Born on Saturday, 21st June – Famous Birthdays
On this day, 317 notable people were born on 21st June — spanning from 906 to 2011. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.
Saturday, 21 June 2025 marks a significant date in history, bringing together notable figures and events from across centuries. Among those born on this day, Alexandra Obolentseva emerged as a Russian chess player in 2001, continuing a tradition of intellectual achievement. The date also commemorates the birth of Lil Bub in 2011, the American celebrity cat whose influence on internet culture became substantial before its death in 2019. Beyond these modern figures, the day carries historical weight through earlier births and achievements that shaped various fields.
The significance of 21 June extends into the political and cultural spheres. Pierre Omidyar, the French-American businessman who founded eBay in 1998, was born on this date in 1967, revolutionising e-commerce and online commerce platforms globally. Historical records show that many figures of note, from theologians to artists and scientists, have shared this birthday across the centuries, reflecting the date’s prominence in human achievement and innovation.
Today’s date arrives under specific atmospheric conditions that define the day. The weather conditions, moon phase, and zodiac positioning all contribute to the character of 21 June. The Cancer zodiac sign encompasses this date, and the waning moon influences the evening sky. The atmospheric patterns and meteorological conditions present their own significance for those observing the day across different locations.
DayAtlas provides comprehensive information about this date, displaying weather patterns, historical events, celebrated births, and notable deaths for any location and time period users wish to explore. The platform enables visitors to examine how weather conditions intersected with significant moments in history and to discover which notable individuals share birthdays on any given day.
Discover who was born today 12th April.
21/06/2011
Lil Bub, American celebrity cat (died 2019)
Lil Bub, officially Lil BUB, was an American celebrity cat known for her unique physical appearance. Her photos were first posted to Tumblr in November 2011, before taking off after being featured on the social news website Reddit. "Lil Bub" on Facebook has over three million likes. Lil Bub starred in Lil Bub & Friendz, a documentary that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 18, 2013, and won the Tribeca Online Festival Best Feature Film.
21/06/2001
Alexandra Obolentseva, Russian chess player
Alexandra Sergeevna Obolentseva is a Russian chess player. She was awarded the title Woman Grandmaster by FIDE in 2018. Obolentseva has won the World Youth Chess Championships, the World Schools Chess Championships and the European Schools Chess Championships in her age girls category.
21/06/2000
Dylan Brown, New Zealand rugby league player
Dylan Brown is a New Zealand professional rugby league footballer who plays as a five-eighth for the Newcastle Knights in the National Rugby League and New Zealand at international level.
21/06/1999
Ky Rodwell, Australian rugby league player
Ky Rodwell is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a prop and loose forward for Wakefield Trinity in the Super League.
21/06/1998
Isabel Atkin, British-American freestyle skier
Isabel "Izzy" Atkin is a former British-American freestyle skier who competed internationally for Great Britain. She won bronze in women's slopestyle at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, the first British Olympic medal in skiing.
21/06/1997
Rebecca Black, American singer-songwriter
Rebecca Renee Black is an American singer, songwriter, YouTuber, and DJ. She gained extensive media coverage when the music video for her 2011 debut single "Friday" went viral on YouTube and various social media sites. The song had a polarizing reaction as while it peaked at number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100, it was also panned by audiences and music critics, many of whom considered it "among the worst songs ever made". In 2013, Black released a follow-up single "Saturday" to similar commercial success and marginally improved reception.
Derrius Guice, American football player
Derrius Guice is an American former professional football running back. He played college football for the LSU Tigers, where he was the first player in Southeastern Conference (SEC) history with three career games of 250 or more rushing yards before being selected by the Washington Redskins in the second round of the 2018 NFL draft.
21/06/1996
Tyrone May, Australian rugby league player
Tyrone May is a Samoa international rugby league footballer who plays for Hull Kingston Rovers in the Super League. Primarily a stand-off, May has played in a number of other positions during his career, including centre, scrum-half, loose forward and fullback.
Scottie Scheffler, American golfer
Scott Alexander Scheffler is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He is currently ranked world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, a position he has held for over 175 weeks. He has won four major championships.
21/06/1994
Başak Eraydın, Turkish tennis player
Başak Eraydın is a Turkish professional tennis player.
21/06/1993
Hungrybox, Argentine-American esports player
Juan Manuel DeBiedma, better known by his alias Hungrybox, is an Argentine–American professional Super Smash Bros. player, streamer, tournament organizer and commentator. Recognized as one of the greatest and most successful Super Smash Bros. Melee players of all time, he is one of the "Five Gods of Melee" along with Adam "Armada" Lindgren, Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, Joseph "Mang0" Marquez, and Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, and is regarded as the greatest Jigglypuff player in history. He is also an active competitor in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and has been a member of Team Liquid since 2015, becoming its co-owner in December 2021. He is currently ranked as the 3rd best Melee player in the world for summer 2025.
21/06/1992
MAX, American singer, songwriter, actor, dancer and model
Maxwell George Schneider, also known by his mononym Max, is an American singer and actor. He is best known for his 2016 single "Lights Down Low", which peaked within the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 and received triple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). A sleeper hit, the song emerged from his second album, Hell's Kitchen Angel (2016), which was released by DCD2 Records and narrowly entered the Billboard 200. He signed with Arista Records to release his third album, Color Vision (2020).
Hussein El Shahat, Egyptian professional footballer
Hussein Ali El Shahat Ali Hassan is an Egyptian professional footballer who plays for Egyptian Premier League club Al Ahly as a winger.
21/06/1991
Gaël Kakuta, French footballer
Gaël Romeo Kakuta Mambenga is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for Greek Super League club AEL. Born in France, he represents the DR Congo national team.
Lee Min-young, South Korean singer-songwriter, actress, and entertainer
Lee Min-young, known professionally as Min, is a South Korean singer, television personality, songwriter, and actress. She is best known as a former member of the South Korean girl group Miss A.
21/06/1990
Ričardas Berankis, Lithuanian tennis player
Ričardas Berankis is a Lithuanian former professional tennis player. He was the first and only Lithuanian to enter the ATP top 50 rankings, making him the highest ranked Lithuanian tennis player of all time. Berankis has reached two singles finals on the ATP World Tour, at the Los Angeles Open in 2012 and at the Kremlin Cup in 2017 and won one doubles title in Houston. He was also a prominent member of the Lithuania Davis Cup team.
Sergei Matsenko, Russian chess player
Sergei Vadimovich Matsenko is a Russian chess grandmaster.
François Moubandje, Swiss footballer
Jacques François Moubandje is a former professional footballer who played as a left back. Born in Cameroon, he represented the Switzerland national team.
Håvard Nordtveit, Norwegian footballer
Håvard Nordtveit is a Norwegian former professional footballer who played as a defender or defensive midfielder.
Isabel Pires, Portuguese politician
Isabel Cristina Rua Pires is a Portuguese politician and former member of the Assembly of the Republic, the national legislature of Portugal. A member of the Left Bloc, she has represented Lisbon from October 2015 to March 2022 and Porto from September 2023 to March 2024. She had also been a temporary substitute member of the Assembly from February 2023 to August 2023.
21/06/1989
Abubaker Kaki, Sudanese runner
Abubaker Kaki Khamis is a Sudanese runner who specialises in the 800 metres. He is a two-time World Indoor Champion over the distance and also won gold at the 2007 All-Africa Games. He represented Sudan at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. He is a member of the Messiria ethnic minority.
21/06/1988
Allyssa DeHaan, American basketball and volleyball player
Allyssa DeHaan is an American former collegiate basketball and volleyball player. She played for Michigan State University from 2006 to 2010.
Alejandro Ramírez, American chess player
Alejandro Tadeo Ramírez Álvarez is a Costa Rican-American chess Grandmaster and commentator. At the age of 15, he became the first Central American to achieve the title of Grandmaster and was the second youngest chess grandmaster in the world at the time. Born in Costa Rica, he represented Costa Rica before switching to the United States in 2011.
Paolo Tornaghi, Italian footballer
Paolo Tornaghi is an Italian footballer who plays as a goalkeeper.
Thaddeus Young, American basketball player
Thaddeus Charles Young Sr. is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, before being selected 12th overall in the 2007 NBA draft by the Philadelphia 76ers. In 2018, Young became 5th player in NBA history with at least 800 games to average 13.5 points, 5.9 Rebounds, 1.4 steals, 49% FGS, and 30% 3PT FGS, after Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James.
21/06/1987
Pablo Barrera, Mexican footballer
Pablo Edson Barrera Acosta is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a winger.
Sebastian Prödl, Austrian footballer
Sebastian Prödl is an Austrian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. A full international from 2007 to 2018, he represented the Austria national team at UEFA Euro 2008 and UEFA Euro 2016.
Dale Thomas, Australian footballer
Dale Robert Jordan “Daisy” Thomas is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Collingwood Football Club and Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Thomas was a priority pick in 2005, where he then played with the Collingwood Football Club from 2006 to 2013 before transferring to Carlton in 2014.
Kim Ryeo-wook, South Korean singer
Kim Ryeo-wook, better known by the mononym Ryeowook, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, and musical actor. He is best known as a member of boy group Super Junior and its subgroups, Super Junior-K.R.Y. and Super Junior-M. Along with four other Super Junior members, he is one of the first Korean artists to appear on Chinese postage stamps. He began a solo career in 2016 with his first EP The Little Prince.
21/06/1986
Kathleen O'Kelly-Kennedy, Australian wheelchair basketball player
Kathleen O'Kelly-Kennedy is an Australian 4.0 point wheelchair basketball player who plays forward-centre. She was part of the bronze medal-winning Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing.
Hideaki Wakui, Japanese baseball player
Hideaki Wakui is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Chunichi Dragons of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He has previously played in NPB for the Seibu Lions / Saitama Seibu Lions, Chiba Lotte Marines, and Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
21/06/1985
Kris Allen, American musician, singer and songwriter
Kristopher Neil Allen is an American singer, songwriter, and the winner of the eighth season of American Idol.
Lana Del Rey, American singer-songwriter
Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, known professionally as Lana Del Rey, is an American singer-songwriter. Her music is noted for its melancholic exploration of glamor and romance, with frequent references to pop culture and 1950s–1970s Americana. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an MTV Video Music Award, three MTV Europe Music Awards, two Brit Awards, two Billboard Women in Music awards and a Satellite Award, in addition to nominations for eleven Grammy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. Variety honored her at their Hitmakers Awards for being "one of the most influential singer-songwriters of the 21st century". In 2023, Rolling Stone placed Del Rey on their list of the "200 Greatest Singers of All Time", while their sister publication Rolling Stone UK named her as the "greatest American songwriter of the 21st century".
Sentayehu Ejigu, Ethiopian runner
Sentayehu Ejigu Tamerat is an Ethiopian long-distance runner, who specializes in the 3000 and 5000 metres. She represented Ethiopia at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Byron Schammer, Australian footballer
Byron Schammer is an Australian rules footballer currently playing with the Claremont Football Club in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). He previously played with the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League.
21/06/1983
Edward Snowden, American activist and academic
Edward Joseph Snowden is a former United States National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs.
21/06/1982
Lee Dae-ho, South Korean baseball player
Lee Dae-ho is a South Korean professional baseball player who played as a first baseman. During his career, he played for the Lotte Giants of the KBO League, Orix Buffaloes and Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), and the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball (MLB).
William, Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the British throne
William, Prince of Wales, is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales.
Jussie Smollett, American actor and singer
Jussie Smollett is an American actor, filmmaker and singer. He began his career as a child actor in 1991 debuting in The Mighty Ducks (1992). From 2015 to 2019, Smollett portrayed musician Jamal Lyon in the Fox drama series Empire.
21/06/1981
Yann Danis, Canadian ice hockey player
Yann Joseph Richard Danis is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders, Edmonton Oilers, and New Jersey Devils. He played in the butterfly style of goaltending.
Garrett Jones, American baseball player
Garrett Thomas Jones is an American former professional baseball first baseman and right fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins, Pittsburgh Pirates, Miami Marlins, and New York Yankees, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yomiuri Giants.
Brandon Flowers, American singer-songwriter
Brandon Richard Flowers is an American musician. He serves as the co-founder, lead vocalist, primary songwriter, keyboardist, and occasional bassist of the Las Vegas–based rock band the Killers, which he formed with Dave Keuning in 2001.
Brad Walker, American pole vaulter
Brad Walker is an American pole vaulter. He was the American recordholder and was the 2007 World Champion in the event.
21/06/1980
Michael Crocker, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster
Michael "Croc" Crocker is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. An Australian international and Queensland State of Origin representative forward, he played his club football in the National Rugby League for the Sydney Roosters, Melbourne Storm and the South Sydney Rabbitohs. Crocker played in 5 Grand Finals during his career, including three consecutive Grand Final appearances between 2002 and 2004, including one victory in 2002.
Łukasz Cyborowski, Polish chess player
Łukasz Cyborowski is a Polish chess Grandmaster (2003).
Richard Jefferson, American basketball player
Richard Allen Jefferson Jr. is an American former professional basketball player who played small forward. He played for eight teams in his 17-season career in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Sendy Rleal, Dominican baseball player
Sendy Rleal Aquino is a former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Baltimore Orioles in 2006, and in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) for the Sinon Bulls in 2010.
21/06/1979
Kostas Katsouranis, Greek footballer
Kostas Katsouranis is a Greek former professional footballer. A versatile midfielder, who won the Super League Greek Footballer of the Year Award in 2005 and 2013, as well as the Cosme Damião Award for Footballer of the Year in 2008.
Chris Pratt, American actor
Christopher Michael Pratt is an American actor and film producer. His films as a leading actor have grossed over $14.1 billion worldwide, making him one of the highest-grossing film stars of all time. Pratt was one of the world's highest-paid actors annually from 2015 to 2017. Through starring in blockbuster franchises and big-budget films, he has established himself as one of Hollywood's most bankable stars.
21/06/1978
Thomas Blondeau, Flemish writer (died 2013)
Thomas Blondeau was a Flemish writer, poet and journalist. He studied literature at the University of Leuven and the University of Leiden. He wrote for newspapers including Mare, Deng, De Revisor, De Standaard and Dif.
Matt Kuchar, American golfer
Matthew Gregory Kuchar is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and formerly the Nationwide Tour. He has won nine times on the PGA Tour. Kuchar briefly enjoyed success in the early 2000s before suffering a slump where he struggled to maintain his playing status on the PGA Tour. He rejuvenated himself and built a new, one-plane swing from 2008 onward leading to improved results. Kuchar was the PGA Tour's leading money winner in 2010.
Cristiano Lupatelli, Italian footballer
Cristiano Lupatelli is an Italian professional football coach and former player who is the goalkeeping coach of club Juventus U23. As a player, he was a goalkeeper; he is known for his trademark goatee and sideburns with his bald head.
Dejan Ognjanović, Montenegrin footballer
Dejan Ognjanović is a Montenegrin former professional footballer who played as a defender. On the international level, he represented FR Yugoslavia most notably at the 2001 Kirin Cup as well as Montenegro from 2008 to 2010.
Rim'K, French rapper
Abdelkrim Brahmi, known professionally as Rim'K is a French rapper of Algerian origins. Rim'k is a member of the group 113, alongside Mokobé and AP, and the supergroup Mafia K-1 Fry. He also has a group called Maghreb United.
21/06/1977
Michael Gomez, Irish boxer
Michael Gomez is a former professional boxer who competed from 1995 to 2009. He was born to an Irish Traveller family in Longford, Ireland, spending his early years in Dublin before moving to London and later Manchester, England, with his family at the age of nine. In boxing he was affectionately known as "The Predator", "The Irish Mexican" and "The Mancunian Mexican".
Al Wilson, American football player
Aldra Kauwa Wilson is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker for eight seasons with the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Tennessee Volunteers, earning consensus All-American honors. Wilson was selected by the Denver Broncos in the first round of the 1999 NFL draft, and played his entire professional career for the Broncos. He was a five-time Pro Bowl selection and a two-time All-Pro selection.
21/06/1976
Shelley Craft, Australian television host
Shelley Craft is an Australian television personality.
Mike Einziger, American guitarist and songwriter
Michael Aaron Einziger is an American musician, songwriter and producer. He is best known for being co-founder and guitarist of the rock band Incubus, and has also co-written, produced and collaborated with a wide array of artists including Pharrell Williams, Hans Zimmer, Skrillex, Tyler the Creator, Avicii, Damian Marley, Jason Schwartzman and Steve Martin among many others. Incubus has sold over 23 Million albums worldwide, and in 2013, Einziger co-wrote the hit song "Wake Me Up", alongside Avicii and Aloe Blacc. As an entrepreneur, Einziger is the co-founder and co-chairman of the wireless technology platform MIXhalo, and also the co-founder and CEO of the biotechnology startup Versicolor Technologies. Einziger received his education at Harvard University.
Nigel Lappin, Australian footballer and coach
Nigel Lappin is a former professional Australian rules footballer. Lappin is currently serving as an assistant coach with the Geelong Football Club.
21/06/1975
Brian Simmons, American football player
Brian Eugene Simmons is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker for 10 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the University of North Carolina, and earned All-American honors. He was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals 17th overall in the 1998 NFL draft, and he played professionally for the Bengals and New Orleans Saints of the NFL.
21/06/1974
Rob Kelly, American football player
Robert James Kelly III is an American former professional football player who was a safety for four seasons with the New Orleans Saints in the National Football League (NFL) and one on the injured reserve list for the New England Patriots. He played college football for the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Craig Lowndes, Australian race car driver
Craig Andrew Lowndes is an Australian racing car driver in the Repco Supercars Championship racing for Team 18. He is also a TV commentator.
Flavio Roma, Italian footballer
Flavio Roma is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
21/06/1973
Juliette Lewis, American actress and singer-songwriter
Juliette Lake Lewis is an American actress, singer and musician. She is known for her portrayals of offbeat characters, often in films with dark plots, themes, and settings. Lewis gained prominence in American cinema during the early 1990s, appearing in various independent and arthouse films. Lewis's accolades include nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards.
John Mitchell, English guitarist, vocalist and songwriter
John Mitchell is an Irish musician and record producer. He primarily plays guitar and has been a member of the bands It Bites, Arena, Frost*, Kino, A, The Urbane, and Asia, as well as pursuing a solo career with the Lonely Robot project.
21/06/1972
Nobuharu Asahara, Japanese sprinter and long jumper
Nobuharu Asahara is a former Japanese athlete who specialized in the 100 meters and long jump. He won the 100 m at the Japanese national championship on five occasions in 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001 and 2002, and he took part in the Olympics four times in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008. He represented Japan six times at the World Championships in Athletics.
Neil Doak, Northern Irish cricketer and rugby player
Neil George Doak is a Northern Irish former cricketer and rugby union player. He is the former head coach of the Ireland U20 rugby union team.
Irene van Dyk, South African-New Zealand netball player
Irene van Dyk is a former netball international who represented both New Zealand and South Africa. Between 2000 and 2014 she made 145 senior appearances for New Zealand. She was a member of the New Zealand teams that won the 2003 World Netball Championships and the 2006 and 2010 Commonwealth Games titles. Between 1994 and 1999 she made 72 senior appearances for South Africa. She was member of the South Africa team that were silver medallists at the 1995 World Netball Championships. She captained South Africa at the 1999 World Netball Championships. During her international netball career, she scored 5917 goals from 6572 attempts at 90%. Van Dyk remains the world's most capped netball international. She was the 2003 New Zealand Sportswoman of the Year. Between 2003 and 2013, van Dyk played for Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic. In 2005 and 2006, she was a member of the Magic team that won two successive National Bank Cup titles and in 2012, she was a member of the Magic team that won the ANZ Championship. In 2009, van Dyk was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to netball. In 2022, she was included on a list of the 25 best players to feature in netball leagues in New Zealand since 1998. In 2024 she was inducted into the Netball New Zealand Hall of Fame.
Tomáš Valášek, Slovak diplomat and politician
Tomáš Valášek is a Slovak diplomat and politician. From 2013 to 2017 he served as the ambassador of Slovakia to NATO. From 2020 he is a Member of the National Council.
21/06/1971
Tyronne Drakeford, American football player
Tyronne James Drakeford is an American former professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL). He played for the San Francisco 49ers, New Orleans Saints, and Washington Redskins. He played college football for the Virginia Tech Hokies and was selected in the second round of the 1994 NFL draft.
21/06/1970
Eric Reed, American pianist and composer
Eric Scott Reed is an American jazz pianist and composer. His group Black Note released several albums in the 1990s.
21/06/1968
Sonique, English singer-songwriter and DJ
Sonia Marina Clarke, better known by her stage name Sonique, is an English singer, musician and DJ. She came to public attention as a member of dance band S'Express during the early 1990s, but achieved greater success as a solo artist in the early-to mid 2000s. During this period, she achieved UK top 20 hits with "It Feels So Good", "Sky", "I Put a Spell on You" and "Can't Make Up My Mind", and won the 2001 BRIT Award for British female solo artist.
21/06/1967
Jim Breuer, American comedian, actor, and producer
James Breuer is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He was a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 1998 and starred in the film Half Baked (1998).
Derrick Coleman, American basketball player and sportscaster
Derrick Demetrius Coleman is an American former professional basketball player. Coleman attended Syracuse University and was selected first overall in the 1990 NBA draft by the New Jersey Nets.
Pierre Omidyar, French-American businessman, founded eBay
Pierre Morad Omidyar is a French-born Iranian-American billionaire. A technology entrepreneur, software engineer, and philanthropist, he is the founder of eBay, where he served as chairman from 1998 to 2015. Omidyar is the grandson of the Imperial Iranian Army General Mahmud Mir-Djalali, who was instrumental in the 1921 rise of the Pahlavi Dynasty, the overthrow of Mohammad Mossadegh, and the building out of Iran's Mechanized Artillery Forces and Defense Industries. As of 2023, Forbes ranked Omidyar as the 245th-richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $8.7 billion.
Carrie Preston, American actress, director, and producer
Carrie Preston is an American actress, director, and producer. She is best known for her roles as Arlene Fowler in the HBO fantasy drama series True Blood (2008–2014) and as Elsbeth Tascioni in the CBS legal drama series The Good Wife (2010–2016) and the two spinoffs The Good Fight (2017–2022) and Elsbeth (2024–present). For her work on The Good Wife, Preston received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.
Yingluck Shinawatra, Thai businesswoman and politician, 28th Prime Minister of Thailand
Yingluck Shinawatra is a Thai businesswoman, politician and a member of the Pheu Thai Party who was the 28th prime minister of Thailand from 2011 to 2014. Yingluck was Thailand's first female prime minister and its youngest in over 60 years since the Siamese revolution of 1932. She was removed from office on 7 May 2014 by a Constitutional Court decision.
21/06/1966
Gretchen Carlson, American model and TV journalist, Miss America 1989
Gretchen Elizabeth Carlson is an American broadcast journalist, writer, and television personality.
21/06/1965
David Beerling, English biologist and academic
David John Beerling FLSW is the Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Climate change mitigation and Sorby Professor of Natural Sciences in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences (APS) at the University of Sheffield, UK. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.
Yang Liwei, Chinese general, pilot, and astronaut
Yang Liwei is a Chinese major general, former military pilot, and former taikonaut of the People's Liberation Army.
Ewen McKenzie, Australian rugby player and coach
Ewen James Andrew McKenzie is an Australian professional rugby union coach and a former player. A prop, he played for Australia's World Cup winning team in 1991 and earned 51 caps for the Wallabies during his test career. He played nine seasons for the NSW Waratahs and two for the ACT Brumbies.
Lana Wachowski, American director, producer, and screenwriter
Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski are American film and television directors, writers and producers. Together known as the Wachowskis, the sisters are both trans women and have worked as a writing and directing team throughout most of their careers. They made their directing debut with Bound (1996), and achieved fame with The Matrix (1999), a major box-office success for which they won the Saturn Award for Best Director. They wrote and directed two sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, and were involved in the writing and production of other works in the Matrix franchise.
21/06/1964
David Morrissey, English actor and director
David Mark Joseph Morrissey is an English actor and filmmaker. He had numerous small roles in films and television series throughout the 1990s before achieving wider recognition for playing Gordon Brown in The Deal (2003), Stephen Collins in State of Play (2003), The Governor in the third, and fourth seasons of The Walking Dead (2012–2015), and DCS Ian St Clair in Sherwood (2022–present). He has also acted extensively on stage with companies such as the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre.
Valeriy Neverov, Ukrainian chess player
Valeriy Neverov is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster (1991) and four-time Ukrainian Chess Champion.
Dimitris Papaioannou, Greek director and choreographer
Dimitris Papaioannou is an Athenian born on 21 June 1964 who emerged from the Greek underground art scene as a defining figure. Starting as a comics creator, he became a director, choreographer, performer, and designer of sets, costumes, and lighting. His hybrid creations gained a growing dedicated audience in Greece, and in 2004 he became the youngest artist to have been assigned to direct the biggest show on earth: the Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies. A decade later, in 2015, he was discovered by European programmers and was invited to tour.
Dean Saunders, Welsh footballer and manager
Dean Nicholas Saunders is a Welsh football manager and former professional footballer.
Doug Savant, American actor
Douglas Peter Savant is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Matt Fielding in the Fox prime time soap opera Melrose Place (1992–97), Tom Scavo in ABC comedy-drama Desperate Housewives (2004–12), and as Sgt. O'Neal in Godzilla (1998).
21/06/1963
Dario Marianelli, Italian pianist and composer
Dario Marianelli is an Italian composer.
Mike Sherrard, American football player
Michael Watson Sherrard is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers, New York Giants, and Denver Broncos. He played college football for the UCLA Bruins. Sherrard was selected in the first round of the 1986 NFL draft.
21/06/1962
Shōhei Takada, Japanese shogi player and theoretician
Shōhei Takada is a Japanese retired professional shogi player who achieved the rank of 7-dan.
Viktor Tsoi, Russian singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1990)
Viktor Robertovich Tsoi was a Soviet singer-songwriter and actor who co-founded Kino, one of the most popular and influential bands in the history of Russian music.
21/06/1961
Manu Chao, French singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
Manu Chao is a French-Spanish musician. He sings in French, Spanish, English, Italian, Arabic, Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, Greek, and occasionally in other languages. Chao began his musical career in Paris, busking and playing with groups such as Hot Pants and Los Carayos, which combined a variety of languages and musical styles. With friends and his brother Antoine Chao, he founded the band Mano Negra in 1987, achieving considerable success, particularly in Europe. He became a solo artist after its breakup in 1995 and since then has toured regularly with his live band, Radio Bemba Sound System.
Sascha Konietzko, German keyboard player and producer
Sascha Kegel Konietzko, also known as Sascha K and Käpt'n K, is a German musician and record producer. He is the founder, frontman and "anchor" of the industrial band KMFDM. Konietzko jokingly purports himself to be the father of industrial rock. Keyboard Magazine wrote of him, "You won't find a more imaginative or effective keyboardist on the hard-core scene."
Joko Widodo, Indonesian businessman and politician, 7th President of Indonesia
Joko Widodo, often known mononymously as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who served as the seventh president of Indonesia from 2014 to 2024. Previously a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), he was the country's first president not to emerge from the political or military elite. Before becoming president, he served as mayor of Surakarta from 2005 to 2012 and as governor of Jakarta from 2012 to 2014.
Kip Winger, American rock singer-songwriter and musician
Charles Frederick "Kip" Winger is an American musician, songwriter and composer. He is best known as the frontman, lead singer and bass player of the rock band Winger, but also runs parallel careers as a solo rock artist and contemporary classical composer. He initially gained notability as a member of Alice Cooper's band, contributing bass to his Constrictor (1986) and Raise Your Fist and Yell (1987) albums.
Iztok Mlakar, Slovenian actor and singer-songwriter
Iztok Mlakar is a Slovenian singer-songwriter and theatre actor. Styled as the "bard of the Slovenian Littoral", he is best known for his ironic chansons in the Littoral dialect of Slovene. Together with Adi Smolar, Mlakar is among the best-known singer-songwriters in Slovenia since 1990.
21/06/1960
Kate Brown, American politician, 38th Governor of Oregon
Katherine Brown is an American politician and attorney who served as the 38th governor of Oregon from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she served three terms as the state representative from the 13th district of the Oregon House of Representatives from 1991 to 1997, three terms as the state senator from the 21st district of the Oregon Senate from 1997 to 2009, three terms as majority leader of the Oregon Senate from 2003 to 2009, and two terms as Oregon Secretary of State from 2009 to 2015. She assumed the governorship upon the resignation of John Kitzhaber in 2015. She was elected to serve out the remainder of his gubernatorial term in the special election in 2016 and was reelected to a full term in 2018.
Karl Erjavec, Slovenian politician
Karl Viktor Erjavec is a Slovenian lawyer and politician who served in the government of Slovenia as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2018. He was the president of the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia, having held the position from 2005 to January 2020 and again from December 2020 until March 2021. He was Minister of Defense from 2004 to 2008 and 2018 to 2020 and Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning from 2008 to 2010.
21/06/1959
John Baron, English captain and politician
John Charles Baron is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Basildon and Billericay, previously Billericay, from 2001 to 2024. He has frequently rebelled against his party, specifically in his calling for a referendum on the European Union (EU) before the 2015 election and in opposing military intervention in Iraq, Libya, and Syria.
Tom Chambers, American basketball player and sportscaster
Thomas Doane Chambers is an American former professional basketball player. From 1981 to 1997, he played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as well as internationally. A power forward, Chambers was selected to four NBA All-Star Games and was a two-time All-NBA Second Team member during his career. In December 2021, he was nominated for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame but did not advance to the list of finalists.
Marcella Detroit, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
Marcella Levy, known professionally as Marcy Levy and Marcella Detroit, is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She co-wrote the 1977 Eric Clapton hit "Lay Down Sally" and released her debut studio album Marcella in 1982. She joined Shakespears Sister in 1988 with ex-Bananarama member Siobhan Fahey. Their first two studio albums, Sacred Heart (1989) and Hormonally Yours (1992), both reached the top 10 of the UK Albums Chart. Detroit sang the lead vocals on their biggest hit, "Stay", which spent eight consecutive weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart in 1992. Detroit left the band in 1993 and had a UK top 20 hit with "I Believe" in 1994. She formed the Marcy Levy Band in 2002, and finished third in the 2010 ITV series Popstar to Operastar.
Kathy Mattea, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
Kathleen Alice Mattea is an American country music and bluegrass singer. Active since 1984 as a recording artist, she has charted more than 30 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including four that reached No. 1: "Goin' Gone", "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses", "Come from the Heart", and "Burnin' Old Memories", plus 12 more that charted within the top ten. She has released 14 studio albums, two Christmas albums, and one greatest hits album. Most of her material was recorded for Universal Music Group Nashville's Mercury Records Nashville division between 1984 and 2000, with later albums being issued on Narada Productions, her own Captain Potato label, and Sugar Hill Records. Among her albums, she has received five gold certifications and one platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She has collaborated with Dolly Parton, Michael McDonald, Tim O'Brien, and her husband, Jon Vezner. Mattea is also a two-time Grammy Award winner: in 1990 for "Where've You Been", and in 1993 for her Christmas album Good News. Her style is defined by traditional country, bluegrass, folk, and Celtic music influences. She was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2025.
21/06/1958
Víctor Montoya, Bolivian journalist and author
Víctor Montoya is a Bolivian writer, cultural journalist, and pedagogue. Imprisoned by the dictatorship in his native Bolivia, he became an exile following a campaign by Amnesty International in 1977.
Gennady Padalka, Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut
Gennady Ivanovich Padalka is a Russian Air Force officer and Roscosmos cosmonaut. Padalka is the only person to have served as commander of the International Space Station (ISS) four times. He previously held the record for the most time spent in space at 878 days until Oleg Kononenko broke this record on February 4, 2024 at 07:30:08 UTC and is currently at 2nd position. He worked on both Mir and the International Space Station.
21/06/1957
Berkeley Breathed, American author and illustrator
Guy Berkeley "Berke" Breathed is an American cartoonist, children's book author, director, and screenwriter, known for his comic strips Bloom County, Outland, and Opus. Bloom County earned Breathed the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1987.
Luis Antonio Tagle, Filipino cardinal
Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle is a Filipino prelate of the Catholic Church, and has been the pro-prefect for the Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches of the Dicastery for Evangelization since December 8, 2019. He previously served as the 32nd archbishop of Manila from 2011 to 2020, and earlier on as bishop of Imus from 2001 to 2011. Tagle is the current cardinal bishop of Albano and also serves as the president of the Catholic Biblical Federation, grand chancellor of the Pontifical Urbaniana University, president of the Interdicasterial Commission for Consecrated Religious, and as a member of various departments and dicasteries in the Roman Curia. He is often referred to by his nickname, Chito.
21/06/1956
Rick Sutcliffe, American baseball player and broadcaster
Richard Lee Sutcliffe, nicknamed "the Red Baron", is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, Baltimore Orioles, and St. Louis Cardinals between 1976 and 1994. Sutcliffe is currently a broadcaster for ESPN and Marquee Sports Network.
21/06/1955
Tim Bray, Canadian software developer and businessman
Timothy William Bray is a Canadian software developer, environmentalist and political activist and one of the co-authors of the original XML specification. He worked for Amazon Web Services from December 2014 until May 2020 when he quit due to concerns over the terminating of whistleblowers. Previously he has been employed by Google, Sun Microsystems and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Bray has also founded or co-founded several start-ups, such as Antarctica Systems.
Michel Platini, French footballer and manager
Michel François Platini is a French football administrator and former player and manager. Regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, Platini won the Ballon d'Or three times in a row, in 1983, 1984 and 1985, and came seventh in the FIFA Player of the Century vote. In recognition of his achievements, he was named a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1985 and became an Officer in 1998. As the president of UEFA in 2015 he was banned from involvement in football under FIFA's organisation, over ethics violations. The ban lasted until 2023.
21/06/1954
Már Guðmundsson, Icelandic economist, former Governor of Central Bank of Iceland
Már Guðmundsson is an Icelandic economist and policy maker. He was the Governor of the Central Bank of Iceland from 2009 to 2019.
Mark Kimmitt, American general and politician, 16th Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs
Mark Traecey Patrick Kimmitt is a retired American general and former diplomat. He served as the 16th Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs under George W. Bush from August 2008 to January 2009. Before he joined the State Department, he was a brigadier general in the United States Army and served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East. Kimmitt has also served as deputy director for strategy and plans for the United States Central Command and deputy director for operations/chief military spokesman for coalition forces in Iraq; he also served at NATO's SHAPE headquarters in Belgium.
Robert Menasse, Austrian author and academic
Robert Menasse is an Austrian writer.
21/06/1953
Benazir Bhutto, Pakistani politician, Prime Minister of Pakistan (died 2007)
Benazir Bhutto was a Pakistani politician and stateswoman who served as the prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996. She was the first woman elected to head a democratic government in a Muslim-majority country. Ideologically a liberal and a secularist, she chaired or co-chaired the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from the early 1980s until her assassination in 2007.
Augustus Pablo, Jamaican producer and musician (died 1999)
Horace Michael Swaby, also known as Augustus Pablo, was a Jamaican roots reggae and dub composer, performer, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He was active from the 1970s until his death. He was known for playing the melodica.
21/06/1952
Judith Bingham, English singer-songwriter
Judith Bingham is an English composer and mezzo-soprano singer. She was a member of the BBC Singers from 1983 to 1995. She is a Fellow of the Royal Northern College of Music. Bingham won the 1977 BBC Young Composer Award, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2020 for services to music.
Jeremy Coney, New Zealand cricketer and sportscaster
Jeremy Vernon Coney is a former New Zealand cricketer and current cricket commentator. An all-rounder, between 1974 and 1987 he played 52 Test matches and 88 One Day Internationals (ODIs) for New Zealand, of which he was captain in 15 Tests and 25 ODIs.
Patrick Dunleavy, English political scientist and academic
Patrick John Dunleavy, is Emeritus Professor of Political Science and Public Policy within the Government Department of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He was also Co-Director of the Democratic Audit and the Chair of the LSE Public Policy Group. In addition Dunleavy is an ANZSOG Institute for Governance Centenary Chair at the University of Canberra, Australia.
Kōichi Mashimo, Japanese director and screenwriter
Kōichi Mashimo is a Japanese former anime director and the founder of the animation studio Bee Train. Since the creation of the studio, Mashimo directed or otherwise participated in a large number of the studio's works, for example, as a member of the art or sound department.
Ginny Ruffner, American artist
Ginny Carol Ruffner was an American glass artist based in Seattle, Washington. She is known for her use of the lampworking technique and for her use of borosilicate glass in her painted glass sculptures.
21/06/1951
Jim Douglas, American academic and politician, 80th Governor of Vermont
James Holley Douglas is an American politician from the state of Vermont. A Republican, he served as the 80th governor of Vermont from 2003 to 2011. On August 27, 2009, Douglas announced that he would not seek re-election for a fifth term in 2010. He left the office in January 2011.
Terence Etherton, English lawyer and judge
Terence Michael Elkan Barnet Etherton, Baron Etherton was a British judge and member of the House of Lords. He served as the Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice from 2016 to 2021 and Chancellor of the High Court from 2013 to 2016.
Alan Hudson, English footballer
Alan Anthony Hudson is an English former footballer who played for Arsenal, Chelsea, Stoke City and the Seattle Sounders as well as the England national football team.
Nils Lofgren, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
Nils Hilmer Lofgren is an American rock musician, recording artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Along with his work as a solo artist, he has been a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band since 1984, a member of Crazy Horse, and the founder and frontman of the band Grin. In 2014, Lofgren was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band.
Lenore Manderson, Australian anthropologist and academic
Lenore Hilda Manderson is an Australian medical anthropologist. She is professor of medical anthropology in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, and the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Arts, at Monash University, Australia.
Mona-Lisa Pursiainen, Finnish sprinter (died 2000)
Eivor Mona-Lisa Pursiainen, née Strandvall, was a Finnish female sprinter, who was especially successful in 1973–1974, being ranked #2 in the world over 100 metres and # 3, over 200 metres and 400 metres in 1973. In 1974, she was ranked #7 in the 100 metres and #6 in the 200 metres. She won 100 metres and 200 metres at the 1973 Summer Universiade held in Moscow. She won a bronze medal in the 200 metres at the 1974 European Athletics Championships, as well as a silver medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay, and helped Finland to a National Record of 3:25.7. She would take two silver medals over the 100 metres and 200 metres at the 1975 Summer Universiade in Rome.
21/06/1950
Anne Carson, Canadian poet and academic
Anne Patricia Carson is a Canadian poet, essayist, translator, classicist, and professor.
Joey Kramer, American rock drummer and songwriter
Joseph Michael Kramer is an American musician best known as the drummer of the hard rock band Aerosmith, which was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.
Enn Reitel, Scottish actor and screenwriter
Enn Reitel is a Scottish actor who specialises in voice work in films, television series, and video games.
Trygve Thue, Norwegian guitarist and record producer (died 2022)
Trygve Thue was a Norwegian guitarist and music producer, and an original member of the Norwegian band Saft. He was the brother of the folk singer Ove Thue.
John Paul Young, Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter
John Inglis Young, OAM, known professionally as John Paul Young, is an Australian pop singer who is best known for having a worldwide hit with "Love Is in the Air" in 1978. His career was boosted by regular appearances as a performer and guest host on Countdown, a 1974–1987 TV series for Australia's national broadcaster ABC. Besides "Love Is in the Air", Young had top ten chart success in Germany and the Netherlands with "Standing in the Rain" and four other top ten hits in South Africa, including No. 1 hits with "I Hate the Music" in 1976 and "Yesterday's Hero" in 1975.
21/06/1949
John Agard, Guyanese-English author, poet, and playwright
John Agard FRSL is a Guyanese-born British playwright, poet and children's writer. In 2012, he was selected for the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. He was awarded BookTrust's Lifetime Achievement Award in November 2021.
Derek Emslie, Lord Kingarth, Scottish lawyer and judge
Derek Robert Alexander Emslie, Lord Kingarth is a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland, sitting in the High Court of Justiciary and the Inner House of the Court of Session. He is the son of former Lord President George Emslie, Baron Emslie, and younger brother of fellow judge Nigel Emslie, Lord Emslie, and older brother of rhino conservationist Dr Richard Emslie.
21/06/1948
Jovan Aćimović, Serbian footballer and manager
Jovan "Kule" Aćimović is a Serbian former footballer who played as a midfielder.
Ian McEwan, British novelist and screenwriter
Ian Russell McEwan is a British novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, The Times featured him at number 35 on its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945", and The Daily Telegraph ranked him number 19 out of "the 100 most powerful people in British culture".
Andrzej Sapkowski, Polish author and translator
Andrzej Sapkowski is a Polish fantasy writer. He is best known for his series of books The Witcher, which revolves around the eponymous monster-hunter, Geralt of Rivia. The saga has been popularized through video games, television, stage, comic books and translated into 37 languages making him the second most-translated Polish science fiction and fantasy writer after Stanisław Lem.
Philippe Sarde, French composer and conductor
Philippe Sarde is a French film composer. Considered among the most versatile and talented French film composers of his generation, Sarde has scored over two hundred films, film shorts, and television mini-series. He received an Academy Award nomination for Tess (1979), and twelve César Award nominations, winning for Barocco (1976). In 1993, Sarde received the Joseph Plateau Music Award.
21/06/1947
Meredith Baxter, American actress
Meredith Ann Baxter is an American actress and producer. She is known for her roles on the CBS sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie (1972–1973), ABC drama series Family (1976–1980) and the NBC sitcom Family Ties (1982–1989). A five-time Emmy Award nominee, one of her nominations was for playing the title role in the 1992 TV film A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story.
Shirin Ebadi, Iranian lawyer, judge, and activist, Nobel Prize laureate
Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian Nobel laureate, lawyer, writer, teacher and a former judge and founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. In 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her pioneering efforts for democracy and women's, children's, and refugee rights. She was the first Iranian to receive the award.
Michael Gross, American actor
Michael Edward Gross is an American television, film, and stage actor. He is notable for playing Steven Keaton on the sitcom Family Ties (1982–1989) and survivalist Burt Gummer in the Tremors film franchise, being the only actor to appear in all the films and the television show.
Joey Molland, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2025)
Joseph Charles Molland II was an English singer-songwriter and guitarist whose recording career spanned five decades. He was best known as a member of Badfinger, the most successful of the acts he performed with. Molland was the last surviving member from the band's classic line-up.
Wade Phillips, American football coach
Harold Wade Phillips is an American football coach. He has served as the head coach of the Denver Broncos, Buffalo Bills, Dallas Cowboys, Houston Roughnecks, and San Antonio Brahmas. He has also served as an interim head coach for the New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons, and Houston Texans. Additionally, Phillips has long been considered to be among the best defensive coordinators in the NFL. In his long career, he has served as defensive coordinator in eight separate stints with seven different franchises. Multiple players under Phillips' system have won Defensive Player of the Year: Reggie White, Bryce Paup, Bruce Smith, J. J. Watt, and Aaron Donald. Others under Phillips have won Defensive Rookie of the Year: Mike Croel and Shawne Merriman. In Phillips' lone Super Bowl victory, a defensive player would be named Super Bowl MVP: Von Miller.
Fernando Savater, Spanish philosopher and author
Fernando Fernández-Savater Martín is a Spanish philosopher, essayist and author.
21/06/1946
Per Eklund, Swedish race car driver
Per Torsten Eklund is a Swedish Rally and Rallycross driver. His nickname is "Pekka". In rallying he never made it to the very top but he has been very successful in his later rallycross career.
Kate Hoey, Northern Irish-British academic and politician, Minister for Sport and the Olympics
Catharine Letitia Hoey, Baroness Hoey, better known as Kate Hoey, is a Northern Irish politician and life peer who served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Home Affairs from 1998 to 1999 and Minister for Sport from 1999 to 2001. During the 1970s Hoey was involved in radical far-left groups but by the end of the decade became involved with the Labour Party. Hoey remained a member of the Labour Party for several decades while she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Vauxhall from 1989 to 2019, but resigned from the party in 2020.
Brenda Holloway, American singer-songwriter
Brenda Holloway is an American soul singer who was a recording artist for Motown Records during the 1960s. Her best-known recordings are the hits "Every Little Bit Hurts", "When I'm Gone", and "You've Made Me So Very Happy". The latter, which she co-wrote, was later widely popularized when it became a Top Ten hit for Blood, Sweat & Tears. She left Motown after four years, at the age of 22, and largely retired from the music industry until the 1990s, after her recordings had become popular on the British "Northern soul" scene.
Trond Kirkvaag, Norwegian actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2007)
Trond Georg Kirkvaag was a Norwegian comedian, actor, impressionist, screenwriter, author, director and television host. During his 39 years at the Norwegian TV network, NRK, he produced numerous comedy television series. After his death he was widely hailed by his colleagues as possibly the greatest Norwegian TV comedian in history. He was the son of NRK journalist and television host Rolf Kirkvaag.
Malcolm Rifkind, Scottish lawyer and politician, Secretary of State for Scotland
Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind is a British politician who served in the cabinets of Margaret Thatcher and John Major from 1986 to 1997, and most recently as chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament from 2010 to 2015. He is also known for his advocacy of a pro-European stance within his party's policies.
Maurice Saatchi, Baron Saatchi, Iraqi-British businessman, founded M&C Saatchi and Saatchi & Saatchi
Maurice Nathan Saatchi, Baron Saatchi is a British businessman, and with his brother, Charles, co-founder of the advertising agencies Saatchi & Saatchi and M&C Saatchi.
21/06/1945
Robert Dewar, English-American computer scientist and academic (died 2015)
Robert Berriedale Keith Dewar was an American computer scientist and educator. He helped to develop programming languages and compilers and was an outspoken advocate of freely licensed open-source software. He was a cofounder, CEO, and president of the AdaCore software company. He was also an enthusiastic amateur performer and musician, especially with the Village Light Opera Group in New York City.
Adam Zagajewski, Polish author and poet (died 2021)
Adam Zagajewski was a Polish poet, novelist, translator, and essayist.
21/06/1944
Ray Davies, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
Sir Raymond Douglas Davies is an English musician. He was the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and primary songwriter for the rock band the Kinks, which he led, with his younger brother Dave providing lead guitar and backing vocals, and both of them were the only consistent members during the band's existence. He has also acted in, directed and produced shows for theatre and television. Known for focusing his lyrics on rock bands, English culture, nostalgia and social satire, he is often referred to as the "Godfather of Britpop", though he disputes this title. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Kinks in 1990. After the dissolution of the Kinks in 1996, he embarked on a solo career.
Jon Hiseman, English drummer (died 2018)
Philip John Albert "Jon" Hiseman was an English drummer, recording engineer, record producer, and music publisher. He played with the Graham Bond Organisation, with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and later formed what has been described as the "seminal" jazz rock/progressive rock band, Colosseum. He later formed Colosseum II in 1975.
Tony Scott, English-American director and producer (died 2012)
Anthony David Leighton Scott was an English film director and producer. He made his theatrical film debut with The Hunger (1983) and went on to direct highly successful action and thriller films such as Top Gun (1986), Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Days of Thunder (1990), The Last Boy Scout (1991), True Romance (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), Enemy of the State (1998), Man on Fire (2004), Déjà Vu (2006), The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009) and Unstoppable (2010).
21/06/1943
Diane Marleau, Canadian accountant and politician, Canadian Minister of Health (died 2013)
Diane Marleau, was a Canadian politician. She represented the riding of Sudbury in the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 to 2008, and was a cabinet minister in the government of Jean Chrétien. Marleau was a member of the Liberal Party of Canada.
Brian Sternberg, American pole vaulter (died 2013)
Brian Sternberg was a world record holder in the men's pole vault who was paralyzed from the neck down after a trampoline accident in 1963.
21/06/1942
Clive Brooke, Baron Brooke of Alverthorpe, English businessman and politician
Clive Brooke, Baron Brooke of Alverthorpe is a British trade unionist, and Labour Member of the House of Lords.
Norbert Brunner, Swiss Catholic bishop
Norbert Brunner is a Swiss prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sion in Switzerland from 1995 to 2014. He was the elected President of the Swiss Bishops Conference for the term 2010–2012.
Paul Chernoff, American mathematician and poet (died 2017)
Paul Robert Chernoff was an American mathematician, specializing in functional analysis and the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics. He is known for Chernoff's Theorem, a mathematical result in the Feynman path integral formulation of quantum mechanics. He was also the author of limericks.
Marjorie Margolies, American journalist and politician
Marjorie Margolies is a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Fels Institute of Government and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a former journalist and a Democratic politician. From 1993 to 1995, she was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district.
Henry S. Taylor, American author and poet (died 2024)
Henry Splawn Taylor was an American poet, academic, and translator. The author of more than 15 books of poems, translation, and nonfiction, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1986.
Flaviano Vicentini, Italian cyclist (died 2002)
Flaviano Vicentini was an Italian road race cyclist who was active between 1963 and 1971. After becoming the world champion in 1963 as amateur, he turned professional. He then won the Grand Prix de Cannes in 1966 and the Giro del Lazio in 1969. In 1968 and 1969 he also won one stage at the Volta a Catalunya.
Togo D. West Jr., American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 3rd United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs (died 2018)
Togo Dennis West Jr. was an American attorney and Army officer who served as the third secretary of veterans affairs in the administration of President Bill Clinton from 1998 until his resignation in 2000. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the second African American to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs. West previously served as the 16th secretary of the army from 1993 to 1998, as General Counsel of the Department of Defense from 1980 to 1981, and as General Counsel of the Navy from 1977 to 1979.
21/06/1941
Aloysius Paul D'Souza, Indian Catholic bishop
Aloysius Paul D'Souza is the former Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mangalore. He was consecrated on 8 November 1996, succeeding his predecessor Basil Salvadore D'Souza.
Joe Flaherty, American-Canadian actor, producer, and screenwriter (died 2024)
Joseph Flaherty was an American actor, writer, and comedian. In television, Flaherty starred on the Canadian sketch comedy SCTV from 1976 to 1984 and as Harold Weir on Freaks and Geeks (1999). His film roles include the heckler in Happy Gilmore (1996).
Lyman Ward, Canadian actor
Lyman Ward is a Canadian actor best known for his roles in Creature (1984), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), and Milk and Honey (1988).
21/06/1940
Mariette Hartley, American actress and television personality
Mary Loretta Hartley is an American film and television actress. She is possibly best known for her roles in film as Elsa Knudsen in Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country (1962), Susan Clabon in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964), and Betty Lloyd in John Sturges' Marooned (1969). She has appeared extensively on television, with notable roles as Claire Morton in the ABC soap opera Peyton Place (1965), various roles in the CBS television Western drama series Gunsmoke, and a series of commercials with James Garner in the 1970s and 1980s.
Michael Ruse, Canadian philosopher and academic
Michael Escott Ruse was a British-born Canadian philosopher of science who specialised in the philosophy of biology and worked on the relationship between science and religion, the creation–evolution controversy, and the demarcation problem within science. Ruse began his career teaching at The University of Guelph and spent many years at Florida State University.
21/06/1938
Don Black, English songwriter
Donald Blackstone, known professionally as Don Black, is an English lyricist. His works have included numerous musicals, movie, television themes and hit songs. He has provided lyrics for John Barry, Charles Strouse, Matt Monro, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Quincy Jones, Hoyt Curtin, Lulu, Jule Styne, Henry Mancini, Meat Loaf, Michael Jackson, Robbie Williams, Elmer Bernstein, Michel Legrand, Hayley Westenra, Ennio Morricone, A. R. Rahman, Marvin Hamlisch and Debbie Wiseman.
John W. Dower, American historian and author
John W. Dower is an American author and historian. His 1999 book Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II won the U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction, the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, the Bancroft Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Mark Lynton History Prize, and the John K. Fairbank Prize of the American Historical Association.
Michael M. Richter, German mathematician and computer scientist (died 2020)
Michael M. Richter was a German mathematician and computer scientist. Richter is well known for his career in mathematical logic, in particular non-standard analysis, and in artificial intelligence, in particular in knowledge-based systems and case-based reasoning. He is worldwide known as pioneer in case-based reasoning.
21/06/1937
John Edrich, English cricketer and coach (died 2020)
John Hugh Edrich, was an English first-class cricketer who, during a career that ran from 1956 to 1978, was considered one of the best batsmen of his generation. Born in Blofield, Norfolk, Edrich came from a cricketing family, his four cousins, Eric Edrich, Bill Edrich, Geoff Edrich and Brian Edrich, all having played first-class cricket. He was educated at the private Bracondale School between the ages of eight and seventeen, during which time he played cricket at weekends and was coached by former cricketer C. S. R. Boswell.
21/06/1935
Françoise Sagan, French author and playwright (died 2004)
Françoise Sagan was a French playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. Sagan was known for works with strong romantic themes involving wealthy and disillusioned bourgeois characters. Her best-known novel was her first, Bonjour Tristesse (1954), which was written when she was a teenager.
21/06/1933
Bernie Kopell, American actor and comedian
Bernard Morton Kopell is an American character actor known for his roles as Siegfried in Get Smart from 1966 to 1969 and as Dr. Adam Bricker ("Doc") on The Love Boat from 1977 to 1986.
21/06/1932
Bernard Ingham, English journalist and civil servant (died 2023)
Sir Bernard Ingham was a British journalist and civil servant. He was Margaret Thatcher's chief press secretary throughout her time as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990.
Lalo Schifrin, Argentinian pianist, composer, and conductor (died 2025)
Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin was an Argentine and American pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. Initially prominent as a jazz composer, he was best known for his large body of film and television scores, which incorporates jazz and Latin American musical elements alongside traditional orchestration.
O.C. Smith, American R&B/jazz singer (died 2001)
Ocie Lee Smith, known professionally as O. C. Smith, was an American singer. His recording of "Little Green Apples" went to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968 and sold over one million records.
21/06/1931
Zlatko Grgić, Croatian-Canadian animator, director, and screenwriter (died 1988)
Zlatko Grgić was a Croatian animator who emigrated to Canada in the late 1960s.
Margaret Heckler, American journalist, lawyer, and politician, 15th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (died 2018)
Margaret Mary Heckler was an American politician and diplomat who represented Massachusetts's 10th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1967 until 1983. A member of the Republican Party, she also served as the 15th United States secretary of health and human services from 1983 to 1985, as well as United States ambassador to Ireland from 1986 to 1989.
David Kushnir, Israeli Olympic long-jumper (died 2020)
David Kushnir was an Israeli Olympic long-jumper and track and field coach.
21/06/1930
Gerald Kaufman, English journalist and politician, Shadow Foreign Secretary (died 2017)
Sir Gerald Bernard Kaufman was a British politician and author who served as a minister throughout the Labour government of 1974 to 1979. Elected as a member of parliament (MP) at the 1970 general election, he became Father of the House in 2015 and served until his death in 2017.
Mike McCormack, American football player and coach (died 2013)
Michael Joseph McCormack Jr. was an American professional football player, coach, and executive in the National Football League (NFL). He played as an offensive tackle with the Cleveland Browns from 1954 through 1962 and served as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, Baltimore Colts, and Seattle Seahawks. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1984.
21/06/1928
Wolfgang Haken, German-American mathematician and academic (died 2022)
Wolfgang Haken was a German American mathematician who specialized in topology, in particular 3-manifolds.
Fiorella Mari, Brazilian-Italian actress (died 1983)
Fiorella Colpi, known professionally as Fiorella Mari, was a Brazilian-born Italian actress.
Margit Bara, Hungarian actress (died 2016)
Margit Bara was a Hungarian film actress. She appeared in 25 films between 1956 and 1975. She retired from acting in 1977 and later in 1992 received the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary and in 2002 she was awarded the Kossuth Prize.
21/06/1927
Carl Stokes, American lawyer, politician, and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Seychelles (died 1996)
Carl Burton Stokes was an American politician and diplomat of the Democratic Party who served as the 51st mayor of Cleveland, Ohio. Elected on November 7, 1967, and taking office on January 1, 1968, he was one of the first black elected mayors of a major U.S. city.
21/06/1926
Fred Cone, American football player (died 2021)
Fred Cone was an American professional football player who was a fullback and placekicker in the National Football League (NFL) for the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys. He played college football for the Clemson Tigers. He was inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame.
Conrad Hall, French-American cinematographer (died 2003)
Conrad Lafcadio Hall, ASC was a French Polynesian-born American cinematographer. Named after writers Joseph Conrad and Lafcadio Hearn, he became widely prominent as a cinematographer earning numerous accolades including three Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards and five American Society of Cinematographers Awards.
21/06/1925
Larisa Avdeyeva, Russian mezzo-soprano (died 2013)
Larisa Ivanovna Avdeyeva or Avdeeva was a Soviet and Russian mezzo-soprano, who starred with the Bolshoi Opera for thirty years. She was awarded the title of People’s Artist of the RSFSR in (1964).
Stanley Moss, American poet, publisher, and art dealer (died 2024)
Stanley Moss was an American poet, publisher, and art dealer.
Giovanni Spadolini, Italian journalist and politician, 45th Prime Minister of Italy (died 1994)
Giovanni Spadolini was an Italian politician and statesman, who served as the 44th prime minister of Italy. He had been a leading figure in the Republican Party and the first head of a government to not be a member of Christian Democrats since 1945. He was also a newspaper editor, journalist and historian. He is considered a highly respected intellectual for his literary works and his cultural dimension.
Maureen Stapleton, American actress (died 2006)
Lois Maureen Stapleton was an American actress. She received numerous accolades, becoming one of the few actors to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, winning an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and two Tony Awards. She also received a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as a nomination for a Grammy Award.
21/06/1924
Pontus Hultén, Swedish art collector and historian (died 2006)
Karl Gunnar Vougt Pontus Hultén was a Swedish art collector and museum director. Pontus Hultén is regarded as one of the most distinguished museum professionals of the twentieth century. He was the pioneering former head of the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm and in the 1970s he was invited to participate in the creation of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, where he was the first director of the Musée National d'Art Moderne (MNAM) in 1974–1981.
Ezzatolah Entezami, Iranian actor (died 2018)
Ezzatollah Entezami, or Ezzatolah Entezami was an Iranian actor.
Wally Fawkes, British-Canadian jazz clarinetist and satirical cartoonist (died 2023)
Walter Ernest Fawkes, also known as Trog when signing cartoons, was a Canadian-British jazz clarinettist and satirical cartoonist.
Jean Laplanche, French psychoanalyst and academic (died 2012)
Jean Laplanche was a French author, psychoanalyst and winemaker. Laplanche is best known for his work on psychosexual development and Sigmund Freud's seduction theory, and wrote more than a dozen books on psychoanalytic theory. The journal Radical Philosophy described him as "the most original and philosophically informed psychoanalytic theorist of his day."
21/06/1923
Jacques Hébert, Canadian journalist and politician (died 2007)
Jacques Hébert, was a Canadian author, journalist, publisher, Senator and world traveller who visited more than 130 countries.
21/06/1922
Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Burkinabé historian, politician and writer (died 2006)
Joseph Ki-Zerbo was a Burkinabé historian, politician and writer. He is recognized as one of Africa's foremost thinkers.
21/06/1921
Judy Holliday, American actress and singer (died 1965)
Judy Holliday was an American actress, comedian, and singer.
Jane Russell, American actress and singer (died 2011)
Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell was an American actress, model, and singer. She was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s and starred in more than 20 films.
William Edwin Self, American actor, producer, and production manager (died 2010)
William Edwin Self was an American television and film producer who began his career as an actor.
21/06/1920
Hans Gerschwiler, Swiss figure skater (died 2017)
Hans Gerschwiler was a Swiss figure skater. He was the 1948 Olympic silver medalist
21/06/1919
Antonia Mesina, Italian martyr and saint (died 1935)
Antonia Mesina was a 15 year old Italian Roman Catholic and part of Catholic Action. Mesina was murdered in mid-1935 after she attempted to fend off a would-be rapist and suffered 74 strikes with a stone before she died. She was beatified in 1987.
Gérard Pelletier, Canadian journalist and politician (died 1997)
Gérard Pelletier was a Canadian politician, dipolmat and journalist from Quebec best known for his association with Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau that started decades before their entries to the political arena. A long time personal confidant of Trudeau, Pelletier served in Trudeau's cabinet and then in two key diplomatic postings.
Vladimir Simagin, Russian chess player and coach (died 1968)
Vladimir Simagin was a Russian chess grandmaster. He was three times Moscow champion, helped to train Vasily Smyslov to the World Championship, and made many significant contributions to chess openings. He died of a heart attack while playing in the Kislovodsk tournament.
Paolo Soleri, Italian-American architect, designed the Cosanti (died 2013)
Paolo Soleri was an Italian architect and urban planner. He established the educational Cosanti Foundation and Arcosanti. Soleri was a lecturer in the College of Architecture at Arizona State University and a National Design Award recipient in 2006. He coined the concept of 'arcology' – a synthesis of architecture and ecology as the philosophy of democratic society. He died at home of natural causes on 9 April 2013 at the age of 93.
21/06/1918
Robert A. Boyd, Canadian engineer (died 2006)
Robert A. Boyd was a Canadian electric engineer and utility executive. He successfully led the construction of the first phase of the James Bay hydroelectric project, a large dam complex built in northern Quebec by Hydro-Québec during the 1970s and early 1980s.
James Joll, English historian, author, and academic (died 1994)
James Bysse Joll FBA was a British historian and university lecturer whose works included The Origins of the First World War and Europe Since 1870. He also wrote on the history of anarchism and socialism.
Eddie Lopat, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 1992)
Edmund Walter Lopat was an American Major League Baseball pitcher, coach, manager, front office executive, and scout. He was sometimes known as "the Junk Man", but better known as "Steady Eddie", a nickname later given to Eddie Murray. He was born in New York City.
J. Clyde Mitchell, British sociologist and anthropologist (died 1995)
James Clyde Mitchell was a British sociologist and anthropologist.
Dee Molenaar, American mountaineer (died 2020)
Dee Molenaar was an American mountaineer, author and artist. He is best known as the author of The Challenge of Rainier, first published in 1971 and considered the definitive work on the climbing history of Mount Rainier.
Robert V. Roosa, American economist and banker (died 1993)
Robert Vincent Roosa was an American economist and banker. He served as Treasury Undersecretary for Monetary Affairs during the Kennedy administration from 1961 to 1964. He believed the U.S. dollar should be the world's leading currency and reference point because the United States was the leading political and economic power.
Tibor Szele, Hungarian mathematician and academic (died 1955)
Tibor Szele was a Hungarian mathematician, working in combinatorics and abstract algebra.
Josephine Webb, American engineer (died 2017)
Josephine Webb was an American electrical engineer who obtained two patents for oil circuit breaker contact design, known colloquially as "switchgear". She designed an eighteen-inch, full newspaper size fax machine with superior resolution. She co-founded Webb Consulting Company with her husband, also an electrical engineer. She was one of the first female electrical engineers, and considered a pioneer by the Society of Women Engineers. At Purdue University, she was one out of a total of five women engineers.
21/06/1916
Joseph Cyril Bamford, English businessman, founded J. C. Bamford (died 2001)
Joseph Cyril Bamford, CBE was a British businessman. He was the founder of J.C. Bamford Excavators Limited (JCB), a manufacturer of heavy equipment.
Tchan Fou-li, Chinese photographer (died 2018)
Tchan Fou-li was a Hong Kong photographer who worked to develop distinctive Chinese forms of photography and to establish photography as a serious art form in Hong Kong. He is known for his photographs, described as evoking the artistic values and composition of Chinese landscape paintings. A New York Times reviewer called him "one of the great visual artists of his time" because of his "carefully crafted images that celebrate the beauty of the human condition and the majesty of nature."
Herbert Friedman, American physicist and astronomer (died 2000)
Herbert Friedman was an American physicist and astronomer who did research in X-ray astronomy. During his career Friedman published hundreds of scientific papers. One such example is "Ultraviolet and X Rays from the Sun". Friedman worked at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) for the entirety of his professional career, from 1940-1980. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1960. He received the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1964. That same year, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. In 1987 he was awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics “for pioneering investigations in solar X-rays”.
Buddy O'Connor, Canadian ice hockey player (died 1977)
Herbert William "Buddy" O'Connor was a Canadian professional ice hockey centre who played for the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers in the National Hockey League between 1941 and 1951. He won the Hart Trophy and Lady Byng Trophy in 1948.
21/06/1915
Wilhelm Gliese, German soldier and astronomer (died 1993)
Wilhelm Gliese was a German astronomer who specialized in the study and cataloging of nearby stars.
21/06/1914
William Vickrey, Canadian-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1996)
William Spencer Vickrey was a Canadian-American professor of economics. He was a lifelong faculty member at Columbia University. A theorist who worked on public economics and mechanism design, Vickrey primarily discussed public policy problems. He originated the Vickrey auction, introduced the concept of congestion pricing in networks, formalized arguments for marginal cost pricing, and contributed to optimal income taxation. James Tobin described him as "an applied economist's theorist, as well as a theorist's applied economist."
21/06/1913
Madihe Pannaseeha Thero, Sri Lankan monk and scholar (died 2003)
Most Venerable Madihe Pannaseeha Mahathera was an eminent Sri Lankan Buddhist monk, who was the Mahanayaka of Amarapura sect from July 13, 1969, until his death on September 9, 2003.
Luis Taruc, Filipino political activist (died 2005)
Luis Mangalus Taruc was a Filipino political figure and rebel during the agrarian unrest of the 1930s until the end of the Cold War. He was the leader of the Hukbalahap group between 1942 and 1950. His involvement with the movement came after his initiation to the problems of agrarian Filipinos when he was a student in the early 1930s. During World War II, Taruc led the Hukbalahap in guerrilla operations against the Japanese occupants of the Philippines.
21/06/1912
Kazimierz Leski, Polish pilot and engineer (died 2000)
Kazimierz Leski, nom de guerre Bradl, was a Polish engineer, co-designer of the Polish submarines ORP Sęp (1938) and ORP Orzeł, a fighter pilot, and an officer in World War II Home Army's intelligence and counter-intelligence.
Mary McCarthy, American novelist and critic (died 1989)
Mary Therese McCarthy was an American novelist, critic and political activist, best known for her novel The Group, her marriage to critic Edmund Wilson, her intimate friendship with her colleague Hannah Arendt and her storied feud with playwright Lillian Hellman. McCarthy was the winner of the Horizon Prize in 1949 and was awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships, in 1949 and 1959. She was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the American Academy in Rome. In 1973, she delivered the Huizinga Lecture in Leiden, the Netherlands, under the title Can There Be a Gothic Literature? The same year she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She won the National Medal for Literature and the Edward MacDowell Medal in 1984. McCarthy held honorary degrees from Bard, Bowdoin, Colby, Smith College, Syracuse University, the University of Maine at Orono, the University of Aberdeen, and the University of Hull.
Vishnu Prabhakar, Indian author and playwright (died 2009)
Vishnu Prabhakar was a Hindi writer. He had several short stories, novels, plays and travelogues to his credit. Prabhakar's works have elements of patriotism, nationalism and messages of social upliftment. He was the First Sahitya Academy Award winner from Haryana.
21/06/1911
Irving Fein, American producer and manager (died 2012)
Irving Fein was an American television and film producer, and the manager of entertainers Jack Benny and George Burns.
21/06/1910
Aleksandr Tvardovsky, Russian poet and author (died 1971)
Aleksandr Trifonovich Tvardovsky was a Soviet poet and writer and chief editor of Novy Mir literary magazine from 1950 to 1954 and 1958 to 1970. During his editorship, the magazine published One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. He is best known for his epic poem Vasili Tyorkin.
21/06/1908
William Frankena, American philosopher and academic (died 1994)
William Klaas Frankena was an American moral philosopher. He was a member of the University of Michigan's department of philosophy for 41 years (1937–1978), and chair of the department for 14 years (1947–1961).
21/06/1906
Grete Sultan, German-American pianist (died 2005)
Grete Sultan was a German-American pianist.
21/06/1905
Jacques Goddet, French journalist (died 2000)
Jacques Goddet was a French sports journalist and director of the Tour de France road cycling race from 1936 to 1986.
Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and author (died 1980)
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism. Sartre was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism. His work has influenced sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature despite attempting to refuse it, saying that he always declined official honors and that "a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution."
21/06/1903
Hermann Engelhard, German runner and coach (died 1984)
Hermann Engelhard was a German middle-distance runner who won two medals at the 1928 Summer Olympics.
Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist, painter and illustrator (died 2003)
Albert Hirschfeld was an American caricaturist best known for his black-and-white portraits of celebrities and Broadway stars.
21/06/1900
Georges-Henri Bousquet, French economist and Islamologist (died 1978)
Georges-Henri Bousquet was a 20th-century French jurist, economist and Islamologist. He was a professor of law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Algiers where he was a specialist in the sociology of North Africa. He is also known for his translation work of the great Muslim authors, Al-Ghazali, a theologian who died in 1111 and Tunisian historian Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406). He was known as a polyglot, spoke several European languages and Eastern ones.
21/06/1899
Pavel Haas, Czech composer (died 1944)
Pavel Haas was a Czech composer who was murdered during the Holocaust. He was an exponent of Leoš Janáček's school of composition, and also utilized elements of folk music and jazz. Although his output was not large, he is notable particularly for his song cycles and string quartets.
21/06/1896
Charles Momsen, American admiral, invented the Momsen lung (died 1967)
Charles Bowers Momsen, nicknamed "Swede", was born in Flushing, New York. He was an American pioneer in submarine rescue for the United States Navy, and he invented the underwater escape device later called the "Momsen lung", for which he received the Navy Distinguished Service Medal in 1929. In May 1939, Momsen directed the rescue of the crew of Squalus (SS-192).
21/06/1894
Milward Kennedy, English journalist and civil servant (died 1968)
Milward Rodon Kennedy Burge was an English civil servant, journalist, crime writer and literary critic. He was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford. He served with British Military Intelligence in World War I and then worked for the International Labour Organization and the Egyptian government. He was London editor of the Empire Digest and reviewed mystery fiction for The Sunday Times and The Guardian. He retired in the 1960s to West Sussex. Burge married Georgina Lee in 1921 and after her death married Eveline Schrieber Billiat in 1926. He also wrote under the pseudonym Evelyn Elder.
Harry Schmidt, German mathematician and physicist (died 1951)
Harry Schmidt was a German mathematician. Core areas of his research were experimental physics, as well as the theory of boundary layers and wings in aerodynamics.
21/06/1893
Alois Hába, Czech composer and educator (died 1973)
Alois Hába was a Czech composer, music theorist and teacher. He belongs to the important discoverers in modern classical music, and to the major composers of microtonal music, especially using the quarter-tone scale, though he used others such as sixth-tones, fifth-tones, and twelfth-tones. From the other microtonal conceptions, he discussed a "three-quarter tone" system in his theoretical works but he used scales in this tuning in sections of some of his compositions. In his prolific career, Hába composed three operas, an enormous collection of chamber music including 16 string quartets, piano, organ and choral pieces, some orchestral works and songs. He also had special keyboard and woodwind instruments constructed that were capable of playing quarter-tone scales.
21/06/1892
Reinhold Niebuhr, American theologian and academic (died 1971)
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was an American Reformed theologian, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Niebuhr was one of America's leading public intellectuals for several decades of the 20th century and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. A public theologian, he wrote and spoke frequently about the intersection of religion, politics, and public policy, with his most influential books including Moral Man and Immoral Society and The Nature and Destiny of Man.
21/06/1891
Pier Luigi Nervi, Italian architect and engineer, co-designed the Pirelli Tower and Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption (died 1979)
Pier Luigi Nervi was an Italian engineer and architect. He studied at the University of Bologna graduating in 1913. Nervi taught as a professor of engineering at Rome University from 1946 to 1961 and was known as a structural engineer and architect and for his innovative use of reinforced concrete, especially with numerous notable thin shell structures worldwide.
Hermann Scherchen, German-Swiss viola player and conductor (died 1966)
Hermann Scherchen was a German conductor, who was principal conductor of the city orchestra of Winterthur from 1922 to 1950. He promoted contemporary music, beginning with Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, followed by works by Richard Strauss, Anton Webern, Alban Berg, Edgard Varèse, later Iannis Xenakis, Luigi Nono and Leon Schidlowsky. He usually conducted without using a baton.
21/06/1889
Ralph Craig, American sprinter and sailor (died 1972)
Ralph Cook Craig was an American track and field athlete. He was the winner of the sprint double at the 1912 Summer Olympics.
21/06/1887
Norman L. Bowen, Canadian geologist and petrologist (died 1956)
Norman Levi Bowen FRS was a Canadian geologist. Bowen "revolutionized experimental petrology and our understanding of mineral crystallization". Beginning geology students are familiar with Bowen's reaction series depicting how different minerals crystallize under varying pressures and temperatures."
21/06/1884
Claude Auchinleck, English field marshal (died 1981)
Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, was a British Indian Army commander who saw active service during the world wars. A career soldier who spent much of his military career in India, he rose to become commander-in-chief of the Indian Army by early 1941 during the Second World War. In July 1941 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Middle East Theatre, but after initial successes, the war in North Africa turned against the British-led forces under his command and he was relieved of the post in August 1942 during the North African campaign.
21/06/1883
Feodor Gladkov, Russian author and educator (died 1958)
Fyodor Vasilyevich Gladkov was a Soviet and Russian socialist realist writer, best known for his 1925 novel Cement. Gladkov joined a Marxist group in 1904, and in 1905 went to Tiflis and was arrested there for revolutionary activities. He was sentenced to three years' exile. He then moved to Novorossiysk. Among other positions, he served as the editor of the newspaper Krasnoye Chernomorye, secretary of the journal Novy Mir, special correspondent for Izvestia, and director of the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow from 1945 to 1948. He received the Stalin Prize for his literary accomplishments, and is considered a classic writer of Soviet Socialist Realist literature.
21/06/1882
Ya'acov Ben-Dov, Israeli photographer and cinematographer (died 1968)
Yaacov Ben-Dov was an Israeli photographer and a pioneer of Jewish cinematography in Palestine.
Lluís Companys, Spanish lawyer and politician, 123rd President of Catalonia (died 1940)
Lluís Companys i Jover was a Catalan politician from Spain who served as president of Catalonia from 1934 and during the Spanish Civil War.
Adrianus de Jong, Dutch fencer and soldier (died 1966)
Adrianus Egbert Willem "Adriaan" "Arie" de Jong was a fencer who competed at five Olympic Games.
Rockwell Kent, American painter and illustrator (died 1971)
Rockwell Kent was an American painter, printmaker, illustrator, writer, sailor, adventurer and voyager.
21/06/1881
(O.S.) Natalia Goncharova, Russian painter, costume designer, and illustrator (died 1962)
Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, they refer to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 1582 and 1923. Before as well as after the legal change, writers used the dual dating convention to specify a given day by giving its date according to both styles of dating.
21/06/1880
Arnold Gesell, American psychologist and pediatrician (died 1961)
Arnold Lucius Gesell was an American psychologist, pediatrician and professor at Yale University known for his research and contributions to the fields of child hygiene and child development.
Josiah Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp, English economist and civil servant (died 1941)
Josiah Charles Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp was an English industrialist, economist, civil servant, statistician, writer, and banker. He was a director of the Bank of England and chairman of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.
21/06/1876
Willem Hendrik Keesom, Dutch physicist and academic (died 1956)
Willem Hendrik Keesom was a Dutch physicist who, in 1926, invented a method to freeze liquid helium. He also developed the first mathematical description of dipole–dipole interactions in 1921. Thus, dipole–dipole interactions are also known as Keesom interactions. He was previously a student of Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, who had discovered superconductivity.
21/06/1874
Jacob Linzbach, Estonian linguist (died 1953)
Jakob Linzbach was an Estonian linguist.
21/06/1870
Clara Immerwahr, Jewish-German chemist and academic (died 1915)
Clara Helene Immerwahr was a German chemist. She was the first German woman to be awarded a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Breslau, and is credited with being a pacifist as well as a "heroine of the women's rights movement". From 1901 until her death from suicide in 1915, she was married to the eventual Nobel Prize-winning chemist Fritz Haber.
Anthony Michell, English-Australian engineer (died 1959)
Anthony George Maldon Michell FRS was an Australian mechanical engineer of the early 20th century.
Julio Ruelas, Mexican painter (died 1907)
Julio Ruelas was a Mexican graphic artist, painter, draughtsman and printmaker. Ruelas was the principal illustrator of the Revista Moderna magazine and is most associated with Mexican symbolism. A number of his works are on display at the Museum of the City of Mexico and in the Zacatecas museum. Artistically, he was noted for creating etched images depicting his own face, incorporating black, twisted lines to give an impression of being tormented.
21/06/1868
Edwin Stephen Goodrich, English zoologist and anatomist (died 1946)
Edwin Stephen Goodrich FRS, was an English zoologist, specialising in comparative anatomy, embryology, palaeontology, and evolution. He held the Linacre Chair of Zoology in the University of Oxford from 1921 to 1946. He served as editor of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science from 1920 until his death.
21/06/1867
Oscar Florianus Bluemner, German-American painter and illustrator (died 1938)
Oscar Bluemner, born Friedrich Julius Oskar Blümner and after 1933 known as Oscar Florianus Bluemner, was a Prussian-born American Modernist painter.
William Brede Kristensen, Norwegian historian of religion (died 1953)
William Brede Kristensen was a Norwegian born, Dutch theologian, professor and historian of religion.
21/06/1866
Matt Kilroy, American baseball player (died 1940)
Matthew Aloysius "Matches" Kilroy was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. During his rookie season in 1886, he had 513 strikeouts, which remains the MLB single-season record.
21/06/1864
Heinrich Wölfflin, Swiss historian and critic (died 1945)
Heinrich Wölfflin was a Swiss art historian, esthetician and educator, whose objective classifying principles were influential in the development of formal analysis in art history in the early 20th century. He taught at Basel, Berlin and Munich in the generation that saw German art history's rise to pre-eminence. His three most important books, still consulted, are Renaissance und Barock (1888), Die Klassische Kunst, and Kunstgeschichtliche Grundbegriffe.
21/06/1863
Ludwig Lange, German physicist (died 1936)
Ludwig Lange was a German physicist.
Max Wolf, German astronomer and academic (died 1932)
Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf was a German astronomer and a pioneer in the field of astrophotography. He was the chairman of astronomy at the University of Heidelberg and director of the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory from 1902 until his death in 1932.
21/06/1862
Damrong Rajanubhab, Thai historian and author (died 1943)
Prince Tisavarakumara, the Prince Damrong Rajanubhab was the founder of the modern Thai educational system as well as the modern provincial administration. He was an autodidact, a (self-taught) historian, and one of the most influential Thai intellectuals of his time.
21/06/1860
William Dobinson Halliburton, British physiologist and biochemist (died 1931)
William Dobinson Halliburton FRS was a British physiologist, noted for being one of the founders of the science of biochemistry.
21/06/1859
Henry Ossawa Tanner, American-French painter and illustrator (died 1937)
Henry Ossawa Tanner was an American artist who spent much of his career in France. He became the first African-American painter to gain international acclaim. Tanner moved to Paris, France, in 1891 to study at the Académie Julian and gained acclaim in French artistic circles. In 1923, the French government elected Tanner chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
21/06/1858
Giuseppe De Sanctis, Italian painter (died 1924)
Giuseppe De Sanctis was an Italian painter, primarily of portraits and cityscapes.
Medardo Rosso, Italian sculptor and educator (died 1928)
Medardo Rosso was an Italian sculptor. He is considered, like his contemporary and admirer Auguste Rodin, to have been an artist working in a post-Impressionist style.
21/06/1857
Charles Alderton, American pharmacist, founded Dr. Pepper (died 1941)
Charles Courtice Alderton was an American pharmacist and the inventor of the carbonated soft drink Dr Pepper.
21/06/1850
Daniel Carter Beard, American author and illustrator, co-founded the Boy Scouts of America (died 1941)
Daniel Carter "Uncle Dan" Beard was an American illustrator, author, youth leader, Georgist and social reformer who founded the Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905, which Beard later merged with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).
21/06/1846
Marion Adams-Acton, Scottish-English author and playwright (died 1928)
Marion Jean Catherine Adams-Acton was a Scottish novelist who wrote under the pseudonym "Jeanie Hering".
Enrico Coleman, Italian painter (died 1911)
Enrico Coleman was an Italian painter of British nationality. He was the son of the English painter Charles Coleman and brother of the less well-known Italian painter Francesco Coleman. He painted, in oils and in watercolours, the landscapes of the Campagna Romana and the Agro Pontino; he was a collector, grower and painter of orchids. Because of his supposedly Oriental air, he was known to his friends as "Il Birmano", the Burmese.
21/06/1845
Samuel Griffith, Welsh-Australian politician, 9th Premier of Queensland (died 1920)
Sir Samuel Walker Griffith was an Australian judge and politician who served as the inaugural Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1903 to 1919. He also served a term as Chief Justice of Queensland and two terms as Premier of Queensland, and played a key role in the drafting of the Australian Constitution.
Arthur Cowper Ranyard, English astrophysicist and astronomer (died 1894)
Arthur Cowper Ranyard was an English astrophysicist.
21/06/1839
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Brazilian author, poet, and playwright (died 1908)
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, often known by his surnames as Machado de Assis, Machado, or Bruxo do Cosme Velho, was a pioneer Brazilian novelist, poet, playwright and short story writer, widely regarded as the greatest writer of Brazilian literature. In 1897, he founded and became the first President of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. He was multilingual, having taught himself French, English, German and Greek later in life.
21/06/1836
Luigi Tripepi, Italian theologian (died 1906)
Luigi Tripepi was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal and poet. He was one of the most important Roman Catholic apologists of the 19th century.
21/06/1834
Frans de Cort, Flemish poet and author (died 1878)
Frans Jozef de Cort, was a Flemish writer.
21/06/1828
Ferdinand André Fouqué, French geologist and academic (died 1904)
Ferdinand André Fouqué was a French geologist and petrologist.
Nikolaus Nilles, German Catholic writer and teacher (died 1907)
Nikolaus Nilles was a Roman Catholic writer and teacher.
21/06/1825
Thomas Edward Cliffe Leslie, Irish economist and jurist (died 1882)
Thomas Edward Cliffe Leslie was an Irish jurist and economist. He was professor of jurisprudence and political economy in Queen's College, Belfast, noted for challenging the Wages-Fund doctrine and for addressing contemporary agrarian policy questions. A critic of Ricardian orthodoxy, he said that it had sidelined consumer behaviour and demand. He developed the idea of consumer sovereignty, but insisted that the analysis of demand should be based on historical and comparative institutional work.
William Stubbs, English bishop and historian (died 1901)
William Stubbs was an English historian and Anglican bishop. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford between 1866 and 1884. He was Bishop of Chester from 1884 to 1889 and Bishop of Oxford from 1889 to 1901.
21/06/1823
Jean Chacornac, French astronomer (died 1873)
Jean Chacornac was a French astronomer and discoverer of a comet and several asteroids.
21/06/1814
Paweł Bryliński, Polish sculptor (died 1890)
Paweł Bryliński was a Polish folk-sculptor. He is perhaps best known for a series of works concerning Holy Week.
Anton Nuhn, German anatomist and academic (died 1889)
Anton Nuhn was a German anatomist.
21/06/1811
Matthew Simpson, American Methodist bishop and academic (died 1884)
Matthew Simpson was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1852 and based mainly in Philadelphia. During the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War, most evangelical denominations in the North, especially the Methodists, were initially strong supporters of radical policies that favored the Freedmen and distrusted the Southern whites. However, by the late 1860s in border state conferences, the MEC North moved well away from their work with the Freedmen's Bureau and often sided with the grievances of Southern white members. Bishop Simpson played a leading role in mobilizing the Northern Methodists for the cause. His biographer calls him the "High Priest of the Radical Republicans."
21/06/1805
Karl Friedrich Curschmann, German composer and singer (died 1841)
Karl Friedrich Curschmann was a German song composer and singer.
Charles Thomas Jackson, American physician and geologist (died 1880)
Charles Thomas Jackson was an American physician and scientist who was active in medicine, chemistry, mineralogy, and geology.
21/06/1802
Karl Zittel, German theologian (died 1871)
Karl Zittel was a German theologian, who was a prominent figure in 19th century Liberal Protestantism. He was the father of paleontologist Karl Alfred von Zittel (1839–1904).
21/06/1798
Alexander Thomson of Banchory, Scottish jurist, agriculturalist and religious activist (died 1868)
Alexander Thomson of Banchory FRSE (1798–1868) was a 19th-century Scottish advocate, agriculturalist, antiquary, author, philanthropist and traveller. He owned an estate at Banchory-Devenick in Aberdeenshire. After qualifying as an advocate in Edinburgh he returned to the estate and did not pursue a career at the bar preferring to follow the life of a country gentleman. He travelled extensively in Europe, spending many years studying overseas. He settled crofters on his estate and planted many trees. His position in life allowed to give time to many interests including antiquarian studies, geology, biology and social reform. He attempted to unite Marischal and King's Colleges in Aberdeen University. At the Dirsuption he sided with the Free Church and was a prominent leader in that cause. He died in 1868 and bequeathed a sizeable museum and collection of books to the church. He also gave a substantial amount of money to set up a Free Church College in Aberdeen.
21/06/1797
Wilhelm Küchelbecker, Russian poet and author (died 1846)
Wilhelm Ludwig von Küchelbecker was a Russian Romantic poet and Decembrist revolutionary of German descent.
21/06/1792
Ferdinand Christian Baur, German theologian and scholar (died 1860)
Ferdinand Christian Baur was a German Protestant theologian and founder and leader of the (new) Tübingen School of theology. Following Hegel's theory of dialectic, Baur argued that second century Christianity represented the synthesis of two opposing theses: Jewish Christianity and Gentile Christianity. This and the rest of Baur's work had a profound impact on higher criticism of biblical and related texts.
21/06/1786
Charles Edward Horn, English opera singer and composer (died 1849)
Charles Edward Horn was an English composer and singer.
21/06/1781
Siméon Denis Poisson, French mathematician and physicist (died 1840)
Baron Siméon Denis Poisson was a French mathematician and physicist who worked on statistics, complex analysis, partial differential equations, the calculus of variations, analytical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, thermodynamics, elasticity, and fluid mechanics. Moreover, he predicted the Arago spot in his attempt to disprove the wave theory of Augustin-Jean Fresnel.
21/06/1774
Daniel D. Tompkins, American lawyer and politician, 6th Vice President of the United States (died 1825)
Daniel D. Tompkins was an American politician who served as the sixth vice president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. He previously served as the fourth governor of New York from 1807 to 1817.
21/06/1764
Sidney Smith, English admiral and politician (died 1840)
Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith was a British naval officer and politician. Serving in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, he rose to the rank of admiral in the Royal Navy. Smith was known for his outspoken character and penchant for acting on his own initiative, which caused a great deal of friction with many of his superiors and colleagues.
21/06/1763
Pierre Paul Royer-Collard, French philosopher and academic (died 1845)
Pierre Paul Royer-Collard was a French statesman and philosopher, leader of the Doctrinaires group during the Bourbon Restoration (1814–1830).
21/06/1759
Alexander J. Dallas, American lawyer and politician, 6th United States Secretary of the Treasury (died 1817)
Alexander James Dallas was an American statesman who served as the 6th United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1814 to 1816 under President James Madison. He was also a lawyer who worked as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1801–1814) and the 1st Reporter of Decisions of the United States Supreme Court (1790–1800).
21/06/1750
Pierre-Nicolas Beauvallet, French sculptor and illustrator (died 1818)
Pierre-Nicolas Beauvallet, was a French sculptor, draftsman and printmaker.
21/06/1741
Prince Benedetto, Duke of Chablais (died 1808)
Prince Benedetto, Duke of Chablais was an Italian nobleman and military leader. He was the youngest child of King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia. He married his half-niece Maria Anna of Savoy; they had no children. Benedetto was the owner of the Palazzo Chiablese in Turin.
21/06/1736
(O.S.) Enoch Poor, American general (died 1780)
Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, they refer to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 1582 and 1923. Before as well as after the legal change, writers used the dual dating convention to specify a given day by giving its date according to both styles of dating.
21/06/1732
Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, German pianist and composer (died 1791)
Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach was a German composer and harpsichordist, the fifth son of Johann Sebastian Bach, sometimes referred to as the "Bückeburg Bach".
21/06/1730
Motoori Norinaga, Japanese poet and scholar (died 1801)
Motoori Norinaga was a Japanese scholar of Kokugaku active during the Edo period. He is conventionally ranked as one of the Four Great Men of Kokugaku (nativist) studies.
21/06/1712
Luc Urbain de Bouëxic, comte de Guichen, French admiral (died 1790)
Luc Urbain du Bouëxic, comte de Guichen was a French Navy officer who commanded the fleets that fought the Royal Navy at the Battle of Ushant and Battle of Martinique during the American Revolutionary War.
21/06/1710
James Short, Scottish-English mathematician and optician (died 1768)
James Short FRS was a Scottish mathematician and manufacturer of optical instruments, principally telescopes. During his 35-year career as a telescope-maker he produced approximately 1,360 scientific instruments.
21/06/1706
John Dollond, English optician and astronomer (died 1761)
John Dollond was an English optician, known for his successful optics business and his patenting and commercialization of achromatic doublets.
21/06/1676
(O.S.) Anthony Collins, English philosopher and author (died 1729)
Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, they refer to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 1582 and 1923. Before as well as after the legal change, writers used the dual dating convention to specify a given day by giving its date according to both styles of dating.
21/06/1639
(O.S.) Increase Mather, American minister and author (died 1723)
Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, they refer to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 1582 and 1923. Before as well as after the legal change, writers used the dual dating convention to specify a given day by giving its date according to both styles of dating.
21/06/1636
Godefroy Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duke of Bouillon, French noble (died 1721)
Godefroy Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duke of Bouillon was a French nobleman and member of the House of La Tour d'Auvergne, one of the most important families in France at the time. He married Marie Anne Mancini, niece of Cardinal Mazarin and had seven children.
21/06/1630
Samuel Oppenheimer, German Jewish banker and diplomat (died 1703)
Samuel Oppenheimer was an Ashkenazi Jewish banker, imperial court diplomat, factor, and military supplier for the Holy Roman Emperor. He enjoyed the special favor of Emperor Leopold I, to whom he advanced considerable sums of money for the Great Turkish War. Prince Eugene of Savoy brought him a large number of valuable Hebrew manuscripts from Turkey, which became the nucleus of the famous David Oppenheim Library, now part of the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
21/06/1565
Scipione Chiaramonti, Italian philosopher and astronomer (died 1652)
Scipione Chiaramonti was an Italian philosopher and noted opponent of Galileo.
21/06/1535
Leonhard Rauwolf, German physician and botanist (died 1596)
Leonhard Rauwolf was a German physician, botanist, and traveller. His main notability arises from a trip he made through the Levant and Mesopotamia in 1573–75. The motive of the trip was to search for herbal medicine supplies. Shortly after he returned, he published a set of new botanical descriptions with an herbarium. Later he published a general travel narrative about his visit.
21/06/1528
Maria of Austria, Holy Roman Empress (died 1603)
Maria of Austria or Maria of Spain, also known as Isabel, was the empress consort and queen consort of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia and Hungary. She served as regent of Spain in the absence of her father Emperor Charles V from 1548 until 1551 and was one of the most powerful empresses of the Holy Roman Empire.
21/06/1521
John II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Haderslev (died 1580)
Hans the Elder was the only Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Haderslev. The predicate the Elder is used to distinguish him from his nephew, Hans the Younger, who held Sønderborg from 1564 as a partitioned-off duke. He ruled the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein jointly with his brother Duke Adolf, and his half-brother, King Christian III of Denmark and his successor, King Frederick II.
21/06/1226
Bolesław V the Chaste of Poland (died 1279)
Bolesław V the Chaste was Duke of Sandomierz in Lesser Poland from 1232 and High Duke of Poland from 1243 until his death, as the last male representative of the Lesser Polish branch of Piasts.
21/06/1002
Pope Leo IX (died 1054)
Pope Leo IX was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 February 1049 to his death in 1054. Leo IX is considered to be one of the most historically significant popes of the Middle Ages; he was instrumental in the precipitation of the Great Schism of 1054, considered the turning point in which the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches formally separated.
21/06/0906
Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Muhammad, Saffarid emir (died 963)
Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Muhammad was the amir of Sistan from 923 until his death in 963. He is responsible for restoring Saffarid rule over Sistan, and was a great patron of the arts.