Born on Friday, 17th October – Famous Birthdays

17/10/2002

Matthew Knies, American professional ice hockey player

Matthew Michael Knies is an American professional ice hockey player who is a forward for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL). Knies was drafted 57th overall by the Maple Leafs in the 2021 NHL entry draft.

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17/10/2001

Thomas Strudwick, British motorcycle road racer

Thomas Strudwick is a British motorcycle road racer from West Sussex. During 2024, he raced in both the UK BMW F900 Cup national-level series winning the championship, and the inaugural National Sportbike Championship on a Triumph 765 where he finished third.

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17/10/1997

Robert Williams III, American basketball player

Robert Lee Williams III is an American professional basketball player for the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Texas A&M Aggies.

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17/10/1996

Jake DeBrusk, Canadian ice hockey player

Jake DeBrusk is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a left winger for the Vancouver Canucks in the National Hockey League (NHL). He was drafted 14th overall by the Boston Bruins in the 2015 NHL entry draft. DeBrusk is the son of colour commentator and former NHL forward Louie DeBrusk.

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17/10/1995

Jamal Adams, American football player

Jamal Lee Adams is an American professional football linebacker. He played college football for the LSU Tigers, and was selected by the New York Jets sixth overall in the 2017 NFL draft. Adams quickly became an impactful starter for the Jets, making the Pro Bowl twice and being named an All-Pro. In 2021, Adams signed a four-year extension with the Seattle Seahawks valued at $72 million, with a $20 million signing bonus and $38 million guaranteed, making him the highest paid safety in the NFL at that time. Adams has also played for the Tennessee Titans, the Detroit Lions, and the Las Vegas Raiders.

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Ha-seong Kim, South Korean baseball player

Ha-seong Kim is a South Korean professional baseball infielder for the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the San Diego Padres and Tampa Bay Rays, and in the KBO League for the Nexen Heroes.

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17/10/1993

Kenneth Omeruo, Nigerian footballer

Kenneth Josiah Omeruo is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a defender.

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Vincent Poirier, French basketball player

Vincent Yann Poirier is a French professional basketball player for Anadolu Efes of the Turkish Basketbol Süper Ligi and the EuroLeague. He also represents the French national team in international competition.

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17/10/1992

Jacob Artist, American actor, singer, and dancer

Jacob Artist is an American actor, singer, and dancer. He is best known for his roles as Jake Puckerman on the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee and as Brandon Fletcher on the ABC drama-thriller series Quantico.

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Sam Concepcion, Filipino musician and dancer

Samuel Lawrence Lopez Concepcion is a Filipino singer, dancer, actor, VJ and host. in April 2006 Concepcion won the Big Division in the first season of Little Big Star. Concepcion signed a contract under Stages and ABS-CBN's Star Magic. Concepcion began with 12 theater roles and participated in plays at a young age, including the role of Edmund Pevensie in the local adaptation of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and Mr. Noah's Big Boat. He played Peter Pan from 2002 to 2012. Aside from theater roles, he has acted in movies including Way Back Home and Shake, Rattle & Roll 13. His first lead role came in 2012 in the first Filipino musical-film entitled, I Do Bidoo Bidoo: Heto nAPO Sila!. He had his first role in television in ABS-CBN's Mga Anghel na Walang Langit, and his major break was as Boy Bawang in Super Inggo.

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Anthony Gill, American basketball player

Anthony Remeral Gill is an American professional basketball player for the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Gill played college basketball for the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Virginia Cavaliers.

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Keerthy Suresh, Indian actress

Keerthy Suresh is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films. Her film accolades include one National Film Award, five SIIMA Awards, one Tamil Nadu State Film Award and two Filmfare Awards South. Keerthy was placed in Forbes India's 30 Under 30 list of 2021.

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17/10/1991

Brenda Asnicar, Argentine actress

Brenda Asnicar is an Argentinian actress who gained international popularity for her debut role as Antonella Lamas Bernardi in the Disney Channel television series Patito Feo.

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17/10/1990

Paolo Campinoti, Italian footballer

Paolo Campinoti is an Italian footballer, who plays as a left midfielder for S.S.D. Massese.

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Maica García Godoy, Spanish water polo player

María del Carmen "Maica" García Godoy is a Spanish water polo player, playing at the centre forward position. She is 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) tall and she plays for the Spanish club CN Sabadell. Maica is part of the Spain national team.

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Ronald González Tabilo, Chilean footballer

Ronald Damián González Tabilo is a Chilean footballer who plays as a winger for Municipal Mejillones.

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Saki Kumagai, Japanese footballer

Saki Kumagai is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a midfielder or defender for Women's Super League club London City Lionesses and the Japan national team. A versatile defensive midfielder with keen sense of anticipation and exceptional tactical acumen, she is also able to be deployed as a central defender. She is regarded as one of the finest Asian female midfielders of all time. She is one of the most successful East Asian footballers, of any gender, at club and international level.

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Patrick Lambie, South African rugby player

Patrick Jonathan Lambie is a retired South African professional rugby union player who represented the Sharks and Racing 92, and played fly-half, fullback and centre. Widely regarded as one of the most composed and talented South African players of his generation, he earned 56 Test caps for South Africa between 2010 and 2016. He concluded his career with Racing 92 in the French Top 14 before announcing his retirement in January 2019 due to multiple concussions.

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17/10/1989

Débora García, Spanish footballer

Débora García Mateo, commonly known as Débora, is a Spanish footballer who plays as a midfielder for Primera División club Sevilla. In October 2012 she made her debut for the Spain national team at Glasgow's Hampden Park against Scotland in the 2013 European Championship's qualifying play-offs.

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Oleksandr Isakov, Ukrainian swimmer

Oleksandr Isakov is a Ukrainian swimmer. He swam for Ukraine in three events at the 2008 Summer Olympics, the 100 m backstroke, finishing in 38th place, the 200 m backstroke, finishing in 39th place, and the men's 4 x 100 m medley relay. At the 2012 Summer Olympics he finished 35th overall in the heats in the Men's 100 metre backstroke and failed to reach the semifinals. He finished in 30th position in the men's 200 m backstroke.

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Sophie Luck, Australian actress

Sophie Kathrin Luck is an Australian actress best known for her roles on the television shows Blue Water High and Home and Away.

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Charles Oliveira, Brazilian mixed martial artist

Charles Oliveira da Silva is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist and fourth degree black belt Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner. Oliveira currently competes in the Lightweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is a former UFC Lightweight Champion and current symbolic UFC "BMF" titleholder. As of January 27, 2026, he is #3 in the UFC lightweight rankings, and as of March 17, 2026, he is #11 in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings.

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David Timor, Spanish footballer

David Timor Copoví is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Segunda Federación club Intercity.

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17/10/1988

Sergiy Gladyr, Ukrainian basketball player

Sergiy Viktorovych Gladyr is a Ukrainian former professional basketball player. He was selected with the 49th overall pick by the Atlanta Hawks in the 2009 NBA draft.

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Tori Matsuzaka, Japanese actor and model

Tori Matsuzaka is a Japanese actor and model. He debuted as Takeru Shiba/Shinken Red in Samurai Sentai Shinkenger. Since then, he has appeared in several television shows and films.

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Marina Salas, Spanish actress

Marina Salas Rodríguez is a Spanish screen and stage actress. She became known for her roles in the television series Hay alguien ahí (2009–10) and El Barco (2011–13) and the box office hits Three Steps Above Heaven (2010) and I Want You (2012).

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17/10/1987

Bea Alonzo, Filipino actress and singer

Phylbert Angelli Ranollo Fagestrom, known professionally as Bea Alonzo, is a Filipino actress and businesswoman. She is best known for playing dramatic roles in romantic drama films, including in The Mistress (2012), A Second Chance (2015) and The Love Affair (2015). Alonzo's films have grossed ₱3.15 billion, making her one of the highest-grossing Filipino box office stars of all time.

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Jarosław Fojut, Polish footballer

Jarosław Fojut is a Polish former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He currently serves as the sporting director of Stal Rzeszów.

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Elliot Grandin, French footballer

Elliot Grandin is a French former professional footballer who played as a winger

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Hideto Takahashi, Japanese footballer

Hideto Takahashi is a Japanese footballer who plays for Auckland United FC.

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17/10/1986

Alexandre Bonnet, French footballer

Alexandre Bonnet is a French professional footballer who plays as a midfielder.

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Antoni Bou, Spanish motorcyclist

Antoni Bou i Mena is a Spanish professional motorcycle trials rider. He has been the sole outdoor and indoor FIM Trial World Championship champion from 2007 to 2025. With these 39 world titles, he is the most successful rider in history, surpassing Dougie Lampkin and Jordi Tarrés who is third with 7 outdoor titles. At the age of 20 years and 5 months, Bou was the second youngest rider ever to win the World Indoor Title, and the youngest to do it on a 4-stroke motorbike.

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Aija Brumermane, Latvian basketball player

Aija Klakocka is a Latvian women's basketball player with the Latvia women's national basketball team. She competed with the team at the 2008 Summer Olympics and EuroBasket Women 2009.

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Constant Djakpa, Ivorian footballer

Tohouri Zahoui Constant Djakpa is an Ivorian former professional footballer who played as a left back.

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Yannick Ponsero, French figure skater

Yannick Ponsero is a French former competitive figure skater. He won two medals at the World Junior Championships and two medals on the ISU Junior Grand Prix series, including gold in France. On the senior level, he is the 2008 NHK Trophy bronze medalist, a two-time International Cup of Nice champion, and the 2009 French national champion.

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Nicolás Richotti, Argentine basketball player

Nicolás "Nico" Richotti is an Argentine former professional basketball player. At a height of 1.84 m, he played at both the point guard and shooting guard positions, with shooting guard being his main position. His most successful stint came with CB 1939 Canarias where he won the FIBA Intercontinental Cup and the FIBA Champions League in 2017 as well as the Copa Príncipe de Asturias and LEB Oro in 2012. In 2021, he won the Icelandic Cup with Njarðvík.

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17/10/1985

Carlos González, Venezuelan baseball player

Carlos Eduardo González, nicknamed "CarGo", is a Venezuelan former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2008 to 2019, most prominently as a member of the Colorado Rockies, where he was a three-time All-Star player and the 2010 National League (NL) batting champion. González also won three Gold Glove Awards and two Silver Slugger Awards with the Rockies.

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Max Irons, English-Irish actor

Maximilian Paul Diarmuid Irons is an English actor. Following a bit part in the 2004 film Being Julia, he has gone on to major roles in films such as Red Riding Hood (2011), The Host (2013), Bitter Harvest (2017), and The Wife (2018). On television, he has had lead roles in The White Queen (2013) and Condor (2018–2020).

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Collins John, Dutch footballer

Collins John is a former professional footballer who played as a striker. Born in Liberia, he represented the Netherlands national team.

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Tomokazu Nagira, Japanese footballer

Tomokazu Nagira is a former Japanese football player.

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17/10/1984

Sami Lepistö, Finnish ice hockey player

Sami Lepistö is a Finnish former professional ice hockey defenceman. He is the son of former Jokerit captain and youth international defenceman Jussi Lepistö. Sami was drafted by the Washington Capitals in the third round, 66th overall, in the 2004 NHL entry draft.

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Chris Lowell, American actor

Christopher Lowell is an American actor. He is best known for playing the roles of Stosh "Piz" Piznarski in the television series Veronica Mars (2006–2007), William "Dell" Parker in the television series Private Practice (2007–2010), Sebastian "Bash" Howard in the television series GLOW (2017–2019), and Jesse Walker in How I Met Your Father (2022-2023). He has also appeared in films, notably Up in the Air (2009), The Help (2011), and Promising Young Woman (2020), all of which were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

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Giovanni Marchese, Italian footballer

Giovanni Marchese is an Italian football coach and a former player who played as a defender. He is currently the manager of the Sicily national team.

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Randall Munroe, American author and illustrator

Randall Patrick Munroe is an American cartoonist, author, and engineer best known as the creator of the webcomic xkcd. Munroe has worked full-time on the comic since late 2006. In addition to publishing a book of the webcomic's strips, titled xkcd: Volume 0, he has written four books: What If?, Thing Explainer, How To, and What If? 2.

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Luke Rockhold, American mixed martial artist

Luke Skyler Rockhold is an American retired mixed martial artist who is currently signed with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship and Karate Combat. He formerly competed for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is a former UFC Middleweight Champion. Rockhold has also competed for Strikeforce, where he was the final Strikeforce Middleweight Champion before the promotion merged with the UFC.

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Anja Eline Skybakmoen, Norwegian singer-songwriter and bandleader

Anja Eline Skybakmoen is a Norwegian jazz singer, composer and band leader, the younger sister of guitarist Jonas Skybakmoen, and married 31 July 2014, to the guitarist David Aleksander Sjølie.

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Gottfrid Svartholm, Swedish computer specialist

Per Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, alias anakata, is a Swedish computer specialist, known as the former co-owner of the web hosting company PRQ and co-founder of the BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay together with Fredrik Neij and Peter Sunde.

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Jared Tallent, Australian race walker

Jared Tallent is an Australian race walker and Olympic gold medallist in the 50 km walk from London in 2012. He is a four-time Olympic medallist, three-time World Championship medallist and holds the current Olympic record in the 50 km walk.

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17/10/1983

Michelle Ang, New Zealand actress

Michelle Ang is an actress, director and producer from New Zealand. Working mainly in film and television, she has won various professional accolades, including Best Actress at the New Zealand Film & Television Awards and Best Director at Show Me Shorts. Ang's acting work has also been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in the US and a Logie in Australia.

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Milica Brozovic, Serbian-Russian figure skater

Milica Brozović, sometimes Meliza Brozovich, is a former competitive pair skater. Skating with Anton Nimenko for Russia, she became the 1998 Nebelhorn Trophy bronze medalist and won four ISU Junior Grand Prix medals. Representing Slovakia with Vladimir Futáš, she won silver at the 2004 Ondrej Nepela Memorial. She competed in the final segment at four ISU Championships.

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Felicity Jones, English actress

Felicity Rose Hadley Jones is an English actress. She began acting as a child, appearing in The Treasure Seekers (1996) and playing Ethel Hallow for one series of the television series The Worst Witch (1998). She then starred in the Donmar Warehouse production of The Chalk Garden (2008).

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Toshihiro Matsushita, Japanese footballer

Toshihiro Matsushita is a former Japanese football player.

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Riki Miura, Japanese actor

Riki Miura is a Japanese actor from Hiroshima Prefecture. Miura made his acting debut in 2005. His first major role has been as Gou Fukami/Geki Violet in Juken Sentai Gekiranger. He announced on March 10, 2018 that he will retire from the entertainment business on March 31, 2018.

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Junichi Miyashita, Japanese swimmer

Junichi Miyashita is a Japanese swimmer. He won a bronze medal in the men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

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Ivan Saenko, Russian footballer

Ivan Ivanovich Saenko is a Russian former professional footballer who played as a winger.

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Mitch Talbot, American baseball player

Mitchell R. Talbot is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Indians, the KBO League for the Samsung Lions and Hanwha Eagles and in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) for the Lamigo Monkeys.

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Vitali Teleš, Estonian footballer

Vitali Teleš is an Estonian footballer who plays for Estonian club Maardu Linnameeskond as a goalkeeper.

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17/10/1982

Rubén Ramírez, Argentine footballer

Rubén Darío Ramírez is an Argentine football striker who plays for Huracán FC de Vera.

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Nick Riewoldt, Australian footballer

Nicholas Fredrick Riewoldt is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was the first draft selection in the 2000 AFL draft. He was the captain of St Kilda in 2005 and from 2007 to 2016. Riewoldt is a five-time All-Australian. He holds the all-time record for most marks in VFL/AFL history, surpassing Gary Dempsey in late 2017.

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Marion Rolland, French skier

Marion Rolland is a retired World Cup alpine ski racer from France.

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17/10/1981

Horacio Cervantes, Mexican footballer

Horacio Javier Cervantes Chávez is a former Mexican footballer, who last played as defender for Veracruz, on loan for Cruz Azul. His brother Diego Alberto Cervantes is also a footballer.

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Kurumi Enomoto, Japanese singer-songwriter

Kurumi Enomoto , formerly known as Kurumi (くるみ), is a Japanese singer-songwriter. She debuted in 2002 with the independently released single Moeru Taiyō . She is most well known for singing the ending theme song for the anime adaptation of the Namco role-playing video game Tales of the Abyss, "Bōken Suisei."

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Holly Holm, American mixed martial artist

Holly Rene Holm is an American professional boxer and mixed martial artist. She previously competed in the women's Bantamweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where she is a former Women's Bantamweight Champion.

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Tsubasa Imai, Japanese singer, actor, and dancer

Tsubasa Imai is a Japanese singer, actor and dancer formerly in the Japanese agency Johnny & Associates. He joined Johnny & Associates in 1995 and officially debuted in 2002 in the duo Tackey & Tsubasa with Hideaki Takizawa. They are signed to the record label Avex Trax. Imai released his first solo single, "Backborn", on February 24, 2010.

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Ben Rothwell, American mixed-martial artist

Ben Rothwell is an American mixed martial artist and bare-knuckle boxer who competes as a Heavyweight and is the former BKFC Heavyweight World Champion. He most notably had a 17 bout stint in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and competed for the Quad Cities Silverbacks of the IFL where he held an undefeated 9–0 record before leaving the promotion due to a contract dispute. He has also had one-fight stints in Affliction, M-1 Global, and King of the Cage. He also competed for the World Series of Fighting and Absolute Championship Berkut.

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17/10/1980

Yekaterina Gamova, Russian volleyball player

Yekaterina Aleksandrovna Gamova is a Russian retired volleyball player. She was a member of the Russian national team that won the gold medals at the 2006 and 2010 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championships, and the silver medal in both the Athens 2004 and Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Due to her stature and dominance at the net, she has been hailed as the "Queen of Volleyball". She is 2.02 m tall with EU size 49 feet, making her one of the tallest female athletes in the world. She is also the second highest paid female player in professional volleyball history. Her role was outside hitter/opposite.

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Mohammad Hafeez, Pakistani cricketer

Mohammad Hafeez is a Pakistani cricket coach and former cricketer. He was a member of the Pakistan team that won the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, and had a major role in the final, where he scored an unbeaten half century. He retired from Test cricket after the third and final match against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi in December 2018, departing the ground for the final time in white clothing to a guard of honour from his teammates. On 3 January 2022, he announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket, ending a career that spanned more than 18 years.

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Isaac Mina, Ecuadorian footballer

Isaac Bryan Mina Arboleda is an Ecuadorian footballer who plays club football for Clan Juvenil of Ecuador.

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Angel Parker, American actress

Angel Parker is an American actress. Since 2000 she has appeared in numerous films and TV series and has done voice acting on video games. Her most notable credits include Criminal Minds (2008), ER (2008–2009), Lab Rats (2012–2016), Runaways (2017–2019), and The Rookie (2019–present).

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Alessandro Piccolo, Italian race car driver

Alessandro Piccolo is an Italian racing driver.

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Justin Shenkarow, American actor

Justin Shenkarow is an American actor, producer, director and writer, best known for his roles of Matthew Brock in Picket Fences, Simon Holmes in Eerie, Indiana, and the voice of Harold Berman from the Nickelodeon animated series, Hey Arnold!.

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17/10/1979

Marcela Bovio, Mexican singer-songwriter and violinist

Marcela Alejandra Bovio García is a Mexican singer, violinist and songwriter who is currently a member of the Dutch symphonic metal bands Stream of Passion and MaYaN.

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Alexandros Nikolaidis, Greek martial artist (died 2022)

Alexandros Nikolaidis was a Greek taekwondo athlete. He was named the 2008 Greek Male Athlete of the Year. Initially the home favorite, he won the silver medal at the 2004 Olympics held in Athens after losing to Moon Dae-Sung of South Korea in the gold medal match.

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Kimi Räikkönen, Finnish race car driver

Kimi-Matias Räikkönen is a Finnish racing and rally driver who competed in Formula One between 2001 and 2021, and the World Rally Championship from 2009 to 2011. Nicknamed "the Iceman", Räikkönen won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 2007 with Ferrari, and won 21 Grands Prix across 19 seasons.

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Kostas Tsartsaris, Greek basketball player

Konstantinos "Kostas" Tsartsaris, is a Greek former professional basketball player and coach, who spent most of his playing career with the Greek League team Panathinaikos. At 6 ft 10 3⁄4 in tall and 115.4 kg (255 lb.) in weight, he played at the mainly at the power forward position, but he could also play at the center position, if needed.

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17/10/1978

Jerry Flannery, Irish rugby player and coach

Jeremiah Paul Flannery is an Irish rugby union former player and current defence coach for South Africa. During his playing career, Flannery, a hooker, played for Munster and Ireland, before being forced to retire in March 2012 due to injury problems. He joined Munster as a coach before leaving in 2019, and, in 2020, joined English Premiership club Harlequins as their lineout coach.

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Pablo Iglesias Turrión, Spanish politician

Pablo Iglesias Turrión is a Spanish political scientist and former politician. During his political career, he served as Second Deputy Prime Minister and as Minister of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda of the Government of Spain from 2020 to 2021. He also served as Member of the Congress of Deputies from 2016 to 2021, representing Madrid. Iglesias is a co-founder of Podemos, a left-wing political party that he led from 2014 until his resignation in 2021.

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Erin Karpluk, Canadian actress

Erin Karpluk is a Canadian actress. She is known for her portrayal of Erica Strange on the CBC Television series Being Erica from 2009 to 2011.

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Chuka Umunna, English lawyer and politician

Chuka Harrison Umunna is a British businessman and former politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Streatham from 2010 until 2019. A former member of the Labour Party, he was part of the Shadow Cabinet from 2011 to 2015. He left Labour in February 2019, when he resigned to form The Independent Group, later Change UK, along with six other MPs. Later in 2019, he left Change UK and, after a short time as an independent MP, joined the Liberal Democrats. In the 2019 general election, he failed to be re-elected, and did not return to the House of Commons.

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17/10/1977

Dudu Aouate, Israeli footballer

David "Dudu" Aouate is an Israeli retired professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

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Alimi Ballard, American actor and producer

Alimi Ballard is an American television actor. He is best known for his role as FBI agent David Sinclair on the CBS police procedural thriller Numb3rs (2005–2010), as well as the Quizmaster from Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

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Bryan Bertino, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

Bryan Michael Bertino is an American filmmaker. He is best known as the writer/director of The Strangers (2008), as well as writing its sequel, The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018), with Ben Ketai.

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Walter Calderón, Ecuadorian footballer

Walter Richard Calderón Carcelén, nicknamed Mamita is a retired Ecuadorian football player.

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Marko Antonio Cortés Mendoza, Mexican politician

Marko Antonio Cortés Mendoza is a Mexican politician affiliated with the National Action Party (PAN). He currently serves in the Chamber of Deputies for the LXIII Legislature of the Mexican Congress, representing the state of Michoacán and the fifth electoral region.

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Ryan McGinley, American photographer

Ryan McGinley is an American photographer and lives in New York City. He began taking photographs in 1998. In 2003, at the age of 25, he was one of the youngest artists to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He was named Photographer of the Year in 2003 by American Photo Magazine. In 2007, he was given the Young Photographer Infinity Award by the International Center of Photography. In 2009, he was honored at The Young Collectors Council's Artists Ball at the Guggenheim Museum. A 2014 GQ article declared McGinley, "the most important photographer in America."

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André Villas-Boas, Portuguese footballer and manager

Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas is a Portuguese sports executive and former football manager, who is the president of Portuguese sports club Porto. He was among the growing number of top-level managers who never played football professionally, and one of the few managers to have never played beyond youth football.

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17/10/1976

Sebastián Abreu, Uruguayan footballer

Washington Sebastián Abreu Gallo, nicknamed El Loco, is a Uruguayan football manager and former footballer who played as a striker. He is the head coach of Mexican club Tijuana.

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Seth Etherton, American baseball player

Seth Michael Etherton is an American baseball coach and former pitcher. He was a former pitching coach for the USC Trojans. He played college baseball at USC from 1995 to 1998. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 4 seasons, with his longest tenure as a player coming with the Anaheim Angels.

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Carlos Loret de Mola, Mexican journalist

Carlos Loret de Mola Álvarez is a Mexican journalist. He currently hosts the radio program Así las cosas con Carlos Loret de Mola on W Radio and is a contributor to El Universal.

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Kevin Maher, English-Irish footballer and coach

Kevin Andrew Maher is a former professional footballer and coach who played as a midfielder. He is head coach of National League club Southend United. Born in England, he represented the Republic of Ireland internationally at youth levels U17 and U21.

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17/10/1975

Jericó Abramo Masso, Mexican politician

Jericó Abramo Masso is a Mexican politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). In the 2024 general election he was elected to his fourth term in the Chamber of Deputies.

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Francis Bouillon, American-Canadian ice hockey player

Francis Joseph Bouillon is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman who played 14 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Montreal Canadiens and Nashville Predators. He also played a season for HC Ambrì-Piotta in the National League A (NLA), the top-tier league in Switzerland. He is currently a Development Coach for the Montreal Canadiens.

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Vina Morales, Filipino actress and singer

Sharon Garcia Magdayao, known professionally as Vina Morales, is a Filipina singer and actress. She began performing at her local church as a child and first gained recognition after winning the Cebu Pop Music Festival in 1986. She began releasing studio albums while simultaneously appearing in numerous films and television productions. Magdayao has been the recipient of an Ikon Asean Award and six Awit Awards. She has also been nominated for two FAMAS Awards, a Gawad Urian, and a Metro Manila Film Festival Award.

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17/10/1974

Ariel Levy, American journalist and author

Ariel Levy is an American journalist and staff writer at The New Yorker magazine. She's the author of the books The Rules Do Not Apply and Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Vogue, Slate, and The New York Times. Levy was named one of the "Forty Under 40" most influential out individuals in the June/July 2009 issue of The Advocate.

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Matthew Macfadyen, English actor

David Matthew Macfadyen is an English actor. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he gained prominence for his role as Mr. Darcy in Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice (2005). He gained wider recognition for playing Tom Wambsgans in the HBO drama series Succession (2018–2023), for which he received two Primetime Emmy Awards, two BAFTA TV Awards, and a Golden Globe Award.

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Obdulio Ávila Mayo, Mexican politician

Obdulio Ávila Mayo is a Mexican politician from the National Action Party. From 2006 to 2009 he served as Deputy of the LX Legislature of the Mexican Congress representing the Federal District.

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Bárbara Paz, Brazilian actress

Bárbara Raquel Paz is a Brazilian actress, producer, and director.

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Janne Puurtinen, Finnish keyboard player

Janne Johannes Puurtinen, better known as Burton or Emerson Burton, is a Finnish musician. He is best known as the keyboardist of the Finnish gothic rock band HIM, with whom he has released six studio albums, and has gone on to become one of the most commercially successful Finnish bands of all time. Outside of HIM, Burton has performed and recorded with various bands, including Daniel Lioneye, Suburban Tribe and Torpedo.

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John Rocker, American baseball player

John Loy Rocker is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher who played six seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily with the Atlanta Braves. Rocker made his major league debut in 1998 with the Braves, where he spent four seasons and was later a member of the Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He last played professionally for the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball in 2005.

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Darío Sala, Argentine footballer

Darío Sala is an Argentine association football administrator and former player. A goalkeeper, he played with teams including Belgrano, Los Andes, and River Plate in Argentina; Deportivo Cali in Colombia; and FC Dallas in Major League Soccer (MLS), where he played from 2005 to 2010. He served as general manager of Jacksonville Armada FC of the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 2013 to 2015.

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Gabriel Silberstein, Chilean tennis player

Gabriel Silberstein is a former professional tennis player from Chile.

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Dhondup Wangchen, Chinese director and producer

Dhondup Wangchen is a Tibetan filmmaker who had been imprisoned by the Chinese government in 2008 on charges related to his documentary Leaving Fear Behind. Made with senior Tibetan monk Jigme Gyatso, the documentary consists of interviews with ordinary Tibetan people discussing the 14th Dalai Lama, the Chinese government, the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and Han Chinese migrants to the region. After smuggling the tapes of the interviews out of Tibet, however, Dhondup Wangchen and Jigme Gyatso were detained during the 2008 Tibetan unrest.

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17/10/1973

Rubén Garcés, Panamanian basketball player

Rubén Santiago Garcés Riquelme is a Panamanian professional basketball player. He last played for the Mets de Guaynabo of Puerto Rico. A 6'9" power forward/center, he played US college basketball with Navarro Junior College in Texas, and with Providence College in Rhode Island, and had a brief career in the NBA in the 2000-01 season, playing with Phoenix and Golden State. He has also played in the American CBA, the Spanish ACB, in Argentina, Venezuela, and France.

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Andrea Tarozzi, Italian footballer and coach

Andrea Tarozzi is an Italian former footballer, who played as a defender, and currently the assistant manager of Parma.

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Bhagwant Mann, Indian Politician

Bhagwant Singh Mann, better known by his stage name "Jugnu", is an Indian politician, social worker, former comedian, actor and singer who is currently serving as the 17th Chief Minister of Punjab He represents the Dhuri Assembly constituency in the Punjab Legislative Assembly since 2022 and is also serving as the state convener of Aam Aadmi Party, Punjab since 2019. Previously, he was a member of the lower house of Parliament from Sangrur from 2014 to 2022.

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17/10/1972

Eminem, American rapper, producer, and actor

Marshall Bruce Mathers III, known professionally as Eminem, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and record executive. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time, he is often credited with popularizing hip-hop in Middle America and the acceptance of white rappers. While much of his transgressive art during the late 1990s and early 2000s made him a controversial figure, Eminem has become a representation of popular angst in lower-income America and is noted for his conscious rap—including political criticism and social commentary—and rap flow.

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Sharon Leal, American actress

Sharon Ann Leal is an American actress and singer. She is known for her roles in movies such as Dreamgirls (2006), This Christmas (2007), Why Did I Get Married? (2007), Why Did I Get Married Too? (2010) and her roles on the television shows Legacy, Guiding Light and Boston Public.

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Musashi, Japanese karateka and kickboxer

Akio Mori , better known by the ring name Musashi (武蔵), is a Japanese former professional karateka and kickboxer. He is a four-time K-1 Japan tournament champion, a former WAKO Heavyweight Muay Thai champion and two-time K-1 World Grand Prix finalist. Following a 14-year career, he announced his retirement at a press conference in Tokyo on August 26, 2009.

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Tarkan, German-Turkish singer

Tarkan Tevetoğlu is a German-born Turkish singer-songwriter.

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17/10/1971

Chris Kirkpatrick, American singer-songwriter and dancer

Christopher Alan Kirkpatrick is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, music producer, podcaster, and actor. He founded the pop group NSYNC, in which he sang countertenor. The band has sold over 70 million records, becoming one of the best-selling boy bands of all time. Kirkpatrick was the lead singer in various songs including "Thinking of You ", "Together Again", "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", "I Thought She Knew", "Just Got Paid", and many songs from their Christmas album, Home for Christmas.

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Kim Ljung, Norwegian singer-songwriter and bass player

Kim Ljung is a musician from Tønsberg, Norway. He is best known as the bassist in Norwegian rock bands Seigmen and Zeromancer.

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Martin Heinrich, American politician

Martin Trevor Heinrich is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from New Mexico, a seat he has held since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Heinrich served as the U.S. representative from New Mexico's 1st congressional district from 2009 to 2013. He and fellow senator Ben Ray Luján are the co-deans of New Mexico's congressional delegations.

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Derrick Plourde, American drummer (died 2005)

Derrick William Plourde was an American drummer, musician and artist. Born in Goleta, California, he was active from 1989 until his death in 2005. Although best known as a former member of Lagwagon, Plourde also played in several different bands like Bad Astronaut, Jaws, The Ataris, Mad Caddies and Rich Kids on LSD, among others. Besides drums, he played guitar and was described as a multi-instrumentalist. Aside from music, he was known as a skilled painter and gifted carpenter, and was appreciated for his off-beat sense of humor. After a long battle with drug addiction, Plourde died by suicide on March 30, 2005.

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Blues Saraceno, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer

Blues Saraceno is an American rock guitarist, composer and music producer, currently residing in Los Angeles, California. He was discovered by Guitar for the Practicing Musician magazine at the age of 16, which assisted him in releasing instrumental recordings on an independent basis.

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17/10/1970

Anil Kumble, Indian cricketer

Anil Kumble is a former Indian cricketer, captain, coach and commentator who played Test and One Day International cricket for his national team over an international career of 18 years. A right-arm leg spin bowler, regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in cricket history, he took 619 wickets in Test cricket and was the third-highest wicket taker of all time at the time of his retirement in 2008.

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John Mabry, American baseball player, coach, and sportscaster

John Steven Mabry is an American former professional baseball outfielder and broadcaster, who currently serves as an assistant hitting coach for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB).

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J. C. MacKenzie, Canadian actor

John Charles MacKenzie is a Canadian actor. He is best known for portraying Skip Fontaine on the HBO series Vinyl (2016) and Reagan "Normal" Ronald on the Fox series Dark Angel (2000–2002). He has also appeared in several films directed by Martin Scorsese, including The Departed (2006), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and The Irishman (2019).

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17/10/1969

Ernie Els, South African golfer and sportscaster

Theodore Ernest Els is a South African professional golfer. A former World No. 1, he is nicknamed "The Big Easy" due to his physical stature along with his fluid golf swing. Among his more than 70 career victories are four major championships: the U.S. Open in 1994 at Oakmont and in 1997 at Congressional, and The Open Championship in 2002 at Muirfield and in 2012 at Royal Lytham & St Annes. He is one of six golfers to twice win both the U.S. Open and The Open Championship.

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Jesús Ángel García, Spanish racewalker

Jesús Ángel García Bragado is a Spanish race walker. He has competed at eight Olympic Games, the most Olympic appearances ever in athletics. He was married to gymnast Carmen Acedo. He retired in 2021 after the Tokyo Olympics.

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Wood Harris, American actor

Sherwin David "Wood" Harris is an American actor. He first garnered attention for his role as Motaw in the Jeff Pollack film Above the Rim (1994), before portraying high school football player Julius Campbell in the Walt Disney Pictures film Remember the Titans (2000) and Jimi Hendrix in the Showtime television film Hendrix (2000). He attained further recognition for his portrayal of drug kingpin Avon Barksdale on the HBO crime drama The Wire (2002–2008). Harris also played the role of cocaine dealer Ace, based on the life of Azie Faison, in the crime film Paid in Full (2002).

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Wyclef Jean, Haitian-American rapper, producer, and actor

Nelust Wyclef Jean is a Haitian rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Born in Haiti, Jean emigrated to the United States as a child. He gained fame as a member of the Fugees, a hip hop trio he formed with Lauryn Hill and Pras, serving as the group's lead producer and guitarist. Their second album The Score (1996) became one of the best-selling albums of all time. Jean launched a solo career with Wyclef Jean Presents The Carnival (1997), which spawned the hit singles "We Trying to Stay Alive" and "Gone till November".

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Rick Mercer, Canadian comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter

Richard Vincent "Rick" Mercer is a Canadian comedian, television personality, political satirist, and author. He is best known for his work on the CBC Television comedy shows This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Rick Mercer Report. He is the author of four books based on content from the shows and the two part memoir consisting of Talking to Canadians and The Road Years. Mercer has received more than 25 Gemini Awards for his work on television.

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17/10/1968

Alejandra Ávalos, Mexican artist

Alejandra Margarita Ávalos Rodríguez is a Mexican singer, musician and actress. She began her career in 1980, when she took part in the musical contest La Voz del Heraldo. After receiving a scholarship to study in a two-year training program, she began working as a model; afterwards, she began appearing on television as a supporting actress in 1983; by that time she also provided backing vocals for some recording artists. Since 1984, Ávalos obtained a number of leading roles on stage, including the theatrical productions The Rocky Horror Show and Jesus Christ Superstar. At the time, she began working as a TV host on Televisa. Avalos's breakthrough came in 1986 with her first leading role on television in the successful series El padre Gallo, media referred to Ávalos as "The New Young Super-Star".

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Graeme Le Saux, English footballer and sportscaster

Graeme Pierre Le Saux is a former professional footballer and television pundit. As a versatile left sided player he played most of his career at left back with two spells at Chelsea, Blackburn Rovers, Southampton, and for the England national football team.

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Ziggy Marley, Jamaican singer-songwriter, guitarist, and voice actor

David Nesta "Ziggy" Marley is a Jamaican reggae musician, songwriter, producer, author and philanthropist. The eldest son of Bob Marley and Rita Marley, he led the family band Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers until 2002, releasing eight studio albums, before launching a solo career on his label Tuff Gong Worldwide. He has won eight Grammy Awards and a Daytime Emmy Award.

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David Robertson, Scottish footballer and manager

David Alexander Robertson BEM is a Scottish former football player and coach, who was most recently the manager of Scottish League One club Peterhead.

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17/10/1967

René Dif, Danish musician

René Dif is a Danish musician, singer-songwriter, DJ and actor, best known as the male vocalist of the Danish-Norwegian Eurodance group Aqua.

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Pedro González Vera, Chilean footballer

Pedro Alejandro González Vera is a Chilean football manager and former football player nicknamed "Heidi". A forward, with 212 goals, he is the second highest scorer in the history of Chilean football after Francisco "Chamaco" Valdés, who has 215 official goals.

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Simon Segars, English businessman

Simon Anthony Segars is a British business executive who was chief executive officer (CEO) of ARM Holdings plc from 2013 to 2022. ARM is the UK's largest semiconductor IP company headquartered in Cambridge, England, and was acquired by SoftBank Group for £24.3 billion in 2016.

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Nathalie Tauziat, French tennis player

Nathalie Tauziat is a French tennis coach and a former professional player. She was the runner-up in women's singles at the 1998 Wimbledon Championships and runner-up in the women's doubles at the 2001 US Open partnering Kimberly Po-Messerli. She reached a career-high ranking of world No. 3 in both singles and doubles.

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17/10/1966

Shaun Edwards, English rugby player and coach

Shaun Edwards, OBE is an English rugby union coach and former rugby league footballer, who is the defence coach for the France national team. A scrum-half or stand-off, Edwards is the most decorated player in rugby league history, with 37 winner's medals. In 2015, he was the 25th person inducted into the Rugby League Hall of Fame.

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Danny Ferry, American basketball player and manager

Daniel John Willard Ferry is an American executive and former professional basketball player who played the forward position.

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Mark Gatiss, English actor, screenwriter and novelist

Mark Gatiss is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, director, producer and novelist. Best known for his acting work on stage and screen as well as for co-creating television shows with Steven Moffat, he has received awards including two Laurence Olivier Awards, a BAFTA TV Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Peabody Award.

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Tommy Kendall, American race car driver and sportscaster

Tommy Kendall is an American race car driver and television broadcaster. He is best known for his IMSA GT Championship and SCCA Trans-Am Series career.

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17/10/1965

Aravinda de Silva, Sri Lankan cricketer

Deshabandu Pinnaduwage Aravinda de Silva is a former Sri Lankan cricketer. Regarded as one of Sri Lanka’s greatest ever cricketers, De Silva was a key member of the Sri Lankan team that won the 1996 Cricket World Cup, where he scored a match winning century in the final, bringing Sri Lanka from underdog status to present-day form. In the twilight of his career, De Silva was part of the team which finished as joint winners alongside India at the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy. He has held various posts in Sri Lankan Cricket since his retirement in 2003. He was inducted into ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2023.

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Rhys Muldoon, Australian actor

Rhys Muldoon is an Australian actor, writer and director who has worked extensively in film, television, music, theatre and radio. He has had leading and recurring roles in series such as Chances, The Genie from Down Under, Big Sky, The Secret Life of Us, Lockie Leonard and House Husbands. He was also a presenter on the popular children's series Play School.

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17/10/1964

Margarita Liborio Arrazola, Mexican politician

Margarita Liborio Arrazola is a Mexican politician from the Institutional Revolutionary Party. From 2009 to 2012 she served as Deputy of the LXI Legislature of the Mexican Congress representing Oaxaca.

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Gregg Wallace, English television presenter

Gregg Allan Wallace is an English broadcaster, entrepreneur and writer. He is known for co-presenting MasterChef, Celebrity MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals on BBC One and BBC Two. He has written for Good Food, Now and Olive.

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17/10/1963

Sergio Goycochea, Argentinian footballer and journalist

Sergio Javier Goycochea is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is best known for helping his country reach the 1990 FIFA World Cup Final with his penalty kick saves.

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Toby Young, English journalist and academic

Toby Daniel Moorsom Young, Baron Young of Acton, is a British social commentator and Conservative life peer. He is the founder and director of the Free Speech Union, an associate editor of The Spectator, creator of The Daily Sceptic blog and a former associate editor at Quillette.

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17/10/1962

Glenn Braggs, American baseball player

Glenn Erick Braggs is an American former Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball outfielder and designated hitter. Braggs was a member of the Cincinnati Reds team that defeated the Oakland Athletics in the 1990 World Series. He is an alumnus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

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Jay Humphries, American basketball player

John Jay Humphries is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He later served as the first head coach of the NBA D-League's Reno Bighorns. He last worked as an assistant coach for the Brooklyn Nets.

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Mike Judge, American animator, director, screenwriter, producer and actor

Michael Craig Judge is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, and director. He is the creator of the animated television series Beavis and Butt-Head, and co-created the television series King of the Hill, The Goode Family (2009), Silicon Valley (2014–2019), and Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus (2017–2018). He wrote and directed the films Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996), Office Space (1999), Idiocracy (2006), and Extract (2009), and co-wrote the screenplay to Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe (2022).

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17/10/1961

David Means, American short story writer

David Means is an American short story writer and novelist based in Nyack, New York. His stories have appeared in many publications, including Esquire, The New Yorker, and Harper's. They are frequently set in the Midwest or the Rust Belt, or along the Hudson River in New York.

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17/10/1960

Guy Henry, English actor

Guy Henry is an English actor whose roles include Henrik Hanssen in Holby City, Pius Thicknesse in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2, Cassius in Rome and Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One.

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Rob Marshall, American director, producer, and choreographer

Robert Doyle Marshall Jr. is an American film and theater director, producer, and choreographer. He is best known for directing the film version of the Broadway musical Chicago, which was based on the play of the same name by playwright Maurine Dallas Watkins. His work on the film earned him the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film, as well as nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director, the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, and the BAFTA Award for Best Direction. He also directed the films Memoirs of a Geisha, Nine, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Into the Woods, Mary Poppins Returns, and The Little Mermaid.

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Bernie Nolan, Irish singer (died 2013)

Bernadette Therese Doneathy was an Irish actress, singer and television personality. She was a member of the girl group the Nolans, which she formed with her sisters. From the age of two, Bernie was brought up in Blackpool, Lancashire, England.

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Philippe Sands, American lawyer and academic

Philippe Joseph Sands is a British, French, and Mauritian writer and lawyer at 11 King's Bench Walk and Professor of Laws and Director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals at the Faculty of Laws, University College London. Working in international law, he has appeared as counsel and advocate before international courts and tribunals.

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17/10/1959

Mustafa Aberchán, Spanish politician

Mustafa Hamed Mohamed is a Spanish politician who served as the Mayor-President of Melilla from 5 July 1999 to 19 July 2000, and is the leader of Coalition for Melilla. Aberchán was convicted of vote buying by the Supreme Court of Spain in 2021, and was arrested for vote buying in 2024.

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Ron Drummond, American author and scholar

Ronald N. Drummond is a writer, editor, and independent scholar.

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Francisco Flores Pérez, Salvadorian politician, President of El Salvador (died 2016)

Francisco Guillermo Flores Pérez was a Salvadoran politician who served as President of El Salvador from 1 June 1999 to 1 June 2004 as a member of the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA). He previously served as a deputy of the Legislative Assembly from 1994 to 1999, having been president of the Assembly from 1997 to 1999.

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Russell Gilbert, Australian comedian, actor, and screenwriter

Russell Gilbert is an Australian comedian from Footscray, Victoria, best known for his television appearances on programs such as The Comedy Company, Hey Hey It's Saturday and The Russell Gilbert Show; he was also a radio presenter and a live stage and film actor.

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Eugenio Hernández Flores, Mexican politician

Eugenio Javier Hernández Flores is a Mexican politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He was the mayor of Ciudad Victoria from 2001 to 2004 and governor of Tamaulipas from 2004 to 2010, and was also a federal deputy in 2000–2001 and coordinator of the Financial Committee of Tomás Yarrington during his campaign. On May 27, 2015, he was indicted on charges of money laundering alongside his brother-in-law Óscar Gómez Guerra by the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ).

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Norm Macdonald, Canadian actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter (died 2021)

Norman Gene Macdonald was a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, and writer whose style was characterized by deadpan delivery, eccentric understatement, and the use of folksy, old-fashioned turns of phrase. He appeared in numerous films and was a frequent guest on late-night talk shows, where he developed a reputation for his chaotic yet understated comedic style. His appearances on Conan O'Brien's and David Letterman's programs were especially well-received, with the latter describing him as "the best" stand-up comedian.

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Mark Peel, Australian historian and academic

Mark Andrew Peel, historian and academic, was the Director of Educational Innovation at the University of Leicester until retiring in 2019. He also served the university as Provost, Pro Vice Chancellor and Head of the College of Arts, Humanities and Law. Before going to Leicester, he was Professor of Modern Cultural and Social History and Head of the School of the Arts at the University of Liverpool and a Professor and Head of the School of Historical Studies in the Faculty of Arts at Monash University in Australia. He holds degrees from Flinders University, Johns Hopkins University and Melbourne University and was appointed a full professor in 2007. He was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2008 and became a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2010.

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Richard Roeper, American journalist and critic

Richard E. Roeper is an American writer. He is a former columnist and film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, where he wrote for 39 years dating back to 1986 until his departure in 2025. He co-hosted the television series At the Movies with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's successor. From 2010 to 2014, he co-hosted The Roe and Roeper Show with Roe Conn on WLS-AM. From October 2015 to October 2017, Roeper served as the host of the FOX 32 morning show Good Day Chicago. Since 2021, he has hosted a podcast entitled The Richard Roeper Show for American Eagle. He is a regular contributor to Windy City Weekend and its predecessor Windy City Live on WLS-TV. In 2025, Roeper joined RogerEbert.com as a regular contributor.

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17/10/1958

Howard Alden, American guitarist

Howard Vincent Alden is an American jazz guitarist born in Newport Beach, California. Alden has recorded many albums for Concord Records, including four with seven-string guitar innovator George Van Eps.

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Alan Jackson, American singer-songwriter

Alan Eugene Jackson is an American singer-songwriter. He is known for performing a style widely regarded as "neotraditional country", as well as writing many of his own songs. Jackson has recorded 21 studio albums, including two Christmas albums, and two gospel albums, as well as three greatest-hits albums.

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Sandra Mozarowsky, Spanish actress (died 1977)

Alexandra Elena Mozarowski Ruiz de Frías, also known by the stage name Sandra Mozarowsky, was a Spanish actress from 1969 until her death in 1977. She starred in films such as Night of the Seagulls and Beatriz.

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Craig Murray, British diplomat

Craig John Murray is a Scottish author, human rights campaigner, journalist, and former diplomat.

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17/10/1957

Eleftheria Arvanitaki, Greek folk singer

Eleftheria Arvanitaki is a Greek folk singer. She originates from the island of Icaria. Arvanitaki has worked with musicians such as Cesária Évora, Arto Tunçboyacıyan and Ara Dinkjian. On 14 March 2010 Alpha TV ranked her the sixth top-certified female artist in the nation's phonographic era.

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Nelson Barrera, Mexican baseball player (died 2002)

Nelson Barrera Romellón was a Mexican professional baseball player, who at the time of his death led the Mexican League in career home runs (455) and RBIs (1,927). He was nicknamed El Almirante.

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Lawrence Bender, American actor and producer

Lawrence Bender is an American film producer. Throughout his career, Bender-produced films have received 36 Academy Award nominations, resulting in eight wins.

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Antonio Galdo, Italian journalist

Antonio Galdo is an Italian writer and journalist.

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Steve McMichael, American football player, wrestler, and sportscaster (died 2025)

Stephen Douglas McMichael, nicknamed "Mongo", "Ming", and "Ming the Merciless", was an American professional football player and professional wrestler. He was a defensive tackle for 15 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily for the Chicago Bears. He played college football for the Texas Longhorns and was selected by the New England Patriots in the 1980 NFL draft. After retiring from playing football, he wrestled in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and was part of The Four Horsemen stable.

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Pino Palladino, Welsh bassist

Giuseppe Henry "Pino" Palladino is a Welsh musician, songwriter, and record producer. A session bassist, he has played bass for a number of acts such as the Who, the John Mayer Trio, Gary Numan, Paul Young, Don Henley, David Gilmour, Go West, Tears for Fears, Nine Inch Nails, Jeff Beck, Adele and D'Angelo.

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Vincent Van Patten, American tennis player and actor

Vincent Van Patten is an American actor, former professional tennis player, and the commentator for the World Poker Tour.

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17/10/1956

Fran Cosmo, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Fran Cosmo is an American rock vocalist and guitarist. He was a member of the Boston offshoot band Orion the Hunter from 1983–1985. He later became the official lead vocalist for Boston in the 1990s, singing on the Walk On, Greatest Hits, and Corporate America albums.

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Mae Jemison, American physician, academic, and astronaut

Mae Carol Jemison is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first African-American woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992. Jemison joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1987 and was selected for the STS-47 mission, during which the Endeavour orbited the Earth for nearly eight days on September 12–20, 1992.

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Pat McCrory, American businessman and politician, 74th Governor of North Carolina

Patrick Lloyd McCrory is an American politician and businessman who served as the 74th governor of North Carolina from 2013 to 2017. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 53rd mayor of Charlotte from 1995 to 2009. To date, he is North Carolina's most recent Republican governor, and the last Republican mayor of Charlotte.

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Ken Morrow, American ice hockey player and executive

Kenneth Arlington Morrow is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman and a member of the 1980 USA Olympic Miracle on Ice hockey team. He is currently serving as the New York Islanders' director of pro scouting. A member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame, he played 550 regular season games in the National Hockey League between 1980 and 1989.

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Stephen Palumbi, American academic and author

Stephen R. Palumbi is an American zoologist who is the Jane and Marshall Steel Jr. Professor in Marine Sciences at Stanford University at Hopkins Marine Station. He also holds a Senior Fellowship at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

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17/10/1955

Georgios Alogoskoufis, Greek economist, academic, and politician, Greek Minister of Finance

Georgios Alogoskoufis is a professor of economics at the Athens University of Economics and Business since 1990. He was a member of the Hellenic Parliament from September 1996 till October 2009 and served as Greece's Minister of Economy and Finance from March 2004 till January 2009.

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Mike Bratz, American basketball player

Michael Louis Bratz is a retired American basketball player and former the assistant general manager for the Sacramento Kings. He played professionally in the NBA for the Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers, San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls, Golden State Warriors, and Sacramento Kings.

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17/10/1954

Carlos Buhler, American mountaineer

Carlos Buhler is one of America's leading high altitude mountaineers. Buhler's specialty is high-standard mountaineering characterized by small teams, no oxygen, minimal gear and equipment, and relatively low amounts of funding; yielding first ascents of difficult routes in challenging conditions, such as the Himalayan winter season.

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17/10/1953

Joseph Bowie, American trombonist and bandleader

Joseph Bowie is an American jazz trombonist and vocalist. The brother of trumpeter Lester Bowie, Joseph is known for leading the jazz-punk group Defunkt and for membership in the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble.

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Domenico Penzo, Italian footballer

Domenico Penzo is an Italian retired professional footballer, who played as a forward.

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17/10/1951

Dirk Beheydt, Belgian footballer

Dirk Beheydt is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a forward.

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Annie Borckink, Dutch speed skater

Anna "Annie" Johanna Geertruida Maria Borckink is a former speed skater from the Netherlands, who represented her native country at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, United States. She won the gold medal in the women's 1500 metres event, with Dutch teammate Ria Visser winning the silver medal. For her performance, Borckink was named Dutch Sportswoman of the year. After retiring from skating she runs a sporting goods store in Dronten.

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Roger Pontare, Swedish singer

Fred Roger Pontare is a Swedish musician. He lives in Bjuråker in Hudiksvalls kommun.

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Shari Ulrich, American-Canadian singer-songwriter and violinist

Sharon "Shari" Ulrich is an American-Canadian musician and songwriter. She has also worked as a television host, actress, film composer, and educator. A multi-instrumentalist, she plays violin, mandolin, guitar, piano, and dulcimer.

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17/10/1950

Philippe Barbarin, French cardinal

Philippe Xavier Christian Ignace Marie Barbarin is a French Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Lyon from 2002 to 2020. He was made a cardinal in 2003. He was convicted in 2019 of failing to report alleged sex abuse by a priest and was given a suspended six-month prison sentence. The same year, Barbarin turned the archdiocese over to an administrator while he appealed his case. His conviction was overturned in 2020 but Pope Francis accepted his resignation just over a month later.

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Sandra Reemer, Indo-Dutch singer (died 2017)

Barbara Alexandra "Sandra" Reemer was an Indo-Dutch singer and television presenter. She represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest on three occasions, tying with Corry Brokken for most appearances representing the country.

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Howard Rollins, American actor (died 1996)

Howard Ellsworth Rollins Jr. was an American stage, film and television actor. He was best known for his role as Andrew Young in 1978's King, George Haley in the 1979 miniseries Roots: The Next Generations, Coalhouse Walker Jr. in the 1981 film Ragtime, as civil rights activist Medgar Evers in PBS' American Playhouse production of For Us the Living: The Medgar Evers Story in 1983, Captain Davenport in the 1984 film A Soldier's Story, and as Virgil Tibbs on the NBC/CBS television crime drama In the Heat of the Night (1988–1995).

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17/10/1949

Owen Arthur, Barbadian economist and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Barbados (died 2020)

Owen Seymour Arthur was a Barbadian politician who served as the fifth prime minister of Barbados from 6 September 1994 to 15 January 2008. He is the longest-serving Barbadian prime minister to date. He also served as Leader of the Opposition from 1 August 1993 to 6 September 1994 and from 23 October 2010 to 21 February 2013.

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Bill Hudson, American musician and actor

William Louis Hudson Jr. is an American musician and actor. He was a vocalist in the Hudson Brothers, a band he formed in 1965 with his two younger brothers, Brett and Mark. He later had a brief acting career, appearing in supporting roles in Zero to Sixty (1978), Hysterical (1983), and Big Shots (1987). He also had a recurring guest role on the series Doogie Howser, M.D. on ABC.

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17/10/1948

Osvaldo Castro, Chilean footballer

Osvaldo Castro Pelayo is a Chilean former professional footballer who played league football for clubs in Chile and Mexico, as well as playing international football for the Chile national team.

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Robert Jordan, American soldier and author (died 2007)

James Oliver Rigney Jr., known by his pen name Robert Jordan, was an American author of epic fantasy. He is best known as the author of The Wheel of Time series, which comprises 14 books and a prequel novel. The series is among the highest-selling book series of all time, with 90 million copies sold. In his earlier career he became one of several writers to produce original Conan the Barbarian novels; his are considered by fans to be some of the best written by authors other than the character's creator, Robert E. Howard. Jordan was the most well-known of several pen names he used, adopting different monikers for different genres.

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Margot Kidder, Canadian-American actress (died 2018)

Margaret Ruth Kidder was a Canadian and American actress and activist. She amassed several film and television credits in her career spanning five decades, including her widely known role as Lois Lane in the original Superman films (1978–1987). Her accolades included two Canadian Film Awards, an Emmy Award, a Genie Award, and a Saturn Award.

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George Wendt, American actor and comedian (died 2025)

George Robert Wendt Jr. was an American actor. Wendt played Norm Peterson on the NBC sitcom Cheers from 1982 to 1993, which earned him six consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. After Cheers ended, he starred in his own short-lived CBS sitcom, The George Wendt Show (1995).

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17/10/1947

Omar Azziman, adviser to the King of Morocco

Omar Azziman, is an advisor to Mohammed VI, King of Morocco.

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Gene Green, American lawyer and politician

Raymond Eugene Green is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 29th congressional district, serving for 13 terms. He is a member of the Democratic Party. His district included most of eastern Houston, including portions of the suburbs.

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Michael McKean, American singer-songwriter, actor, and director

Michael John McKean is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, composer, and musician.

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Robert Post, American educator and academic

Robert Charles Post is an American legal scholar who is currently a professor of law at Yale Law School. He was the dean of Yale Law School from 2009 to 2017. Post has been quoted in the New York Times on the composition of the Supreme Court. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2011. Post's academic interests include constitutional law, First Amendment, legal history, and affirmative action. His book entitled, Citizens Divided (2014), looks at the constitutional aspects of electoral campaign finance.

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17/10/1946

Ronni Chasen, American publicist (died 2010)

Ronni Sue Chasen was an American publicist, who once represented such actors as Michael Douglas, as well as musicians such as Hans Zimmer and Mark Isham, among others. Chasen directed the Academy Award campaigns for more than 100 films during her career, including Driving Miss Daisy in 1989 and The Hurt Locker in 2009.

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Michael Hossack, American drummer (died 2012)

Michael Joseph Hossack was an American drummer for the rock band The Doobie Brothers.

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Manuel "Flaco" Ibáñez, Mexican actor and comedian

Manuel "Flaco" Ibáñez Martínez is a Mexican actor and comedian who has appeared in over 140 films and television shows in Mexico.

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Akira Kushida, Japanese vocalist

Akira Kushida is a Japanese singer who is well known for his work in the soundtracks for anime and tokusatsu productions, most notably Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan, Kinnikuman, and Space Sheriff Gavan. His nickname from his fans is Kussy . His real given name is Akira .

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Cameron Mackintosh, English producer and manager

Sir Cameron Anthony Mackintosh is a British theatrical producer and theatre owner notable for his association with many commercially successful musicals. At the height of his success in 1990, he was described as being "the most successful, influential and powerful theatrical producer in the world" by the New York Times. He is the producer of shows including Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Miss Saigon, Mary Poppins, Oliver!, and Hamilton.

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Adam Michnik, Polish journalist and historian

Adam Michnik is a Polish historian, essayist, former dissident, public intellectual, as well as co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.

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Julio Miranda, Argentine politician (died 2021)

Julio Antonio Miranda was an Argentine politician and a member of the Justicialist Party. He was a Senator for Tucumán Province and was part of the majority Front for Victory parliamentary group. Previously he had been governor of Tucumán and national Senator before being elected to this office

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Drusilla Modjeska, English-Australian author and critic

Drusilla Modjeska is a contemporary Australian writer and editor.

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Daniela Payssé, Uruguayan politician (died 2018)

Daniela Payssé was a Uruguayan senator for the Broad Front party.

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José Perramón, Spanish handball player

José Perramón Acosta is a former Spanish handball player. He competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics.

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Jaime Ravinet, Chilean politician

Jaime Nicolás Ravinet de la Fuente, is a Chilean politician, lawyer, academic and businessman. From 1990 to 2000 he was Mayor of Santiago, before becoming the Minister for Housing, Urban Planning and National Property in 2001, a position he held until 2004. He then became the Minister for Defence until 11 March 2006.

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Bob Seagren, American pole vaulter

Robert Seagren is a retired American pole vaulter, the 1968 Olympic champion.

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Rüdiger Wittig, German geobotanist and ecologist

Rüdiger Wittig is a professor of geobotany and ecology at the Goethe University Frankfurt in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

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17/10/1944

Ángel Cristo, Spanish circus performer (died 2010)

Ángel Papadopoulos Dordi was a Spanish circus performer.

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17/10/1943

Ignacio Rupérez, Spanish diplomat and journalist (died 2015)

Ignacio Rupérez Rubio was a Spanish diplomat, journalist, and writer. Rupérez was appointed Ambassador to Iraq on 3 June 2005, becoming the first Ambassador to Iraq since 1991, when the Spanish embassy in Baghdad was closed during the Gulf War. He served as Ambassador to Iraq from 2005 until 2008. He was later appointed Ambassador to Honduras. Rupérez was the brother of Javier Rupérez, a diplomat and politician.

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17/10/1942

Steve Jones, American basketball player and sportscaster (died 2017)

Stephen Howard "Snapper" Jones Sr. was an American basketball player in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and National Basketball Association (NBA), and later a television analyst. He was a three-time ABA All-Star. Jones' brother Nick also played in the ABA and NBA. During his time in the ABA, Jones picked up the moniker "Snapper" but he never revealed how it came to be.

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Gary Puckett, American pop singer-songwriter and guitarist

Gary Dale Puckett is an American singer widely known as the lead vocalist for Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, who had six consecutive gold records in 1968, including "Woman Woman", "Young Girl", "Lady Willpower", "Over You", "Don't Give In to Him" and "This Girl Is a Woman Now."

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17/10/1941

Earl Thomas Conley, American country singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2019)

Earl Thomas Conley was an American country music singer-songwriter. Between 1980 and 2003, he recorded ten studio albums, including seven for RCA Records. In the 1980s and into the 1990s, Conley also charted more than 30 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, of which 18 reached Number One. His 18 Billboard Number One country singles during the 1980s were the third most by any artist in any genre during that decade, after Alabama and Ronnie Milsap.

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Paul Ellison, American musician

Paul Ellison is an American double bassist and pedagogue. He has been teaching at Rice University in Houston, Texas USA since 1974 and is the Lynette B. Autry Professor of Double Bass at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, where he also serves as co-chair of the string department. He is faculty emeritus of the USC Thornton School of Music, where he was also chair of the string department, and of The Colburn School in Los Angeles, California, and is a past president of the International Society of Bassists.

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Jim Seals, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and violinist (died 2022)

Seals & Crofts were an American soft rock duo formed in 1969 by Jim Seals and Dash Crofts in Los Angeles, California. They are best known for their hits "Summer Breeze" (1972), "Diamond Girl" (1973), and "Get Closer" (1976), each of which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Both Seals and Crofts were publicly outspoken advocates for the Baháʼí Faith. Though the duo disbanded in 1981, they reunited briefly in 1989–1992, and again in 2004, when they released their final album, Traces. Seals and his younger brother, the charting singer-songwriter "England" Dan Seals, later performed publicly together as Seals & Seals.

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17/10/1940

Stephen Kovacevich, American pianist and conductor

Stephen Kovacevich is an American classical pianist and conductor. He is particularly celebrated for his recordings of works by Beethoven, Bartók, and Schubert, and is known for technical skill, clarity of playing, and an intelligent approach to interpretation.

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Jim Smith, English footballer and manager (died 2019)

James Michael Smith was an English footballer and manager. As a player, he made 249 appearances in the Fourth Division of the Football League, representing Aldershot, Halifax Town, Lincoln City and Colchester United, and played for 3+1⁄2 years for Boston United of the Northern Premier League. He began a long managerial career with Boston United, and went on to take charge of top division clubs such as Birmingham City, Newcastle United and Derby County. Smith served as a member of the board of directors of Oxford United for three years from 2006 to 2009. He served as the League Managers' Association's chief executive and was inducted into their Hall of Fame for managing over 1000 matches. He was nicknamed "The Bald Eagle".

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Peter Stringfellow, English businessman (died 2018)

Peter James Stringfellow was an English businessman who owned several nightclubs.

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17/10/1939

Oliver Rackham, English botanist and academic (died 2015)

Oliver Rackham was an academic at the University of Cambridge who studied the ecology, management and development of the British countryside, especially trees, woodlands and wood pasture. His books included Ancient Woodland (1980) and The History of the Countryside (1986).

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17/10/1938

António Calvário, Portuguese singer and artist

António Calvário da Paz is a Portuguese singer, actor, and writer. He is best known for winning the first edition of Festival da Canção and representing Portugal at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1964 with the song "Oração", which was the country's debut entry in the contest.

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Evel Knievel, American motorcycle rider and stuntman (died 2007)

Robert Craig Knievel, known professionally as Evel Knievel, was an American stunt performer and entertainer. Throughout his career, he attempted more than 75 ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps. Knievel was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999.

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Les Murray, Australian anthologist, poet, and critic (died 2019)

Leslie Allan Murray was an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spanned over 40 years and he published nearly 30 volumes of poetry as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings.

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17/10/1937

José María Álvarez del Manzano, Spanish politician

José María Álvarez del Manzano y López del Hierro is a Spanish politician for the People's Party. Although born in Seville he has lived in Madrid since he was 3 years old. He studied at the Jesuit Colegio Nuestra Señora del Recuerdo. He became the Mayor of Madrid in 1991, a position that he held until 2003. He chaired the board of IFEMA for 24 years, until 2015. He is married to María Eulalia Miró Ramírez and has four children.

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Aida Navarro, Venezuelan mezzo-soprano

Aida Navarro, is a Venezuelan mezzo-soprano, born in Caracas.

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Renato Prada Oropeza, Bolivian-Mexican scientist (died 2011)

Renato Prada Oropeza was a Bolivian and Mexican scientist-literary researcher and writer, author of novels, short stories and poetry books, hermeneutics, semiotics and literary theory. Many of his literary works have been translated into several languages. He was one of the most distinguished semioticians in Mexico and Latin America.

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Paxton Whitehead, English actor (died 2023)

Francis Edward Paxton Whitehead was an English actor and theatre director. He was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for his performance as Pellinore in the 1980 revival of Camelot. Whitehead had many Broadway roles. He was also known for his film roles, most memorably Rodney Dangerfield's foil in Back to School, and for his many guest appearances on several U.S. television shows: he portrayed Bernard Thatch on The West Wing, and in the 1990s often appeared in recurring and guest roles on major sitcoms, such as Frasier, Caroline in the City, Ellen, 3rd Rock from the Sun, The Drew Carey Show, Mad About You, and Friends.

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17/10/1936

Sathima Bea Benjamin, South African singer-songwriter (died 2013)

Beatrice "Sathima Bea" Benjamin was a South African vocalist and composer based in New York City for nearly 45 years.

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Hiroo Kanamori, Japanese-American seismologist and academic

Hiroo Kanamori is a Japanese seismologist who has made fundamental contributions to understanding the physics of earthquakes and the tectonic processes that cause them.

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Santiago Navarro, Spanish basketball player (died 1993)

Santiago Navarro was a Spanish basketball player. He competed in the men's tournament at the 1960 Summer Olympics.

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Bert Nievera, Filipino-American singer (died 2018)

Roberto Jose Dela Cruz Nievera was a Filipino-American singer and businessman. He rose to prominence in 1959 after winning the "Search for Johnny Mathis of the Philippines", a singing contest on the television variety show Student Canteen. He was one of the original members of the Society of Seven (SOS).

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17/10/1935

Sydney Chapman, English architect and politician, Vice-Chamberlain of the Household (died 2014)

Sir Sydney Brookes Chapman was a British Conservative Party politician and architect who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Handsworth and Chipping Barnet.

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Michael Eavis, English farmer, founded the Glastonbury Festival

Sir Athelstan Joseph Michael Eavis is an English dairy farmer and the co-creator of the Glastonbury Festival, which takes place at his farm in Pilton, Somerset.

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Carlos Pairetti, Argentine racing driver (died 2022)

Carlos Alberto Pairetti was an Argentine racing driver.

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17/10/1934

Alan Garner, English author and playwright

Alan Garner is an English novelist best known for his children's fantasy novels and his retellings of traditional British folk tales. Much of his work is rooted in the landscape, history and folklore of his native county of Cheshire, North West England, being set in the region and making use of the native Cheshire dialect.

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Johnny Haynes, English-Scottish footballer (died 2005)

John Norman Haynes was an English association footballer who played as an inside forward. He made 56 appearances for his country including 22 as captain. He was selected for three World Cup finals squads playing in the latter two of those. Nicknamed "the Maestro", his attacking play was noted for two-footed passing ability, vision and deftness of touch. Haynes is widely regarded as Fulham's greatest ever player, remaining loyal there for twenty years despite coming no nearer to a major trophy win than two FA Cup semi-final appearances. Immediately following the abolition of the £20 maximum wage in 1961, he became the first player to be paid £100 a week. He also had a spell on loan with Toronto City in 1961 and ended his playing days at Durban City, winning there the only trophy he won in his football career.

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Rico Rodriguez, Jamaican trombonist (died 2015)

Emmanuel "Rico" Rodriguez, also known as Rico, Reco or El Reco, was a Cuban-born Jamaican ska and reggae trombonist. He recorded with producers such as Karl Pitterson, Prince Buster, and Lloyd Daley. He was known as one of the first ska musicians. Beginning in the 1960s, he worked with the Members, the Specials, Jools Holland, and Paul Young.

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17/10/1933

William Anders, Hong Kong-American general and astronaut (died 2024)

William Alison Anders was a United States Air Force (USAF) major general, electrical engineer, nuclear engineer, NASA astronaut, and businessman. In December 1968, he was a member of the crew of Apollo 8, the first three people to leave low Earth orbit and travel to the Moon. Along with fellow astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, he circled the Moon ten times, and broadcast live images and commentary back to Earth, including the Christmas Eve Genesis reading. During one of the mission's lunar orbits, he took the iconic Earthrise photograph.

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The Singing Nun, Belgian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and nun (died 1985)

Jeanne-Paule Marie "Jeannine" Deckers, better known as Sœur Sourire and often called The Singing Nun in English-speaking countries, was a Belgian Catholic singer-songwriter and former member of the Dominican Order as Sister Luc Gabriel. In 1963, she acquired widespread fame with the release of the Belgian French song "Dominique", which topped the US Billboard Hot 100 and other charts, along with her debut album.

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17/10/1932

Paul Anderson, American weightlifter (died 1994)

Paul Edward Anderson was an American weightlifter, professional wrestler, powerlifter and strongman. During the 1950s, he was an Olympic gold medalist, a world champion, and a two-time national Olympic weightlifting champion.

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17/10/1931

José Alencar, Brazilian businessman and politician (died 2011)

José Alencar Gomes da Silva was a Brazilian businessman, entrepreneur and politician who served as the 23rd vice president of Brazil from 1 January 2003 to 1 January 2011. In business from a young age, Alencar became a self-made multimillionaire as the chief executive of Coteminas, a leading textile manufacturer. In the 1990s, Alencar groomed his son to succeed him at the company.

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Ernst Hinterberger, Austrian author and playwright (died 2012)

Ernst Hinterberger was an Austrian writer of novels, particularly detective novels, plays and successful sitcoms. His first TV scripts were unusual for their use of genuine Vienna dialect.

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Anatoly Pristavkin, Russian writer (died 2008)

Anatoly Ignatovich Pristavkin was a Russian writer and public figure.

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17/10/1930

Ismail Akbay, Turkish physicist and engineer (died 2003)

İsmail Akbay was a Turkish scientist. He is mostly remembered as the first Turk to work for NASA.

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Robert Atkins, American physician and cardiologist, created the Atkins diet (died 2003)

Robert Coleman Atkins was an American physician and cardiologist, best known for the Atkins Diet, which requires close control of carbohydrate consumption and emphasizes protein and fat as the primary sources of dietary calories in addition to a controlled number of carbohydrates from vegetables.

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17/10/1929

Mário Wilson, Mozambican footballer and manager (died 2016)

Mário Wilson was a Portuguese football player and manager.

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17/10/1928

Santiago Stevenson, Panamanian singer and minister (died 2007)

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Alejandro Végh Villegas, Uruguayan politician (died 2017)

Alejandro Végh Villegas was a Uruguayan politician.

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17/10/1926

Julie Adams, American actress (died 2019)

Julie Adams was an American actress, billed as Julia Adams in her early career, primarily known for her numerous television guest roles. She starred in a number of films in the 1950s, including Bend of the River (1952), opposite James Stewart; and Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). Adams also had an extensive television career including roles as Paula Denning on the 1980s soap opera Capitol, and Eve Simpson on Murder, She Wrote.

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Beverly Garland, American actress (died 2008)

Beverly Lucy Garland was an American actress. Her work in feature films primarily consisted of small parts in a few major productions or leads in low-budget action and science-fiction movies; however, she had prominent recurring roles on several popular television series.

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Roberto Lippi, Italian race car driver (died 2011)

Roberto Lippi was a racing driver from Italy. He participated in three Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, all of them in Italy, debuting on 10 September 1961. He started only one of these races, and scored no championship points.

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17/10/1925

Harry Carpenter, English sportscaster (died 2010)

Harry Leonard Carpenter, OBE was a British BBC sports commentator broadcasting from the early 1950s until his retirement in 1994. His speciality was boxing. He was presenter of programmes such as Sportsnight (1975–1985) and Grandstand and also anchored coverage of Wimbledon and golf tournaments.

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17/10/1924

Don Coryell, American football player and coach (died 2010)

Donald David Coryell was an American football coach. He coached in high school, college, and the professional ranks; his most notable NCAA post was with the San Diego State Aztecs for 12 seasons from 1961 to 1972 before he moved on to the National Football (NFL), first with the St. Louis Cardinals from 1973 to 1977 and then the San Diego Chargers from 1978 to 1986. Well known for his innovations in football's passing game, in particular the Air Coryell offense he created with the Chargers, Coryell was the first head coach to win more than 100 games at both the collegiate and professional levels. He was inducted into the Chargers Hall of Fame in 1994, the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2023.

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Anton Geiser, Croatian SS officer (died 2012)

Anton Geiser was a Yugoslav-born member of the SS-Totenkopfverbände during World War II, who served as a guard at both the Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald concentration camps. In 1956 he moved to the United States, settling in Sharon, Pennsylvania, where he had family. In 1962 he became a naturalized American citizen. In 2006 he was stripped of his citizenship on the grounds that it would not have been granted had the full details of his role in the German military been known; in 2010 a US judge ordered him deported to Austria, the country from which he had immigrated. He died in Pittsburgh on December 21, 2012, while still battling his deportation.

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Giacomo Mari, Italian footballer (died 1991)

Giacomo Mari was an Italian footballer who played as a midfielder.

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Rolando Panerai, Italian baritone (died 2019)

Rolando Panerai was an Italian baritone, particularly associated with the Italian repertoire. He performed at La Scala in Milan, often alongside Maria Callas and Giuseppe Di Stefano. He was known for musical understanding, excellent diction and versatile acting in both drama and comic opera. Among his signature roles were Ford in Verdi's Falstaff and the title role of Puccini's Gianni Schicchi.

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17/10/1923

Barney Kessel, American guitarist and composer (died 2004)

Barney Kessel was an American jazz guitarist. Known in particular for his knowledge of chords and inversions and chord-based melodies, he was a member of many prominent jazz groups as well as a "first call" guitarist for studio, film, and television recording sessions. Kessel was a member of the group of session musicians informally known as the Wrecking Crew.

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Charles McClendon, American football player and coach (died 2001)

Charles Youmans McClendon, also known as "Cholly Mac", was an American college football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Louisiana State University (LSU) from 1962 to 1979, compiling a record of 137–59–7. McClendon was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1986.

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17/10/1922

Luiz Bonfá, Brazilian guitarist and composer (died 2001)

Luiz Floriano Bonfá was a Brazilian guitarist and composer. He was best known for the music he composed for the film Black Orpheus.

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Pierre Juneau, Canadian broadcaster and politician, co-founded the Montreal World Film Festival (died 2012)

Pierre Juneau was a Canadian film and broadcast executive, a one-time member of the Canadian Cabinet, the first chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and subsequently president of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He is credited with the creation, promotion, and championing of Canadian content requirements for radio and television. Juneau is the namesake of the Juno Awards.

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17/10/1921

Priscilla Buckley, American journalist and author (died 2012)

Priscilla Langford Buckley was an American journalist and author who was the longtime managing editor of National Review.

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Maria Gorokhovskaya, Russian-Israeli gymnast (died 2001)

Maria Kondratyevna Gorokhovskaya was a Soviet gymnast of Jewish descent. At the 1952 Summer Olympics, she was the first woman to win seven medals at one Olympics. That is the highest number of medals won by a woman in a single Olympics, which is an achievement shared by only one other female athlete, the Australian swimmer Emma McKeon, who achieved that at the 2020 Summer Olympics held in 2021.

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George Mackay Brown, Scottish author, poet, and playwright (died 1996)

George Mackay Brown was a Scottish poet, author and dramatist with a distinctly Orcadian character. He is widely regarded as one of the great Scottish poets of the 20th century.

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Tom Poston, American actor and comedian (died 2007)

Thomas Gordon Poston was an American actor, appearing in television roles from the 1950s through the early to mid-2000s, reportedly appearing in more sitcoms than any other actor. In the 1980s, he played George Utley on the CBS sitcom Newhart, receiving three Emmy Award nominations for the role. In addition he had a number of film roles and appeared frequently on Broadway and television game shows.

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17/10/1920

Montgomery Clift, American actor (died 1966)

Edward Montgomery Clift was an American actor. A four-time Academy Award nominee, he was known for his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men", according to The New York Times.

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Miguel Delibes, Spanish journalist and author (died 2010)

Miguel Delibes Setién was a Spanish novelist, journalist and newspaper editor associated with the Generation of '36 movement. From 1975 until his death, he was a member of the Royal Spanish Academy, where he occupied letter "e" seat. Educated in commerce, he began his career as a cartoonist and columnist. He later became the editor for the regional newspaper El Norte de Castilla before gradually devoting himself exclusively to writing novels.

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Zully Moreno, Argentine actress (died 1999)

Zulema Esther González Borbón, better known as Zully Moreno, was an Argentine film actress during the Golden Age of Argentine cinema of the 1940s and 1950s. She appeared in more than 70 movies, earning best actress awards from the Argentine Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Spanish Cinema Writers Circle.

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17/10/1919

Isaak Khalatnikov, Ukrainian-Russian theoretical physicist and academic (died 2021)

Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov was a leading Soviet theoretical physicist who made significant contributions to many areas of theoretical physics, including general relativity, quantum field theory, as well as the theory of quantum liquids. He is well known for his role in developing the Landau-Khalatnikov theory of superfluidity and the so-called BKL conjecture in the general theory of relativity.

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Violet Milstead, Canadian World War II aviator and bush pilot (died 2014)

Violet Milstead Warren was a Canadian aviator, noted for being the first female Canadian bush pilot and one of only four Canadian women to work in the British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) during WWII. With over 600 hours of flight time during the war, she was the longest serving female Canadian ATA pilot. She worked as a flight instructor at Barker Field in Toronto, Ontario, and her students included commercial pilot Molly Reilly and author June Callwood. She is a member of the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame, the Order of Canada, and the Bush Pilots Hall of Fame.

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Zhao Ziyang, Chinese politician (died 2005)

Zhao Ziyang was a Chinese politician. He served as the 3rd premier of China from 1980 to 1987, as vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1981 to 1982, and as the CCP general secretary from 1987 to 1989. He was in charge of the political reforms in China from 1986, but lost power for his support of the 1989 Tian'anmen Square protests.

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17/10/1918

Rita Hayworth, American actress, singer and dancer (died 1987)

Rita Hayworth was an American actress, dancer, and pin-up girl. She achieved fame in the 1940s as one of the top stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and appeared in 61 films over 38 years. The press coined the term "The Love Goddess" to describe Hayworth after she became the most glamorous screen idol of the 1940s. She was the second top pin-up girl for GIs during World War II, after Betty Grable.

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Luis Alberto Solari, Uruguayan artist (died 1993)

Luis Alberto Solari (1918–1993) was a Uruguayan painter and engraver.

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Ralph Wilson, American businessman, founded the Buffalo Bills (died 2014)

Ralph Cookerly Wilson Jr. was an American businessman and sports executive. He was best known as the founder and owner of the Buffalo Bills, a team in the National Football League (NFL). He was one of the founding owners of the American Football League (AFL), the league with which the NFL merged in 1970, and was the last of the original AFL owners to own his team. At the time of his death he was the oldest owner in the NFL, at age 95. His 54 years of ownership was the third longest tenure by one owner in league history behind George Halas and Art Rooney. Wilson was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009.

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17/10/1917

Alfred Benlloch Llorach, Spanish inventor (died 2013)

Alfred Benlloch Llorach was a Spanish inventor with over one hundred patents registered in different areas.

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Martin Donnelly, New Zealand cricketer (died 1999)

Martin Paterson Donnelly was a New Zealand-born sportsman who played Test cricket for New Zealand and rugby union for England. He worked for Courtaulds in England and Sydney.

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Marsha Hunt, American actress and singer (died 2022)

Marsha Hunt was an American actress with a career spanning nearly 80 years. She was blacklisted by Hollywood film studio executives in the 1950s during McCarthyism.

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Aimo Koivunen, Finnish soldier and corporal (died 1989)

Aimo Allan Koivunen was a Finnish soldier in the Continuation War and the first documented case of a soldier overdosing on methamphetamine during combat. The case gained more notoriety due to Koivunen's fighting abilities whilst intoxicated.

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Norman Leyden, American composer and conductor (died 2014)

Norman Fowler Leyden was an American conductor, composer, arranger, and clarinetist. He worked in film and television and is perhaps best known as the conductor of the Oregon Symphony Pops orchestra. He co-wrote with Glenn Miller the theme "I Sustain the Wings" in 1943, which was used to introduce the World War II radio series.

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Sumner Locke Elliott, Australian-American author and playwright (died 1991)

Sumner Locke Elliott was an Australian novelist and playwright.

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Adele Stimmel Chase, American painter and sculptor (died 2000)

Adele Stimmel Chase was an American artist who worked in ceramics, metal sculpture and painting.

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17/10/1916

José López Rega, Argentinean politician (died 1989)

José López Rega was an Argentine politician who served as Minister of Social Welfare from 1973 to 1975, first under Juan Perón and continuing under Isabel Perón, Juan Perón's third wife and presidential successor. Lopez Rega exercised an allegedly Rasputin-like power and influence over Isabel Perón during her presidency, and used both this and his unique access to become the de facto political boss of Argentina. His orthodox Peronist and far-right politics and interest in occultism earned him the nickname El Brujo. López Rega had one daughter, Norma Beatriz, who went on to become the spouse of President Raúl Lastiri.

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17/10/1915

Arthur Miller, American playwright and screenwriter (died 2005)

Arthur Asher Miller was an American actor and writer of plays in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955). He wrote several screenplays, including The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman is considered one of the best American plays of the 20th century.

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17/10/1914

Jerry Siegel, American author and illustrator (died 1996)

Jerome "Jerry" Siegel was an American comic book writer. He was the co-creator of Superman, in collaboration with his friend Joe Shuster, published by DC Comics. They also created Doctor Occult, who was later featured in The Books of Magic. Siegel and Shuster were inducted into the comic book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1993. With Bernard Baily, Siegel also co-created the long-running DC character The Spectre. Siegel created ten of the earliest members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, one of DC's most popular team books, which is set in the 30th Century. Siegel also used pseudonyms including Joe Carter and Jerry Ess.

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17/10/1913

Robert Lowery, American actor (died 1971)

Robert Lowery was an American motion picture, television, and stage actor who appeared in more than 70 films. He was the second actor to play Batman, appearing as the character in the 1949 film serial Batman and Robin.

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Marian Marsh, Trinidadian-American actress and environmentalist (died 2006)

Marian Marsh was an American film actress and later an environmentalist.

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Faik Türün, Turkish general (died 2003)

Faik Türün was a Turkish general. He served in the Korean War as the Chief of Operations for the Turkish Brigade and was awarded the Silver Star by General Douglas MacArthur.

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17/10/1912

Pope John Paul I (died 1978)

Pope John Paul I was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 26 August 1978 until his death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, giving rise to the most recent year of three popes—the first since 1605. John Paul I remains the most recent Italian-born pope, the last in a succession of such popes that started with Clement VII in 1523. John Paul I also holds the dual status as being the first pope born in the 20th century as well as the last pope to die in it.

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Theodore Marier, American composer and educator, founded the Boston Archdiocesan Choir School (died 2001)

Theodore Norbert Marier was a church musician, educator, arranger and scholar of Gregorian Chant. He founded St. Paul's Choir School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1963, and served as the second president of the Church Music Association of America.

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Jack Owens, American singer-songwriter and pianist (died 1982)

John Milton Owens was a singer-songwriter, pianist, and star of the longest running network radio show Don McNeil's Breakfast Club. He was known as "The Cruising Crooner" because of his unique showmanship of cruising through mostly female audiences attending the live Breakfast Club broadcasts, and crooning love ballads to the blushing and giggling women, often singing directly to them, one at a time, sitting on their laps, and nuzzling close to them.

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17/10/1910

Marina Núñez del Prado, Bolivian sculptor (died 1995)

Marina Núñez del Prado was a celebrated Bolivian sculptor.

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Ester Wier, American author (died 2000)

Ester Wier was an American writer.

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17/10/1909

Cozy Cole, American drummer (died 1981)

William Randolph "Cozy" Cole was an American jazz drummer who worked with Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong among others and led his own groups.

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Leopoldo Panero, Spanish poet (died 1962)

Leopoldo Panero was Spanish poet, born in Astorga in 1909 and deceased in 1962. He was the father of the poets Leopoldo María Panero and Juan Luis Panero and the brother of the early-died poet Juan Panero.

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Joaquín Satrústegui, Spanish lawyer and politician (died 1992)

Joaquín Satrústegui Fernández was a Spanish lawyer and political monarchist. He fought on the Nationalist side during the Spanish Civil War, and evolved from the ultra-conservatism of his youth into liberal positions, always within monarchist sectors. He was one of those attending the conference of the European Movement held in Munich in 1962. After the Spanish transition to democracy he was successively elected senator and congressman.

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17/10/1908

Kenji Miyamoto, Japanese politician (died 2007)

Kenji Miyamoto was a Japanese communist politician. He was the leader of the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) from 1958 to 1977.

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Hjördis Petterson, Swedish actress (died 1988)

Hjördis Olga Maria Petterson was a Swedish actress. She appeared in more than 140 films. She was born in Visby, Sweden and died in Stockholm. She had one child with her second husband, Fred Renstroem.

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Wally Prigg, Australian rugby league player (died 1980)

Wally Prigg (1908–1980) was an Australian rugby league footballer. He was a lock for the Australian national rugby league team. He played nineteen Tests for the Kangaroos between 1929 and 1938, seven as captain and was the first Australian player to make three tours to Great Britain with the Australian national rugby league team. He has been named amongst the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century.

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Red Rolfe, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 1969)

Robert Abial "Red" Rolfe was an American baseball third baseman, manager and front-office executive in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for the New York Yankees from 1931 to 1942 and managed the Detroit Tigers from 1949 to 1952.

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17/10/1907

John Marley, American actor (died 1984)

John Marley was an American actor and theatre director. He won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 29th Venice International Film Festival for his performance in John Cassavetes' Faces (1968), and was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his role in Love Story (1970). He was also known to film audiences for his role as Jack Woltz—the defiant film mogul who awakens to find the severed head of his prized thoroughbred horse in his bed—in The Godfather (1972).

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17/10/1906

Paul Derringer, American baseball player (died 1987)

Samuel Paul Derringer was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for three National League teams from 1931 to 1945, primarily the Cincinnati Reds.

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Andrey Tikhonov, Soviet mathematician (died 1993)

Andrey Nikolayevich Tikhonov was a leading Soviet Russian mathematician and geophysicist known for important contributions to topology, functional analysis, mathematical physics, and ill-posed problems. He was also one of the inventors of the magnetotellurics method in geophysics. Other transliterations of his surname include "Tychonoff", "Tychonov", "Tihonov", "Tichonov".

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17/10/1905

Leopoldo Benites, Ecuadorian diplomat 28th president of the United Nations General Assembly (died 1996)

Leopoldo Benites was an Ecuadorian diplomat who served as the 28th President of the United Nations General Assembly in 1973. He had been the permanent representative of Ecuador since October 1960.

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17/10/1903

Andrei Grechko, Soviet general (died 1976)

Andrei Antonovich Grechko was a Soviet military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He served as the Soviet minister of defence from 1967 to 1976.

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Nathanael West, American author and screenwriter (died 1940)

Nathanael West was an American writer and screenwriter. He is remembered for two darkly satirical novels: Miss Lonelyhearts (1933) and The Day of the Locust (1939), set respectively in the newspaper and Hollywood film industries.

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17/10/1902

Irene Ryan, American actress (died 1973)

Irene Ryan was an American actress and comedienne who found success in vaudeville, radio, film, television, and Broadway. She is most widely known for her portrayal of Daisy May "Granny" Moses, mother-in-law of Buddy Ebsen's character Jed Clampett on the long-running TV series The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971). She was nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1963 and 1964 for the role.

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17/10/1901

Emma Gamboa Alvarado, Costa Rican educator (died 1973)

Emma Gamboa Alvarado, was a Costa Rican educator, recognized for her contributions to pedagogy and teaching. She was declared Benemérita de la Patria by the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica in 1980. She was depicted on the ten thousand colones bill of 1998.

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17/10/1900

C. C. van Asch van Wijck, Dutch artist and sculptor (died 1932)

Jonkvrouwe (Lady) Cornélie Caroline "Cox" van Asch van Wijck was a Dutch artist and sculptor.

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Jean Arthur, American actress (died 1991)

Jean Arthur was an American film and theater actress whose career began in silent films in the early 1920s and lasted until the early 1950s.

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Yvor Winters, American critic and poet (died 1968)

Arthur Yvor Winters was an American poet and literary critic.

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17/10/1898

Shinichi Suzuki, Japanese violinist and educator (died 1998)

Shinichi Suzuki was a Japanese violinist, philosopher, composer, and educator and the founder of the international Suzuki method of music education and developed a philosophy for educating people of all ages and abilities. An influential pedagogue in music education of children, he often spoke of the ability of all children to learn things well, especially in the right environment, and of developing the heart and building the character of music students through their music education. Before his time, it was rare for children to be formally taught classical instruments from an early age and even more rare for children to be accepted by a music teacher without an audition or entrance examination. Not only did he endeavor to teach children the violin from infancy and early childhood, his school in Matsumoto also did not screen applicants for their ability for admittance. Suzuki was also responsible for the early training of some of the earliest Japanese violinists to be successfully appointed to prominent western classical music organizations. During his lifetime, he received several honorary doctorates in music including from the New England Conservatory of Music (1956), and the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. He was proclaimed a Living National Treasure of Japan, and in 1993 he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

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Eileen Sedgwick, American actress (died 1991)

Eileen Sedgwick was an American actress of the silent era.

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Simon Vestdijk, Dutch author and poet (died 1971)

Simon Vestdijk was a Dutch writer.

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17/10/1896

Roman Petrovich, Russian prince (died 1978)

Prince Roman Petrovich of Russia was a member of the House of Romanov.

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17/10/1895

Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes, President of Guatemala (1958–1963) (died 1982)

José Miguel Ramón Ydígoras Fuentes was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as the 32nd president of Guatemala from 1958 to March 1963. He was also the main challenger to Jacobo Árbenz during the 1950 presidential election. Ydígoras previously served as the governor of the province of San Marcos.

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Doris Humphrey, American dancer and choreographer (died 1958)

Doris Batcheller Humphrey was an American dancer and choreographer of the early twentieth century. Along with her contemporaries Martha Graham and Katherine Dunham, Humphrey was one of the second generation modern dance pioneers who followed their forerunners – including Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn – in exploring the use of breath and developing techniques still taught today. As many of her works were annotated, Humphrey continues to be taught, studied and performed.

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17/10/1894

Prince René, Italian Prince of Denmark (died 1962)

Prince René of Bourbon-Parma was the seventh surviving son of Robert I, Duke of Parma, and his second wife, Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal. In 1921, he married Princess Margaret of Denmark. They had four children including Anne, the wife of Michael I, former King of Romania.

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Pablo de Rokha, Chilean poet (died 1968)

Carlos Ignacio Díaz Loyola, known by the pseudonym Pablo de Rokha, was a Chilean vanguard poet. Awarded the Chilean National Prize for Literature in 1965, de Rokha is considered one of the four greats of Chilean poetry.

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17/10/1893

Raffaele Bendandi, Italian clockmaker and seismologist (died 1979)

Raffaele Bendandi was an Italian clockmaker known for his predictions of earthquakes. Bendandi was self-taught and never published a verifiable scientific exposition of his theory.

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17/10/1892

Theodor Eicke, German SS general (died 1943)

Theodor Eicke was a German military officer who served as both a senior SS functionary and a Waffen-SS divisional commander in Nazi Germany. He was a key figure in the development of Nazi concentration camps. Eicke served as the second commandant of the Dachau concentration camp from June 1933 to July 1934, and together with his adjutant Michael Lippert, was one of the executioners of SA Chief Ernst Röhm during the Night of the Long Knives purge of 1934. He continued to expand and develop the concentration camp system as the first Concentration Camps Inspector.

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Herbert Howells, English organist, composer, and educator (died 1983)

Herbert Norman Howells was an English composer, organist, and teacher, most famous for his large output of Anglican church music.

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17/10/1890

Roy Kilner, English cricketer (died 1928)

Roy Kilner was an English professional cricketer who played nine Test matches for England between 1924 and 1926. An all-rounder, he played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1911 and 1927. In all first-class matches, he scored 14,707 runs at an average of 30.01 and took 1,003 wickets at an average of 18.45. Kilner scored 1,000 runs in a season ten times and took 100 wickets in a season five times. On four occasions, he completed the double: scoring 1,000 runs and taking 100 wickets in the same season, recognised as a sign of a quality all-rounder.

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17/10/1889

Mikha'il Na'ima, Lebanese author (died 1988)

Mikha'il Nu'ayma, better known in English by his pen name Mikhail Naimy, was a Lebanese poet, novelist, and philosopher, famous for his spiritual writings, notably The Book of Mirdad. He is widely recognized as one of the most important figures in modern Arabic literature and one of the most important spiritual writers of the 20th century.

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17/10/1886

Spring Byington, American actress (died 1971)

Spring Dell Byington was an American actress. Her career included a seven-year run on radio and television as the star of December Bride. She was an MGM contract player who appeared in films from the 1930s to the 1960s.

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17/10/1883

Alexander Neill, Scottish educator (died 1973)

Alexander Sutherland Neill was a Scottish educator and author known for his school, Summerhill, and its philosophy of freedom from adult coercion and community self-governance. Raised in Scotland, Neill taught at several schools before attending the University of Edinburgh in 1908–1912. He took two jobs in journalism before World War I, and taught at Gretna Green Village School in the second year of the war, writing his first book, A Dominie's Log (1915), as a diary of his life there as head teacher. He joined a Dresden school in 1921 and founded Summerhill on returning to England in 1924. Summerhill gained renown in the 1930s and then in the 1960s–1970s, due to progressive and counter-culture interest. Neill wrote 20 books. His top seller was the 1960 Summerhill, read widely in the free school movement from the 1960s.

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Thaddeus Shideler, American hurdler (died 1966)

Thaddeus Rutter Shideler was an American hurdler who competed in the early twentieth century. He competed in athletics at the 1904 Summer Olympics and won a silver medal in the 110 meters hurdles. Fred Schule won the gold medal.

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17/10/1882

Haritina Korotkevich, Russian war heroine (died 1904)

Haritina Evstafievna Korotkevich was a Russian soldier who served in the Imperial Russian Army during the Russo-Japanese War. Volunteering to serve disguised as a man under the pseudonym Khariton Korotkevich, she soon gained a reputation as a fearless leader as a woman in her own right. She was killed by shellfire on the front line during the Siege of Port Arthur.

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17/10/1881

Maria Dulęba, Polish actress (died 1959)

Maria Zofia Dulęba was a Polish stage and film actress. She made her stage debut in 1902 and performed in a number of films, mostly in the silent era. She later taught drama.

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17/10/1880

Jesús Reyes Ferreira, Mexican artist and art collector (died 1977)

Jesús Reyes Ferreira, (1880-1977) born José de Jesús Benjamín Buenaventura de los Reyes y Ferreira and also known as Chucho Reyes, was a self-taught artist and antiques/art collector and vendor. Reyes Ferreira began painting on crêpe paper, a delicate material not meant to last, as a way of decorating paper meant to wrap sales from his antiques/art store. The decorated paper became popular enough to be sold on its own. Although he began this activity in Guadalajara, he did not produce the bulk of his work until after he moved to Mexico City when he was 58 years old. Here he continued collecting and selling objects such as colonial art and Mexican handcrafts and folk art, being one of the early exponents for the appreciation of these objects. He also spent several hours a day painting. His work was first exhibited in 1950 with his first individual exhibition in 1967 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes after a half century of painting. As a self-taught painter, his works are relatively simple and often are dismissed as folk painting but they were and his aesthetics were praised by famous artists and architects at the time.

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17/10/1878

Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, Spanish politician and 17th Duke of Alba (died 1953)

Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart y Falcó, 17th Duke of Alba, 10th Duke of Berwick, GE, LH, GCVO was a Spanish peer, diplomat, politician, art collector and Olympic medalist. He was one of the most important aristocrats of his time and held, among other titles, the dukedoms of Alba de Tormes and Berwick, the Countship of Lemos, Lerín, Montijo and the Marquessate of Carpio. He was granted the Order of the Golden Fleece of Spain in 1926.

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17/10/1876

Hippolyte Aucouturier, French road cyclist (died 1944)

Hippolyte Aucouturier was a French professional road bicycle racer. Aucouturier, a professional between 1900 and 1908, won two stages at the first Tour de France in 1903 and won three stages and finished second in the 1905 Tour de France. He also won Paris–Roubaix twice, in 1903 and 1904. His elder brother Francois was also a racing cyclist.

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17/10/1871

Segundo de Chomón, Spanish cinematographer, director, and screenwriter (died 1929)

Segundo Víctor Aurelio Chomón y Ruiz was a pioneering Spanish-French film director, cinematographer and screenwriter. He produced many short films in France while working for Pathé Frères and has been compared to Georges Méliès, due to his frequent camera tricks and optical illusions. He is regarded as the most significant Spanish silent film director in an international context.

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17/10/1869

Bhaskarbuwa Bakhale, Hindustani classical vocalist

Bhaskar Raghunath Bakhale was a Hindustani classical vocalist, a composer, and a teacher.

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17/10/1867

Josep Puig i Cadafalch, Catalan architect who designed the Casa Martí (died 1956)

Josep Puig i Cadafalch was a Spanish architect who designed many significant buildings in Barcelona, and a politician who had a significant role in the development of Catalan regional institutions.

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17/10/1865

James Rudolph Garfield, American lawyer and politician, 23rd United States Secretary of the Interior (died 1950)

James Rudolph Garfield was an American lawyer and politician. Garfield was a son of President James A. Garfield and First Lady Lucretia Garfield. He served as Secretary of the Interior during President Theodore Roosevelt's administration.

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17/10/1864

Elinor Glyn, English author, screenwriter, and producer (died 1943)

Elinor Glyn was a British novelist and scriptwriter who specialised in romantic fiction, which was considered scandalous for its time, although her works are relatively tame by modern standards. She popularized the concept of the "it girl", and had tremendous influence on early 20th-century popular culture and, possibly, on the careers of notable Hollywood stars such as Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson and, especially, Clara Bow.

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17/10/1860

Henry Campbell Black, founder of Black's Law Dictionary (died 1927)

Henry Campbell Black was the founder of Black's Law Dictionary, the definitive legal dictionary in the USA first published in 1891.

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17/10/1859

Childe Hassam, American painter and illustrator (died 1935)

Frederick Childe Hassam was an American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressionism to American collectors, dealers, and museums. He produced over 3,000 paintings, oils, watercolors, etchings, and lithographs over the course of his career, and was an influential American artist of the early 20th century.

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17/10/1853

Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia (died 1920)

Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia was the sixth child and only surviving daughter of Alexander II of Russia and Marie of Hesse and by Rhine; she was Duchess of Edinburgh and later Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as the wife of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. She was the younger sister of Alexander III of Russia and the paternal aunt of Russia's last emperor, Nicholas II.

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17/10/1845

John J. Gardner, American politician (died 1921)

John James Gardner was an American businessman, Civil War veteran, and Republican Party politician who represented New Jersey's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives for ten terms from 1893 to 1913, and was Mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey.

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17/10/1844

Gustave Schlumberger, French historian (died 1929)

Gustave Léon Schlumberger was a French historian and numismatist who specialised in the era of the crusades and the Byzantine Empire. His Numismatique de l'Orient Latin (1878–82) is still considered the principal work on the coinage of the crusades. He was awarded the medal of the Royal Numismatic Society in 1903. A large portion of his extensive Crusader coin collection is housed in the Cabinet des Médailles a department of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris.

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17/10/1840

André Gill, French caricaturist (died 1885)

André Gill was a French caricaturist. Born Louis-Alexandre Gosset de Guînes at Paris, the son of the Comte de Guînes and Sylvie-Adeline Gosset, Gill studied at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. He adopted the pseudonym André Gill in homage to his hero, James Gillray. Gill began illustrating for Le Journal Amusant, but he became known for his work for the weekly four-sheet newspaper La Lune, edited by Francis Polo, in which he drew portraits for a series entitled The Man of the Day. He worked for La Lune from 1865 to 1868. When La Lune was banned, he worked for the periodical L'Éclipse from 1868 to 1876. Gill also drew for famous periodical Le Charivari.

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17/10/1835

Louis-Léon Cugnot, French sculptor (died 1894)

Louis-Léon Cugnot was a French sculptor.

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Paul Haenlein, German mechanical engineer (died 1905)

Paul Haenlein was a German engineer and flight pioneer. He flew in a semi-rigid-frame dirigible. His family belonged to the Citoyens notables, those notabilities who led the economy, administration and culture of Mainz.

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17/10/1833

José E. Días, Paraguayan general (died 1867)

José Eduvigis Díaz Vera was a Paraguayan general. Díaz was born in the town of Cerro Verá east of Pirayú in the department of Paraguarí. His parents were Juan Andrés Díaz and Dolores Vera.

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17/10/1828

Aureliano Maestre de San Juan, Spanish scientist (died 1890)

Aureliano Maestre de San Juan was a Spanish scientist, histologist, physician and anatomist. He is credited as being one of the first scientists to recognize the disorder known as Kallmann syndrome. He died in 1890, having been blinded in a laboratory accident involving caustic soda two years earlier.

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17/10/1821

Alexander Gardner, Scottish photographer (died 1882)

Alexander Gardner was a Scottish-American photographer who immigrated to the United States in 1856, where he began to work full-time in that profession. He is best known for his photographs of the American Civil War, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, and of the conspirators and the execution of the participants in the Lincoln assassination plot.

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17/10/1817

Syed Ahmad Khan, Indian philosopher and scholar (died 1898)

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, also spelled Sayyid Ahmad Khan, was an Indian Muslim reformer, philosopher, and educationist in nineteenth-century British Raj.

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17/10/1814

Yakiv Holovatsky, Ukrainian historian, scholar, and poet (died 1888)

Yakiv Holovatsky or Yakov Golovatsky was a Galician historian, literary scholar, ethnographer, linguist, bibliographer, lexicographer, poet and leader of Galician Russophiles. He was a member of the Ruthenian Triad, one of the most influential Ukrainian literary groups in the Austrian Empire.

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17/10/1813

Georg Büchner, German-Swiss poet and playwright (died 1837)

Karl Georg Büchner was a German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose, considered part of the Young Germany movement. He was also a revolutionary and the brother of physician and philosopher Ludwig Büchner. His literary achievements, though limited, are generally held in great esteem in Germany. Despite his brief career, his plays profoundly influenced naturalism, expressionism, and later developments in European theater.

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17/10/1811

Albertus van Raalte, Dutch-American pastor and educator (died 1876)

Albertus Christiaan van Raalte was a Dutch Reformed clergyman who moved to the United States with a group of Dutch emigrants and founded the city of Holland, Michigan, in 1846. In 1851, he was involved in founding the school that would become Hope College.

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17/10/1810

Adolphe-Félix Cals, French painter (died 1880)

Adolphe-Félix Cals was a French portrait, genre, and landscape painter.

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17/10/1803

Ferenc Deák, Hungarian politician (died 1876)

Ferenc Deák de Kehida was a Hungarian statesman and Minister of Justice. He was known as "The Wise Man of the Nation" and one of the greatest figures of Hungary's liberal movement.

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17/10/1797

Juan Lavalle, Argentine politician (died 1841)

Juan Galo Lavalle was an Argentine military and political figure from the Unitarian Party.

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17/10/1792

John Bowring, English polyglot and governor of Hong Kong (died 1826)

Sir John Bowring, or Phrayā Siam Mānukūlakicca Siammitra Mahāyaśa was a British political economist, traveller, writer, literary translator, polyglot and the fourth Governor of Hong Kong. He was appointed by Queen Victoria as emissary to Siam, later he was appointed by King Mongkut of Siam as ambassador to London, also making a treaty of amity with Siam on 18 April 1855, now referred to as the "Bowring Treaty". His namesake treaty was fully effective for 70 years, until the reign of Vajiravudh. This treaty was gradually edited and became completely ineffective in 1938 under the government of Plaek Phibunsongkhram. Later, he was sent as a commissioner of Britain to the newly created Kingdom of Italy in 1861. He died in Claremont in Devon on 23 November 1872.

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17/10/1785

Christen Smith, Norwegian scientist (died 1816)

Christen Smith also known as Christian Smith or Chretien Smith, was an early 19th-century Norwegian physician, economist and naturalist, particularly botanist. He died, only 30 years old during a dramatic expedition to the Congo River in 1816, leaving a wealth of botanical material.

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17/10/1784

Fructuoso Rivera, first president of Uruguay (died 1854)

José Fructuoso Rivera y Toscana was a Uruguayan general who fought for the liberation of Banda Oriental from Brazilian rule, thrice served as President of Uruguay and was one of the instigators of the long Uruguayan Civil War. He is also considered to be the founder of the Colorado Party, which ruled Uruguay without interruption from 1865 until 1958.

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17/10/1781

Johann Friedrich Meckel, German anatomist (died 1833)

Johann Friedrich Meckel, often referred to as Johann Friedrich Meckel, the Younger, was a German anatomist born in Halle. He worked as a professor of anatomy, pathology and zoology at the University of Halle, Germany.

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17/10/1780

Richard Mentor Johnson, American politician, ninth Vice President of the United States (died 1850)

Richard Mentor Johnson was an American lawyer, military officer and politician who served as the ninth vice president of the United States from 1837 to 1841 under President Martin Van Buren. He is the only vice president elected by the United States Senate under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment. Johnson also represented Kentucky in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. He began and ended his political career in the Kentucky House of Representatives.

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17/10/1779

Louis Charles, French prince of the blood (died 1808)

Louis Charles Alphonse Léodgard d'Orléans, Count of Beaujolais was a French prince of the blood, son of Philippe Égalité and the younger brother of King Louis-Philippe I of the French.

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José Andrés Pacheco de Melo, Argentine statesman and priest (died approx. 1820)

José Andrés Pacheco de Melo was an Argentine statesman and priest. He was a representative to the Congress of Tucumán which on 9 July 1816 declared the Independence of Argentina.

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17/10/1768

Sophie von Dönhoff, morganatic spouse by bigamy to King Frederick William II of Prussia (died 1838)

Countess Sophie Friederike Juliane von Dönhoff was a German lady-in-waiting and a morganatic spouse by bigamy to King Frederick William II of Prussia.

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17/10/1760

Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon, French economist and philosopher (died 1825)

Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon, better known as Henri de Saint-Simon, was a French political, economic and socialist theorist and businessman whose thought had a substantial influence on politics, economics, sociology and the philosophy of science. He was a younger relative of the famous memoirist the Duc de Saint-Simon.

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17/10/1759

Andrey Voronikhin, Russian architect and painter (died 1814)

Andrey (Andrei) Nikiforovich Voronikhin was a Russian architect and painter. As a representative of classicism he was also one of the founders of the monumental Russian Empire style. Born a serf of the Stroganov family, he is best known for his work on Kazan Cathedral in Saint Petersburg.

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17/10/1735

Franz Xaver Feuchtmayer the Younger, German Baroque artist (died 1803)

Franz Xaver Feuchtmayer (the Younger) (17 October 1735 – 6 January 1803) was a member of the German Feuchtmayer family of Baroque artists associated with the Wessobrunner School.

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17/10/1729

Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny, French composer and academic (died 1817)

Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny was a French composer and a member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts (1813).

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17/10/1725

John Wilkes, English journalist and politician (died 1797)

John Wilkes was an English radical, journalist, politician, magistrate, essayist, and soldier. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fought for the right of his voters – rather than the House of Commons – to determine their representatives. In 1768, angry protests of his supporters were suppressed in the Massacre of St George's Fields. In 1771, he was instrumental in obliging the government to concede the right of printers to publish verbatim accounts of parliamentary debates. In 1776, he introduced the first bill for parliamentary reform in the British Parliament.

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17/10/1720

Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini, Italian harpsichord player and composer (died 1795)

Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini was an Italian composer. Though she was most famous for her compositions, she was also an accomplished harpsichordist and singer, and the majority of her surviving compositions were written for keyboard, the voice, or both.

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17/10/1719

Jacques Cazotte, French author and academic (died 1792)

Jacques Cazotte was a French writer and a monarchist. He predicted the Reign of Terror and was guillotined shortly after.

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17/10/1711

Jupiter Hammon, American poet (died 1806)

Jupiter Hammon was an American writer who is known as a founder of African-American literature, as his poem published in 1761 in New York was the first by an African American man in North America. He subsequently published both poetry and prose. In addition, he was a preacher and a commercial clerk on Long Island, New York.

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17/10/1688

Domenico Zipoli, Italian missionary and composer (died 1726)

Domenico Zipoli (1688–1726) was an Italian composer from the Baroque period who worked in Córdoba, in the Viceroyalty of Peru, Spanish Empire,. He became a Jesuit in order to work in the Reductions of Paraguay where he taught music among the Guaraní people. He is remembered as the most accomplished musician among Jesuit missionaries.

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17/10/1629

Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias (died 1646)

Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias, Prince of Girona, Prince of Viana, Prince of Portugal, Duke of Montblanc, Count of Cervera, and Lord of Balaguer was heir apparent to all the kingdoms, states and dominions of the Spanish monarchy from his birth until his death.

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17/10/1623

Francis Turretin, Swiss-Italian minister, theologian, and academic (died 1687)

Francis Turretin was a Genevan-Italian Reformed scholastic theologian.

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17/10/1587

Nathan Field, English dramatist and actor (died 1620)

Nathan Field was an English dramatist and actor.

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17/10/1582

Johann Gerhard, German theologian and academic (died 1637)

Johannes Gerhard was a Lutheran church leader and Lutheran Scholastic theologian during the period of Orthodoxy.

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17/10/1577

Cristofano Allori, Italian painter (died 1621)

Cristofano Allori was an Italian painter of the late Florentine Mannerist school, painting mostly portraits and religious subjects.

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Dmitry Pozharsky, Russian prince (died 1642)

Dmitry Mikhaylovich Pozharsky was a Russian prince known for his military leadership during the Polish–Russian War from 1611 to 1612. Pozharsky formed the Second Volunteer Army with Kuzma Minin in Nizhny Novgorod against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's occupation of Russia during the Time of Troubles, resulting in Polish withdrawal after Russian victory at the Battle of Moscow in 1612. Pozharsky received the unprecedented title of Saviour of the Fatherland from Mikhail I of Russia, becoming a folk hero in Russian culture and honored in the Monument to Minin and Pozharsky in Moscow's Red Square.

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17/10/1538

Irene di Spilimbergo, Italian Renaissance poet and painter (died 1559)

Irene di Spilimbergo was an Italian Renaissance painter and poet.

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17/10/1500

Alonso de Orozco Mena, Spanish Roman Catholic priest (died 1591)

Alonso de Orozco Mena was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest from the Augustinian order. He was well known across Spain for his preaching abilities and for an austere and humble life.

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17/10/1493

Bartolommeo Bandinelli, Italian sculptor (died 1560)

Baccio Bandinelli was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, draughtsman, and painter.

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17/10/1253

Ivo of Kermartin, French priest and saint (died 1303)

Ivo of Kermartin, TOSF, also known as Yvo, Yves, or Ives, was a parish priest among the poor of Louannec, the only one of his station to be canonized in the Middle Ages. He is the patron of Brittany, lawyers, and abandoned children. His feast day is 19 May. Poetically, he is referred to as "advocate of the poor".

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17/10/0503

Lý Nam Đế, first emperor of Vietnam (died 548)

Lý Nam Đế, personal name Lý Bôn or Lý Bí (李賁), was the founding emperor of the Early Lý dynasty of Vietnam, ruling from 544 to 548. He was originally a magistrate of the Chinese Liang dynasty in Jiaozhou.

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