Born on Friday, 16th May – Famous Birthdays

16/05/2002

Ryan Gravenberch, Dutch footballer

Ryan Jiro Gravenberch is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Premier League club Liverpool and the Netherlands national team. Known for his interceptions, tackles, quality on the ball, and the ability to play out of pressure, he is widely regarded as one of the best defensive midfielders in the world.

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16/05/2000

Luis Garcia, Dominican-American baseball player

Luis Victoriano García, known professionally as Luis García Jr., is a Dominican-American professional baseball second baseman for the Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball (MLB).

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16/05/1996

Louisa Chirico, American tennis player

Louisa Chirico is an American tennis player. On 24 October 2016, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 58. On 6 March 2017, she peaked at No. 184 in the WTA doubles rankings. Chirico has won seven singles titles and two doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. Her best performance in singles at a Grand Slam tournament was reaching the second round at the 2016 French Open.

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16/05/1995

Elizabeth Ralston, Australian footballer

Elizabeth Rose "Liz" Ralston is an Australian football (soccer) player, who plays for Western Sydney Wanderers in the Australian W-League. She has previously played for Sydney FC. She also works as a physiotherapist.

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16/05/1994

Kathinka von Deichmann, Liechtenstein tennis player

Kathinka von Deichmann is a professional tennis player from Liechtenstein. On 8 October 2018, she reached her best WTA ranking of world No. 153 in singles, and on 17 July 2017, she peaked at No. 343 in doubles. Von Deichmann has won 15 singles and four doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit.

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16/05/1993

Johannes Thingnes Bø, Norwegian biathlete

Johannes Thingnes Bø is a Norwegian former biathlete who has achieved significant success in the sport. Thingnes Bø has won the Biathlon World Cup five times, in the 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2022/23, and 2023/24 seasons. He is the male biathlete with the second most individual World Cup victories in history, totaling 91, including victories at the Winter Olympic Games.

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Karol Mets, Estonian footballer

Karol Mets is an Estonian professional footballer who plays as a centre back or defensive midfielder for Bundesliga club FC St. Pauli and the Estonia national team.

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IU, Korean singer-songwriter and actress

Lee Ji-eun, also known by her stage name IU (아이유), is a South Korean singer-songwriter and actress. She signed with LOEN Entertainment in 2007 as a trainee and debuted as a singer at the age of fifteen with the EP Lost and Found (2008). Although her follow-up albums brought mainstream success, it was only after the release of "Good Day", the lead single from her 2010 EP Real, that she achieved national stardom. "Good Day" went on to spend five consecutive weeks at the top of South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart, and in 2019, it was ranked number one on Billboard's "100 Greatest K-Pop Songs of the 2010s" list.

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16/05/1992

Jeff Skinner, Canadian ice hockey player

Jeffrey Scott Skinner is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a forward who is currently a free agent. He most recently played for the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected seventh overall by the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2010 NHL entry draft, and has also played for the Buffalo Sabres and Edmonton Oilers.

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Kirstin Maldonado, American singer and songwriter

Kirstin Taylor Maldonado is an American singer-songwriter. She is known for being a vocalist in the a cappella group Pentatonix. With the group, she has released seven studio albums, won three Grammy Awards, and sold over six million albums.

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16/05/1991

Grigor Dimitrov, Bulgarian tennis player

Grigor Dimitrov Dimitrov is a Bulgarian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the ATP, making him the highest-ranked Bulgarian in history. Dimitrov reached the ranking after winning the biggest title of his career at the season-ending ATP Finals in November 2017. He has won nine ATP Tour singles titles.

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Joey Graceffa, American internet celebrity

Joseph Michael Graceffa Jr. is an American YouTuber, vlogger, actor, author, and producer. He runs four active YouTube channels, all named after him. His main channel is dedicated to vlogging, while the second features video gaming content. The third is for daily vlogs, and the fourth is a react channel. His channels have a combined total of more than 2.9 billion views. He was a contestant on the 22nd and 24th seasons of The Amazing Race, and has appeared in a handful of short films as well as creating and hosting Escape the Night, an immersive reality web series, distributed by YouTube via its paid-subscription service YouTube Premium. He appears in all four of the seasons with several other YouTubers, including Liza Koshy, Tyler Oakley, Justine Ezarik, Matthew Patrick, and Rosanna Pansino.

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Ashley Wagner, American figure skater

Ashley Elisabeth Wagner is an American former competitive figure skater. She is the 2016 World silver medalist, a 2014 Olympic bronze medalist in the team event, the 2012 Four Continents champion, a three-time Grand Prix Final medalist, a thirteen-time Grand Prix medalist, and a three-time U.S. national champion. Wagner competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and placed 7th. At the junior level, Wagner is a two-time World Junior bronze medalist, the 2006-07 Junior Grand Prix Final silver medalist, a two-time Junior Grand Prix medalist, and the 2007 U.S. junior bronze medalist.

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16/05/1990

Amanda Carreras, Gibraltarian tennis player

Amanda Carreras is an inactive British tennis player from Gibraltar.

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Thomas Brodie-Sangster, English actor

Thomas Brodie-Sangster is an English actor. As a child actor, he gained recognition for his roles in the commercially successful films Love Actually (2003) and Nanny McPhee (2005). He voiced Ferb in the first four seasons of Phineas and Ferb (2007–2015), and subsequently gained wider attention with his roles as Jake Murray in Accused (2010–2012), Jojen Reed in Game of Thrones (2013–2014) and Newt in the Maze Runner film series (2014–2018). Continued acclaim ensued with the independent films Nowhere Boy (2009), in which he portrayed Paul McCartney, Bright Star (2009), and Death of a Superhero (2011).

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Darko Šarović, Serbian sprinter

Darko Šarović is a Serbian medical doctor, PhD in child psychiatry, Master of Science in psychology, and former professional athlete who specialised in the short sprint events, holding a national 100m record. He is a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. He holds both Serbian and Swedish citizenships.

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Omar Strong, American basketball player

Omar Strong Sr. is an American professional basketball player for the Windsor Express of the NBL Canada. In 2012–13, he was a senior at Texas Southern University and was named the Southwestern Athletic Conference Player of the Year.

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16/05/1989

Behati Prinsloo, Namibian model

Behati Prinsloo is a Namibian model. In 2008, she became a Pink contract model, and moved on to become a Victoria's Secret Angel in 2009. She walked in twelve Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows, and opened consecutive Victoria's Secret Fashion shows in 2014 and 2015.

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16/05/1988

Jesús Castillo, Mexican footballer

Jesús Castillo Ugarte is a former defender who last played for the Celaya on loan from Monarcas Morelia, in the Ascenso MX.

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Martynas Gecevičius, Lithuanian basketball player

Martynas Gecevičius is a Lithuanian professional basketball player for BC Telšiai of the National Basketball League (NKL). Standing at 1.93 m, he primarily plays at the shooting guard position.

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Jaak Põldma, Estonian tennis player

Jaak Põldma is a retired Estonian tennis player.

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16/05/1987

Tom Onslow-Cole, English race car driver

Thomas Michael Onslow-Cole is a British former racing driver. He won the International GT Open in Pro-Am category in 2018 and in 2019 and the 24H Series in 2015.

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16/05/1986

Megan Fox, American actress

Megan Denise Fox is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the family film Holiday in the Sun (2001), which was followed by numerous supporting roles in film and television, such as the teen musical comedy Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004), as well as a starring role in the ABC sitcom Hope & Faith (2004–2006). Her breakout role was as Mikaela Banes in the blockbuster action film Transformers (2007), which she reprised in its sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009).

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Andy Keogh, Irish footballer

Andrew Declan Keogh is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a forward for semi-professional side East Perth FC. Born in Dublin, Keogh played the first several years of his professional career playing for a number of clubs in England, including Wolverhampton Wanderers, for whom he made over 100 appearances. In 2014, Keogh moved to Australia to play for Perth Glory. He left the Glory for one year to play in the Thai Premier League for Ratchaburi before returning in early 2016, and again in 2020, after leaving in 2019, for Al-Qadsiah.

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Shamcey Supsup, Filipino model and architect

Shamcey Gurrea Supsup-Lee is a Filipino architect and a beauty pageant titleholder. She was crowned as Binibining Pilipinas Universe 2011. She represented the Philippines at the Miss Universe 2011 pageant in São Paulo, Brazil where she finished as 3rd Runner-Up. From 2020 to 2023, Supsup was the national director for the Miss Universe Philippines Organization.

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16/05/1985

Anja Mittag, German footballer

Anja Mittag is a German football coach and a former player who played as a striker. She is currently an Individual Development Coach for San Diego Wave FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL).

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Rodrigo Peters Marques, Brazilian footballer

Rodrigo Peters Marques, known as Café, is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a goalkeeper.

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Corey Perry, Canadian ice hockey player

Corey Perry is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a winger for the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League (NHL). He played the first 14 years of his career with the Anaheim Ducks where he won the Stanley Cup in 2007. He has also played for the Dallas Stars, Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Blackhawks, Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings.

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16/05/1984

Darío Cvitanich, Argentinian footballer

Darío Cvitanich is an Argentine retired professional footballer who played as a striker.

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Tomáš Fleischmann, Czech ice hockey player

Tomáš Fleischmann is a Czech former professional ice hockey winger. He most notably played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with several teams, including stints with the Washington Capitals and Florida Panthers.

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Jensen Lewis, American baseball player

Jensen Daniel Lewis is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher who played for the Cleveland Indians from 2007 to 2010 and is currently a baseball analyst with Bally Sports.

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Rick Rypien, Canadian ice hockey player (died 2011)

Richard Joseph Rypien was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who spent parts of six seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Vancouver Canucks from 2005 to 2011. After a major junior career of four years with the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League (WHL), he was signed to a professional contract by the minor league Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League (AHL) in 2005. The following season, he signed with the Canucks. He spent six years with the organization, splitting time between the Canucks and Moose, their AHL affiliate. A fourth-line player in the NHL, he was known for his hitting and fighting abilities, though his size was not typical of an enforcer.

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16/05/1983

Daniel Kerr, Australian footballer

Daniel Alan Kerr is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). He played 220 games for the club between 2001 and 2013, as a hard-running inside midfielder.

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Kyle Wellwood, Canadian ice hockey player

Kyle Wellwood is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre who played the majority of his career in the National Hockey League (NHL). He was originally selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs 134th overall in the 2001 NHL entry draft, playing his first three seasons in the NHL with Toronto before joining the Vancouver Canucks in 2008.

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16/05/1982

Łukasz Kubot, Polish tennis player

Łukasz Kubot is a former Polish professional tennis player who was ranked world No. 1 in doubles.

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16/05/1981

Ricardo Costa, Portuguese footballer

Ricardo Miguel Moreira da Costa is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played mainly as a central defender but occasionally as a full-back. He is the current manager of Liga Portugal 2 club Feirense.

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16/05/1980

Nuria Llagostera Vives, Spanish tennis player

Nuria Llagostera Vives is a Spanish former tennis player. In June 2005, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 35. In November 2009, she peaked at No. 5 in the WTA doubles rankings.

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16/05/1979

Michael Oberlechner, Austrian politician

Michael Oberlechner is an Austrian politician of the Freedom Party serving as a member of the National Council since 2024. He has been a district councillor of Ottakring since 2010.

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16/05/1978

Scott Nicholls, English motorcycle racer

Scott Karl Nicholls is an English motorcycle speedway rider, who has won the British Championship seven times, and was a full participant in the Speedway Grand Prix series between 2002 and 2008. He earned 8 international caps for the England national speedway team and 27 caps for the Great Britain team. He is also a speedway commentator.

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Lionel Scaloni, Argentinian footballer and manager

Lionel Sebastián Scaloni is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of the Argentina national team. Under his leadership, Argentina won the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Scaloni is regarded as one of the best men’s national coaches in the world. A versatile player, he operated as a right-back or right midfielder.

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16/05/1977

Melanie Lynskey, New Zealand actress

Melanie Jayne Lynskey is a New Zealand actress. Known for her portrayals of complex women and her command of American accents, she works predominantly in independent films and television. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including three Critics' Choice Awards and nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards.

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Emilíana Torrini, Icelandic singer-songwriter

Emilíana Torrini is an Icelandic singer and songwriter. Her works include the 2009 single "Jungle Drum" and the 1999 album Love in the Time of Science. She performed "Gollum's Song" for the 2002 film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

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16/05/1976

Dirk Nannes, Australian-Dutch cricketer

Dirk Peter Nannes is an Australian-Dutch cricket commentator and former cricketer who has played internationally for both Australia and the Netherlands, one of the few players to represent multiple international teams.

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16/05/1975

Tony Kakko, Finnish musician, composer, and vocalist

Toni Kristian "Tony" Kakko is a Finnish musician, composer and vocalist. He is known as the vocalist, primary songwriter, and creative lead of the band Sonata Arctica since 1996.

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Simon Whitfield, Canadian triathlete

Simon St. Quentin Whitfield is a Canadian retired Olympic triathlon champion. Whitfield won ten consecutive Canadian Triathlon Championships titles and carried the Canadian national flag during the 2000 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in Sydney, where he had won his gold medal, and the opening ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, making him one of few Canadian athletes to be honoured twice as Olympic flag bearer.

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16/05/1974

Laura Pausini, Italian singer-songwriter and producer

Laura Pausini is an Italian singer and songwriter. She rose to fame in 1993, winning the newcomer artists' section of the 43rd Sanremo Music Festival with the song "La solitudine", which became an Italian standard and an international hit. Her self-titled debut album was released in Italy on 23 April 1993 and later became an international success, selling two million copies worldwide. Its follow-up, Laura, was released in 1994 and confirmed her international success, selling three million copies worldwide.

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Sonny Sandoval, American singer-songwriter and rapper

Paul Joshua "Sonny" Sandoval is an American rapper and singer who is the lead vocalist and a founding member of nu metal band P.O.D.

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16/05/1973

Tori Spelling, American actress, reality television personality, and author

Victoria Davey Spelling is an American actress. Her first major role was Donna Martin on Beverly Hills, 90210, from 1990 to 2000. She has appeared in made-for-television films, including A Friend to Die For (1994), A Carol Christmas (2003), The Mistle-Tones (2012), both versions of Mother, May I Sleep with Danger? and The Last Sharknado: It's About Time (2018). She has also starred in several independent films including The House of Yes (1997), Trick (1999), Scary Movie 2 (2001), Cthulhu (2007), Kiss the Bride (2007) and Izzie's Way Home (2016). She reprised her role of Donna Martin in Beverly Hills, 90210's spin-off, BH90210, in 2019.

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16/05/1972

Christian Califano, French rugby player

Christian Califano is a former French rugby union player who finished his career at Gloucester Rugby.

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Matthew Hart, New Zealand cricketer

Matthew Norman Hart is a former New Zealand cricketer. Hart, a left-arm orthodox spinner, played in 14 Tests between 1994 and 1996, claiming 29 wickets including one five-wicket haul against South Africa.

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16/05/1971

Phil Clarke, English rugby league player and sportscaster

Philip Clarke is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. A Great Britain and England international representative back-rower or stand-off, he played his club rugby league in England for Wigan, and in Australia for the Sydney City Roosters.

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Rachel Goswell, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Rachel Ann Goswell is an English musician who rose to prominence as vocalist and guitarist of the shoegaze band Slowdive, which formed in 1989. When Slowdive disbanded in 1995, Goswell, along with Neil Halstead, Ian McCutcheon and former Chapterhouse member Simon Rowe became Mojave 3, performing in a more country/folk rock style. She released a solo album in 2004, titled Waves Are Universal on 4AD Records.

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16/05/1970

Gabriela Sabatini, Argentinian tennis player

Gabriela Beatriz Sabatini is an Argentine former professional tennis player. A former world No. 3 in both singles and doubles, Sabatini was one of the leading players from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, amassing 41 titles across both disciplines.

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Danielle Spencer, Australian singer-songwriter and actress

Danielle Spencer is an Australian actress, singer, and songwriter.

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16/05/1969

David Boreanaz, American actor

David Paul Boreanaz is an American actor, television producer, and director known for playing the roles of vampire-turned-private investigator Angel on The WB/UPN supernatural drama television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) and its spin-off Angel (1999–2004); FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth, a homicide investigator, on the Fox television crime procedural comedy-drama series Bones (2005–2017); and United States Navy SEAL Master Chief Petty Officer Jason Hayes in CBS/Paramount+ military drama series SEAL Team (2017–2024). He is set to star in a reboot of The Rockford Files in 2026, which he will also serve as a producer.

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Tucker Carlson, American journalist, co-founded The Daily Caller

Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson is an American conservative political activist and commentator who hosts Tucker on X and The Tucker Carlson Show since 2023. He previously hosted the nightly political talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News from 2016 to 2023, when his contract with Fox News was terminated. An advocate of U.S. president Donald Trump, Carlson has been described as a high-profile proponent of Trumpism, and an influential voice in right-wing media.

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Steve Lewis, American sprinter

Steven Earl Lewis is a former American track and field athlete, winner of three gold medals at the 1988 Summer Olympics and 1992 Summer Olympics.

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16/05/1968

Ralph Tresvant, American singer and producer

Ralph Edward Tresvant is an American R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the lead singer of R&B group New Edition. As a solo artist, Tresvant released his double platinum-selling debut album Ralph Tresvant (1990). In 2008, he began touring with Bobby Brown and Johnny Gill in a new group named Heads of State. On February 3, 2023, Tresvant became host of the syndicated radio show Love and R&B, heard on WOSF.

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16/05/1967

Doug Brocail, American baseball player and coach

Douglas Keith Brocail is an American professional baseball pitcher and pitching coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres, Houston Astros, Detroit Tigers, and Texas Rangers. He has coached in MLB for the Astros, Rangers, and the Orioles.

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Susan Williams, Baroness Williams of Trafford, British politician

Susan Frances Maria Williams, Baroness Williams of Trafford is a Conservative life peer who served as the Chief Whip of the House of Lords and Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms between 2022 and 2024. In March 2022 she was made a member of the Privy Council. She has been Opposition Chief Whip in the House of Lords since July 2024.

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16/05/1966

Janet Jackson, American singer-songwriter actress

Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and dancer. Considered a pop icon, she is known for her innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows. Jackson's sound and choreography became a catalyst in the growth of MTV, enabling her to rise to prominence while breaking gender and racial barriers in the process. Lyrical content that concerned social issues and deeply felt experiences contributed to the appeal of her work to the youth audience.

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Scott Reeves, American singer-songwriter and actor

Gregory Scott Reeves is an American actor, musician, and songwriter. He is known for playing the roles of Ryan McNeil on the CBS Daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless, Steven Webber on the ABC Daytime soap opera General Hospital, and Noel Laughlin on the ABC series Nashville. For his work on The Young and the Restless, Reeves was nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. He has received two Soap Opera Digest Award nominations and won the award for Outstanding Younger Leading Actor in 1994.

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Thurman Thomas, American football player

Thurman Lee Thomas is an American former professional football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills. He played college football for the Oklahoma State Cowboys, earning All-American honors twice. Thomas was selected by the Bills in the second round of the 1988 NFL draft, where he spent all but one season of his professional career. In his final season, he was a member of the Miami Dolphins.

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16/05/1965

Krist Novoselic, American bass player, songwriter, author, and activist

Krist Anthony Novoselic is a Croatian American musician, politician, and activist. Novoselic co-founded and played bass on every album for the rock band Nirvana.

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Tanel Tammet, Estonian computer scientist, engineer, and academic

Tanel Tammet is an Estonian computer scientist, professor, software engineer, and computer programmer. He was also one of the founding members of the Estonian Greens party, and helped found the IT College in Tallinn.

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16/05/1964

John Salley, American basketball player and actor

John Thomas Salley is an American former professional basketball player. He was the first player in NBA history to win championships with three franchises, as well as the first player in the NBA to win a championship in three different decades.

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Boyd Tinsley, American singer-songwriter and violinist

Boyd Calvin Tinsley is an American violinist and mandolinist who is best known for having been a member of the Dave Matthews Band.

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Milton Jones, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter

Milton Hywel Jones is an English comedian. His style of humour is based on one-liners involving puns delivered in a deadpan and slightly neurotic style.

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16/05/1963

Rachel Griffith, Anglo-American economist

Dame Rachel Susan Griffith is a British and American academic and educator. She is professor of economics at the University of Manchester and a research director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

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David Wilkinson, English theologian and academic

David Adam Wilkinson, FRAS is a British Methodist minister, theologian, astrophysicist and academic. He was the Principal of St John's College, Durham (2006-2023), and is a professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University. He remains at St John's College, having been appointed, in September 2023, Director of Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science (ECLAS), an international project based at St John’s College. He is the author of several books on the relationship between science and religion, and a regular contributor to Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4. He has a PhD in astrophysics and is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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16/05/1962

Helga Radtke, German long jumper

Helga Radtke is a retired German track and field athlete, former World Indoor Long Jump Champion.

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16/05/1961

Kevin McDonald, Canadian actor and screenwriter

Kevin Hamilton McDonald is a Canadian actor, comedian and writer. He is a member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, who have appeared together in a number of stage, television and film productions, most notably the 1988–1995 TV series The Kids in the Hall. He played Pastor Dave in That '70s Show, and starred as a co-pilot in the 2011 web comedy series Papillon. He also does voice work in animation, most notably as Agent Wendy Pleakley in the Lilo & Stitch franchise, Waffle in Catscratch, and the Almighty Tallest Purple in Invader Zim.

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Charles Wright, American wrestler

Charles Wright, better known under his ring name The Godfather, is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure with the World Wrestling Federation throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, and underwent several gimmick changes; the most notable were Papa Shango, Kama, Kama Mustafa, The Godfather and The Goodfather.

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16/05/1960

Landon Deireragea, Nauruan politician, Nauruan Speaker of Parliament

Landon Deireragea is a Nauruan politician.

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Bruce Norris, playwright

Bruce Norris is an American character actor and playwright associated with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago. His play Clybourne Park won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

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S. Shanmuganathan, Sri Lankan commander and politician (died 1998)

Sarawanabavanandan Shanmuganathan was a Sri Lankan Tamil militant, politician and Member of Parliament.

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16/05/1959

Mitch Webster, American baseball player

Mitchell Dean Webster is an American former outfielder in Major League Baseball who played from 1983 through 1995 for the Toronto Blue Jays, Montreal Expos, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Dodgers. Listed at 6' 0", 185 lb., he was a switch hitter and threw left handed.

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Mare Winningham, American actress and singer-songwriter

Mary Megan "Mare" Winningham is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She is the recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards and has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Tony Awards.

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16/05/1957

Joan Benoit, American runner

Joan Benoit Samuelson, née Joan Benoit, is an American marathon runner who was the first women's Olympic Games marathon champion, winning the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. She held the fastest time for an American woman at the Chicago Marathon for 32 years after winning the race in 1985. Her time at the Boston Marathon was the fastest time by an American woman in that race for 28 years. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 2000.

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Benjamin Mancroft, 3rd Baron Mancroft, English politician

Benjamin Lloyd Stormont Mancroft, 3rd Baron Mancroft, is a British peer, businessman and Conservative Party politician.

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Yuri Shevchuk, Russian singer-songwriter and guitarist

Yuri Yulianovich Shevchuk is a Soviet and Russian rock musician and singer/songwriter who leads the rock band DDT, which he founded with Vladimir Sigachyov in 1980.

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Anthony St John, 22nd Baron St John of Bletso, English lawyer and businessman

Anthony Tudor St John, 22nd Baron St John of Bletso is a British peer, politician, businessman and solicitor. He is one of the ninety hereditary peers elected to remain in the House of Lords after the House of Lords Act 1999. He speaks on African affairs, deregulation, financial services and information technology. Rather than aligning with a particular political party, he remained a crossbencher.

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Bob Suter, American ice hockey player and coach (died 2014)

Robert Allen Suter was an American ice hockey defenseman and member of the U.S. national team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics.

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16/05/1956

Loretta Schrijver, Dutch television host, news anchor (died 2025)

Loretta Maxine Schrijver was a Dutch television presenter.

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16/05/1955

Olga Korbut, Soviet gymnast

Olga Valentinovna Korbut is a Belarusian retired gymnast who competed for the Soviet Union. Nicknamed the "Sparrow from Minsk," she won four gold medals and two silver medals at the Summer Olympic Games, in which she competed in 1972 and 1976 for the Soviet team, and was the inaugural inductee to the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1988.

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Jack Morris, American baseball player and sportscaster

John Scott Morris is an American former professional baseball starting pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1977 and 1994, mainly for the Detroit Tigers. Morris won 254 games throughout his career.

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Hazel O'Connor, English-born Irish singer-songwriter and actress

Hazel Thereasa O'Connor is a British singer-songwriter and actress. She became famous in the early 1980s with hit singles "Eighth Day", "D-Days" and "Will You?" She also starred in the 1980 film Breaking Glass.

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Páidí Ó Sé, Irish footballer and manager (died 2012)

Páidí Ó Sé was an Irish Gaelic football manager and player, whose league and championship career at senior level with the Kerry county team spanned fifteen seasons from 1974 to 1988. Ó Sé is widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders of his generation.

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Debra Winger, American actress

Mary Debra Winger is an American actress. She starred in the films An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Terms of Endearment (1983), and Shadowlands (1993), each of which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Winger won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for Terms of Endearment, and the Tokyo International Film Festival Award for Best Actress for A Dangerous Woman (1993).

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16/05/1954

Dafydd Williams, Canadian physician and astronaut

Dafydd "David" Rhys Williams is a Canadian physician, public speaker, CEO, author and retired CSA astronaut. Williams was a mission specialist on two Space Shuttle missions. His first spaceflight, STS-90 in 1998, was a 16-day mission aboard Space Shuttle Columbia dedicated to neuroscience research. His second flight, STS-118 in August 2007, was flown by Space Shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station. During that mission he performed three spacewalks, becoming the third Canadian to perform a spacewalk and setting a Canadian record for total number of spacewalks. These spacewalks combined for a total duration of 17 hours and 47 minutes.

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16/05/1953

Pierce Brosnan, Irish-American actor and producer

Pierce Brendan Brosnan is an Irish actor. He played the lead role in four James Bond films from 1995 to 2002: GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, and Die Another Day.

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Peter Onorati, American actor

Peter Onorati is an American actor. He is known for his TV roles as Charlie Howell on Civil Wars (1991–1993), Mr. Scotto on Murder One (1995–1997), Stanley Pearson on This Is Us (2017–2022), and Jeffrey Mumford on S.W.A.T. (2017–2019), and his film roles in Goodfellas (1990), and Fallen Arches (1998).

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Richard Page, American singer-songwriter and bass player

Richard James Page is an American musician who is best known as the lead singer and bassist of 1980s band Mr. Mister. The band's hits include "Broken Wings" and "Kyrie". Page has also sung in other bands, been a solo artist, written songs for other artists, and worked as a background singer for other artists.

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Kitanoumi Toshimitsu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 55th Yokozuna (died 2015)

Kitanoumi Toshimitsu , born Toshimitsu Obata , was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Sōbetsu, Hokkaido. He entered professional sumo at the age of 13 and set several youth-related records, including promotion to the highest rank of yokozuna at the age of 21. Despite being the most dominant wrestler in the sport during the 1970s with 24 tournament championships in his career, he was not popular with fans and was viewed as a villain, earning him the nickname the "Hatefully Strong Yokozuna". At the time of his death he still held the records for most tournaments as yokozuna (63) and most bouts won as a yokozuna (670), but these records have now been surpassed. Following his retirement in 1985 he established the Kitanoumi stable. He was chairman of the Japan Sumo Association from 2002 until 2008, and again from 2012 until his death.

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David Maclean, Scottish politician

David John Maclean, Baron Blencathra, is a Conservative Party life peer. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Penrith and The Border from 1983 to 2010.

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Stephen Woolman, Lord Woolman, Scottish judge and academic

Stephen Errol Woolman, Lord Woolman, is a Scottish legal academic and a retired Senator of the College of Justice.

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16/05/1951

Christian Lacroix, French fashion designer

Christian Marie Marc Lacroix is a French fashion designer. The name also refers to the company he founded.

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Jonathan Richman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Jonathan Michael Richman is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. In 1970, he founded the Modern Lovers, an influential proto-punk band. Since the mid-1970s, Richman has worked either solo or with low-key acoustic and electric backing. He is known for his wide-eyed, unaffected, and childlike outlook, and music that, while rooted in rock and roll, is influenced by music from around the world.

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Janet Soskice, Canadian philosopher and theologian

Janet Martin Soskice is a Canadian-born English Roman Catholic theologian and philosopher. Soskice completed her Bachelor of Arts at Cornell University and her Master of Arts at Sheffield University. She then obtained her Doctor of Philosophy from Somerville College, Oxford.

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16/05/1950

Georg Bednorz, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

Johannes Georg Bednorz is a German physicist who, together with K. Alex Müller, discovered high-temperature superconductivity in ceramics, for which they shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics.

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Ray Condo, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2004)

Ray Condo, born Ray Tremblay, was a Canadian rockabilly singer, saxophonist, and guitarist.

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Bruce Coville, American author

Bruce Farrington Coville is an author of young adult fiction. Coville was first published in 1977 and has written over 100 books.

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16/05/1949

Rick Reuschel, American baseball player

Rickey Eugene Reuschel is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher from 1972 to 1991, winning 214 games with a career 3.37 ERA. His nickname was "Big Daddy" because his speed belied his portly physique. He was known for his deceptive style of pitching, which kept hitters off balance by constantly varying the speeds of his pitches.

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16/05/1948

Jesper Christensen, Danish actor, director, and producer

Jesper Christensen is a Danish actor. A veteran of European cinema, he has made the transition to English language projects, including The Interpreter and Revelations. He has also appeared as the mysterious villain Mr. White in the James Bond films Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Spectre.

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Judy Finnigan, English talk show host and author

Judith Adele Finnigan is an English television presenter and writer. She co-presented ITV's This Morning and the Channel 4 chat show, Richard & Judy (2001–2008) alongside her husband Richard Madeley. Her debut novel Eloise, published in 2012, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Her second novel, I Do Not Sleep, was published in 2015.

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Enrico Fumia, Italian automobile and product designer

Enrico Fumia is an Italian automobile and product designer. He is widely known for his work with the car design firm Pininfarina, helping to design and package a new sports car version of the Alfa Romeo, which included front-wheel drive and traversely-mounted engines. Today he runs Fumia Design Studio.

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Jimmy Hood, Scottish engineer and politician (died 2017)

James Hood was a Scottish Labour Party politician, who served as a Member of Parliament from 1987 until being defeated in 2015. He represented the Clydesdale constituency until 2005, and the Lanark and Hamilton East constituency thereafter. Hood, a National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) trade union official during the miners' strike of 1984–85, remained a backbencher throughout his parliamentary career.

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Emma Georgina Rothschild, English historian and academic

Emma Georgina Rothschild is an English economic historian, a professor of history at Harvard University. She is director of the Joint Centre for History and Economics at Harvard, and an honorary Professor of History and Economics at the University of Cambridge. She formerly served as board member of United Nations Foundation and as a professor at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris.

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Staf Van Roosbroeck, Belgian cyclist

Gustaf Van Roosbroeck is a retired Belgian professional road bicycle racer who competed in the 1970s.

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16/05/1947

Cheryl Clarke, American writer

Cheryl Lynn Clarke is an American lesbian poet, essayist, educator, and Black feminist community activist. Her scholarship focuses on African-American women's literature, black lesbian feminism, and the Black Arts Movement in the United States.

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Darrell Sweet, Scottish drummer (died 1999)

Nazareth are a Scottish hard rock band formed in Dunfermline in 1968 that had many hit singles and albums in Canada, the United Kingdom, and a number of other European countries beginning in the early 1970s. The breadth of their popularity expanded internationally, including in the United States, with their 1975 album Hair of the Dog, which featured their hits "Hair of the Dog" and a cover of the ballad "Love Hurts". They have continued to record and tour internationally for more than 50 years.

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Roch Thériault, Canadian religious leader (died 2011)

Roch Thériault was a Canadian cult leader and convicted murderer. Thériault, a self-proclaimed prophet under the name Moïse, founded the Ant Hill Kids in 1977. They were a doomsday cult whose beliefs were based on those of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In April 1978, Thériault was removed from the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He maintained multiple wives and concubines, impregnating all female members as a religious requirement, and fathering 26 children. Thériault's followers, including 12 adults and 22 children, lived under his totalitarian rule in a commune and were subject to severe physical and sexual abuse.

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16/05/1946

John Law, English sociologist and academic

John Law, is a sociologist and science and technology studies scholar, currently on the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Open University. He has remained one of the leading proponents of Actor-Network Theory together with Madeleine Akrich, Michel Callon and Bruno Latour.

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Robert Fripp, English guitarist, songwriter and producer

Robert Fripp is an English musician, composer, record producer, and author, best known as the guitarist, founder and only constant member of the progressive rock band King Crimson. He has worked extensively as a session musician and collaborator, notably with David Bowie, Blondie, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Peter Hammill, Daryl Hall, the Roches, Talking Heads, and David Sylvian. He also composed the startup sound of Windows Vista, in collaboration with Tucker Martine and Steve Ball. His discography includes contributions to more than 700 official releases.

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16/05/1944

Billy Cobham, Panamanian-American drummer, composer, and bandleader

William Emanuel Cobham Jr. is a Panamanian–American jazz drummer who came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

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Antal Nagy, Hungarian footballer

Antal Nagy is a Hungarian former professional footballer who played as a striker. In his only season for Standard de Liège (1968–69), he won the Belgian championship and he became the Belgian First Division top scorer.

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Friedrich Schorlemmer, German Protestant theologian (died 2024)

Friedrich Schorlemmer was a German Protestant theologian. He was a prominent member of the civil rights movement in East Germany, leading to the Peaceful Revolution. Remaining active in politics and society after German reunification in 1990, he was engaged in the Wittenberg town council and several organisations as an activist for peace and nature preservation, and as a critical voice.

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16/05/1943

Kay Andrews, Baroness Andrews, English politician

Elizabeth Kay Andrews, Baroness Andrews is a British Labour politician and life peer. She was Chair of English Heritage from July 2009 to July 2013.

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Dan Coats, American politician and diplomat, 29th United States Ambassador to Germany

Daniel Ray Coats is an American politician, attorney, and diplomat from the state of Indiana. A Republican, Coats has served in the United States House of Representatives, in the United States Senate, as United States Ambassador to Germany, and as Director of National Intelligence.

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Wieteke van Dort, Dutch actress, comedian, singer, writer and artist (died 2024)

Louisa Johanna Theodora "Wieteke" van Dort was a Surabaya-born Javindo actress, comedian, singer, writer and artist. On 29 April 1999, Queen Beatrix appointed her Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau.

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16/05/1942

David Penry-Davey, English lawyer and judge (died 2015)

Sir David Herbert Penry-Davey was a judge of the High Court of England and Wales.

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16/05/1941

Denis Hart, Australian archbishop

Denis James Hart is a retired Australian prelate of the Catholic Church. He was Archbishop of Melbourne from 2001 to 2018.

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16/05/1939

Mario Segni, Italian professor and politician

Mariotto "Mario" Segni is a retired Italian politician and professor of civil law. He founded several parties, which focused on fighting for electoral reform through referendums. He is the son of the politician Antonio Segni, one-time president of Italy.

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16/05/1938

Stuart Bell, English lawyer and politician (died 2012)

Sir Stuart Bell was a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Middlesbrough from the 1983 general election until his death in 2012. He was known as the longest serving Second Church Estates Commissioner, serving in this role during the entire period of Labour government from 1997 to 2010.

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Ivan Sutherland, American computer scientist and academic

Ivan Edward Sutherland is an American computer scientist and Internet pioneer, widely regarded as a pioneer of computer graphics. His early work in computer graphics as well as his teaching with David C. Evans in that subject at the University of Utah in the 1970s was pioneering in the field. Sutherland, Evans, and their students from that era developed several foundations of modern computer graphics. He received the 1988 ACM Turing Award for the invention of the Sketchpad, an early predecessor to the sort of graphical user interface that has become ubiquitous in personal computers, and his contributions to computer graphics. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, as well as the National Academy of Sciences among many other major awards. In 2012, he was awarded the Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology for "pioneering achievements in the development of computer graphics and interactive interfaces".

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Marco Aurelio Denegri, Peruvian television host and sexologist (died 2018)

Marco Aurelio Denegri Santa Gadea was a Peruvian intellectual, literary critic, television host and sexologist.

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16/05/1937

Yvonne Craig, American ballet dancer and actress (died 2015)

Yvonne Joyce Craig was an American actress best known for her role as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl in the 1960s television series Batman. Other notable roles in her career include Dorothy Johnson in the 1963 movie It Happened at the World's Fair, Azalea Tatum in the 1964 movie Kissin' Cousins, and the green-skinned Orion Marta in the Star Trek episode "Whom Gods Destroy" (1969). The Huffington Post called her "a pioneer of female superheroes" for television. Craig was a philanthropist and "an advocate for workers unions, free mammograms, and equal pay for women".

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Jim Hunt, American politician, 69th and 71st Governor of North Carolina (died 2025)

James Baxter Hunt Jr. was an American politician and attorney who was the 69th and 71st governor of North Carolina. He was the longest-serving governor in the state's history.

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16/05/1936

Karl Lehmann, German cardinal (died 2018)

Karl Lehmann was a German prelate and cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Mainz from 1983 to 2016, being elevated to the cardinalate in 2001.

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16/05/1935

Floyd Smith, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

Floyd Robert Donald Smith is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre and coach. He was the first ever captain of the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL).

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16/05/1934

Kenneth O. Morgan, Welsh historian and author

Kenneth Owen Morgan, Baron Morgan, is a Welsh historian and author, known especially for his writings on modern British history and politics and on Welsh history. He is a regular reviewer and broadcaster on radio and television. He has been an influential intellectual resource in the Labour Party.

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Antony Walker, English general (died 2023)

General Sir Antony Kenneth Frederick Walker, was a British Army officer who served as Commandant of the Royal College of Defence Studies from 1990 to 1992.

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16/05/1931

Vujadin Boškov, Serbian footballer, coach, and manager (died 2014)

Vujadin Boškov was a Yugoslavian football player and manager.

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Hana Brady, Jewish-Czech Holocaust victim (died 1944)

Hana "Hanička" Brady was a Czechoslovak Jewish girl murdered in the gas chambers of the German concentration camp at Auschwitz, located in the occupied territory of Poland, during the Holocaust. She is the subject of the 2002 non-fiction children's book Hana's Suitcase, written by Karen Levine.

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Lowell P. Weicker Jr., American soldier and politician, 85th Governor of Connecticut (died 2023)

Lowell Palmer Weicker Jr. was an American politician who served as a U.S. representative, U.S. senator, and the 85th governor of Connecticut.

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16/05/1930

Friedrich Gulda, Austrian pianist and composer (died 2000)

Friedrich Gulda was an Austrian pianist and composer who worked in both the classical and jazz fields.

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16/05/1929

Betty Carter, American singer-songwriter (died 1998)

Betty Carter was an American jazz singer known for her improvisational technique, scatting and other complex musical abilities that demonstrated her vocal talent and imaginative interpretation of lyrics and melodies. Vocalist Carmen McRae once remarked: "There's really only one jazz singer—only one: Betty Carter."

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John Conyers, American lawyer and politician (died 2019)

John James Conyers Jr. was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as a U.S. representative from Michigan from 1965 to 2017. Conyers was the sixth-longest serving member of Congress and the longest-serving African American member of Congress in history.

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Claude Morin, Canadian academic and politician

Claude Morin is a former politician from Quebec, Canada and was the Parti Québécois Member of the National Assembly for the electoral district of Louis-Hébert, from 1976 to 1981. He became embroiled in controversy in 1992 when the affaire Morin came to light.

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Adrienne Rich, American poet, essayist, and feminist (died 2012)

Adrienne Cecile Rich was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century", and was credited with bringing "the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse". Rich criticized the rigid identities that are sometimes created by feminism, called for feminism that is flexible and open to being transformed, and drew attention to the existing current of solidarity and creativity among women, which she named the "lesbian continuum."

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K. Natwar Singh, Indian scholar and politician, Indian Minister of External Affairs (died 2024)

Natwar Singh was an Indian politician and diplomat of the Indian Foreign Service who later served as India's Minister of External Affairs from May 2004 to December 2005. Having been suspended by the Indian National Congress (INC) in 2006, he joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 2008 but was removed from the party within four months.

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16/05/1928

Billy Martin, American baseball player and coach (died 1989)

Alfred Manuel "Billy" Martin Jr. was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) second baseman and manager, who, in addition to leading other teams, was five times the manager of the New York Yankees. First known as a scrappy infielder who made considerable contributions to the championship Yankee teams of the 1950s, he then built a reputation as a manager who would initially make bad teams good, before ultimately being fired amid dysfunction. In each of his stints with the Yankees he managed them to winning records before being fired by team owner George Steinbrenner or resigning under fire.

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16/05/1926

Glen Michael, British television presenter and entertainer (died 2025)

Cecil Edward Buckland, known professionally as Glen Michael, was a British children's television presenter and entertainer. He hosted the popular children's television show Glen Michael's Cartoon Cavalcade, which ran for 26 years on Scottish Television from 1966. He also acted on stage across Scotland supporting comic Jack Milroy as a feed, later working with Rikki Fulton too. He appeared in the three series of The Adventures of Francie and Josie and in other television shows. He was a radio presenter for several years between 1974 and 2009.

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16/05/1925

Nancy Roman, American astronomer (died 2018)

Nancy Grace Roman was an American astronomer who made important contributions to stellar classification and stellar motions. The first female executive at NASA, Roman served as NASA's first Chief of Astronomy throughout the 1960s and 1970s, establishing her as one of the "visionary founders of the US civilian space program".

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Ola Vincent, Nigerian banker and economist (died 2012)

Olatunde Olabode Vincent was a Nigerian economist and banker who was governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 1977 to 1982.

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Nílton Santos, Brazilian footballer (died 2013)

Nílton dos Santos was a Brazilian footballer who primarily played as a wingback. At international level, he was a member of the Brazil squads that won the 1958 and 1962 World Cups.

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16/05/1924

Barbara Bachmann, American microbiologist (died 1999)

Barbara Joyce Bachmann was a lecturer at Yale University, UC Berkeley, Columbia and NYU, and is best known as director of the E. coli Genetic Stock Center and for publishing editions of the standard E. coli K-12 genetic linkage map.

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Dawda Jawara, 1st President of the Gambia (died 2019)

Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara was a Gambian politician who served as prime minister from 1962 to 1970, and then as the first President of The Gambia from 1970 to 1994, when he was overthrown by Yahya Jammeh.

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16/05/1923

Victoria Fromkin, American linguist and academic (died 2000)

Victoria Alexandra Fromkin was an American linguist who taught at UCLA. She studied slips of the tongue, mishearing, and other speech errors, which she applied to phonology, the study of how the sounds of a language are organized in the mind.

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Merton Miller, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2000)

Merton Howard Miller was an American economist, and the co-author of the Modigliani–Miller theorem (1958), which proposed the irrelevance of debt-equity structure. He shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1990, along with Harry Markowitz and William F. Sharpe. Miller spent most of his academic career at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.

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Peter Underwood, English parapsychologist and author (died 2014)

Peter Underwood was an English author, broadcaster and parapsychologist. Underwood was born in Letchworth, Hertfordshire. Described as "an indefatigable ghost hunter", he wrote many books which surveyed alleged hauntings within the United Kingdom - beginning the trend of comprehensive regional 'guides' to (purportedly) haunted places. One of his well-known investigations concerned Borley Rectory, which he also wrote about.

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16/05/1921

Harry Carey Jr., American actor, producer, and screenwriter (died 2012)

Henry George Carey Jr. was an American actor. He appeared in more than 90 films, including several John Ford Westerns, as well as numerous television series.

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16/05/1920

Martine Carol, French actress (died 1967)

Martine Carol was a French film actress. She frequently was cast as an elegant blonde seductress. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, she was the leading sex symbol and a top box-office draw of French cinema, and she was considered a French version of America's Marilyn Monroe. One of her more famous roles was as the title character in Lola Montès (1955), directed by Max Ophüls, in a role that required dark hair. However, by late 1956, roles for Carol had become fewer, partly because of the introduction of Brigitte Bardot.

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16/05/1919

Liberace, American pianist and entertainer (died 1987)

Władziu Valentino Liberace was an American pianist, singer, and actor. He was born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin and enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordings, television, motion pictures, and endorsements. At the height of his fame, from the 1950s to 1970s, he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world, with established concert residencies in Las Vegas and an international touring schedule.

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Ramon Margalef, Spanish ecologist and biologist (died 2004)

Ramon Margalef López was a Spanish biologist and ecologist. He was Emeritus Professor of Ecology at the Faculty of Biology of the University of Barcelona. Margalef, one of the most prominent scientists that Spain has produced, worked at the Institute of Applied Biology (1946–1951), and at the Fisheries Research Institute, which he directed during 1966–1967. He created the Department of Ecology of the University of Barcelona, from where he trained a huge number of ecologists, limnologists and oceanographers. In 1967 he became Spain's first professor of ecology.

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16/05/1918

Wilf Mannion, English footballer and manager (died 2000)

Wilfrid James Mannion was an English professional footballer who played as an inside forward, making over 350 senior appearances for Middlesbrough. He also played international football for England. With his blonde hair, he was nicknamed "The Golden Boy".

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16/05/1917

Ben Kuroki, American sergeant and pilot (died 2015)

Ben Kuroki was the only American of Japanese descent in the United States Army Air Forces to serve in combat operations in the Pacific theater of World War II. He flew a total of 58 combat missions over Europe, North Africa, and Japan during World War II. He was also an advocate for Japanese-Americans after World War II.

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James C. Murray, American lawyer and politician (died 1999)

James Cunningham Murray was a U.S. representative from Illinois from 1955 to 1957. He graduated from De Paul University Law School in 1940 and subsequently worked as a lawyer. He served in the United States Army Air Forces from 1942 to 1945.

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Juan Rulfo, Mexican author and photographer (died 1986)

Juan Nepomuceno Carlos Pérez Rulfo Vizcaíno, best known as Juan Rulfo, was a Mexican writer, screenwriter, and photographer. He is best known for two literary works, the 1955 novel Pedro Páramo, and the collection of short stories El Llano en llamas. In spite of Rulfo's slim literary production, he is considered one of the greatest Mexican and Latin American writers of the twentieth century who has influenced many subsequent writers including the Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez.

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16/05/1916

Ephraim Katzir, Israeli biophysicist and politician, 4th President of Israel (died 2009)

Ephraim Katzir was an Israeli biophysicist and Labor Party politician. He was the president of Israel from 1973 until 1978.

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16/05/1915

Mario Monicelli, Italian director and screenwriter (died 2010)

Mario Alberto Ettore Monicelli was an Italian film director and screenwriter.

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16/05/1914

Edward T. Hall, American anthropologist and author (died 2009)

Edward Twitchell Hall Jr. was an American anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher. He is remembered for developing the concept of proxemics and exploring cultural and social cohesion, and describing how people behave and react in different types of culturally defined personal space. Hall was an influential colleague of Marshall McLuhan and Buckminster Fuller.

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16/05/1913

Gordon Chalk, Australian politician, 30th Premier of Queensland (died 1991)

Sir Gordon William Wesley Chalk, was Premier of Queensland for a week, from 1 to 8 August 1968. He was the first and only Queensland Premier from the post-war Liberal Party.

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Woody Herman, American singer, saxophonist, and clarinet player (died 1987)

Woodrow Charles Herman was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading groups called "The Herd", Herman came to prominence in the late 1930s and was active until his death in 1987. His bands often played music that was cutting edge and experimental; their recordings received numerous Grammy nominations with three wins plus a lifetime achievement award for Herman.

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16/05/1912

Studs Terkel, American historian and author (died 2008)

Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American writer, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1985 for The Good War and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.

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16/05/1910

Olga Bergholz, Russian poet and author (died 1975)

Olga Fyodorovna Berggolts was a Soviet and Russian poet, writer, playwright and journalist. She is most famous for her work on the Leningrad radio during the city's siege, when she became the symbol of the city's resilience.

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Higashifushimi Kunihide, Japanese monk and educator (died 2014)

Count Higashifushimi Kunihide was the titular head of the Higashifushimi-no-miya, an extinct branch of the Imperial House of Japan, and a Buddhist monk. He was the youngest brother of Empress Kōjun and was the maternal uncle of Emperor Emeritus Akihito. If he had kept his Imperial status, at the time of his death, at age 103, he would have been the longest-lived member, of the Imperial House of Japan. His Dharma name was Jigō (慈洽).

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16/05/1909

Margaret Sullavan, American actress and singer (died 1960)

Margaret Brooke Sullavan was an American stage and film actress. She began her career onstage in 1929 with the University Players on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In 1933, she caught the attention of film director John M. Stahl and made her screen debut that same year in Only Yesterday. She continued to be successful on stage and film, best known for The Shop Around the Corner.

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Luigi Villoresi, Italian race car driver (died 1997)

Luigi "Gigi" Villoresi was an Italian racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1950 to 1956.

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16/05/1907

Bob Tisdall, Irish hurdler (died 2004)

Robert Morton Newburgh Tisdall was an Irish athlete who won a gold medal in the 400-metre hurdles at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

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16/05/1906

Ernie McCormick, Australian cricketer (died 1991)

Ernest Leslie McCormick was an Australian cricketer who played in 12 Test matches from 1935 to 1938.

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Alfred Pellan, Canadian painter and educator (died 1988)

Alfred Pellan was an important figure in twentieth-century Canadian painting.

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Arturo Uslar Pietri, Venezuelan lawyer, journalist, and author (died 2001)

Arturo Uslar Pietri was a Venezuelan intellectual, historian, writer, television producer, and politician.

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Margret Rey, German author and illustrator (died 1996)

Margret Elizabeth Rey was a German-born American writer and illustrator, best known for the Curious George series of children's picture books that she and her husband H. A. Rey created from 1939 to 1966.

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16/05/1905

Henry Fonda, American actor (died 1982)

Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American actor whose career spanned five decades on Broadway and in Hollywood. Known for his work on screen and stage, he often portrayed characters who embodied an everyman image.

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16/05/1903

Charles F. Brannock, American inventor and manufacturer (died 1992)

Charles F. Brannock was the inventor and manufacturer of the Brannock Device for measuring overall length, width, and heel-to-ball length of the foot.

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16/05/1898

Tamara de Lempicka, Polish-American painter (died 1980)

Tamara Łempicka, known outside Poland as Tamara de Lempicka, was a Polish painter who spent her working life in France and the United States. She is best known for her polished Art Deco portraits of aristocrats and the wealthy, and for her highly stylized paintings of nudes.

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Desanka Maksimović, Serbian poet and academic (died 1993)

Desanka Maksimović was a Serbian poet, writer and translator. Her first works were published in the literary journal Misao in 1920, while she was studying at the University of Belgrade. Within a few years, her poems appeared in the Serbian Literary Herald, Belgrade's most influential literary publication. In 1925, Maksimović earned a French Government scholarship for a year's study at the University of Paris. Upon her return, she was appointed a professor at Belgrade's elite First High School for Girls, a position she would hold continuously until World War II.

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Kenji Mizoguchi, Japanese director and screenwriter (died 1956)

Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese filmmaker who directed roughly one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956. His most acclaimed works include The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939), The Life of Oharu (1952), Ugetsu (1953), and Sansho the Bailiff (1954), with the latter three all being awarded at the Venice International Film Festival. A recurring theme of his films was the oppression of women in historical and contemporary Japan. Together with Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu, Mizoguchi is seen as a representative of the "golden age" of Japanese cinema.

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16/05/1897

Zvi Sliternik, Israeli entomologist and academic (died 1994)

Zvi Saliternik was an Israeli entomologist.

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16/05/1894

Walter Yust, American journalist and writer (died 1960)

Walter M. Yust was an American journalist and writer. Yust was the American editor-in-chief of the Encyclopædia Britannica from 1938 to 1960.

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16/05/1892

Osgood Perkins (actor, born 1892), American actor (died 1937)

James Ridley Osgood Perkins was an American actor.

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16/05/1890

Edith Grace White, American ichthyologist (died 1975)

Edith Grace White was an American zoologist known for her studies of elasmobranchs. She was a professor of biology at Wilson College, and was a research associate of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

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16/05/1888

Royal Rife, American microbiologist and instrument maker (died 1971)

Royal Raymond Rife was an American inventor and early exponent of high-magnification time-lapse cine-micrography.

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16/05/1887

Maria Lacerda de Moura, Brazilian teacher and anarcha-feminist (died 1945)

Maria Lacerda de Moura was a Brazilian teacher, writer and anarcha-feminist. The daughter of spiritist and anti-clerical parents, she grew up in the city of Barbacena, in the interior of Minas Gerais, where she graduated as a teacher at the Escola Normal Municipal de Barbacena and participated in official efforts to tackle social inequality through national literacy campaigns and educational reforms.

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16/05/1883

Celâl Bayar, Turkish politician, 3rd President of Turkey (died 1986)

Mahmut Celâlettin "Celâl" Bayar was a Turkish economist and politician who was the president of Turkey from 1950 to 1960. He previously served as the prime minister of Turkey from 1937 to 1939.

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16/05/1882

Simeon Price, American golfer (died 1945)

Simeon Taylor "Sim" Price Jr. was an American golfer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics.

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16/05/1879

Pierre Gilliard, Swiss author and academic (died 1962)

Pierre Gilliard was a Swiss academic and author, best known as the French language tutor to the five children of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia from 1905 to 1918. In 1921, after the Russian Revolution of 1917, he published a memoir, Thirteen Years at the Russian Court, about his time with the family. In his memoirs, Gilliard described Tsarina Alexandra's torment over her son's hemophilia and her faith in the ability of starets Grigori Rasputin to heal the boy.

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16/05/1876

Fred Conrad Koch, American biochemist and endocrinologist (died 1948)

Frederick Conrad Koch was an American biochemist and endocrinologist. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Koch graduated from the University of Illinois in 1899. He was affiliated with the University of Chicago from 1912 to 1941, serving as chairman of the department of biochemistry from 1936 to 1941. He retired as professor emeritus, and was director of biomedical research at Armour and Company. He was known primarily for his work on male sex hormones and testicular function. He served as the 19th president of the Endocrine Society, which in 1957 established the Fred Conrad Koch Lifetime Achievement Award, the society's highest honor.

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16/05/1862

Margaret Fountaine, English lepidopterist and diarist (died 1940)

Margaret Elizabeth Fountaine, was a Victorian lepidopterist, natural history illustrator, diarist, and traveller who published in The Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation. She is also known for her personal diaries, which were edited into two volumes by W.F. Cater for the popular market and published posthumously.

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16/05/1859

Horace Hutchinson, English golfer (died 1932)

Horatio Gordon "Horace" Hutchinson was an English amateur golfer who played in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Hutchinson won the 1886 and 1887 Amateur Championships. He had three top-10 finishes in the Open Championship, his best result being sixth in the 1890 Open Championship.

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16/05/1831

David Edward Hughes, Welsh-American physicist, co-invented the microphone (died 1900)

David Edward Hughes, was a Welsh-American inventor, practical experimenter, and professor of music known for his work on the printing telegraph and the microphone. He is generally considered to have been born in London but his family moved around that time so he may have been born in Corwen, Wales.

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16/05/1827

Pierre Cuypers, Dutch architect, designed the Amsterdam Centraal railway station and Rijksmuseum (died 1921)

Petrus Josephus Hubertus "Pierre" Cuypers was a Dutch architect. His name is most frequently associated with the Amsterdam Central Station (1881–1889) and the Rijksmuseum (1876–1885), both in Amsterdam. More representative for his oeuvre, however, are numerous churches, of which he designed more than 100. Moreover, he restored many monuments.

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16/05/1824

Levi P. Morton, American banker and politician, 22nd United States Vice President (died 1920)

Levi Parsons Morton was the 22nd vice president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He also served as United States ambassador to France, as a U.S. representative from New York, and as the 31st governor of New York.

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Edmund Kirby Smith, American general (died 1893)

Edmund Kirby Smith was a Confederate States Army general, who oversaw the Trans-Mississippi Department from 1863 to 1865. Before the American Civil War, Smith served as an officer of the United States Army.

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16/05/1821

Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician and statistician (died 1894)

Pafnuty Lvovich Chebyshev was a Russian mathematician and considered to be the founding father of Russian mathematics.

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16/05/1819

Johann Voldemar Jannsen, Estonian journalist and poet (died 1890)

Johann Voldemar Jannsen was an Estonian journalist. He was one of the earliest figures of the Estonian national awakening, which he promoted through his newspaper, the Eesti Postimees, and two Estonian Song Festivals. He wrote the nationalist song "Mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm", which became the national anthem of Estonia after its independence. Jannsen was the father of poet Lydia Koidula.

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16/05/1804

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, American educator who founded the first U.S. kindergarten (died 1894)

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody was an American educator who opened the first English-language kindergarten in the United States. Long before most educators, Peabody embraced the premise that children's play has intrinsic developmental and educational value.

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16/05/1801

William H. Seward, American lawyer and politician, 24th United States Secretary of State (died 1872)

William Henry Seward was an American politician who served as United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869 and earlier served as governor of New York and as a United States senator. A determined opponent of the spread of slavery in the years leading up to the American Civil War, he was prominent in the Republican Party in its formative years and was praised for his work on behalf of the Union as Secretary of State during the Civil War. He also negotiated the treaty for the United States to purchase the Alaska Territory.

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16/05/1788

Friedrich Rückert, German poet and translator (died 1866)

Johann Michael Friedrich Rückert was a German poet, translator, and professor of Oriental languages.

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16/05/1763

Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, French pharmacist and chemist (died 1829)

Louis Nicolas Vauquelin FRS(For) HFRSE was a French pharmacist and chemist. He was the discoverer of chromium and beryllium.

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16/05/1718

Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician and philosopher (died 1799)

Maria Gaetana Agnesi was an Italian mathematician, philosopher, theologian, and humanitarian. She was the first woman to write a mathematics handbook, the first woman appointed as a mathematics professor at a university and the second woman appointed as a professor overall.

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16/05/1710

William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician, Lord Steward of the Household (died 1782)

William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, PC, styled as Lord Talbot from 1737 to 1761, was an English peer and Whig politician. Talbot was a notable figure among opposition Whig politicians during the reign of King George II before later coming to Court during the reign of King George III, taking the office of Lord Steward of the Household.

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16/05/1641

Dudley North, English economist and politician (died 1691)

Sir Dudley North was an English merchant, politician, economist and writer on free trade. He was also a member of the North family.

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16/05/1611

Pope Innocent XI (died 1689)

Pope Innocent XI, born Benedetto Odescalchi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 21 September 1676 until his death on 12 August 1689.

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16/05/1606

John Bulwer, British doctor (died 1656)

John Bulwer was an English physician and early Baconian natural philosopher who wrote five works exploring the Body and human communication, particularly by gesture. He was the first person in England to propose educating deaf people, the plans for an Academy he outlines in Philocophus and The Dumbe mans academie.

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16/05/1542

Anna Sibylle of Hanau-Lichtenberg, German noblewoman (died 1580)

Countess Anna Sibylle of Hanau-Lichtenberg was a German noblewoman. She was born in Lichtenberg, the eldest surviving daughter of Count Philipp IV and his wife, Countess Eleonore of Fürstenberg.

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16/05/1455

Wolfgang I of Oettingen, German count (died 1522)

Wolfgang I of Oettingen was a Count of Oettingen-Oettingen.

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16/05/1418

John II of Cyprus, King of Cyprus and Armenia and also titular King of Jerusalem from 1432 to 1458 (probable; (died 1458)

John II or III of Cyprus was the King of Cyprus and Armenia and also titular King of Jerusalem from 1432 to 1458. He was previously a titular Prince of Antioch.

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