Born on Thursday, 22nd May – Famous Birthdays
On this day, 206 notable people were born on 22nd May — spanning from 626 to 2004. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.
Thursday, 22nd May marks the birth of several individuals who have shaped their respective fields. Among those born on this date is Novak Djokovic, the Serbian tennis player who was born in 1987 and has become one of the most successful athletes in sport history. Another notable figure is Lauri Markkanen, the Finnish basketball player born in 1997, who has established himself as a significant talent in the NBA. The day also saw the birth of Peyton Elizabeth Lee in 2004, an American actress who has gained recognition for her television work.
The date carries historical significance beyond contemporary figures. In 1885, both Giacomo Matteotti and Soemu Toyoda were born on this day. Matteotti was an Italian lawyer and politician whose career became defining in Italian political history, whilst Toyoda rose to prominence as a Japanese admiral. Earlier still, in 1813, Richard Wagner entered the world, the German composer whose works revolutionised classical music and continue to influence musicians across generations.
On Thursday, 22nd May 2025, the sky displays a waxing gibbous moon, and those celebrating spring under Gemini will find themselves in the season of this air sign. The weather conditions and atmospheric details contribute to the character of this particular date. DayAtlas provides comprehensive information for this date, displaying weather patterns, historical events, famous births and notable deaths for any location globally, making it a valuable resource for those researching specific dates and their significance.
Discover who was born today 9th April.
22/05/2004
Peyton Elizabeth Lee, American actress
Peyton Elizabeth Lee is an American actress. She is known for starring in the title role of the Disney Channel comedy-drama series Andi Mack (2017–2019). She has continued to work with Disney in the films Secret Society of Second-Born Royals (2020) and Prom Pact (2023), and the series Doogie Kameāloha, M.D. (2021–2023).
22/05/2002
Anthony Richardson, American football player
Anthony Dashawn Richardson Sr. is an American professional football quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Florida Gators and was selected by the Colts fourth overall in the 2023 NFL draft.
22/05/2001
Enzo Barrenechea, Argentine footballer
Enzo Alan Tomás Barrenechea is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Primeira Liga club Benfica, on loan from Premier League club Aston Villa.
Emma Chamberlain, American internet personality
Emma Frances Chamberlain is an American influencer, podcaster, businesswoman, and model. She won the 2018 Streamy Award for Breakout Creator. In 2019, Time magazine included her on its Time 100 Next list, and its list of The 25 Most Influential People On The Internet, writing that "Chamberlain pioneered an approach to vlogging that shook up YouTube's unofficial style guide."
Joshua Zirkzee, Dutch footballer
Joshua Orobosa Zirkzee is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a forward for Premier League club Manchester United and the Netherlands national team.
22/05/2000
Julián Carranza, Argentine footballer
Julián Simón Carranza is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for Mexican club Necaxa.
22/05/1999
Samuel Chukwueze, Nigerian footballer
Samuel Chimerenka Chukwueze is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Premier League club Fulham, on loan from Serie A club AC Milan. He also plays for the Nigeria national team.
Femke Huijzer, Dutch model
Femke Huijzer is a Dutch female fashion model.
Hōshōryū Tomokatsu, Mongolian sumo wrestler
Hōshōryū Tomokatsu is a Mongolian professional sumo wrestler and the 74th yokozuna. Wrestling for Tatsunami stable, he made his professional debut in January 2018. He is especially known for his throws; Mongolian sumo wrestlers are often skilled throwers, reflecting the skills used in Mongolian wrestling.
22/05/1998
Samile Bermannelli, Brazilian fashion model
Samile Bermannelli is a Brazilian fashion model.
22/05/1997
Lauri Markkanen, Finnish basketball player
Lauri Elias Markkanen is a Finnish professional basketball player for the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and for the Finland national team. Nicknamed "the Finnisher", he is the son of Finnish basketball players Pekka and Riikka Markkanen, and the younger brother of footballer Eero Markkanen.
22/05/1994
Florian Luger, Austrian male model
Florian Luger is an Austrian male fashion model.
Athena Manoukian, Greek-Armenian singer and songwriter
Athena Manoukian is a Greek-Armenian singer and songwriter. She was set to represent Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 with the song "Chains on You" prior to the contest's cancellation.
22/05/1992
Anna Baryshnikov, American actress
Anna Katerina Baryshnikova is an American actress. Following her film debut in Wiener-Dog (2016), Baryshnikov had supporting roles in films such as Manchester by the Sea (2016), The Kindergarten Teacher (2018), and Love Lies Bleeding (2024). She is best known for her lead roles as Maya on the first season of the CBS sitcom series Superior Donuts (2017) and Lavinia Norcross Dickinson on the Apple TV+ comedy drama series Dickinson (2019–2021).
22/05/1991
Joel Obi, Nigerian footballer
Joel Chukwuma Obi, known as Joel Obi, is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder.
Suho, South Korean singer and actor
Kim Jun-myeon, known professionally as Suho, is a South Korean singer-songwriter and actor. He is the leader of the South Korean-Chinese boy group Exo and its sub-unit Exo-K. He debuted as a soloist on March 30, 2020, with the release of his extended play (EP) Self-Portrait. Outside of his musical career, Suho has also starred in various television dramas and movies such as One Way Trip (2016), The Universe's Star (2017), Rich Man (2018), Middle School Girl A (2018), How Are U Bread (2020), Behind Your Touch (2023), and Missing Crown Prince (2024).
22/05/1990
Wyatt Roy, Australian politician
Wyatt Beau Roy is a former Australian parliamentarian. He served as the Assistant Minister for Innovation from September 2015 to the July 2016 federal election. He was a Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP) member of the Australian House of Representatives from August 2010 to July 2016, representing the electorate of Longman. At 20 years of age, he was the youngest person ever to be elected to an Australian parliament. The federal record was previously held by Edwin Corboy, who was 22 when elected in 1918. He also became the youngest Minister in the history of the Commonwealth, being appointed to the ministry at the age of 25.
22/05/1989
Corey Dickerson, American baseball player
McKenzie Corey Dickerson is an American professional baseball coach and former left fielder who currently serves as the first base coach for the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for the Colorado Rockies (2013–2015), Rays (2016–2017), Pittsburgh Pirates (2018–2019), Philadelphia Phillies (2019), Miami Marlins (2020–2021), Toronto Blue Jays (2021), St. Louis Cardinals (2022), and Washington Nationals (2023).
22/05/1988
Heida Reed, Icelandic-British actress
Heiða Rún Sigurðardóttir, known professionally as Heida Reed, is an Icelandic actress and model. She is known for playing parts in One Day (2011), Jo (2013), Silent Witness (2014), the BBC drama Poldark (2015–2019) and the CBS drama FBI: International (2021–2024).
22/05/1987
Novak Djokovic, Serbian tennis player
Novak Djokovic is a Serbian professional tennis player. Djokovic has been ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for a record 428 weeks, finished as the year-end No. 1 a record eight times, and has been ranked No. 1 at least once in a year for a record 13 different years. He has won 101 ATP Tour–level singles titles, including a record 24 majors, a record 40 Masters, a record seven year-end championships, and an Olympic gold medal. Djokovic is the only man in tennis history to be the reigning champion of all four majors at once across three different surfaces. In singles, he is the only man to achieve a triple Career Grand Slam, and the only player to complete a Career Golden Masters, a feat he has accomplished twice. Djokovic is the only player in singles to have won all of the Big Titles over the course of his career.
Arturo Vidal, Chilean footballer
Arturo Erasmo Vidal Pardo is a Chilean professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Chilean Primera División club Colo-Colo and captains the Chile national team. His displays during his time at Juventus led him to be nicknamed Il Guerriero, Rey Arturo and La Piranha by the Italian press due to his hard-tackling and aggressive, tenacious style of play. He is regarded as one of the greatest Chilean players of all time.
22/05/1986
Julian Edelman, American football player
Julian Francis Edelman is an American former professional football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons with the New England Patriots. He played college football for the Kent State Golden Flashes as a quarterback and was selected in the seventh round of the 2009 NFL draft by the Patriots, where he transitioned to a return specialist and wide receiver. Edelman became a primary offensive starter in 2013 and was a staple of the Patriots' receiving corps until his retirement after the 2020 season.
Matt Jarvis, English footballer
Matthew Thomas Jarvis is an English former professional footballer who played as a winger.
Tatiana Volosozhar, Russian figure skater
Tatiana Andreyеvna Volosozhar is a Ukrainian-born Russian pair skater. With Maxim Trankov, she is the two-time 2014 Olympic champion in the pairs and in team events, the 2013 World champion, a four-time European champion, the 2012 Grand Prix Final champion, and a three-time Russian national champion. They have also won six events on the Grand Prix series.
22/05/1985
Tranquillo Barnetta, Swiss footballer
Tranquillo Barnetta is a Swiss former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.
Mauro Boselli, Argentine footballer me
Mauro Boselli is an Argentine former professional footballer who played in the position striker.
Tao Okamoto, Japanese model and actress
Tao Okamoto , also known professionally by the mononym Tao, is a Japanese actress and model, who is considered one of the biggest models from Japan alongside Ai Tominaga and Hiroko Matsumoto. In 2009, she was one of the faces of Ralph Lauren.
22/05/1984
Clara Amfo, English television and radio presenter
Clara Amfo is a British radio broadcaster, television presenter, podcast host and voice-over artist. She is known for presenting her shows on BBC Radio 1.
Karoline Herfurth, German actress
Karoline Herfurth is a German actress and filmmaker.
Didier Ya Konan, Ivorian footballer
Didier Ya Konan is an Ivorian former professional footballer who played as a forward.
Dustin Moskovitz, American entrepreneur, co-founder of Facebook
Dustin Aaron Moskovitz is an American internet entrepreneur who co-founded the social media service Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms with Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum and Chris Hughes. In 2008, he left Facebook to co-found Asana with Justin Rosenstein. In March 2011, Forbes reported Moskovitz to be the youngest self-made billionaire in the world, on the basis of his then 2.34% share in Facebook. According to Forbes, as of May 2025, Moskovitz's estimated net worth stood at US$17.4 billion, making him the 125th richest individual in the world.
22/05/1983
Natasha Kai, American soccer player and Olympic medalist
Natasha Kanani Janine Kai is an American professional soccer forward and Olympic gold medalist who played professionally most recently in 2019. She previously played for Sky Blue FC and the Philadelphia Independence of Women's Professional Soccer and National Women's Soccer League as well as the United States women's national soccer team. In 2011, Kai was also part of the first US women's rugby union sevens team to play in the IRB Women's Sevens Challenge Cup held in Dubai.
22/05/1982
Erin McNaught, Australian model and actress
Erin McNaught is an Australian model, actress, presenter, television personality and beauty pageant titleholder. McNaught grew up in Australia alongside her older brothers and began playing in a band named "Short Straw" in her teenage years. After starting a career in modelling she represented Australia at the Miss Universe 2006 competition. After her participation McNaught went on to secure more modelling contracts and television jobs. In 2007 she took acting classes and secured a part in the soap opera Neighbours playing the role of Sienna Cammeniti. In 2010, she was employed by MTV and fronted their MTV Hits Weekly Hot30 Countdown show.
Apolo Ohno, American speed skater
Apolo Anton Ohno is an American retired short-track speed skating competitor and an eight-time medalist in the Winter Olympics. Ohno was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2017 and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 2019.
Hong Yong-jo, North Korean footballer
Hong Yong-jo is a North Korean former footballer who played as a midfielder. He captained North Korea at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
22/05/1981
Bryan Danielson, American wrestler
Bryan Lloyd Danielson is an American sports commentator and semi-retired professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he serves as a color commentator for its flagship show Dynamite and is a part-time in-ring performer. He is also known for his tenure in WWE, where he performed under the ring name Daniel Bryan from 2010 to 2021. Noted for his technical wrestling style and popularity with fans, he has been described as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time.
Bassel Khartabil, Syrian computer programmer and engineer (died 2015)
Bassel Khartabil, also known as Bassel Safadi, was a Palestinian-Syrian open-source software developer. He was detained without trial by the Syrian government in 2012 and was secretly executed in 2015. Human rights organizations say that he was detained for his activities in support of freedom of expression, and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention considered his detention to have been arbitrary.
Jürgen Melzer, Austrian tennis player
Jürgen Melzer is an Austrian tennis coach and former professional tennis player. Melzer reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8 in April 2011, and a doubles ranking of world No. 6 in September 2010. He has a younger brother, Gerald Melzer, with whom he played doubles in several tournaments.
Mark O'Meley, Australian rugby league player
Mark O'Meley is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer of Irish descent who played as a prop in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s he also played junior rugby league for the Northern Lakes Warriors and the Wyong Roos. He also went on to coach the Wyong Roos.
22/05/1980
Tarin Bradford, Australian rugby league player
Tarin Bradford is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played for the North Queensland Cowboys in the National Rugby League. He primarily played on the wing.
Sharice Davids, American politician
Sharice Lynnette Davids is an American politician, attorney, and former mixed martial artist serving as the U.S. representative from Kansas's 3rd congressional district since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she represents a district that includes most of the Kansas side of the Kansas City metropolitan area, including Kansas City, Overland Park, Prairie Village, Leawood, Lenexa, and Olathe.
Lucy Gordon, British actress and model (died 2009)
Lucy Imogen Gordon was an English actress and model. She became a face of CoverGirl in 1997 before starting an acting career. Her first film was Perfume in 2001 before going on to have small roles in Spider-Man 3, Serendipity, and The Four Feathers. Gordon had played the actress and singer Jane Birkin in the film Gainsbourg, a biopic of singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. Before the film was released, she hanged herself in her flat in Paris on 20 May 2009.
22/05/1979
Nazanin Boniadi, Iranian-American actress
Nazanin Boniadi is a British actress and activist. Born in Tehran and raised in London, she attended university in the United States, where she landed her first major acting role as Leyla Mir in the soap opera General Hospital (2007–2009) and its spin-off General Hospital: Night Shift (2007). Since then, Boniadi has played Nora in the sitcom How I Met Your Mother (2011), Fara Sherazi in the spy thriller series Homeland (2013–2014), Esther in the historical drama film Ben-Hur (2016), Clare Quayle in the sci-fi thriller series Counterpart (2017–2018), Zahra Kashani in the action thriller film Hotel Mumbai (2018), and Bronwyn in the first season of the fantasy series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022).
Tihomir Dovramadjiev, Bulgarian Chess boxer
Tihomir Atanassov Dovramadjiev, also known as Tihomir Tishko and as TigerTAD on the Playchess server, is a Bulgarian chess FIDE master and chess boxer. He became the first European chess boxing champion from Berlin, Germany, in 2005. with both World Chess Boxing Organisation - WCBO and World Chess Boxing Association - WCBA acknowledgments. He has held the International Chess Federation - FIDE title of FIDE master since 2004. Currently, he holds the position of associate professor in the Department of Industrial Design at the Technical University of Varna.
Maggie Q, American actress
Margaret Denise Quigley, known professionally as Maggie Q, is an American actress. She began her professional career in Hong Kong, with starring roles in the action films Gen-Y Cops (2000) and Naked Weapon (2002), before appearing in the American productions Mission: Impossible III (2006), Live Free or Die Hard (2007), Priest (2011) and The Protégé (2021). She portrayed Tori Wu in the dystopian science-fiction action film Divergent (2014), and reprised her role in the sequels, Insurgent (2015) and Allegiant (2016). Q starred in the title role on the CW action-thriller series Nikita (2010–2013), and also had a main role as FBI special agent Hannah Wells in the ABC/Netflix political thriller series Designated Survivor (2016–2019). She provided the voice of Wonder Woman on the animated series Young Justice (2012–2019). In 2025, Q began starring in the lead role of Detective Renée Ballard on the Prime Video series Ballard, a spinoff of the television series Bosch: Legacy.
22/05/1978
Ginnifer Goodwin, American actress
Ginnifer Goodwin is an American actress. She starred as Margene Heffman in the HBO drama series Big Love (2006–2011), Snow White / Mary Margaret Blanchard in the ABC fantasy series Once Upon a Time (2011–2018), Judy Hopps in Zootopia (2016) and its 2025 sequel, and Beth Ann Stanton in Why Women Kill (2019).
Katie Price, English television personality and glamour model
Katrina Amy Alexandra Alexis Price is an English media personality, model, and author. She gained recognition in the late 1990s for her glamour modelling work, including on Page 3 of the tabloid newspaper The Sun, under the pseudonym Jordan.
22/05/1977
Pat Smullen, Irish jockey (died 2020)
Patrick Joseph Smullen, was an Irish jockey who won the Irish flat racing Champion Jockey title nine times. In a career running from 1992 to 2018 he rode 1,845 winners in Ireland and 47 in Britain. Amongst his biggest successes were riding Harzand to victories in the Epsom Derby and Irish Derby in 2016. He was stable jockey to Dermot Weld from 1999 until 2018.
22/05/1976
Christian Vande Velde, American cyclist
Christian Vande Velde is a retired American professional road racing cyclist who rode professionally between 1998 and 2013. Vande Velde competed for the U.S. Postal Service, Liberty Seguros, Team CSC and Garmin–Sharp squads. He has been a cycling analyst for NBC Sports since 2014. He is the son of cyclist John Vande Velde.
22/05/1975
Salva Ballesta, Spanish footballer and manager
Salvador Ballesta Vialcho, commonly known as Salva, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a striker, currently a manager.
22/05/1974
Sean Gunn, American actor
Sean Gunn is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Kirk Gleason on The WB series Gilmore Girls (2000–2007), and Kraglin Obfonteri in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In this role, he has been in the films Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), as well as the animated series What If...? (2021–2024), and television special The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022). He also played Weasel and Calendar Man in the Warner Bros./DCEU film The Suicide Squad (2021). He reprised the role of Weasel in the DCU HBO Max series Creature Commandos (2024), where he also plays G.I. Robot. He is the younger brother of director James Gunn and often appears in his productions.
Garba Lawal, Nigerian footballer
Garba Lawal is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a winger. From 2014 to 2015, he was general manager at Kaduna United. He is with the technical department of the Nigeria Football Federation.
Henrietta Ónodi, Hungarian Olympic gymnast
Henrietta Ónodi is a Hungarian artistic gymnast. She competed at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics and won a gold and a silver medal in 1992. After retiring from gymnastics in 1997 she moved to the United States, married American Olympic pentathlete James Haley, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen, having three children together. In 2010, she was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Ukrainian politician
Arseniy Petrovych Yatsenyuk is a Ukrainian politician, economist and lawyer who served two terms as Prime Minister of Ukraine – from 27 February 2014 to 27 November 2014 and from 27 November 2014 to 14 April 2016. He was the youngest foreign affairs minister in Ukraine's history.
Canek Sánchez Guevara, Cuban author and dissident (died 2015)
Canek Sánchez Guevara (1974–2015) was a Cuban author, photographer, musician and dissident. The grandson of Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara, he grew up in the upper crust of post-revolutionary Cuban society, but soon became disillusioned with the government of Fidel Castro. After his mother's death, he went into exile in Mexico, where he worked as a writer for Proceso, penning criticisms of the Cuban government from a left-wing anarchist perspective. He died in 2015, following complications with cardiac surgery.
Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, Norwegian politician
Anne Beathe Kristiansen Tvinnereim is a Norwegian politician and diplomat who servied as the Minister of International Development and Minister of Nordic Cooperation from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Centre Party, she also served as the party's second deputy leader from 2014 to 2025.
22/05/1973
Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Danish actor
Nikolaj Lie Kaas is a Danish actor whose career began in the 1990s. Kaas graduated from the National Theater School in Denmark in 1998. He first appeared on screen in Søren Kragh-Jacobsen's film The Boys from St. Petri in 1991 as Otto, the rebel son of a traitor.
22/05/1972
Max Brooks, American author and screenwriter
Maximilian Michael Brooks is an American writer and actor. He is the son of filmmaker Mel Brooks and actress Anne Bancroft. Much of Brooks's writing focuses on zombie stories. He was a senior fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point, New York.
22/05/1970
Naomi Campbell, English model
Naomi Elaine Campbell is a British model. Beginning her career at the age of eight, Campbell was one of six models of her generation declared supermodels by the fashion industry and the international press. She was the first black woman to appear as a model on the covers of Time and Vogue France.
Brody Stevens, American comedian and actor (died 2019)
Steven James Brody, known professionally as Brody Stevens, was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He starred in the Comedy Central reality series Brody Stevens: Enjoy It!, and was known for appearances on Chelsea Lately and other comedy shows as well as roles in films such as The Hangover (2009) and Due Date (2010).
22/05/1969
Michael Kelly, American actor
Michael Kelly is an American actor, widely known for his role as Doug Stamper in the Netflix drama series House of Cards. He played a regular role as CIA Agent Mike November in the Prime Video thriller series Jack Ryan. He also appeared on The Sopranos as FBI Agent Ron Goddard.
Cathy McMorris Rodgers, American lawyer and politician
Cathy Anne McMorris Rodgers is an American politician who served from 2005 to 2025 as the United States representative for Washington's 5th congressional district, which encompasses the eastern third of the state and includes Spokane, the state's second-largest city. A Republican, McMorris Rodgers previously served in the Washington House of Representatives. From 2013 to 2019, she chaired the House Republican Conference.
22/05/1968
Graham Linehan, Irish comedy writer and activist
Graham George Linehan is an Irish comedy writer and anti-transgender activist. He created or co-created the sitcoms Father Ted (1995–1998), Black Books (2000–2004), The IT Crowd (2006–2013), and Count Arthur Strong (2013–2017), and has contributed to other comedy shows, including The Fast Show, The Day Today, and Brass Eye. During the 1990s, his writing partner was Arthur Mathews, with whom he created Father Ted.
22/05/1966
Johnny Gill, American singer-songwriter and producer
Johnny Gill Jr. is an American singer and songwriter. He is the sixth and final member of the R&B/pop group New Edition and was also a member of the supergroup called LSG, with Gerald Levert and Keith Sweat. Gill has released eight solo albums, three albums with New Edition, two albums with LSG, and one collaborative album with Stacy Lattisaw. Gill has sold over 15 million copies worldwide as a solo artist.
Wang Xiaoshuai, Chinese director and screenwriter
Wang Xiaoshuai is a Chinese film director, screenwriter, and occasional actor. He is commonly grouped under the loose association of filmmakers known as the "Sixth Generation" of the Cinema of China. Like others in this generation, and in contrast with earlier Chinese filmmakers who produced mostly historical drama, Wang proposed a “new urban Chinese cinema [that] has been mainly concerned with bearing witness of a fast- paced transforming China and producing a localized critique of globalization.”
22/05/1965
Jay Carney, American journalist, 29th White House Press Secretary
Jay Carney is an American public relations officer and former journalist who served as the 28th White House press secretary from 2011 to 2014. He worked as Amazon's senior vice president of global corporate affairs from 2015 to 2022. Since 2022, he has been Global Head of Policy and Communications at Airbnb.
22/05/1963
Claude Closky, French contemporary artist
Claude Closky is a French artist who lives and works in Paris.
22/05/1962
Andrew Magee, French-American golfer
Andrew Donald Magee is an American professional golfer who played for more than 20 years on the PGA Tour.
Brian Pillman, American football player and wrestler (died 1997)
Brian William Pillman was an American professional wrestler and professional football player best known for his appearances in Stampede Wrestling in the 1980s and World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in the 1990s.
22/05/1960
Hideaki Anno, Japanese animator, director, and screenwriter
Hideaki Anno is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, actor, producer, and voice actor. His most celebrated creation, the Evangelion franchise, has had a significant influence on the anime television industry and Japanese popular culture. Anno's style is defined by his postmodernist approach and the extensive portrayal of characters' thoughts and emotions.
22/05/1959
David Blatt, Israeli-American basketball player and coach
David Michael Blatt is an Israeli-American professional basketball executive. He is also a former coach and player.
Olin Browne, American golfer
Olin Douglas Browne is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and now plays on the PGA Tour Champions.
Morrissey, English singer-songwriter and performer
Steven Patrick Morrissey is an English singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the frontman and lyricist of the rock band the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. Since then he has pursued a successful solo career. Morrissey's music is characterised by his baritone voice and distinctive lyrics with anti-establishment stances and recurring themes of emotional isolation, sexual longing, self-deprecation, and dark humour.
Kwak Jae-yong, South Korean director and screenwriter
Kwak Jae-yong is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. He studied physics at Kyung Hee University. He achieved success with his debut film Watercolor Painting in a Rainy Day in 1989, but the failure of his next two movies led to eight years of unemployment before a comeback with the smash-hit film My Sassy Girl in 2001. He is known for his fondness of love stories set in a mix of different genres.
Mehbooba Mufti, Indian politician
Mehbooba Bur Mufti Sayed is an Indian politician and leader of the Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party (PDP), who served as the 9th chief minister of the erstwhile state Jammu and Kashmir from 4 April 2016 to 19 June 2018. She is the first female chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. After the revocation of Article 370 of the constitution in August 2019, Mufti was detained without any charges at first and later under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act.
22/05/1957
Lisa Murkowski, American lawyer and politician
Lisa Ann Murkowski is an American attorney and politician serving as the senior United States senator from the state of Alaska, having held the seat since 2002. She is the first woman to represent Alaska in the U.S. Congress and is the Senate's second-most senior Republican woman. Murkowski became dean of Alaska's congressional delegation upon Representative Don Young's death.
22/05/1956
Lucie Brock-Broido, American poet (died 2018)
Lucie Brock-Broido born "Lucy Brock" was an American poet, widely acclaimed as one of the most distinctive and influential voices of her generation. Noteworthy for her work as a teacher, Brock-Broido served as a visiting professor of creative writing at Princeton University, the Briggs-Copeland Poet in Residence and director of creative writing at Harvard University, and as professor of creative writing and director of poetry at Columbia University. Throughout her career, she mentored multiple generations of new American poets, including Tracy K. Smith, Timothy Donnelly, Kevin Young, Mary Jo Bang, Stephanie Burt, and Max Ritvo.
22/05/1955
Iva Davies, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
Ivor Arthur Davies, AM, known professionally as Iva Davies, is an Australian singer, songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer.
22/05/1954
Barbara May Cameron, Native American human rights activist (died 2002)
Barbara May Cameron was a Native American photographer, poet, writer, and human rights activist in the fields of lesbian/gay rights, women's rights, and Native American rights.
Shuji Nakamura, Japanese-American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate
Shuji Nakamura is a Japanese–American electronics engineer and co-inventor of the blue LED, a major breakthrough in lighting technology. For this achievement, Nakamura, together with Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014.
22/05/1953
François Bon, French writer
François Bon is a French writer and translator.
Cha Bum-kun, South Korean footballer and manager
Cha Bum-kun is a South Korean former football manager and player. A forward, he was nicknamed Tscha Bum or "Cha Boom" in Germany because of his name and thunderous ball striking ability. Known for his explosive pace and finishing, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest Asian footballers of all time.
Paul Mariner, English footballer, coach, and manager (died 2021)
Paul Mariner was an English football player and coach.
22/05/1951
Kenneth Bianchi, American serial killer and rapist
Kenneth Alessio Bianchi is an American serial killer, kidnapper, and rapist. He is known for the Hillside Strangler murders which he committed with his cousin Angelo Buono Jr. in Los Angeles, as well as for two more murders in Washington State as the sole perpetrator. Bianchi is currently serving a sentence of life imprisonment in Washington State Penitentiary for these crimes. He was also at one time a suspect in the Alphabet murders, three unsolved murders in his home city of Rochester, New York, from 1971 to 1973. Bianchi was most recently denied parole in 2025.
22/05/1950
Bernie Taupin, English singer-songwriter and poet
Bernard John Taupin is an English lyricist and visual artist. He is best known for his songwriting partnership with Elton John, recognised as one of the most successful partnerships of its kind in history. Taupin co-wrote the majority of John's songs, dating back to the 1960s.
22/05/1949
Cheryl Campbell, English actress
Cheryl Campbell is an English actress. She starred opposite Bob Hoskins in the 1978 BBC drama Pennies From Heaven, before going on to win the 1980 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for Testament of Youth and Malice Aforethought, and the 1982 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival for A Doll's House. Her film appearances include Chariots of Fire (1981), Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) and The Shooting Party (1985).
Valentin Inzko, Austrian diplomat
Valentin Inzko is an Austrian diplomat who served as the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2009 to 2021. He also served as the European Union Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2009 to 2011.
22/05/1948
Tomás Sánchez, Cuban painter and engraver
Tomás Sánchez is a Cuban painter and engraver, known for his landscapes. Sánchez is the most expensive living Cuban painter.
Nedumudi Venu, Indian actor and screenwriter (died 2021)
Kesavan Venugopal, better known by his stage name Nedumudi Venu, was an Indian actor and screenwriter from Kerala, who predominantly worked in Malayalam cinema. He acted in more than 500 films, primarily in Malayalam and also in Tamil, in a career spanning nearly five decades. He wrote screenplays and directed one film. Nedumudi Venu won three National Film Awards, three Filmfare Award South and six Kerala State Film Awards for his performances in various movies.
22/05/1946
George Best, Northern Irish footballer and manager (died 2005)
George Best was a Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger, spending most of his club career at Manchester United. A skillful dribbler, he is considered one of the greatest players of all time, along with being considered one of the most talented to play. He was named European Footballer of the Year in 1968 and came fifth in the FIFA Player of the Century vote. Best received plaudits for his playing style, which combined pace, skill, balance, feints, the ability to get past defenders and goalscoring. In 1999 he was on the six-man shortlist for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Century. He was an inaugural inductee into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002.
Michael Green, English physicist and academic
Michael Boris Green is a British physicist and a pioneer of string theory. He is a professor of theoretical physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Queen Mary University of London, emeritus professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and a Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge. He was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics from 2009 to 2015.
Howard Kendall, English footballer and manager (died 2015)
Howard Kendall was an English footballer and manager.
Andrei Marga, Romanian philosopher, political scientist, politician
Andrei Marga is a Romanian philosopher, political scientist, and politician. Rector – for the second time – of the Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, he was a member of the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNȚCD), serving as Minister of Education in the Democratic Convention (CDR) coalition governments of Victor Ciorbea, Radu Vasile, and Mugur Isărescu (1997–2000). In January 2001, he replaced Ion Diaconescu as PNȚCD president, but resigned from this position in July 2001, amid political tensions within the party. He subsequently formed a new political party, more specifically the Popular Christian Party later during the same year. Later on, he became a member of the National Liberal Party (PNL).
Lyudmila Zhuravleva, Russian-Ukrainian astronomer
Lyudmila Vasilyevna Zhuravleva is a Soviet, Russian and Ukrainian astronomer, who worked at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnij, where she discovered 213 minor planets. She also serves as president of the Crimean branch of the "Prince Clarissimus Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov Foundation". She has discovered a number of asteroids, including the Trojan asteroid 4086 Podalirius and asteroid 2374 Vladvysotskij. Zhuravleva is ranked 43 in the Minor Planet Center's list of those who have discovered minor planets. She is credited with having discovered 200, and co-discovered an additional 13 between 1972 and 1992. In the rating of minor planet discoveries, she is listed in 57th place out of 1,429 astronomers. The main-belt asteroid 26087 Zhuravleva, discovered by her colleague Lyudmila Karachkina at Nauchnij, was named in her honour.
22/05/1945
Bob Katter, Australian politician
Robert Bellarmine Carl Katter is an Australian politician who has served as the member of parliament (MP) for the Queensland division of Kennedy since 1993 and father of the House since 2022. He was previously active in Queensland state politics from 1974 to 1992, holding various ministerial positions in the Bjelke-Petersen, Ahern, and Cooper governments.
22/05/1944
John Flanagan, Australian fantasy author (died 2026)
John Anthony Flanagan was an Australian fantasy author best known for his medieval fantasy series, the Ranger's Apprentice, and its sister series, the Brotherband Chronicles. Some of his other works include his Storm Peak duology, as well as the adult novel The Grey Raider.
22/05/1943
Betty Williams, Northern Irish peace activist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2020)
Elizabeth Williams was a peace activist from Northern Ireland. She was a co-recipient with Mairead Corrigan of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her work as a cofounder of Community of Peace People, an organisation dedicated to promoting a peaceful resolution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Tommy John, American baseball player
Thomas Edward John Jr., nicknamed "the Bionic Man," is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 26 seasons between 1963 and 1989. He played for the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, California Angels, and Oakland Athletics. He was a four-time MLB All-Star and has the second-most wins (288) of any pitcher since 1900 not in the Hall of Fame. Known for his longevity, John was the Opening Day starter six times – three for the White Sox and three times for the Yankees.
22/05/1942
Roger Brown, American basketball player (died 1997)
Roger William Brown was an American professional basketball player and councilman.
Ted Kaczynski, American academic and mathematician turned anarchist and serial murderer (Unabomber) (died 2023)
Theodore John Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, was an American mathematician and domestic terrorist. A mathematics prodigy, he abandoned his academic career in 1969 to pursue a reclusive primitive lifestyle and lone wolf terrorism campaign.
Barbara Parkins, Canadian actress
Barbara Parkins is a Canadian-American former actress, singer, dancer and photographer.
Richard Oakes, Native American civil rights activist (died 1972)
Richard Oakes was a Mohawk American Indian activist and academic. He spurred American Indian studies in university curricula and is credited for helping to change US federal government termination policies of American Indian peoples and culture. Oakes led a nineteen-month occupation of Alcatraz Island with LaNada Means, approximately 50 California State University students, and 37 others. The Occupation of Alcatraz is credited for opening a rediscovered unity among all American Indian tribes.
22/05/1941
Menzies Campbell, Scottish sprinter and politician (died 2025)
Walter Menzies "Ming" Campbell, Baron Campbell of Pittenweem, was a Scottish politician, advocate and athlete. A senior figure in the Liberal Democrats, he served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Fife from 1987 to 2015 and led the party from 2006 to 2007. He held prominent frontbench roles in foreign affairs and defence, and was deputy leader under Charles Kennedy.
22/05/1940
Kieth Merrill, American filmmaker
Kieth W. Merrill is an American filmmaker who has worked as a writer, director, and producer in the film industry since 1967. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Directors Guild of America, and received an Academy Award for The Great American Cowboy (1973) and a nomination for Amazon (1997). He is also known for directing The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd, Legacy and Windwalker.
E. A. S. Prasanna, Indian cricketer
Erapalli Anantharao Srinivas Prasanna is a former Indian cricket player. He was a spin bowler, specialising in off spin and a member of the Indian spin quartet. He is an alumnus of the National Institute of Engineering, Mysore. He received the C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004, the highest honour bestowed by BCCI on a former player.
Michael Sarrazin, Canadian actor (died 2011)
Michael Sarrazin was a French Canadian actor. His most notable film was They Shoot Horses, Don't They?.
Bernard Shaw, American journalist (died 2022)
Bernard Shaw was an American journalist and lead news anchor for CNN from its launch in 1980 until his retirement on March 2, 2001. Prior to his time at CNN, he was a reporter and anchor for WNUS, Westinghouse Broadcasting, CBS News, and ABC News.
Mick Tingelhoff, American football player (died 2021)
Henry Michael Tingelhoff was an American professional football player who was a center for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL) from 1962 to 1978. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015.
22/05/1939
Paul Winfield, American actor (died 2004)
Paul Edward Winfield was an American actor. He was known for his portrayal of a Louisiana sharecropper who struggles to support his family during the Great Depression in the landmark film Sounder (1972), which earned him an Academy Award nomination. Winfield portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1978 television miniseries King, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award. Winfield was also known for his roles in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Terminator, L.A. Law,, the Magic Mirror in The Charmings, and Julian c. Barlow in the final season of 227. Winfield received four Emmy nominations overall, winning in 1995 for his 1994 guest role in Picket Fences.
22/05/1938
Richard Benjamin, American actor and director
Richard Samuel Benjamin is an American actor and director. He has starred in a number of well-known films, including Goodbye, Columbus (1969), Catch-22 (1970), Portnoy's Complaint (1972), Westworld, The Last of Sheila and Saturday the 14th (1981). In 1968, Benjamin was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance on the CBS sitcom He & She, which aired from 1967-1968. In 1976, Benjamin received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Motion Picture for his performance as aged vaudevillian Willy Clark's comedically long-suffering nephew, confidante and talent agent, Ben Clark, in Herbert Ross' The Sunshine Boys (1975), based on Neil Simon's 1972 hit stage play of the same name.
Susan Strasberg, American actress (died 1999)
Susan Elizabeth Strasberg was an American stage, film, and television actress. Thought to be the next Hepburn-type ingenue, she was nominated for a Tony Award at age 18, playing the title role in The Diary of Anne Frank. She appeared on the covers of LIFE and Newsweek in 1955. A close friend of Marilyn Monroe, she wrote two best-selling tell-all books. Her later career primarily consisted of slasher and horror films, followed by TV roles, by the 1980s.
22/05/1937
Facundo Cabral, Argentinian singer-songwriter (died 2011)
Facundo Cabral was an Argentine singer-songwriter.
Tomáš Janovic, Slovak writer (died 2023)
Tomáš Janovic was a Slovak writer, songwriter, journalist and poet. He was best known as an aphorist.
22/05/1936
George H. Heilmeier, American engineer (died 2014)
George Harry Heilmeier was an American engineer, manager, and a pioneering contributor to liquid crystal displays (LCDs), for which he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Heilmeier's work is an IEEE Milestone.
22/05/1935
Billy Rayner, Australian rugby league player (died 2006)
Billy Rayner was an Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1950s and 1960s.
22/05/1934
Peter Nero, American pianist and conductor (died 2023)
Peter Nero was an American pianist and pops conductor. He directed the Philly Pops from 1979 to 2013, and earned two Grammy Awards, including the award for Best New Artist in 1962, as well as a total of 8 nominations.
22/05/1933
Fred Anderson, Australian-South African rugby league player (died 2012)
Fred Anderson was an Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1950s and 1960s.
Chen Jingrun, Chinese mathematician and academic (died 1996)
Chen Jingrun, also known as Jing-Run Chen, was a Chinese mathematician who made significant contributions to number theory, including Chen's theorem and the Chen prime.
22/05/1932
Robert Spitzer, American psychiatrist and academic (died 2015)
Robert Leopold Spitzer was a psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry at Columbia University in New York City. He was a major force in the development of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
22/05/1930
Kenny Ball, English jazz trumpet player, vocalist, and bandleader (died 2013)
Kenneth Daniel Ball was an English jazz musician, best known as the bandleader, lead trumpet player and vocalist in Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen.
Marisol Escobar, French-American sculptor (died 2016)
Marisol Escobar, otherwise known simply as Marisol, was a Venezuelan-American sculptor born in Paris, who lived and worked in New York City. She became world-famous in the mid-1960s, but lapsed into relative obscurity within a decade. She continued to create her artworks and returned to the limelight in the early 21st century, capped by a 2014 major retrospective show organized by the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. The largest retrospective of Marisol's artwork, Marisol: A Retrospective has been organized by the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and curated by Cathleen Chaffee for these museums: the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Toledo Museum of Art, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, and the Dallas Museum of Art . Although it was supplemented by loans from international museums and private collections, the exhibition drew largely on artwork and archival material Marisol left to the Buffalo AKG Art Museum as a bequest upon her death.
Harvey Milk, American lieutenant and politician (died 1978)
Harvey Bernard Milk was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
22/05/1929
Ahmed Fouad Negm, Egyptian poet (died 2013)
Ahmad Fo'ad Negm, popularly known as El-Fagumi الفاجومي, was an Egyptian vernacular poet. Negm is well known for his work with Egyptian composer Sheikh Imam, as well as his patriotic and revolutionary Egyptian Arabic poetry. Negm has been regarded as "a bit of a folk hero in Egypt."
22/05/1928
Serge Doubrovsky, French theorist and author (died 2017)
Julien Serge Doubrovsky was a French writer and 1989 Prix Médicis winner for Le Livre brisé. He is also a critical theorist, and coined the term "autofiction" in the drafts for his novel Fils (1977).
John Mackenzie, Scottish director and producer (died 2011)
John Leonard Duncan Mackenzie was a Scottish film and television director. He worked in British film from the late 1960s, first as an assistant director and later as an independent director himself.
T. Boone Pickens, American businessman (died 2019)
Thomas Boone Pickens Jr. was an American business magnate and financier. Pickens chaired the hedge fund BP Capital Management. He was a well-known takeover operator and corporate raider during the 1980s. Later in life, he was a prominent conservative activist and philanthropist. At the time of Pickens' death in 2019, his net worth stood at $500 million, after he had given away more than $1 billion to various philanthropic causes.
Hiroshi Sano, Japanese novelist (died 2013)
Ichiro Maruyama, who wrote under the pen name You Sano, was a Japanese mystery writer and critic.
22/05/1927
Michael Constantine, American actor (died 2021)
Michael Constantine was a Greek-American actor. He is most widely recognized for his portrayal of Kostas "Gus" Portokalos, the stubborn Greek father of Toula Portokalos, in the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002). For his performance, Constantine won a Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Musical or Comedy.
Peter Matthiessen, American novelist, short story writer, editor, co-founded The Paris Review (died 2014)
Peter Matthiessen was an American novelist, naturalist, wilderness writer, zen teacher, and onetime CIA agent. A co-founder of the literary magazine The Paris Review, he is the only writer to have won the National Book Award in both nonfiction and fiction. He was also a prominent environmental activist.
George Andrew Olah, Hungarian-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2017)
George Andrew Olah was a Hungarian-American chemist. His research involved the generation and reactivity of carbocations via superacids. For this research, Olah was awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1994 "for his contribution to carbocation chemistry." He was also awarded the Priestley Medal, the highest honor granted by the American Chemical Society and F.A. Cotton Medal for Excellence in Chemical Research of the American Chemical Society in 1996.
22/05/1925
Jean Tinguely, Swiss painter and sculptor (died 1991)
Jean Tinguely was a Swiss sculptor best known for his kinetic art sculptural machines that extended the Dada tradition into the later part of the 20th century. Tinguely's art satirized automation and the technological overproduction of material goods.
22/05/1924
Charles Aznavour, French-Armenian singer-songwriter and actor (died 2018)
Charles Aznavour was a French and Armenian singer-songwriter, actor, and diplomat. Aznavour was known for his distinctive vibrato tenor voice: clear and ringing in its upper reaches, with gravelly and profound low notes. In a career as a singer and songwriter, spanning over 70 years, he recorded more than 1,200 songs, in various languages. Moreover, he wrote or co-wrote more than 1,000 songs for himself and others. Aznavour is regarded as one of the greatest songwriters in history and an icon of 20th-century pop culture.
22/05/1922
Quinn Martin, American screenwriter and producer (died 1987)
Quinn Martin was an American television producer. He had at least one television series running in prime time every year for 21 straight years. Martin is a member of the Television Hall of Fame, having been inducted posthumously in 1997.
22/05/1921
George S. Hammond, American scientist (died 2005)
George Simms Hammond was an American scientist and theoretical chemist who developed "Hammond's postulate", and fathered organic photochemistry,–the general theory of the geometric structure of the transition state in an organic chemical reaction. Hammond's research is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. His research garnered him the Norris Award in 1968, the Priestley Medal in 1976, the National Medal of Science in 1994, and the Othmer Gold Medal in 2003. He served as the executive chairman of the Allied Chemical Corporation from 1979 to 1989.
22/05/1920
Thomas Gold, Austrian-American astrophysicist and academic (died 2004)
Thomas Gold was an Austrian-born astrophysicist, who also held British and American citizenship. He was a professor of astronomy at Cornell University, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the Royal Society (London). Gold was one of three young Cambridge scientists who in 1948 proposed the now mostly abandoned "steady state" hypothesis of the universe. Gold's work crossed boundaries of academic and scientific disciplines, into biophysics, astronomy, aerospace engineering, and geophysics.
22/05/1919
Paul Vanden Boeynants, Belgian businessman and politician, 55th Prime Minister of Belgium (died 2001)
Paul Emile François Henri Vanden Boeynants was a Belgian politician. He served as the prime minister of Belgium for two brief periods.
22/05/1917
George Aratani, American businessman and philanthropist (died 2013)
George Tetsuo Aratani was a Japanese American entrepreneur, philanthropist and the founder of Mikasa china and owner of the Kenwood Electronics corporation.
Jean-Louis Curtis, French author (died 1995)
Jean-Louis Curtis, pseudonym of Albert Laffitte, was a French novelist best known for his second novel The Forests of the Night, which won France's highest literary award the Prix Goncourt in 1947. He is the author of over 30 novels.
22/05/1914
Max Kohnstamm, Dutch historian and diplomat (died 2010)
Max Kohnstamm was a Dutch historian and diplomat.
Sun Ra, American pianist, composer, bandleader, poet (died 1993)
Le Sony'r Ra, better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific output, and theatrical performances. For much of his career, Ra led The Arkestra, an ensemble with an ever-changing name and flexible line-up.
22/05/1913
Rafael Gil, Spanish director and screenwriter (died 1986)
Rafael Gil was a Spanish film director and screenwriter. His film I Was a Parish Priest (1953) won the Bronze Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1953 and also won best film and best director at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. His film La noche del sábado (1950) was nominated for the Gold Lion at the 1950 Venice Film Festival and his film El beso de Judas (1954) was also nominated for the Gold Lion at the 1954 festival in Venice. His film Let's Make the Impossible! (1958) was nominated for the Golden Berlin Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. He has won nine prizes of the National Syndicate of Spectacle of Spain.
Dominique Rolin, Belgian author (died 2012)
Dominique Rolin was a Belgian novelist.
22/05/1912
Herbert C. Brown, English-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2004)
Herbert Charles Brown was an American chemist and recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work with organoboranes.
22/05/1909
Bob Dyer, American-Australian radio and television host (died 1984)
Robert Neal Dyer OBE was a Gold Logie-award-winning American-born vaudeville entertainer and singer, radio and television personality, and radio and television quiz show host who made his name in Australia. Dyer is best known for the long-running radio and then television quiz show, Pick a Box.
Margaret Mee, English illustrator and educator (died 1988)
Margaret Ursula Mee, MBE was a British botanical artist who specialised in plants from the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. She was also one of the first environmentalists to draw attention to the impact of large-scale mining and deforestation on the Amazon Basin.
22/05/1908
Horton Smith, American golfer and captain (died 1963)
Horton Smith was an American professional golfer, best known as the winner of the first and third Masters Tournaments.
22/05/1907
Hergé, Belgian author and illustrator (died 1983)
Georges Prosper Remi, known by the pen name Hergé, from the French pronunciation of his reversed initials RG, was a Belgian comic strip artist. He is best known for creating The Adventures of Tintin, the series of comic albums that are considered one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century. He was also responsible for two other well-known series, Quick & Flupke (1930–1940) and The Adventures of Jo, Zette and Jocko (1936–1957). His works were executed in his distinctive ligne claire drawing style.
Laurence Olivier, English actor, director, and producer (died 1989)
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier was an English actor and director. He and his contemporaries John Gielgud, Michael Redgrave and Ralph Richardson made up a quartet of male actors who dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films throughout his career, playing more than fifty cinema roles. Late in his career he had considerable success in television roles.
22/05/1905
Bodo von Borries, German physicist and academic, co-invented the electron microscope (died 1956)
Bodo von Borries in Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia) was a German physicist. He was the co-inventor of the electron microscope.
Tom Driberg, British politician (died 1976)
Thomas Edward Neil Driberg, Baron Bradwell was a British journalist, politician, High Anglican churchman and possible Soviet spy, who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1942 to 1955, and again from 1959 to 1974. A member of the Communist Party of Great Britain for more than twenty years, he was first elected to Parliament as an Independent and joined the Labour Party in 1945. He never held any ministerial office, but rose to senior positions within the Labour Party and was a popular and influential figure in left-wing politics for many years.
22/05/1904
Uno Lamm, Swedish electrical engineer and inventor (died 1989)
August Uno Lamm was a Swedish electrical engineer and inventor. He was sometimes called "The Father of High Voltage Direct Current" power transmission. During his career, Lamm obtained 150 patents. In 1980 the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) developed the Uno Lamm High Voltage Direct Current Award for contributions to the field of high voltage electrical engineering.
22/05/1902
Jack Lambert, English footballer and manager (died 1940)
John Lambert was an English footballer who played as a centre forward or inside forward. He scored 116 goals from 223 appearances in the Football League playing for Rotherham County, Leeds United, Doncaster Rovers, Arsenal and Fulham. He went on to manage Margate and coach the juniors at Arsenal.
Al Simmons, American baseball player and coach (died 1956)
Aloysius Harry Simmons was an American professional baseball outfielder who played 20 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Nicknamed "Bucketfoot Al", he had his best years with Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics during the late 1920s and early 1930s, winning two World Series with the team. Simmons also played for the Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, Washington Senators, Boston Bees, Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox. After his playing career ended, Simmons served as a coach for the Athletics and Cleveland Indians. A career .334 hitter, Simmons was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953.
22/05/1901
Maurice J. Tobin, American politician, 6th United States Secretary of Labor (died 1953)
Maurice Joseph Tobin was an American politician serving as 46th Mayor of Boston, the 56th Governor of Massachusetts and 6th United States Secretary of Labor. He was a member of the Democratic Party and a liberal that supported the New Deal and Fair Deal programs, and was outspoken in his support for labor unions. However, he had little success battling against the conservative majorities in the Massachusetts legislature, and the U.S. Congress.
22/05/1900
Juan Arvizu, Mexican lyric opera tenor and bolero vocalist (died 1985)
Juan Nepomuceno Arvizu Santelices, was an acclaimed lyric tenor in Mexico and a noted interpreter of the Latin American bolero and tango on the international concert stage, on the radio and in film. He was widely noted for his interpretations of the works of Agustin Lara and María Grever and was nicknamed "The Tenor With the Silken Voice".
22/05/1897
Robert Neumann, German and English-speaking author (died 1975)
Robert Neumann was a German and English-speaking writer. He published numerous novels, autobiographical texts, plays and radio plays as well a few scripts. Through his parody collections, Mit fremden Federn (1927) and Unter falscher Flagge (1932), he is considered as the founder of "parody as a critical genre in the literature of the 1920s."
22/05/1894
Friedrich Pollock, German sociologist and philosopher (died 1970)
Friedrich Pollock was a German social scientist and philosopher. He was one of the founders of the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main, and a member of the Frankfurt School of Marxist theory.
22/05/1891
Johannes R. Becher, German politician, novelist, and poet (died 1958)
Johannes Robert Becher was a German politician, novelist, and poet. He was affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) before World War II. He was part of the literary avant-garde, writing in an expressionist style.
22/05/1887
A. W. Sandberg, Danish film director and screenwriter (died 1938)
Anders Wilhelm Sandberg was a Danish film director and screenwriter.
22/05/1885
Giacomo Matteotti, Italian lawyer and politician (died 1924)
Giacomo Matteotti was an Italian socialist, anti-fascist politician and an opposition leader, who was the secretary of the Unitary Socialist Party (PSU) from 1922 to 1924. Born in the province of Rovigo in Fratta Polesine, he was a militant socialist from a young age, joining the youth wing of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) in 1898 and then the main party around 1900. In 1907, he graduated in law at the University of Bologna. A lawyer by degree and a journalist by trade, Matteotti was a follower of Filippo Turati, a co-founder of the PSI and leader of the gradualist wing. Politically, his name is associated with democratic socialism and social democracy, and his thought is summarised as reformist socialist, radical reformist, and revolutionary reformist.
Soemu Toyoda, Japanese admiral (died 1957)
Soemu Toyoda was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II.
22/05/1884
Wilhelmina Hay Abbott, Scottish suffragist and feminist (died 1957)
Wilhelmina Hay Abbott, also known by the name "Elizabeth Abbott," was a Scottish suffragist, editor, and feminist lecturer, and wife of author George Frederick Abbott.
22/05/1880
Francis de Miomandre, French author and translator (died 1959)
Francis de Miomandre was a French novelist and well-known translator from Spanish into French.
22/05/1879
Warwick Armstrong, Australian cricketer and journalist (died 1947)
Warwick Windridge Armstrong was an Australian cricketer who played 50 Test matches between 1902 and 1921. An all-rounder, he captained Australia in ten Test matches between 1920 and 1921, and was undefeated, winning eight Tests and drawing two. Armstrong was captain of the 1920–21 Australian team which defeated the touring English 5–0: one of only three teams to win an Ashes series in a whitewash. In a Test career interrupted by the First World War, he scored 2,863 runs at an average of 38.68, including six centuries, and took 87 wickets. He was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2000.
Jean Cras, French admiral and composer (died 1932)
Jean Émile Paul Cras was a 20th-century French composer and career naval officer. His musical compositions were inspired by his native Brittany, his travels to Africa, and most of all, by his sea voyages. As a naval commander he served with distinction in the Adriatic Campaign during World War I.
Symon Petliura, Ukrainian statesman and independence leader (died 1926)
Symon Vasyliovych Petliura was a Ukrainian revolutionary, politician and journalist. He was the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian People's Army (UNA) and led the Ukrainian People's Republic during the Ukrainian War of Independence, a part of the wider Russian Civil War.
22/05/1876
Julius Klinger, Austrian painter and illustrator (died 1942)
Julius Klinger was an Austrian painter, draftsman, illustrator, commercial graphic artist, typographer and writer. Klinger studied at the Technologisches Gewerbemuseum HTL in Vienna.
22/05/1874
Daniel François Malan, South African clergyman and politician, 5th Prime Minister of South Africa (died 1959)
Daniël François Malan was a South African politician who served as the fourth prime minister of South Africa from 1948 to 1954. The National Party implemented the system of apartheid, which enforced racial segregation laws, during his tenure as prime minister.
22/05/1868
Augusto Pestana, Brazilian engineer and politician (died 1934)
Augusto Pestana was a Brazilian engineer and politician. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Pestana moved in the late 1880s to Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state, where he would become a specialist in railroad engineering and public administration, as well as one of the main leaders of the Republican Party of Rio Grande do Sul (PRR).
22/05/1864
Willy Stöwer, German author and illustrator (died 1931)
Willy Stöwer was a German artist, illustrator, and author during the Imperial Period. He is best known for nautical paintings and lithographs. Many of his works depict historical maritime events such as the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912.
22/05/1859
Arthur Conan Doyle, British writer (died 1930)
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a British writer and physician. He is best known for his four novels and fifty-six short stories about the fictional consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson, which are milestones in crime fiction, and for his first work featuring Professor Challenger, The Lost World (1912), which gave its name to a subgenre of speculative fiction. He was a prolific writer who produced over 200 stories and articles, four volumes of poetry, and a number of works for the stage. He was knighted by King Edward VII in the 1902 Coronation Honours.
Tsubouchi Shōyō, Japanese author, playwright, and educator (died 1935)
Tsubouchi Shōyō was a Japanese author, critic, playwright, translator, editor, educator, and professor at Waseda University. He has been referred to as a seminal figure in Japanese drama.
22/05/1858
Belmiro de Almeida, Brazilian painter, illustrator, sculptor (died 1935)
Belmiro Barbosa de Almeida was a Brazilian painter, illustrator, sculptor and caricaturist.
22/05/1849
Aston Webb, English architect and academic (died 1930)
Sir Aston Webb, was a British architect who designed the principal facade of Buckingham Palace and the main building of the Victoria and Albert Museum, among other major works around England, many of them in partnership with Ingress Bell. He was president of the Royal Academy from 1919 to 1924. He was also the founding chairman of the London Society.
22/05/1848
Fritz von Uhde, German painter and educator (died 1911)
Fritz von Uhde was a German painter of genre and religious subjects. His style lay in-between Realism and Impressionism, he was once known as "Germany's outstanding impressionist" and he became one of the first painters to introduce plein-air painting in his country.
22/05/1846
Rita Cetina Gutiérrez, Mexican poet, educator, and activist (died 1908)
Rita Cetina Gutiérrez was a 19th-century Mexican educator, writer, and feminist who promoted women's education in Mérida, Yucatán. She helped found a literary society, a periodical, and a school with Gertrudis Tenorio Zavala and Cristina Farfán. All three were called La Siempreviva. She also taught at and served as director of the La Siempreviva school.
22/05/1844
Mary Cassatt, American painter and educator (died 1926)
Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, but lived much of her adult life in France, where she befriended Edgar Degas and exhibited with the Impressionists. Cassatt often created images of the social and private lives of women, with particular emphasis on the intimate bonds between mothers and children.
22/05/1841
Catulle Mendès, French poet, author, and playwright (died 1909)
Abraham Catulle Mendès was a French poet and man of letters. He was associated with the Parnassianist school.
22/05/1833
Félix Bracquemond, French painter and etcher (died 1914)
Félix Henri Bracquemond was a French painter, etcher, and printmaker. He played a key role in the revival of printmaking, encouraging artists such as Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro to use this technique.
Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla, Spanish politician, Prime Minister of Spain (died 1895)
Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla was a Spanish politician. He served as Prime Minister of Spain for a little over ten weeks, in the summer of 1871, and again for eight months, between June 1872 and February 1873.
22/05/1831
Henry Vandyke Carter, English anatomist and surgeon (died 1897)
Henry Vandyke Carter was an English anatomist, surgeon, and anatomical artist most notable for his illustrations of the book Gray's Anatomy.
22/05/1828
Albrecht von Graefe, German ophthalmologist and academic (died 1870)
Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Albrecht von Gräfe, often Anglicized to Graefe, was a Prussian pioneer of German ophthalmology. Graefe was born in Finkenheerd, Brandenburg, the son of Karl Ferdinand von Graefe (1787–1840). He was the father of the far right politician Albrecht von Graefe (1868–1933).
22/05/1820
Worthington Whittredge, American painter (died 1910)
Thomas Worthington Whittredge was an American artist of the Hudson River School. Whittredge was a highly regarded artist of his time, and was friends with several leading Hudson River School artists including Albert Bierstadt and Sanford Robinson Gifford. He traveled widely and excelled at landscape painting, many examples of which are now in major museums. He served as president of the National Academy of Design from 1874 to 1875 and was a member of the selection committees for the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition and the 1878 Paris Exposition, both important venues for artists of the day.
22/05/1814
Amalia Lindegren, Swedish painter (died 1891)
Amalia Euphrosyne Lindegren was a Swedish artist and painter. She was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts (1856).
22/05/1813
Richard Wagner, German composer (died 1883)
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor, best known for his operas, although his mature works are often referred to as music dramas. Unlike most composers, Wagner wrote both the libretti and the music for all of his stage works. He first achieved recognition with works in the Romantic tradition of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, but revolutionised the genre through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk, which sought to unite poetic, musical, visual, and dramatic elements. In this approach, the drama unfolds as a continuously sung narrative, with the music evolving organically from the text rather than alternating between arias and recitatives. Wagner outlined these ideas in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852, most fully realising them in the first half of his four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.
22/05/1811
Giulia Grisi, Italian soprano (died 1869)
Giulia Grisi was an Italian opera singer. She performed widely in Europe, the United States and South America and was among the leading sopranos of the 19th century.
Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle, English politician (died 1864)
Henry Pelham Fiennes Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne,, styled Earl of Lincoln before 1851, was a British politician and aristocrat. He sat in Parliament for South Nottinghamshire (1832–46) and for Falkirk Burghs (1846–51) until inheriting the dukedom.
22/05/1808
Gérard de Nerval, French poet and translator (died 1855)
Gérard de Nerval, was the pen name of Gérard Labrunie, a French travel writer, essayist, poet, and translator. He was a major figure during the era of French romanticism, and best known for his novellas and poems, especially the collection Les Filles du feu, which included the novella Sylvie and the poem "El Desdichado". Through his translations, Nerval played a major role in introducing French readers to the works of German Romantic authors, including Klopstock, Schiller, Bürger and Goethe. His later work merged poetry and journalism in a fictional context and influenced Marcel Proust. His last novella, Aurélia ou le rêve et la vie, influenced André Breton and Surrealism.
22/05/1783
William Sturgeon, English physicist and inventor, invented the electromagnet and electric motor (died 1850)
William Sturgeon was an English electrical engineer and inventor who made the first electromagnet and the first practical electric motor.
22/05/1782
Hirose Tansō, Japanese neo-Confucian scholar, teacher, writer (died 1856)
Hirose Tanso was a neo-Confucian scholar, teacher and writer in late Edo Period Japan.
22/05/1779
Johann Nepomuk Schödlberger, Austrian painter (died 1853)
Johann Nepomuk Schödlberger was an Austrian painter who specialized in landscapes; often with figures. He was largely self-taught.
22/05/1772
Ram Mohan Roy, Indian philosopher and reformer (died 1833)
Raja Ram Mohan Roy was an Indian social reformer and writer who was one of the founders of the Brahmo Sabha in 1828, the precursor of the Brahmo Samaj, a socio-religious reform movement in the Indian subcontinent. He has been dubbed the "Father of the Indian Renaissance." He was given the title of Raja by Mughal emperor Akbar II.
22/05/1770
Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom (died 1840)
Princess Elizabeth, called Eliza, was the seventh child and third daughter of King George III and Queen Charlotte. After marrying the Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg, Frederick VI, she took permanent residence in Germany as landgravine.
22/05/1762
Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst, English politician (died 1834)
Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst, was a High Tory, High Church Pittite. He was an MP for thirty years before ennoblement. A personal friend of William Pitt the Younger, he became a broker of deals across cabinet factions during the Napoleonic era. After the Napoleonic Wars, Bathurst was on the conservative wing of the Tory party.
22/05/1752
Louis Legendre, French butcher and politician (died 1797)
Louis Legendre was a French politician of the Revolution period.
22/05/1733
Hubert Robert, French painter (died 1808)
Hubert Robert was a French painter in the school of Romanticism, noted especially for his landscape paintings and capricci, or semi-fictitious picturesque depictions of ruins in Italy and of France.
22/05/1715
François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis, French cardinal and diplomat (died 1794)
François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis, comte de Lyonnais was a French cardinal and diplomat. He was the sixth member elected to occupy Seat 3 of the Académie française in 1744. Bernis was a prominent figure in the autobiography of Giacomo Casanova, Histoire de ma vie, starting from the chapter on "Convent Affairs".
22/05/1694
Daniel Gran, Austrian painter (died 1757)
Daniel Gran was an Austrian painter. His pictures ornament several public buildings in his native city. He was of some consideration in his time and after a century of Italian dominance one of the first important painters of the German-speaking countries, but his works are relatively unknown outside of Austria and Germany today.
22/05/1665
Magnus Stenbock, Swedish field marshal and Royal Councillor (died 1717)
Count Magnus Stenbock was a Swedish field marshal (Fältmarskalk) and Royal Councillor. A commander of the Carolean Army during the Great Northern War, he was a prominent member of the Stenbock family. He studied at Uppsala University and joined the Swedish Army during the Nine Years' War, participating in the Battle of Fleurus in 1690. After the battle, he was appointed lieutenant colonel, entered Holy Roman service as Adjutant General, and married Eva Magdalena Oxenstierna, daughter of statesman Bengt Gabrielsson Oxenstierna. Returning to Swedish service he received colonelcy of a regiment in Wismar, and later became colonel of the Kalmar and then Dalarna regiments.
22/05/1650
Richard Brakenburgh, Dutch Golden Age painter (died 1702)
Richard Brakenburgh or Brakenburg, was a Dutch Golden Age painter.
22/05/1644
Gabriël Grupello, Flemish Baroque sculptor (died 1730)
Gabriël Grupello was a Flemish Baroque sculptor who produced religious and mythological sculptures, portraits and public sculptures. He worked in Flanders, France and Germany. He was a virtuoso sculptor who enjoyed the patronage of several European rulers.
22/05/1622
Louis de Buade de Frontenac, French soldier and governor (died 1698)
Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac et de Palluau was a French soldier, courtier, and Governor General of New France in North America from 1672 to 1682, and again from 1689 to his death in 1698. He established a number of Forts on the Great Lakes and engaged in a series of battles against the English and the Iroquois.
22/05/1539
Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford (died 1621)
Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Baron Beauchamp, KG, of Wulfhall and Totnam Lodge in Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, of Hatch Beauchamp in Somerset, of Netley Abbey, Hampshire, and of Hertford House, Cannon Row in Westminster, is most noted for incurring the displeasure of Queen Elizabeth I by taking part in more than one clandestine marriage.
22/05/1408
Annamacharya, Hindu saint (died 1503)
Tallapaka Annamacharya, also known as Annamayya, was a Telugu composer and Hindu saint. Born in Thallapaka, he composed devotional songs known as saṁkīrtanas in praise of Venkateswara, a form of Vishnu. He is the earliest known Indian musician to utilize this song form.
22/05/1009
Su Xun, Chinese writer (died 1066)
Su Xun was a scholar, essayist and philosopher during the Song dynasty, listed as one of the Eight Masters of the Tang and Song, along with his sons Su Shi and Su Zhe.
22/05/0626
Itzam K'an Ahk I, Mayan king (died 686)
Itzam Kʼan Ahk I, also known as Ruler 2, was an ajaw of Piedras Negras, an ancient Maya settlement in Guatemala. He ruled during the Late Classic Period, from AD 639–686. The son of Kʼinich Yoʼnal Ahk I, Itzam Kʼan Ahk I took the throne when he was only 12 years old. His reign was marked by several wars, and he seems to have had a special connection with Calakmul. Itzam Kʼan Ahk I died just a few days before the marriage of his son, who succeeded him as ajaw of Piedras Negras and took on the name Kʼinich Yoʼnal Ahk II. Itzam Kʼan Ahk I left behind several monuments, including eight stelae, three panels, a throne, and a short stela-like column; this made him the most active of Piedras Negras's leaders in regards to erecting monuments.