Born on Monday, 2nd March – Famous Birthdays

On this day, 222 notable people were born on 2nd March — spanning from 480 to 2016. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

Monday 2nd March 2026 marks a significant date in the calendar of notable births. Among those who share this date are Prince Oscar, Duke of Skåne, who was born in 2016, and Illan Meslier, the French footballer who entered the world in 2000. The list of individuals born on this day spans centuries and continents, encompassing athletes, musicians, actors, and political figures. Mikhail Gorbachev, the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union and a Nobel Prize laureate, was born on this date in 1931. His tenure fundamentally reshaped the geopolitical landscape of the late twentieth century.

The range of professions and achievements represented among those born on 2nd March is striking. From contemporary sports figures to classical composers, the date has witnessed the births of numerous influential personalities. The list includes musicians such as Lou Reed and Jon Bon Jovi, actors including Daniel Craig and Bryce Dallas Howard, and athletes across various disciplines. Beyond the twentieth century, historical figures such as Pope Leo XIII and Carl Schurz also share this birthdate, demonstrating the date’s long significance in human history.

On 2nd March 2026, the moon is in a waning gibbous phase, and those born on this day fall under the Pisces zodiac sign. The weather conditions expected for this date in most locations typically reflect early spring patterns, with temperatures gradually rising as winter recedes. Cities across the northern hemisphere generally experience mild conditions with increasing daylight hours characteristic of early March.

DayAtlas provides comprehensive information about weather patterns, historical events, and notable births and deaths for any date and location worldwide, making it a valuable resource for those interested in historical coincidences and temporal patterns.

Discover who was born today 6th April.

02/03/2016

Prince Oscar, Duke of Skåne

Prince Oscar of Sweden, Duke of Skåne is the younger child and only son of Crown Princess Victoria and her husband, Prince Daniel. He is a grandson of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia and is third in the line of succession to the Swedish throne, after his mother and his sister, Princess Estelle.


02/03/2006

Windy Zhan, Hong Kong singer and actress

Windy Zhan Tian-wen is a Hong Kong female Cantopop singer and actress, and a member of the Hong Kong girl group After Class. She is a contestant of the season 1 of TVB's 2021 reality singing talent competition Stars Academy. Zhan made her solo debut on 31 March 2023 with the single Reminiscence: Distance (沒有你的新學期).


02/03/2002

Brooks Barnhizer, American basketball player

Brooks Barnhizer is an American professional basketball player for the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association (NBA), on a two-way contract with the Oklahoma City Blue of the NBA G League. He played college basketball for the Northwestern Wildcats.


02/03/2000

Bárbara Domingos, Brazilian rhythmic gymnast

Bárbara de Kassia Godoy Domingos is a Brazilian individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2023 and 2024 Pan American Championships all-around champion, the 2023 Thiais Grand Prix ribbon gold medalist, and the first Brazilian rhythmic gymnast to qualify for the individual all-around final at the World Championships. She competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the rhythmic individual all-around and qualified for the final.


Illan Meslier, French footballer

Illan Stéphane Meslier is a French professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Leeds United.


02/03/1999

Isiah Pacheco, American football player

Isiah Pacheco, nicknamed "Pop" is an American professional football running back for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Pacheco was selected by the Kansas City Chiefs in the seventh round of the 2022 NFL draft. In his first two seasons with the Chiefs, he won Super Bowl LVII and Super Bowl LVIII.


Iñaki Peña, Spanish footballer

Ignacio "Iñaki" Peña Sotorres is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for La Liga club Elche, on loan from Barcelona.


02/03/1998

Tua Tagovailoa, American football player

Tuanigamanuolepola Donny Tagovailoa is an American professional football quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide and was named the Offensive MVP of the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship during his freshman season. As a sophomore, Tagovailoa won the Maxwell and Walter Camp awards en route to an appearance in the 2019 National Championship.


02/03/1997

Becky G, American singer and actress

Rebbeca Marie Gomez, known professionally as Becky G, is an American singer and actress. Gomez first gained recognition in 2011 for her cover versions of popular songs, which she uploaded to YouTube. One of her videos caught the attention of record producer Dr. Luke, later Gomez signed with Kemosabe Records in a joint venture with RCA Records, and also affiliated with Sony Music Latin for her Spanish-language releases. Throughout her career, she has consistently released music under this Kemosabe/RCA/Sony Latin partnership. Her debut single "Becky from the Block" and her debut EP, Play It Again in 2013 – both releases failed to chart. In 2014, Gomez achieved mainstream success with the release of "Shower", which reaching the top twenty on the US Billboard Hot 100. In 2016, Gomez release her first full Spanish-language single "Sola" and debut into the Latin market.


Arike Ogunbowale, American basketball player

Arike Faulina Ogunbowale is an American professional basketball player for the Dallas Wings of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and for the Mist of Unrivaled. She played college basketball for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, before being drafted by the Wings with the fifth overall pick of the 2019 WNBA draft. She was the Most Outstanding Player of Notre Dame's 2018 national title run, hitting game-winning baskets in both the semi-final and championship game. Arike Ogunbowale was named WNBA All Star MVP in 2021 and 2024.


02/03/1996

Jin Longguo, Chinese singer based in South Korea

Jin Longguo is a Chinese singer based in South Korea. He is best known for being a member of the South Korean project boy band JBJ, and for finishing 21st in the survival show Produce 101 Season 2.


02/03/1995

Miguel Andújar, Dominican baseball player

Miguel Enrique Andújar is a Dominican professional baseball left fielder and third baseman for the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates, Oakland Athletics / Athletics, and Cincinnati Reds.


Max Domi, Canadian ice hockey player

Maxwell Johannes Domi is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a forward for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected in the first round, 12th overall, by the Phoenix Coyotes in the 2013 NHL entry draft. Domi has also previously played for the Montreal Canadiens, Columbus Blue Jackets, Carolina Hurricanes, Chicago Blackhawks, and Dallas Stars.


Ange-Freddy Plumain, French footballer

Ange-Freddy Plumain is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for Cypriot First Division club Nea Salamina. Born in mainland France, he plays for the Guadeloupe national team.


02/03/1993

Nicolás Brussino, Argentine-Italian basketball player

Nicolás "Nico" Brussino is an Argentine-Italian professional basketball player for Gran Canaria of the Spanish Liga ACB. He also represents the senior Argentine national team in international competition. Standing at 2.01 m, he plays at the small forward position.


Adolis García, Cuban baseball player

José Adolis García Arrieta, nicknamed "El Bombi", is a Cuban-born professional baseball outfielder for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers, in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yomiuri Giants, and in the Cuban National Series for Tigres de Ciego de Ávila. García was an MLB All-Star in 2021 and 2023. García won the 2023 World Series with the Rangers, winning ALCS MVP and setting the single post-season record by recording 22 RBI throughout their championship run.


02/03/1992

Charlie Coyle, American ice hockey player

Charles Robert Coyle is an American professional ice hockey player who is a forward for the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League (NHL). He has also played for the Minnesota Wild, Boston Bruins, and the Colorado Avalanche.


02/03/1991

Nick Franklin, American baseball player

Nicholas Edward Franklin is an American former professional baseball second baseman and outfielder. He was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the first round, 27th pick overall, of the 2009 Major League Baseball draft. He attended Lake Brantley High School where he won numerous awards, including being named the player of the year by the Orlando Sentinel in 2009. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Rays, Milwaukee Brewers, and Los Angeles Angels.


02/03/1990

Rauno Alliku, Estonian footballer

Rauno Alliku is an Estonian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Meistriliiga club Flora.


Malcolm Butler, American football player

Malcolm Terel Butler is an American former professional football player who was a cornerback for seven seasons in the National Football League (NFL). A two-time Super Bowl champion and 2015 Pro Bowl selection during his tenure with the New England Patriots, Butler is best known for his goal-line interception in the final seconds of Super Bowl XLIX, which prevented a go-ahead touchdown by the Seattle Seahawks and effectively ensured the Patriots' victory. It is regarded as one of the greatest plays in NFL history.


Luke Combs, American singer-songwriter

Luke Albert Combs is an American country singer. He was born in North Carolina and grew up there, performing as a child. After leaving college to pursue a career in music, he moved to Nashville and released his debut EP, The Way She Rides, in 2014.


Tiger Shroff, Indian actor

Jai Hemant "Tiger" Shroff is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. Born to actors Jackie Shroff and Ayesha Dutt, he made his acting debut with the action romance Heropanti (2014), for which he won the IIFA Award for Star Debut of the Year – Male.


02/03/1989

Toby Alderweireld, Belgian footballer

Tobias Albertine Maurits Alderweireld is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back.


Alemão, Brazilian footballer

José Carlos Tofolo Júnior, commonly known as Alemão, is a Brazilian football coach and former player who played as a forward. He is the current head coach of Monte Azul.


Nathalie Emmanuel, English actress

Nathalie Joanne Emmanuel is a British actress. Emmanuel began her acting career appearing in theatre in the late 1990s, acquiring roles in various West End productions such as the musical The Lion King. In 2006, she began her on-screen career by starring as Sasha Valentine in soap opera Hollyoaks, after which she appeared in various British television series until her debut film appearance in Twenty8k (2012).


Marcel Hirscher, Austrian skier

Marcel Hirscher is an Austrian-Dutch World Cup alpine ski racer. Hirscher made his World Cup debut in March 2007. He competed primarily in slalom and giant slalom, as well as combined and occasionally in super G. Winner of a record eight consecutive World Cup titles, Hirscher has also won 11 medals at the Alpine Skiing World Championships, seven of them gold, a silver medal in slalom at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and two gold medals in the combined and giant slalom at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Due to his record number of overall titles and many years of extreme dominance of both slalom and giant slalom, he is considered by many, including his former rivals Henrik Kristoffersen, Kjetil Jansrud and Alexis Pinturault, to be the best alpine skier in history. He won a total of 67 World Cup races, ranking second on the male all-time list.


André Bernardes Santos, Portuguese footballer

André Filipe Bernardes Santos is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Liga 3 club Varzim.


Shane Vereen, American football player

Shane Patrick-Henry Vereen is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the California Golden Bears and was selected by the New England Patriots in the second round of the 2011 NFL draft.


Chris Woakes, English cricketer

Christopher Roger Woakes is an English cricketer, a right-handed all-rounder who bowls fast-medium. He plays domestic cricket for Warwickshire and has represented the England national team since making his ODI and T20I debuts in 2011 and his Test debut in 2013 until his international retirement in September 2025. Woakes was part of the England squads that won the 2019 Cricket World Cup and the 2022 T20 World Cup.


02/03/1988

Édgar Andrade, Mexican footballer

Edgar Bismarck Andrade Rentería is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He made his debut in Cruz Azul on January 28, 2006, in a game against Atlas which resulted in a draw. He was on the Mexico national football under-17 team that won the 2005 FIFA U-17 World Championship. While playing for Cruz Azul he broke his ankle while attempting to recover a ball for his team, in a 2007 match against Estudiantes Tecos UAG. After many months of recovery, he returned to the field in 2007.


James Arthur, English singer-songwriter

James Andrew Arthur is an English singer and songwriter. He rose to fame after winning the ninth series of The X Factor in 2012. His debut single, a cover of Shontelle's "Impossible", was released by Syco Music after the final, and debuted at number 1 on the UK Singles Chart. Since then, it has gone on to sell over 2.5 million copies worldwide, making it the most successful winner's single in the show's history.


Laura Kaeppeler, American beauty queen, Miss America 2012

Laura Marie Kaeppeler is an American beauty pageant titleholder crowned Miss America 2012 on January 14, 2012, representing the state of Wisconsin. Kaeppeler was the first woman representing Wisconsin to win Miss America since Terry Meeuwsen won Miss America 1973. She was briefly on the board of directors for the Miss America Organization.


Matthew Mitcham, Australian diver

Matthew John Mitcham OAM is an Australian retired diver and trampolinist. As a diver, he was the 2008 Olympic champion in the 10m platform, and he is the 2nd highest single-dive score in Olympic history. This made him the first openly gay man to win an Olympic gold medal. He is also the first Australian male to win an Olympic gold medal in diving since Dick Eve at the 1924 Summer Olympics.


Dexter Pittman, American basketball player

Dexter Jerome Pittman is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Texas Longhorns.


Geert Arend Roorda, Dutch footballer

Geert Arend Roorda is a Dutch professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Tweede Divisie club Excelsior Maassluis.


02/03/1987

Jonas Jerebko, Swedish basketball player

Jonas Jerebko is a Swedish professional basketball player who last played for the Santeros de Aguada of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN). He was selected as the 39th overall pick in the second round of the 2009 NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons, becoming the second Swedish-born basketball player to be selected in the NBA draft. Jerebko played a total of 10 seasons in the NBA with four different teams, the Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics, Utah Jazz and Golden State Warriors.


02/03/1986

Jonathan D'Aversa, Canadian ice hockey player

Jonathan D'Aversa is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played in the American Hockey League (AHL) with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins before spending the majority of his professional career in Europe.


Jason Smith, American basketball player

Jason Victor Smith is an American former professional basketball player who played twelve seasons in the National Basketball Association. He played college basketball for the Colorado State Rams before being selected with the 20th overall pick in the 2007 NBA draft by the Miami Heat.


02/03/1985

Reggie Bush, American football player

Reginald Alfred Bush II is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the USC Trojans, earning consensus All-American honors twice and winning the 2005 Heisman Trophy. Bush is widely regarded as one of the greatest college football players of all time.


Robert Iler, American actor

Robert Michael Iler is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of A.J. Soprano on The Sopranos. His film roles include Tadpole (2002) and Daredevil (2003).


Suso Santana, Spanish footballer

Jesús Manuel 'Suso' Santana Abreu is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a right winger.


02/03/1984

Jonathan Ericsson, Swedish ice hockey player

Jonathan Ericsson is a Swedish former professional ice hockey player. A defenceman, he was drafted in the ninth round, 291st overall, of the 2002 NHL entry draft and was the final pick of the draft. He has played his entire National Hockey League (NHL) career with the Red Wings organization.


02/03/1983

Deuce, American singer-songwriter and producer

Aron Erlichman, better known by his stage name Deuce, is an American rapper, music producer and guitarist. Brought to fame as a member of the rap rock band Hollywood Undead, Deuce departed from Hollywood Undead in 2010 and has since moved on to solo work through the label "Five Seven Music", a branch of Eleven Seven Music. He was formerly involved in a movement with fellow rapper Truth called "Nine Lives". Deuce released his debut album of the same name on April 24, 2012, which sold 11,425 copies in its first week. Deuce has also collaborated with artists NXTREADY, Ronnie Radke, Brokencyde and Blood on the Dance Floor.


Lisandro López, Argentine footballer

Lisandro López, sometimes known as simply Lisandro, is an Argentine former professional footballer. Primarily a striker, he was also capable of playing on the wings.


Jay McClement, Canadian ice hockey player

Jay McClement is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre. He was originally selected by the St. Louis Blues in the second round, 57th overall, in 2001, playing for the team before later joining the Colorado Avalanche, Toronto Maple Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes in his NHL career. Currently, he is a pro scout for the Pittsburgh Penguins.


Glen Perkins, American baseball player

Glen Weston Perkins is an American former professional baseball pitcher and a television analyst. He played his entire career in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins.


Ryan Shannon, American ice hockey player

Ryan Patrick Shannon is an American former professional ice hockey player, who played in the National Hockey League (NHL). He is currently serving as the head coach of the boys varsity ice hockey team at the Taft School.


02/03/1982

Kevin Kurányi, German footballer

Kevin Dennis Kurányi Rodríguez is a former professional footballer who played as a striker. Born in Brazil, he played for the Germany national team.


Henrik Lundqvist, Swedish ice hockey player

Henrik Lundqvist is a Swedish former professional ice hockey player. He played as a goaltender for 15 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the New York Rangers. Before winning the Vezina Trophy in 2012, he was nominated in each of his first three seasons, and is the only goaltender in NHL history to record eleven 30-win seasons in his first twelve seasons. He holds the record for most wins by a European-born goaltender in the NHL. His dominating play during his rookie season resulted in the New York media and Rangers fans giving him the nickname "King Henrik".


Joel Lundqvist, Swedish ice hockey player

Joel Per Lundqvist is a Swedish former professional ice hockey player. He played as a centre, spending the majority of his career with Frölunda HC of Swedish Hockey League (SHL) and also played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Dallas Stars from 2006 to 2009. He holds the record for most appearances in the SHL. His identical twin brother is former NHL goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.


Ben Roethlisberger, American football player

Benjamin Todd Roethlisberger Sr., nicknamed "Big Ben", is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He played college football for the Miami RedHawks, and was selected by the Steelers in the first round of the 2004 NFL draft.


Corey Webster, American football player

Corey Jonas Webster is an American former professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL) for 9 seasons, all with the New York Giants. He played college football for the LSU Tigers. Webster was selected by the Giants in the second round of the 2005 NFL draft and later won two Super Bowls with the team, both over the New England Patriots.


02/03/1981

Lance Cade, American wrestler (died 2010)

Lance Kurtis McNaught was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his time in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) where he performed under the ring names Garrison Cade and Lance Cade.


Bryce Dallas Howard, American actress

Bryce Dallas Howard is an American actress and director. The eldest child of filmmaker Ron Howard, she studied acting at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts. While portraying Rosalind in a 2003 production of As You Like It, Howard caught the attention of director M. Night Shyamalan, who cast her as a blind woman in the thriller film The Village (2004) and a naiad in the fantasy film Lady in the Water (2006).


02/03/1980

Chris Barker, English footballer and manager (died 2020)

Christopher Andrew Barker was an English professional footballer who played as a defender. He represented Alfreton Town, Barnsley, Cardiff City, Stoke City, Colchester United, Queens Park Rangers, Plymouth Argyle, Southend United, Hereford FC and Weston Super Mare and he was player-manager of Aldershot Town for three months in 2015. His brother, Richie, is also a professional footballer.


Rebel Wilson, Australian actress and screenwriter

Rebel Melanie Elizabeth Wilson is an Australian actress, comedian and producer. After graduating from the Australian Theatre for Young People in 2003, Wilson began appearing in the SBS comedy series Pizza (2003–2007) and later appeared in the sketch comedy show The Wedge (2006–2007). She wrote, produced and starred in the musical comedy series Bogan Pride (2008). Shortly after moving to the United States, Wilson appeared in the comedy films Bridesmaids and A Few Best Men, both in 2011.


02/03/1979

Damien Duff, Irish footballer

Damien Anthony Duff is an Irish former professional football manager and former player, who most recently managed League of Ireland club Shelbourne.


Jim Troughton, English cricketer

Jamie Oliver Troughton is an English cricket coach and former cricketer. He is currently assistant coach at Surrey, and as a player was mainly an attack-minded left-handed batsman and an occasional slow left-arm orthodox bowler. He played for Warwickshire. He also played for the England One Day International team.


Nicky Weaver, English footballer

Nicholas James Weaver is an English football coach and former professional player.


02/03/1978

Jim Chalmers, Australian politician

James Edward Chalmers is an Australian politician who has served as the treasurer of Australia since 2022. A member of the Labor Party, he has been the member of parliament (MP) for the Queensland division of Rankin since 2013.


Gabby Eigenmann, Filipino actor and singer

Gabriel John Celebre Eigenmann is a Filipino actor, singer, host and model. He is currently working as an exclusive talent of GMA Network.


Lee Hodges, English footballer and manager

Lee Hodges is an English footballer who plays as a midfielder for Herongate Athletic. He made three appearances in the Premier League for West Ham United and made 184 appearances in the Football League for Exeter City, Leyton Orient, Plymouth Argyle, Ipswich Town, Southend United, Scunthorpe United, Rochdale and Bristol Rovers.


Sebastian Janikowski, Polish gridiron football player

Sebastian Paweł Janikowski is a Polish former professional football placekicker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 19 seasons, primarily with the Oakland Raiders. He played college football for the Florida State Seminoles and was selected 17th overall in the 2000 NFL draft by the Raiders. During his final season, Janikowski played for the Seattle Seahawks.


Tomáš Kaberle, Czech ice hockey player

Tomáš Kaberle is a Czech former professional ice hockey defenceman. He played in the National Hockey League (NHL), most notably for the Toronto Maple Leafs, as well as for the Boston Bruins, with whom he won the Stanley Cup, Carolina Hurricanes and the Montreal Canadiens. Kaberle also played in the Czech Extraliga for HC Kladno and HC Kometa Brno.


02/03/1977

Dominique Canty, American basketball player and coach

Dominique Danyell Canty is an American professional women's basketball player, most recently with the Washington Mystics in the WNBA.


Chris Martin, English singer-songwriter (Coldplay)

Christopher Anthony John Martin is an English singer, songwriter, musician and producer. He is best known as the vocalist, pianist and co-founder of the rock band Coldplay.


Heather McComb, American actress

Heather McComb is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Maggie on Party of Five (1998–1999) and Frances Malone in Profiler (1997–1998).


Stephen Parry, English swimmer and sportscaster

Stephen Benjamin Parry is an English former competitive swimmer who represented Great Britain in the Olympics, FINA world championships and European championships, and England in the Commonwealth Games. He competed internationally in 100-metre and 200-metre butterfly events.


Andrew Strauss, South African-English cricketer

Sir Andrew John Strauss is an English cricket administrator and former player, formerly the Director of Cricket for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). He played county cricket for Middlesex, and captained the England national team in all formats of the game. A fluent left-handed opening batsman, Strauss favoured scoring off the back foot, mostly playing cut and pull shots. He was also known for his fielding strength at slip or in the covers. He is currently the managing director of Mindflick, a performance psychometric organisation.


02/03/1975

Daryl Gibson, New Zealand rugby player

Daryl Peter Earl Gibson is the Chief High Performance Officer for New Zealand Cricket (NZC). He was previously an international rugby coach and former New Zealand rugby union footballer. He played for the Crusaders in the Super Rugby and represented his country with the All Blacks. After success as assistant coach with the Waratahs side when they won the 2014 Super Rugby Championship, Gibson replaced Michael Cheika as head Coach of the team in 2015.


02/03/1974

Hayley Lewis, Australian swimmer and television host

Hayley Jane Lewis, OAM, is an Australian former competitive swimmer best known for winning five gold medals and one bronze medal at the 1990 Commonwealth Games as a 15-year-old.


02/03/1973

Dejan Bodiroga, Serbian basketball player

Dejan Bodiroga is a Serbian basketball executive and former professional player, who is currently the president of EuroLeague Basketball. In 1998 and 2002, he received the Golden Badge award for the best athlete of Yugoslavia, and the Yugoslav Olympic Committee also declared him the Sportsman of the Year. He was named to the FIBA All-Time EuroStars Team in 2007. In 2018, he was named one of the 101 Greats of European Basketball. HoopsHype named Bodiroga one of the 75 Greatest International Players Ever in 2021. He was inducted into the Greek Basket League Hall of Fame in 2022.


Trevor Sinclair, English footballer and manager

Trevor Lloyd Sinclair is an English football coach, former professional footballer and pundit.


02/03/1972

Mauricio Pochettino, Argentinian footballer and manager

Mauricio Roberto Pochettino Trossero is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of the United States men's national team.


02/03/1971

Roman Čechmánek, Czech ice hockey player (died 2023)

Roman Čechmánek was a Czech professional ice hockey goaltender. He played professionally in the United States, the Czech Republic, and Germany, including in the National Hockey League with the Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings from 2000 to 2004. Čechmánek also played for the Czech national team at multiple international tournaments, including seven World Championships.


Dave Gorman, English comedian, author and television presenter

David James Gorman is an English comedian, presenter, and writer.


Method Man, American rapper, record producer and actor

Clifford Smith Jr., known professionally as Method Man, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. He is a member of the East Coast hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan, and is half of the hip-hop duo Method Man & Redman. His debut solo album, Tical (1994), peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 and spawned the single "I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need to Get By", which won Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards. The song also peaked within the top five of the Billboard Hot 100; he and Blige later starred in Power Book II: Ghost, a spin-off of Power.


02/03/1970

James Purnell, English politician, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

James Mark Dakin Purnell is a British former Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Stalybridge and Hyde from 2001 to 2010 and also as a Cabinet minister from 2007 to 2009. After leaving parliament, Purnell was chair of Institute for Public Policy Research from 2010 to 2012 before joining the BBC as Director of Strategy from 2013 to 2016 and Director of Radio and Education from 2016 to 2020. In 2020 he was appointed vice-chancellor of University of the Arts London before leaving in 2024 to become CEO of Flint, a British international advisory business.


Ciriaco Sforza, Swiss footballer and manager

Ciriaco Sforza is a Swiss football manager and former professional player who last managed Swiss Challenge League club FC Schaffhausen.


Wibi Soerjadi, Dutch pianist and composer

Wibi Soerjadi is a Dutch concert pianist and composer.


02/03/1968

Daniel Craig, English actor and producer

Daniel Wroughton Craig is an English actor. He gained international fame by playing the fictional secret agent James Bond in the films Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015), and No Time to Die (2021).


02/03/1966

Ann Leckie, American author

Ann Leckie is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. Her 2013 debut novel Ancillary Justice, which features artificial consciousness and gender-blindness, won the 2014 Hugo Award for Best Novel, as well as the Nebula Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the BSFA Award. The sequels, Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy, each won the Locus Award and were both nominated for the Nebula Award. Provenance, published in 2017, and Translation State, published in 2023, are also set in the Imperial Radch universe.


Simon Reevell, English lawyer and politician

Simon Justin Reevell is a British barrister and Conservative Party politician. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Dewsbury in West Yorkshire during one parliament, losing his seat at the 2015 election.


02/03/1965

Ron Gant, American baseball player and journalist

Ronald Edwin Gant is an American television news anchor and former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1987 and 2003 for eight different teams, primarily the Atlanta Braves (1987–1993), St. Louis Cardinals (1996–1998), and Philadelphia Phillies (1999–2000). He joined the 30–30 club—recording at least 30 stolen bases and 30 home runs in the same season—in 1990 and 1991, while with the Braves. He batted and threw right-handed. He is currently a co-host on WAGA-TV's morning news program Good Day Atlanta.


Lembit Öpik, Northern Irish politician

Lembit Öpik is a British former politician. A former member of the Liberal Democrats, he served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Montgomeryshire in Wales from 1997 until he lost his seat at the 2010 general election. He was the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats from 2001 to 2007.


02/03/1964

Laird Hamilton, American surfer and actor

Laird John Hamilton is an American big-wave surfer, co-inventor of tow-in surfing, and an occasional fashion and action-sports model and actor. He is married to Gabrielle Reece, a former professional volleyball player, television personality, and model.


Mike Von Erich, American wrestler (died 1987)

Michael Brett Adkisson was an American professional wrestler under the ring name Mike Von Erich. His four brothers, David, Kerry, Kevin, and Chris, also wrestled. He was the son of longtime Texas wrestler and wrestling promoter Fritz Von Erich and a member of the Von Erich family.


02/03/1963

Anthony Albanese, Australian politician, 31st Prime Minister of Australia

Anthony Norman Albanese is an Australian politician who has served as the 31st prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been the leader of the Labor Party since 2019 and the member of parliament (MP) for the New South Wales division of Grayndler since 1996.


Alvin Youngblood Hart, American singer and guitarist

Alvin Youngblood Hart is an American musician.


02/03/1962

Jon Bon Jovi, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor

John Francis Bongiovi Jr., known professionally as Jon Bon Jovi, is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. He is best known as the founder and frontman of the rock band Bon Jovi, which was formed in 1983. He has released 16 studio albums with his band as well as two solo albums.


Paul Farrelly, English journalist and politician

Christopher Paul Farrelly is a British Labour Party politician, banker and journalist, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle-under-Lyme from 2001 to 2019.


Tom Nordlie, Norwegian footballer and coach

Tom Nordlie is a Norwegian football coach. He has managed several top Norwegian football teams.


Brendan O'Connor, Australian politician, Australian Minister for Employment

Brendan Patrick O'Connor is an Australian politician who served as Minister for Skills and Training from 2022 to 2024 in the Albanese ministry after having served in the same portfolio in 2013 in the Second Rudd ministry. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served in the House of Representatives from 2001 to 2025. He held ministerial office in the governments of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard from 2007 to 2013, including as a member of cabinet from 2012 to 2013. He was a member of the shadow cabinet from 2013 to 2022.


Raimo Summanen, Finnish ice hockey player and coach

Raimo Olavi Summanen is a former professional ice hockey forward and the former head coach of HIFK of the Finnish SM-liiga. He is also a former coach of the Finnish national team. He was selected by the Edmonton Oilers in the sixth round of the 1982 NHL Entry Draft, 125th overall, and spent his NHL career, which lasted from 1984 to 1987 with Edmonton and the Vancouver Canucks. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1979 to 1995, was mainly spent in the SM-liiga.


Gabriele Tarquini, Italian race car driver

Gabriele Tarquini is an Italian former racing driver and motorsport executive who competed in Formula One between 1987 and 1995, and World Touring Car from 2005 to 2021. In touring car racing, Tarquini won the World Touring Car Championship in 2009 with SEAT; he also won the British Touring Car Championship in 1994, the European Touring Car Championship in 2003, and the World Touring Car Cup in 2018.


02/03/1961

Simone Young, Australian conductor, director, and composer

Simone Margaret Young AM is an Australian conductor and academic teacher. She is currently chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.


02/03/1959

Larry Stewart, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Larry Stewart is an American country music singer and songwriter. He is best known for his role as lead singer of the country pop band Restless Heart, a role which he held on and off between 1984 and the band's breakup in 2021. Additionally, he has released multiple solo projects between 1993 and 2018, a year after his joining the Frontmen. Stewart's solo career includes two albums for RCA Records, one for Columbia Records, and one for Windham Hill Records. His solo albums include multiple charted singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including the top-five hit "Alright Already" in 1993.


02/03/1958

Kevin Curren, South African-American tennis player

Kevin Melvyn Curren is a South African former professional tennis player. He played in two Grand Slam singles finals and won four Grand Slam doubles titles, reaching a career-high singles ranking of world No. 5 in July 1985. During his career he won 5 singles and 16 doubles titles.


Ian Woosnam, English-Welsh golfer

Ian Harold Woosnam is a Welsh professional golfer. Nicknamed "Woosie", Woosnam was one of the "Big Five" generation of European golfers, all born within 12 months of one another, all of whom have won majors, and made Europe competitive in the Ryder Cup. His peers in this group were Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, and Sandy Lyle. Woosnam's major championship win was at the 1991 Masters Tournament. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2017.


02/03/1957

Mark Dean, American inventor and computer engineer

Mark Edward Dean is an American inventor and computer engineer. He developed the ISA bus with his partner Dennis Moeller, and he led a design team for making a one-gigahertz computer processor chip. He holds three of nine PC patents for being the co-creator of the IBM personal computer released in 1981. In 1995, Dean was named the first ever African-American IBM Fellow.


Hossein Dehghan, Iranian general and politician, Iranian Minister of Defense

Hossein Dehghani Poudeh, commonly known as Hossein Dehghan, is an Iranian politician and former military officer. He currently serves as the head of the Mostazafan Foundation since 2023. During the Iranian Revolution, he took part in the occupation of the US embassy in Tehran. As commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps forces in Tehran, he oversaw the execution of opponents of the Islamic Republic. He commanded the IRGC forces in Lebanon and was among the orchestrators of the 1983 bombing of the American embassy in Beirut.


Dito Tsintsadze, Georgian film director and screenwriter

Dito Tsintsadze is a Georgian film director and screenwriter. He has directed thirteen films since 1988. His film Lost Killers was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. In 2007 he was a member of the jury at the 29th Moscow International Film Festival. Starting from the year 1996 he lives and works in Berlin.


02/03/1956

John Cowsill, American musician, songwriter, and producer

John Patrick Cowsill is an American musician, best known for his work as a singer and drummer with his siblings' band the Cowsills. He has been a drummer and vocalist for the Beach Boys touring band, which featured original Beach Boys member Mike Love and long-time member Bruce Johnston. Cowsill has played keyboards for the Beach Boys touring band performing Al Jardine's and the late Carl Wilson's vocal parts. He has performed and recorded with Jan and Dean and is currently a guest lead singer for The Smithereens.


Mark Evans, Australian rock bass player

Mark Whitmore Evans is an Australian musician, the current bass guitarist for rock band Rose Tattoo, and also a member of hard rock band AC/DC from March 1975 to June 1977. His playing featured on their albums T.N.T, High Voltage, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and Let There Be Rock. Evans has played for numerous other groups, sometimes on lead guitar, including Finch, Cheetah, Swanee, Heaven and The Party Boys. Evans' autobiography, Dirty Deeds: My Life Inside/Outside of AC/DC was released in December 2011.


02/03/1955

Dale Bozzio, American pop-rock singer-songwriter

Dale Frances Bozzio is an American rock and pop vocalist. She is best known as co-founder and lead singer of the 1980s new wave band Missing Persons and for her work with Frank Zappa. While with Zappa, she performed significant roles in two of his major works, Joe's Garage (1979) and Thing-Fish (1984). Bozzio has released four solo albums and one EP.


Jay Osmond, American singer, drummer, actor, and TV/film producer

Jay Wesley Osmond is an American musician. He is a member of the Osmond family of performers. He wrote the story to the 2022 musical The Osmonds, a musical based on the life and music of the family. The musical was shown around the United Kingdom and Ireland in 2022, after being previously postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


Ken Salazar, American lawyer and politician, 50th United States Secretary of the Interior

Kenneth Lee Salazar is an American lawyer, politician, and diplomat who served as United States ambassador to Mexico from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 50th United States secretary of the interior in the administration of President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013 and as a United States senator from Colorado from 2005 to 2009.


Steve Small, Australian cricketer

Stephen Mark Small is an Australian former cricketer. He played first-class cricket for New South Wales and Tasmania.


02/03/1954

Ed Johnstone, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

Edward Lavern "Eddie" Johnstone is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played for the Michigan Stags/Baltimore Blades in the World Hockey Association (WHA), followed by parts of ten seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings. He featured in the 1979 Stanley Cup Finals with the Rangers.


02/03/1953

Russ Feingold, American lawyer and politician

Russell Dana Feingold is an American politician and lawyer who served as a United States senator from Wisconsin from 1993 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he was its nominee in the 2016 election for the same U.S. Senate seat he had previously occupied. From 1983 to 1993, he was a Wisconsin state senator representing the 27th district.


Kazuo Kitagawa, Japanese politician

Kazuo Kitagawa is a retired Japanese politician who served as the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in the cabinet of Junichiro Koizumi.


02/03/1952

Mark Evanier, American author and screenwriter

Mark Stephen Evanier is an American comic book and television writer, known for his work on the animated TV series Garfield and Friends and wordplay for the comic book Groo the Wanderer. He is also known for his columns and blog News from ME, and for his work as a historian and biographer of the comics industry, such as his award-winning Jack Kirby biography, Kirby: King of Comics.


Laraine Newman, American actress and comedian

Laraine Newman is an American actress, comedian, and writer. Newman was part of the original cast of NBC's sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from its inception in 1975 until her departure in 1980.


02/03/1950

Karen Carpenter, American singer (died 1983)

Karen Anne Carpenter was an American musician who was the lead vocalist and drummer of the highly successful duo the Carpenters, formed with her older brother Richard. With a distinctive three-octave contralto range, she was praised by her peers for her vocal skills. Carpenter appeared on Rolling Stone's 2010 list of the 100 greatest singers of all time.


02/03/1948

Larry Carlton, American guitarist and songwriter

Larry Eugene Carlton is an American guitarist who built his career as a studio musician in the 1970s and 1980s for acts including Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell. One of the most sought-after guitarists of his era, Carlton has participated in thousands of recording sessions, recorded on hundreds of albums in many genres including more than 100 gold records, in addition to music for television and movies. He has been a member of the jazz fusion group the Crusaders and the smooth jazz band Fourplay maintaining a long solo career.


Rory Gallagher, Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (died 1995)

William Rory Gallagher was an Irish musician, singer, and songwriter. Regarded as "Ireland's first rock star", he is known for his virtuosic style of guitar playing and live performances. He has sometimes been referred to as "the greatest guitarist you've never heard of".


Jeff Kennett, Australian journalist and politician, 43rd Premier of Victoria

Jeffrey Gibb Kennett is an Australian former politician who served as the 43rd Premier of Victoria between 1992 and 1999, Leader of the Victorian Liberal Party from 1982 to 1989 and from 1991 to 1999, and the Member for Burwood from 1976 to 1999. He is currently a media commentator.


Carmen Lawrence, Australian politician, 25th Premier of Western Australia

Carmen Mary Lawrence is an Australian academic and former politician who was the premier of Western Australia from 1990 to 1993, the first woman to become the premier of an Australian state. To date she is the only female premier of Western Australia. A member of the Labor Party, she later entered federal politics as a member of the House of Representatives from 1994 to 2007, and served as a minister in the Keating government.


02/03/1947

John Dawkins, Australian politician

John Sydney "Joe" Dawkins AO is an Australian former politician who was Treasurer in the Keating Labor government from December 1991 to December 1993. He is notable for his reforms of tertiary education as Minister for Employment, Education and Training, his period as Treasurer when he attempted to increase taxes in order to balance the budget and his abrupt exit from politics.


Nelson Ned, Brazilian singer-songwriter (died 2014)

Nelson Ned d'Ávila Pinto was a Brazilian singer-songwriter. He built a career as a singer and composer of sentimental, suffering songs, rising to popularity in Brazil and Latin America in 1969 and becoming known internationally, especially in Portugal, France and Spain. In 1971 he released his first Spanish album, Canción Popular, and performed in the US, Latin America, Europe, and Africa.


Harry Redknapp, English footballer and manager

Henry James Redknapp is an English former football manager and player. He has previously managed AFC Bournemouth, West Ham United, Portsmouth, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, Queens Park Rangers, and Birmingham City. Redknapp managed Portsmouth to the 2002–03 Division One title, gaining promotion to the Premier League and preserving their top-flight status in the 2003–04 season. In his second spell at the club, he managed the side that won the 2008 FA Cup. At the conclusion of the 2009–10 season, he guided Tottenham into the UEFA Champions League. Redknapp announced his retirement from football management in 2017.


02/03/1945

Derek Watkins, English trumpet player and composer (died 2013)

Derek Roy Watkins was an English jazz, pop, and classical trumpeter. Best known for his lead trumpet work on the soundtracks of James Bond films, Watkins recorded with British jazz bandleaders as well as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and The Beatles. Dizzy Gillespie called him "Mr. Lead".


02/03/1944

Leif Segerstam, Finnish conductor and composer (died 2024)

Leif Selim Segerstam was a Finnish music composer, conductor, violinist, violist, and pianist. He is especially best known for writing over 300 symphonies, along with other works. He held many important positions in Finnish music industry both in Finland and around the world.


02/03/1943

George Layton, English actor, director, and screenwriter

George Layton is a British actor, director, and television comedy writer best known for three television roles – junior doctor Paul Collier in the comedy series Doctor in the House and its sequels Doctor at Large, Doctor in Charge and Doctor at the Top, Bombardier 'Solly' Solomons in the first two series of It Ain't Half Hot Mum, and Des the mechanic in early episodes of Minder. His TV writing credits include episodes of several of the "Doctor" series as well as episodes of Robin's Nest, and Executive Stress.


Peter Straub, American author and poet (died 2022)

Peter Francis Straub was an American novelist and poet. He had success with several horror and supernatural fiction novels, among them Julia (1975), Ghost Story (1979) and The Talisman (1984), the latter co-written with Stephen King. He explored the mystery genre with the Blue Rose trilogy, consisting of Koko (1988), Mystery (1990) and The Throat (1993). He fused the supernatural with crime fiction in Lost Boy, Lost Girl (2003) and the related In the Night Room (2004). For the Library of America, he edited the volume H. P. Lovecraft: Tales and the anthology American Fantastic Tales. Straub received such literary honors as the Bram Stoker Award, World Fantasy Award, and International Horror Guild Award.


Robert Williams, American painter and cartoonist

Robert L. Williams, often styled Robt. Williams, is an American painter, cartoonist, and founder of Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine. Williams was one of the group of artists who produced Zap Comix, along with other underground cartoonists, such as Robert Crumb, Rick Griffin, S. Clay Wilson, and Gilbert Shelton. His mix of California car culture, cinematic apocalypticism, and film noir helped to create a new genre of psychedelic imagery.


02/03/1942

John Irving, American novelist and screenwriter

John Winslow Irving is an American and Canadian novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter.


Claude Larose, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

Claude David Larose is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played 943 career NHL games for the Montreal Canadiens, Minnesota North Stars and St. Louis Blues. He also served as an assistant coach for the Hartford Whalers after his retirement. He won 6 Stanley Cups during his career 1965, 1966, 1968, 1971, 1973, 2006 with Carolina.


Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Iranian architect and politician, 79th Prime Minister of Iran

Mir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh is an Iranian politician, artist, architect, and opposition figure who served as the 45th and last Prime Minister of Iran from 1981 to 1989. He was a reformist candidate for the 2009 presidential election and eventually the leader of the opposition in the post-election unrest. Mousavi served as the president of the Iranian Academy of Arts until 2009, when Iranian authorities removed him. Although Mousavi had always considered himself a reformist and believed in promoting change within the 1979 constitution, on 3 February 2023, in the violent suppression of Iranians by Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, he announced his opposition to the Islamic Republic and asked for a widespread referendum to fully change the constitution and make a fundamental change in Iran's political system.


Lou Reed, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (died 2013)

Lewis Allan Reed was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Although not commercially successful during its existence, the Velvet Underground came to be regarded as one of the most influential bands in the history of underground and alternative rock music. Reed's distinctive deadpan voice, poetic and transgressive lyrics, and experimental guitar playing were trademarks throughout his long career.


Derek Woodley, English footballer (died 2002)

Derek George Woodley was an English footballer who played for West Ham United, Southend United, Charlton Athletic and Gillingham during a 12-year professional career.


02/03/1941

John Cornell, Australian actor, director, and producer (died 2021)

John Cornell was an Australian actor, director, producer, writer, and businessman. He was best known for his role as "Strop" on The Paul Hogan Show, and he was instrumental in the introduction of World Series Cricket in 1977.


David Satcher, American admiral and physician, 16th Surgeon General of the United States

David Satcher is an American physician, and public health administrator. He was a four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as the 11th Assistant Secretary for Health, and the 16th Surgeon General of the United States.


02/03/1940

Billy McNeill, Scottish footballer (died 2019)

William McNeill was a Scottish football player and manager. He had a long association with Celtic, spanning more than sixty years as a player, manager and club ambassador. McNeill captained Celtic's 'Lisbon Lions' to their European Cup victory in 1967 and later spent two spells as the club's manager. As a player and manager, he won 31 major trophies with Celtic.


02/03/1939

Jan Howard Finder, American author and academic (died 2013)

Jan Howard Finder was an American academic administrator, career counselor, science fiction writer, filker, hostelling tour guide, cosplayer, and fan. He was a guest of honor at the 1993 Worldcon, ConFrancisco. As a personal affectation, he often spelled his name in all lower case letters, jan howard finder.


02/03/1938

Clark Gesner, American author and composer (died 2002)

Clark Gesner was an American composer, songwriter, author, and actor. He is best known for composing the musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, based on the Charles M. Schulz comic strip Peanuts.


Ricardo Lagos, Chilean economist, lawyer, and politician, 33rd President of Chile

Ricardo Froilán Lagos Escobar is a Chilean lawyer, economist and social-democratic politician who served as president of Chile from 2000 to 2006. During the 1980s he was a well-known opponent of the Chilean military dictatorship and astounded contemporaries in 1988 by openly denouncing dictator Augusto Pinochet on live television. He served as Minister of Education from 1990 to 1992 and Minister of Public Works from 1994 to 1998 under President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle before narrowly winning the 1999–2000 presidential election in a runoff against Independent Democrat Union (UDI) candidate Joaquín Lavín. Lagos was the third president from the centre-left Coalition of Parties for Democracy to have governed Chile since 1990. He was succeeded on 11 March 2006 by Socialist Michelle Bachelet, from the same coalition. From 2007 to 2010 he served as a Special Envoy on Climate Change for the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Lagos made an unsuccessful bid to run for president in the 2017 Chilean general election.


Lawrence Payton, American singer-songwriter and producer (died 1997)

Lawrence Albert Payton Sr. was an American tenor, songwriter, vocal arranger, musician, and record producer for the popular Motown quartet, the Four Tops.


02/03/1937

Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algerian soldier and politician, 5th President of Algeria (died 2021)

Abdelaziz Bouteflika was an Algerian politician and diplomat who served as the seventh president of Algeria from 1999 to his resignation in 2019.


02/03/1936

Haroon Ahmed, Pakistani-English engineer and academic

Haroon Ahmed, FREng, was a British-Pakistani scientist who specialised in the fields of microelectronics and electrical engineering. He was Emeritus Professor of Microelectronics at the Cavendish Laboratory, the Physics Department of the University of Cambridge, Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.


John Tusa, Czech-English journalist and academic

Sir John Tusa is a British arts administrator, and radio and television journalist. He is co-chairman of the European Union Youth Orchestra from 2014. chairman, British Architecture Trust Board, RIBA, from 2014. From 1980 to 1986, he was a main presenter of BBC2's Newsnight. From 1986 to 1993, he was managing director of the BBC World Service. From 1995 to 2007, he was managing director of the City of London's Barbican Arts Centre.


02/03/1935

Gene Stallings, American football player and coach

Eugene Clifton Stallings Jr. is an American former football player and coach. He played college football at Texas A&M University (1954–1956), where he was one of the "Junction Boys", and later served as the head coach at his alma mater from 1965 to 1971. Stallings was also the head coach of the St. Louis/Phoenix Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL) (1986–1989) and at the University of Alabama (1990–1996). Stallings' 1992 Alabama team completed a 13–0 season with a win in the Sugar Bowl over Miami and was named the consensus national champion. Stallings was also a member of the Board of Regents of the Texas A&M University System. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach on July 16, 2011.


02/03/1934

Howard Cassady, American football player (died 2019)

Howard Albert "Hopalong" Cassady was an American professional football halfback and split end who played in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Ohio State Buckeyes, where he won the Heisman Trophy in 1955. Cassady played in the NFL for eight seasons, seven of them for the Detroit Lions, with whom he won the 1957 NFL Championship Game. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1979.


Dottie Rambo, American singer-songwriter (died 2008)

Dottie Rambo was an American gospel singer and songwriter. She was a Grammy winning solo artist and multiple Dove Award-winning artist. Along with ex-husband Buck and daughter Reba, she formed the award-winning southern Gospel group, The Rambos. She wrote more than 2,500 songs, including her most notable, "The Holy Hills of Heaven Call Me", "He Looked Beyond My Fault and Saw My Need", "We Shall Behold Him", and "I Go To the Rock".


02/03/1933

Leo Dillon, American illustrator (died 2012)

Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon were American illustrators of children's books and adult paperback book and magazine covers. One obituary of Leo called the work of the husband-and-wife team "a seamless amalgam of both their hands". In more than 50 years, they created more than 100 speculative fiction book and magazine covers together as well as much interior artwork. Essentially all of their work in that field was joint.


02/03/1932

Gun Hägglund, Swedish journalist and translator (died 2011)

Karin Gunvor Sjöblom Hägglund, better known as Gun Hägglund, was a Swedish television host and translator. Hägglund was the first female television news anchor in Sweden, hosting the Swedish national evening news show Aktuellt in 1958. She is sometimes credited as the first female television news reader in the world, but that claim is inaccurate as British ITN Midday News included female bulletin presenter Barbara Mandell in 1955 and BBC Regional news bulletin included Armine Sandford in 1957.


02/03/1931

Mikhail Gorbachev, Russian lawyer and politician, the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2022)

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was a Soviet and Russian politician who was the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1985, and additionally as head of state from 1988. Ideologically, he initially adhered to Marxism–Leninism, but moved towards social democracy by the early 1990s.


02/03/1930

John Cullum, American actor and singer

John Cullum is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in many stage musicals and dramas, including Shenandoah (1975) and On the Twentieth Century (1978), winning the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for each. In 1966 he gained his first Tony nomination as the lead in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, in which he introduced the title song, and more recently received Tony nominations for Urinetown The Musical (2002) and as Best Featured Actor in the revival of 110 in the Shade (2007).


Emma Penella, Spanish actress (died 2007)

Manuela Ruiz Penella, better known as Emma Penella, was a Spanish film and television actress.


Tom Wolfe, American journalist and author (died 2018)

Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. was an American author and journalist widely known for his association with New Journalism, a style of news writing and journalism developed in the 1960s and 1970s that incorporated literary techniques. Much of Wolfe's work is satirical and centers on the counterculture of the 1960s and issues related to class, social status, and the lifestyles of the economic and intellectual elites of New York City.


02/03/1927

Roger Walkowiak, French cyclist and economist (died 2017)

Roger Walkowiak was a French road bicycle racer who won the 1956 Tour de France. He was a professional rider from 1950 until 1960. He died on 6 February 2017 at the age of 89.


02/03/1926

Bernard Agré, Ivorian cardinal (died 2014)

Bernard Agré was an Ivorian Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Abidjan from 1994 to 2006. He was made a cardinal in 2001.


Murray Rothbard, American economist and historian (died 1995)

Murray Newton Rothbard was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian movement, particularly its right-wing strands, and was a founder and leading theoretician of anarcho-capitalism. He wrote over twenty books on political theory, history, economics, and other subjects.


02/03/1924

Cal Abrams, American baseball player (died 1997)

Calvin Ross Abrams, nicknamed "Abie", was an American professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1949 and 1956 for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates, Baltimore Orioles, and Chicago White Sox.


Renos Apostolidis, Greek philologist, author, and critic (died 2004)

Renos Apostolidis was a Greek writer, philologist and literary critic.


02/03/1923

Basil Hume, English cardinal (died 1999)

George Basil Hume was an English Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Westminster from 1976 until his death in 1999. A member of the Benedictines, he was made a cardinal in 1977.


Robert H. Michel, American soldier and politician (died 2017)

Robert Henry Michel was an American Republican Party politician who was a member of the United States House of Representatives for 38 years. He represented central Illinois's 18th congressional district and was the GOP leader in the House, serving as House Minority Leader during his last 14 years in Congress, 1981 to 1995.


Dave Strack, American basketball player and coach (died 2014)

David Hessong Strack was an American athletic director for the University of Arizona and head basketball coach at the University of Michigan. He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.


02/03/1922

Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, American saxophonist (died 1986)

Edward F. Davis, known professionally as Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. It is unclear how he acquired the moniker "Lockjaw" : it is either said that it came from the title of a tune or from his way of biting hard on the saxophone mouthpiece. Other theories have been put forward.


Bill Quackenbush, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (died 1999)

Hubert George Quackenbush, known as Bill Quackenbush, was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman who played for the Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings in the National Hockey League. During his 14-year career, he was the first defenceman to win the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy. He won the award after playing the entire 1948–49 season without recording a penalty. The penalty-less season was part of a total of 131 consecutive games he played without being assessed a penalty. Quackenbush, considered to be an elite offensive defenceman during his career, was named to the NHL All-Star team five times, played in eight NHL All-Star games and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1976.


Frances Spence, American computer programmer (died 2012)

Frances V. Spence was an American physicist and computer scientist. She was one of the original programmers for the ENIAC. She is considered one of the first computer programmers in history.


02/03/1921

Kazimierz Górski, Polish footballer and coach (died 2006)

Kazimierz Klaudiusz Górski was a Polish professional football manager. He was also a football player, capped once for Poland.


Ernst Haas, Austrian-American photographer and journalist (died 1986)

Ernst Haas was an Austrian-American photojournalist and color photographer. During his 40-year career Haas trod the line between photojournalism and art photography. In addition to his coverage of events around the globe after World War II Haas was an early innovator in color photography. His images were carried by magazines like Life and Vogue and, in 1962, were the subject of the first single-artist exhibition of color photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art. He served as president of the cooperative Magnum Photos. His book of volcano photographs, The Creation (1971), remains one of the most successful photography books ever published, selling more than 350,000 copies.


02/03/1919

Jennifer Jones, American actress (died 2009)

Jennifer Jones, also known as Jennifer Jones Simon, was an American actress and mental-health advocate. Over the course of her career that spanned more than five decades, she was nominated for an Academy Award five times, including one win for Best Actress, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama.


Eddie Lawrence, American actor, singer, and playwright (died 2014)

Eddie Lawrence was an American monologist, actor, singer, lyricist, playwright, artist, director and television personality, whose comic creation, "The Old Philosopher", gained him a cult following for over five decades.


Tamara Toumanova, Russian-American ballerina and actress (died 1996)

Tamara Toumanova was a Russian-born Georgian-American prima ballerina and actress. A child of exiles in Paris after the Russian Revolution of 1917, she made her debut at the age of 10 at the children's ballet of the Paris Opera.


02/03/1917

Desi Arnaz, Cuban-American actor, singer, and producer (died 1986)

Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III, known as Desi Arnaz, was a Cuban-American actor, musician, producer, and bandleader. He played Ricky Ricardo on the American television sitcom I Love Lucy, in which he co-starred with his wife Lucille Ball. Arnaz and Ball are credited as the innovators of the syndicated rerun, which they pioneered with the I Love Lucy series.


David Goodis, American author and screenwriter (died 1967)

David Loeb Goodis was an American writer of crime fiction noted for his output of short stories and novels in the noir fiction genre. Born in Philadelphia, Goodis alternately resided there and in New York City and Hollywood during his professional years. According to critic Dennis Drabelle, "Despite his [university] education, a combination of ethnicity (Jewish) and temperament allowed him to empathize with outsiders: the working poor, the unjustly accused, fugitives, criminals."


Jim Konstanty, American baseball player and coach (died 1976)

Casimir James Konstanty was an American professional baseball relief pitcher in Major League Baseball and National League Most Valuable Player of 1950. He played for the Cincinnati Reds (1944), Boston Braves (1946), Philadelphia Phillies (1948–1954), New York Yankees (1954–1956) and St. Louis Cardinals (1956). Konstanty batted and threw right-handed, stood 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and weighed 202 pounds (92 kg).


02/03/1915

John Burton, Australian public servant and diplomat, Australian High Commissioner to Ceylon (died 2010)

John Wear Burton was an Australian public servant, high commissioner and academic.


02/03/1914

Martin Ritt, American actor and film director (died 1990)

Martin Ritt was an American director, producer, and actor, active in film, theatre, and television. He was known mainly as an auteur of socially-conscious dramas and literary adaptations, described by Stanley Kauffmann as "one of the most underrated American directors, superbly competent and quietly imaginative."


02/03/1913

Godfried Bomans, Dutch television host and author (died 1971)

Godfried Jan Arnold Bomans was a Dutch author and television personality. Much of his work remains untranslated into English.


Mort Cooper, American baseball player (died 1958)

Morton Cecil Cooper was an American baseball pitcher who played eleven seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played from 1938 to 1949 for the St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Braves, New York Giants, and Chicago Cubs. He batted and threw right-handed and was listed at 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) and 210 pounds (95 kg). He was the National League Most Valuable Player in 1942. His younger brother, Walker Cooper, also played in the major leagues.


02/03/1912

Henry Katzman, American pianist, composer, and painter (died 2001)

Henry Manners Katzman was an American musician, composer, painter, and one of the founders of Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI).


02/03/1909

Mel Ott, American baseball player, manager, and sportscaster (died 1958)

Melvin Thomas Ott, nicknamed "Master Melvin", was an American professional baseball right fielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Giants, from 1926 through 1947.


02/03/1908

Walter Bruch, German engineer (died 1990)

Walter Bruch was a German electrical engineer and pioneer of German television. He was the inventor of closed-circuit television. He invented the PAL colour television system at Telefunken in the early 1960s. In addition to his research activities Walter Bruch was an honorary lecturer at Technische Hochschule Hannover. He was awarded the Werner von Siemens Ring in 1975.


02/03/1905

Marc Blitzstein, American composer and songwriter (died 1964)

Marcus Samuel Blitzstein, was an American composer, lyricist, and librettist. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Works Progress Administration. He is known for The Cradle Will Rock and for his off-Broadway translation and adaptation of The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. His works also include the opera Regina, an adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play The Little Foxes; the Broadway musical Juno, based on Seán O'Casey's play Juno and the Paycock; and No for an Answer. He completed translations and adaptations of Brecht's and Weill's musical play Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and of Brecht's play Mother Courage and Her Children with music by Paul Dessau. Blitzstein also composed music for films, such as Surf and Seaweed (1931) and The Spanish Earth (1937), and he contributed two songs to the original 1960 production of Hellman's play Toys in the Attic.


Geoffrey Grigson, English poet and critic (died 1985)

Geoffrey Edward Harvey Grigson was a British poet, writer, editor, critic, exhibition curator, anthologist and naturalist. In the 1930s, he was editor of the influential magazine New Verse, and went on to produce 13 collections of his own poetry, as well as compiling numerous anthologies, among many published works on subjects including art, travel and the countryside. Grigson was in 1946 a co-founder of the Institute of Contemporary Arts. His autobiography The Crest on the Silver was published in 1950. At various times, Grigson was involved in teaching, journalism and broadcasting. Fiercely combative, he made many literary enemies.


02/03/1904

Dr. Seuss, American children's book writer, poet, and illustrator (died 1991)

Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American children's author, illustrator, animator, and cartoonist. He is known for his work writing and illustrating more than 60 books under the pen name Dr. Seuss. His work includes many of the most popular children's books of all time, selling over 600 million copies and being translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death.


02/03/1902

Moe Berg, American baseball player and spy (died 1972)

Morris Berg was an American professional baseball catcher and coach in Major League Baseball who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. He played 15 seasons in the major leagues, almost entirely for four American League teams, though he was never more than an average player and was better known for being "the brainiest guy in baseball." Casey Stengel once described Berg as "the strangest man ever to play baseball."


Edward Condon, American physicist and academic (died 1974)

Edward Uhler Condon was an American nuclear physicist, a pioneer in quantum mechanics, and a participant during World War II in the development of radar and, very briefly, of nuclear weapons as part of the Manhattan Project. The Franck–Condon principle and the Slater–Condon rules are co-named after him.


02/03/1901

Grete Hermann, German mathematician and philosopher (died 1984)

Grete Hermann was a German mathematician, philosopher, theoretical physicist, writer, and educator. She is known for her foundational work in quantum mechanics and computer algebra; her writings on political philosophy; and her work with the Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund (ISK) in opposition to Nazism.


02/03/1900

Kurt Weill, German-American pianist and composer (died 1950)

Kurt Julian Weill was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht. With Brecht, he wrote his best-known work, The Threepenny Opera, which includes the ballad "Mack the Knife". Weill held the ideal of writing music that served a socially useful purpose, Gebrauchsmusik. He also wrote several works for the concert hall and a number of works on Jewish themes. He fled Nazi Germany in 1933, arriving in the United States two years later. Settling in New York, he made a substantial contribution to American musical theater through works such as Lady in the Dark and Street Scene.


02/03/1886

Willis H. O'Brien, American animator and director (died 1962)

Willis Harold O'Brien, known as Obie O'Brien, was an American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer, who according to ASIFA-Hollywood "was responsible for some of the best-known images in cinema history," and is best remembered for his work on The Lost World (1925), King Kong (1933), The Last Days of Pompeii (1935) and Mighty Joe Young (1949), for which he won the 1950 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.


Kurt Grelling, German logician and philosopher (died 1942)

Kurt Grelling was a German logician and philosopher, member of the Berlin Circle.


02/03/1880

René Vallon, French aviator (died 1911)

René Vallon was an early French aviator. Born in Paris, he travelled to Shanghai, China, in 1911 with a group of aviation enthusiasts to promote aircraft sales. He achieved the first aeroplane flight in China on 21 February 1911 at Jiangwan Racecourse, with this and subsequent flights drawing large crowds. He died in an aviation accident less than three months later, resulting in the cancellation of a planned purchase by the Chinese government. Vallon was commemorated with a road and a memorial in the Shanghai French Concession.


02/03/1876

James A. Gilmore, American businessman and baseball executive (died 1947)

James Alexander Gilmore was an American businessman who served as president of baseball's Federal League when it attempted to become a third major league, alongside the American League and National League, in 1914 and 1915.


Pope Pius XII (died 1958)

Pope Pius XII was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958.


02/03/1869

Julien Félix, French military officer and aviator (died 1914)

Major Julien-Alexandre Félix was the director of manoeuvres in the French Military Aviation School, École militaire de Pau. He set the altitude record on August 5, 1911 in Étampes in France by climbing to 11,330 feet in 63 minutes, breaking the record of Georges Legagneux.


02/03/1866

Margaret Sibella Brown, Canadian bryologist (died 1961)

Margaret Sibella Brown was a Canadian amateur bryologist specializing in mosses and liverworts native to Nova Scotia. Early in her career she was involved with gathering supplies of sphagnum moss to be used as surgical dressings during World War I, when cotton was in short supply. After the war, she researched mosses from around the world, collecting specimens in Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States, as well as her native Canada. She published several papers in academic journals, some on materials she had collected herself and some cataloging samples collected by other investigators. Samples she collected are now housed at several major herbaria in North America and Europe.


02/03/1862

John Jay Chapman, American lawyer, author, and poet (died 1933)

John Jay Chapman was an American writer and lawyer. He was most known for his essays and poetry.


02/03/1860

Susanna M. Salter, American activist and politician (died 1961)

Susanna Madora Salter was an American politician and activist. From 1887 to 1888, she was mayor of Argonia, Kansas, becoming the first woman to serve in that role in the United States and one of the earliest in any U.S. political office.


02/03/1859

Sholem Aleichem, Ukrainian-American author and playwright (died 1916)

Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich, better known under his pen name Sholem Aleichem, was a Jewish author and playwright who wrote in Yiddish and lived in the Russian Empire and in the United States. The 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof, based on Aleichem's stories about Tevye the Dairyman, was the first commercially successful English-language stage production about Jewish life in Eastern Europe.


02/03/1849

Robert Means Thompson, American commander, lawyer, and businessman (died 1930)

Robert Means Thompson was a United States Navy officer, business magnate, philanthropist and a president of the American Olympic Association. He is the namesake of the destroyer USS Thompson (DD-627).


02/03/1846

Marie Roze, French soprano (died 1926)

Marie Roze, was a French operatic soprano.


02/03/1842

Carl Jacobsen, Danish brewer, art collector, and philanthropist (died 1914)

Carl Christian Hillman Jacobsen was a Danish brewer, art collector and philanthropist. Though often preoccupied with his cultural interests, Jacobsen was a shrewd and visionary businessman and initiated the transition of the brewery Carlsberg from a local Copenhagen brewery to the multinational conglomerate that it is today.


02/03/1836

Henry Billings Brown, American lawyer and judge (died 1913)

Henry Billings Brown was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1891 to 1906.


02/03/1829

Carl Schurz, German-American general, lawyer, and politician, 13th United States Secretary of the Interior (died 1906)

Carl Christian Schurz was a German-American revolutionary and an American statesman, journalist, and reformer. He migrated to the United States after the German revolutions of 1848–1849 and became a prominent member of the newly-forming Republican Party. After serving as a Union general in the American Civil War, he helped found the short-lived Liberal Republican Party and became a prominent advocate of civil-service reform. Schurz represented Missouri in the United States Senate and served as the 13th United States Secretary of the Interior.


02/03/1824

Bedřich Smetana, Czech pianist and composer (died 1884)

Bedřich Smetana was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his people's aspirations to a cultural and political "revival". He has been regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. Internationally he is best known for his 1866 opera The Bartered Bride and for the symphonic cycle Má vlast, which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer's native Bohemia. It contains the famous symphonic poem "Vltava", also popularly known by its German name "Die Moldau".


02/03/1820

Multatuli, Dutch writer (died 1887)

Eduard Douwes Dekker, better known by his pen name Multatuli, was a Dutch writer best known for his satirical novel Max Havelaar (1860), which denounced the abuses of colonialism in the Dutch East Indies. He is considered one of the Netherlands' greatest authors.


02/03/1817

János Arany, Hungarian journalist and poet (died 1882)

János Arany was a Hungarian poet, writer, translator and journalist. He is often said to be the "Shakespeare of ballads" – he wrote more than 102 ballads that have been translated into over 50 languages, as well as the Toldi trilogy.


02/03/1816

Alexander Bullock, American lawyer and politician, 26th Governor of Massachusetts (died 1882)

Alexander Hamilton Bullock was an American lawyer, politician, and businessman from Massachusetts. First a Whig and then a Republican, he served three terms (1866–69) as the 26th Governor of Massachusetts. He was actively opposed to the expansion of slavery before the American Civil War, playing a major role in the New England Emigrant Aid Society, founded in 1855 to settle the Kansas Territory with abolitionists. He was for many years involved in the insurance industry in Worcester, where he also served one term as mayor.


02/03/1810

Pope Leo XIII (died 1903)

Pope Leo XIII was head of the Catholic Church from 1878 until his death in 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of St. Peter, Pius IX, and John Paul II.


02/03/1800

Yevgeny Baratynsky, Russian-Italian poet and philosopher (died 1844)

Yevgeny Abramovich Baratynsky was a Russian poet. He was lauded by Alexander Pushkin as the finest Russian elegiac poet. After a long period when his reputation was on the wane, Baratynsky was rediscovered by Russian Symbolism poets as a supreme poet of thought.


02/03/1793

Sam Houston, American soldier and politician, 1st President of the Republic of Texas (died 1863)

Samuel Houston was an American general and statesman who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two individuals to represent Texas in the United States Senate. He also served as the sixth governor of Tennessee and the seventh governor of Texas. Houston is the only individual to be elected governor of two different US states.


02/03/1779

Joel Roberts Poinsett, American physician and politician, 15th United States Secretary of War (died 1851)

Joel Roberts Poinsett was an American physician, botanist, politician, and diplomat. He was the first U.S. agent in Hispanic America, a member of the South Carolina Legislature, and later a United States Representative from 1821 to 1825. In 1825, he was appointed by John Quincy Adams as the first United States Minister to Mexico, replacing envoy James Wilkinson, and serving through the first year of Andrew Jackson's administration in 1829. He represented the United States government to the First Mexican Empire, the Provisional Government, and the First Mexican Republic in Mexico City.


02/03/1770

Louis-Gabriel Suchet, French general (died 1826)

Louis-Gabriel Suchet, duc d'Albuféra, was a French Marshal of the Empire and one of the most successful commanders of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. During the Peninsular War, he was remembered as a skilled administrator. He is placed among the greatest commanders of the Napoleonic Wars.


02/03/1769

DeWitt Clinton, American lawyer and politician, 6th Governor of New York (died 1828)

DeWitt Clinton was an American politician and naturalist. He served as a United States senator, as the mayor of New York City, and as the sixth governor of New York. In the last capacity, he was largely responsible for the construction of the Erie Canal. Clinton was a major candidate for the American presidency in the election of 1812, challenging incumbent James Madison.


02/03/1760

Camille Desmoulins, French journalist and politician (died 1794)

Lucie-Simplice-Camille-Benoît Desmoulins was a French journalist, politician and a prominent figure of the French Revolution. He is best known for playing an instrumental role in the events that led to the Storming of the Bastille. Desmoulins was also noted for his radical criticism of the Reign of Terror as the editor of the journal Le Vieux Cordelier. He was a schoolmate and close friend of Maximilien Robespierre and a close friend and political ally of Georges Danton, who were leading figures in the French Revolution.


02/03/1740

Nicholas Pocock, English naval painter (died 1821)

Nicholas Pocock was an English artist who specialised in marine art.


02/03/1705

William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, Scottish lawyer, judge, and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (died 1793)

William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield,, was a British judge, politician, lawyer, and peer best known for his reforms to English law. Born in Scone Palace, Perthshire, to a family of Scottish nobility, he was educated in Perth before moving to London at the age of 13 to study at Westminster School. Accepted into Christ Church, Oxford, in May 1723, Mansfield graduated four years later and returned to London, where he was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn in November 1730 and quickly gained a reputation as an excellent barrister.


02/03/1651

Carlo Gimach, Maltese architect, engineer and poet (died 1730)

Carlo Gimach was a Maltese architect, engineer and poet who was active in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Throughout his career, he worked in Malta, Portugal, and Rome, and he is mostly known for designing Palazzo Carneiro in Valletta, renovating the Monastery of Arouca in Portugal, and restoring the Basilica of St. Anastasia in Rome. He is known to have written a number of poems and other literary works, but these are all lost with the exception of one cantata which he wrote in 1714.


02/03/1628

Cornelis Speelman, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (died 1684)

Cornelis Janszoon Speelman was Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1681 to 1684.


02/03/1577

George Sandys, English traveller, colonist and poet (died 1644)

George Sandys was an English traveller, colonist, poet, and translator. He was known for his translations of Ovid's Metamorphoses and the Passion of Jesus, as well as his travel narratives of the Eastern Mediterranean region, which formed a substantial contribution to geography and ethnology.


02/03/1545

Thomas Bodley, English diplomat and scholar, founded the Bodleian Library (died 1613)

Sir Thomas Bodley was an English diplomat and scholar who founded the Bodleian Library in Oxford.


02/03/1481

Franz von Sickingen, German knight (died 1523)

Franz von Sickingen was a knight of the Holy Roman Empire who, with Ulrich von Hutten, led the so-called "Knights' War". He is posthumously known as the "Last Knight", an epithet shared with his contemporaries Chevalier de Bayard and Emperor Maximilian.


02/03/1459

Pope Adrian VI (died 1523)

Pope Adrian VI, born Adriaan Florensz Boeyens, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 January 1522 until his death on 14 September 1523. The only Dutchman to become pope, he was the last non-Italian pope until the Polish John Paul II 455 years later.


02/03/1453

Johannes Engel, German doctor, astronomer and astrologer (died 1512)

Johannes Engel, also known as Johannes Angelus, was a doctor, astronomer and astrologer from Aichach, near Augsburg, which at that time was a Free Imperial City within the Holy Roman Empire. He practiced medicine in Vienna, and published numerous almanachs, planetary tables and calendars. His Astrolabium planum was published by Erhard Ratdolt of Augsburg in 1488; a second edition was printed by Johann Emerich for Lucantonio Giunti in Venice in 1494.


02/03/1432

Countess Palatine Margaret of Mosbach, countess consort of Hanau (died 1457)

Countess Palatine Margaret of Mosbach was the eldest daughter of Count Palatine Otto I of Mosbach and his wife, Johanna of Bavaria-Landshut. She married on 11 July 1446 to Count Reinhard III of Hanau, who succeeded his father as ruling Count in 1451.


02/03/1409

Jean II, Duke of Alençon (died 1476)

Jean II of Alençon was a French nobleman. He succeeded his father as Duke of Alençon and Count of Perche as a minor in 1415, after the latter's death at the Battle of Agincourt. He is best known as a general in the last phase of the Hundred Years' War and for his role as a comrade-in-arms of Joan of Arc.


02/03/1316

Robert II of Scotland (died 1390)

Robert II was King of Scots from 1371 to his death in 1390. The son of Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland, and Marjorie, daughter of King Robert the Bruce, he was named Robert Stewart. Upon the death of his uncle David II, Robert succeeded to the throne as the first monarch of the House of Stuart.


02/03/0480

Benedict of Nursia, Italian Christian saint (died 543 or 547)

Benedict of Nursia, often known as Saint Benedict, was a monk and the founder of the Order of Saint Benedict. He is famed in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion, and Old Catholic Churches. In 1964, Pope Paul VI declared Benedict a patron saint of Europe.