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the North Carolina Tar Heels. As a freshman, he played on their 2009 national championship team and as a senior was an All-American and the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year. He is the nephew of former NBA player Al Eberhard, and the brother of fellow NBA players Cody Zeller and Luke Zeller.

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17/01/1989

Taylor Jordan, American baseball player

Taylor Jordan is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played for the Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Fubon Guardians of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL).

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Kelly Marie Tran, American actress

Kelly Marie Tran is an American actress. She began acting in 2011, with most of her roles being in short film and television. She came to global prominence for her role as Rose Tico in the Star Wars sequel trilogy films The Last Jedi (2017) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019). She also voiced Raya in the Disney film Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) and Dawn Betterman in the DreamWorks Animation film The Croods: A New Age (2020).

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17/01/1988

Andrea Antonelli, Italian motorcycle racer (died 2013)

Andrea Antonelli was an Italian motorcycle racer. He was killed in an accident at the Moscow Raceway, whilst competing for Team Go Eleven Kawasaki in the Supersport World Championship.

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Earl Clark, American basketball player

Earl Rashad Clark is an American professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the University of Louisville and was drafted 14th overall by the Phoenix Suns in the 2009 NBA draft.

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Will Genia, Australian rugby player

Sanchez William Genia is an Australian professional rugby union coach and former player. Genia's playing position was scrum-half. He had previously played in the Super Rugby for the Queensland Reds (2007–2015) and Melbourne Rebels (2018–2019), and finished his career for the Kintetsu Liners in Japan. He also had previously played for Stade Français in France's Top 14 from 2015 to 2017.

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Jonathan Keltz, American actor

Jonathan Lippert Keltz is an American-Canadian actor known for his role as Jake Steinberg in the HBO series Entourage, and his work in the films Prom (2011) and 21 & Over (2013). He starred as Leith Bayard in The CW's series Reign. In May 2014, Keltz was promoted to series regular for the show's second season, which premiered in October 2014.

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Héctor Moreno, Mexican footballer

Héctor Alfredo Moreno Herrera is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a centre-back.

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17/01/1987

Cody Decker, American baseball player

Cody Marshall Decker is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres in 2015. A right-handed power hitter, he played first base, third base, left field, and could catch.

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Oleksandr Usyk, Ukrainian boxer

Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Usyk is a Ukrainian professional boxer. He has held the unified heavyweight championship since 2025, and the Ring magazine title since 2022. He held the undisputed championship in two weight classes—cruiserweight and heavyweight—and is the first male boxer to become a three-time undisputed champion in the "four-belt era".

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17/01/1986

Viktor Stålberg, Swedish ice hockey player

Viktor Stålberg is a Swedish former professional ice hockey winger. He played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Nashville Predators, New York Rangers, Carolina Hurricanes, Ottawa Senators and Chicago Blackhawks with whom he won the Stanley Cup in 2013.

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17/01/1985

Pablo Barrientos, Argentinian footballer

Pablo Cesar Barrientos is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder.

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Simone Simons, Dutch singer-songwriter

Simone Johanna Maria Simons is a Dutch singer. She is best known for being the lead singer of Dutch symphonic metal band Epica, which she joined at the age of seventeen, releasing nine studio albums and touring the world. In her singing career, she has also collaborated with bands such as Kamelot, Leaves' Eyes, Primal Fear, Ayreon, and Angra. She also has a side pursuit as a lifestyle blogger, via her website SmoonStyle.

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17/01/1984

Calvin Harris, Scottish singer-songwriter, DJ, and producer

Adam Richard Wiles, known professionally as Calvin Harris, is a Scottish DJ, record producer, singer, and songwriter. His debut studio album, I Created Disco (2007) was preceded by the singles "Acceptable in the 80s" and "The Girls", both of which achieved commercial success in Europe, as well as in Australia. His second album, Ready for the Weekend (2009), debuted atop the official album charts in Scotland, as well as in the United Kingdom, and its lead single, "I'm Not Alone", became his first song to reach number one in the UK Singles Charts. In his early tracks, Harris mostly sang in his songs.

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Dexter Lumis, American wrestler

Samuel Robert Shaw is an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his time with WWE under the ring name Dexter Lumis.

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17/01/1983

Álvaro Arbeloa, Spanish footballer

Álvaro Arbeloa Coca is a Spanish former professional footballer. He predominantly played as a right-back, and occasionally on the left side.

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Ryan Gage, English actor

Ryan Gage is an English actor who has worked in theatre, television, films, and video games.

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Johannes Herber, German basketball player

Johannes Herber is a former German basketball player. He was born in Darmstadt. In 2006, he completed a U.S. college career at West Virginia University (WVU). In America, he was generally known as Joe Herber.

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Rick Kelly, Australian race car driver

Rick Kelly is an Australian professional racing driver who previously competed in the Supercars Championship. He last drove the No. 15 Ford Mustang GT for Kelly Racing. Previously, he drove for the HSV Dealer Team with whom he won the Bathurst 1000 alongside Greg Murphy in 2003 and 2004. In 2006, Kelly extended his success by winning the V8 Supercar Championship for the HSV Dealer Team. His older brother Todd Kelly was also a racing driver who won the Bathurst 1000 in 2005. His parents John and Margaret Kelly formed Kelly Racing in 2009 with Rick and Todd Kelly as lead drivers, expanding to a 4 car operation.

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Marcelo Garcia, Brazilian martial artist

Marcelo Garcia is a Brazilian submission grappler, a 5th degree black belt Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner and coach. A highly decorated competitor, Garcia is widely considered to be one of the greatest submission grapplers of all time, and one of the pound for pound greatest of his era. Holding 5 World Jiu-Jitsu Championship and 4 ADCC Submission Fighting World Championship titles, Garcia is a member of the IBJJF Hall of Fame and the third BJJ athlete to be inducted into the ADCC Hall of Fame.

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17/01/1982

Dwyane Wade, American basketball player

Dwyane Tyrone Wade Jr. is an American basketball executive and former professional player who is a co-owner of the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is also currently the host of the American adaptation of The Cube. Nicknamed "D-Wade" and "Flash", he is regarded as one of the greatest shooting guards in NBA history, he spent the majority of his 16-year career playing for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and won three NBA championships, was a 13-time NBA All-Star, an eight-time member of the All-NBA Team, and a three-time member of the All-Defensive Team. Wade is also Miami's all-time leader in points, games played, assists, steals, shots made, and shots taken.

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Andrew Webster, Australian rugby league player and coach

Andrew Webster is an Australian professional rugby league football coach who is the head coach of the New Zealand Warriors in the National Rugby League (NRL).

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Amanda Wilkinson, Canadian singer

Amanda Nicole Wilkinson is a Canadian country music singer. She was raised in Trenton, Ontario. She is best known for being a member of The Wilkinsons, a trio which also included her father Steve and brother Tyler. She has also recorded with Tyler in the duo Small Town Pistols and as a solo artist.

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17/01/1981

Warren Feeney, Northern Irish footballer and manager

Warren James Feeney is a Northern Irish football manager and former professional footballer who is currently an assistant manager at V.League 1 club Hanoi.

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Ray J, American singer, actor, and television personality

William Ray Norwood Jr., known professionally as Ray J, is an American R&B singer, rapper, songwriter, television presenter, and actor. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Carson, California, he is the younger brother of singer and actress Brandy.

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Michael Zigomanis, Canadian ice hockey player

Michael Zigomanis is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre. Zigomanis was drafted twice. In the 1999 NHL entry draft he was selected 64th overall by the Buffalo Sabres, but was not signed. He re-entered for the 2001 NHL entry draft and was selected by the Carolina Hurricanes 46th overall.

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17/01/1980

Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Ukrainian-American dancer and choreographer

Maksim Aleksandrovich Chmerkovskiy is a Ukrainian-American Latin–ballroom dance champion, choreographer, and instructor. He is widely known as one of the professional dancers on the American television series Dancing with the Stars, on which he first appeared in season two. In his 17 seasons as a competing pro on the show, Chmerkovskiy made it to the final round five times, with two runner-up and two third-place finishes. On May 20, 2014, Chmerkovskiy, paired with Olympic ice dancer Meryl Davis, won his first Dancing with the Stars title. Chmerkovskiy has also starred in the Broadway productions of dance shows Burn the Floor and Forever Tango.

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Zooey Deschanel, American singer-songwriter and actress

Zooey Claire Deschanel is an American actress and singer. She made her film debut in Mumford (1999) and had a supporting role in Cameron Crowe's film Almost Famous (2000). Deschanel is known for her deadpan roles in comedy films such as The Good Girl (2002), The New Guy (2002), Elf (2003), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Failure to Launch (2006), Yes Man (2008), 500 Days of Summer (2009), and Our Idiot Brother (2011). She has also ventured into dramatic film territory with Manic (2001), All the Real Girls (2003), Winter Passing (2005), Bridge to Terabithia (2007), The Happening (2008), and The Driftless Area (2015). From 2011 to 2018, she starred as Jessica Day on the Fox sitcom New Girl, for which she received nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards.

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Modestas Stonys, Lithuanian footballer

Modestas Stonys is a Lithuanian professional footballer and a goalkeeper coach who plays for an A lyga club FK Kauno Žalgiris. He plays the position of goalkeeper and is 1.88 m tall and weighs 80 kg. He is a former member of the Lithuania national football team.

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17/01/1978

Lisa Llorens, Australian Paralympian

Lisa Christina Llorens, OAM(born 17 January 1978) is an Australian Paralympic athlete. She was born in Canberra. She specialises in Paralympic high jumping, long jumping, and sprinting, participating in competitions for athletes with autism.

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Ricky Wilson, English singer-songwriter

Charles Richard Wilson is an English musician and the frontman of five-piece rock band Kaiser Chiefs. In September 2013, Wilson was confirmed as a coach on The Voice UK. He was the winning coach for both the fourth and fifth series of the show, being the first coach to win two years consecutively. Wilson left the show after three series, following the show's move to ITV.

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17/01/1977

Leigh Whannell, Australian actor, director, screenwriter, and producer

Leigh Whannell is an Australian filmmaker and actor. He has written multiple films that were directed by his friend James Wan, including Saw (2004), Dead Silence (2007), Insidious (2010), and Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013). Whannell made his directorial debut with Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015), and has since directed three more films: Upgrade (2018), The Invisible Man (2020), and Wolf Man (2025).

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17/01/1975

Freddy Rodriguez, American actor

Freddy Rodriguez is an American actor and voice actor. He had starring roles as Federico Diaz on Six Feet Under (2001–2005) and Benny Colon in Bull (2016–2021), as well as a recurring role as Gio on Ugly Betty (2007–2010). He voiced Angelo Lopez in the video game Saints Row. He also starred in the Robert Rodriguez film Planet Terror (2007). In addition to an Emmy nomination for Six Feet Under, he received two SAG Awards and four Imagen Awards for his work.

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17/01/1974

Yang Chen, Chinese footballer and manager

Yang Chen is a Chinese football coach and a former player.

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Vesko Kountchev, Bulgarian viola player, composer, and producer

Vesko Kountchev is a musician.

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Derrick Mason, American football player

Derrick James Mason is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver for fifteen seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Michigan State Spartans and was selected in the fourth round of the 1997 NFL draft by the Tennessee Oilers. After eight seasons with Tennessee, Mason signed with the Baltimore Ravens, becoming the franchise's all-time leading receiver with 5,777 yards from 2005 to 2010. He spent 2011 with the New York Jets and Houston Texans before retiring as a Raven on June 11, 2012.

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17/01/1973

Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Mexican footballer and actor

Cuauhtémoc Blanco Bravo is a Mexican politician and former professional footballer serving as a member of the Chamber of Deputies.

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Chris Bowen, Australian politician, 37th Treasurer of Australia

Christopher Eyles Guy Bowen is an Australian politician who has been Minister for Climate Change and Energy in the Albanese government since June 2022. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and was first elected to parliament at the 2004 federal election. He held ministerial office in the Rudd and Gillard governments from 2007 to 2013.

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Liz Ellis, Australian netball player and sportscaster

Elizabeth Margaret Ellis, is a retired Australian netball player and television presenter who was a member of the national netball team from 1992 until 2007 and captain for the last four of those years. She is the most capped international player for Australian netball.

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Aaron Ward, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster

Aaron Christian Ward is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played more than 800 games over a span of 13 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Detroit Red Wings, Carolina Hurricanes, New York Rangers, Boston Bruins and Anaheim Ducks. He is a three-time Stanley Cup champion, having won twice with Detroit in 1997 and 1998 and once with Carolina in 2006.

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17/01/1971

Giorgos Balogiannis, Greek basketball player

Georgios Balogiannis is a retired Greek professional basketball player.

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Richard Burns, English race car driver (died 2005)

Richard Alexander Burns was an English rally driver who won the 2001 World Rally Championship, having previously finished runner-up in the series in 1999 and 2000. He also helped Mitsubishi to the world manufacturers' title in 1998, and Peugeot in 2002. His co-driver in his whole career was Robert Reid. He is the only Englishman to have won the World Rally Championship as a driver.

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Kid Rock, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor

Robert James Ritchie, known professionally as Kid Rock, is an American musician, singer, rapper, and songwriter. After establishing himself in the Detroit hip-hop scene, he broke through into mainstream success with a rap rock sound before shifting his performance style to country rock. A self-taught musician, he can play every instrument in his backing band and has overseen production on all but two of his albums.

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Sylvie Testud, French actress, director, and screenwriter

Sylvie Testud is a French actress whose film career began in 1991. She won the César Award for Most Promising Actress for Murderous Maids (2000), the César Award for Best Actress for Fear and Trembling (2003), and the European Film Award for Best Actress for Lourdes (2009). Her other film roles include Beyond Silence (1996), La Vie en Rose (2007), and French Women (2014).

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17/01/1970

Cássio Alves de Barros, Brazilian footballer

Cássio Alves de Barros is a Brazilian professional football manager and former player.

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Jeremy Roenick, American ice hockey player and actor

Jeremy Shaffer Roenick is an American former professional ice hockey player who played the majority of his career in the National Hockey League (NHL). He was drafted 8th overall in the 1988 NHL entry draft by the Chicago Blackhawks, for whom he played from 1988 to 1996. Roenick subsequently played for the Phoenix Coyotes, Philadelphia Flyers, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks over the course of his twenty-season career in the league. He also represented Team USA in several international tournaments. On November 10, 2007, he became the third American-born player to score 500 goals. He is one of 46 players to have scored 500 goals. After retiring in 2009, Roenick joined NBC Sports as a hockey analyst from 2010 to 2020. Roenick was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2024.

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Genndy Tartakovsky, Russian-American animator, director, and producer

Gennady Borisovich "Genndy" Tartakovsky is a Russian-American animator, screenwriter, film producer, and director. He is best known as the creator of various animated television series on Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, including Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars, Sym-Bionic Titan, Primal, and Unicorn: Warriors Eternal. Growing up, he mainly loved to watch classic cartoons, inspired by Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Max Fleischer, Osamu Tezuka, Jack Kirby, and Harvey Kurtzman as well as Hanna-Barbera.

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17/01/1969

Naveen Andrews, English actor

Naveen William Sidney Andrews is a British and American actor. He is best known for his role as Sayid Jarrah in the television series Lost (2004–2010), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award, as well as winning a Screen Actors Guild Award along with the cast. He has also appeared in films such as The English Patient (1996), Mighty Joe Young (1998), Rollerball (2002), Bride and Prejudice (2004), Planet Terror (2007), The Brave One (2007), and Diana (2013). In 2022, he portrayed Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani in the Hulu miniseries The Dropout.

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Lukas Moodysson, Swedish director, screenwriter, and author

Karl Fredrik Lukas Moodysson is a Swedish filmmaker, novelist, and short story writer. First coming to prominence as an ambitious poet in the 1980s, he had his big domestic and international breakthrough directing the 1998 romantic film Show Me Love. He has since directed a string of films with different styles and public appeal, as well as continued to write both poetry and novels. In 2007, The Guardian ranked Moodysson eleventh in its list of the world’s best directors, describing his directorial style as “heartfelt and uncompromising.”

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Tiësto, Dutch DJ and producer

Tijs Michiel Verwest, known professionally as Tiësto, is a Dutch DJ and record producer. He was voted "The Greatest DJ of All Time" by Mix magazine in a 2010/2011 poll amongst fans. In 2013, he was voted by DJ Mag readers as the "best DJ of the last 20 years". He is also regarded as the "Godfather of EDM" by many sources.

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17/01/1968

Rowan Pelling, English journalist and author

Rowan Dorothy Pelling is a British journalist, who first achieved note as the editor of a monthly literary/erotic magazine, the Erotic Review.

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Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Dutch author, poet, and scholar

Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer is a Dutch poet, novelist, polemicist and classical scholar. He was born in Rijswijk, Netherlands, and studied, lived and worked in Leiden, and he moved permanently to Genoa, Italy, in 2008.

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17/01/1967

Richard Hawley, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

Richard Willis Hawley is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. After his first band Treebound Story broke up, Hawley found success as a member of Britpop band Longpigs in the 1990s. He played with Pulp, led by his friend Jarvis Cocker, as a touring musician for a short time. As a solo musician, Hawley has released ten studio albums. He has been nominated for a Mercury Prize twice and once for a Brit Award. He has also collaborated with Robbie Williams, Nancy Sinatra, Gwen Stefani, Arctic Monkeys, Paul Weller, Duane Eddy, Lisa Marie Presley and Manic Street Preachers.

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17/01/1966

Trish Johnson, English golfer

Patricia Mary "Trish" Johnson MBE is an English professional golfer. She won three times on the LPGA Tour and 19 times on the Ladies European Tour. As a senior she has won both senior women's major championships, the U.S. Senior Women's Open and the Senior LPGA Championship.

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Joshua Malina, American actor

Joshua Charles Malina is an American film and stage actor known for playing Will Bailey on the NBC drama The West Wing, Jeremy Goodwin on Sports Night, U.S. Attorney General David Rosen on Scandal, and Caltech President Siebert on The Big Bang Theory.

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Shabba Ranks, Jamaican rapper, musician, and songwriter

Rexton Rawlston Fernando Gordon , better known by his stage name Shabba Ranks, is a Jamaican dancehall musician. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was one of the most popular Jamaican musicians in the world. Although his early success ensured he was prominent in his home country as a dancehall artist, he gained popularity in North America with his album Just Reality in 1990. He released other albums, including As Raw as Ever and X-tra Naked, which both won a Grammy Award as Best Reggae Album in 1992 and 1993, respectively. He is notoriously popular for "Mr. Loverman" and "Ting-A-Ling", which were globally acclaimed and deemed his signature songs.

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17/01/1965

Sylvain Turgeon, Canadian ice hockey player

Joseph Sylvain Dorilla Turgeon is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played twelve seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Hartford Whalers, New Jersey Devils, Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators between 1983 and 1995. The older brother of Hockey Hall of Famer Pierre Turgeon, he won the bronze medal with Team Canada at the 1983 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships and he was a member of the 1984 NHL All-Rookie Team and played in the 1986 NHL All-Star Game. He scored the game-winning goal in the Ottawa Senators first-ever game in 1992. Beleaguered by injuries, he spent the remainder of his career from 1995 to 2002 playing for various teams in the minor leagues and in Europe.

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17/01/1964

Michelle Obama, American lawyer and activist, 44th First Lady of the United States

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is an American attorney and author who served as First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017 as the wife of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States.

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John Schuster, Samoan-New Zealand rugby player

Nesetorio Jonny Schuster is a former international rugby league and rugby union player, a dual-code international.

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17/01/1963

Colin Gordon, English footballer, agent, manager and chief executive

Colin Kenneth Gordon is an English former footballer born in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, who played as a striker.

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Kai Hansen, German singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

Kai Michael Hansen is a German musician who is the founder, lead guitarist and vocalist of power metal band Gamma Ray. He is also one of the co-founders of another power metal band Helloween, which he was a part of from 1983 to 1989 and rejoined in 2016. He is a prominent figure in power metal and has sold millions of albums worldwide. In 2011, he joined the band Unisonic featuring Helloween vocalist Michael Kiske. Hansen and Kiske reunited with Helloween in 2017 for a world tour with all current members, celebrating the 30-year anniversary of release of the albums Keeper of the Seven Keys Parts I and II.

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17/01/1962

Jun Azumi, Japanese broadcaster and politician, 46th Japanese Minister of Finance

Jun Azumi is a Japanese politician of the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. He is also the current secretary-general of the CDP on 11 September 2025.

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Jim Carrey, Canadian-American actor, comedian, and producer

James Eugene Carrey is a Canadian and American actor and comedian. Known primarily for his energetic slapstick performances, he is regarded as one of the most prominent comedic actors of his generation. He has received two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for BAFTA Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

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Sebastian Junger, American journalist and author

Sebastian Junger is an American journalist, author and filmmaker who has reported in-the-field on dirty, dangerous and demanding occupations and the experience of infantry combat. He is the author of The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea (1997) which was adapted into a major motion picture and led to a resurgence in adventure creative nonfiction writing. He covered the War in Afghanistan for more than a decade, often embedded in dangerous and remote military outposts. The book War (2010) was drawn from his field reporting for Vanity Fair, that also served as the background for the documentary film Restrepo (2010) which received the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Junger's works explore themes such as brotherhood, trauma, and the relationship of the individual to society as told from the far reaches of human experience.

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Denis O'Hare, American actor and singer

Denis Patrick Seamus O'Hare is an American actor noted for his award-winning performances in the plays Take Me Out and Sweet Charity, as well as portraying vampire king Russell Edgington on the HBO fantasy series True Blood. He is also known for his supporting roles in such films as Charlie Wilson's War (2007), Milk (2008), Changeling (2008), and Dallas Buyers Club (2013). In 2011, he starred as Larry Harvey in the first season of the FX anthology series American Horror Story, for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie in 2012. He returned to the show in 2013, playing Spalding in American Horror Story: Coven and once more as Stanley in American Horror Story: Freak Show, the latter for which he earned a second Primetime Emmy Award nomination. For his performance in American Horror Story: Hotel as Liz Taylor, O'Hare received critical acclaim.

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17/01/1961

Brian Helgeland, American director, producer, and screenwriter

Brian Thomas Helgeland is an American screenwriter, film producer, and director. He is best known for writing the screenplays for the films L.A. Confidential (1997) and Mystic River (2003). He wrote and directed the films 42, a biopic of Jackie Robinson, and Legend, about the rise and fall of the infamous London gangsters, the Kray twins. His work on L.A. Confidential earned him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

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17/01/1960

John Crawford, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

John Buckner Crawford is an American singer-songwriter noted for co-founding the pop group Berlin, which had several hit songs in the 1980s.

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Chili Davis, Jamaican-American baseball player and coach

Charles Theodore "Chili" Davis is a Jamaican-American former professional baseball player. He played as an outfielder and designated hitter from 1981 to 1999 for the San Francisco Giants (1981–1987), California Angels, Minnesota Twins (1991–1992), Kansas City Royals (1997) and New York Yankees (1998–1999). His first MLB coaching position after his playing career was with the Oakland Athletics from 2012 to 2014. He also coached for the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and the New York Mets. Davis was a switch-hitter and threw right-handed. He is the first ballplayer born in Jamaica to appear in an MLB game.

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17/01/1959

Susanna Hoffs, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress

Susanna Lee Hoffs is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actress. With Debbi Peterson and Vicki Peterson, she founded the Bangles in 1981. Their debut album, All Over the Place (1984), was acclaimed by critics but sold poorly. Their second album, Different Light (1986), was also warmly received by critics and was certified double-platinum in 1987 and triple-platinum in 1994. It contained the US number two single "Manic Monday" written by Prince and the number one single "Walk Like an Egyptian." The group's third album, Everything (1988), included the US top ten charting "In Your Room" and number one "Eternal Flame," both written by Hoffs with Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. Hoffs was lead vocalist on five of the seven singles released by the Bangles, resulting in her being seen as the face of the group even though all four members shared lead vocal duties. Following tensions including resentment at Hoffs' perceived leadership and the stress of touring, the band split in 1989. It reformed in 1999 and released the albums Doll Revolution (2003) and Sweetheart of the Sun (2011).

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17/01/1958

Tony Kouzarides, English biologist, cancer researcher

Sir Tony Kouzarides is an English biologist who is a senior group leader at the Gurdon Institute, a founding non-executive director of Abcam and a professor of Cancer Biology at the University of Cambridge.

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17/01/1957

Steve Harvey, American actor, comedian, television personality and game show host

Broderick Stephen Harvey is an American comedian, radio and television host, actor, writer, and producer. He hosts The Steve Harvey Morning Show, Family Feud, Celebrity Family Feud, Family Feud Africa, and the arbitration-based court comedy Judge Steve Harvey, and formerly hosted the Miss Universe competition. His accomplishments include seven Daytime Emmy Awards, two Marconi Awards, and fourteen NAACP Image Awards.

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Ann Nocenti, American journalist and author

Ann "Annie" Nocenti is an American journalist, filmmaker, teacher, comic book writer and editor. She is best known for her work at Marvel in the late 1980s, particularly a four-year stint as the editor of Uncanny X-Men and The New Mutants as well as her run as a writer of Daredevil, illustrated primarily by John Romita Jr. Nocenti has created such Marvel characters as Longshot, Mojo, Spiral, Blackheart, and Typhoid Mary.

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17/01/1956

Damian Green, English journalist and politician

Damian Howard Green is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashford from 1997 to 2024.

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Paul Young, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Paul Antony Young is an English musician, singer and songwriter. Formerly the frontman of the short-lived bands Kat Kool & the Kool Cats, Streetband and Q-Tips, he became a teen idol with his solo success in the 1980s. His hit singles include "Love of the Common People", "Wherever I Lay My Hat", "Come Back and Stay", "Every Time You Go Away" and "Everything Must Change", all reaching the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart. Released in 1983, his debut album, No Parlez, was the first of three UK number-one albums.

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17/01/1955

Steve Earle, American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, author and actor

Stephen Fain Earle is an American country, rock, and folk singer-songwriter. He began his career as a songwriter in Nashville.

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Pietro Parolin, Italian cardinal

Pietro Parolin is an Italian Catholic prelate who has served as the Vatican's Secretary of State since 2013, and has served as a member of the Council of Cardinals since 2014, the same year he was made a cardinal.

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Steve Javie, American basketball player and referee

Steve Javie is an American retired professional basketball referee who is currently an analyst with ESPN and a Catholic permanent deacon. He refereed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from the 1986–87 NBA season to the 2010–11 season, officiating 1,514 regular season, 243 playoff, and 23 NBA Finals games ; he is one of few NBA referees to officiate 1,000 games. According to Referee magazine, Javie was a highly regarded referee in the NBA, and he was respected within the officiating community for his game management skills. He was also notable during his NBA officiating career for his quickness in assessing technical fouls.

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17/01/1954

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., American environmental lawyer, writer, and conspiracy theorist

Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., also known by his initials RFK Jr., is an American politician, environmental lawyer, author, conspiracy theorist, and anti-vaccine activist serving as the 26th United States secretary of health and human services since 2025. A member of the prominent Kennedy family, he is a son of Senator and US attorney general Robert F. Kennedy and a nephew of US president John F. Kennedy and US senator Ted Kennedy.

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17/01/1953

Jeff Berlin, American bass player and educator

Jeffrey Arthur Berlin is an American jazz rock bassist and composer. He first came to prominence in the 1970s as a member of the band Bruford, led by drummer Bill Bruford.

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Carlos Johnson, American singer and guitarist

Carlos Johnson is an American blues guitarist and singer. He is left-handed, but plays a right-handed instrument upside-down like players such as Otis Rush, Albert King, and Jimi Hendrix. Johnson is known for his aggressive playing which has attracted audiences in Chicago blue scene since the 1970s. He has played on recordings of notable musicians including Billy Branch & The Sons of Blues and Son Seals.

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17/01/1952

Tom Deitz, American author (died 2009)

Thomas Franklin Deitz was an American fantasy novelist, professor, and artist from Georgia. He was best known for authoring the David Sullivan contemporary fantasy series, though he also authored three other fantasy series and a standalone novel set in the same universe as the David Sullivan series.

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Darrell Porter, American baseball player and sportscaster (died 2002)

Darrell Ray Porter was an American professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1971 to 1987 for the Milwaukee Brewers, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals, and Texas Rangers. The four-time All-Star was known for his excellent defensive skills and power hitting ability. He struggled with, but was never able to overcome, a substance abuse problem, yet went on to become the most valuable player of the 1982 World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals. Porter died from accidental drug toxicity in 2002 at the age of 50.

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Ryuichi Sakamoto, Japanese pianist, composer, and producer (died 2023)

Ryuichi Sakamoto was a Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his YMO bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto influenced and pioneered a number of electronic music genres. As a film score composer, Sakamoto won an Academy Award (Oscar), BAFTA, Grammy and two Golden Globe Awards.

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17/01/1950

Luis López Nieves, Puerto Rican-American author and academic

Luis López Nieves is a Puerto Rican author.

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17/01/1949

Anita Borg, American computer scientist and academic (died 2003)

Anita Borg was an American computer scientist celebrated for advocating for women’s representation and professional advancement in technology. She founded the Institute for Women and Technology and the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

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Gyude Bryant, Liberian businessman and politician (died 2014)

Charles Gyude Bryant was a Liberian politician and businessman. He served as the Chairman of the Transitional Government of Liberia from 14 October 2003 to 16 January 2006. The installation of the transitional government was part of the peace agreement to end the country's second civil war, which had raged since the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebelled against President Charles Taylor in 1999. Bryant was previously a businessman and was chosen as chairman because he was seen as politically neutral and therefore acceptable to each of the warring factions, which included LURD, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), and loyalists of former President Taylor. He was a prominent member of the Episcopal Church of Liberia, and was critical of the governments of both Samuel Doe (1980–90) and Charles Taylor (1997–2003).

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Augustin Dumay, French violinist and conductor

Augustin Dumay is a French violinist and conductor from Paris.

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Andy Kaufman, American actor and comedian (died 1984)

Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman was an American entertainer and performance artist. He has sometimes been called an "anti-comedian". He disdained telling jokes and engaging in comedy as it was traditionally understood, once saying in an interview, "I am not a comic, I have never told a joke. The comedian's promise is that he will go out there and make you laugh with him. My only promise is that I will try to entertain you as best I can."

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Mick Taylor, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Michael Kevin Taylor is an English guitarist, best known as a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (1967–1969) and the Rolling Stones (1969–1974). As a member of the Stones, he appeared on Let It Bleed (1969), Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! (1970), Sticky Fingers (1971), Exile on Main St. (1972), Goats Head Soup (1973), It's Only Rock 'n Roll (1974), and Tattoo You (1981).

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17/01/1948

Davíð Oddsson, Icelandic politician, 21st Prime Minister of Iceland (died 2026)

Davíð Oddsson was an Icelandic politician, and the longest-serving prime minister of Iceland, in office from 1991 to 2004. From 2004 to 2005 he served as foreign minister and as the chairman for the Independence Party from 1991 to 2005. Previously, he was Mayor of Reykjavík from 1982 to 1991, and chaired the board of governors of the Central Bank of Iceland from 2005 to 2009. The 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis led to vocal demands for his resignation, both from members of the Icelandic public and from the new Icelandic Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, which resulted in his being replaced as head of the Central Bank in March 2009.

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17/01/1947

Joanna David, English actress

Joanna David is an English actress, best known for her television work.

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Jane Elliot, American actress

Jane Elliot is an American actress, best known for her role as Tracy Quartermaine in the ABC daytime soap opera General Hospital.

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17/01/1945

Javed Akhtar, Indian poet, playwright, and composer

Javed Akhtar is an Indian screenwriter, lyricist, poet, and political activist. Renowned for his extensive work in Hindi cinema, he has won five National Film Awards and sixteen Filmfare Awards. He was honoured with the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2007, two of India's highest civilian honours. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest screenwriters and lyricists in the history of Indian cinema.

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Anne Cutler, Australian psychologist and academic (died 2022)

Elizabeth Anne Cutler FRS FBA FASSA was an Australian psycholinguist, who served as director emeritus of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. A pioneer in her field, Cutler's work focused on human listeners' recognition and decoding of spoken language. Following her retirement from the Max Planck Institute in 2012, she took a professorship at the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University.

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17/01/1944

Ann Oakley, English sociologist, author, and academic

Ann Rosamund Oakley is a British sociologist and writer. She is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy, and founder-director of the Social Science Research Unit and the EPPI Centre at the Social Research Institute at University College London. She is also an Honorary Fellow at Somerville College, Oxford.

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17/01/1943

Chris Montez, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Chris Montez is an American guitarist and vocalist, whose stylistic approach has ranged from rock & roll to pop standards and Latin music. His rock sound is exemplified in songs such as his 1962 hit "Let's Dance", which reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. When his early music's popularity began to fade, he switched to a more traditional role as a popular singer of soft ballads, scoring hits with “The More I See You” and “Call Me" in 1966. He has also recorded in Latin styles. Over the intervening years, he has continued to work in all three modes.

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René Préval, Haitian agronomist and politician, 52nd President of Haiti (died 2017)

René Garcia Préval was a Haitian politician and agronomist who twice was President of Haiti, from early 1996 to early 2001, and again from mid-2006 to mid-2011. He was also Prime Minister from early to late 1991 under the presidency of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

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17/01/1942

Muhammad Ali, American boxer and activist (died 2016)

Muhammad Ali was an American professional boxer and activist. A global cultural icon, widely known by the nickname "the Greatest", he is often regarded as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. He held the Ring magazine heavyweight title from 1964 to 1970, was the undisputed champion from 1974 to 1978, and was the WBA and Ring heavyweight champion from 1978 to 1979. In 1999, he was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.

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Ita Buttrose, Australian journalist and author

Ita Clare Buttrose is an Australian television and radio personality, author and former magazine editor, publishing executive, newspaper journalist and television network executive chairperson.

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Ulf Hoelscher, German violinist and educator

Ulf Hoelscher is a German violinist.

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Nigel McCulloch, English bishop

Nigel Simeon McCulloch, is an Anglican cleric who held high offices from 1978 until he retired as Bishop of Manchester in 2013.

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17/01/1941

István Horthy, Jr., Hungarian physicist and architect

István Horthy de Nagybánya II is a Hungarian physicist and architect, son of Hungarian deputy regent István Horthy and Ilona Edelsheim-Gyulai, and grandson of Admiral Miklós Horthy who served as Regent of Hungary from 1920 to 1944. In 1965 he converted to Islam and took the name Sharif Horthy. Horthy is a prominent member of the Indonesian spiritual association Subud, and has translated works by its founder, Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo, into English.

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17/01/1940

Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni, Egyptian-Armenian patriarch (died 2015)

Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni was the patriarch of the Armenian Catholic Church from 1999 until his death in 2015.

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Kipchoge Keino, Kenyan athlete

Kipchoge Hezekiah Keino is a retired Kenyan track and field athlete. He was the chairman of the Kenyan Olympic Committee (KOC) until 29 September 2017. A two-time Olympic gold medalist, Keino was among the first in a long line of successful middle and long distance runners to come from the country and has helped and inspired many of his countrymen and women to become the athletics force that they are today. In 2000, he became an honorary member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In 2012, he was one of 24 athletes inducted as inaugural members of the IAAF Hall of Fame.

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Tabaré Vázquez, Uruguayan physician and politician, 39th President of Uruguay (died 2020)

Tabaré Ramón Vázquez Rosas was a Uruguayan politician and oncologist who served as the 39th and 41st President of Uruguay from 2005 to 2010 and from 2015 to 2020. During his political career, Vázquez was a member of the Broad Front coalition. Before his first presidential term, Vázquez was president of the Club Progreso team and made two unsuccessful presidential bids in 1994 and 1999. He served as Intendant of Montevideo between 1990 and 1994 shortly before his first presidential campaign.

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17/01/1939

Christodoulos of Athens, Greek archbishop (died 2008)

Christodoulos was Archbishop of Athens and All Greece and as such the primate of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece, from 1998 until his death, in 2008.

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Maury Povich, American talk show host and producer

Maurice Richard Povich is an American former television personality, best known for hosting the tabloid talk show Maury which aired from 1991 to 2022. Povich began his career as a radio reporter, initially at WWDC and later as host of a daytime Washington, D.C., talk show Panorama. In the late 1980s, he gained national fame as the host of tabloid infotainment TV show A Current Affair, based at Fox's New York flagship station WNYW. In 1991, he co-produced his own show The Maury Povich Show, which in 1998 was rebranded as Maury.

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17/01/1938

John Bellairs, American author and academic (died 1991)

John Anthony Bellairs was an American author best known for his fantasy novel The Face in the Frost and many Gothic mystery novels for children featuring the characters Lewis Barnavelt, Rose Rita Pottinger, Johnny Dixon, and Anthony Monday. Most of his books were illustrated by Edward Gorey. At the time of his death, Bellairs' books had sold a quarter-million copies in hard cover and more than a million and a half copies in paperback.

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Toini Gustafsson, Swedish cross country skier

Toini Gustafsson Rönnlund is a Swedish former cross-country skier. She competed in the 1964 and 1968 Winter Olympics and won four medals. Gustafsson also won the 10 km race at the Holmenkollen ski festival in each of 1960, 1967, and 1968. At the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships she collected three medals with a silver in 1962 and two bronzes in 1966.

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17/01/1937

Alain Badiou, French philosopher and academic

Alain Badiou is a French philosopher, formerly chair of Philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure and founder of the faculty of Philosophy of the Université de Paris VIII with Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault and Jean-François Lyotard. Badiou's work is heavily informed by philosophical applications of mathematics, in particular set theory and category theory. Badiou's "Being and Event" project considers the concepts of being, truth, event and the subject defined by a rejection of linguistic relativism seen as typical of postwar French thought. Unlike his peers, Badiou believes in the idea of universalism and truth. His work is notable for his widespread applications of various conceptions of indifference. Badiou has been involved in a number of political organisations, and regularly comments on political events. Badiou argues for a return of communism as a political force.

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17/01/1936

John Boyd, English academic and diplomat, British ambassador to Japan (died 2019)

Sir John Dixon Iklé Boyd was a British ambassador and academic administrator. He was British ambassador to Japan from 1992 to 1996, and subsequently the Master of Churchill College, Cambridge from 1996 to 2006.

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A. Thangathurai, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician (died 1997)

Arunasalam Thangathurai was a Sri Lankan Tamil lawyer, politician and Member of Parliament.

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17/01/1935

Ruth Ann Minner, American businesswoman and politician, 72nd Governor of Delaware (died 2021)

Ruth Ann Minner was an American politician and businesswoman who served as the 72nd governor of Delaware from 2001 to 2009. She previously served in the Delaware General Assembly from 1975 to 1993, and as the 23rd lieutenant governor of Delaware from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first female governor of Delaware. She was originally from Milford, in Kent County, Delaware.

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17/01/1934

Donald Cammell, Scottish-American director and screenwriter (died 1996)

Donald Seton Cammell was a Scottish painter and filmmaker. He is best known for his 1970 debut film Performance, which he wrote the screenplay for and co-directed with Nicolas Roeg. He died by suicide after the last film he directed, Wild Side, was taken away from him and recut by the production company. The British Film Institute posthumously referred to him as a "true visionary".

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17/01/1933

Dalida, Egyptian-French singer and actress (died 1987)

Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti, professionally known as Dalida, was an Italian naturalized French singer and actress. Throughout her international career, Dalida sold more than 140 million records worldwide. Some of her best known songs include "Bambino", "Ciao amore, ciao", "Gigi l'amoroso", "Il venait d'avoir 18 ans", "Laissez-moi danser", "Salma ya salama", "Helwa ya baladi", "Mourir sur scène", and "Paroles, paroles" featuring spoken word by film star Alain Delon.

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Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, French-Pakistani diplomat, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (died 2003)

Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan was a French-born statesman and activist who served as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 1966 to 1977. During his tenure, the agency expanded its operational focus to include refugee situations outside Europe.

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Shari Lewis, American actress, puppeteer/ventriloquist, and television host (died 1998)

Shari Lewis was a Peabody-winning American ventriloquist, puppeteer, children's entertainer, television show host, dancer, comedian, singer, actress, author, and symphony conductor. She created and performed the sock puppet Lamb Chop for Captain Kangaroo in March 1956.

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17/01/1932

John Cater, English actor (died 2009)

John Edward Cater was an English actor.

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Sheree North, American actress and dancer (died 2005)

Sheree North was an American actress, dancer, and singer, known for being one of 20th Century-Fox's intended successors to Marilyn Monroe.

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17/01/1931

James Earl Jones, American actor (died 2024)

James Earl Jones was an American actor. A pioneer for black actors in the entertainment industry, he was acclaimed for his performances on stage and screen. Jones is one of the few performers to achieve the EGOT. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1985, and was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 1992, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2002, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2009, and the Academy Honorary Award in 2011.

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Douglas Wilder, American sergeant and politician, 66th Governor of Virginia

Lawrence Douglas Wilder is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 66th governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1994. He was the first African American to serve as governor of a U.S. state since the Reconstruction era, and the first African American ever elected as governor. He is currently a professor at the namesake Wilder School at Virginia Commonwealth University.

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Don Zimmer, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 2014)

Donald William Zimmer was an American infielder, manager, and coach in Major League Baseball (MLB). Zimmer was involved in professional baseball from 1949 until his death, a span of 65 years, across 8 decades.

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17/01/1929

Philip Latham, British actor (died 2020)

Charles Philip Latham was an English actor. He was best known for playing Willy Izard in The Troubleshooters (1965–1972) and Plantagenet Palliser in The Pallisers (1974).

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Jacques Plante, Canadian-Swiss ice hockey player, coach, and sportscaster (died 1986)

Joseph Jacques Omer Plante was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. During a career as a goaltender lasting from 1947 to 1975, he was considered to be one of the most important innovators in hockey. He played for the Montreal Canadiens from 1953 to 1963; during his tenure, the team won the Stanley Cup six times, including five consecutive wins. In 2017 Plante was named one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players" in history.

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Tan Boon Teik, Malaysian-Singaporean lawyer and politician, Attorney-General of Singapore (died 2012)

Tan Boon Teik was a Singaporean judge who served as the second attorney-general of Singapore between 1969 and 1992. At the age of 39, Tan was the youngest person to be appointed as attorney-general, and was the longest-serving attorney-general after the Independence of Singapore, after 25 years in office.

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17/01/1928

Jean Barraqué, French composer (died 1973)

Jean-Henri-Alphonse Barraqué was a French composer and music writer. His relatively small œuvre is known for its serialism.

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Vidal Sassoon, English-American hairdresser and businessman (died 2012)

Vidal Sassoon was a British hairstylist and businessman. He was noted for repopularising a simple, close-cut geometric hairstyle called the five-point cut, worn by fashion designers including Mary Quant and film stars such as Mia Farrow, Goldie Hawn, Cameron Diaz, Nastassja Kinski and Helen Mirren.‍

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17/01/1927

Thomas Anthony Dooley III, American physician and humanitarian (died 1961)

Thomas Anthony Dooley III was an American physician who worked in Southeast Asia at the outset of American involvement in the Vietnam War. While serving as a physician in the United States Navy and afterwards, he became known for his humanitarian and anti-communist political activities up until his early death from cancer. After his death, the public learned that he had been recruited as an intelligence operative by the Central Intelligence Agency, and numerous descriptions of atrocities by the Viet Minh in his book Deliver Us From Evil had been fabricated.

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Eartha Kitt, American actress and singer (died 2008)

Eartha Mae Kitt was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She was known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of "C'est si bon" and the Christmas novelty song "Santa Baby".

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Harlan Mathews, American lawyer and politician (died 2014)

Harlan Mathews was an American politician who was an appointed interim Democratic United States Senator from Tennessee from 1993 to 1994. He previously served in the executive and legislative branches of state government in Tennessee for more than 40 years beginning in 1950.

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E. W. Swackhamer, American director and producer (died 1994)

Egbert Warnderink "E. W." Swackhamer Jr. was an American television and film director.

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17/01/1926

Newton N. Minow, American lawyer and politician (died 2023)

Newton Norman Minow was an American attorney who served as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He is famous for his 1961 speech referring to television as a "vast wasteland". While still maintaining a law practice, Minow served as the honorary consul general of Singapore in Chicago, beginning in 2001.

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Moira Shearer, Scottish-English ballerina and actress (died 2006)

Moira Shearer King, Lady Kennedy was a Scottish ballet dancer and actress. She was famous for her performances in Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes (1948) and The Tales of Hoffman (1951), and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960).

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Clyde Walcott, Barbadian cricketer (died 2006)

Sir Clyde Leopold Walcott OBE KA GCM was a West Indian cricketer. Walcott was a member of the "three W's", the other two being Everton Weekes and Frank Worrell: all were very successful batsmen from Barbados, born within a short distance of each other in Bridgetown, Barbados in a period of 18 months from August 1924 to January 1926; all made their Test cricket debut against England in 1948. In the mid-1950s, Walcott was arguably the best batsman in the world. He was the manager of the West Indian squads which won the 1975 Cricket World Cup and the 1979 Cricket World Cup. In later life, he had an active career as a cricket administrator, and was the first non-English and non-white chairman of the International Cricket Council.

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17/01/1925

Gunnar Birkerts, Latvian-American architect (died 2017)

Gunnar Birkerts was a Latvian American architect who, for the most of his career, was based in the metropolitan area of Detroit, Michigan.

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Robert Cormier, American author and journalist (died 2000)

Robert Edmund Cormier was an American writer and journalist, known for his deeply pessimistic novels, many of which were written for young adults. Recurring themes include abuse, mental illness, violence, revenge, betrayal, and conspiracy. In most of his novels, the protagonists do not win.

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Abdul Hafeez Kardar, Pakistani cricketer and author (died 1996)

Abdul Hafeez Kardar PP, HI was a Pakistani cricketer, politician, and diplomat. He was the first captain of the Pakistan cricket team and one of only three players to have played Test cricket for both India and Pakistan. Known as "The Skipper," Kardar led the Pakistan cricket team in its first 23 Test matches, spanning from 1952 to 1958, and later became the nation's foremost cricket administrator.

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17/01/1924

Rik De Saedeleer, Belgian footballer and journalist (died 2013)

Rik De Saedeleer was a Belgian footballer, columnist and television sports commentator.

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Jewel Plummer Cobb, American biologist, cancer researcher, and academic (died 2017)

Jewel Plummer Cobb was an American biologist, cancer researcher, professor, dean, and academic administrator. She contributed to the field of cancer research by studying treatments for melanoma. Cobb was an advocate for increasing the representation of women and students of color in universities, and she created programs to support students interested in pursuing graduate school.

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17/01/1923

Rangeya Raghav, Indian author and playwright (died 1962)

Rangeya Raghava was an Indian writer.

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17/01/1922

Luis Echeverría, Mexican academic and politician, 50th President of Mexico (died 2022)

Luis Echeverría Álvarez was a Mexican lawyer, academic, and politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who served as the 57th president of Mexico from 1970 to 1976. Previously, Echeverría was Secretary of the Interior from 1963 to 1969. He was the longest-lived president in Mexican history and the first to reach the age of 100.

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Nicholas Katzenbach, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 65th United States Attorney General (died 2012)

Nicholas deBelleville Katzenbach was an American lawyer who served as United States Attorney General during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration. He had previously served as United States Deputy Attorney General under President John F. Kennedy.

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Betty White, American actress, game show panelist, television personality, and animal rights activist (died 2021)

Betty Marion Ludden was an American actress and comedian. A pioneer of early television with a career spanning almost seven decades, she was noted for her vast number of television appearances, acting in sitcoms, sketch comedy, and game shows.

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17/01/1921

Jackie Henderson, Scottish footballer (died 2005)

John Gillespie Henderson was a Scottish international footballer who played as a forward in the English Football League for Portsmouth, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Arsenal and Fulham.

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Asghar Khan, Pakistani general and politician (died 2018)

Mohammad Asghar Khan known as Night Flier, held the distinction of being the first native and second Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Air Force from 1957 to 1965. He has been described as the Father of the Pakistan Air Force. Additionally, he was the ninth president of the Pakistan Football Federation, an airline executive, politician, and author.

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Charlie Mitten, English footballer and manager (died 2002)

Charles Mitten was an English football player and manager who came through the junior ranks at Manchester United. Over his career, Mitten also played for Fulham, Mansfield Town and Altrincham in England, and for Independiente Santa Fe in Colombia, where he had a notable stint, and where he and a number of other players left to escape the maximum wage that was imposed for footballers in England at the time. After his playing career finished, he was involved in football management.

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Antonio Prohías, Cuban cartoonist (died 1998)

Antonio Prohías was a Cuban-American cartoonist. He was the creator of the satirical comic strip Spy vs. Spy, which he illustrated for Mad magazine from 1961 to 1987.

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17/01/1920

Georges Pichard, French author and illustrator (died 2003)

Georges Pichard was a French comics artist, known for numerous magazine covers, serial publications and albums, stereotypically featuring voluptuous, partially exposed women.

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17/01/1918

Keith Joseph, English lawyer and politician, Secretary of State for Education (died 1994)

Keith Sinjohn Joseph, Baron Joseph,, known as Sir Keith Joseph, 2nd Baronet, for most of his political life, was a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as a minister under four prime ministers: Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Edward Heath, and Margaret Thatcher. He was a key influence in the creation of what came to be known as Thatcherism.

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George M. Leader, American soldier and politician, 36th Governor of Pennsylvania (died 2013)

George Michael Leader was an American politician. He served as the 36th governor of Pennsylvania from January 18, 1955, until January 20, 1959. He was a member of the Democratic Party, and a native of York County, Pennsylvania. He was the only person from that county ever to be elected governor of the state until the election of Tom Wolf in 2014.

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17/01/1917

M. G. Ramachandran, Indian actor, director, and politician, 3rd Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu (died 1987)

Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran, popularly known by his initials M. G. R., was an Indian politician, actor, filmmaker and philanthropist, who served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death in 1987. He was the founder and first general secretary of the political party All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). He is regarded as one of the most influential politicians of post-independent India, and was known by the epithets Makkal Thilagam and Puratchi Thalaivar. In March 1988, he was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.

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17/01/1916

Peter Frelinghuysen Jr., American lieutenant and politician (died 2011)

Peter Hood Ballantine Frelinghuysen Jr. was an American politician and attorney. He represented New Jersey's fifth congressional district in the United States House of Representatives as a Republican from 1953 to 1975.

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17/01/1914

Anacleto Angelini, Italian-Chilean businessman (died 2007)

Anacleto Angelini Fabbri was an Italian-born Chilean businessman. At the time of his death, he was South America's wealthiest person, with an estimated net worth of US$6 billion. He was chairman at AntarChile, one of Latin America's largest conglomerates.

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Irving Brecher, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2008)

Irving S. Brecher was a screenwriter who wrote for the Marx Brothers among many others; he was the only writer to get sole credit on a Marx Brothers film, penning the screenplays for At the Circus (1939) and Go West (1940). Brecher was also one of the numerous uncredited writers on the screenplay of The Wizard of Oz (1939). Some of his other screenplays were Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Ziegfeld Follies (1945) and Bye Bye Birdie (1963).

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Howard Marion-Crawford, English actor (died 1969)

Howard Marion-Crawford, was an English character actor, best known for his portrayal of Dr. Watson in the 1954 television series, Sherlock Holmes.

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Paul Royle, Australian lieutenant and pilot (died 2015)

Flight Lieutenant Paul Gordon Royle was an Australian Royal Air Force pilot who was one of the last two survivors of the 76 men who were able to escape from the Stalag Luft III German prisoner-of-war camp in World War II in what became known as The Great Escape.

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William Stafford, American poet and author (died 1993)

William Edgar Stafford was an American poet and pacifist. He was the father of poet and essayist Kim Stafford. He was appointed the twentieth Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1970.

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17/01/1911

Busher Jackson, Canadian ice hockey player (died 1966)

Ralph Harvey "Busher" Jackson was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Jackson played in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1929 to 1944 for the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Americans, and Boston Bruins. He was a member of the Maple Leafs' famed Kid Line with Joe Primeau and Charlie Conacher, one of the early NHL's dominant scoring trios. Jackson led the league in scoring in 1931–32 and was a member of Toronto's 1932 Stanley Cup championship team. He was named to the NHL All-Star team five times and played in three benefit All-Star Games, including the Ace Bailey Benefit Game, the first All-Star contest in NHL history.

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John S. McCain Jr., American admiral (died 1981)

John Sidney McCain Jr. was a United States Navy admiral who served in conflicts from the 1940s through the 1970s, including as the Commander, United States Pacific Command.

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George Stigler, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1991)

George Joseph Stigler was an American economist. He was the 1982 laureate in Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and is considered a key leader of the Chicago school of economics.

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17/01/1908

Cus D'Amato, American boxing manager and trainer (died 1985)

Constantine "Cus" D'Amato was an American boxing manager, boxing promoter and boxing trainer who handled the careers of Mike Tyson, Floyd Patterson, and José Torres, all of whom went on to be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Several successful boxing trainers, including Teddy Atlas and Kevin Rooney, were among those he tutored.

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17/01/1907

Henk Badings, Indonesian-Dutch composer and engineer (died 1987)

Henk Badings was an Indonesian-Dutch composer.

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Alfred Wainwright, British fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator (died 1991)

Alfred Wainwright MBE, who preferred to be known as A. Wainwright or A.W., was an English fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, published between 1955 and 1966 and consisting entirely of reproductions of his manuscript, has become the standard reference work to 214 of the fells of the English Lake District. Among his 40-odd other books is the first guide to the Coast to Coast Walk, a 182-mile (293-kilometre) long-distance footpath devised by Wainwright which remains popular today.

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17/01/1905

Ray Cunningham, American baseball player (died 2005)

Raymond Lee Cunningham was an American professional baseball third baseman in Major League Baseball who played for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1931 and 1932. He batted and threw right-handed. A native of Mesquite, Texas, Cunningham played briefly for the Cardinals at third base before an injury cut short his career. He injured himself, whipping a sidearm throw to first base on a swinging bunt.

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Peggy Gilbert, American saxophonist and bandleader (died 2007)

Peggy Gilbert, born Margaret Fern Knechtges, was an American jazz saxophonist and bandleader.

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Eduard Oja, Estonian composer, conductor, educator, and critic (died 1950)

Eduard Oja was an Estonian composer, conductor, music teacher and critic. His father was a forest warden. Between 1919 and 1925 he studied at Tartu Teachers' College at Tartu University, where he met Eduard Tubin, and he also worked for some time as a school teacher. He was not a particularly prolific composer, composing mainly orchestral and ensemble works and choral music. He was however much appreciated during his lifetime, and received awards and acclaim for several of his works. He also worked as a conductor, leading the Tartu Women's Singing Society's Women's Choir between 1930 and 1934, as well as a teacher of music theory at Tartu Higher School of Music. In addition, he was himself a practising violinist. A number of his works such as the opera Oath Redeemed and the choral work The Return Home have been lost, although the majority of his work has survived, and is valued in museums in Estonia today. The Eduard Tubin Museum of Alatskivi Castle contains exhibits related to him and his fellow students under Heino Eller, known as the "Tartu school", such as Eduard Tubin, Alfred Karindi, Olav Roots and Karl Leichter.

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Guillermo Stábile, Argentinian footballer and manager (died 1966)

Guillermo Stábile was an Argentine professional football player and manager who played as a centre forward. At club level, Stábile won two national championships with Huracán and played in Italy and France. He was the top scorer of the 1930 FIFA World Cup, the inaugural iteration of the tournament. As manager, he led Argentina to victory at six South American Championships and Racing Club to three league titles.

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Jan Zahradníček, Czech poet and translator (died 1960)

Jan Zahradníček was a Moravian (Czech) poet, journalist and translator.

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17/01/1904

Hem Vejakorn, Thai painter and illustrator (died 1969)

Mom Luang Hem Vejakorn was a Thai artist and writer. He is best known for his illustrations for the covers of 10-satang pulp novels, which have in turn influenced subsequent generations of Thai artists and illustrators, and also his ghost stories. It is estimated that he produced more than 50,000 pieces of art, including pen and pencil drawings, watercolors, posters and oil paintings. He portrayed rural life, Thai history and figures from Thai classical literature. His works have been reproduced on Thai postage stamps and featured in art galleries.

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17/01/1901

Aron Gurwitsch, Lithuanian-American philosopher and author (died 1973)

Aron Gurwitsch was a Lithuanian-born German-American phenomenologist.

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17/01/1899

Al Capone, American mob boss (died 1947)

Alphonse Gabriel Capone, sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1925 to 1931. His seven-year reign as a crime boss ended when he was imprisoned at the age of 33.

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Robert Maynard Hutchins, American philosopher and academic (died 1977)

Robert Maynard Hutchins was an American educational philosopher. He was the 5th president (1929–1945) and chancellor (1945–1951) of the University of Chicago, and earlier dean of Yale Law School (1927–1929). His first wife was the novelist Maude Hutchins. Although his father and grandfather were both Presbyterian ministers, Hutchins became one of the most influential members of the school of secular perennialism.

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Nevil Shute, English engineer and author (died 1960)

Nevil Shute Norway was an English novelist and aeronautical engineer who spent his later years in Australia. He used his full name in his engineering career and Nevil Shute as his pen name to protect his engineering career from inferences by his employers (Vickers) or from fellow engineers that he was "not a serious person" or from potentially adverse publicity in connection with his novels, which included On the Beach and A Town Like Alice.

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17/01/1898

Lela Mevorah, Serbian librarian (died 1972)

Lela A. Mevorah was a Serbian librarian and head of the Central Medical Library at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Medicine.

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17/01/1897

Marcel Petiot, French physician and serial killer (died 1946)

Marcel André Henri Félix Petiot was a French medical doctor and serial killer. He was convicted of multiple murders of Jews after the discovery of the remains of 23 people in the basement of his home in Paris during World War II. He is suspected of the murder of about 60 to 200 mostly Jewish victims during his lifetime, although the true number remains unknown. During the Nazi occupation of France in World War II, Petiot set up a fake escape network under the name “Dr. Eugène.” He claimed he could help Jews and others wanted by the Gestapo flee to South America via Portugal, for a large fee. He lured his victims to his home at 21 Rue Le Sueur in Paris, promising them safety. Instead, he murdered them—often by injecting them with poison under the pretense of giving them vaccinations—and then stole their valuables and disposed of their bodies, frequently by burning them.

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17/01/1888

Babu Gulabrai, Indian philosopher and author (died 1963)

Babu Gulabrai was a significant figure in modern Hindi literature.

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17/01/1887

Ola Raknes, Norwegian psychoanalyst and philologist (died 1975)

Ola Raknes was a Norwegian psychologist, philologist and non-fiction writer. Born in Bergen, Norway, he was internationally known as a psychoanalyst in the Reichian tradition. He has been described as someone who spent his entire life working with the conveying of ideas through many languages and between different epistemological systems of reference, science and religion. For large portions of his life he was actively contributing to the public discourse in Norway. He has also been credited for his contributions to strengthening and enriching the Nynorsk language and its use in the public sphere.

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17/01/1886

Glenn L. Martin, American pilot and businessman, founded the Glenn L. Martin Company (died 1955)

Glenn Luther Martin was an early American aviation pioneer. He designed and built his own aircraft and was an active pilot, as well as an aviation record-holder. He founded an aircraft company in 1912 which through several mergers amalgamated into what is today known as Lockheed Martin.

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17/01/1883

Compton Mackenzie, English-Scottish author, poet, and playwright (died 1972)

Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish nationalist. He was one of the co-founders in 1928 of the National Party of Scotland along with Hugh MacDiarmid, Cunninghame Graham and John MacCormick. He was knighted in the 1952 Birthday Honours List.

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17/01/1882

Noah Beery, Sr., American actor (died 1946)

Noah Nicholas Beery was an American actor who appeared in films from 1913 until his death in 1946. He was the older brother of Academy Award-winning actor Wallace Beery as well as the father of character actor Noah Beery Jr. He was billed as either Noah Beery or Noah Beery Sr. depending upon the film.

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17/01/1881

Antoni Łomnicki, Polish mathematician and academic (died 1941)

Antoni Marian Łomnicki was a Polish mathematician. He contributed to applied mathematics and cartography. He was the author of several textbooks of mathematics and was an influential mathematics teacher at the University of Lwów.

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Harry Price, English psychologist and author (died 1948)

Harry Price was a British psychic researcher and author, who gained public prominence for his investigations into psychical phenomena and exposing fraudulent spiritualist mediums. He is best known for his well-publicised investigation of the purportedly haunted Borley Rectory in Essex, England.

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17/01/1880

Mack Sennett, Canadian-American actor, director, and producer (died 1960)

Mack Sennett was a Canadian-American producer, director, actor, and studio head who was known as the "King of Comedy" during his career.

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17/01/1877

Marie Zdeňka Baborová-Čiháková, Czech botanist and zoologist (died 1937)

Marie Zdeňka Baborová-Čiháková was the first female Czech botanist and zoologist. Baborová was born in Prague to a school teacher's family and learned many languages at a young age. She studied at the Minerva secondary school before studying natural sciences at the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague. She studied zoology and wrote her dissertation on fat bodies in arthropods and in 1901 became the first woman to be awarded a doctorate. An older brother Josef Florián Babor was also a physician and zoologist at the University. Josef had inspired her own studies but she worked under Frantisek Vejdovsky (1849–1939). She contributed entries on infusoria and protozoa for Otto's Encyclopedia. Baborová married Stanislav Ćihak in 1903. She cut back on her studies in 1906 after the birth of her daughter.

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May Gibbs, English-Australian author and illustrator (died 1969)

Cecilia May Gibbs MBE was an Australian children's author, illustrator, and cartoonist. She is best known for her gumnut babies, and the book Snugglepot and Cuddlepie.

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17/01/1876

Frank Hague, American lawyer and politician, 30th Mayor of Jersey City (died 1956)

Francis Hague, known as Frank Hague, was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey, from 1917 to 1947, and vice-chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1924 until 1952. Hague ran a political machine that dominated the politics of Hudson County, and of the entire state of New Jersey. During his 30 years as mayor, Hague's influence reached the national level. His ability to secure huge majorities in Hudson County for the Democrats won statewide races for governor and U.S. president, and his machine dispensed jobs and aid in exchange for votes. Among the projects built under Hague were the Jersey City Medical Center, then the third-largest hospital in the world, and Roosevelt Stadium.

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17/01/1875

Florencio Sánchez, Uruguayan journalist and playwright (died 1910)

Florencio Sánchez was a Uruguayan playwright, journalist and political figure. He is considered one of the founding fathers of theater in the River Plate region of Argentina and Uruguay.

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17/01/1871

David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty, English admiral (died 1936)

Admiral of the Fleet David Richard Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty was a Royal Navy officer. After serving in the Mahdist War and then the response to the Boxer Rebellion, he commanded the Battle Cruiser Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, a tactically indecisive engagement after which his aggressive approach was contrasted with the caution of his commander Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. He is remembered for his comment at Jutland that "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today", after two of them exploded.

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Nicolae Iorga, Romanian historian and politician, 34th Prime Minister of Romania (died 1940)

Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, albanologist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party (PND), he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly (1931–32) as Prime Minister. A child prodigy, polymath and polyglot, Iorga produced an unusually large body of scholarly works, establishing his international reputation as a medievalist, Byzantinist, Latinist, Slavist, art historian and philosopher of history. Holding teaching positions at the University of Bucharest, the University of Paris and several other academic institutions, Iorga was founder of the International Congress of Byzantine Studies and the Institute of South-East European Studies (ISSEE). His activity also included the transformation of Vălenii de Munte town into a cultural and academic center.

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17/01/1867

Carl Laemmle, German-born American film producer, co-founded Universal Studios (died 1939)

Carl Laemmle was a German-American film producer and the co-founder and, until 1934, owner of Universal Pictures. Laemmle, along with Adolph Zukor, Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayer, William Fox, and the Warner Brothers, was part of the group of Eastern European immigrant Jews that founded the movie industry in Hollywood, California, in the first decades of the 20th century. Laemmle produced or worked on more than 400 films. Laemmle received the Academy Award for Outstanding Production for All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), produced by his heir Carl Laemmle Jr..

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Sir Alfred Rawlinson, 3rd Baronet, English colonel, pilot, and polo player (died 1934)

Colonel Sir Alfred "Toby" Rawlinson, 3rd Baronet, was an English soldier and intelligence officer, sportsman, pioneer motorist and aviator.

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17/01/1865

Sir Charles Fergusson, 7th Baronet, English general and politician, 3rd Governor-General of New Zealand (died 1951)

Sir Charles Fergusson, 7th Baronet, was a British Army general who was the third governor-general of New Zealand from 1924 to 1930. Before that, he served as a distinguished division and later corps commander almost entirely on the Western Front during the First World War, from 1914 to 1918.

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17/01/1863

David Lloyd George, Welsh lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1945)

David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. A Liberal Party politician from Wales, he was known for leading the United Kingdom during the First World War, for social-reform policies, for his role in the Paris Peace Conference, and for negotiating the establishment of the Irish Free State.

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Konstantin Stanislavski, Russian actor and director (died 1938)

Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski was a seminal Russian and Soviet theatre practitioner. He was widely recognized as an outstanding character actor, and the many productions that he directed garnered him a reputation as one of the leading theatre directors of his generation. His principal fame and influence, however, rests on his "system" of actor training, preparation, and rehearsal technique.

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17/01/1860

Douglas Hyde, Irish academic and politician, 1st President of Ireland (died 1949)

Douglas Ross Hyde, known as An Craoibhín Aoibhinn, was an Irish academic, linguist, scholar of the Irish language, politician, and diplomat who served as the first president of Ireland from June 1938 to June 1945. He was a leading figure in the Gaelic revival, and the first president of the Gaelic League, one of the most influential cultural organisations in Ireland at the time.

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17/01/1858

Tomás Carrasquilla, Colombian author (died 1940)

Tomás Carrasquilla Naranjo (1858 – 1940) was a Colombian writer who lived in the Antioquia region. He dedicated himself to very simple jobs: tailor, secretary of a judge, storekeeper in a mine, and worker at the Ministry of Public Works. He was an avid reader, and one of the most original Colombian literary writers, greatly influencing the younger generation of his time and later generations. Carrasquilla was little known in his time, according to Federico de Onís, a scholar of Carrasquilla's works. It was only after 1936, when he was already 78 years old, when he was awarded with the National Prize of Literature, that Carrasquilla got a national recognition. Tomás Carrasquilla Library Park is named in his honor.

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17/01/1857

Wilhelm Kienzl, Austrian pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1941)

Wilhelm Kienzl was an Austrian composer.

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Eugene Augustin Lauste, French-American engineer (died 1935)

Eugène Augustin Lauste was a French inventor instrumental in the technological development of the history of cinema.

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17/01/1853

Alva Belmont, American suffragist (died 1933)

Alva Erskine Belmont, known as Alva Vanderbilt from 1875 to 1896, was an American multi-millionaire socialite and women's suffrage activist. She was noted for her energy, intelligence, strong opinions, and willingness to challenge convention.

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T. Alexander Harrison, American painter and academic (died 1930)

Thomas Alexander Harrison, was an American marine painter who spent most of his career in France.

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17/01/1851

A. B. Frost, American author and illustrator (died 1928)

Arthur Burdett Frost, usually cited as A. B. Frost, was an American illustrator, graphic artist, painter and comics writer. He is best known for his illustrations of Br'er Rabbit and other characters in the Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus books.

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17/01/1850

Joaquim Arcoverde de Albuquerque Cavalcanti, Brazilian cardinal (died 1930)

Cardinal Dom Joaquim Arcoverde de Albuquerque Cavalcanti was a Brazilian prelate of the Catholic Church, who served as Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro from 1897 to 1930. He was made a cardinal in 1905, the first cardinal born in Latin America.

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Alexander Taneyev, Russian pianist and composer (died 1918)

Alexander Sergeyevich Taneyev was a Russian state official and composer of the late Romantic era, specifically of the nationalist school. Among his better-known works were three string quartets, believed to have been composed between 1898 and 1900.

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17/01/1834

August Weismann, German biologist, zoologist, and geneticist (died 1914)

August Friedrich Leopold Weismann was a German evolutionary biologist. Fellow German Ernst Mayr ranked him as the second most notable evolutionary theorist of the 19th century, after Charles Darwin. Weismann became the Director of the Zoological Institute and the first Professor of Zoology at Freiburg.

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17/01/1832

Henry Martyn Baird, American historian and academic (died 1906)

Henry Martyn Baird was an American historian and educator. He is best known as a historian of the Huguenots.

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17/01/1828

Lewis A. Grant, American lawyer and general, Medal of Honor recipient (died 1918)

Lewis Addison Grant was a teacher, lawyer, soldier in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and later United States Assistant Secretary of War. He was among the leading officers from the state of Vermont, and received the Medal of Honor for "personal gallantry and intrepidity."

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Ede Reményi, Hungarian violinist and composer (died 1898)

Ede Reményi or Eduard Reményi was a Hungarian violinist and composer. His birth date is disputed, and variously given from 1828 to 1830.

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17/01/1820

Anne Brontë, English author and poet (died 1849)

Anne Brontë was an English novelist and poet. A member of the Brontë literary family, she was the younger sister of Charlotte, Emily, and Branwell. Anne is known for her 1847 novel Agnes Grey and for her 1848 novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which is considered to be one of the first feminist novels.

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17/01/1814

Ellen Wood, English author (died 1887)

Ellen Wood, better known as Mrs. Henry Wood, was an English novelist. She is best remembered for her 1861 novel East Lynne. Many of her books sold well internationally and were widely read in the United States. In her time, she surpassed Charles Dickens in fame in Australia.

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17/01/1793

Antonio José Martínez, Spanish-American priest, rancher and politician (died 1867)

Antonio José Martínez was a New Mexican priest, educator, publisher, rancher, farmer, community leader, and politician. He lived through and influenced three distinct periods of New Mexico's history: the Spanish period, the Mexican period, and the American occupation and subsequent territorial period. Martínez appears as a character in Willa Cather's novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop.

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17/01/1789

August Neander, German historian and theologian (died 1850)

Johann August Wilhelm Neander was a German theologian and church historian.

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17/01/1761

Sir James Hall, 4th Baronet, Scottish geologist and geophysicist (died 1832)

Sir James Hall of Dunglass, 4th Baronet FRS FRSE was a Scottish geologist and geophysicist. He was a Member of Parliament for St. Michael's borough 1807–1812.

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17/01/1734

François-Joseph Gossec, French composer and conductor (died 1829)

François-Joseph Gossec was a French composer of operas, string quartets, symphonies, and choral works.

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17/01/1732

Stanisław August Poniatowski, Polish-Lithuanian king (died 1798)

Stanisław II August, known also by his regnal Latin name Stanislaus II Augustus, and as Stanisław August Poniatowski, was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1764 to 1795, and the last monarch of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

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17/01/1728

Johann Gottfried Müthel, German pianist and composer (died 1788)

Johann Gottfried Müthel was a German composer and noted keyboard virtuoso. Along with C.P.E. Bach, he represented the Sturm und Drang style of composition.

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17/01/1719

William Vernon, American businessman (died 1806)

William Vernon, of Newport, Rhode Island, was a merchant in the Atlantic slave trade who played a leading role in the Continental Congress' maritime activities during the American Revolution. In 1774, Vernon was member of the committee of correspondence between Newport and Boston. As president of the Eastern Navy Board during the Revolution, he was responsible for building and outfitting the ships of the Continental Navy. William Vernon was one of the charter members of the Artillery Company of Newport, and is the namesake of the Vernon House.

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17/01/1712

John Stanley, English organist and composer (died 1786)

Charles John Stanley was an English composer and organist.

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17/01/1706

Benjamin Franklin, American publisher, inventor, and politician, 6th President of Pennsylvania (died 1790)

Benjamin Franklin was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and political philosopher. Among the most influential intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States; a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence; and the first postmaster general.

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17/01/1693

Melchor de Navarrete, Spanish colonial governor of Cartagena de Indias (Colombia, 1739 – 1742); of Spanish Florida (1749 – 1752); and of Yucatán (Mexico, 1754 – 1758) (died 1761)

Melchor de Navarrete y Bujanda (1693–1761) was a Spanish soldier and administrator who served as governor of Cartagena de Indias, from 1739 to 1742; of Spanish Florida from 1749 to 1752; and of Yucatán, from 1754 to 1758. He was linked to several cases of corruption in Cartagena.

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17/01/1686

Archibald Bower, Scottish historian and author (died 1766)

Archibald Bower was a Scottish historian noted for his complicated and varying religious faith and the accounts he gave of it. Scholars now consider them lacking in credibility.

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17/01/1666

Antonio Maria Valsalva, Italian anatomist and physician (died 1723)

Antonio Maria Valsalva was an Italian anatomist born in Imola. His research focused on the anatomy of the ears. He coined the term Eustachian tube and he described the aortic sinuses of Valsalva in his writings, published posthumously in 1740. His name is associated with the Valsalva antrum of the ear and the Valsalva maneuver, which is used as a test of circulatory function. Anatomical structures bearing his name are Valsalva’s muscle and taeniae Valsalvae. He observed that when weakness of one side of the body is caused by a lesion in the brain, the culprit lesion tends to be on the side opposite (contralateral) to the weak side; this finding is named the "Valsalva doctrine" in his honor.

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17/01/1659

Antonio Veracini, Italian violinist and composer (died 1745)

Antonio Veracini was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era.

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17/01/1640

Jonathan Singletary Dunham, American settler (died 1724)

Jonathan Dunham, commonly known as Jonathan Singletary Dunham, was a prominent early European-American settler of Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, who built the first gristmill in New Jersey. He is the 8th great-grandfather of President Barack Obama through the direct paternal line of his mother Ann Dunham.

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17/01/1612

Thomas Fairfax, English general and politician (died 1671)

Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron was an English army officer and politician who commanded the New Model Army from 1645 to 1650 during the English Civil War. Because of his dark hair, he was known as "Black Tom" to his loyal troops. He was the eldest son and heir of Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron and succeeded to the title of Lord Fairfax in 1648 on the death of his father, although he was generally known as Sir Thomas Fairfax to distinguish them. He adopted the profession of arms as a young man, when he served under Horace Vere in the Netherlands. In 1637, he married Vere's daughter Anne.

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17/01/1600

Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Spanish playwright and poet (died 1681)

Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño was a Spanish dramatist, poet, and writer. He is known as one of the most distinguished poets and writers of the Spanish Golden Age, especially for the many verse dramas he wrote for the theatre. Calderón has been termed "the Spanish Shakespeare", the national poet of Spain, and one of the greatest poets and playwrights in the history of world literature.

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17/01/1593

William Backhouse, English alchemist and astrologer (died 1662)

William Backhouse was an English philosopher, alchemist, astrologer, translator, and the esoteric mentor of Elias Ashmole.

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17/01/1574

Robert Fludd, English physician, astrologer, and mathematician (died 1637)

Robert Fludd, also known as Robertus de Fluctibus, was a prominent English Paracelsian physician with both scientific and occult interests. He is remembered as an astrologer, mathematician, cosmologist, Qabalist, and Rosicrucian.

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17/01/1560

Gaspard Bauhin, Swiss botanist, physician, and academic (died 1624)

Gaspard Bauhin or Caspar Bauhin, was a Swiss botanist whose Pinax theatri botanici (1623) described thousands of plants and classified them in a manner that draws comparisons to the later binomial nomenclature of Linnaeus. He was a disciple of the famous Italian physician Girolamo Mercuriale and he also worked on human anatomical nomenclature.

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17/01/1517

Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English Duke (died 1554)

Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, 3rd Marquess of Dorset, was an English courtier and nobleman of the Tudor period. He was the father of Lady Jane Grey, known as "the Nine Days Queen".

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17/01/1504

Pope Pius V (died 1572)

Pope Pius V, OP, born Antonio Ghislieri, was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 7 January 1566 to his death, in May 1572.

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17/01/1501

Leonhart Fuchs, German physician and botanist (died 1566)

Leonhart Fuchs, sometimes spelled Leonhard Fuchs and cited in Latin as Leonhartus Fuchsius, was a German physician and botanist. His chief notability is as the author of a large book about plants and their uses as medicines, a herbal, which was first published in 1542 in Latin. It has about 500 accurate and detailed drawings of plants, which were printed from woodcuts. The drawings are the book's most notable advance on its predecessors. Although drawings had been used in other herbal books, Fuchs's book proved and emphasized high-quality drawings as the most telling way to specify what a plant name stands for.

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17/01/1484

George Spalatin, German priest and reformer (died 1545)

Georg(e) Spalatin was the pseudonym taken by Georg Burkhardt, a German humanist, theologian, reformer, secretary of the Saxon Elector Frederick the Wise, as well as an important figure in the history of the Reformation.

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17/01/1472

Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Italian captain (died 1508)

Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, also known as Guidobaldo I, was an Italian condottiero and the Duke of Urbino from 1482 to 1508.

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17/01/1463

Frederick III, Elector of Saxony (died 1525)

Frederick III, also known as Frederick the Wise, was Prince-elector of Saxony from 1486 to 1525, who is mostly remembered for the protection given to his subject Martin Luther, the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation. Frederick was the son of Ernest, Elector of Saxony and his wife Elisabeth, daughter of Albert III, Duke of Bavaria.

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Antoine Duprat, French cardinal (died 1535)

Antoine Duprat was a French Cardinal and politician, who was chancellor of France.

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17/01/1429

Antonio del Pollaiuolo, Italian artist (diedc. 1498)

Antonio del Pollaiuolo, also known as Antonio di Jacopo Pollaiuolo or Antonio Pollaiuolo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, engraver, and goldsmith, who made important works in all these media, as well as designing works in others, for example vestments, metal embroidery being a medium he worked in at the start of his career.

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17/01/1342

Philip II, Duke of Burgundy (died 1404)

Philip II the Bold was Duke of Burgundy and jure uxoris Count of Flanders, Artois and Burgundy. He was the fourth and youngest son of King John II of France and Bonne of Luxembourg.

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