Born on Wednesday, 12th November – Famous Birthdays

12/11/2007

Leonardo Puglisi, Australian journalist

Leonardo Puglisi is an Australian journalist. He is the founder of online news channel 6 News Australia. He lives in Melbourne, Victoria.

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12/11/2002

Paolo Banchero, Italian-American basketball player

Paolo Napoleon James Banchero is an American professional basketball player for the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils. Banchero was named the Rookie of the Year of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in 2022. Following his freshman season, he declared for the 2022 NBA draft, where he was selected with the first overall pick by the Orlando Magic. Banchero was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2023.

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Tino Livramento, English footballer

Valentino Francisco Livramento is an English professional footballer who plays as a full-back for Premier League club Newcastle United and the England national team.

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12/11/2001

Raffey Cassidy, English actress

Raffey Camomile Cassidy is an English actress. She first appeared as a child actress in the television movie Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen (2009), adding her first brief film role in Dark Shadows (2012), her first main cast television role in 32 Brinkburn Street (2011), and main cast film role in Tomorrowland (2015). She followed this with a dual role in director Brady Corbet's Vox Lux (2018) and her first top billing in The Other Lamb (2019). She had another dual role in the 2024 drama film The Brutalist, also directed by Corbet.

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12/11/1999

Choi Yoo-jung, South Korean singer, dancer, rapper, and actress

Choi Yoo-jung, known mononymously as Yoojung, is a South Korean singer and actress signed under Fantagio. She debuted as member of I.O.I in May 2016 after achieving third place in the 2016 survival program Produce 101. In January 2017, I.O.I officially disbanded after eleven months of promotion. Following disbandment, she returned to her respective agency and eventually debuted with Weki Meki in August 2017. Choi debuted as a solo artist with the single album Sunflower in September 2022.

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12/11/1998

Jules Koundé, French footballer

Jules Olivier Koundé is a French professional footballer who plays as a defender for La Liga club Barcelona and the France national team. Primarily a right-back, he is also capable of playing as a centre-back.

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Elias Pettersson, Swedish ice hockey player

Fredrik Elias Pettersson is a Swedish professional ice hockey player who is a forward and alternate captain for the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League (NHL). Pettersson was selected fifth overall by the Canucks in the 2017 NHL entry draft. He was born in Sundsvall, Sweden, but grew up in Ånge. After one of the greatest under-20 seasons in Swedish Hockey League (SHL) history in 2017–18, and winning the Le Mat Trophy with the Växjö Lakers, Pettersson made the Canucks' opening night roster for the 2018–19 season. He won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league's best rookie in 2018–19, becoming the second Canuck to do so after Pavel Bure in 1991–92.

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12/11/1997

Dexter Lawrence, American football player

Dexter Lawrence II, nicknamed "Sexy Dexy", is an American professional football nose tackle for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Clemson Tigers.

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12/11/1995

Thomas Lemar, French footballer

Thomas Benoît Lemar is a French professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for La Liga club Girona, on loan from Atlético Madrid. He is known for his versatility, being able to play on both wings and through the centre.

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xQc, Canadian online streamer

Félix Lengyel, better known as xQc, is a Canadian online streamer, influencer, and former professional Overwatch player.

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12/11/1994

Guillaume Cizeron, French ice dancer

Guillaume Cizeron is a French ice dancer. With current partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry, he is the 2026 Olympic champion, the 2026 World champion, the 2026 European champion, the 2025–26 Grand Prix Final silver medalist, a two-time Grand Prix champion, and the 2026 French national champion.

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Kseniya Alexandrova, Russian model (died 2025)

Kseniya Sergeyevna Alexandrova was a Russian model, television host, psychologist and beauty pageant titleholder. She was first runner-up at the Miss Russia 2017 pageant and later represented Russia at the Miss Universe 2017 pageant.

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12/11/1993

Tomáš Hertl, Czech ice hockey player

Tomáš Hertl is a Czech professional ice hockey player who is a forward for the Vegas Golden Knights of the National Hockey League (NHL). Hertl was selected 17th overall in the 2012 NHL entry draft by the San Jose Sharks, with whom he spent his first 11 seasons. Prior to being drafted, Hertl played for HC Slavia Praha of the Czech Extraliga (ELH).

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12/11/1992

Dāvis Bertāns, Latvian basketball player

Dāvis Bertāns is a Latvian professional basketball player for Dubai Basketball of the ABA League and the EuroLeague. Nicknamed the "Latvian Laser", he also represents the Latvian national team. He was the 42nd pick in the 2011 NBA draft by the Indiana Pacers.

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Trey Burke, American basketball player

Alfonso Clark "Trey" Burke III is an American professional basketball player for the Astros de Jalisco of the CIBACOPA. He played college basketball for the Michigan Wolverines where in the 2012–13 season, he earned National Player of the Year and led the 2012–13 Wolverines to the championship game of the 2013 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. Shortly after the tournament he declared his eligibility for the draft.

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Adam Larsson, Swedish ice hockey player

Nils Erik Adam Larsson is a Swedish professional ice hockey player who is a defenceman and alternate captain for the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected fourth overall by the New Jersey Devils in the 2011 NHL entry draft. The youngest player on the Skellefteå AIK squad at the time of his draft, Larsson was the first defenceman and first European-trained player to be drafted in 2011.

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Luguelín Santos, Dominican sprinter

Luguelín Miguel Santos Aquino is a Dominican sprinter, who specialises in the 400 m. He was the silver medallist in the event at the 2012 London Olympics at the age of nineteen. His personal best is 44.11 seconds.

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12/11/1991

Cairo Santos, Brazilian gridiron football player

Cairo Fernandes Santos is a Brazilian-American professional American football placekicker for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Tulane Green Wave, and was signed by the Kansas City Chiefs as an undrafted free agent in 2014.

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Gijs Van Hoecke, Belgian cyclist

Gijs Van Hoecke is a retired Belgian cyclist, who last rode for UCI WorldTeam Intermarché–Wanty.

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12/11/1990

Florent Manaudou, French swimmer

Florent Manaudou is a French competitive swimmer, an Olympic champion of the 50-meter freestyle at the 2012 London Olympics, and the younger brother of Laure Manaudou, a 2004 Olympic gold medalist in swimming. He competes for the Energy Standard Swim Club in the International Swimming League.

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Marcell Ozuna, Dominican baseball player

Marcell Ozuna Idelfonso, nicknamed "the Big Bear", is a Dominican professional baseball designated hitter and outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Miami Marlins, St. Louis Cardinals, and Atlanta Braves. He made his MLB debut in 2013 with the Marlins.

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Harmeet Singh, Norwegian footballer

Harmeet Singh is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder.

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Siim-Sander Vene, Estonian basketball player

Siim-Sander Vene is an Estonian professional basketball player for Šiauliai of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL). Standing at 2.03 m, he plays both the small forward and power forward positions. Vene represents the Estonian national basketball team internationally, and was named Estonian Basketball Player of the Year in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

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12/11/1988

Russell Westbrook, American basketball player

Russell Westbrook III is an American professional basketball player for the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Known for his agility, intensity and explosiveness, he is considered one of the greatest point guards in NBA history. Nicknamed "Russ", Westbrook is a nine-time NBA All-Star and earned the NBA Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) for the 2016–17 season. He is also a nine-time All-NBA Team member; a two-time NBA scoring leader, having led the league in 2014–15 and 2016–17; a three-time NBA assists leader; and a back-to-back NBA All-Star Game MVP. Westbrook is one of three players in NBA history to average a triple-double for a season. He has achieved that feat four times and is the all-time NBA leader in career triple-doubles. He holds the record for the most career rebounds by a guard. In 2021, Westbrook was named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.

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12/11/1987

Jason Day, Australian golfer

Jason Anthony Day is an Australian professional golfer. Day had early success as a professional, earning PGA Tour membership in his teens and winning an event in his third season, the HP Byron Nelson Championship. In 2015, Day recorded his breakout season, winning five events including the PGA Championship, a major championship, and became the 19th man to ascend to the world No.1 ranking. Day maintained exemplary play through 2016, winning three tournaments including The Players Championship, and nearly defending his PGA Championship, finishing in solo second place by one stroke, and would spend the last 40-consecutive weeks of the season ranked No. 1. Day would hold the No. 1 spot for 47-consecutive weeks, the 13th longest streak all-time, and for a career total of 51 weeks, 10th most all-time. Since that season, however, Day's play has been much more erratic and he ultimately fell outside of the top 100 in the world. In 2023, however, he recorded a comeback year, winning the AT&T Byron Nelson, the site of his first win, finished T2 at the British Open, and returning to the world's top-20.

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Kengo Kora, Japanese actor

Kengo Kora is a Japanese actor.

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12/11/1985

Adlène Guedioura, French-Algerian footballer

Adlène Guedioura is a former professional footballer who plays as a midfielder.

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12/11/1984

Jorge Masvidal, American Mixed Martial Artist

Jorge Luis Masvidal is an American professional boxer and former professional mixed martial artist who competed in the Welterweight and Lightweight divisions. Masvidal competed professionally for 20 years from 2003 until 2023, having fought in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Bellator, Strikeforce, Shark Fights, and World Victory Road. He holds the record for the fastest knockout in UFC history at five seconds, and won the symbolic UFC "BMF" title.

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Omarion, American singer, songwriter, actor and dancer

Omari Ishmael Grandberry, better known by his stage name Omarion, is an American R&B and pop singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. He rose to prominence as lead vocalist of the boy band B2K, which was formed in 1998 and managed by record executive Chris Stokes. The group achieved success in the early 2000s with their singles "Gots ta Be", "Uh Huh", "Girlfriend", and the Billboard Hot 100-number one hit "Bump, Bump, Bump".

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Sandara Park, South Korean singer, dancer, and actress

Sandara Park, also known mononymously as Dara (다라), is a South Korean singer, actress and television presenter. She rose to fame in the Philippines as a contestant on the ABS-CBN original talent show Star Circle Quest in 2004, after which she had a successful acting and singing career before returning to South Korea in 2007. She made her Korean debut in 2009 as a member of the K-pop group 2NE1, which became one of the most popular K-pop groups in the world. Park is one of the most recognizable Korean celebrities in the Philippines and is considered a leading figure in the spread of Korean wave into the country.

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12/11/1983

Charlie Morton, American baseball player

Charles Alfred Morton IV is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves, Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Phillies, Houston Astros, Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore Orioles, and Detroit Tigers.

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12/11/1982

Anne Hathaway, American actress

Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. Her accolades include an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Her films have grossed over $6.8 billion worldwide. She was among the world's highest-paid actresses in 2015.

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12/11/1981

Annika Becker, German pole vaulter

Annika Becker is a retired German pole vaulter.

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DJ Campbell, English footballer

Dudley Junior Campbell is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward.

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12/11/1980

Nur Fettahoğlu, German-Turkish journalist and actress

Asiye Nur Fettahoğlu is a Turkish-German actress, model, television presenter and fashion designer known for playing numerous characters in several films and television series, including her role as Mahidevran Sultan in Muhteşem Yüzyıl.

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Ryan Gosling, Canadian actor, producer and singer

Ryan Thomas Gosling is a Canadian actor. His work includes both independent films and major studio features, and his accolades include a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two British Academy Film Awards.

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Charlie Hodgson, English rugby player

Charles Christopher Hodgson is a retired English rugby union player, having previously been a player for Sale Sharks and Saracens. His position was fly-half and he is the leading Premiership points scorer of all time. Hodgson also played for England, until announcing his international retirement in 2012. Hodgson made 18 consecutive starts at fly half for England between 2004 and 2006.

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12/11/1979

Cote de Pablo, Chilean actress

María José de Pablo Fernández, known professionally as Coté de Pablo, is a Chilean-American actress. Born in Santiago, Chile, she moved to the United States at the age of 10, where she studied acting.

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Lucas Glover, American golfer

Lucas Hendley Glover is an American professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Tour. He is best known for winning the 2009 U.S. Open.

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12/11/1978

Ashley Williams, American actress

Ashley Churchill Williams is an American actress. She is known for starring in the television series The Jim Gaffigan Show on TV Land and in the NBC series Good Morning Miami. Williams played Victoria in 15 episodes of the CBS series How I Met Your Mother opposite Josh Radnor. She has starred in more than a dozen different television pilots over the years and done over 150 episodes of television in addition to television movies for The Hallmark Channel, Lifetime Television, and ABC Family. She has worked in studio and independent films, regional theater, Off-Broadway, and on Broadway.

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12/11/1977

Benni McCarthy, South African footballer

Benedict Saul McCarthy is a South African professional soccer coach and former player who is currently the manager of the Kenya national football team. A former forward, McCarthy is the South Africa national team's all-time top scorer with 31 goals. He is also the only South African to have won the UEFA Champions League, doing so with Porto in 2004.

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Lee Murray, English mixed martial artist

Lee Brahim Lamrani-Murray is a Moroccan-English convicted bank robber and former mixed martial artist. During his MMA career from 1999 to 2004, he fought 12 times, including a victory in the Ultimate Fighting Championship at UFC 46. He organised the Securitas depot robbery in February 2006, where around £53 million in cash belonging to the Bank of England was stolen by Murray and his associates. It was the largest known cash robbery in the world during peacetime.

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12/11/1976

Tevin Campbell, American R&B singer-songwriter and actor

Tevin Jermod Campbell is an American singer, songwriter and musician. He performed gospel in his local church from an early age. Following an audition for jazz musician Bobbi Humphrey in 1988, Campbell was signed to Warner Bros. Records. In 1989, Campbell collaborated with Quincy Jones performing lead vocals for "Tomorrow" on Jones' album Back on the Block and released his Platinum-selling debut album, T.E.V.I.N. The album included his highest-charting single to date, "Tell Me What You Want Me to Do", peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. The debut album also included the singles "Alone With You", and "Goodbye". His double-Platinum-selling second album, I'm Ready, released in 1993, included two high-charting songs penned by Babyface; "Can We Talk" peaked at number 9 on the Hot 100 and number 1 on the Billboard R&B charts, and the album's title track "I'm Ready", which also peaked at number 9 on the Hot 100. In 1996, Campbell released his third album, Back to the World, which was not as commercially or critically successful as his first two releases. His fourth album, Tevin Campbell, was released in 1999, but performed poorly on Billboard's album charts. As an actor, Campbell appeared in Prince's film Graffiti Bridge and made guest appearances on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Moesha television programs. He voiced fictional pop star Powerline in Disney's 1995 animated film A Goofy Movie, in which he provided vocals for the film's songs "Stand Out" and "I2I". He appeared as Seaweed in the Broadway musical Hairspray in 2005. Campbell has earned five Grammy Award nominations, and he has certified sales of 5 million records in the United States, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

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Judith Holofernes, German singer-songwriter and guitarist

Judith Holfelder-Roy, known by her stage name Judith Holofernes, is a German singer, guitarist, songwriter and author.

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Richelle Mead, American author and educator

Richelle Mead is an American fantasy author best known for Georgina Kincaid, Vampire Academy, Bloodlines and the Dark Swan.

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12/11/1975

Kiara Bisaro, Canadian mountain biker

Kiara Bisaro is a Canadian mountain biker.

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Jason Lezak, American swimmer

Jason Edward Lezak is an American former competitive swimmer and swimming executive who competed for the University of California, Santa Barbara. Lezak specialized in the 50 and 100-meter freestyle races, and represented the United States in four Olympic Games where he won eight Olympic medals.

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12/11/1974

Tamala Jones, American actress

Tamala Reneé Jones is an American actress. She is known for her roles in films such as Booty Call, The Wood, Kingdom Come, The Brothers, and What Men Want. Her prominent television roles include Tina, a recurring character on Veronica's Closet; Bobbi Seawright on For Your Love; and Lanie Parish on the ABC crime drama Castle.

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12/11/1973

Radha Mitchell, Australian actress

Radha Rani Amber Indigo Ananda Mitchell is an Australian actress. She began her career on television, playing Catherine O'Brien on the Australian soap opera Neighbours (1996–97), before transitioning to working in Hollywood. Known for her work in the action and thriller genres, she is the recipient of an FCCA Award, as well as nominations for Fangoria Chainsaw, AFI, and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

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Ethan Zohn, American pro soccer player and Survivor: Africa winner

Ethan Zohn is an American motivational speaker, former professional soccer player, and reality television personality who won Survivor: Africa, the third season of the reality TV series Survivor. He went on to compete in Survivor: All-Stars and Survivor: Winners at War, placing 11th and 18th, respectively, as well as on the 19th season of The Amazing Race in 2011 along with his then-girlfriend and Survivor: The Amazon winner Jenna Morasca, in which they placed tenth.

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12/11/1972

Vasilios Tsiartas, Greek footballer

Vasilios Tsiartas is a Greek former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He is considered by many to be the greatest modern No.10 in Greek history.

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12/11/1971

Chen Guangcheng, Chinese-American lawyer and activist

Chen Guangcheng is a Chinese civil rights activist who has worked on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China. Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, Chen is frequently described as a "barefoot lawyer" who advocates for land rights and the welfare of the poor.

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Rebecca Wisocky, American actress

Rebecca Wisocky is an American actress. Best known for her roles as Hetty Woodstone on the CBS sitcom Ghosts and Evelyn Powell on Lifetime comedy-drama Devious Maids, she has also had guest star roles in many popular shows such as Desperate Housewives, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, American Horror Story, Once Upon a Time, Modern Family, and a recurring role as Ramdha on Star Trek: Picard.

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12/11/1970

Elektra, American wrestler, model, and dancer

Donna Adamo is an American retired professional wrestling valet and professional wrestler, better known by her ring name, Elektra. She is best known for her appearances with the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling from October 1999 until its closure in April 2001. She is also known for her appearances in The Sopranos as a "Bada Bing Girl".

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Tonya Harding, American figure skater

Tonya Maxene Price is an American former figure skater and boxer, and reality television personality.

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Oscar Strasnoy, French-Argentine composer

Oscar Strasnoy is a French-Argentine composer, conductor and pianist. Although primarily known for his stage works, the first of which Midea (2) premiered in Spoleto in 2000, his principal compositions also include two secular cantatas and several song cycles.

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12/11/1969

Ian Bremmer, American political scientist and author

Ian Arthur Bremmer is an American political scientist, author, and entrepreneur focused on global political risk. He is the founder and president of Eurasia Group, a political risk research and consulting firm. He is also founder of GZERO Media, a digital media firm.

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Jason Cundy, English footballer and sportscaster

Jason Victor Cundy is an English former professional footballer and radio broadcaster for Talksport who currently co-hosts The Sports Bar with Jamie O'Hara.

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Rob Schrab, American writer and artist

Robby Christopher Schrab is an American comic book creator, screenwriter, director, and producer. He is the creator of the comic book Scud: The Disposable Assassin, co-writer of the feature film Monster House, co-creator of the competitive film festival Channel 101, and the co-creator of Comedy Central's The Sarah Silverman Program. He has directed three seasons of The Sarah Silverman Program and episodes of Childrens Hospital, Blue Mountain State, Community, Parks and Recreation, The Mindy Project, Workaholics, Creepshow, and the second revival season of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

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12/11/1968

Kathleen Hanna, American singer-songwriter

Kathleen Hanna is an American singer, musician and pioneer of the feminist punk riot grrrl movement, and punk zine writer. She is the lead singer of feminist punk band Bikini Kill and fronts the electropunk band Le Tigre. She has also recorded as the Julie Ruin.

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Sammy Sosa, Dominican-American baseball player

Samuel Peralta Sosa is a Dominican former professional baseball right fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Chicago Cubs. After playing for the Texas Rangers and Chicago White Sox, Sosa joined the Cubs in 1992 and became regarded as one of the game's best hitters. He hit his 400th home run in his 1,354th game and his 5,273rd at-bat, reaching this milestone quicker than any player in National League history. Sosa is one of nine players in MLB history to hit 600 career home runs.

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12/11/1967

Bassim Al-Karbalaei, Iraqi Eulogy Reciter

Haj Basim Ismail Muhammad-Ali al-Karbalaei, commonly known as Basim Karbalaei is an Iraqi Shi'ite eulogy reciter.

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Disco Inferno, American wrestler and manager

Glenn Gilbertti is an American professional wrestler, writer and booker, best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling as Disco Inferno from 1995 to 2001.

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Iryna Khalip, Belarusian journalist

Iryna Uladzimirawna Khalip is a Belarusian journalist, reporter and editor in the Minsk bureau of Novaya Gazeta, known for her criticism of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

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Michael Moorer, American boxer

Michael Lee Moorer is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2008. He won a world championship on four occasions in two weight classes, having held the WBO light heavyweight title from 1988 to 1991; compiling 22 straight KOs in 22 fights and the WBO heavyweight title from 1992 to 1993; the unified WBA, IBF and lineal heavyweight titles in 1994; and regained the IBF heavyweight title again from 1996 to 1997 becoming a three-time heavyweight world champion.

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Grant Nicholas, Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist

Grantley Jonathan Nicholas is a Welsh musician and the lead singer and guitarist of the rock band Feeder.

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12/11/1965

Lex Lang, American voice actor and producer

Lex Lang is an American voice actor and voice director, who has provided voices and served as a director for a number of animations and video games. He is known for voicing Doctor Neo Cortex in the Crash Bandicoot franchise, Suguru Geto in Jujutsu Kaisen, Ecliptor in Power Rangers in Space, and Goemon Ishikawa in Lupin the Third.

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12/11/1964

Vic Chesnutt, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2009)

James Victor Chesnutt was an American singer-songwriter from Athens, Georgia. His first album, Little, was released in 1990. His commercial breakthrough came in 1996 with the release of Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation, a charity record of alternative artists covering his songs.

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David Ellefson, American bass player and songwriter

David Ellefson is an American musician, best known for his long tenure as the bassist and backing vocalist for heavy metal band Megadeth across two stints.

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Wang Kuang-hui, Taiwanese baseball player and coach

Wang Kuang-hui was a Taiwanese professional baseball player and coach. He spent his entire playing and coaching career in the Chinese Professional Baseball League with the Brother Elephants franchise.

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Barbara Stühlmeyer, German musicologist, church musician and writer

Barbara Stühlmeyer OblOSB is a German theologian, musicologist, and free-lance author, known especially for her work on the music of Hildegard of Bingen.

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12/11/1962

Mariella Frostrup, British journalist and actress

Mariella Frostrup is an Irish-Norwegian journalist and presenter, known in British television and radio mainly for arts programmes.

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Mark Hunter, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager

Mark William Hunter is a Canadian professional ice hockey executive, coach, and former player. He currently is the owner and general manager for the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). Hunter was born in Petrolia, Ontario, but grew up in nearby Oil Springs, Ontario, and was one of three brothers, with Dave and Dale, to play in the NHL. Hunter won the Stanley Cup in 1989 with the Calgary Flames.

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Neal Shusterman, American author and poet

Neal Shusterman is an American writer of young adult fiction. He won the 2015 National Book Award for Young People's Literature for his book Challenger Deep and his novel, Scythe, was a 2017 Michael L. Printz Honor book.

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12/11/1961

Nadia Comăneci, Romanian gymnast and coach

Nadia Elena Comăneci Conner is a retired Romanian gymnast. She is a five-time Olympic gold medalist, all in individual events. In 1976, at age 14, Comăneci was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10.0 at the Olympic Games. At the same Games, she earned six more perfect 10s for events en route to winning three gold medals. At the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Comăneci won two more gold medals and achieved two more perfect 10s. During her career, Comăneci won nine Olympic medals and four World Artistic Gymnastics Championship medals.

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Enzo Francescoli, Uruguayan footballer

Enzo Francescoli Uriarte, nicknamed "El Príncipe", is a Uruguayan former footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or forward. He is regarded as one of the best playmakers of his generation and as one of Uruguay's and South America's greatest ever players. He represented his nation at two FIFA World Cups, in 1986 and 1990, also winning the Copa América in 1983, 1987 and 1995.

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12/11/1960

Maurane, Belgian singer and actress (died 2018)

Claudine Luypaerts, better known as Maurane, was a Francophone Belgian singer and actress.

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12/11/1959

Vincent Irizarry, American actor

Vincent Irizarry is an American actor. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in 1985 and 2002, and won in 2009.

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Toshihiko Sahashi, Japanese composer

Toshihiko Sahashi is a Japanese composer. He graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1986. Sahashi has composed music for various anime series, video games, films, dramas, and musicals.

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12/11/1958

Megan Mullally, American actress and singer

Megan Mullally is an American actress, comedian and singer. She is best known for playing Karen Walker in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, for which she received eight Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, winning twice, in 2000 and 2006. She also received nominations for numerous other accolades for her portrayal, including seven consecutive Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series, winning three times, in 2001, 2002, and 2003, as well as receiving four Golden Globe Award nominations.

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Mykola Vynnychenko, Ukrainian race walker

Mykola Alekseyevich Vynnychenko is a former Soviet Ukrainian race walker.

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12/11/1957

Tim Samaras, American engineer, storm chaser (died 2013)

Timothy Michael Samaras was an American engineer and storm chaser best known for his field research on tornadoes and time on the Discovery Channel show Storm Chasers. He died in the 2013 El Reno tornado that occurred on May 31, 2013.

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Ivan Šuker, Croatian politician and economist (died 2023)

Ivan Šuker was a Croatian politician and economist. He served as Minister of Finance from 2003 to 2010, as a member of the Croatian Democratic Union.

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12/11/1955

Les McKeown, Scottish pop singer (died 2021)

Leslie Richard McKeown was a Scottish singer, best known as the lead vocalist of the pop rock band Bay City Rollers during their most successful period in the 1970s. The band's original lead singer, Gordon "Nobby" Clark, decided to leave the band in 1972 after fulfilling his touring obligations and McKeown joined the band as their lead vocalist by 1973 and began to re-record his vocals on tracks including "Remember (Sha-La-La-La)" and "Saturday Night", which then became a US number 1 hit.

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12/11/1954

Paul McNamee, Australian tennis player

Paul McNamee is an Australian former doubles world No. 1 tennis player and prominent sports administrator.

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12/11/1953

Baaba Maal, Senegalese singer-songwriter and guitarist

Baaba Maal is a Senegalese singer and guitarist born in Podor, on the Senegal River. In addition to acoustic guitar, he also plays percussion. He has released several albums, both for independent and major labels. In July 2003, he was made a UNDP Youth Emissary.

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12/11/1950

Barbara Fairchild, American country and gospel singer-songwriter

Barbara Fairchild is an American country and gospel singer, who is best known for her hit 1973 country song "Teddy Bear Song" and other country hits.

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12/11/1949

Ron Lapointe, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 1992)

Ron Lapointe was a Canadian ice hockey coach.

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Jack Reed, American soldier and politician

John Francis Reed is an American politician, lawyer, and former Army officer serving as the senior United States senator from Rhode Island, a seat he was first elected to in 1996. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the U.S. representative for Rhode Island's 2nd congressional district from 1991 to 1997. Reed graduated from the United States Military Academy and Harvard University, serving in the U.S. Army as an active officer from 1971 to 1979. He has been the dean of Rhode Island's congressional delegation since the death of John Chafee in 1999.

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12/11/1948

Hassan Rouhani, Iranian lawyer and politician; 7th President of Iran

Hassan Rouhani is an Iranian politician who served as the seventh president of Iran from 2013 to 2021. He is also a sharia lawyer ("Wakil"), academic, former diplomat and Islamic cleric. He served as a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts from 1999 to 2024. He was a member of the Expediency Council from 1991 to 2013, and also was a member of the Supreme National Security Council from 1989 to 2021. Rouhani was deputy speaker of the fourth and fifth terms of the Parliament of Iran (Majlis) and Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 1989 to 2005. In the latter capacity, he was the country's top negotiator with the EU three, UK, France, and Germany, on nuclear technology in Iran, and has also served as a Shia mujtahid, and economic trade negotiator.

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12/11/1947

Buck Dharma, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Donald Brian Roeser, known professionally as Buck Dharma, is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is the sole constant member of hard rock band Blue Öyster Cult since the group's formation in 1967. He wrote and sang vocals on several of the band's best-known hits, including "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", "Godzilla" and "Burnin' for You".

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Patrice Leconte, French director and screenwriter

Patrice Leconte is a French film director, screenwriter and comic strip writer.

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12/11/1946

Alexandra Charles, Swedish businesswoman

Alexandra Charles is a Swedish former nightclub owner. Together with her first husband Noël Charles (1940–2013), she opened a membership restaurant-discothèque called Alexandra's in central Stockholm in 1968 which existed in four successive central locations in that city until 1988. They also initially had a club by the same name in his native Barbados.

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12/11/1945

Michael Bishop, American author and educator (died 2023)

Michael Lawson Bishop was an American author. Over five decades and in more than thirty books, he created what has been called a "body of work that stands among the most admired and influential in modern science fiction and fantasy literature."

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Judith Roitman, American mathematician and academic

Judith A. "Judy" Roitman is a mathematician, a retired professor at the University of Kansas. She specializes in set theory, topology, Boolean algebras, and mathematics education.

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Neil Young, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

Neil Percival Young is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. Son of journalist, sportswriter, and novelist Scott Young, Neil embarked on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s. Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. His solo career, often backed by the band Crazy Horse, includes critically acclaimed albums such as Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969), After the Gold Rush (1970), Harvest (1972), On the Beach (1974), and Rust Never Sleeps (1979). He was also a part-time member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, with whom he recorded the chart-topping 1970 album Déjà Vu.

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12/11/1944

Ken Houston, American football player

Kenneth Ray Houston is an American former professional football player who was a safety in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL). He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986.

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Booker T. Jones, American pianist, saxophonist, songwriter, and producer

Booker Taliaferro Jones Jr. is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. & the M.G.'s. He has also worked as a session musician with many well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, earning him a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

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Al Michaels, American sportscaster

Alan Richard Michaels is an American television play-by-play sportscaster for Thursday Night Football and the NBA on Amazon Prime Video and in an emeritus role for NBC Sports. He has worked on network sports television since 1971, with his most recent work being with NBC Sports after nearly three decades (1976–2006) with ABC Sports. Michaels is known for his many years calling play-by-play of National Football League (NFL) games, including ABC Monday Night Football from 1986 to 2005 and NBC Sunday Night Football from 2006 to 2021. He is also known for famous calls in other sports, including the Miracle on Ice at the 1980 Winter Olympics and the earthquake-interrupted Game 3 of the 1989 World Series, which was played in San Francisco.

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12/11/1943

Errol Brown, Jamaican-English singer-songwriter (died 2015)

Errol Ainsworth Glenstor Brown MBE was a British-Jamaican singer and songwriter, best known as the frontman of the soul and funk band Hot Chocolate. In 2004, Brown received the Ivor Novello Award for his Outstanding Contribution to British Music.

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Brian Hyland, American pop singer

Brian Hyland is an American pop singer and instrumentalist who was particularly successful during the early 1960s. He had a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" in 1960. Other hits include "Sealed with a Kiss" and "Gypsy Woman", which both reached No. 3. Hyland continued recording into the 1970s. AllMusic journalist Jason Ankeny said: "Hyland's puppy-love pop virtually defined the sound and sensibility of bubblegum during the pre-Beatles era." Although his status as a teen idol faded, he went on to release several country-influenced albums and had additional chart hits later in his career.

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Wallace Shawn, American actor, comedian and playwright

Wallace Michael Shawn is an American actor, essayist, and writer. He is known for playing Vizzini in The Princess Bride (1987), Mr. Hall in Clueless (1995), and Dr. John Sturgis in Young Sheldon (2017–2024), and for voicing Rex in the Toy Story franchise (1995–present).

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Björn Waldegård, Swedish racing driver (died 2014)

Björn Waldegård was a Swedish rally driver, and the winner of the World Rally Championship for drivers in 1979. His Swedish nickname was "Walle".

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John Walker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2011)

John Joseph Maus, known professionally as John Walker, was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known as the founder of the Walker Brothers, who had their greatest success in the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom.

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12/11/1940

Michel Audet, Canadian economist and politician

Michel Audet is an economist and a politician in Quebec, Canada. He was the Finance Minister of Quebec in the first Charest government.

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Amjad Khan, Indian actor & director (died 1992)

Amjad Khan was an Indian actor and film director. He worked in over 132 films in a career spanning nearly twenty years. He was the son of the actor Jayant. He gained popularity for villainous roles in mostly Hindi films, the most famous among his enacted roles being Gabbar Singh in the 1975 film Sholay and of Dilawar in Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978).

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Jürgen Todenhöfer, German judge and politician

Jürgen Todenhöfer is a German author, journalist, politician, executive and former judge.

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12/11/1939

Lucia Popp, Slovak soprano (died 1993)

Lucia Popp was a Slovak operatic soprano. She began her career as a soubrette, and later moved into the light-lyric and lyric coloratura soprano repertoire and then the lighter Richard Strauss and Wagner operas. Her career included performances at Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, and La Scala. Popp was also a highly regarded recitalist and lieder singer.

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12/11/1938

Delano Lewis, American diplomat (died 2023)

Delano Eugene Lewis was an American attorney, businessman and diplomat. He was the United States ambassador to South Africa from 2000 to 2001, and previously held leadership roles at the Peace Corps and National Public Radio. He was the father of actor Phill Lewis.

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Benjamin Mkapa, Tanzanian journalist and politician, 3rd President of Tanzania (died 2020)

Benjamin William Mkapa was the third president of Tanzania, in office from 1995 to 2005. He was Chairman of the Revolutionary State Political Party.

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Mort Shuman, American singer-songwriter and pianist (died 1991)

Mortimer Shuman was an American singer, pianist and songwriter, best known as co-writer of many 1960s rock and roll hits, including "Viva Las Vegas". He also wrote and sang many songs in French, such as "Le Lac Majeur", "Papa-Tango-Charly", "Sha Mi Sha", "Un Été de Porcelaine", and "Brooklyn by the Sea" which became hits in France and several other European countries. Shuman wrote over 500 songs, including those for Ben E. King, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Andy Williams, and Janis Joplin. He was also responsible for the English-language production of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. Shuman was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.

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12/11/1937

Ina Balin, American actress (died 1990)

Ina Balin was an American stage, film, and television actress. She is best known for her role in the film From the Terrace (1960), for which she received two Golden Globe Award nominations and won one for Most Promising Newcomer – Female.

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Richard H. Truly, NASA astronaut (died 2024)

Richard Harrison Truly was an American fighter pilot, engineer and Space Shuttle astronaut who served as a vice admiral in the United States Navy and as the eighth administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from 1989 to 1992. He was the first former astronaut to head the space agency.

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12/11/1934

Charles Manson, American cult leader (died 2017)

Charles Milles Manson was an American criminal, cult leader, and musician who was the founder of the Manson Family. He gained notoriety for ordering the Tate–LaBianca murders, where his followers murdered nine people around Los Angeles in 1969. The scale of the crimes, targeting notable Hollywood figures such as Sharon Tate, was a factor in the end of the counterculture of the 1960s.

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John McGahern, Irish author and educator (died 2006)

John McGahern was an Irish writer and novelist.

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Vavá, Brazilian footballer and manager (died 2002)

Edvaldo Izidio Neto, commonly known as Vavá, was a Brazilian professional footballer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest strikers of his generation. Nicknamed "Peito de Aço", he most notably played for Vasco da Gama, Atlético Madrid, Palmeiras and the Brazil national team.

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12/11/1930

Bob Crewe, American singer-songwriter and producer (died 2014)

Robert Stanley Crewe was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer and manager, best known, among other credits, for co-writing and producing a string of Top 10 singles with Bob Gaudio for the 1960s pop rock band The Four Seasons.

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12/11/1929

Michael Ende, German author and fiction writer (died 1995)

Michael Andreas Helmuth Ende was a German writer of fantasy and children's fiction. He is known for his epic fantasy The Neverending Story ; other well-known works include Momo and Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver. His works have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold more than 35 million copies.

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Grace Kelly, American actress, later Princess Grace of Monaco (died 1982)

Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress and Princess of Monaco as the wife of Prince Rainier III from their marriage on April 18, 1956, until her death in 1982. Prior to her marriage, she achieved stardom in several significant Hollywood films in the early to mid-1950s. She received an Academy Award and three Golden Globe Awards, and was ranked 13th on the American Film Institute's 25 Greatest Female Stars list.

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12/11/1927

František Šťastný, Czech motorcycle racer and sportscaster (died 2000)

František Šťastný was a Czech Grand Prix motorcycle road racer.

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Yutaka Taniyama, Japanese mathematician and theorist (died 1958)

Yutaka Taniyama was a Japanese mathematician known for the Taniyama–Shimura conjecture.

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12/11/1926

Robert Goff, Baron Goff of Chieveley, English lawyer and judge (died 2016)

Robert Lionel Archibald Goff, Baron Goff of Chieveley, was an English barrister and judge who was Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, the equivalent of today's President of the Supreme Court. Best known for establishing unjust enrichment as a branch of English law, he has been described by Andrew Burrows as "the greatest judge of modern times". Goff was the original co-author of Goff & Jones, the leading English law textbook on restitution and unjust enrichment, first published in 1966. He practised as a commercial barrister from 1951 to 1975, following which he began his career as a judge. He was appointed to the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords in 1986.

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12/11/1924

Sam Jones, American bassist, cellist, and composer (died 1981)

Samuel Jones was an American jazz double bassist, cellist, and composer.

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12/11/1923

Ian Graham, English archaeologist and explorer (died 2017)

Ian James Alastair Graham OBE was a British Mayanist whose explorations of Maya ruins in the jungles of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize helped establish the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions published by the Peabody Museum of Harvard University. Among his related works is a biography of an early predecessor, the 19th-century British Maya explorer Alfred Maudslay.

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Loriot, German humorist, actor, and director (died 2011)

Bernhard-Viktor Christoph-Carl von Bülow, known as Vicco von Bülow or Loriot, was a German comedian, humorist, cartoonist, film director, actor and writer. As an artist, he was almost exclusively known under his pen name Loriot, which is the French term for the bird oriole depicted as a crest in the coat of arms of the Bülow family.

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Rubén Bonifaz Nuño, Mexican poet and scholar (died 2013)

Rubén Bonifaz Nuño was a Mexican poet and classical scholar.

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12/11/1922

Tadeusz Borowski, Polish poet, author, and journalist (died 1951)

Tadeusz Borowski was a Polish writer and journalist. His wartime poetry and stories dealing with his experiences as a prisoner at Auschwitz are recognized as classics of Polish literature.

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Kim Hunter, American actress (died 2002)

Kim Hunter was an American theatre, film, and television actress. She achieved prominence for portraying Stella Kowalski in the original production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, which she reprised for the 1951 film adaptation, and won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.

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12/11/1920

Richard Quine, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1989)

Richard Quine was an American director, actor, and singer.

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12/11/1919

France Štiglic, Slovenian film director and screenwriter (died 1993)

France Štiglic was a Slovenian film director and screenwriter. His 1948 film On Our Own Land was entered into the 1949 Cannes Film Festival. His film The Ninth Circle (1960) was Yugoslavia's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 33rd Academy Awards, where it was shortlisted for the award.

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12/11/1917

Jo Stafford, American singer (died 2008)

Jo Elizabeth Stafford was an American traditional pop singer, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classical training to become an opera singer before following a career in popular music and by 1955 had achieved more worldwide record sales than any other female artist. Her 1952 song "You Belong to Me" topped the charts in the United States and United Kingdom, becoming the second single to top the UK Singles Chart and the first by a female artist to do so.

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12/11/1916

Paul Emery, English racing driver (died 1993)

Paul Emery was a racing driver from England.

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Jean Papineau-Couture, Canadian composer and academic (died 2000)

Jean Papineau-Couture, was a Canadian composer and academic.

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12/11/1915

Roland Barthes, French philosopher, theorist, and critic (died 1980)

Roland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular culture. His ideas explored a diverse range of fields, including structuralism, anthropology, literary theory, and post-structuralism, and influenced the development of multiple schools of theory.

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12/11/1911

Buck Clayton, American trumpet player and academic (died 1991)

Wilbur Dorsey "Buck" Clayton was an American jazz trumpeter who was a member of Count Basie's orchestra. His principal influence was Louis Armstrong, first hearing the record "Confessin' that I Love You" as he passed by a shop window.

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12/11/1910

Dudley Nourse, South African cricketer (died 1981)

Arthur Dudley Nourse was a South African Test cricketer. Primarily a batsman, he was captain of the South African team from 1948 to 1951.

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12/11/1908

Harry Blackmun, American lawyer and judge (died 1999)

Harold Andrew Blackmun was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 to 1994. Appointed by President Richard Nixon, Blackmun ultimately became one of the most liberal justices on the Court. He is best known as the author of the Court's opinion in Roe v. Wade.

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12/11/1906

George Dillon, American soldier and poet (died 1968)

George Hill Dillon was an American editor and poet. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1932 for The Flowering Stone.

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12/11/1905

Louise Thaden, American pilot (died 1979)

Iris Louise McPhetridge Thaden was an American aviation pioneer, holder of numerous aviation records, and the first woman to win the Bendix trophy, alongside Blanche Noyes. She was inducted into the Arkansas Aviation Historical Society's Hall of Fame in 1980.

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12/11/1904

Max Hoffman, Austrian-born car importer and businessman (died 1981)

Maximilian Edwin Hoffman, was an Austrian-born, New York-based importer of luxury European automobiles during the 1950s.

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12/11/1903

Jack Oakie, American actor (died 1978)

Jack Oakie was an American actor, starring mostly in films, but also working on stage, radio and television. He portrayed Napaloni in Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940), receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

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12/11/1901

James Luther Adams, American minister and theologian (died 1994)

James Luther Adams, an American professor at Harvard Divinity School, Andover Newton Theological School, and Meadville Lombard Theological School, and a Unitarian parish minister, was the most influential theologian among American Unitarian Universalists in the 20th century.

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12/11/1900

Stanley Graham, New Zealand mass murderer (died 1941)

Eric Stanley George Graham was a New Zealander who killed seven people.

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12/11/1898

Leon Štukelj, Slovenian gymnast (died 1999)

Leon Štukelj was a Slovene professional gymnast. He was an Olympic gold medalist and athlete who represented Yugoslavia at the Olympics.

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12/11/1897

Karl Marx, German composer and conductor (died 1985)

Karl Julius Marx was a German composer and music teacher.

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12/11/1896

Salim Ali, Indian ornithologist and author (died 1987)

Sálim Moizuddin Abdul Ali was an Indian ornithologist and naturalist. Sometimes referred to as the "Birdman of India", Salim Ali was the first Indian to conduct systematic bird surveys across India and wrote several bird books that popularized ornithology in India. He became a key figure behind the Bombay Natural History Society after 1947 and used his personal influence to garner government support for the organisation, establish the Bharatpur bird sanctuary and prevent the destruction of what is now the Silent Valley National Park in Kerala.

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12/11/1895

Manuel Alonso Areizaga, Spanish tennis player (died 1984)

Manuel Alonso de Areizaga was a Spanish tennis player. He was the first Spanish tennis player of international stature.

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Marguerite Henry, Australian zoologist (died 1982)

Marguerite Henry was an Australian zoologist known for her research on freshwater crustaceans; she was active in the early 20th century. Henry's work contributed to the taxonomy and ecology of Australia's freshwater entomostracans, describing dozens of new species and establishing a new genus of copepods, Gladioferens. Her research, supported by the Australian government and the Linnean Society of New South Wales, focused on cladocerans, copepods, ostracodes, and phyllopods, with her findings published in a series of detailed monographs between 1919 and 1924.

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Nima Yooshij, Iranian poet and academic (died 1960)

Nima Yooshij or Nimā Yushij, also called Nimā (نیما), born Ali Esfandiari, was a prominent Iranian poet. He is famous for his style of poetry which he popularised, called she'r-e now, also known as She'r-e Nimaa'i in his honour after his death. He is considered the father of modern Persian poetry.

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12/11/1894

Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe, Norwegian zoologist and comparative psychologist (died 1976)

Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe was a Norwegian zoologist and comparative psychologist. He was the first person to describe a pecking order of hens, a discovery that contributed to understanding dominance hierarchies across species and influenced the field of ethology.

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12/11/1892

Tudor Davies, Welsh tenor and actor (died 1958)

Tudor Davies was a Welsh tenor.

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12/11/1890

Lily Kronberger, Hungarian figure skater (died 1974)

Lily Kronberger, also spelled Lili Kronberger, was a Hungarian figure skater competitive during the early years of modern figure skating. She was Hungary’s first World Champion.

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12/11/1889

DeWitt Wallace, American publisher and philanthropist, co-founded Reader's Digest (died 1981)

William Roy DeWitt Wallace, publishing as DeWitt Wallace, was an American magazine publisher.

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12/11/1886

Günther Dyhrenfurth, German geologist and mountaineer (died 1975)

Günter Oskar Dyhrenfurth was a German-born, German and Swiss mountaineer, geologist and Himalayan explorer. He won a gold medal in alpinism at the 1936 Summer Olympics, the third and final time the award was offered.

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Ben Travers, English author and playwright (died 1980)

Ben Travers was an English writer. His output includes more than 20 plays, 30 screenplays, 5 novels, and 3 volumes of memoirs. He is most notable for his long-running series of farces first staged in the 1920s and 1930s at the Aldwych Theatre. Many of these were made into films and later television productions.

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12/11/1881

Olev Siinmaa, Estonian-Swedish architect (died 1948)

Olev Siinmaa, was an Estonian architect who is perhaps best recalled for his work in the style coined "Pärnu Resort Functionalism".

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Maximilian von Weichs, German field marshal (died 1954)

Maximilian Maria Joseph Karl Gabriel Lamoral Reichsfreiherr von und zu Weichs an der Glonn was a German Generalfeldmarschall in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II.

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12/11/1872

William Fay, Irish actor and producer (died 1947)

William George Fay was an actor and theatre producer who was one of the co-founders of the Abbey Theatre.

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12/11/1866

Sun Yat-sen, Chinese physician and politician, 1st President of the Republic of China (died 1925)

Sun Yat-sen, a.k.a. Sun Zhongshan, Sun Wen, was a Chinese physician, revolutionary, statesman, and political philosopher who founded the Republic of China (ROC) and its first political party, the Kuomintang (KMT). As the paramount leader of the 1911 Revolution, Sun is credited with overthrowing the Qing dynasty and served as the first president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China (1912) and as the inaugural premier of the Kuomintang.

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12/11/1850

Mikhail Chigorin, Russian chess player and theoretician (died 1908)

Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin was a Russian chess player. He played two World Championship matches against Wilhelm Steinitz, losing both times. The last great player of the Romantic chess style, he also served as a major source of inspiration for the "Soviet chess school", which dominated the chess world in the middle and latter parts of the 20th century.

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12/11/1848

Eduard Müller, Swiss lawyer and politician, 51st President of the Swiss Confederation (died 1919)

Eduard Müller was a Swiss politician who was Mayor of Bern (1888–1895), President of the Swiss National Council (1890/1891) and member of the Swiss Federal Council (1895–1919). He was a member of the Free Democratic Party.

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12/11/1842

John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1919)

John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, was a British physicist and hereditary peer who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1904 for his discovery of argon.

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12/11/1840

Auguste Rodin, French sculptor and illustrator, created The Thinker (died 1917)

François Auguste René Rodin was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, and deeply pocketed surface in clay. He is known for such sculptures as The Thinker, Monument to Balzac, The Kiss, The Burghers of Calais, and The Gates of Hell.

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12/11/1833

Alexander Borodin, Russian composer and chemist (died 1887)

Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a Russian Romantic composer and chemist of Georgian–Russian parentage. He was one of the prominent 19th-century composers known as "The Five", a group dedicated to producing a "uniquely Russian" kind of classical music. Borodin is known best for his symphonies, his two string quartets, the symphonic poem In the Steppes of Central Asia and his opera Prince Igor.

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12/11/1817

Bahá'u'lláh, Persian spiritual leader, founded the Baháʼí Faith (died 1892)

Baháʼu'lláh was an Iranian religious leader who founded the Baháʼí Faith. He was born to an aristocratic family in Iran and was exiled due to his adherence to the messianic Bábism. In 1863, in Ottoman Iraq, he first announced his claim to a revelation from God and spent the rest of his life in further imprisonment in the Ottoman Empire. His teachings revolved around the principles of unity and religious renewal, ranging from moral and spiritual progress to world governance.

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12/11/1815

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American activist (died 1902)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an American writer and activist who was a leader of the women's rights movement in the U.S. during the mid- to late-19th century. She was the main force behind the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, the first convention to be called for the sole purpose of discussing women's rights, and was the primary author of its Declaration of Sentiments. Her demand for women's right to vote generated a controversy at the convention but quickly became a central tenet of the women's movement. She was also active in other social reform activities, especially abolitionism.

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12/11/1795

Thaddeus William Harris, American entomologist and botanist (died 1856)

Thaddeus William Harris was an American entomologist and librarian. His focus on insect life cycles and interactions with plants was influential in broadening American entomological studies beyond a narrow taxonomic approach. He was an early agricultural entomologist and served as a mentor and role model for others in this new field. For 25 years Harris served as the librarian of Harvard University where oversaw the rapid growth of the library and introduced one of the earliest American library card catalogs.

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12/11/1793

Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz, Livonian physician and botanist (died 1831)

Johann Friedrich Gustav von Eschscholtz was a Baltic German physician, naturalist, and entomologist. He was one of the earliest scientific explorers of the Pacific region, making significant collections of flora and fauna in Alaska, California, and Hawaii.

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12/11/1780

Piet Retief, South African ruler (died 1838)

Pieter Retief was a Voortrekker leader. Settling in 1814 in the frontier region of the Cape Colony, he later assumed command of punitive expeditions during the sixth Xhosa War. He became a spokesperson for the frontier farmers who voiced their discontent and wrote the Voortrekkers' declaration at their departure from the colony.

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12/11/1774

Charles Bell, Scottish surgeon and artist (died 1842)

Sir Charles Bell was a Scottish surgeon, anatomist, physiologist, neurologist, artist, and philosophical theologian. Bell discovered the difference between sensory nerves and motor nerves in the spinal cord, and also described Bell's palsy.

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12/11/1755

Gerhard von Scharnhorst, Prussian general and politician, Prussian Minister of War (died 1813)

Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst was a Hanoverian-born general in Prussian service from 1801. As the first Chief of the Prussian General Staff, he was noted for his military theories, his reforms of the Prussian army, and his leadership during the Napoleonic Wars. Scharnhorst limited the use of corporal punishments, established promotion for merit, abolished the enrollment of foreigners, began the organization of a reserve army, and organized and simplified the military administration.

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12/11/1729

Louis Antoine de Bougainville, French admiral and explorer (died 1811)

Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville was a French military officer and explorer. After having served in the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War, Bougainville later gained fame for his expeditions, including a circumnavigation of the globe in a scientific expedition in 1763, the first recorded settlement on the Falkland Islands, and voyages into the Pacific Ocean. Bougainville Island of Papua New Guinea as well as the flowering plant Bougainvillea are named in his honour.

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12/11/1684

Edward Vernon, English admiral and politician (died 1757)

Admiral Edward Vernon was a Royal Navy officer and politician. He had a long and distinguished career, rising to the rank of admiral after 46 years service. As a vice admiral during the War of Jenkins' Ear, in 1739 he was responsible for the capture of Portobelo, Panama, seen as expunging the failure of Admiral Hosier there in a previous conflict. However, his amphibious operation against the Spanish port of Cartagena de Indias was a disastrous defeat. Vernon also served as a Member of Parliament (MP) on three occasions and was outspoken on naval matters in Parliament, making him a controversial figure.

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12/11/1655

Francis Nicholson, British Army general and colonial administrator (died 1727)

Lieutenant-General Francis Nicholson was a British Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the governor of South Carolina from 1721 to 1725. He also served as the governor of Nova Scotia from 1712 to 1715, the governor of Virginia from 1698 to 1705, the governor of Maryland from 1694 to 1698, the lieutenant-governor of Virginia from 1690 to 1692 and the lieutenant-governor of the Dominion of New England from 1688 to 1689.

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12/11/1651

Juana Inés de la Cruz, Mexican nun, poet, and scholar (died 1695)

Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana, better known as Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, was a Hieronymite nun and a Novohispanic writer, philosopher, composer and poet of the Baroque period, nicknamed "The Tenth Muse", "The Mexican Phoenix", and "The Phoenix of America" by her contemporary critics. She was also a student of science. She was among the main contributors to the Spanish Golden Age, alongside Juan de Espinosa Medrano, Juan Ruiz de Alarcón and Garcilaso de la Vega "el Inca", and is considered one of the most important female writers in Spanish language literature and Mexican literature.

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12/11/1627

Diego Luis de San Vitores, Spanish Jesuit missionary (died 1672)

Diego Luis de San Vitores, SJ was a Spanish Jesuit missionary who founded the first Catholic church on the island of Guam. He is responsible for establishing the Christian presence in the Mariana Islands. He and his right-hand man Pedro Calungsod are controversial figures in some circles due to their role in the Spanish–Chamorro Wars, as well as the colonization and genocide of the Chamorro people.

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12/11/1615

Richard Baxter, English minister, poet, and theologian (died 1691)

Richard Baxter was an English Nonconformist church leader and theologian from Rowton, Shropshire, who has been described as "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". He made his reputation in the late 1630s by his ministry at Kidderminster in Worcestershire, when he also began a long and prolific career as a theological writer.

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12/11/1606

Jeanne Mance, French-Canadian nurse, founded the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal (died 1673)

Jeanne Mance was a French nurse and settler of New France. She arrived in New France two years after the Ursuline nuns came to Quebec. Among the founders of Montreal in 1642, she established its first hospital, the Hotel-Dieu de Montreal, in 1645. She returned twice to France to seek financial support for the hospital. After providing most of the care directly for years, in 1657 she recruited three sisters of the Religieuses hospitalieres de Saint-Joseph and continued to direct operations of the hospital. During her era, she was also known as Jehanne Mance by the French, and as Joan Mance by the English.

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12/11/1579

Albrecht of Hanau-Münzenberg, German nobleman (died 1635)

Albert of Hanau-Münzenberg was the younger son of Philip Louis I of Hanau-Münzenberg (1553-1580) and his wife, Countess Magdalene of Waldeck-Wildungen (1558-1599). The only sons of his parents to reach adulthood were Albert and his elder brother Philip Louis II. Albert's son John Ernest was the last male member of the Hanau-Münzenberg line of the House of Hanau.

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12/11/1547

Claude of Valois, French princess (died 1575)

Claude of Valois was a French princess as the second daughter of King Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici, and Duchess of Lorraine by marriage to Charles III, Duke of Lorraine.

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12/11/1528

Qi Jiguang, Chinese general (died 1588)

Qi Jiguang, courtesy name Yuanjing, art names Nantang and Mengzhu, posthumous name Wuyi, was a Chinese military general and writer of the Ming dynasty. He is best known for leading the defense on the coastal regions against wokou pirate activities in the 16th century, as well as for the reinforcement of the Great Wall of China. Qi is also known for writing the military manuals Jixiao Xinshu and Lianbing Shiji or Record of Military Training (練兵實紀), which he based on his experience as a martial educator and defensive planner in the Ming military forces. He is regarded as a hero in Chinese culture.

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12/11/1494

Margaret of Anhalt-Köthen, Princess of Anhalt by birth, by marriage Duchess of Saxony (died 1521)

Margaret of Anhalt was a member of the House of Ascania and was a princess of Anhalt by birth and by marriage Duchess of Saxony.

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12/11/1492

Johan Rantzau, German general (died 1565)

Johan Rantzau was a German-Danish field marshal and statesman known for his role in the Count's Feud. His military leadership ensured the succession of Christian III to the throne, which brought about the Reformation in Denmark.

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12/11/1450

Jacques of Savoy, Count of Romont, Prince of Savoy (died 1486)

Jacques of Savoy, Count of Romont was a member of the House of Savoy and military commander during the Burgundian Wars.

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