Born on Sunday, 29th March – Famous Birthdays
On this day, 189 notable people were born on 29th March — spanning from 1187 to 2004. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.
N’Golo Kanté, the French footballer born on this date in 1991, has become one of the most accomplished midfielders of his generation. His rise from relative obscurity to winning multiple Premier League titles and a World Cup with France exemplifies the calibre of talent that has emerged on 29 March throughout history. The date also marks the birth of Thorgan Hazard in 1993, a Belgian footballer who has represented top European clubs and contributed significantly to his national team’s performances in major tournaments.
Beyond contemporary sports figures, 29 March holds historical significance in political and scientific contexts. John Major, who became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was born on this date in 1943. His decade leading the country during a period of significant constitutional and economic change shaped modern British politics in lasting ways. The date encompasses births spanning centuries, from Edwin Lutyens, the renowned British architect born in 1869, whose designs remain iconic landmarks, to figures from earlier eras whose contributions shaped their respective fields.
On Sunday, 29 March 2026, the weather conditions will influence how people mark the day, whilst the moon will be in its waning gibbous phase. The date falls under the Aries zodiac sign, a period traditionally associated with initiation and determination. These astronomical and meteorological factors provide context for understanding the day’s characteristics as it unfolds.
DayAtlas provides comprehensive information about notable births, deaths and significant events for any date and location, alongside weather conditions and astronomical data. Users can explore historical records and discover which prominent figures share their birthday, making the platform a valuable resource for understanding the broader context of any calendar date.
Discover who was born today 1st April.
29/03/2004
Kim Ju-chan, South Korean footballer
Kim Ju-chan is a South Korean professional footballer who plays as a winger for K League 1 club Gimcheon Sangmu. He made his debut professional appearance in the 2023 K League 1 season with Suwon Samsung Bluewings.
29/03/1996
Wade Baldwin IV, American basketball player
Wade Manson Baldwin IV is an American professional basketball player for Fenerbahçe of the Turkish Basketbol Süper Ligi (BSL) and the EuroLeague. He primarily plays as combo guard, but he can also play as small forward due to his 6 ft 11 in wingspan.
29/03/1994
Jung Jae-won, South Korean rapper, singer-songwriter, and actor
Jung Jae-won, better known by stage name One, is a South Korean rapper, singer-songwriter, and actor. He debuted in 2015 as a member of the former hip-hop duo 1Punch with Kim Samuel. The following year he moved to YG Entertainment from D-Business Entertainment. In 2019, Jaewon left YG Entertainment and since moved under his own record label Private Only. He is well known for appearing on the fourth and fifth season of Show Me the Money, as well as appearances on dramas such as A Korean Odyssey (2017), Room No. 9 (2018), and Her Private Life (2019).
Matt Olson, American baseball player
Matthew Kent Olson is an American professional baseball first baseman for the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Oakland Athletics.
29/03/1993
Thorgan Hazard, Belgian footballer
Thorgan Ganael Francis Hazard is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for Belgian Pro League club Anderlecht.
29/03/1991
Irene, South Korean idol, actress and television host
Bae Joo-hyun, better known by her stage name Irene (아이린), is a South Korean singer and actress. She is best known as the member and leader of the South Korean girl group Red Velvet, and its sub-unit Red Velvet – Irene & Seulgi.
N'Golo Kanté, French footballer
N'Golo Kanté is a French professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Süper Lig club Fenerbahçe and the France national team. Regarded as one of the greatest defensive midfielders of his generation, he is known for his stamina and work-rate on the pitch.
29/03/1990
Lyle Taylor, English footballer
Lyle James Alfred Taylor is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for National League South club Chelmsford City. Born in England, he plays for the Montserrat national team.
29/03/1989
James Tomkins, English footballer
James Oliver Charles Tomkins is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He represented England at all levels up to the under-21 team and represented Great Britain at the 2012 London Olympics. He is a product of the West Ham youth academy.
29/03/1986
Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, English footballer
Sylvan Augustus Ebanks-Blake is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker.
Lucas Elliot Eberl, American actor and director
Luke Eberl is an American actor, director, and pianist best known for his role as Birn in the 2001 film Planet of the Apes and for his film Choose Connor. In 2008, Eberl was described by MovieMaker Magazine as one of the "10 Young Americans to Watch". He is currently in production on his second feature film, You Above All.
29/03/1985
Fernando Amorebieta, Venezuelan footballer
Fernando Gabriel Amorebieta Mardaras is a Venezuelan former professional footballer who played as a central defender.
29/03/1983
Efstathios Aloneftis, Greek-Cypriot footballer
Stathis Aloneftis is a Cypriot international footballer. He is a winger who tends to play on the left wing, highly regarded for his speed and technique.
Chokwe Antar Lumumba, American attorney, activist and politician
Chokwe Antar Lumumba is an American attorney, activist, and politician who served as the 53rd mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, from 2017 to 2025. He was the 7th consecutive African-American to hold the position. In 2024, Lumumba and other officials in the state were indicted on corruption charges. He is the son of former mayor and Black nationalist activist Chokwe Lumumba, who served briefly as mayor of Jackson before his death in 2014.
29/03/1981
Jasmine Crockett, American attorney and politician
Jasmine Felicia Crockett is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Texas's 30th congressional district since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she represented the 100th district in the Texas House of Representatives from 2021 to 2023.
Megan Hilty, American actress and singer
Megan Hilty is an American actress and singer. She rose to prominence for her roles in Broadway musicals, including her performance as Glinda in Wicked, Doralee Rhodes in 9 to 5: The Musical, and her Tony Award–nominated roles as Brooke Ashton in Noises Off and Madeline Ashton in Death Becomes Her. She also starred as Ivy Lynn on the musical-drama series Smash, on which she sang the Grammy Award-nominated "Let Me Be Your Star", and portrayed Liz on the sitcom Sean Saves the World.
PJ Morton, American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer
P.J. Morton is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. In 2010, he joined pop rock band Maroon 5, as a touring member and became an official member after Jesse Carmichael went on a brief hiatus in 2012. During this period, Morton signed with Young Money to release his debut major-label studio album, New Orleans (2013), and later self-released Gumbo, which earned him two Grammy Award nominations for Best R&B Album and Best R&B Song at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. Since then he has received six Grammy Awards.
Jlloyd Samuel, Trinidadian footballer (died 2018)
Jlloyd Tafari Samuel was a professional footballer who played as a defender and midfielder. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, he was raised in England and played for England up to under-21 level. He played two full international matches for Trinidad and Tobago in 2009.
29/03/1980
Hamzah bin Hussein, Jordanian prince
Hamzah bin Al Hussein is the fourth son of King Hussein of Jordan overall and the first by his American-born fourth wife, Queen Noor. He was named Crown Prince of Jordan on 7 February 1999, a position he held until his older half-brother, King Abdullah II, rescinded it on 28 November 2004. He is a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of Jordan since 1921, and is a 41st-generation direct descendant of Muhammad.
Molly Brodak, American poet and writer (died 2020)
Molly Brodak was an American poet, writer, and baker. She was the author of the poetry collection A Little Middle of the Night and the memoir Bandit. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution described Bandit as: "a book about stories and character, of how events and actions shape who we are, how a father becomes one person, how a daughter grows up to be another." The New York Times called Bandit "a good book, and with good reason," while Kirkus called it: "an intelligent, disturbing, and profoundly honest memoir."
Chris D'Elia, American stand-up comedian, actor and writer
Christopher William D'Elia is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and podcast host. He is known for playing Alex Miller on the NBC sitcom Whitney (2011–2013), Danny Burton on the NBC sitcom Undateable (2014–2016), Kenny on the ABC television series The Good Doctor (2017–2018) and Henderson on the Netflix thriller series You (2019).
Bill Demong, American skier
William Demong is an American former Nordic combined skier and Olympic gold medalist. Demong is a five-time Olympian, having competed in Nagano, Salt Lake City, Torino, Vancouver and Sochi.
29/03/1979
Luis Ortiz, Cuban boxer
Luis Ortiz is a Cuban professional boxer. He held the WBA interim heavyweight title from 2015 to 2016, and challenged twice for the WBC heavyweight title in 2018 and 2019. As an amateur, he won a silver medal at the 2005 Boxing World Cup. Nicknamed "King Kong", he is known for his formidable punching power. As of November 2021, he was ranked as the world's eighth-best active heavyweight by The Ring magazine and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board.
29/03/1978
Ian Holding, Zimbabwean writer
Ian Holding, is a Caucasian Zimbabwean writer. His first novel, Unfeeling was critically acclaimed on publication in the United Kingdom in 2005, and was one of the first fictional attempts dealing with the complex political and social situation in Zimbabwe, in particular the country's controversial Land Reform Programme. According to South African commentator and academic, Michiel Heyns, "one of the achievements of this remarkable novel is to obtrude, without preaching or moralising, a much more thoughtful and critical assessment of power relations in Zimbabwe." The novel was shortlisted for the 2006 Dylan Thomas Prize and was named as "One of the Year's Best Books" by both Newsweek and The Globe & Mail.
29/03/1977
Nina Riggs, American writer and poet (died 2017)
Nina Ellen Riggs was an American writer and poet. Her best known work is her memoir, The Bright Hour, detailing her journey as a mother with incurable breast cancer. It was published shortly after her death. The book received critical acclaim. Riggs also contributed an article to New York Times series Modern Love.
29/03/1976
Jennifer Capriati, American tennis player
Jennifer Maria Capriati is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 17 weeks. Capriati won 14 WTA Tour-level singles titles, including three majors at the 2001 Australian Open, 2001 French Open, and 2002 Australian Open, and an Olympic gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
29/03/1974
Alex Cuba, Cuban-Canadian singer-songwriter
Alexis Puentes, better known by his stage name Alex Cuba, is a Cuban-Canadian singer-songwriter who sings in Spanish and English. He has won two Juno Awards for World Music Album of the Year: in 2006 for Humo de Tabaco, and in 2008 for his second album, Agua del Pozo. In 2010 he won the Latin Grammy for Best New Artist. His 2015 album, Healer, earned him a Latin Grammy Award for Best Singer-Songwriter Album and a Grammy Award nomination for Best Latin Pop Album. His 2021 album Mendó won the 2022 Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album.
29/03/1973
Marc Overmars, Dutch footballer and coach
Marc Overmars is a Dutch former professional footballer and former director of football at Belgian Pro League side Royal Antwerp. He was previously director of football at Ajax. During his football career, he played as a winger and was renowned for his speed and technical skills.
29/03/1972
Ernest Cline, American novelist, poet and screenwriter
Ernest Christy Cline is an American science fiction novelist, slam poet and screenwriter. He wrote the novels Ready Player One, Armada and Ready Player Two, and co-wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of Ready Player One, directed by Steven Spielberg.
Stina Leicht, American author
Stina Leicht is an American science fiction and fantasy fiction author living in central Texas. She was nominated for the Campbell Award in 2012 and 2013, and was shortlisted for the Crawford Award in 2012. Leicht was mentioned in Locus Magazine's 2012 Recommended Reading List. She is also one of the regular hosts of the Skiffy and Fanty Show.
Priti Patel, British Indian politician, Secretary of State for the Home Department
Dame Priti Sushil Patel is a British politician who has served as Shadow Foreign Secretary since November 2024, having previously served as Home Secretary from 2019 to 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she was Secretary of State for International Development from 2016 to 2017. Patel has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Witham since 2010. She is ideologically on the right wing of the Conservative Party; she considers herself to be a Thatcherite and has attracted attention for her socially conservative stances.
29/03/1971
Robert Gibbs, American political adviser, 28th White House Press Secretary
Robert Lane Gibbs is an American communication professional who served as executive vice president and global chief communications officer of McDonald's from 2015 to 2019 and as the 27th White House press secretary from 2009 to 2011.
Lara Logan, South African television and radio journalist and war correspondent
Lara Logan is a South African television and radio journalist and war correspondent. Her career began with various South African news organizations in the 1990s. Her public profile rose due to her reports on the American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, leading to her being hired as a correspondent for CBS News in 2002 and eventually becoming the service's Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent.
Hidetoshi Nishijima, Japanese actor
Hidetoshi Nishijima is a Japanese actor and model. He is widely regarded as one of Japan's leading actors, having appeared in a wide range of films from science fiction films such as Shin Ultraman (2022) to small-scale art films such as Dolls (2002). He gained international recognition for his critically acclaimed leading role in the 2021 film Drive My Car, for which he received the Japan Academy Film Prize for Best Actor.
29/03/1970
J. A. Konrath, American author
Joseph Andrew Konrath is an American fiction writer working in the mystery, thriller, and horror genres. He writes as J. A. Konrath and Jack Kilborn.
29/03/1969
Ted Lieu, American politician and AFRC colonel
Ted Win-Ping Lieu is an American lawyer and politician. He is a member of the Democratic Party and has represented California's 36th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives since 2023. He represented the 33rd congressional district from 2015 to 2023. The district includes South Bay and Westside regions of Los Angeles, as well as Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and Beach Cities.
Jimmy Spencer, American football player and coach
James Arthur Spencer, Jr. is an American former professional football player who was a cornerback for 12 seasons in the National Football League (NFL) during the 1990s and early 2000s. Spencer played college football for the Florida Gators, and thereafter, he played in the NFL for the New Orleans Saints, Cincinnati Bengals, San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos.
29/03/1968
Chris Calloway, American football player
Christopher Fitzpatrick Calloway is an American former professional football player.
Lucy Lawless, New Zealand actress
Lucille Frances Lawless is a New Zealand actress, singer, and director. She is best known for her roles as Xena in the television series Xena: Warrior Princess, as D'Anna Biers on the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series, and Lucretia in the television series Spartacus: Blood and Sand and associated series. Since 2019, she has starred as Alexa in the television series My Life Is Murder.
29/03/1967
Michel Hazanavicius, French director, producer, and screenwriter
Michel Hazanavicius is a French film director, screenwriter, editor, and producer. He is best known for his 2011 film, The Artist, that won the Best Picture and the Best Director at the 84th Academy Awards. He also directed spy film parodies OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006) and OSS 117: Lost in Rio (2009).
Brian Jordan, American baseball player and sportscaster
Brian O'Neal Jordan is an American former professional baseball and football player. Jordan played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Atlanta Falcons as a safety from 1989 to 1991, and played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Texas Rangers as an outfielder from 1992 to 2006. Jordan was an MLB All-Star in 1999.
Edmundo Paz Soldán, Bolivian writer
José Edmundo Paz-Soldán Ávila is a Bolivian writer. His work is a prominent example of the Latin American literary movement known as McOndo, in which the magical realism of previous Latin American authors is supplanted by modern realism, often with a technological focus. His work has won several awards. He has lived in the United States since 1991, and has taught literature at Cornell University since 1997.
29/03/1966
Dwayne Harper, American football player
Dwayne Anthony Harper is an American former professional football player who was a cornerback for 12 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the South Carolina State Bulldogs and was selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the 11th round of the 1988 NFL draft with the 299th overall pick. Harper started in Super Bowl XXIX for the San Diego Chargers.
29/03/1965
Todd F. Davis, American poet and critic
Todd F. Davis is a prize-winning American poet and critic.
Ayun Halliday, American writer and actor
Ayun Halliday is an American writer and actor.
Brooks Hansen, American novelist, screenwriter and illustrator
Brooks Hansen is an American novelist, screenwriter, and illustrator best known for his 1995 book The Chess Garden. He was the recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005. Since 2010, Hansen has lived and worked at the Cate School, where he teaches English and Humanities. He lives with his family in Carpinteria, California.
Maia Szalavitz, American journalist and author
Maia Pearl Szalavitz is an American reporter and author who focuses on science, public policy and addiction treatment.
Bradford Tatum, American actor
Bradford Steven Tatum is an American actor and author, known for his role as Michael Hubbs in the cult favorite stoner film The Stoned Age (1994). He also played the bully, John Box in Powder (1995). In 1999, Bradford wrote, directed, and starred in the indie film Standing on Fishes. Bradford is married to actress Stacy Haiduk, with whom he guest-starred in the seaQuest DSV episode "Nothing but the Truth". In 2006, Tatum released the indie film Salt: A Fatal Attraction, which he wrote, produced and starred in. This film also featured his wife, Stacy Haiduk, and his daughter, Sophia Tatum. In 2016, he joined the cast of the HBO series Westworld.
29/03/1964
Catherine Cortez Masto, American attorney and politician
Catherine Marie Cortez Masto is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Nevada, a seat she has held since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Cortez Masto served as the 32nd attorney general of Nevada from 2007 to 2015.
Elle Macpherson, Australian model and actress
Eleanor Nancy Macpherson is an Australian model, businesswoman, television host, and actress.
29/03/1963
Padraic Kenney, American writer, historian and educator
Padraic Jeremiah Kenney is an American writer, historian, and educator. He was dean of the University of Kentucky's graduate school until May 2025. Previously Kenney was professor of history and International Studies at Indiana University (IU). At IU, he served as an Associate Dean for Social and Historical Sciences and Graduate Education in the College of Arts and Sciences; he also served a two-year tenure as director of Collins Living-Learning Center from 2018 to 2020. Previously, he was Professor of History at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He graduated from Harvard College (BA), University of Toronto (MA), and the University of Michigan (PhD).
29/03/1962
Billy Beane, American baseball player and manager
William Lamar Beane III is an American former professional baseball player and current front office executive. He is currently senior advisor to owner John Fisher and minority owner of the Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB) and formerly the executive vice president of baseball operations. He is also a minority owner of soccer clubs Barnsley of the EFL League One in England and AZ Alkmaar of the Eredivisie in the Netherlands. From 1984 to 1989 he played in MLB as an outfielder for the New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, and Oakland Athletics. He joined the Athletics' front office as a scout in 1990, was named general manager after the 1997 season, and was promoted to executive vice president after the 2015 season.
Igor Klebanov, Ukrainian-American theoretical physicist
Igor R. Klebanov is an American theoretical physicist. Since 1989, he has been a faculty member at Princeton University, where he is currently a Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics and the director of the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science. In 2016, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Since 2022, he is the director of the Simons Collaboration on Confinement and QCD Strings.
Kirk Triplett, American golfer
Kirk Alan Triplett is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour, Nationwide Tour, and PGA Tour Champions.
29/03/1961
Todd G. Buchholz, American economist and author
Todd G. Buchholz is an American economist, author, inventor, and business consultant. He served as Director of Economic Policy under George H. W. Bush and as managing director of Tiger Management. Buchholz regularly contributes commentaries on political economy, financial markets, trends in the trout population, business and culture to media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, as well as major television networks.
Helen Humphreys, Canadian poet and novelist
Helen Humphreys is a Canadian poet and novelist.
Amy Sedaris, American actress and comedian
Amy Louise Sedaris is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She played Jerri Blank in the Comedy Central comedy series Strangers with Candy (1999–2000) and the prequel film Strangers with Candy (2005), which she also wrote.
Michael Winterbottom, English director and producer
Michael Winterbottom is an English film director. He began his career working in British television before moving into features. Three of his films—Welcome to Sarajevo, Wonderland and 24 Hour Party People—have competed for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He and co-director Mat Whitecross won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival for their work on The Road to Guantanamo.
29/03/1960
Jo Nesbø, Norwegian writer, musician and football player
Jon "Jo" Nesbø is a Norwegian novelist and musician. His books had sold over 50 million copies worldwide by 2021, making him the most successful Norwegian author to date. He first came to prominence as the singer, rhythm guitarist and principal songwriter of country-pop band Di Derre, when their second album became a big hit in Norway, almost selling enough to make double platinum. The album was initially titled Kvinner & Klær, but had to be renamed and re-released as Jenter & Sånt after the eponymous Norwegian women's fashion magazine filed a complaint.
29/03/1959
Brad McCrimmon, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 2011)
Byron Brad McCrimmon was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach. A defenceman, he played over 1,200 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers, Calgary Flames, Detroit Red Wings, Hartford Whalers and Phoenix Coyotes between 1979 and 1997. He achieved his greatest success in Calgary, where he was named a second team All-Star in 1987–88, played in the 1988 NHL All-Star Game and won the Plus-Minus Award with a league leading total of +48. In 1989, he helped the Flames win their only Stanley Cup championship. His career plus-minus of +444 is the 10th highest total in NHL history, and the highest among players not inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
29/03/1958
Travis Childers, American businessman and politician
Travis Wayne Childers is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Mississippi's 1st congressional district from 2008 to 2011. The district included much of the northern portion of the state including New Albany, Columbus, Oxford, Southaven, and Tupelo. A member of the Democratic Party, Childers previously served as Chancery Clerk of Prentiss County from 1992 until his election to Congress. On March 1, 2014, Childers announced that he was running for the United States Senate. He won his party's nomination for the Senate seat in the Democratic primary on June 3. He lost the general election to Republican incumbent Thad Cochran.
Nouriel Roubini, Iranian-American economic consultant, economist and writer
Nouriel Roubini is an American economic consultant, economist, speaker, and writer. He is a professor emeritus since 2021 at the Stern School of Business of New York University. Roubini earned a BA in political economics at Bocconi University in Italy and a doctorate in international economics at Harvard University. He was an academic at Yale and a researcher/advisor researching emerging markets.
29/03/1957
Elizabeth Hand, American author
Elizabeth Hand is an American writer.
Mark Hudson, British writer, journalist and art critic
Mark Hudson is a British writer, journalist and art critic. Since 2021 he has been chief art critic of The Independent. He has won multiple awards.
Christopher Lambert, American-French actor
Christophe Guy Denis Lambert, often credited as Christopher Lambert, is a French–American actor, producer, and writer. He started his career playing supporting parts in several French films, and became internationally famous for portraying Tarzan in Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984). For his performance in the film Subway (1985), he received the César Award for Best Actor. He is known for his role as Connor MacLeod in the adventure-fantasy film Highlander (1986) and the subsequent television and film franchise of the same name, Raiden in Mortal Kombat (1995), Methodius in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011), and Arne Seslum in Hail, Caesar! (2016). He also served as executive producer for Nine Months (1995).
Kathryn Tanner, American theologian
Kathryn Eileen Tanner is an Episcopal theologian who serves as the Frederick Marquand Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School.
29/03/1956
Patty Donahue, American singer (died 1996)
Patricia Jean Donahue was an American singer. She was the lead vocalist of the American new wave band the Waitresses, known for the singles "I Know What Boys Like" and "Christmas Wrapping".
Mary Gentle, English author
Mary Rosalyn Gentle is a British science fiction and fantasy author.
William Gurstelle, American writer and inventor
William Gurstelle is an American academic, nonfiction author, magazine writer, and inventor. He has been part of the History of Technology, Science, and Medicine program at the University of Minnesota since 2019. He is a feature columnist for Make magazine, a columnist and contributing editor at Popular Science magazine, and an occasional book reviewer for the Wall Street Journal. Previously, he was the Pyrotechnics and Ballistics Editor at Popular Mechanics magazine.
Ted Staunton, Canadian author
Ted Staunton is a Canadian author and teacher, best known for his children's books and numerous series. He has published nearly sixty titles.
Kurt Thomas, American gymnast (died 2020)
Kurt Bilteaux Thomas was an American Olympic gymnast and part-time actor. He was a member of the United States men's national artistic gymnastics team and in 1978 he became the first American male gymnast to win a gold medal at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. In 1979, he won six medals at the world championship, setting the record for most medals won at a single world championship by an American gymnast, a feat matched only by Simone Biles in 2018. He competed in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Thomas was favored to win a medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics but was unable to compete due to the USA boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games.
29/03/1955
Earl Campbell, American football player
Earl Christian Campbell, nicknamed "the Tyler Rose", is an American former professional football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons, primarily with the Houston Oilers. Known for his aggressive, punishing running style, and ability to break tackles, Campbell gained recognition as one of the best power running backs in NFL history.
Gillian Conoley, American poet
Gillian Conoley is an American poet. Conoley serves as a professor and poet-in-residence at Sonoma State University.
Brendan Gleeson, Irish actor
Brendan Gleeson is an Irish actor. He has received various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, two British Independent Film Awards and three IFTA Awards, along with nominations for an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, he was listed at number 18 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors. He is the father of actors Domhnall Gleeson and Brian Gleeson.
Marina Sirtis, British-American actress
Marina Sirtis is a British-American actress. She is best known for her role as Counselor Deanna Troi on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and four Star Trek feature films, as well as other appearances in the Star Trek franchise.
29/03/1954
Mario Clark, American football player
Mario Sean Clark is an American former professional football player who played as a cornerback for the Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at the University of Oregon.
Martha A. Sandweiss, American historian
Martha Ann Sandweiss is an American historian, with particular interests in the history of the American West, visual culture, and public history. She is a professor of History at Princeton University, and the author of several books. Sandweiss is the Founder and Project Director of the Princeton & Slavery Project, a large-scale investigation into Princeton University's historical ties to the institution of slavery.
Suzanna Sherry, American legal scholar
Suzanna Sherry is an American legal scholar in the area of constitutional law with particular emphasis in the subject of federal courts. She is the Herman O. Loewenstein Chair Emerita at the Vanderbilt University Law School.
Evelyn C. White, American writer and editor
Evelyn Corliss White is an American writer and editor. Her books include the collection Black Women's Health Book: Speaking for Ourselves and the biography Alice Walker: A Life.
29/03/1952
Jo-Ann Mapson, American author
Jo-Ann Mapson is an American author. She is the author of twelve works of fiction, set mainly in the American Southwest.
Teófilo Stevenson, Cuban boxer and engineer (died 2012)
Teófilo Stevenson Lawrence was a Cuban amateur boxer who competed from 1966 to 1986.
Bola Tinubu, Nigerian politician, President-elect of Nigeria
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu is a Nigerian politician serving as the 16th and current president of Nigeria since 2023. He previously served as the governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007 and senator for Lagos West in the Third Republic.
Alec Wilkinson, American writer
Alec Wilkinson is an American writer who has been on the staff of The New Yorker since 1980.
29/03/1951
David Cheriton, Canadian computer scientist, mathematician and businessman
David Ross Cheriton is a Canadian computer scientist, businessman, philanthropist, and venture capitalist. He is a computer science professor at Stanford University, where he founded and leads the Distributed Systems Group.
William Clarke, American harmonica player (died 1996)
William Clarke was an American blues harmonica player and singer. He was chiefly associated with the Chicago blues style of amplified harmonica, but also incorporated elements of jump blues, swing, and soul jazz into his playing. Clarke was a master of both cross and chromatic harmonica styles and many consider him among the blues harmonica greats.
Roger Myerson, American economist and professor
Roger Bruce Myerson is an American economist and a Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy. In 2007, he was the winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Leonid Hurwicz and Eric Maskin for "having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory". He was elected a Member of the American Philosophical Society in 2019.
Nick Ut, Vietnamese-American photographer
Huỳnh Công Út, known professionally as Nick Ut, is a Vietnamese-American photographer who worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles. He won both the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and the 1973 World Press Photo of the Year for the 1972 photograph The Terror of War, depicting children running away from a napalm bombing attack during the Vietnam War. Since the release of the documentary The Stringer in 2025, the authorship of the photograph has been disputed; the documentary identified Nguyễn Thành Nghệ as the author, AP stood with the attribution to Ut, and World Press Photo suspended the authorship attribution until more evidence is available. Ut retired in 2017. Examples of his work may be found in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
29/03/1950
Mory Kanté, Guinean vocalist (died 2020)
Mory Kanté was a Guinean vocalist and player of the kora harp. He was best known internationally for his 1987 hit song "Yé ké yé ké", which reached number-one in Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, and Spain. The album it came from, Akwaba Beach, was the best-selling African record of its time.
29/03/1949
Michael Brecker, American saxophonist and composer (died 2007)
Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Over a four‑decade career, he recorded widely in jazz and popular music and appeared on more than 900 albums as a leader and sideman. He received 15 Grammy Awards from the Recording Academy, was inducted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame in 2007, and received an honorary doctor of music degree from Berklee College of Music in 2004. He died in New York City in 2007 from complications of leukemia following a 2005 diagnosis of myelodysplastic syndrome.
Joe Ehrmann, American football player and writer
Joseph Charles Ehrmann is an American former professional football player who was a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) from 1973 through 1982. He played college football for the Syracuse Orangemen and was selected in the first round of the 1973 NFL draft by the Baltimore Colts with the 10th overall pick.
Israel Finkelstein, Israeli archaeologist and professor
Israel Finkelstein is an Israeli archaeologist, professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University and the head of the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures at the University of Haifa. Finkelstein is active in the archaeology of the Levant and is an applicant of archaeological data in reconstructing biblical history. Finkelstein is the current excavator of Megiddo, a key site for the study of the Bronze and Iron Ages in the Levant. Finkelstein's fieldwork in northern Israel and the West Bank, as well as his development of the "Low Chronology", upended prior archaeological assessments by showing that the Kingdom of Israel was substantially larger and more prosperous when it coexisted alongside the Kingdom of Judah. Finkelstein has used these insights to challenge the biblical narrative that David and Solomon ruled a united monarchy of Israel and Judah from Jerusalem in the 10th century BCE.
Dave Greenfield, English musician (died 2020)
David Paul Greenfield was an English keyboardist, singer and songwriter who was a member of rock band the Stranglers. He joined the band in 1975, within a year of its formation, and played with them for 45 years until his death.
Pauline Marois, Canadian social worker and politician, 30th Premier of Quebec
Pauline Marois is a retired Canadian politician, who served as the 30th premier of Quebec from 2012 to 2014. Marois had been a member of the National Assembly in various ridings since 1981 as a member of the Parti Québécois (PQ), serving as party leader from 2007 to 2014. She is the first female premier of Quebec.
John Spenkelink, American murderer (died 1979)
John Arthur Spenkelink was an American convicted murderer. He was executed in 1979, the first convicted criminal to be executed in Florida after capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, and the second in the United States as well as the first involuntarily executed in about 14 years.
29/03/1948
Barbara Clare Foley, American author and educator
Barbara Clare Foley is an American literary scholar and a retired Professor of English at Rutgers University-Newark. She has focused her research and teaching on U.S. literary radicalism, African American literature, and Marxist criticism. The author of six books and over seventy scholarly articles, review essays, and book chapters, she has published on literary theory, academic politics, US proletarian literature, the Harlem Renaissance, and the writers Ralph Ellison and Jean Toomer. Throughout her career, her work has emphasized the centrality of antiracism and Marxist class analysis to both literary study and social movements.
29/03/1947
Frank Bowe, American academic (died 2007)
Frank G. Bowe was a deaf American disability studies academic, activist, author, and the Dr. Mervin Livingston Schloss Distinguished Professor for the Study of Disabilities at Hofstra University. As a disability rights activist, author, and teacher, he accomplished a series of firsts for individuals with disabilities.
Robert Gordon, American singer and actor (died 2022)
Robert Gordon was an American rockabilly singer.
29/03/1946
Billy Thorpe, English-Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (died 2007)
William Richard Thorpe AM was an English-born Australian singer-songwriter, and record producer. As lead singer of his band Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs, he had success in the 1960s with "Blue Day", "Poison Ivy", "Over the Rainbow", "Sick and Tired", "Baby, Hold Me Close" and "Mashed Potato"; and in the 1970s with "Most People I Know Think That I'm Crazy". Featuring in concerts at Sunbury Pop Festivals and Myer Music Bowl in the early 1970s, the Aztecs also developed the pub rock scene and were one of the loudest groups in Australia.
29/03/1945
Speedy Keen, English singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (died 2002)
John David Percy "Speedy" Keen was an English musician, songwriter and producer, best known for being the singer and drummer of the rock band Thunderclap Newman. He wrote "Something in the Air" (1969) for the band, which reached No. 1 in the UK singles chart. He also released two solo albums.
29/03/1943
John Major, English banker and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Sir John Major is a British retired politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. He previously held various Cabinet positions under Margaret Thatcher. Major was Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon, formerly Huntingdonshire, from 1979 to 2001. Since stepping down, Major has focused on writing and his business, sporting, and charity work, and commentating on political developments.
Vangelis, Greek keyboard player and songwriter (died 2022)
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, known professionally as Vangelis, was a Greek musician, composer, and producer of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He composed the Academy Award-winning score to Chariots of Fire (1981), as well as scores for the films Blade Runner (1982), Missing (1982), Antarctica (1983), The Bounty (1984), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), and Alexander (2004), and the 1980 PBS documentary series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan.
Eric Idle, English actor, comedian, musician and writer
Eric Idle is an English actor, comedian, songwriter, musician, screenwriter and playwright. He was a member of the British comedy group Monty Python and the parody rock band the Rutles. Idle studied English at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and joined Cambridge University Footlights. He has received a Grammy Award as well as nominations for two Tony Awards.
29/03/1942
Scott Wilson, American actor (died 2018)
William Delano Wilson, known professionally as Scott Wilson, was an American film and television actor.
29/03/1940
Ray Davis, American bass singer (died 2005)
Raymond Davis was the original bass singer and one of the founding members of The Parliaments, and subsequently the bands Parliament, and Funkadelic, collectively known as P-Funk. His regular nickname while he was with those groups was "Sting Ray" Davis. Aside from George Clinton, he was the only original member of the Parliaments not to leave the Parliament-Funkadelic conglomerate in 1977. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.
29/03/1939
Roland Arnall, French-American businessman and diplomat, 63rd United States Ambassador to the Netherlands (died 2008)
Roland E. Arnall was an American businessman and diplomat. As the owner of ACC Capital Holdings, he became a billionaire with Ameriquest Mortgage. Additionally he funded, financed and was the visionary and co-founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and from 2006 until shortly before his death he was the United States Ambassador to the Netherlands. He was the originator of stated income loans, better known as sub-prime loans.
Hanumant Singh, Indian cricketer (died 2006)
Hanumant Singh was an Indian cricketer. He played in 14 Test matches for the Indian cricket team from 1964 to 1969. He was later an International Cricket Council match referee in 9 Tests and 54 One Day Internationals from 1995 to 2002.
29/03/1937
Roberto Chabet, Filipino painter and sculptor (died 2013)
Roberto "Bobby" Rodríguez Chabet was an artist from the Philippines and widely acknowledged as the father of Philippine conceptual art.
Smarck Michel, Haitian businessman and politician, 6th Prime Minister of Haiti (died 2012)
Georges Jean-Jacques Smarck Michel or Smarck Michel was appointed prime minister of Haiti on October 27, 1994, occupying the post from November 8, 1994 to October 16, 1995. Smarck was President Aristide's third prime minister, and the first to be named after the President's return from exile.
Gordon Milne, English footballer
Gordon Milne is an English former football player and manager.
29/03/1936
Richard Rodney Bennett, English-American composer and educator (died 2012)
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett was an English composer and pianist. He was noted for his musical versatility, drawing from such sources as jazz, romanticism, and avant-garde; and for his use of twelve-tone technique and serialism. His body of work included over 200 concert works and 50 scores for film and television. He was also active in jazz, as a composer, a pianist, and an occasional vocalist.
John A. Durkin, American lawyer and politician (died 2012)
John Anthony Durkin was an American politician who served as a Democratic U.S. Senator from New Hampshire from 1975 until 1980.
Joseph P. Teasdale, American lawyer and politician, 48th Governor of Missouri (died 2014)
Joseph Patrick Teasdale was an American politician. A Democrat, he served as the 48th Governor of Missouri from 1977 to 1981. Teasdale was formerly a prosecutor for Jackson County, Missouri. In 1972, he made his first bid for governor, placing third in the Democratic primary, but attaining name recognition and the nickname "Walking Joe". In 1976, after initially running for U.S. Senate, Teasdale switched races and made a second bid for the Governor's office. He won the nomination and defeated incumbent Kit Bond in an upset. In 1980, Teasdale beat back a primary challenge from State Treasurer Jim Spainhower, but was defeated by Bond in a rematch. After leaving office, Teasdale returned to practicing law until his death.
29/03/1935
Ruby Murray, Northern Irish singer (died 1996)
Ruby Florence Murray was a Northern Irish singer. One of the most popular singers in Britain and Ireland in the 1950s, she scored ten hits in the UK Singles Chart between 1954 and 1959. She also made pop chart history in March 1955 by having five hits in the Top Twenty in a single week.
29/03/1931
Aleksei Gubarev, Russian general, pilot and cosmonaut (died 2015)
Aleksei Aleksandrovich Gubarev was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on two space flights: Soyuz 17 and Soyuz 28.
Norman Tebbit, English journalist and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (died 2025)
Norman Beresford Tebbit, Baron Tebbit, was a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet from 1981 to 1987 as Secretary of State for Employment (1981–1983), Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1983–1985), and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chairman of the Conservative Party (1985–1987). He was a member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 to 1992, representing the constituencies of Epping (1970–1974) and Chingford (1974–1992).
29/03/1930
Anerood Jugnauth, Mauritian lawyer and politician, 4th President of Mauritius (died 2021)
Sir Anerood Jugnauth was a Mauritian statesman, barrister, and politician. He served six terms as Prime Minister, two terms as President and one term as Leader of Opposition. Often called the father of the Mauritian economic miracle, he led Mauritius through unprecedented economic growth and modernization as both Prime Minister and President.
29/03/1929
Sheila Kitzinger, English activist, author, and academic (died 2015)
Sheila Helena Elizabeth Kitzinger was a British social anthropologist, natural childbirth activist, and author on childbirth and pregnancy. With over 30 books, her work is considered influential in changing the worldwide culture surrounding childbirth.
Richard Lewontin, American biologist, geneticist, and academic (died 2021)
Richard Charles Lewontin was an American evolutionary biologist, mathematician, geneticist, and social commentator. A leader in developing the mathematical basis of population genetics and evolutionary theory, he applied techniques from molecular biology, such as gel electrophoresis, to questions of genetic variation and evolution. He was a self-described Marxist.
Lennart Meri, Estonian director and politician, 2nd President of Estonia (died 2006)
Lennart Georg Meri was an Estonian writer, film director, and statesman. He was the country's foreign minister from 1990 to 1992 and President of Estonia from 1992 to 2001.
Utpal Dutt, Indian actor, director and playwright (died 1993)
Utpal Dutt was an Indian actor, director, and writer-playwright. He was primarily an actor in Bengali theatre, where he became a pioneering figure in Modern Indian theatre, when he founded the "Little Theatre Group" in 1949. This group enacted many English, Shakespearean and Brecht plays, in a period now known as the "Epic theatre" period, before it immersed itself completely in highly political and radical theatre. His plays became an apt vehicle for the expression of his Marxist ideologies, visible in socio-political plays such as Kallol (1965), Manusher Adhikar, Louha Manob (1964), Tiner Toloar and Maha-Bidroha. He also acted in over 100 Bengali and Hindi films in a career spanning 40 years, and remains most known for his roles in films such as Mrinal Sen’s Bhuvan Shome (1969), Satyajit Ray’s Agantuk (1991), Gautam Ghose’s Padma Nadir Majhi (1992) and Hrishikesh Mukherjee's breezy Hindi comedies such as Gol Maal (1979) and Rang Birangi (1983). He also did the role of a sculptor, Sir Digindra Narayan, in the episode Seemant Heera of Byomkesh Bakshi on Doordarshan in 1993, shortly before his death.
29/03/1928
Romesh Bhandari, Pakistani-Indian politician, 13th Foreign Secretary of India (died 2013)
Romesh Bhandari was an Indian diplomat and administrator. Bhandari, during his career, served in various positions, including as the Foreign Secretary, Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Governor of Tripura, Goa and Uttar Pradesh.
Keith Botsford, Belgian-American journalist, author, and academic (died 2018)
Keith Botsford was an American/European writer, professor emeritus at Boston University and editor of News from the Republic of Letters.
Vincent Gigante, American boxer and mobster (died 2005)
Vincent Louis Gigante, also known as "Chin", was an American mobster who was boss of the Genovese crime family in New York City between 1981 and 2005.
29/03/1927
Martin Fleischmann, British chemist (died 2012)
Martin Fleischmann FRS was a British chemist who worked in electrochemistry. The premature announcement of his cold fusion research with Stanley Pons, regarding excess heat in heavy water, caused a media sensation and elicited skepticism and criticism from many in the scientific community.
John McLaughlin, American journalist and producer (died 2016)
John Joseph McLaughlin (; was an American television personality and political commentator. He created, produced, and hosted the political commentary series The McLaughlin Group from 1982 to 2016, and hosted and produced John McLaughlin's One on One, which ran from 1984 to 2013.
John Vane, English pharmacologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2004)
Sir John Robert Vane was a British pharmacologist who was instrumental in the understanding of how aspirin produces pain-relief and anti-inflammatory effects and his work led to new treatments for heart and blood vessel disease and introduction of ACE inhibitors. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1982 along with Sune Bergström and Bengt Samuelsson for "their discoveries concerning prostaglandins and related biologically active substances".
29/03/1926
Vladimir Bolotin, Russian physicist (died 2008)
Vladimir Vasilyevich Bolotin was a Soviet and Russian physicist in the field of solid mechanics, Doctor of Sciences, Distinguished Professor at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences, Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Engineering, Foreign Member of the United States National Academy of Engineering. Laureate of the 1985 USSR State Prize and of the 2000 State Prize of the Russian Federation.
29/03/1923
Geoff Duke, English-Manx motorcycle racer (died 2015)
Geoffrey Ernest Duke, born in St. Helens, Lancashire, was a British multiple motorcycle Grand Prix road racing world champion. He raced several brands of motorcycle: Norton, Gilera, BMW, NSU and Benelli. After retirement from competition, he was a businessman based in the Isle of Man.
Betty Binns Fletcher, American lawyer and judge (died 2012)
Betty Binns Fletcher was an American lawyer and judge. She served as a United States circuit judge of the San Francisco-based United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit between 1979 and 2012. Fletcher was one of the first women to become a partner in a major American law firm and the second woman to be appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
29/03/1921
Sam Loxton, Australian cricketer, footballer, and politician (died 2011)
Samuel John Everett Loxton was an Australian cricketer, footballer and politician. As a cricket player he played in 12 Tests for Australia from 1948 to 1951. A right-handed all-rounder, Loxton was part of the Invincibles, who went through the 1948 tour of England undefeated, an unprecedented achievement that has never been matched. As well as being a hard-hitting batsman, Loxton was a right-arm swing bowler who liked to aim at the upper bodies of the opposition, and an outfielder with an accurate and powerful throw. After being dropped from the national team, Loxton represented Victoria for seven more seasons before retiring from first-class cricket. He served as an administrator after his playing days were over and spent 24 years as a Liberal Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. Up until 1946, Loxton also played in the Victorian Football League (VFL) for St Kilda as a forward. In all three arenas, he was known for his energetic approach.
29/03/1920
John M. Belk, American businessman and politician (died 2007)
John Montgomery Belk was an American businessman. He was head of the Belk, Inc. department store chain and member of the Democratic Party, he served as the mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina for four terms (1969–1977). He was the son of William Henry Belk, who founded the first Belk store in Monroe, North Carolina, in 1888.
Clarke Fraser, American-Canadian geneticist and academic (died 2014)
Frank Clarke Fraser was a Canadian medical geneticist. Spanning the fields of science and medicine, he was Canada's first medical geneticist, one of the creators of the discipline of medical genetics in North America, and laid the foundations in the field of Genetic Counselling, which has enhanced the lives of patients worldwide. Among his many accomplishments, Fraser pioneered work in the genetics of cleft palate and popularized the concept of multifactorial disease.
Pierre Moinot, French author (died 2007)
Pierre Moinot was a French novelist. He was elected to the Académie française on 21 January 1982.
Theodore Trautwein, American lawyer and judge (died 2000)
Theodore Walter Trautwein was an American judge from New Jersey who presided over issues related to release of reporter's notes that arose from the 1978 murder trial of "Dr. X" physician Mario Jascalevich, in which Trautwein held a reporter from The New York Times in contempt for refusing to turn over these investigative notes and held the reporter involved in jail for 40 days, triggering a separate set of cases on the limits of shield laws in protecting journalists from testifying about information they collected from their sources.
29/03/1919
Eileen Heckart, American actress (died 2001)
Anna Eileen Heckart was an American stage and screen actress whose career spanned nearly 60 years. Heckart won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and two Emmy Awards, as well as was nominated for three Tony Awards. In 2000, she received the Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre.
29/03/1918
Pearl Bailey, American actress and singer (died 1990)
Pearl Mae Bailey was an American actress, singer, comedian and author. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She received a Special Tony Award for the title role in the all-Black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968. In 1986, she won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance as a fairy godmother in the ABC Afterschool Special Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale. Her rendition of "Takes Two to Tango" hit the top ten in 1952.
Lê Văn Thiêm, Vietnamese mathematician and academic (died 1991)
Lê Văn Thiêm was a Vietnamese scientist. Together with Hoàng Tụy, he is considered the father of Vietnam Mathematics society. He was the first director of the Vietnam Institute of Mathematics, and the first Headmaster of Hanoi National University of Education and Hanoi University of Science.
Sam Walton, American businessman, founded Walmart and Sam's Club (died 1992)
Samuel Moore Walton was an American business magnate best known for co-founding the retailers Walmart and Sam's Club, which he started in Rogers, Arkansas, and Midwest City, Oklahoma, in 1962 and 1983 respectively. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. grew to be the world's largest corporation by revenue as well as the biggest private employer in the world. For a period of time, Walton was the richest person in the United States. His family has remained the richest family in the U.S. for several consecutive years, with a net worth of around $440.62 billion US as of January 2026. In 1992 at the age of 74, Walton died of blood cancer and was buried at the Bentonville Cemetery in his longtime home of Bentonville, Arkansas.
29/03/1917
Tommy Holmes, American baseball player (died 2008)
Thomas Francis Holmes was an American right and center fielder and manager in Major League Baseball who played nearly his entire career for the Boston Braves. He hit over .300 lifetime (.302) and every year from 1944 through 1948, peaking with a .352 mark in 1945 when he finished second in the National League batting race and was runner-up for the NL's Most Valuable Player Award.
Ieuan Maddock, Welsh scientist and nuclear researcher (died 1988)
Sir Ieuan Maddock was a Welsh scientist and nuclear researcher. He played a role in the nuclear weapons tests in Australia in the 1950s and the 1973 Partial Test-Ban treaty.
29/03/1916
Peter Geach, English philosopher and academic (died 2013)
Peter Thomas Geach was a British philosopher who was Professor of Logic at the University of Leeds. His areas of interest were philosophical logic, ethics, history of philosophy, philosophy of religion and the theory of identity.
Eugene McCarthy, American poet and politician (died 2005)
Eugene Joseph McCarthy was an American politician, writer, and academic who represented Minnesota in both houses of the United States Congress for over 22 years, first in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959, then in the U.S. Senate from 1959 until his resignation in 1971. A member of the Democratic Party, McCarthy sought the party's presidential nomination in the 1968 presidential election, challenging incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson on an anti–Vietnam War platform, and ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for president four more times.
29/03/1914
Chapman Pincher, Indian-English historian, journalist, and author (died 2014)
Henry Chapman Pincher was an English journalist, historian and novelist whose writing mainly focused on espionage and related matters, after some early books on scientific subjects.
29/03/1913
Phil Foster, American actor (died 1985)
Phil Foster was an American actor and performer, best known for his portrayal of Frank DeFazio in Laverne & Shirley.
Jack Jones, British trade union leader, General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union (died 2009)
James Larkin Jones, known as Jack Jones, was a British trade union leader and General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union 1968-1978.
29/03/1912
Hanna Reitsch, German soldier and pilot (died 1979)
Hanna Reitsch was a German aviator and test pilot. Reitsch was among the very last people to meet Adolf Hitler before his suicide in the Führerbunker in April 1945. Following her capture, she provided information about her departure from Berlin and denied that she might have helped Hitler escape.
29/03/1909
Moon Mullican, American singer-songwriter and pianist (died 1967)
Aubrey Wilson Mullican, known professionally as Moon Mullican and nicknamed "King of the Hillbilly Piano Players", was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and pianist. He was associated with the hillbilly boogie style which influenced rockabilly. Jerry Lee Lewis cited him as a major influence on his own singing and piano playing.
29/03/1908
Arthur O'Connell, American actor (died 1981)
Arthur Joseph O'Connell was an American stage, film and television actor, who achieved prominence in character roles in the 1950s. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for both Picnic (1955) and Anatomy of a Murder (1959).
Dennis O'Keefe, American actor and screenwriter (died 1968)
Dennis O'Keefe was an American actor.
29/03/1907
Braguinha, Brazilian singer-songwriter and producer (died 2006)
Carlos Alberto Ferreira Braga, commonly known as Braguinha or João de Barro, was a Brazilian songwriter and occasional singer.
29/03/1903
Douglas Harkness, Canadian colonel and politician, Canadian Minister of National Defence (died 1999)
Douglas Scott Harkness was a Canadian politician.
29/03/1902
Marcel Aymé, French author, playwright, and screenwriter (died 1967)
Marcel Aymé was a French novelist and playwright, who also wrote screenplays and works for children.
William Walton, English composer (died 1983)
Sir William Turner Walton was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include Façade, the cantata Belshazzar's Feast, the Viola Concerto, the First Symphony, and the British coronation marches Crown Imperial and Orb and Sceptre.
29/03/1900
John McEwen, Australian farmer and politician, 18th Prime Minister of Australia (died 1980)
Sir John McEwen was an Australian politician and farmer who served as the 18th prime minister of Australia from 1967 to 1968, in a caretaker capacity following the disappearance of prime minister Harold Holt. He was the leader of the Country Party from 1958 to 1971, serving as the inaugural deputy prime minister of Australia from 1968 to 1971.
Charles Sutherland Elton, English zoologist and animal ecologist (died 1991)
Charles Sutherland Elton was an English zoologist and animal ecologist. He is associated with the development of population and community ecology, including studies of invasive organisms.
29/03/1899
Lavrentiy Beria, Georgian-Russian general and politician (died 1953)
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Soviet politician and one of the longest-serving and most influential of Joseph Stalin's secret police chiefs, serving as head of the NKVD from 1938 to 1945, during the country's involvement in the Second World War. Beria was also a prolific sexual predator who serially raped scores of girls and young women, and murdered some of his victims.
29/03/1896
Wilhelm Ackermann, German mathematician (died 1962)
Wilhelm Friedrich Ackermann was a German mathematician and logician best known for his work in mathematical logic and the Ackermann function, an important example in the theory of computation.
29/03/1895
Ernst Jünger, German philosopher and author (died 1998)
Ernst Jünger was a German author, soldier, philosopher, and entomologist who became publicly known for his World War I memoir Storm of Steel. A prolific writer of over forty books, Jünger wrote particularly in the furtherance of conservatism and against what he perceived as the spiritual oppression of man.
29/03/1892
József Mindszenty, Hungarian cardinal (died 1975)
József Mindszenty was a Hungarian cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Esztergom and leader of the Catholic Church in Hungary from 1945 to 1973. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, for five decades "he personified uncompromising opposition to fascism and communism in Hungary".
29/03/1891
Yvan Goll, French-German poet and playwright (died 1950)
Yvan Goll was a French-German poet who was bilingual and wrote in both French and German. He had close ties to both German expressionism and to French surrealism.
29/03/1890
Harold Spencer Jones, English astronomer (died 1960)
Sir Harold Spencer Jones KBE FRS FRSE PRAS was an English astronomer. He became renowned as an authority on positional astronomy and served as the tenth Astronomer Royal for 23 years. Although born "Jones", his surname became "Spencer Jones".
29/03/1889
Warner Baxter, American actor (died 1951)
Warner Leroy Baxter was an American film actor from the 1910s to the 1940s. Baxter is known for his role as the Cisco Kid in the 1928 film In Old Arizona, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 2nd Academy Awards. He frequently played womanizing, charismatic Latin bandit types in Westerns, and played the Cisco Kid or a similar character throughout the 1930s, but had a range of other roles throughout his career.
Howard Lindsay, American producer, playwright, librettist, director and actor (died 1968)
Howard Lindsay, born Herman Nelke, was an American playwright, librettist, director, actor and theatrical producer. He is best known for his writing work as part of the collaboration of Lindsay and Crouse, and for his performance, with his wife Dorothy Stickney, in the long-running play Life with Father.
29/03/1885
Dezső Kosztolányi, Hungarian author and poet (died 1936)
Dezső Kosztolányi was a Hungarian writer, journalist, translator, and also a speaker of Esperanto. He wrote in all literary genres, from poetry to essays to theatre plays. Building his own style, he used French symbolism, impressionism, expressionism and psychological realism. He is considered the father of futurism in Hungarian literature.
29/03/1883
Donald Van Slyke, Dutch-American biochemist (died 1971)
Donald Dexter Van Slyke, nicknamed Van, was a Dutch American biochemist. His achievements included the publication of 317 journal articles and 5 books, as well as numerous awards, among them the National Medal of Science and the first AMA Scientific Achievement Award. The Van Slyke determination, a test of amino acids, is named after him.
29/03/1874
Lou Henry Hoover, American philanthropist and geologist, 33rd First Lady of the United States (died 1944)
Lou Henry Hoover was an American philanthropist, geologist, and the first lady of the United States from 1929 to 1933 as the wife of President Herbert Hoover. She was active in community organizations and volunteer groups throughout her life, including the Girl Scouts of the USA, which she led from 1922 to 1925 and from 1935 to 1937. Throughout her life, Hoover supported women's rights and women's independence. She was a polyglot, fluent in Mandarin Chinese and well-versed in Latin, and was the primary translator from Latin to English of the complex 16th-century metallurgy text De re metallica.
29/03/1873
Tullio Levi-Civita, Italian mathematician and academic (died 1941)
Tullio Levi-Civita, was an Italian mathematician, most famous for his work on absolute differential calculus and its applications to the theory of relativity, but who also made significant contributions in other areas. He was a pupil of Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro, the inventor of tensor calculus. His work included foundational papers in both pure and applied mathematics, celestial mechanics, analytic mechanics and hydrodynamics.
29/03/1872
Hal Colebatch, English-Australian politician, 12th Premier of Western Australia (died 1953)
Sir Harry Pateshall Colebatch was a long-serving figure in Western Australian politics. He was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council for nearly 20 years, the twelfth Premier of Western Australia for a month in 1919, agent-general in London for five years, and a senator for four years. He was known for supporting free trade, federalism and Western Australian secessionism, and for opposing communism, socialism and fascism. Born in England, his family migrated to South Australia when Colebatch was four years old. He left school aged 11 and worked for several newspapers in South Australia before moving to Broken Hill in New South Wales in 1888 to work as a reporter for the Silver Age. In 1894, he moved to the Western Australian Goldfields following the gold rush there, working for the Golden Age in Coolgardie and the Kalgoorlie Miner in Kalgoorlie. Two years later, he moved to Perth to join the Morning Herald, but after that newspaper collapsed, he moved to Northam where he started The Northam Advertiser. He also became friends with local bank manager James Mitchell and convinced Mitchell to run for state parliament. Colebatch was the mayor of Northam between 1909 and 1912.
29/03/1871
Tom Hayward, English cricketer (died 1939)
Thomas Walter Hayward was an English first-class cricketer who played for Surrey and England between the 1890s and the outbreak of World War I. He was primarily an opening batsman, noted especially for the quality of his off-drive. Neville Cardus wrote that he "was amongst the most precisely technical and most prolific batsmen of any time in the annals of cricket." He was only the second batsman to reach the landmark of 100 first-class centuries, following WG Grace. In the 1906 English season he scored 3,518 runs, a record aggregate since surpassed only by Denis Compton and Bill Edrich in 1947.
29/03/1869
Edwin Lutyens, British architect (died 1944)
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials and public buildings. In his biography, the writer Christopher Hussey wrote, "In his lifetime (Lutyens) was widely held to be our greatest architect since Wren if not, as many maintained, his superior". The architectural historian Gavin Stamp described him as "surely the greatest British architect of the twentieth century".
29/03/1867
Cy Young, American baseball player and manager (died 1955)
Denton True "Cy" Young was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher. Born in Gilmore, Ohio, he worked on his family's farm as a youth before starting his professional baseball career. Young entered the major leagues in 1890 with the National League's Cleveland Spiders and pitched for them until 1898. He was then transferred to the St. Louis Cardinals franchise. In 1901, Young jumped to the American League and played for the Boston Red Sox franchise until 1908, helping them win the 1903 World Series. He finished his career with the Cleveland Naps and Boston Rustlers, retiring in 1911.
29/03/1863
Walter James, Australian politician, 5th Premier of Western Australia (died 1943)
Sir Walter Hartwell James, was the fifth Premier of Western Australia and an ardent supporter of the federation movement.
29/03/1862
Adolfo Müller-Ury, Swiss-American painter (died 1947)
Adolfo Müller-Ury, KSG was a Swiss-born American portrait painter and impressionistic painter of roses and still life.
29/03/1860
William Benham, New Zealand zoologist (died 1950)
Sir William Blaxland Benham was a New Zealand zoologist.
29/03/1853
Elihu Thomson, English-American engineer and inventor (died 1937)
Elihu Thomson was an English-American engineer and inventor who was instrumental in the founding of major electrical companies in the United States, the United Kingdom and France.
29/03/1826
Wilhelm Liebknecht, German journalist and politician (died 1900)
Wilhelm Martin Philipp Christian Ludwig Liebknecht was a German social democratic politician, journalist, and a principal founder of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). His political career was a pioneering project in steering a Marxist-inspired workers' party to electoral success and mass membership. With his long-time political collaborator August Bebel, he was a leading figure in nineteenth-century German socialism. Liebknecht served as a member of the North German Reichstag from 1867 to 1871 and the German Reichstag from 1874 until his death in 1900.
29/03/1824
Ludwig Büchner, German physiologist, physician, and philosopher (died 1899)
Friedrich Karl Christian Ludwig Büchner was a German philosopher, physiologist and physician who became one of the exponents of 19th-century scientific materialism.
29/03/1802
Johann Moritz Rugendas, German landscape painter (died 1858)
Johann Moritz Rugendas was a German painter, famous in the first half of the 19th century for his works depicting landscapes and ethnographic subjects in several countries in the Americas. Rugendas is considered "by far the most varied and important of the European artists to visit Latin America." He was influenced by Alexander von Humboldt.
29/03/1799
Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1869)
Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, known as Lord Stanley from 1834 to 1851, was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served three times as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. To date, he is the longest-serving leader of the Conservative Party (1846–68). He is one of only four British prime ministers to have three or more separate periods in office. However, his ministries each lasted less than two years and totalled three years and 280 days. Derby introduced the state education system in Ireland, and reformed Parliament.
29/03/1790
John Tyler, American lawyer and politician, 10th President of the United States (died 1862)
John Tyler was the tenth president of the United States, serving from 1841 to 1845, after briefly holding office as the tenth vice president in 1841. He was elected vice president on the 1840 Whig ticket with William Henry Harrison, succeeding to the presidency following Harrison's death 31 days after assuming office as president. Tyler was a stalwart supporter and advocate of states' rights, including regarding slavery, and he adopted nationalistic policies as president only when they did not infringe on the states' powers. His unexpected rise to the presidency posed a threat to the presidential ambitions of Senator Henry Clay and other Whig politicians and left Tyler estranged from both major political parties at the time: the Whigs and the Democrats.
29/03/1780
Jørgen Jørgensen, Danish adventurer (died 1841)
Jørgen Jørgensen was a Danish adventurer during the Age of Revolution. During the action of 2 March 1808, his ship was captured by the British. In 1809 he sailed to Iceland, declared the country independent from Denmark–Norway and pronounced himself its ruler. He intended to found a new republic, following the examples of the United States and the French First Republic. He was also a prolific writer of letters, papers, pamphlets and newspaper articles covering a wide variety of subjects, and for a period was an associate of the famous botanists Joseph Banks and William Jackson Hooker. He left over a hundred written autographs and drawings, most of which are collected in the British Library. Marcus Clarke referred to Jørgensen as "a singularly accomplished fortune wooer—one of the most interesting human comets recorded in history".
29/03/1769
Jean-de-Dieu Soult, French general and politician, 12th Prime Minister of France (died 1851)
Marshal General Jean-de-Dieu Soult, 1st Duke of Dalmatia was a French general and statesman. He was a Marshal of the Empire during the Napoleonic Wars, and served three times as President of the Council of Ministers of France. Soult is referred to as one of the outstanding military commanders of the modern era.
29/03/1747
Johann Wilhelm Hässler, German pianist and composer (died 1822)
Johann Wilhelm Hässler, was a German composer, organist and pianist.
29/03/1735
Johann Karl August Musäus, German author (died 1787)
Johann Karl August Musäus was a German author. He was one of the first collectors of German folk stories, most celebrated for his Volksmärchen der Deutschen (1782–1787), a collection of German fairy tales retold as satires.
29/03/1713
John Ponsonby, Irish politician (died 1789)
John Ponsonby, PC (Ire) was an Anglo-Irish politician. He was Speaker of the Irish House of Commons between 1756 and 1771, a period in which the legislative independence of the Kingdom of Ireland was increasingly asserted and tested.
29/03/1602
John Lightfoot, English priest, scholar, and academic (died 1675)
John Lightfoot was an English churchman, rabbinical scholar, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and Master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge.
29/03/1584
Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, English general and politician (died 1648)
Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron was an English politician and army officer who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1648. He was a commander in the Parliamentarian army in the English Civil War. His son, Thomas Fairfax, commanded the New Model Army.
29/03/1561
Santorio Santorio, Italian biologist (died 1636)
Santorio Santorio whose real name was Santorio Santori better known in English as Sanctorius of Padua was an Italian physiologist, physician, and professor, who introduced the quantitative approach into the life sciences and is considered the father of experimental physiology. He is also known as the inventor of several medical devices. His work De Statica Medicina, written in 1614, saw many publications and influenced generations of physicians.
29/03/1187
Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, grandson of King Henry II of England (died 1203)
Arthur I was 4th Earl of Richmond and Duke of Brittany between 1196 and 1203. He was the son of Duchess Constance of Brittany, born posthumously to Constance's first husband, Duke Geoffrey II. Through Geoffrey, Arthur was the grandson of King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the nephew of the English kings Richard I and John.