Born on Sunday, 25th May – Famous Birthdays

25/05/2002

Cam Ward, American football player

Cameron Anthony Ward is an American professional football quarterback for the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Incarnate Word Cardinals, Washington State Cougars, and Miami Hurricanes, winning the 2020 Jerry Rice Award with Incarnate Word and the 2024 Davey O'Brien and Manning awards with Miami. Ward was selected by the Titans first overall in the 2025 NFL draft.

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25/05/2001

Chloé Lukasiak, American actress and dancer

Chloe Elizabeth Lukasiak is an American actress, dancer, author, and media personality. She earned recognition as a child, appearing on Lifetime's reality show Dance Moms and becoming a fan favorite. After departing from the show, Lukasiak expanded her career into acting and writing, and built a social media gathering of 14 million followers across multiple platforms.

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25/05/2000

Claire Liu, American tennis player

Claire Liu is an American professional tennis player. On 30 January 2023, she reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 52.

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25/05/1999

Brec Bassinger, American actress

Brec Bassinger is an American actress. She began her career as a teenager and received recognition for her leading role in the Nickelodeon comedy series Bella and the Bulldogs (2015–2016). She then starred in the horror film 47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019).

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Ibrahima Konaté, French footballer

Ibrahima Konaté is a French professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Premier League club Liverpool and the France national team.

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25/05/1996

David Pastrňák, Czech ice hockey player

David Pastrňák is a Czech professional ice hockey player who is a right winger and alternate captain for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL). Nicknamed "Pasta", Pastrňák was selected by the Bruins in the first round, 25th overall, of the 2014 NHL entry draft and made his NHL debut that year. Internationally, Pastrňák has played for the Czech Republic national team at both the junior and senior level, including at four World Championships.

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25/05/1995

Kagiso Rabada, South African cricketer

Kagiso Rabada is a South African international cricketer who plays all formats of the game. He is a right arm fast bowler. He made his international debut in November 2014 in limited-overs cricket before going on to make his Test debut in November 2015. By January 2018, he had topped both the ODI bowler rankings and the Test bowler rankings aged 22. In July 2018, he became the youngest bowler to take 150 wickets in Tests. Rabada was a member of the South African team which won the 2025 ICC World Test Championship final, the second ICC title the country has won till date.

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25/05/1994

Matt Murray, Canadian ice hockey player

Matthew Murray is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a goaltender for the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League (NHL). Murray was selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the third round of the 2012 NHL entry draft. In 2016, Murray won his first Stanley Cup championship as the starting goaltender for the Penguins during the playoffs after having replaced then-starter Marc-André Fleury. Murray would split the net with Fleury during the 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs, winning the Stanley Cup again in 2017 and becoming the first goaltender to win back-to-back titles in his first two seasons in the NHL. He has also played for the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs. In recent years, his career has been plagued by injuries.

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Aly Raisman, American gymnast

Alexandra Rose Raisman is an American retired artistic gymnast and two-time Olympian. She was captain of both the 2012 "Fierce Five" and 2016 "Final Five" U.S. women's Olympic gymnastics teams, which won their respective team competitions.

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25/05/1993

James Porter, English cricketer

James Alexander Porter is an English cricketer who has played first-class cricket for Essex since 2014. He is a righthanded batsman who bowls right arm medium-fast pace.

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Norman Powell, American basketball player

Norman WC Powell is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Powell played college basketball with the UCLA Bruins, where he was an all-conference player in the Pac-12. He was selected in the second round of the 2015 NBA draft by the Milwaukee Bucks, who subsequently traded his draft rights to the Toronto Raptors. He won an NBA championship with Toronto in 2019. In 2026, he was named an NBA All-Star in his first season with the Miami Heat.

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25/05/1990

Bo Dallas, American wrestler

Taylor Michael Rotunda is an American professional wrestler. As of October 2022, he is signed to WWE where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring names Bo Dallas and his alter ego Uncle Howdy and is the leader of The Wyatt Sicks faction. He is also known for his previous tenure with WWE from 2008 to 2021.

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Nikita Filatov, Russian ice hockey player

Nikita Vasilyevich Filatov is a Russian former professional ice hockey player who was a left winger in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Prior to 2012, Filatov played in North America for the Ottawa Senators and Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League (NHL).

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25/05/1988

Dávid Škutka, Slovak footballer

Dávid Škutka is a Slovak football striker.

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Cameron van der Burgh, South African swimmer

Cameron van der Burgh OIS is a retired South African competitive swimmer and hedge fund analyst. He is Africa's first home-trained world record holder and individual male Olympic champion. He is married to longtime partner Nefeli Valakelis.

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25/05/1987

Timothy Derijck, Belgian footballer

Timothy Derijck is a Belgian football coach and former professional footballer who played as a centre-back and current assistant coach of KAA Gent.

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Yves De Winter, Belgian footballer

Yves De Winter is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

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Moritz Stehling, German footballer

Moritz Frederick Stehling is a German professional footballer, who plays in the RFCU Kelmis.

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Kamil Stoch, Polish ski jumper

Kamil Wiktor Stoch is a former Polish ski jumper. He is one of the most successful ski jumpers in the history of the sport, having won two World Cup titles, three Four Hills Tournaments, three individual gold medals at the Winter Olympics, individual and team gold at the Ski Jumping World Championships, and individual silver at the Ski Flying World Championships. His other tournament wins include Raw Air (twice), the Willingen Five, and Planica7.

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25/05/1986

Edewin Fanini, Brazilian footballer

Edewin Fanini Maria is an Italian Brazilian footballer for CENE. His maternal ancestor was from Veneto. He had a younger brother, Endrew Fanini Maria.

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Yoan Gouffran, French footballer

Yoan Patrick Gouffran is a French former professional footballer who played as a striker or a winger. He was renowned for his pace and ability to finish with either foot.

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Takahiro Hōjō, Japanese actor and musician

Takahiro Hōjō is a Japanese restaurant staff and retired actor. He is known for portraying Mutsuki Kamijo / Kamen Rider Leangle in Kamen Rider Blade. According to his Blade co-star Ryoji Morimoto, Takahiro has retired from his acting career and currently moves to work at a restaurant in Nagoya. However, despite the cases, he reprised his role as Kamen Rider Leangle in Super Hero Taisen GP: Kamen Rider 3, though only providing his voice.

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Geraint Thomas, Welsh cyclist

Geraint Howell Thomas, is a Welsh former professional racing cyclist who rode for UCI WorldTeam Ineos Grenadiers, Wales and Great Britain. He is one of the few riders in the modern era to achieve significant elite success as both a track and road rider, with notable victories in the velodrome, in one-day racing and in stage racing. On the track, he won three World Championships, and two Olympic gold medals, while on the road he won the 2018 Tour de France becoming the first Welshman and third British rider to win it.

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25/05/1985

Luciana Abreu, Portuguese singer and actress

Luciana Abreu Sodré Costa Real is a Portuguese singer, actress and television host. Luciana Abreu is known for her participation in Idolos, for representing Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 as part of the pop-duo 2B, for her character in 2006 for Floribella as Flor Valente.

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Demba Ba, French footballer

Demba Ba is a Senegalese former professional footballer who played as a striker. He serves as the chairman of National Independent Soccer Association side Albion San Diego.

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Gert Kams, Estonian footballer

Gert Kams is a retired Estonian professional footballer who played as a right back. From 2019 he works as a sporting director for Paide Linnameeskond.

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Roman Reigns, American football player and wrestler

Leati Joseph Anoaʻi, better known by his ring name Roman Reigns, is an American professional wrestler, actor and former football player. As a wrestler, he has been signed to WWE since 2010, where he performs on the Raw brand on a part-time basis. Regarded as one of the best professional wrestlers in the world, Reigns' 1,316-day reign as WWE Universal Champion is the longest reign of the title's history, the fourth longest world title reign in WWE history, and the longest championship reign recognised by the company since 1988.

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25/05/1984

Luke Ball, Australian footballer

Luke Patrick Ball is a former professional Australian rules football player who played for the St Kilda and Collingwood football clubs in the Australian Football League. From 2003 to 2009 he played 142 games for the St Kilda Football Club where he was captain in 2007 and best and fairest and All-Australian in 2005. He is one of the only players in AFL history to have played in four consecutive grand finals for two clubs; for St Kilda in 2009 and for Collingwood in 2010, the 2010 replay and 2011.

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Kyle Brodziak, Canadian ice hockey player

Kyle Brodziak is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre. He previously played for the Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues. He was selected in the seventh round of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, 214th overall, by the Oilers after being passed over in the 2002 draft.

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A. J. Foyt IV, American race car driver

Anthony Joseph Foyt IV is an American professional football scout and former racing driver. He is a scouting assistant for the Indianapolis Colts, and drove in the IndyCar Series and briefly the NASCAR Busch Series. He is the third generation of the famous Foyt family and is married to the daughter of late Colts owner Jim Irsay.

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Shawne Merriman, American football player

Shawne DeAndre Merriman, nicknamed "Lights Out", is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Maryland Terrapins and was selected 12th overall by the San Diego Chargers in the 2005 NFL draft. He earned NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honors in his first season and recorded 39+1⁄2 quarterback sacks in his first three seasons, also making three Pro Bowls as well as two All-Pro selections. He was hampered by injuries his next three seasons, and the Chargers waived Merriman midseason in 2010. He was picked up through waivers by the Buffalo Bills that season, but he only played minimally with the Bills due to continued injuries. He was released by the Bills before the 2012 season however, they re-signed him midseason. He retired at the end of the 2012 season.

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25/05/1982

Adam Boyd, English footballer

Adam Mark Boyd is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker.

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Daniel Braaten, Norwegian footballer

Daniel Omoya Braaten is a Norwegian former professional footballer who played as a winger. He has previously played for Skeid, Rosenborg, Bolton Wanderers, Toulouse, Brann and Stabæk. Of Nigerian descent, he was capped 52 times for the Norway national team, scoring 4 goals.

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Ryan Gallant, American skateboarder

Ryan Gallant is an American professional skateboarder with a goofy-footed stance.

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Roger Guerreiro, Polish footballer

Roger Guerreiro, commonly known as Roger, is a former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Born in Brazil, he was granted Polish citizenship and represented Poland at the international level.

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Justin Hodges, Australian rugby league player

Justin Hodges is an Australian professional boxer and former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. A Queensland State of Origin and Australian international representative centre, Hodges started his career in the National Rugby League with the Brisbane Broncos before moving to the Sydney Roosters, with whom he won the 2002 NRL Premiership, before returning to the Broncos in 2005, and winning the 2006 NRL Premiership. He also captained the Broncos.

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Ezekiel Kemboi, Kenyan runner

Ezekiel Kemboi Cheboi is a Kenyan professional athlete, winner of the 3000 metres steeplechase at the 2004 Summer Olympics, the 2009 World Championships, the 2011 World Championships, the 2012 Summer Olympics, the 2013 World Championships and the 2015 World Championships. His 3000 m steeplechase best of 7:55.76 set at Monaco in 2011 places him as the seventh fastest of all time. This time is also the fastest non-winning time in history. He is one of only five men to have won both Olympic and World golds in the event, along with Reuben Kosgei, Brimin Kipruto, Conseslus Kipruto and Soufiane El Bakkali. He and El Bakkali are the only multiple gold medalists in both. He is the only athlete to have won four world championships in the steeplechase. He is one of only three athletes to have won two Olympic titles in the event; the other two being Volmari Iso-Hollo and Soufiane El Bakkali.

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Jason Kubel, American baseball player

Jason James Kubel is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Cleveland Indians.

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Stacey Pensgen, American figure skater and meteorologist

Stacey Elizabeth Pensgen is an American former competitive figure skater who won the silver medal at the 2000 Four Continents Championships. She is currently the evening meteorologist for WHEC-TV News10NBC in Rochester, New York.

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Luke Webster, Australian footballer

Luke Webster is an Australian rules football coach and former player. He played for Fremantle in the Australian Football League, and will serve as assistant coach of the Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League from 2026. He previously worked as a development coach and WAFL coach at the West Coast Eagles.

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25/05/1981

Michalis Pelekanos, Greek basketball player

Michalis Pelekanos is a Greek professional basketball player. During his pro club career, at a height of 199 cm tall, Pelekanos played primarily at the small forward position. However, he also played as a shooting guard in the early part of his career, and as a power forward, in the latter part of his career. During his playing career, Pelekanos was mostly known for his spectacular athletic ability and defensive prowess.

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Matt Utai, New Zealand rugby league player

Matthew Utai is a former professional rugby league footballer who last played as a winger for the Auburn Warriors in the Ron Massey Cup. A New Zealand and Samoa international representative, he previously played for the Wests Tigers and the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, with whom he won the 2004 NRL premiership.

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25/05/1980

David Navarro, Spanish footballer

David Navarro Pedrós is a Spanish retired professional footballer who played as a central defender.

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25/05/1979

Carlos Bocanegra, American footballer and executive

Carlos Manuel Bocanegra is an American sports executive and former professional soccer player. A two-time MLS Defender of the Year, Bocanegra also played professionally in England, Scotland, France, and Spain. He earned over 100 caps with the United States, serving as captain for six years. He most recently served as technical director and vice president for Atlanta United.

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Sayed Moawad, Egyptian footballer

Sayed Moawad Mohamed Abdelwahed is an Egyptian retired professional footballer who played as a left-back.

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Caroline Ouellette, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

Caroline Ouellette is a Canadian former ice hockey player and current assistant coach of the Montreal Victoire of the Professional Women's Hockey League. She was a member of the Canadian national women's ice hockey team and a member of Canadiennes de Montreal in the Canadian Women's Hockey League. Among her many accomplishments are four Olympic gold medals, 12 IIHF Women's World Championship medals, 12 Four Nations Cup medals and four Clarkson Cup championships.

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Sam Sodje, English-Nigerian footballer

Okeremute Samuel Sodje is a former professional footballer who played as a centre back.

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Jonny Wilkinson, English rugby player

Jonathan Peter Wilkinson is an English former rugby union player. A fly-half, he played for Newcastle Falcons and French side Toulon and represented England and the British & Irish Lions. He is particularly known for scoring the winning drop goal in the 2003 Rugby World Cup Final and is widely acknowledged as one of the best rugby union players of all time.

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Chris Young, American baseball pitcher

Christopher Ryan Young is an American former professional baseball pitcher and current president of baseball operations of the Texas Rangers, serving in the team's front office since 2020. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher from 2000 to 2017 for the Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres, New York Mets, Seattle Mariners and the Kansas City Royals. Young was a 2007 National League (NL) All-Star player as a member of the Padres, and was a member of the 2015 World Series winning Kansas City Royals team. After his playing career, he worked for the Major League Baseball front office before becoming the general manager of the Rangers in 2020, and promoted to his current position in November 2024.

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25/05/1978

Adam Gontier, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist

Adam Wade Gontier is a Canadian musician who is the co-lead singer and rhythm guitarist for the rock band Three Days Grace. He is also known for his work in Saint Asonia. He co-founded Three Days Grace in 1992, recording four albums with them before parting ways in 2013 and eventually returning in 2024. In addition to his work with Three Days Grace and Saint Asonia, he has been involved in collaborations with other bands including Art of Dying, Apocalyptica, Breaking Benjamin, Skillet, and Thousand Foot Krutch.

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Brian Urlacher, American football player

Brian Urlacher is an American former professional football linebacker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons with the Chicago Bears. He played college football for the New Mexico Lobos, earning consensus All-American honors and winning MW Player of the Year in 1999. He was selected ninth overall by the Bears in the 2000 NFL draft.

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25/05/1977

Andre Anis, Estonian footballer

Andre Anis is an Estonian retired association football defender and current football coach. He played for several clubs in his native country, including JK Viljandi Tulevik.

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Alberto Del Rio, Mexican-American mixed martial artist and wrestler

José Alberto Rodríguez Chucuan is a Mexican professional wrestler, professional wrestling promoter, sports commentator, and mixed martial artist. In professional wrestling, he is best known for his time in WWE under the ring name Alberto Del Rio, and Impact Wrestling under the ring name Alberto El Patrón.

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25/05/1976

Stefan Holm, Swedish high jumper

Stefan Christian Holm is a retired Swedish high jumper. He won an Olympic gold medal, a silver in the World Championships, and one silver and one bronze medal in the European Championships. His personal records are 2.37 m and 2.40 m. Clearing the bar 59 centimeters over his own height, he currently holds, jointly with American Franklin Jacobs, the world record for height differential.

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Erki Pütsep, Estonian cyclist

Erki Pütsep is an Estonian professional road bicycle racer who last rode for the Alpha Baltic–Unitymarathons.com team. He is the three time national road race champion and won the E.O.S. Tallinn GP in 2007. In 2011 he won Baltic Chain Tour, which was held in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

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Ethan Suplee, American actor

Ethan L. Suplee is an American actor. He is known for his roles in the films American History X, Blow, Remember the Titans, John Q, The Wolf of Wall Street, Cold Mountain, Without a Paddle, Unstoppable, several of Kevin Smith's films, as well as Frankie in Boy Meets World, and Randy Hickey in My Name Is Earl, and on The Ranch.

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Cillian Murphy, Irish actor

Cillian Murphy is an Irish actor and film producer. His works encompass both stage and screen, and his accolades include an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award.

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Miguel Zepeda, Mexican footballer

Miguel Ángel Zepeda Espinoza is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

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25/05/1975

Blaise Nkufo, Congolese-Swiss footballer

Isetsima Blaise Nkufo is a Swiss former international footballer who played as a striker and current coach of Rino's Tigers in the Vancouver Metro Soccer League.

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25/05/1974

Dougie Freedman, Scottish footballer and manager

Douglas Alan Freedman is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He is currently the sporting director of Al-Diriyah, where he has been since 2025.

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Frank Klepacki, American drummer and composer

Frank Klepacki is an American musician and video game composer, best known for his work on the Command & Conquer series. Having learned to play drums as a child, he joined Westwood Studios as a composer when he was 17 years old. He has scored several games there, including the Lands of Lore series, Westwood Studios' Dune games, The Legend of Kyrandia series, Blade Runner, and the Command & Conquer series. His work in Command & Conquer: Red Alert won two awards.

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Miguel Tejada, Dominican-American baseball player

Miguel Odalis Tejada is a Dominican former professional baseball shortstop who played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for six teams, most notably the Oakland Athletics and Baltimore Orioles, before short stints with the Houston Astros, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, and Kansas City Royals. He is currently the manager of the Bravos de León of the Mexican League.

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25/05/1973

Daz Dillinger, American rapper and producer

Delmar Drew Arnaud, known professionally as Daz Dillinger or simply Daz, is an American rapper and record producer. As a member of Death Row Records in the early 1990s, he is credited with the label in pioneering West Coast hip hop and gangsta rap for mainstream audiences. Alongside Kurupt, he formed the hip hop duo Tha Dogg Pound in 1992, with whom he has released eight albums.

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Molly Sims, American model and actress

Molly Sims is an American fashion model and actress. She was featured in campaigns for Jimmy Choo, Escada, Giorgio Armani, Michael Kors, and Chanel, among others. She frequently modeled for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue in the early 2000s and walked the runway for the annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in 2001.

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25/05/1972

Karan Johar, Indian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

Karan Kumar Johar, often informally referred to as KJo, is an Indian filmmaker, producer and television personality who primarily works in Hindi cinema. He has launched the careers of several successful actors and filmmakers under his company Dharma Productions. The recipient of several accolades, including four National Film Awards and eight Filmfare Awards, he has been honoured with the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2020.

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25/05/1971

Stefano Baldini, Italian runner

Stefano Baldini is a retired Italian runner who specialized in the marathon. He was the Olympic champion in Athens in 2004 and was twice European champion.

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Marco Cappato, Italian politician

Marco Cappato is an Italian activist and politician. Cappato was an Italian Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2009. He represented the Bonino List within the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe parliamentary group. He was member of the Foreign Affairs, Civil Liberties, and Human Rights committees. He also served as a vice-president of the European Parliament Delegation for the relations with the Mashrek Countries. He was the European Parliament's Rapporteur on human rights in the world for 2007.

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Juraj Droba, Slovak politician

Juraj Droba is a Slovak politician and businessman serving as Governor of Bratislava region since 4 December 2017. Between 2010 and 2018, he was an MP in the National Council of Slovakia. He is a founding member of the Freedom and Solidarity party.

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25/05/1970

Robert Croft, Welsh-English cricketer and sportscaster

Robert Damien Bale Croft is a former Welsh cricketer who played international cricket for the England cricket team. He is an off-spin bowler who played for Glamorgan and captained the county from 2003 to 2006. He retired from first class cricket at the end of the 2012 season, having played county cricket for 23 seasons. He commentates on cricket occasionally for Sky Sports.

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Jamie Kennedy, American actor, producer, and screenwriter

James Harvey Kennedy is an American actor and comedian. Kennedy played Randy Meeks in the Scream film series (1996–2000), which saw him as a supporting character in the first and third installments and a lead ensemble member in the second installment. He has also had lead roles in Malibu's Most Wanted (2003), Son of the Mask (2005), Kickin' It Old Skool (2007), Finding Bliss (2009), Trick (2019), and Roe v. Wade (2020). He has had supporting roles in films such as Romeo + Juliet (1996), Enemy of the State (1998), Bowfinger (1999), Three Kings (1999), Boiler Room (2000), Max Keeble's Big Move (2001), and Good Deeds (2012).

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Octavia Spencer, American actress and author[a]

Octavia Lenora Spencer is an American actress and author. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards.

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25/05/1969

Glen Drover, Canadian guitarist and songwriter

Glen Drover is a Canadian heavy metal guitarist from Ottawa, Ontario. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of Megadeth and King Diamond, along with his brother Shawn Drover who also performed with Megadeth.

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Anne Heche, American actress (died 2022)

Anne Celeste Heche was an American actress, known for her roles across a variety of genres in film, television, and theater. She was the recipient of Daytime Emmy, National Board of Review, and GLAAD Media Awards, in addition to nominations for a Tony Award and a Primetime Emmy.

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Karen Bernstein, Canadian voice actress

Karen Bernstein is a Canadian talent agent and retired voice actress. She is best known in North America as the original English voice of Sailor Mercury in the Canadian dubbing of the first two seasons of Sailor Moon. She was replaced by Liza Balkan.

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Stacy London, American journalist and author

Stacy London is an American stylist, TV personality, author, and midlife advocate. She is best known as the co-host of the iconic TLC show What Not to Wear.

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25/05/1968

Kendall Gill, American basketball player, boxer, and sportscaster

Kendall Cedric Gill is an American former professional basketball player who now works as a television basketball analyst. Throughout his NBA career he was known as “Cold World” for his ice cold demeanor on the court.

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25/05/1967

Luc Nilis, Belgian footballer and manager

Luc Gilbert Cyrille Nilis is a Belgian professional football manager and former player who is the striker coach of Patro Eisden.

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Mark Rosewater, head designer of Magic: the Gathering

Mark Rosewater is the head designer for Magic: The Gathering, a position he has held since 2003.

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Andrew Sznajder, Canadian tennis player

Andrew Sznajder is a Canadian former professional tour tennis player.

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25/05/1965

Yahya Jammeh, Gambian colonel and politician, President of the Gambia

Yahya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh is a Gambian politician and former soldier, who served as President of the Gambia from 1996 to 2017. He was the Chairman of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) from 1994 to 1996.

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25/05/1964

David Shaw, Canadian-American ice hockey player

David Shaw is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played 769 games from 1982 to 1998 in the National Hockey League (NHL). He won a Memorial Cup as a member of the Kitchener Rangers in 1982.

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25/05/1963

George Hickenlooper, American director and producer (died 2010)

George Loening Hickenlooper III was an American narrative and documentary filmmaker.

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Mike Myers, Canadian-American actor, singer, producer, and screenwriter

Michael John Myers is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, filmmaker, musician, and singer. His accolades include seven MTV Movie & TV Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2002, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2017, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada for "his extensive and acclaimed body of comedic work as an actor, writer, and producer".

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Ludovic Orban, Romanian engineer and politician, 68th Prime Minister of Romania

Ludovic Orban is a Romanian engineer and politician who was the prime minister of Romania from November 2019 to December 2020. He was president of the National Liberal Party (PNL) between 2017 and 2021, which expelled him shortly after he lost a bid for another term as its leader. He was also minister of transport from April 2007 to December 2008 in the second Tăriceanu cabinet.

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25/05/1962

Ric Nattress, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager

Eric James Nattress is a Canadian former National Hockey League defenceman. He was drafted in the second round, 27th overall, by the Montreal Canadiens in the 1980 NHL Entry Draft.

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25/05/1960

Amy Klobuchar, American lawyer and politician

Amy Jean Klobuchar is an American politician and lawyer serving as the senior United States senator from Minnesota, a seat she has held since 2007. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Minnesota's affiliate of the Democratic Party, she previously served as county attorney of Hennepin County, Minnesota. She is running for governor of Minnesota in the 2026 election.

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Anthea Turner, English journalist and television host

Anthea Turner is an English television presenter. She was a host of Blue Peter from 1992 until 1994, and of GMTV from 1994 until 1996.

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25/05/1959

Julian Clary, English comedian, actor, and author

Julian Peter McDonald Clary is an English comedian, actor, novelist and presenter. He began appearing on television in the mid-1980s. Since then, he has also acted in films, on television and in stage productions, including numerous pantomimes. He was the winner of Celebrity Big Brother 10 in 2012.

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Manolis Kefalogiannis, Greek politician

Manolis K. Kefalogiannis is a Greek politician of the New Democracy party from Heraklion, Crete, who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2014.

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Rick Wamsley, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

Richard James Wamsley is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League for the Montreal Canadiens, St. Louis Blues, Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs. He was the goaltending coach for the NHL's Ottawa Senators until his firing by new general manager Pierre Dorion on April 12, 2016.

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25/05/1958

Dorothy Straight, American children's author

Dorothy Elmhirst Straight is an American author who wrote How the World Began in 1962 at the age of 4 for her grandmother, Dorothy Payne Whitney, making her among the youngest published authors in history.

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Paul Weller, English singer, songwriter and musician

John William Weller is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Weller achieved fame in the late 1970s as the guitarist and principal singer and songwriter of the rock band the Jam, alongside Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler. The band gained significant critical and commercial success in the United Kingdom, and were the most influential band of the mod revival of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Following the dissolution of the Jam at the end of 1982, Weller formed the Style Council with Mick Talbot, where he explored a wide variety of other musical styles, including pop, jazz, soul, hip hop, folk and classical. Although initially successful, the band's popularity declined in the late 1980s, leading them to break up in 1989. Weller began a solo career in the early 1990s, slowly re-establishing his commercial standing across his first four solo albums, Paul Weller (1992), Wild Wood (1993), Stanley Road (1995) and Heavy Soul (1997).

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25/05/1957

Alastair Campbell, English journalist and author

Alastair John Campbell is a British journalist, author, strategist, broadcaster, and activist. Campbell worked as Tony Blair's spokesman and campaign director in opposition (1994–1997), then as Downing Street Press Secretary, and as the Prime Minister's Official Spokesperson (1997–2000). He then became Downing Street's director of communications and spokesman for the Labour Party (2000–2003).

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Edward Lee, American author

Edward Lee is an American horror novelist who has written 40 books, more than half of which have been published by mass-market New York City paperback companies such as Leisure/Dorchester, Berkley, and Zebra/Kensington. He is a Bram Stoker award nominee for his story “Mr. Torso”, and his short stories have appeared in over a dozen mass-market anthologies, including the award-winning “999”. Several of his novels have sold translation rights to Germany, Greece, Romania, and Poland. He also publishes quite actively in the small-press/limited-edition hardcover market; many of his books in this category have become collector's items.

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Robert Picard, Canadian ice hockey player

Robert Rene Joseph Picard is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player.

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25/05/1956

Stavros Arnaoutakis, Greek politician

Stavros Arnaoutakis is a Greek politician who has been the Governor of Crete since 2011. Prior to his tenure as governor he was a member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2009, and a member of the Hellenic Parliament from 2009 to 2010.

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Larry Hogan, American politician, 62nd Governor of Maryland

Lawrence Joseph Hogan Jr. is an American politician who served as the 62nd governor of Maryland from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party and son of three-term U.S. representative Lawrence Hogan, he served as co-chair of the centrist organization No Labels from 2020 to 2023. As of 2026, Hogan and Boyd Rutherford, his lieutenant governor, are the last Republicans to have won or held statewide office in Maryland.

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Kevin Lynch, Irish Republican (died during the 1981 Irish hunger strike)

Kevin Lynch was an Irish republican and member of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) from Park, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The Dungiven hurling team was renamed Kevin Lynch's Hurling Club in his honour after his death on hunger strike.

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David P. Sartor, American composer and conductor

David Sartor is an American composer, conductor, and educator, and is the founder and music director of the Parthenon Chamber Orchestra.

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25/05/1955

Alistair Burt, English lawyer and politician

Alistair James Hendrie Burt is a Conservative British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Bedfordshire from 2001 until 2019. He was previously MP for his native Bury North in Greater Manchester from 1983 until 1997. Burt was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State then Minister of State at the Department of Social Security from 1992 to 1997, and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 2010 to 2013. Burt was also Minister of State at the Department of Health from May 2015 to July 2016.

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25/05/1954

John Beck, English footballer and manager

John Alexander Beck is an English former footballer and manager. As a player, he made nearly 500 English Football League appearances for five clubs between 1972 and 1989.

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Murali, Indian actor, producer, and politician (died 2009)

Muraleedharan Pillai, popularly known as Murali, was an Indian film, stage and television actor and author. He mainly appeared in Malayalam films and a few Tamil films. He won the National Film Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Appa Mestry, a communist freedom fighter and professional weaver, in the 2002 film Neythukaran. He was known for his powerful portrayal of character roles, lead roles and negative roles, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors in Malayalam cinema.

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25/05/1953

Eve Ensler, American playwright and producer

V, formerly Eve Ensler, is an American playwright, author, performer, feminist, and activist. V is best known for her play The Vagina Monologues. In 2006 Charles Isherwood of The New York Times called The Vagina Monologues "probably the most important piece of political theater of the last decade."

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Daniel Passarella, Argentinian footballer, coach, and manager

Daniel Alberto Passarella is an Argentine former footballer and manager, who is considered one of the greatest defenders of all time. As a player for Argentina, he was part of two FIFA World Cup-winning teams; he captained his nation to victory at the 1978 World Cup which Argentina hosted, and was also part of the winning squad in 1986. He is the only Argentine player to win two world cups.

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Stan Sakai, Japanese-American author and illustrator

Stan Masahiko Sakai is a Japanese-born American cartoonist and comic book creator. He is best known as the creator of the comic series Usagi Yojimbo.

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Gaetano Scirea, Italian footballer (died 1989)

Gaetano Scirea was an Italian professional footballer who is considered one of the greatest defenders in football history. He spent most of his career with Juventus.

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25/05/1952

Jeffrey Bewkes, American businessman

Jeffrey Lawrence Bewkes is a retired American media executive. He was CEO of Time Warner from January 1, 2008, to June 14, 2018, President from December 2005 to June 2018, and Chairman of the Board from January 1, 2009, to 2018.

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Nick Fotiu, American ice hockey player and coach

Nicholas Evlampios Fotiu is an American former professional ice hockey forward. He played in the World Hockey Association and National Hockey League between 1974 and 1988.

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David Jenkins, Trinidadian-Scottish runner

David Andrew Jenkins is a former World ranked no.1 track and field 400 metres runner and statistically is the highest ranking Scottish sprinter in history.

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Al Sarrantonio, American author and publisher

Al Sarrantonio was an American horror and science fiction writer, editor, and publisher who authored more than 50 books and 90 short stories. He also edited numerous anthologies.

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Gordon H. Smith, American businessman and politician

Gordon Harold Smith is an American politician, businessman, and religious leader who served as a United States senator from the state of Oregon. A Republican, he served two terms in the Senate from 1997 to 2009. From 2009 to 2022, he served as president of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). He served as an area seventy for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 2012 to 2022, and since March 2025 has served as the church's director of hosting at Temple Square. As of 2026, he is the last Republican to represent Oregon in the U.S. Senate.

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25/05/1951

Bob Gale, American director, producer, and screenwriter

Michael Robert Gale is an American screenwriter, comic book writer, film producer and director. He is best known for co-writing the science fiction comedy film Back to the Future with his writing partner Robert Zemeckis. Gale co-produced all three films of the franchise and later served as associate producer of the animated TV series. Actor Michael J. Fox has referred to Gale as the "gatekeeper of the [Back to the Future] franchise".

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25/05/1950

Robby Steinhardt, American rock violinist and singer (died 2021)

Robert Eugene Steinhardt was an American musician best known for his work with rock band Kansas, for which he was co-lead singer, violinist and MC along with keyboardist Steve Walsh, from 1973 to 1982 and from 1997 to 2006. He and Steve Walsh were the only original members of the band not from Topeka.

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25/05/1949

Jamaica Kincaid, Antiguan-American novelist, short story writer, and essayist

Jamaica Kincaid is an Antiguan–American novelist, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer. Born in St. John's, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda, she lives in North Bennington, Vermont, and is Professor of African and African American Studies in Residence Emerita at Harvard University.

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Barry Windsor-Smith, English painter and illustrator

Barry Windsor-Smith is a British comic book illustrator and painter whose best-known work has been produced in the United States. He attained note working on Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian from 1970 to 1973, and for his 1991 serial "Weapon X". His other noted Marvel work included a 1984 "Thing" story in Marvel Fanfare, the "Lifedeath" and "Lifedeath II" stories with writer Chris Claremont that focused on the de-powered Storm in The Uncanny X-Men, as well as the 1984 Machine Man limited series with Herb Trimpe and Tom DeFalco.

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25/05/1948

Bülent Arınç, Turkish lawyer and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey

Bülent Arınç is a conservative Turkish politician. He served as the 22nd Speaker of the Parliament of Turkey from 2002 to 2007 and as a Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey between 2009 and 2015. He also co-founded the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2001.

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Marianne Elliott, Northern Irish historian, author, and academic

Marianne Elliott is an Irish historian who was appointed OBE in the 2000 Birthday Honours.

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Klaus Meine, German rock singer-songwriter

Klaus Meine is a German singer, best known as the longtime frontman and primary lyricist of the hard rock band Scorpions. Meine and guitarist Rudolf Schenker are the only two members of the group to appear on every Scorpions album, though he did not join the band until 1969, four years after its founding. Meine placed at number 22 on Hit Parader's 'Top Heavy Metal Vocalists of All Time' list in 2006.

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25/05/1947

Karen Valentine, American actress

Karen Valentine is an American actress. She is best known for her role as young idealistic schoolteacher Alice Johnson in the ABC comedy drama series Room 222 from 1969 to 1974, for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1970, and received a Golden Globe Award nomination in 1971. She later went to star in her own short-lived sitcom Karen (1975), and played leading roles in the Disney films Hot Lead and Cold Feet (1978) and The North Avenue Irregulars (1979).

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Catherine G. Wolf, American psychologist and computer scientist (died 2018)

Catherine Gody Wolf was an American psychologist and expert in human-computer interaction. She was the author of more than 100 research articles and held six patents in the areas of human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, and collaboration. Wolf was known for her work at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY, where she was a 19-year staff researcher.

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25/05/1946

Bill Adam, Scottish-Canadian racing driver

Bill Adam is a Canadian racing driver born in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland.

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David A. Hargrave, American game designer, created Arduin (died 1988)

David Allen Hargrave, known as The Dream Weaver, was a prolific and sometimes controversial American game designer and writer of fantasy and science fiction role-playing games (RPGs). Hargrave's most notable written works were based upon his own mythical world of Arduin.

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25/05/1944

Digby Anderson, English journalist and philosopher

Digby C. Anderson is the founder and former director of the Social Affairs Unit, a public policy organisation/economic think-tank created in 1980. In addition to this role, Anderson served as a long-time contributor to several conservative American and British newspapers and magazines including The Spectator and The Daily Telegraph, as well as The American Spectator, The New Criterion, and National Review.

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Pierre Bachelet, French singer-songwriter (died 2005)

Pierre Bachelet was a French singer-songwriter and film score composer.

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Charlie Harper, English singer-songwriter and producer

Charlie Harper is a British singer, best known as the lead vocalist of the punk rock band U.K. Subs.

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Robert MacPherson, American mathematician and academic

Robert Duncan MacPherson is an American mathematician at the Institute for Advanced Study.

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Frank Oz, English-born American puppeteer, filmmaker, and actor

Frank Richard Oznowicz, known professionally as Frank Oz, is a British and American puppeteer, filmmaker, and actor. He is best known for his involvement with Jim Henson and George Lucas through The Muppets, Sesame Street, and Star Wars, as well as his directorial work in feature films and theater.

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Chris Ralston, English rugby player

Christopher Wayne Ralston is a former England international rugby union player. He represented the British and Irish Lions on their 1974 tour to South Africa and at the time played club rugby for Richmond F.C.

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25/05/1943

Jessi Colter, American singer-songwriter and pianist

Mirriam Johnson, known professionally as Jessi Colter, is an American country singer who is best known for her collaborations with her second husband, country musician Waylon Jennings, and for her 1975 country hit "I'm Not Lisa".

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John Palmer, English keyboard player

John Michael "Poli" Palmer was an English rock musician who was a key member in the progressive rock band Family. Though he was not an original member, he was regarded as being integral to the group's sound. He played the vibraphone, flute, piano, synthesizers and occasional drums, and he was with the band from late 1969 until late 1972.

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Leslie Uggams, American actress and singer

Leslie Marian Uggams is an American actress and singer. After beginning her career as a child in the early 1950s, she garnered acclaim for her role in the Broadway musical Hallelujah, Baby!, winning a Theatre World Award in 1967 and the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1968. Uggams gained wider recognition for portraying Kizzy Reynolds in the television miniseries Roots (1977), earning Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominations for her performance.

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25/05/1941

Rudolf Adler, Czech filmmaker: 88

Rudolf Adler was a Czech film director, screenwriter and film educator.

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Uta Frith, German developmental psychologist

Dame Uta Frith is a German-British developmental psychologist and emeritus professor in cognitive development at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London (UCL). She pioneered much of the current research into autism and dyslexia. Her book Autism: Explaining the Enigma introduced the cognitive neuroscience of autism. She is credited with creating the Sally–Anne test along with fellow scientists Alan Leslie and Simon Baron-Cohen. Among students she has mentored are Tony Attwood, Maggie Snowling, Simon Baron-Cohen and Francesca Happé.

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Vladimir Voronin, Moldovan economist and politician, 3rd President of Moldova

Vladimir Voronin is a Moldovan politician. He was the third President of Moldova from 2001 until 2009 and has been the leader of the Party of Communists of Moldova (PCRM) since 1994. He was Europe's first democratically elected communist party head of state after the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc.

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25/05/1940

Nobuyoshi Araki, Japanese photographer

Nobuyoshi Araki , professionally known by the mononym Arākii (アラーキー), is a Japanese photographer and contemporary artist. Known primarily for photography that blends eroticism and bondage in a fine art context, he has published over 500 books.

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25/05/1939

Dixie Carter, American actress and singer (died 2010)

Dixie Virginia Carter was an American actress. She starred as Julia Sugarbaker on the sitcom Designing Women (1986–1993) and as Randi King on the drama series Family Law (1999–2002). She was nominated for the 2007 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Gloria Hodge on Desperate Housewives (2006–2007).

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Ian McKellen, English actor

Sir Ian Murray McKellen is an English actor. He has played roles on the screen and stage in genres ranging from Shakespearean dramas and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is regarded as a British cultural icon and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991. He has received numerous accolades, including a Tony Award, six Laurence Olivier Awards, an Actor Award and a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, five BAFTAs and five Emmy Awards.

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25/05/1938

Raymond Carver, American short story writer and poet (died 1988)

Raymond Clevie Carver Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. He published his first collection of stories, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, in 1976. His breakout collection, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981), received immediate acclaim and established Carver as an important figure in the literary world. It was followed by Cathedral (1983), which Carver considered his watershed and is widely regarded as his masterpiece. The definitive collection of his stories, Where I'm Calling From, was published shortly before his death in 1988. In their 1989 nomination of Carver for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the jury concluded, "The revival in recent years of the short story is attributable in great measure to Carver's mastery of the form."

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Margaret Forster, English historian, author, and critic (died 2016)

Margaret Forster was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, historian and critic, best known for the 1965 novel Georgy Girl, made into a successful film of the same name, which inspired a hit song by The Seekers. Other successes were a 2003 novel, Diary of an Ordinary Woman, biographies of Daphne du Maurier and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and her memoirs Hidden Lives and Precious Lives.

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Geoffrey Robinson, English businessman and politician

Geoffrey Robinson is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Coventry North West for 43 years, from 1976 to 2019. He was Paymaster General from May 1997 to December 1998, resigning after the bankruptcy of his company Trans Tec. It was revealed that he had lent his government colleague Peter Mandelson £373,000 to buy a house. From 1996 to 2008 he was the owner of the New Statesman, a centre-left weekly political magazine.

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Yury Semyonov, Russian economist and politician (died 2024)

Yury Nikolaevich Semyonov was a Russian economist and politician. A member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he served as first secretary of the Kaliningrad Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991.

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25/05/1937

Tom Phillips, English painter and academic (died 2022)

Trevor Thomas Phillips was an English visual artist. He worked as a painter, printmaker and collagist.

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25/05/1936

Tom T. Hall, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2021)

Thomas Hall, known professionally as Tom T. Hall and informally nicknamed "the Storyteller", was an American country music singer-songwriter and short-story author. He wrote 12 number-one hit songs, with 26 more that reached the top 10, including the number-one international pop crossover hit "Harper Valley PTA", and "I Love", which reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. He is included in Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Songwriters. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008, and the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame alongside his wife Dixie in 2018.

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Rusi Surti, Indian cricketer (died 2013)

Rusi Framroze Surti was an Indian cricketer who played in 26 Tests from 1960 to 1969. He was a left-arm medium pace and left-arm spin bowler and a lower-order batsman. Surti was also a popular professional for Haslingden in the Lancashire League in 1959. He belonged to the Parsi community.

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25/05/1935

John Ffowcs Williams, Welsh engineer and academic (died 2020)

John "Shôn" Eirwyn Ffowcs Williams was Emeritus Rank Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge and a former Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge (1996–2002). He may be best known for his contributions to aeroacoustics, in particular for his work on Concorde. Together with one of his students, David Hawkings, he introduced the far-field integration method in computational aeroacoustics based on Lighthill's acoustic analogy, known as the Ffowcs Williams–Hawkings analogy.

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Cookie Gilchrist, American football player (died 2011)

Carlton Chester "Cookie" Gilchrist was an American football fullback who played in the American Football League (AFL) and the Canadian Football League (CFL). A combined ten-time All-Star, Gilchrist ran for over 9,000 yards in professional football and won a Grey Cup with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and AFL championship with the Buffalo Bills. He was named the AFL Most Valuable Player with Buffalo in 1962, where he was the first 1,000-yard rusher in AFL history. He was named to the AFL All-Time Second-team.

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W. P. Kinsella, Canadian novelist and short story writer (died 2016)

William Patrick Kinsella was a Canadian novelist and short story writer, known for his novel Shoeless Joe (1982), which was adapted into the movie Field of Dreams in 1989. His work often concerned baseball, First Nations people, and Canadian culture.

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Victoria Shaw, Australian actress (died 1988)

Victoria Shaw was an Australian film and television actress.

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25/05/1933

Sarah Marshall, English-American actress (died 2014)

Sarah Lynne Marshall was a British actress. She received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in Goodbye Charlie.

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Basdeo Panday, Trinidadian lawyer and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (died 2024)

Basdeo Panday was a Trinidadian statesman, lawyer, politician, trade unionist, economist, and actor, who served as the fifth prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago from 1995 to 2001. He was the first Indo-Trinidadian, along with being the first Hindu, to hold the office of prime minister.

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Ray Spencer, English footballer (died 2016)

Raymond Spencer was an English professional footballer who made 156 appearances in the Football League playing as a wing half or centre half for Darlington and Torquay United. He began his career with Aston Villa without playing for their first team, and went on to play non-league football for Bath City and Bridgwater Town. He represented England at schoolboy level.

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Jógvan Sundstein, Faroese accountant and politician, 7th Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (died 2024)

Jógvan Sundstein was a Faroese politician and member of the Faroese People's Party.

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25/05/1932

John Gregory Dunne, American novelist, screenwriter, and critic (died 2003)

John Gregory Dunne was an American writer. He began his career as a journalist for Time magazine before expanding into writing criticism, essays, novels, and screenplays. He often collaborated with his wife, Joan Didion.

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K.C. Jones, American basketball player and coach (died 2020)

K.C. Jones Jr. was an American professional basketball player and coach. He is best known for his association with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA), with whom he won 11 of his 12 NBA championships. As a player, he is tied for third for most NBA championships in a career, and is one of three NBA players with an unsurpassed 8–0 record in NBA Finals series. He is the only African-American coach other than Bill Russell to have won multiple NBA championships, and one of eight players to ever achieve the basketball Triple Crown. Jones was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1989.

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25/05/1931

Herb Gray, Canadian lawyer and politician, 7th Deputy Prime Minister of Canada (died 2014)

Herbert Eser Gray was a Canadian lawyer who became a prominent federal politician. He was a Liberal member of parliament for the Windsor area over the course of four decades, from 1962 to 2002, making Gray one of the longest-serving members in Canadian history. He was a cabinet minister under three prime ministers and was the seventh deputy prime minister of Canada from 1997 to 2002. Gray was Canada's first Jewish federal cabinet minister, and he is one of the few Canadians granted the honorific The Right Honourable who was not so entitled by virtue of a position held.

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Georgy Grechko, Russian engineer and astronaut (died 2017)

Georgy Mikhaylovich Grechko was a Soviet cosmonaut. He flew to space on three missions, each bound for rendezvous with a different Salyut space station. Soyuz 17 was the first crewed vehicle to visit Salyut 4, Soyuz 26 was the first crewed vehicle to visit Salyut 6, and Soyuz T-14 visited Salyut 7. During the latter mission, Grechko helped to relieve the crew of Soyuz T-13, who had repaired damage to the station.

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Irwin Winkler, American director and producer

Irwin Winkler is an American film producer and director. He is the producer or director of over 58 motion pictures, dating back to 1967's Double Trouble, starring Elvis Presley. The fourth film he produced, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), starring Jane Fonda, was nominated for nine Academy Awards. He won an Oscar for Best Picture for 1976's Rocky. As a producer, he has been nominated for Best Picture for four films: Rocky (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The Right Stuff (1983), and Goodfellas (1990).

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Makrand Mehta, Indian historian (died 2024)

Makrand Mehta was an Indian social and business historian from Gujarat.

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25/05/1930

Sonia Rykiel, French fashion designer (died 2016)

Sonia Rykiel was a French fashion designer and writer. She created the Poor Boy Sweater, which was featured on the cover of French Elle magazine. Her knitwear designs and new fashion techniques led her to be dubbed the "Queen of Knits". The Sonia Rykiel label was founded in 1968, upon the opening of her first store, making clothing, accessories, and fragrances. Rykiel was also a writer, and her first book was published in 1979. In 2012, Rykiel revealed that she was suffering from Parkinson's disease. She died from complications of the disease on 25 August 2016.

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25/05/1929

Beverly Sills, American soprano and actress (died 2007)

Beverly Sills was an American operatic soprano whose career peak was between the 1950s and 1970s.

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25/05/1927

Robert Ludlum, American soldier and author (died 2001)

Robert Ludlum was an American author of 27 thriller novels, best known as the creator of Jason Bourne from the original The Bourne Trilogy series. The number of copies of his books in print is estimated between 300 million and 500 million. They have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries. Ludlum also published books under the pseudonyms Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd.

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Norman Petty, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (died 1984)

Norman Petty was an American musician, record producer, publisher, and radio station owner. He is considered to be one of the founding fathers of early rock & roll. With Vi Ann Petty—his wife and vocalist—he founded the Norman Petty Trio.

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25/05/1926

Claude Akins, American actor (died 1994)

Claude Aubrey Akins was an American character actor. He played Sonny Pruit in Movin' On, a 1974–1976 American drama series about a trucking team; Sheriff Lobo on The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, a 1979–1981 American action comedy television series; and in a variety of other roles on television as well as in feature films.

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William Bowyer, English painter and academic (died 2015)

William Bowyer was a British portrait and landscape painter, who worked in a traditional manner.

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Phyllis Gotlieb, Canadian author and poet (died 2009)

Phyllis Fay Gotlieb was a Canadian science fiction novelist and poet.

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Bill Sharman, American basketball player and coach (died 2013)

William Walton Sharman was an American professional basketball player and coach. He is mostly known for his time with the Boston Celtics in the 1950s, partnering with Bob Cousy in what was then considered the greatest backcourt duo of all time. As a coach, Sharman won titles in the ABL, ABA, and NBA, and is credited with introducing the now-ubiquitous morning shootaround.

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David Wynne, English sculptor and painter (died 2014)

David Wynne was a British sculptor of figures, animals, and portraits.

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25/05/1925

Rosario Castellanos, Mexican poet and author (died 1974)

Rosario Castellanos Figueroa was a Mexican poet and author. She was one of Mexico's most important literary voices in the 20th century. Throughout her life, she wrote eloquently about issues of cultural and gender oppression, and her work has influenced Mexican feminist theory and cultural studies. Though she died young, she opened the door of Mexican literature to women, and left a legacy that still resonates today.

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Jeanne Crain, American actress (died 2003)

Jeanne Elizabeth Crain was an American actress. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for the title role in Pinky (1949). She also starred in the films In the Meantime, Darling (1944), State Fair (1945), Leave Her to Heaven (1945), Centennial Summer (1946), Margie (1946), Apartment for Peggy (1948), A Letter to Three Wives (1949), Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), People Will Talk (1951), Man Without a Star (1955), Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), The Fastest Gun Alive (1956), and The Joker Is Wild (1957).

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Eldon Griffiths, English journalist and politician (died 2014)

Sir Eldon Wylie Griffiths was a British Conservative politician and journalist.

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Don Liddle, American baseball player (died 2000)

Donald Eugene Liddle was an American left-handed pitcher in professional baseball who played four seasons in the Major Leagues for the Milwaukee Braves, New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals from 1953 through 1956. Born in Mount Carmel, Illinois, he batted left-handed, stood 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) tall and weighed 165 pounds (75 kg).

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Claude Pinoteau, French film director and screenwriter (died 2012)

Claude Pinoteau was a French film director and scriptwriter. Born in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts de Seine, Île-de-France, France. He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine, aged 87. His sister was the actress Arlette Merry, and his brother was the director Jacques Pinoteau.

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25/05/1924

István Nyers, French-Hungarian footballer (died 2005)

István Nyers, also known as Stefano Nyers, was a Hungarian footballer who played as a forward or as a winger. Although he played in only two international matches for Hungary, he is considered one of the greatest football legends of his country, reaching the peak of his career in the 1940s and 1950s.

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25/05/1922

Enrico Berlinguer, Italian politician (died 1984)

Enrico Berlinguer was an Italian politician and statesman who was the most popular leader of the Italian Communist Party (PCI). He led the PCI as the national secretary from 1972 until his death during a tense period of Italian history, which was marked by the Years of Lead and social conflicts, such as the Hot Autumn of 1969–1970. Berlinguer was born into an upper-class family; his father was a socialist who became a deputy and later senator. After leading the PCI's youth wing in his hometown, he led the Italian Communist Youth Federation (FGCI) at the national level from 1949 to 1956. In 1968, he was elected to Italy's Chamber of Deputies, and he became the leader of the PCI in 1972; he remained a deputy until his death in 1984. Under his leadership, the number of votes for the PCI peaked. The PCI's results in 1976 remain the highest for any Italian left-wing or centre-left party both in terms of votes and vote share, and the party's results in 1984, just after his death, remain the best result for an Italian left-wing party in European elections, and were toppled, in terms of vote share in a lower-turnout election, in the 2014 European Parliament election in Italy.

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25/05/1921

Hal David, American songwriter and composer (died 2012)

Harold Lane David was an American lyricist. He was best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach and his association with Dionne Warwick.

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Kitty Kallen, American singer (died 2016)

Katie "Kitty" Kallen was an American singer whose career spanned from the 1930s to the 1960s, including the Swing era of the Big Band years, the post-World War II pop scene, and the early years of rock 'n roll. Kallen performed with popular big band leaders of the 1940s, including Jimmy Dorsey and Harry James, before establishing a solo career.

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Jack Steinberger, German-Swiss physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2020)

Jack Steinberger was a German-born American physicist noted for his work with neutrinos, the subatomic particles considered to be elementary constituents of matter. He was a recipient of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Leon M. Lederman and Melvin Schwartz, for the discovery of the muon neutrino. Through his career as an experimental particle physicist, he held positions at the University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University (1950–68), and the CERN (1968–86). He was also a recipient of the United States National Medal of Science in 1988, and the Matteucci Medal from the Italian Academy of Sciences in 1990.

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25/05/1920

Arthur Wint, Jamaican runner and diplomat (died 1992)

Arthur Stanley Wint OD MBE was a Jamaican Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot during the Second World War, a sprinter, a physician, and later the High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. While competing at the 1948 and 1952 Olympics, whilst a medical student at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, he won two gold and two silver medals, becoming the first Jamaican Olympic gold medalist.

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25/05/1917

Steve Cochran, American film, television and stage actor (died 1965)

Steve Cochran was an American film, television and stage actor. He attended the University of Wyoming. After a stint working as a cowboy, Cochran developed his acting skills in local theatre and gradually progressed to Broadway, film and television.

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Theodore Hesburgh, American priest, theologian, and academic (died 2015)

Theodore Martin Hesburgh, C.S.C. was an American Catholic priest and academic who was a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross. He served as president of the University of Notre Dame for 35 years from 1952 to 1987, along with numerous appointed positions in the U.S. government, including as chairman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

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25/05/1916

Brian Dickson, Canadian captain, lawyer, and politician, 15th Chief Justice of Canada (died 1998)

Robert George Brian Dickson was a Canadian lawyer, military officer and judge who served as the 15th chief justice of Canada from 1984 to 1990 and as a puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada from 1973 to 1984. He retired on June 30, 1990.

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Giuseppe Tosi, Italian discus thrower (died 1981)

Giuseppe "Beppe" Tosi was an Italian discus thrower. He won silver medal at the 1946, 1950 and 1954 European championships and 1948 Summer Olympics, every time beaten by the teammate Adolfo Consolini. At the 1952 Summer Olympics, Tosi placed eighth and Consolini second.

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25/05/1913

Heinrich Bär, German colonel and pilot (died 1957)

Oskar-Heinrich "Pritzl" Bär was a German Luftwaffe flying ace who served throughout World War II in Europe. Bär flew more than one thousand combat missions, and fought in the Western, Eastern and Mediterranean theatres. On 18 occasions he survived being shot down, and according to records in the German Federal Archives, he claimed to have shot down 228 enemy aircraft and was credited with 208 aerial victories, 16 of which were in a Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter. Sources credit him with 220 – 96 on Eastern Theatre and 124 on Western Theatre – up to 222 aerial victories may also be possible.

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Richard Dimbleby, English journalist and producer (died 1965)

Frederick Richard Dimbleby was an English journalist and broadcaster who became the BBC's first war correspondent and then its leading TV news commentator.

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25/05/1912

Dean Rockwell, American commander, wrestler, and coach (died 2005)

Dean Ladrath Rockwell ) was a decorated World War II group commander in the D-Day invasion, an Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling coach, and a college football coach.

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25/05/1909

Alfred Kubel, German politician, 5th Prime Minister of Lower Saxony (died 1999)

Alfred Kubel was a German politician; in his later career, he was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

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25/05/1908

Theodore Roethke, American poet (died 1963)

Theodore Huebner Roethke was an American poet. He is regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential poets of his generation, having won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1954 for his book The Waking, and the annual National Book Award for Poetry on two occasions: in 1959 for Words for the Wind, and posthumously in 1965 for The Far Field. His work was characterized by a willingness to engage deeply with a multifaceted introspection, and his style was overtly rhythmic, with a skilful use of natural imagery. Roethke's mastery of both free verse and fixed forms was complemented by an intense lyrical quality that drew "from the natural world in all its mystery and fierce beauty."

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25/05/1907

U Nu, Burmese politician, 1st Prime Minister of Burma (died 1995)

Nu, commonly known as U Nu and also by the honorific name Thakin Nu, was a prominent Burmese statesman and the first Prime Minister of Union of Burma. He was educated at Rangoon University, where he developed his political ideas and became actively involved in the student movement. Nu's involvement in the nationalist movement deepened during his university years, and he quickly emerged as a leading figure advocating for Burma's independence from British colonial rule.

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25/05/1900

Alain Grandbois, Canadian poet and author (died 1975)

Alain Grandbois, was a Canadian Quebecer poet, considered the first great modern one.

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George Lennon, Irish Republican Army leader during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War (died 1991)

George Lennon was an Irish Republican Army leader during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War.

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25/05/1899

Kazi Nazrul Islam, Bengali poet, author, and flute player (died 1976)

Kazi Nazrul Islam was a Bengali poet, short story writer, journalist, lyricist, and musician. He was later honored with the title of national poet of Bangladesh. Nazrul produced a large body of poetry, music, messages, novels, and stories with themes that included equality, justice, anti-imperialism, humanity, rebellion against oppression and religious devotion. Nazrul Islam's activism for political and social justice as well as writing a poem titled "Bidrohī", meaning "the rebel" in Bengali, earned him the title of "Bidrohī Kôbi". His compositions form the avant-garde music genre of Nazrul Gīti.

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Panka Pelishek, Bulgarian pianist and music teacher (died 1990)

Panka Pelishek was a Bulgarian pianist and music teacher. She played as a soloist and a chamber musician, particularly known for performing Beethoven's works. In teaching, she encouraged students to follow "their own artistic path".

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25/05/1898

Bennett Cerf, American publisher and television game show panelist; co-founded Random House (died 1971)

Bennett Alfred Cerf was an American writer, publisher, and co-founder of the American publishing firm Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and for his weekly television appearances for 16 years on the panel game show What's My Line?

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25/05/1897

Alan Kippax, Australian cricketer (died 1972)

Alan Falconer Kippax was a cricketer for New South Wales (NSW) and Australia. Regarded as one of the great stylists of Australian cricket during the era between the two World Wars, Kippax overcame a late start to Test cricket to become a regular in the Australian team between the 1928–29 and 1932–33 seasons. A middle-order batsman, he toured England twice, and at domestic level was a prolific scorer and a highly considered leader of NSW for eight years. To an extent, his Test figures did not correspond with his great success for NSW and he is best remembered for a performance in domestic cricket—a world record last wicket partnership, set during a Sheffield Shield match in 1928–29. His career was curtailed by the controversial Bodyline tactics employed by England on their 1932–33 tour of Australia; Kippax wrote a book denouncing the tactics after the series concluded.

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Gene Tunney, American boxer and soldier (died 1978)

James Joseph Tunney was an Irish-American professional boxer who competed from 1915 to 1928. He held the world heavyweight title from 1926 to 1928, and the American light heavyweight title twice between 1922 and 1923.

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25/05/1893

Ernest "Pop" Stoneman, American country musician (died 1968)

Ernest Van "Pop" Stoneman was an American musician, ranked among the prominent recording artists of country music's first commercial decade.

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25/05/1889

Günther Lütjens, German admiral (died 1941)

Johann Günther Lütjens was a German admiral whose military service spanned more than 30 years and two world wars. Lütjens is best known for his actions during World War II and his command of the battleship Bismarck during her foray into the Atlantic Ocean in 1941. He was killed in action during the last battle of the battleship Bismarck.

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Igor Sikorsky, Russian-American aircraft designer, founded Sikorsky Aircraft (died 1972)

Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky was a Russian-American aviation pioneer in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. His first success came with the Sikorsky S-2, the second aircraft of his design and construction. His fifth airplane, the S-5, won him national recognition and F.A.I. pilot's license number 64. His S-6-A received the highest award at the 1912 Moscow Aviation Exhibition, and in the fall of that year the aircraft won first prize for its young designer, builder and pilot in the military competition at Saint Petersburg. In 1913, the Sikorsky-designed Russky Vityaz (S-21) became the first successful four-engine aircraft to take flight. He also designed and built the Ilya Muromets family of four-engine aircraft, an airliner which he redesigned to be the world's first four-engine bomber when World War I broke out.

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25/05/1888

Miles Malleson, English actor and screenwriter (died 1969)

William Miles Malleson was an English actor and dramatist, best remembered for his appearances in British comedy films of the 1930s to 1960s. Toward the end of his career, he also appeared in cameo roles in several Hammer horror films, with a fairly large role in The Brides of Dracula as the hypochondriac and fee-hungry local doctor. Additionally, Malleson worked as a screenwriter on many films, including some in which he had small parts, such as Nell Gwyn (1934) and The Thief of Bagdad (1940). He also translated and adapted several of Molière's plays.

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25/05/1887

Padre Pio, Italian priest and saint (died 1968)

Pio of Pietrelcina, widely known as Padre Pio was an Italian friar of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, priest, stigmatist and mystic. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, and his feast day is celebrated on 23 September.

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25/05/1886

Rash Behari Bose, Indian soldier and activist (died 1945)

Rashbehari Bose was an Indian revolutionary leader and freedom fighter who fought against the British Empire. He was one of the key organisers of the Ghadar Mutiny and founded the Indian Independence League. Bose helped organise the Indian National Army (INA), which was formed in 1942 under Mohan Singh.

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Philip Murray, Scottish-American miner and labor leader (died 1952)

Philip Murray was a Scottish-born steelworker and an American labor leader. He was the first president of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC), the first president of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), and the longest-serving president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).

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25/05/1883

Carl Johan Lind, Swedish hammer thrower (died 1965)

Carl Johan "Massa" Lind was a Swedish athlete who competed at the 1912, 1920, 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics, missing the 1916 Games that were cancelled due to World War I.

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25/05/1882

Marie Doro, American actress (died 1956)

Marie Doro was an American stage and film actress of the early silent film era.

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25/05/1880

Jean Alexandre Barré, French neurologist and academic (died 1967)

Jean Alexandre Barré was a French neurologist who in 1916 worked on the identification of Guillain-Barré-Strohl syndrome, as well as Barré–Liéou syndrome.

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25/05/1879

Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, Canadian-English businessman and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (died 1964)

William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics of the first half of the 20th century. His base of power was the largest circulation newspaper in the world, the Daily Express, which appealed to the conservative working class with intensely patriotic news and editorials. During the Second World War, he played a major role in mobilising industrial resources as Winston Churchill's Minister of Aircraft Production.

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C. C. Martindale, English Jesuit priest (died 1963)

Cyril Charlie Martindale was a Roman Catholic priest, scholar, and writer. Along with Martin D'Arcy, he was one of England's foremost Catholics of the first half of the 20th century, and was a correspondent of figures including Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, and Ronald Knox.

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William Stickney, American golfer (died 1944)

William Arthur "Art" Stickney was an American golfer.

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25/05/1878

Bill Robinson, American actor and dancer (died 1949)

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer, the best known and the most highly paid black entertainer in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. His long career mirrored changes in American entertainment tastes and technology. His career began in the age of minstrel shows and moved to vaudeville, Broadway theatre, the recording industry, Hollywood films, radio, and television.

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25/05/1869

Robbie Ross, Canadian journalist and art critic (died 1918)

Robert Baldwin Ross was a British journalist, art critic and art dealer, best known for his relationship with Oscar Wilde, to whom he was a devoted friend, lover and literary executor. A grandson of the Canadian reform leader Robert Baldwin, and son of John Ross and Augusta Elizabeth Baldwin, Ross was a pivotal figure on the London literary and artistic scene from the mid-1890s to his early death, and mentored several literary figures, including Siegfried Sassoon. His open homosexuality, in a period when male homosexual acts were illegal, brought him many hardships.

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25/05/1867

Anders Peter Nielsen, Danish target shooter (died 1950)

Anders Peter Nielsen was a Danish sport shooter who competed in the late 19th century and early 20th century in rifle shooting. He participated in Shooting at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris and won three silver medals in the military rifle in the kneeling, prone, and 3 positions categories.

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25/05/1865

John Mott, American evangelist and saint, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1955)

John Raleigh Mott was an American evangelist and long-serving leader of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF). He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946 for his work in establishing and strengthening international Protestant Christian student organizations that worked to promote peace. He shared the prize with Emily Greene Balch. From 1895 until 1920 Mott was the General Secretary of the WSCF. Intimately involved in the formation of the World Council of Churches in 1948, that body elected him as a lifelong honorary President. He helped found the World Student Christian Federation in 1895, the 1910 World Missionary Conference and the World Council of Churches in 1948. His best-known book, The Evangelization of the World in this Generation, became a missionary slogan in the early 20th century.

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Pieter Zeeman, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1943)

Pieter Zeeman was a Dutch experimental physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Hendrik Lorentz for their discovery and theoretical explanation of the Zeeman effect.

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Mathilde Verne, English pianist and educator (died 1936)

Mathilde Verne was an English pianist and teacher, of German descent. Along with most of her other sisters, Mathilde changed her surname to Verne in 1893 after the death of their father, John Wurm.

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25/05/1860

James McKeen Cattell, American psychologist and academic (died 1944)

James McKeen Cattell was the first professor of psychology in the United States, teaching at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He was a long-time editor and publisher of scientific journals and publications, including Science, and served on the board of trustees for Science Service, now known as Society for Science from 1921 to 1944.

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25/05/1856

Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, Algerian-French general (died 1942)

Louis Félix Marie François Franchet d'Espèrey was a French general during World War I. In September 1914, as the new commander of the French 5th Army, he played a notable role in organising the allied response that led to the First Battle of the Marne. As commander of the large Allied army based at Salonika, he conducted the successful Macedonian campaign, which caused the collapse of the Southern Front and contributed to the armistice.

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25/05/1852

William Muldoon, American wrestler and trainer (died 1933)

William Muldoon was an American Greco-Roman Wrestling champion, a physical culturist, and the first chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission. He once wrestled a match that lasted over seven hours.

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25/05/1848

Johann Baptist Singenberger, Swiss composer, educator, and publisher (died 1924)

Johann Baptist Singenberger was a Swiss composer, music teacher, editor and publisher. Much of his output was devoted to Catholic liturgical music. He was reckoned to have taught over 1,000 musicians in his lifetime. In 1873 Singenberger founded the American St. Cecilia Society, an organization belonging to the Cecilian movement which sought to revive the spirit of the masses and motets of Palestrina. Singenberger was also a professor of music at the Catholic Normal School in St. Francis, Wisconsin.

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25/05/1846

Naim Frashëri, Albanian-Turkish poet and translator (died 1900)

Naim bey Frashëri, more commonly Naim Frashëri, was an Albanian historian, journalist, poet, translator, and one of the most prominent figures of the Albanian National Awakening. Regarded as a pioneer of modern Albanian literature and one of the most influential Albanian cultural icons of the 19th century, he was proclaimed as the national poet of Albania.

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25/05/1830

Trebor Mai (né Robert Williams), Welsh poet (died 1877)

Robert Williams, usually referred to by his bardic name Trebor Mai, was a Welsh language poet, born at Ty'n-yr-ardd near Llanrhychwyn, near Llanrwst, in the old county of Caernarfonshire, the son of a tailor. He was educated at a local Llanrhychwyn school and for a period attended the free school at Llanrwst. Around 1843, he moved with his family to Llanrwst and he applied himself to his father's craft. After he married on 13 October 1854 he commenced business as a tailor himself in Llanrwst, and remained there for the rest of his life. He died in 1877, aged 47.

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25/05/1818

Jacob Burckhardt, Swiss historian and academic (died 1897)

Carl Jacob Christoph Burckhardt was a Swiss historian of art and culture and an influential figure in the historiography of both fields. His best known work is The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860). He is known as one of the major progenitors of cultural history. Sigfried Giedion described Burckhardt's achievement in the following terms: "The great discoverer of the age of the Renaissance, he first showed how a period should be treated in its entirety, with regard not only for its painting, sculpture and architecture, but for the social institutions of its daily life as well."

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Louise de Broglie, Countess d'Haussonville, French essayist and biographer (died 1882)

Louise de Broglie, Countess d'Haussonville was a French essayist and biographer, and a member of the House of Broglie, a distinguished French family. A granddaughter of the novelist Germaine de Staël, she was considered independent, liberal, and outspoken. Her 1845 portrait by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, which took three years to complete, has been exhibited in the Frick Collection in New York City since the 1930s.

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25/05/1803

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, English author, playwright, and politician, Secretary of State for the Colonies (died 1873)

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton was an English writer and politician. He served as a Whig member of Parliament from 1831 to 1841 and a Conservative from 1851 to 1866. He was Secretary of State for the Colonies from June 1858 to June 1859, as which he selected Richard Clement Moody to found British Columbia. He was created Baron Lytton of Knebworth in 1866.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet and philosopher (died 1882)

Ralph Waldo Emerson, who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and critical thinking, as well as a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society and conformity. Friedrich Nietzsche thought he was "the most gifted of the Americans," and Walt Whitman called Emerson his "master".

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25/05/1791

Minh Mạng, Vietnamese emperor (died 1841)

Minh Mạng, also known as Minh Mệnh, was the second emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty of Vietnam, reigning from 14 February 1820 until his death, on 20 January 1841. He was the fourth son of Emperor Gia Long, whose eldest son, Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh, had died in 1801. He was well known for his opposition to French involvement in Vietnam, completing the final Vietnamese conquest of Champa, temporary annexation of Cambodia, and his rigid Confucian orthodoxy.

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25/05/1783

Philip P. Barbour, American farmer and politician, 12th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (died 1841)

Philip Pendleton Barbour was the tenth speaker of the United States House of Representatives and an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He is the only individual to serve in both positions.

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25/05/1725

Samuel Ward, American politician, 31st and 33rd Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (died 1776)

Samuel Ward Sr. was an American farmer, politician, Rhode Island Supreme Court justice, governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and delegate to the Continental Congress where he signed the Continental Association. He was the son of Rhode Island Governor Richard Ward, was well-educated, and grew up in a large family in Newport, Rhode Island. He and his wife received property in Westerly, Rhode Island from his father-in-law, and the couple settled there and took up farming. He entered politics as a young man and soon took sides in the hard money vs. paper money controversy, favoring hard money or specie. His primary rival over the money issue was Providence politician Stephen Hopkins, and the two men became bitter rivals; the two also alternated as governors of the colony for several terms.

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25/05/1713

John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, Scottish politician, Prime Minister of Great Britain (died 1792)

John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, styled Lord Mount Stuart between 1713 and 1723, was a British Tory statesman who served as the Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1762 to 1763 under George III. He became the first Tory to hold the position and was arguably the last important royal favourite in British politics. He was the first prime minister from Scotland following the Acts of Union in 1707. He was also elected as the first president of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland when it was founded in 1780.

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25/05/1661

Claude Buffier, Polish-French historian and philosopher (died 1737)

Claude Buffier, French philosopher, historian and teacher, was born in Poland of French parents, who returned to France and settled in Rouen, then in the Province of Normandy, soon after his birth.

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25/05/1606

Charles Garnier, French missionary and saint (died 1649)

Charles Garnier, was a Jesuit missionary working in New France. He was killed by Iroquois in a Petun village on December 7, 1649.

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25/05/1550

Camillus de Lellis, Italian saint and nurse (died 1614)

Camillus de Lellis, M.I., was an Italian Catholic priest who founded the Camillians, a religious order dedicated to the care of the sick. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV in the year 1742, and canonized by him four years later in 1746. De Lellis is the patron saint of the sick, hospitals, nurses and physicians. His assistance is also invoked against gambling.

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25/05/1417

Catherine of Cleves, Duchess consort regent of Guelders (died 1479)

Catherine of Cleves was Duchess of Guelders by marriage to Arnold, Duke of Guelders. She acted as regent of Guelders during the absence of her spouse in 1450. The Hours of Catherine of Cleves was commissioned for her.

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25/05/1416

Jakobus ("James"), Count of Lichtenburg (died 1480)

James of Lichtenburg was a nobleman from Lichtenberg in the northern part of Alsace. He served as overlord of Strasbourg and was the last in the male line of the House of Lichtenberg.

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25/05/1334

Emperor Sukō of Japan (died 1398)

Emperor Sukō was the third of the Emperors of Northern Court during the Period of the Northern and Southern Courts in Japan. According to pre-Meiji scholars, his reign spanned the years from 1348 through 1351.

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25/05/1320

Toghon Temür, Mongolian emperor (died 1370)

Toghon Temür, also known by his temple name as Emperor Huizong of Yuan and by his posthumous name as Emperor Shun of Yuan, was the last emperor of the Yuan dynasty and the first emperor of the Northern Yuan dynasty. He was a son of Kusala.

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25/05/1048

Emperor Shenzong of Song (died 1085)

Emperor Shenzong of Song, personal name Zhao Xu, was the sixth emperor of the Song dynasty of China. His original personal name was Zhao Zhongzhen but he changed it to "Zhao Xu" after he acceded to the throne. He reigned from 1067 until his death in 1085 and is best known for supporting Wang Anshi's New Policies. He was a particularly active monarch concerned with expanding Song territory and solving its fiscal, bureaucratic, and military problems through major reforms, but his reign remains controversial due to military failures and the varied effects of his changes.

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