Born on Wednesday, 17th September – Famous Birthdays

17/09/2002

Elina Avanesyan, Russian-Armenian tennis player

Elina Araratovna Avanesyan is a Russian-born Armenian tennis player. She has a career-high WTA singles ranking of No. 36, achieved on 17 March 2025 and a best doubles ranking of No. 163, achieved on 12 August 2024. She is currently the No. 1 singles player from Armenia.

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17/09/1999

Jaimee Fourlis, Australian tennis player

Jaimee Fourlis is an Australian tennis player of Greek descent. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 147, achieved on 18 July 2022, and a highest doubles ranking of world No. 138, reached on 2 March 2020.

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Daniel Huttlestone, English actor

Daniel Richard Huttlestone is a British actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Gavroche in Tom Hooper's Les Misérables (2012) and Jack in the musical film Into the Woods (2014), which both earned him a 2013 and 2015 Young Artist Award nomination as Best Young Supporting Actor in a Feature Film.

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17/09/1998

Kim Dong-hyun, South Korean singer

Kim Dong-hyun, known mononymously as Donghyun, is a South Korean singer-songwriter and actor. He is known for his participation in the reality competition show Produce 101 Season 2. He later debuted as a part of the musical duo, MXM. He is a member of South Korean boy group AB6IX.

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17/09/1997

Auston Matthews, American ice hockey player

Auston Taylour Matthews is an American professional ice hockey player who is a center and captain for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL). Nicknamed "Papi" or "Tone," he is widely considered as one of the best players in the world with his all-around game and lethal shot. His goal-scoring rate has drawn comparisons to players such as Alexander Ovechkin.

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17/09/1996

Duje Ćaleta-Car, Croatian footballer

Duje Ćaleta-Car is a Croatian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for La Liga club Real Sociedad, on loan from Ligue 1 club Lyon, and the Croatia national team.

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Esteban Ocon, French Formula One racing driver

Esteban José Jean-Pierre Ocon-Khelfane is a French racing driver who competes in Formula One for Haas. Ocon won the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix with Alpine.

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Slayyyter, American singer and songwriter

Catherine Grace Garner, known professionally as Slayyyter, is an American singer, songwriter, and rapper. She started her career independently releasing songs through SoundCloud. Her eponymous debut mixtape, Slayyyter, was independently released in 2019. Her debut studio album, Troubled Paradise, was released in June 2021, and her second studio album, Starfucker, in September 2023. Her third studio album, Worst Girl in America, was released in March 2026 on Columbia Records. In addition to three solo tours, she has also toured with Charli XCX, Kesha, and Tove Lo.

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Choi Young-jae, South Korean singer and actor

Choi Young-jae, professionally known by the mononym Youngjae, is a South Korean singer-songwriter and actor. He is a member of the South Korean boy band Got7.

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17/09/1995

Michael Bunting, Canadian ice hockey player

Michael Bunting is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a left winger for the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League (NHL). Bunting was selected by the Arizona Coyotes, 117th overall, in the 2014 NHL entry draft. He has also played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Carolina Hurricanes, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Nashville Predators.

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Patrick Mahomes, American football player

Patrick Lavon Mahomes II is an American professional football quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). After becoming the Chiefs' starting quarterback in 2018, he led the team to seven consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances and five Super Bowl appearances, winning three. He is one of only five quarterbacks in NFL history to win three or more Super Bowls as a starter. Mahomes is widely regarded as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. He is often considered the best quarterback of his generation, with many outlets ranking him as the league's top player at the position.

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Yoo Si-ah, South Korean singer

Yoo Si-ah, known professionally as YooA (유아), is a South Korean singer and actress. She is a member of the girl group Oh My Girl under WM Entertainment. She made her debut as a solo artist, with her first EP Bon Voyage, on September 7, 2020.

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17/09/1994

Na In-woo, South Korean actor

Na Jong-chan, better known by his stage name Na In-woo (나인우), is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his roles in Mr. Queen (2020–2021), River Where the Moon Rises (2021), Marry My Husband (2024), and Motel California (2025). He has been a cast member of the variety show 2 Days & 1 Night since 2022.

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Denyse Tontz, Salvadoran-American actress and singer

Denyse Tontz is an American actress, singer and songwriter. Tontz is known for her roles as Cortney Strathmore on Freeform's The Fosters, Miranda Montgomery on All My Children, Nikki Ortiz on Dog with a Blog, Elena on the 2017 Syfy series Incorporated, and heroine Alicia Mendoza in the 2019 ABC summer series Grand Hotel. She is known in the music world for her single, "United States of Anxiety", debuted in 2016 by People.com.

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17/09/1993

Sofiane Boufal, Moroccan footballer

Sofiane Boufal is a professional footballer who plays as a winger or attacking midfielder for Ligue 1 club Le Havre. Born in France, he plays for the Morocco national team.

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Sophie Howard, Scottish footballer

Sophie Louise Howard is a footballer who plays as a defender for Serie A club Como. Born in Germany, she has been a member of the Scotland national team since 2017.

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17/09/1992

Alfonzo McKinnie, American basketball player

Alfonzo McKinnie is an American professional basketball player who last played for Busan KCC Egis of the Basketball Champions League Asia. He played college basketball for Eastern Illinois University and University of Wisconsin–Green Bay.

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Danny Ramirez, American actor

Danny Ramirez is an American actor. He gained recognition for his role as Joaquin Torres / Falcon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Captain America: Brave New World (2025) and the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021). He has also had roles in the film Top Gun: Maverick (2022), and the HBO television series The Last of Us (2025).

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José Ramírez, Dominican baseball player

José Enrique Ramírez is a Dominican professional baseball third baseman for the Cleveland Guardians of Major League Baseball (MLB). He signed with the Cleveland Indians as an international free agent in 2009, and made his MLB debut in 2013.

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17/09/1991

Ryo Ishikawa, Japanese golfer

Ryo Ishikawa , also known by the nickname Hanikami Ōji , is a Japanese professional golfer.

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Mena Massoud, Egyptian-Canadian actor

Mena Mansour Massoud is an Egyptian-born Canadian actor. He made his film debut in the 2017 Canadian dramatic thriller Ordinary Days. His breakthrough came with playing the title character in the Disney fantasy film Aladdin (2019), which earned him nominations for a Teen Choice Award and two National Film & TV Awards.

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Egor Yakovlev, Russian ice hockey player

Egor Konstantinovich Yakovlev is a Russian professional ice hockey defenceman for Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). He previously played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the New Jersey Devils.

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17/09/1990

Pixie Geldof, English model and singer

Little Pixie Geldof is an English-born model and singer. She is the third daughter of Irish musician Bob Geldof and Paula Yates.

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Sean Scannell, English footballer

Sean Scannell is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for Isthmian League Premier Division club Cray Valley Paper Mills.

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Marcus Semien, American baseball player

Marcus Andrew Semien is an American professional baseball shortstop and second baseman for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics, Toronto Blue Jays, and Texas Rangers.

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17/09/1989

Danielle Brooks, American actress

Danielle Brooks is an American actress. After studying drama at the Juilliard School she earned her breakthrough in television before expanding to theater and film. She has received a Grammy Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award.

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Kate Deines, American soccer player

Kathleen Ann Deines is an American soccer midfielder–defender. She most recently played for Turbine Potsdam in the German Bundesliga and Seattle Reign FC of the National Women's Soccer League. Deines was a fourth round pick of the Atlanta Beat of Women's Professional Soccer in the 2012 WPS Draft of college seniors on January 13, 2012. The WPS Board of Governors voted to suspend the 2012 season on January 30 citing pending legal issues. Subsequently, she was free to sign with other teams and rejoined the Seattle Sounders Women, the organization she had previously played for from 2007 to 2009. After the formation of the National Women's Soccer League in late 2012, Deines played for the Seattle Reign during the league's first two seasons. She was traded to FC Kansas City in late 2014 but announced her retirement from professional soccer on March 31, 2015, before the 2015 season began.

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17/09/1987

Paul Huntington, English footballer

Paul David Huntington is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back.

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17/09/1986

Ravichandran Ashwin, Indian cricketer

Ravichandran Ashwin is an Indian cricketer. He is a right-arm off spin bowler and a lower order batter. Widely regarded as one of the most prolific spinners of all time, he represented the Indian cricket team and was part of the Indian team that won the 2011 Cricket World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy. He represented Tamil Nadu and South Zone in domestic cricket.

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Paolo De Ceglie, Italian footballer

Paolo De Ceglie is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a left-back, wing-back, or as a winger.

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Sophie, English music producer, disc jockey and singer (died 2021)

Sophie Xeon, known mononymously as Sophie, was a British music producer, songwriter, and DJ. Her distinctive musical style incorporates experimental sound design, "sugary" synthesised textures, and underground dance elements. She would help pioneer the 2010s hyperpop microgenre.

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17/09/1985

Tomáš Berdych, Czech tennis player

Tomáš Berdych is a former Czech professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 4 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), achieved in May 2015. He also reached a best doubles ranking of No. 54 in April 2006. Berdych won 13 ATP Tour singles titles, including the 2005 Paris Masters. His most notable achievement was reaching the final of the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, achieved by consecutively upsetting top seed and six-time champion Roger Federer in the quarterfinals, and No. 3 Novak Djokovic in the semifinals. Berdych reached the semifinals of all four majors.

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Brendan Clarke, Irish footballer

Brendan Clarke is an Irish football player who plays for League of Ireland First Division club Athlone Town.

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José Gonçalves, Portuguese footballer

José Júlio Gomes Gonçalves is a retired Portuguese professional footballer who played as a left back or central defender.

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Alexander Ovechkin, Russian ice hockey player

Alexander Mikhailovich Ovechkin is a Russian professional ice hockey player who is a left winger and captain for the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL). Nicknamed "the Great 8" and "Ovi", as well as "Alexander the Great" by Russian media, Ovechkin has scored the most career goals in NHL regular season history, and is the only player in NHL history to have scored 900 regular season goals.

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Mason Raymond, Canadian ice hockey player

Mason Evan Raymond is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played as a winger in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Vancouver Canucks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames and the Anaheim Ducks. Internationally, he represented Canada, and has won a bronze medal with them in the 2018 Winter Olympics.

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17/09/1984

Mary DeScenza, American swimmer

Mary Elizabeth Mohler is an American former competition swimmer and former world record-holder in the Women's 200-meter butterfly.

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John Kucera, Canadian skier

John Kucera is a retired World Cup alpine ski racer from Canada.

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Patrick van Luijk, Dutch sprinter

Patrick Jermaine Herschel van Luijk is a Dutch sprinter.

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17/09/1983

Ice Seguerra, Filipino singer, actor, director, and former chairman of the National Youth Commission of the Philippines (2016–18)

Ice Seguerra, formerly Aiza Seguerra, is a Filipino actor, singer-songwriter, director and guitarist.

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17/09/1982

Garth Murray, Canadian ice hockey player

Garth Robert Murray is a Canadian former professional ice hockey forward who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens, Florida Panthers and the Phoenix Coyotes.

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17/09/1981

Bakari Koné, Ivorian footballer

Bakari Koné is an Ivorian former professional footballer who played as a winger.

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17/09/1979

Steffen Algreen, Danish footballer

Steffen R. Algreen is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a defender.

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Chuck Comeau, Canadian musician

Charles-André "Chuck" Comeau is a Canadian musician best known for being the drummer of the rock band Simple Plan. He also founded the apparel company Role Model Clothing along with his bandmate Pierre Bouvier and the band's best friend, Patrick Langlois. He is also former drummer for the punk rock band Reset from 1993 to 1999, which he quit to form Simple Plan with his bandmate who also left Reset, Pierre Bouvier.

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Billy Miller, American actor

William John Miller II was an American actor. He was recognized for his work on American soap operas, including his award-winning work as Billy Abbott on The Young and the Restless and his dual portrayals of Jason Morgan and Drew Cain on General Hospital.

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Chris Minns, Australian politician, 47th Premier of New South Wales

Christopher John Minns is an Australian politician who has served as the 47th premier of New South Wales since 2023 and the leader of the New South Wales Labor Party since 2021. He has been the member of parliament (MP) for Kogarah since 2015.

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17/09/1978

Nick Cordero, Canadian actor and singer (died 2020)

Nicholas Eduardo Alberto Cordero was a Canadian actor and singer. He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his role as Cheech in the 2014 Broadway musical Bullets Over Broadway and was twice nominated for Drama Desk Awards. His career also included television and film roles.

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Shawn Horcoff, Canadian ice hockey player

Shawn Paul Horcoff is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre. He was selected in the fourth round of the 1998 NHL entry draft, 99th overall, by the Edmonton Oilers, with whom he played 12 seasons and served as team captain for three seasons. In his later career as a player, he also had brief tenures with the Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks.

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Arne Slot, Dutch football manager

Arend Martijn "Arne" Slot is a Dutch professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Premier League club Liverpool.

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17/09/1977

Sam Esmail, American screenwriter

Sam Esmail is an American film and television producer, director, and screenwriter who runs the production company Esmail Corp. He is best known as the creator, writer, and director of the award-winning USA Network television series Mr. Robot (2015–2019), starring Rami Malek. He wrote and directed the feature films Comet (2014) and Leave the World Behind (2023). He produced and directed the first season of the acclaimed Amazon Prime Video psychological thriller Homecoming (2018–2020), starring Julia Roberts and Janelle Monáe, and produced USA's Briarpatch (2020), Starz's Gaslit (2022), and Peacock's Angelyne (2022) and The Resort (2022).

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Simone Perrotta, Italian footballer

Simone Perrotta is a former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Born in England, he represented the Italy national team. Throughout his career, he stood out for his work-rate, energy, and box-to-box play as a ball-winner in the midfield area. After initially playing for Italian sides Reggina, Juventus, Bari, and Chievo, Perrotta went on to spend most of his career with Serie A club Roma, until his retirement on 29 June 2013; he won consecutive Coppa Italia titles with the club in 2007 and 2008, as well as the 2007 Supercoppa Italiana.

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17/09/1975

Wilko de Vogt, Dutch footballer

Wilko de Vogt is a former Dutch football goalkeeper.

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Jimmie Johnson, American race car driver

Jimmie Kenneth Johnson is an American professional stock car racing driver and team owner. He competes part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 84 Toyota Camry XSE for Legacy Motor Club, and part-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No. 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for Tricon Garage. Johnson has won seven Cup championships, including five consecutive titles, tying him with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most all-time. He is widely considered one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history.

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Pumpkinhead, American rapper (died 2015)

Robert Alan Diaz known by his stage name Pumpkinhead or P.H., was an American rapper and hip hop artist. He grew up in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn, New York with his mother and younger sister.

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17/09/1974

Nona Gaye, American singer, model, and actress

Nona Marvisa Gaye is an American singer-songwriter, former fashion model, and retired actress. The daughter of singer Marvin Gaye and maternal granddaughter of jazz musician Slim Gaillard, Gaye began her career as a vocalist in the early 1990s. In film, she portrayed Zee in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.

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Tormod Granheim, Norwegian skier and explorer

Tormod Granheim is a Norwegian adventurer and motivational speaker involved in expeditions and extreme skiing. On May 16, 2006, he made the first ski descent of Mount Everest's North Face by the Norton Couloir.

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Craig Spence, Australian golfer

Craig A. Spence is an Australian professional golfer.

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Rasheed Wallace, American basketball player and coach

Rasheed Abdul Wallace is an American basketball coach and former professional player. A native of Philadelphia, Wallace played college basketball for the North Carolina Tar Heels before declaring for the draft in 1995. He played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

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17/09/1973

Diego Albanese, Argentine rugby player

Diego Luis Albanese is an Argentine retired rugby union player who played as a winger. He played for the San Isidro Club in Argentina, French side Grenoble, Gloucester and Leeds Tykes. Albanese made 17 appearances for Gloucester scoring three tries.

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Demis Nikolaidis, Greek footballer

Demis Nikolaidis is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a striker. He was the forty second president of AEK Athens and is considered one of the greatest Greek forwards of his generation. In his early childhood and teenage years he lived in the city of Alexandroupoli, in the northeast part of Greece. In a sterling career with Ethnikos Alexandroupoli, Apollon Smyrnis, AEK Athens and Atlético Madrid, Nikolaidis earned his reputation as a "born goalscorer", scoring prolifically for club and country. His power, pace and skill on the ball have been widely praised.

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17/09/1971

Nate Berkus, American interior designer and television host

Nathan Jay Berkus is an American interior designer, author, and television personality. He runs the Chicago interior design firm Nate Berkus Associates and was a regularly featured guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, offering design advice to viewers as well as coordinating surprise make-overs for people's homes. He has released numerous lines of products and authored several books.

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Mike Catt, South African-English rugby player and coach

Michael John Catt OBE is a South African-born former rugby union player who played for the England national rugby union team. He played professionally for the clubs London Irish and Bath. He earned 75 international caps for England and played in two World Cup Finals, in 2003 and 2007. With his appearance in the October 2007 final, at age 36 years 1 month, he became the oldest ever player to play in a Rugby World Cup final. Since 2008, Catt has coached various rugby teams, and from 2019 to 2024 was assistant coach for the Ireland national rugby team. He is currently Attack Coach for the NSW Waratahs.

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Andy Edwards, English footballer

Andrew David Edwards is an English former professional footballer and manager, currently working as an assistant coach at Notts County.

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Bobby Lee, American actor and comedian

Robert Young Lee Jr. is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and podcaster. Lee co-hosts the podcasts Bad Friends with Andrew Santino and TigerBelly with Khalyla Kuhn.

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Mauro Milanese, Italian footballer and manager

Mauro Milanese is an Italian former professional football player and manager, who played as a defender. In 2014, he was manager of Leyton Orient.

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17/09/1969

Adam Devlin, English guitarist and songwriter

Adam Patrick Devlin is an English musician, best known as the guitarist and songwriter for The Bluetones.

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Ken Doherty, Irish snooker player

Kenneth Joseph Doherty is an Irish professional snooker player who also works as a commentator and pundit on televised snooker broadcasts. From Ranelagh in Dublin, he is the sport's only world champion from the Republic of Ireland, having won the title in 1997, and one of only five players from outside the United Kingdom to have won the title in the modern era. He was the first player to have won the world amateur and world professional title; Doherty was previously world U-21 champion.

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Keith Flint, English singer-songwriter (died 2019)

Keith Charles Flint was an English singer, motorcyclist, dancer, and a vocalist of the electronic dance act the Prodigy. Starting out as a dancer for the group, he became the vocalist and performed on the group's two UK number-one singles, "Firestarter" and "Breathe", both released in 1996. He was also the singer of his own band, Flint.

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Matthew Settle, American actor

Jeffrey Matthew Settle is an American actor. He is known for playing Will Benson in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Captain Ronald Speirs on the 2001 HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and Rufus Humphrey on the CW teen drama series Gossip Girl.

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Paul Varelans, American MMA fighter and wrestler

Paul Varelans was an American professional mixed martial artist. He competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship from 1995 to 1996, and had a worked match in Extreme Championship Wrestling in 1996.

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17/09/1968

Anastacia, American singer-songwriter

Anastacia Lyn Newkirk, known by the mononym Anastacia, is an American singer-songwriter who has released eight albums and sold over 50 million records worldwide, and collecting a total of 227 gold and platinum certifications. Thanks to her distinctive tone she has been described as "the little lady with the big voice." Anastacia defines her musical style as "sprock", meaning a fusion of soul, pop, and rock.

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Cheryl Strayed, American author

Cheryl Strayed is an American writer and podcast host. She has written four books: the novel Torch (2006) and the nonfiction books Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (2012), Tiny Beautiful Things (2012) and Brave Enough (2015). Wild, the story of Strayed's 1995 hike up the Pacific Crest Trail, is an international bestseller and was adapted into the 2014 Academy Award-nominated film Wild.

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Tito Vilanova, Spanish footballer and manager (died 2014)

Francesc "Tito" Vilanova Bayó was a Spanish professional football central midfielder and manager.

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Valeri Zelepukin, Russian ice hockey player and coach

Valeri Mikhailovich Zelepukin is a Russian former professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New Jersey Devils, Edmonton Oilers, Philadelphia Flyers and the Chicago Blackhawks between 1991 and 2001. Born in Voskresensk in the former Soviet Union, he was drafted 221st overall in the 11th round by the Devils in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft and went on to play 595 regular season games, scoring 117 goals and 177 assists for 294 points. He also picked up 527 penalty minutes.

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17/09/1967

Michael Carbajal, American boxer

Michael Carbajal is an American Six-time world boxing champion of Mexican descent. His nickname was "Little Hands of Stone" after his favorite boxer, "Hands of Stone" Roberto Durán.

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Malik Yoba, American actor

Abdul-Malik Kashie Yoba is an American actor. He is known for his starring role as NYPD Detective J. C. Williams on the Fox police drama New York Undercover and as Yul Brenner in the film Cool Runnings. He appeared as former FBI agent Bill Harken on the Syfy drama series Alphas, as Jim Hudson in Revolution, and as Vernon Turner in Empire. He also starred in the role of FBI Deputy Director Jason Atwood in the ABC political drama Designated Survivor. In 2018, he joined the Netflix drama Seven Seconds as a member of a support group for parents who had lost their children. He also appeared in Jordan Peele’s TBS comedy The Last OG with Tracy Morgan.

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17/09/1966

Doug E. Fresh, American rapper and producer

Douglas Davis, known professionally as Doug E. Fresh, is a Barbadian-born American rapper, record producer, and beatboxer, also known as the "Human Beat Box". The pioneer of 20th-century American beatboxing, Fresh is able to accurately imitate drum machines and various special effects using only his mouth, lips, gums, throat, tongue and a microphone.

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17/09/1965

Kyle Chandler, American actor

Kyle Martin Chandler is an American actor. He received critical acclaim for his performance as Eric Taylor in the NBC series Friday Night Lights (2006–2011), winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2011.

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Yuji Naka, Japanese video game designer, created Sonic the Hedgehog

Yuji Naka , sometimes credited as YU2, is a Japanese former video game designer and programmer. He is the co-creator of the Sonic the Hedgehog series and was the president of Sonic Team at Sega until his departure in 2006.

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Guy Picciotto, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

Guy Picciotto is an American songwriter, musician, and record producer from Washington, D.C. He is best known as the guitarist and co-lead vocalist in Fugazi and as lead vocalist of Rites of Spring.

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Bryan Singer, American director, producer, and screenwriter

Bryan Jay Singer is an American filmmaker. He is the founder of Bad Hat Harry Productions and has produced almost all of the films he has directed, as well as multiple television series.

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17/09/1963

Masahiro Chono, American-Japanese wrestler and manager

Masahiro Chono is an American-born Japanese retired professional wrestler and actor best known for his 26-year stint with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). As the leader of nWo Japan, Team 2000 and Black New Japan, he was the promotion's top heel for much of his career, beginning in 1994 when he adopted a yakuza inspired gimmick.

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James Urbaniak, American actor, producer, and screenwriter

James Christian Urbaniak is an American actor. As a character actor, is best known for his roles as Simon Grim in three Hal Hartley films: Henry Fool (1997), Fay Grim (2006) and Ned Rifle (2014), Robert Crumb in American Splendor (2003), Grant Grunderschmidt on Review (2014–2017), and Arthur Tack on Difficult People (2015–2017). Urbaniak also voiced Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture on Cartoon Network/Adult Swim's animated series The Venture Bros. (2003–2023).

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17/09/1962

Paul Feig, American director, producer, and screenwriter

Paul Feig is an American filmmaker and actor. He is best known for directing films such as Bridesmaids (2011), The Heat (2013), Spy (2015), Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016), A Simple Favor (2018), Last Christmas (2019), and The Housemaid (2025). He often collaborates with actress Melissa McCarthy.

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Baz Luhrmann, Australian director, producer, and screenwriter

Bazmark Anthony "Baz" Luhrmann is an Australian film director, producer, writer and actor whose various projects extend from film and television into opera, theatre, music and the recording industries. He is regarded by some as a contemporary example of an auteur for his style and deep involvement in the writing, directing, design and musical components of all his work. He is the most commercially successful Australian director, and four of his films are in the top ten highest worldwide grossing Australian films ever.

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Dustin Nguyen, Vietnamese-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

Dustin Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American actor and martial artist. He is best known for his roles as Harry Truman Aioki on 21 Jump Street and as Johnny Loh on V.I.P. He starred as Zing in the Cinemax/Max martial arts crime drama series Warrior. In film, he is known for starring in Little Fish, The Doom Generation and The Rebel.

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Hesham Qandil, Egyptian engineer and politician, 51st Prime Minister of Egypt

Hesham Mohamed Qandil is an Egyptian engineer and civil servant who served as the 51st prime minister of Egypt from 2012 to 2013. Qandil was appointed as prime minister by President Mohamed Morsi on 24 July 2012 and sworn in on 2 August 2012. Qandil previously served as Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation from 2011 to 2012.

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Wayne Riley, Australian golfer

Wayne Riley is an Australian professional golfer.

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BeBe Winans, American singer-songwriter and producer

Benjamin "BeBe" Winans is an American gospel and R&B singer from Detroit, Michigan. He is a member of the noted Winans family, most members of which are also gospel artists. Winans has released nine solo albums, seven with his sister CeCe as BeBe & CeCe Winans, and one with three Winans brothers.

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17/09/1961

Jim Cornette, American wrestling manager and sportscaster

James Mark Cornette is an American author, sports historian, and podcaster who previously worked in the professional wrestling industry as an agent, booker, color commentator, manager, photographer, promoter, trainer, and occasional professional wrestler. Cornette is widely considered to be one of the greatest managers in wrestling history by fans and publications, as well as industry personnel. Cornette currently hosts two podcasts along with co-host and producer Brian Last—The Jim Cornette Experience and Jim Cornette's Drive-Thru— with the latter being the most-played wrestling podcast as of February 2024 and both being among the most popular wrestling podcasts of all time.

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Giorgos Koumoutsakos, Greek politician

Giorgos Koumoutsakos is a Greek politician with the liberal New Democracy party, and a member of the European Parliament.

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Ty Tabor, American rock singer-songwriter and guitarist

Ty Tabor is an American musician. He is the lead guitarist, songwriter, and co-lead vocalist for the hard rock band King's X. Tabor has a wide-ranging guitar style, from big guitar riffs to middling melodic passages. His use of volume swells and ambient passages add an elemental texture to his compositions. He names his main influences as the Beatles, Allan Holdsworth, Johnny Winter, Ace Frehley, Mel Galley, Brian May, Joe Perry, Mick Box, Buck Dharma, Steve Marriott, Dave Davies, Pete Townshend, Mark Farner, John Fogerty, Alex Lifeson, Phil Keaggy, and the original Alice Cooper band. In 2008, Tabor was added to the guitar show "Chop Shop's" list of "Top 100 Most Complete Guitar Players of All Time" at number 84.

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17/09/1960

John Bottomley, Canadian singer-songwriter (died 2011)

John Bottomley was a Canadian singer-songwriter.

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Kevin Clash, American puppeteer

Kevin Jeffrey Clash is an American puppeteer, director and producer best known for puppeteering Elmo on Sesame Street from 1985 to 2012. He also performed puppets for Labyrinth, Dinosaurs, Oobi, and various Muppet productions.

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John Franco, American baseball player

John Anthony Franco is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a left-handed relief pitcher between 1984 and 2005. Franco established himself as an All-Star player with the Cincinnati Reds before spending the majority of his career with the New York Mets. He ended his 21-year career with one final season with the Houston Astros.

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Damon Hill, English racing driver and guitarist

Damon Graham Devereux Hill is a British former racing driver and broadcaster, who competed in Formula One from 1992 to 1999. Hill won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1996 with Williams, and won 22 Grands Prix across eight seasons.

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Alan Krueger, American economist and academic (died 2019)

Alan Bennett Krueger was an American economist who was the James Madison Professor of Political Economy at Princeton University and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, nominated by President Barack Obama, from May 2009 to October 2010, after which he returned to Princeton. In 2011 he was nominated by Obama to chair the White House Council of Economic Advisers, a role he served in from November 2011 to August 2013.

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17/09/1958

Janez Janša, Slovenian politician, 5th Prime Minister of Slovenia

Ivan Janša, better known as Janez Janša, is a Slovenian politician who served three times as a prime minister of Slovenia, a position he had held from 2004 to 2008, from 2012 to 2013, and from 2020 to 2022. Since 1993, Janša has led the Slovenian Democratic Party, which has emerged as the pre-eminent Slovenian right-wing party. Janša lost his fourth bid for prime minister in April 2022, his party was defeated by the Freedom Movement party.

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Tom Waddell, Scottish-American baseball player (died 2019)

Thomas David Waddell was a Scottish Major League Baseball pitcher. One of only eight Scotland natives to ever be a major league ballplayer, he pitched for the Cleveland Indians from 1984 to 1985, and again in 1987.

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17/09/1957

David Bintley, English ballet dancer and director

Sir David Julian Bintley is an English former ballet dancer, the artistic director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, and co-artistic director of the New National Theatre Tokyo ballet company.

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Steve Bryles, American businessman and politician (died 2012)

Steven Mark Bryles was an American politician and businessman. He was a member of the Arkansas Senate from 2001 to 2011, and a member of the Democratic Party.

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Nurten Yılmaz, Austrian politician

Nurten Yılmaz is an Austrian politician and former member of the National Council. A member of the Social Democratic Party, she represented Vienna North West from October 2013 to December 2022. She was a member of the Municipal Council and Landtag of Vienna from April 2001 to October 2013.

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17/09/1956

Almazbek Atambayev, Kyrgyz politician, 4th President of Kyrgyzstan

Almazbek Sharshenovich Atambayev is a Kyrgyzstani politician who served as the fourth president of Kyrgyzstan from 2011 to 2017. He previously served as the 11th prime minister of Kyrgyzstan from 2010 to 2011, and from 2007 to 2007 and Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SDPK) from 1999 to 2011.

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Thad Bosley, American baseball player and coach

Thaddis Bosley Jr. is an American former professional baseball outfielder and coach.

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Mandawuy Yunupingu, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2013)

Mandawuy Djarrtjuntjun Yunupingu, formerly Tom Djambayang Bakamana Yunupingu, and also known as Dr Yunupingu, was a teacher and musician, and frontman of the Aboriginal rock group Yothu Yindi from 1986. He was an Aboriginal Australian man of the Yolŋu people, with a skin name of Gudjuk.

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17/09/1955

Scott Simpson, American golfer

Scott William Simpson is an American professional golfer.

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Charles Martinet, American actor

Charles Andre Martinet is an American actor. From 1991 to 2023, Martinet was the voice of Mario in the Mario franchise. He also voiced other characters in the series such as Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, and the baby equivalents of Mario and Luigi, prior to retiring as voice actor to become an official brand ambassador for the series.

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Mike Parson, American politician, 57th Governor of Missouri

Michael Lynn Parson is an American politician and former law enforcement officer who served as the 57th governor of Missouri, from 2018 to 2025. A member of the Republican Party, Parson assumed the governorship upon the resignation of Eric Greitens, under whom he served as lieutenant governor from 2017 to 2018. Parson served the remainder of Greitens's term and was elected governor in his own right in 2020.

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17/09/1954

Joël-François Durand, French pianist and composer

Joël-François Durand is a French composer.

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Bill Irwin, American wrestler

Barney William Irwin is an American retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, "Wild" Bill Irwin. Irwin is also known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation as The Goon in 1996 to 1997. He is the brother of the late Scott Irwin.

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17/09/1953

Luís Amado, Portuguese politician, former Minister of Foreign Affairs

Luís Filipe Marques Amado is a Portuguese politician who served as Minister of Defence, from 2005 to 2006, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, from 2006 to 2011, in the XVII and XVIII Constitutional Governments of Portugal, led by the Socialist Party. On 30 June 2007, he succeeded to the EU Council Presidency on behalf of Portugal.

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Junior Bridgeman, American basketball player and businessman (died 2025)

Ulysses Lee "Junior" Bridgeman Jr. was an American professional basketball player and businessman. Bridgeman played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Clippers from 1975 until 1987. Following his career, Bridgeman owned hundreds of fast-food restaurants, became a Coca-Cola bottler and distributor, and acquired Ebony and Jet magazines. Despite never making more than $350,000 a season during his NBA career, Bridgeman had a net worth of over $1.4 billion, making him one of the wealthiest former athletes in the world.

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Tamasin Day-Lewis, English chef and author

Lydia Tamasin Day-Lewis is a British television chef and food critic, who has also published a dozen books about food, restaurants, recipes and places. She writes regularly for The Daily Telegraph, Vanity Fair, and Vogue.

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Altaf Hussain, Pakistani-English soldier and politician

Altaf Hussain is a British Pakistani politician who is known as the founder of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. He holds United Kingdom citizenship and has been living in exile in the UK since the start of Operation Clean-up. Since 2015, he has been a fugitive from the Anti Terrorism Court of Pakistan on the charges of 'murder, targeted killing, treason, inciting violence and hate speech'. He went on trial in the UK in January 2022 for 'promoting terrorism and unrest through hate speech in Pakistan', and was acquitted the next month. He had fled the country in 1992 after a crackdown against his party was launched.

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Rita Rudner, American actress, comedian, and screenwriter

Rita Rudner is an American stand-up comedian and actress. Beginning her career as a Broadway actress, Rudner noticed the lack of female comedians in New York City and turned to stand-up comedy, where she has performed for over three decades. Her performance on a variety of HBO specials and numerous appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson helped establish Rudner as one of the notable comics to emerge from the comedy boom of the 1980s.

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17/09/1952

Harold Solomon, American tennis player and coach

Harold Solomon is an American former professional tennis player who played during the 1970s and 1980s. He achieved a career-high world ranking of No. 5 in singles in 1980, and of No. 4 in doubles in 1976. Over the course of his career, he won 22 singles titles.

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17/09/1951

Russell Brown, Scottish politician

Russell Leslie Brown is a Scottish Labour Party politician. He is a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Dumfriesshire (1997–2005) and Dumfries and Galloway (2005–2015). He lost his seat at the 2015 general election to Richard Arkless of the Scottish National Party.

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Cassandra Peterson, American actress, television host, and producer

Cassandra Gay Peterson is an American actress best known for her portrayal of the horror hostess character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Peterson gained fame on Los Angeles television station KHJ-TV in her stage persona as Elvira, hosting Elvira's Movie Macabre, a weekly B movie presentation. A member of the Los Angeles-based improvisational and sketch comedy troupe The Groundlings, Peterson based her Elvira persona in part on a "Valley girl"-type character she created while a member of the troupe.

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Kermit Washington, American basketball player

Kermit Alan Washington is an American former professional basketball player. Washington is best remembered for punching opposing player Rudy Tomjanovich during an on-court fight in 1977. Washington was not a highly coveted player coming out of high school. He averaged four points per game during his senior season at Coolidge Senior High School. He improved rapidly once at American University, and became one of only seven players in NCAA history to average 20 points and 20 rebounds throughout the course of his career.

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17/09/1950

Narendra Modi, Indian politician; Chief Minister of Gujarat and 14th Prime Minister of India

Narendra Damodardas Modi is an Indian politician who has served as the prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the member of parliament (MP) for Varanasi. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindutva paramilitary volunteer organisation. He is the longest-serving prime minister outside the Indian National Congress.

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Fee Waybill, American singer-songwriter and producer

John Waldo "Fee" Waybill is the lead singer and songwriter of San Francisco band The Tubes. Waybill has also worked with other acts, including Toto, Richard Marx, and Billy Sherwood.

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17/09/1949

Ron Stevens, Canadian lawyer and politician (died 2014)

Ronald Gordon "Ron" Stevens was a Canadian politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta representing the constituency of Calgary-Glenmore as a Progressive Conservative until his resignation on May 15, 2009. He was subsequently appointed a Judge of the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta on May 20, 2009, by the government of Canada.

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17/09/1948

Kemal Monteno, Bosnian singer-songwriter (died 2015)

Kemal Monteno was a Bosnian recording artist and singer-songwriter whose career stretched from the 1960s to the 2010s. He is widely considered one of the greatest songwriters of the former Yugoslavia.

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John Ritter, American actor and producer (died 2003)

Johnathan Southworth Ritter was an American actor. He was a son of the singing cowboy star Tex Ritter and the father of actors Jason and Tyler Ritter. He played Jack Tripper on the popular ABC sitcom Three's Company (1977–1984), and received a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the role in 1984. Ritter briefly reprised the role on the spin-off Three's a Crowd, which aired for one season, producing 22 episodes before its cancellation in 1985.

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17/09/1947

Tessa Jowell, English social worker and politician, Minister for the Cabinet Office (died 2018)

Tessa Jane Helen Douglas Jowell, Baroness Jowell, was a British Labour Party politician and life peer who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dulwich and West Norwood, previously Dulwich, from 1992 to 2015.

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Enrique Krauze, Mexican historian, critic, and publisher

Enrique Krauze Kleinbort is a Mexican historian, essayist, editor, and entrepreneur. He has written more than twenty books, some of which are: Mexico: Biography of Power, Redeemers, and El pueblo soy yo. He has also produced more than 500 television programs and documentaries about Mexico's history. His biographical, historical works, and his political and literary essays, which have reached a broad audience, have made him famous.

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Gail Carson Levine, American author

Gail Carson Levine is an American author of young adult books. Her first novel, Ella Enchanted, received a Newbery Honor in 1998.

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Jeff MacNelly, American cartoonist (died 2000)

Jeffrey Kenneth MacNelly was an American editorial cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip Shoe. After Shoe had been established in papers, MacNelly created the single-panel strip Pluggers. The Wall Street Journal wrote: "MacNelly's superb draftsmanship as well as his heightened sense of the ridiculous is in the vanguard of a new generation of American cartoonists."

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17/09/1946

Billy Bonds, English footballer and manager (died 2025)

William Arthur Bonds was an English professional footballer and manager, who was most often associated with West Ham United with whom he spent 27 years as player and manager. He played 799 first-team games for West Ham in a career spanning 21 seasons, winning two FA Cups with them. He died peacefully on 30 November 2025 whilst sleeping.

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Heimar Lenk, Estonian journalist and politician

Heimar Lenk is an Estonian journalist and politician. He has supported the Estonian Centre Party since 1994.

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17/09/1945

David Emerson, Canadian economist and politician, 8th Minister of Foreign Affairs for Canada

David Lee Emerson is a Canadian politician and economist who was the member of Parliament (MP) for Vancouver Kingsway from 2004 to 2008. First elected as a Liberal, Emerson served as minister of industry from 2004 to 2006 under Prime Minister Paul Martin. After the Conservatives formed government in the 2006 general election, Emerson crossed the floor and went on to serve as the minister of international trade from 2006 to 2008 and minister of foreign affairs in 2008 under Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

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Phil Jackson, American basketball player and coach

Philip Douglas Jackson is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and executive in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Jackson is a 13-time NBA champion, having won two as a player and 11 as a head coach. His 11 championships as a head coach are the most in NBA history. In 2007, Jackson was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and was named one of the 10 greatest coaches in league history in 1996. He holds numerous other records as a coach, including the most postseason wins (229), and most conference titles (13).

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Bhakti Charu Swami, Indian religious leader (died 2020)

Bhakti Charu Swami was an Indian spiritual leader of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). He was also a disciple of ISKCON's founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

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17/09/1944

Les Emmerson, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2021)

Robert Leslie Emmerson was a Canadian musician and singer. He was the lead vocalist and guitarist for the band Five Man Electrical Band, and their predecessor band The Staccatos. He also recorded as a solo artist, charting three top 40 hits in Canada, including the #5 hit "Control Of Me".

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Reinhold Messner, Italian mountaineer and explorer

Reinhold Andreas Messner is an Italian climber, explorer, and author from the German-speaking province of South Tyrol. He made the first solo ascent of Mount Everest and, along with Peter Habeler, the first ascent of Everest without supplementary oxygen. He was the first person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders, doing so without supplementary oxygen. Messner was the first to cross Antarctica and Greenland with neither snowmobiles nor dog sleds and also crossed the Gobi Desert alone. He is widely considered to be the greatest mountaineer of all time.

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Jean Taylor, American mathematician and academic

Jean Ellen Taylor is an American mathematician who is a professor emerita at Rutgers University and visiting faculty at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University.

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17/09/1942

Robert Graysmith, American author and illustrator

Robert Graysmith is an American true crime author and former cartoonist, known for authoring the 1986 book Zodiac, based on his work on the Zodiac Killer case.

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Des Lynam, Irish-English journalist and author

Desmond Michael Lynam is an Irish-born British television and radio presenter. In a broadcasting career spanning more than forty years, he has hosted television coverage of many of the world's major sporting events, presenting Grandstand, Match of the Day, Wimbledon, the Grand National, Sportsnight, the World Cup and Olympic Games, as well as presenting non-sporting programmes such as Holiday, How Do They Do That? and Countdown.

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Lupe Ontiveros, American actress (died 2012)

Guadalupe Ontiveros was an American actress best known for portraying Rosalita in The Goonies, and Yolanda Saldívar in the film Selena. She acted in numerous films and television shows. Ontiveros was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work on Desperate Housewives and received critical acclaim for her role in Chuck & Buck, for which Ontiveros won the National Board of Review award for Best Supporting Actress, and was also nominated for an Independent Spirit Award.

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17/09/1941

Bob Matsui, American lawyer and politician (died 2005)

Robert Takeo Matsui was an American politician from the state of California. Matsui was a member of the Democratic Party and served in the U.S. House of Representatives as the congressman for California's 5th congressional district from 1979 until his death at the end of his 13th term.

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17/09/1940

Jan Eliasson, Swedish politician and diplomat, 4th Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations

Jan Kenneth Eliasson is a Swedish diplomat who was Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations from July 2012 to December 2016. A member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, Eliasson served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 24 April to 6 October 2006. Eliasson was appointed as Governing Board Chair of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in April 2017 and assumed his role as of 1 June 2017.

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Peter Lever, English cricketer (died 2025)

Peter Lever was an English cricketer, who played in seventeen Tests and ten ODIs for England from 1970 to 1975. A fast-medium opening bowler, he took 41 wickets and was a handy lower-order batsman with a top score of 88 not out. Towards the end of his career, during a Test match against New Zealand, he almost killed the New Zealand Test debutant Ewen Chatfield with a bouncer.

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Gilberto Parlotti, Italian motorcycle racer (died 1972)

Gilberto Parlotti was an Italian professional motorcycle racer competing in the FIM World Championship between 1969 and 1972. He competed for the Benelli, Derbi, Morbidelli and Tomos factories.

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17/09/1939

Carl Dennis, American poet and educator

Carl Dennis is an American poet and educator. His book Practical Gods won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

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Shelby Flint, American singer-songwriter and voice actress

Shelby Flint is an American singer-songwriter who had two top-100 hits, "Angel on My Shoulder" in 1961 and "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" in 1966.

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David Souter, American lawyer and jurist (died 2025)

David Hackett Souter was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1990 to 2009. Appointed by President George H. W. Bush to fill the seat that had been vacated by William J. Brennan Jr., Souter was a member of both the Rehnquist and Roberts courts.

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17/09/1938

Paul Benedict, American actor (died 2008)

Paul Bernard Benedict was an American actor who made numerous appearances in television and films, beginning in 1965. He was known for his roles as The Number Painter on the PBS children's show Sesame Street and as the English neighbor Harry Bentley on the CBS sitcom The Jeffersons.

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Perry Robinson, American clarinet player and composer (died 2018)

Perry Morris Robinson was an American jazz clarinetist and composer. He was the son of composer Earl Robinson.

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Bobby Wine, American baseball player and coach

Robert Paul Wine Sr. is an American former shortstop, coach and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). An excellent fielder who struggled as a hitter, Wine spent 12 seasons in the National League with the Philadelphia Phillies and the Montreal Expos (1969–72). He won the NL Gold Glove Award in 1963.

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17/09/1937

Nigel Boocock, English-Australian motorcycle racer (died 2015)

Nigel Boocock was a motorcycle speedway rider from England. who appeared in eight Speedway World Championship finals. He holds the record number of caps for Great Britain (64) and the record for total number of caps, when including England (154).

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Orlando Cepeda, Puerto Rican baseball player (died 2024)

Orlando Manuel Cepeda Pennes, nicknamed "the Baby Bull" and "Peruchin", was a Puerto Rican professional baseball player, coach and scout. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a first baseman from 1958 to 1974, most prominently as a member of the San Francisco Giants where he established himself as one of the most consistent power hitters in the National League (NL) during the 1960s. An 11-time All-Star player, Cepeda was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.

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Sitakant Mahapatra, Indian poet and literary critic

Sitakant Mahapatra is an Indian poet and literary critic in Odia as well as English. He served in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) from 1961 until he retired in 1995, and has since held ex officio posts such as Banking Ombudsman of Odisha and Chairman of National Book Trust, New Delhi etc.

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17/09/1936

Gerald Guralnik, American physicist and academic (died 2014)

Gerald Stanford "Gerry" Guralnik was the Chancellor’s Professor of Physics at Brown University. In 1964, he co-discovered the Higgs mechanism and Higgs boson with C. R. Hagen and Tom Kibble (GHK). As part of Physical Review Letters' 50th anniversary celebration, the journal recognized this discovery as one of the milestone papers in PRL history. While widely considered to have authored the most complete of the early papers on the Higgs theory, GHK were controversially not included in the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics.

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Michael Hennagin, American composer and educator (died 1993)

Michael Hennagin was an American composer and university professor.

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17/09/1935

Ken Kesey, American novelist, essayist, and poet (died 2001)

Kenneth Elton Kesey was an American novelist, essayist, and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s.

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17/09/1934

Maureen Connolly, American tennis player (died 1969)

Maureen Catherine Connolly-Brinker, known as "Little Mo", was an American tennis player, the winner of nine major singles titles in the early 1950s. In 1953, she became the first woman to win a Grand Slam. She is also the only player in history to win a title without losing a set at all four major championships. The following year, in July 1954, a horseback riding accident seriously injured her right leg and ended her competitive tennis career at age 19. She died of ovarian cancer at the age of 34.

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17/09/1933

Bulldog Brower, American wrestler (died 1997)

Richard T. Gland, better known by his ring name Dick "Bulldog" Brower, was an American professional wrestler.

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Chuck Grassley, American lawyer and politician

Charles Ernest Grassley is an American politician serving since 2025 as the president pro tempore of the United States Senate, a position he also held from 2019 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, Grassley is the senior U.S. senator from Iowa, serving since 1981.

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Claude Provost, Canadian-American ice hockey player (died 1984)

Claude Joseph Antoine Provost was a Canadian professional ice hockey player.

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17/09/1932

Robert B. Parker, American author and academic (died 2010)

Robert Brown Parker was an American writer, primarily of fiction within the mystery/detective genre. His most famous works include the 40 novels written about the fictional private detective Spenser. In the mid-1980s, based on the character of detective Spenser, ABC television network developed the television series Spenser: For Hire. A series of TV movies was also produced based on the same character. His works incorporate encyclopedic knowledge of the Boston metropolitan area. The Spenser novels have been cited as reviving and changing the detective genre by critics and bestselling authors, including Robert Crais, Harlan Coben, and Dennis Lehane.

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Indarjit Singh, Indian-English journalist

Indarjit Singh, Baron Singh of Wimbledon,, sometimes transliterated Inderjit Singh, is a British journalist and broadcaster, a prominent British Indian active in Sikh and interfaith activities, and a member of the House of Lords.

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Samuel Ogbemudia, Nigerian army officer and politician (died 2017)

Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia was a Nigerian army officer and politician. He was military Governor (1967–1975) of the Mid-West State, later renamed Bendel State, part of which in turn later became Edo State. After the return to democracy in 1999, he became a powerbroker in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In September 2009, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo state and others attended his 77th birthday celebration in Benin. He is noted as one of the founding fathers of the very prestigious University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH)

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17/09/1931

Anne Bancroft, American actress (died 2005)

Anne Bancroft was an American actress. Respected for her acting prowess and versatility, Bancroft received an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two Tony Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Cannes Film Festival Award. She is one of 24 thespians to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting.

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Jean-Claude Carrière, French actor and screenwriter (died 2021)

Jean-Claude Carrière was a French novelist, screenwriter and actor. He received an Academy Award for best short film for co-writing Heureux Anniversaire (1963), and was later given an Honorary Oscar in 2014. He was nominated for the Academy Award three other times for his work in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), That Obscure Object of Desire (1977), and The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988). He also won a César Award for Best Original Screenplay in The Return of Martin Guerre (1983).

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17/09/1930

David Huddleston, American actor (died 2016)

David William Huddleston was an American actor. An Emmy Award nominee, Huddleston had a prolific television career and appeared in many films, including Rio Lobo, Blazing Saddles, Crime Busters, Santa Claus: The Movie, and The Big Lebowski.

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Lalgudi Jayaraman, Indian violinist and composer (died 2013)

Lalgudi Gopala Iyer Jayaraman was an Indian Carnatic violinist, vocalist and composer. He is commonly grouped with M.S. Gopalakrishnan and T.N.Krishnan as part of the violin trinity of Carnatic music. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2001.

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Theo Loevendie, Dutch clarinet player and composer

Johan Theodorus Loevendie is a Dutch composer and clarinet player.

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Edgar Mitchell, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (died 2016)

Edgar Dean Mitchell was a United States Navy officer and aviator, test pilot, aeronautical engineer, ufologist, and NASA astronaut. As the Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 14 in 1971 he spent nine hours working on the lunar surface in the Fra Mauro Highlands region, and was the sixth person to walk on the Moon.

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Jim Rohn, American philosopher and author (died 2009)

Emanuel James Rohn was an American entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker. He wrote numerous books including How to obtain wealth and happiness.

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Thomas P. Stafford, American general, pilot, and astronaut (died 2024)

Thomas Patten Stafford was an American Air Force officer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut, and one of 24 Apollo astronauts who flew to the Moon. He also served as Chief of the Astronaut Office from 1969 to 1971.

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17/09/1929

Sil Austin, American saxophonist (died 2001)

Sylvester Austin was an American jazz saxophonist. He achieved his biggest success in an overtly commercial rather than jazz vein, but he regarded Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Sonny Stitt as his major influences.

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David Craig, Baron Craig of Radley, Northern Irish air marshal and politician

Marshal of the Royal Air Force David Brownrigg Craig, Baron Craig of Radley, is a retired Royal Air Force officer and member of the House of Lords. He was a fast jet pilot in the 1950s, a squadron commander in the 1960s and a station commander in the 1970s. He served as Chief of the Air Staff during the late 1980s, when the Boeing Airborne early warning and control system was ordered and the European Fighter programme was being developed. He then served as Chief of the Defence Staff during the Gulf War. He was granted a life peerage as Baron Craig of Radley after his retirement from active service in 1991, sitting as a crossbencher. As of 2026, he is the last living officer in the British Armed Forces to have held a five-star rank whilst on active service.

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Stirling Moss, English racing driver and sportscaster (died 2020)

Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss was a British racing driver and broadcaster, who competed in Formula One from 1951 to 1961. Widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers to never win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, Moss won a record 212 official races across several motorsport disciplines, including 16 Formula One Grands Prix. In endurance racing, Moss won the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1954, as well as the Mille Miglia in 1955 with Mercedes.

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17/09/1928

Park Honan, American author and academic (died 2014)

Leonard Hobart Park Honan was an American academic and author who spent most of his career in the UK. He wrote widely on the lives of authors and poets and published important biographies of such writers as Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold, Jane Austen, William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe.

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Roddy McDowall, English-American actor (died 1998)

Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall was an English and American actor, whose career spanned over 270 screen and stage roles across more than 60 years.

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17/09/1927

George Blanda, American football player (died 2010)

George Frederick Blanda was an American professional football quarterback and placekicker who played in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL). Blanda played 26 seasons of professional football, the most in the sport's history, and had scored more points than anyone in history at the time of his retirement.

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Kevin Schubert, Australian rugby league player (died 2007)

Kevin Schubert (1927-2007) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s and 1950s. An international and interstate representative hooker, he played his club football in the Illawarra Rugby League before moving to Sydney's NSWRL Premiership to play for Manly-Warringah, which he also captained.

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17/09/1926

Bill Black, American bass player and bandleader (died 1965)

William Patton Black Jr. was an American musician and bandleader who is noted as one of the pioneers of rock and roll. He played in Elvis Presley's early trio, the Blue Moon Boys. Black later formed Bill Black's Combo.

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Curtis Harrington, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2007)

Gene Curtis Harrington was an American film and television director, screenwriter, and producer. He emerged in the experimental film scene of the 1940s and ‘50s, notably as a collaborator of Kenneth Anger, before becoming a director of mainstream horror films and television series. He is considered one of the forerunners to New Queer Cinema. The Harvard Film Archive referred to him as “among the most wholly original directors to work in the Hollywood studio system.”

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Hovie Lister, American minister and pianist (died 2001)

Hovie Franklin Lister was an American gospel musician, Baptist Minister, and politician. Lister was best known for his time as the front man of the Statesmen Quartet, perhaps the most well known and renowned Southern Gospel quartet in the decades of the 1950s and 1960s, as well as one of the most respected groups of all time.

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Jean-Marie Lustiger, French cardinal (died 2007)

Jean-Marie Aron Lustiger was a French cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Paris from 1981 until his resignation in 2005. He was made a cardinal in 1983 by Pope John Paul II. His life is depicted in the 2013 film Le métis de Dieu.

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Jack McDuff, American singer and organist (died 2001)

Eugene McDuffy, known professionally as "Brother" Jack McDuff or "Captain" Jack McDuff, was an American jazz organist and organ trio bandleader. He was most prominent during the hard bop and soul jazz era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio. He is also credited with giving guitarist George Benson his first break.

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17/09/1925

Dorothy Loudon, American actress and singer (died 2003)

Dorothy Loudon was an American actress and singer. She won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical in 1977 for her performance as Miss Hannigan in Annie. Loudon was also nominated for Tony Awards for her lead performances in the musicals The Fig Leaves Are Falling and Ballroom, as well as a Golden Globe award for her appearances on The Garry Moore Show.

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John List, American murderer (died 2008)

John Emil List was an American mass murderer and long-time fugitive. On November 9, 1971, he killed his wife, mother, and three children in their Westfield, New Jersey home, then disappeared. He had planned the murders so meticulously that nearly a month passed before anyone suspected that something was amiss.

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17/09/1923

Ralph Sharon, English-American pianist, composer, and conductor (died 2015)

Ralph Simon Sharon was a British-American jazz pianist and arranger. He is best known for working with Tony Bennett as his pianist on numerous recordings and live performances.

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Hank Williams, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1953)

Hiram "Hank" Williams was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. An early pioneer of country music, he is regarded as one of the most significant and influential musicians of the 20th century. Williams recorded 55 singles that reached the top 10 of the Billboard Country & Western Best Sellers chart, 5 of which were released posthumously, and 12 of which reached No.1.

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17/09/1922

Agostinho Neto, Angolan poet and politician, 1st President of Angola (died 1979)

António Agostinho Neto Kilamba was an Angolan communist revolutionary, politician and poet. He served as the first president of Angola from 1975 to 1979, after leading the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) during the war for independence. He led the MPLA during the beginning of the Angolan Civil War, which began in 1975 and lasted until 2002. An author of several books, he is considered Angola's preeminent poet. His birthday is celebrated as National Heroes' Day, a public holiday in Angola.

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17/09/1920

Dinah Sheridan, English actress (died 2012)

Dinah Sheridan was an English actress with a career spanning seven decades. She was best known for the films Genevieve (1953) and The Railway Children (1970), the long-running BBC comedy series Don't Wait Up (1983–1990), and for her distinguished theatre career in London's West End.

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Hans Otto Jung, German viticulturist, jazz musician and patron of music (died 2009)

Hans Otto Jung was a German viticulturist, jazz musician and patron of music. In the 1940s, he played as a pianist in the Hotclub Combo, which he cofounded with Emil Mangelsdorff and others. In 1987, he was a cofounder of the Rheingau Musik Festival. With his wife Ursula Jung, he sponsored cultural initiatives in the Rhein-Main region.

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17/09/1918

Lea Gottlieb, Hungarian-Israeli fashion designer, founded the Gottex Company (died 2012)

Lea Gottlieb was an Israeli fashion designer and businesswoman. She immigrated to Israel from Hungary after World War II, and founded the Gottex company.

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Chaim Herzog, Irish-born Israeli general and politician, 6th President of Israel (died 1997)

Chaim Herzog was an Irish-Israeli politician, military officer, lawyer and author who served as President of Israel from 1983 to 1993. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Dublin, the son of Ireland's Chief Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1935. He served in the Haganah Jewish paramilitary group during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt and in the British Army during World War II. Following the end of the British Mandate and Israel's Declaration of Independence in 1948, he served in the Israel Defense Forces and fought in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. He remained in the Israeli military as an officer following the war until retiring in 1962 with the rank of major-general.

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17/09/1917

Ib Melchior, Danish-American author and screenwriter (died 2015)

Ib Jørgen Melchior was a Danish-American novelist, short-story writer, film producer, film director, and screenwriter of low-budget American science fiction movies, most of them released by American International Pictures.

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Isang Yun, South Korean-German composer and educator (died 1995)

Isang Yun, or Yun I-sang, was a Korean-born composer who made his later career in West Germany.

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17/09/1916

Mary Stewart, British author and poet (died 2014)

Mary, Lady Stewart was a British novelist who developed the romantic mystery genre, featuring smart, adventurous heroines who could hold their own in dangerous situations. She also wrote children's books and poetry, but may be best known for her Merlin series, which straddles the boundary between the historical novel and fantasy.

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17/09/1915

M. F. Husain, Indian painter and director (died 2011)

Maqbool Fida Husain was an Indian painter and film director who painted narrative paintings in a modified Cubist style. One of the founding members of Bombay Progressive Artists' Group, Husain is associated with Indian modernism in the 1940s. His early association with the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group used modern technique, and was inspired by the "new" India after the partition of 1947. His narrative paintings, executed in a modified Cubist style, can be caustic and funny as well as serious and sombre. His themes—sometimes treated in series—included topics as diverse as Gandhi, Mother Teresa, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the British Raj, and motifs of Indian urban and rural life. In September 2020, his painting titled Voices, auctioned for a record $2.5 million.

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17/09/1914

Thomas J. Bata, Czech-Canadian businessman (died 2008)

Tomáš Jan Baťa,, also known as Thomas Bata Jr. and Tomáš Baťa ml., was a Czech-Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He ran the Bata Shoe Company from the 1940s until the 80s.

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William Grut, Swedish pentathlete (died 2012)

William Oscar Guernsey Grut was a Swedish modern pentathlete. He competed at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, where he won the gold medal in modern pentathlon. Grut was a multiple Swedish swimming champion and received the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal in 1948.

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Shin Kanemaru, Japanese politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Japan (died 1996)

Shin Kanemaru was a Japanese politician who was a significant figure in the political arena of Japan from the 1970s to the early 1990s. He was also Director General of the Japan Defense Agency from 1977 to 1978.

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17/09/1912

Irena Kwiatkowska, Polish actress (died 2011)

Irena Kwiatkowska was a popular Polish actress, known in Poland for her many cabaret roles and monologues, as well as appearances in movies and television shows.

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Maksim Tank, Belarusian poet, journalist, and translator (died 1995)

Maksim Tank was a Belarusian Soviet poet, journalist and translator.

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17/09/1909

Elizabeth Enright, American author and illustrator (died 1968)

Elizabeth Wright Enright Gillham was an American writer of children's books, an illustrator, writer of short stories for adults, literary critic and teacher of creative writing. Perhaps best known as the Newbery Medal-winning author of Thimble Summer (1938) and the Newbery runner-up Gone-Away Lake (1957), she also wrote the popular Melendy quartet. A Newbery Medal laureate and a multiple winner of the O. Henry Award, her short stories and articles for adults appeared in many popular magazines and have been reprinted in anthologies and textbooks.

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17/09/1908

John Creasey, English author and politician (died 1973)

John Creasey was an English author known mostly for detective and crime novels but who also wrote science fiction, romance and westerns. He wrote more than six hundred novels using twenty-eight different pseudonyms.

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Rafael Israelyan, Armenian architect and educator, designed the Sardarapat Memorial and St. Vartan Cathedral (died 1973)

Rafayel "Rafo" Israyelian was a Soviet Armenian architect.

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17/09/1907

Warren E. Burger, American lawyer and judge, 15th Chief Justice of the United States (died 1995)

Warren Earl Burger was an American attorney who served as the 15th chief justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986.

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17/09/1906

J. R. Jayewardene, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, 2nd President of Sri Lanka (died 1996)

Junius Richard Jayewardene, commonly referred to by his initials JR, was a Sri Lankan lawyer, public official and statesman who served as prime minister of Sri Lanka from 1977 to 1978 and as the second president of Sri Lanka from 1978 to 1989. He was a leader of the nationalist movement in Ceylon and served in a variety of cabinet positions in the decades following independence. A longtime member of the United National Party, he led the party to a landslide victory in the 1977 parliamentary elections and served as prime minister for half a year before becoming the country's first executive president under an amended constitution.

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Edgar Wayburn, American physician and environmentalist (died 2010)

Edgar Arthur Wayburn was an American environmentalist who served as the president of the Sierra Club five times in the 1960s. He has been recognized as one of the least-known yet most successful defenders of America's natural heritage. Wayburn played a crucial role in the establishment of significant achievements, including the creation of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the creation and subsequent expansion of Redwood National Park and Point Reyes National Seashore, and the expansion of Mount Tamalpais State Park.

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17/09/1905

Tshekedi Khama, regent of the Bamangwato tribe (died 1959)

Tshekedi Khama was the regent-king of the Bamangwato tribe in 1926 after the death of Sekgoma II.

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17/09/1903

Karel Miljon, Dutch boxer (died 1984)

Karel Leendert Miljon was a Dutch boxer, who won the bronze medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam.

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Frank O'Connor, Irish short story writer, novelist, and poet (died 1966)

Frank O'Connor was an Irish author and translator. He wrote poetry, dramatic works, memoirs, journalistic columns and features on aspects of Irish culture and history, criticism, long and short fiction, biography, and travel books. He is most widely known for his more than 150 short stories and for his memoirs. The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award was named in his honour, as is the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Fellowship.

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Minanogawa Tōzō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 34th Yokozuna (died 1971)

Minanogawa Tōzō , also known as Asashio Kyojiro , was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Tsukuba, Ibaraki. He was the sport's 34th yokozuna.

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17/09/1902

Bea Miles, Australian author (died 1973)

Beatrice Miles was an Australian eccentric and bohemian rebel. Described as Sydney's "iconic eccentric", she was known for her contentious relationships with the city's taxi drivers and for her ability to quote any passage from Shakespeare for money.

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17/09/1901

Francis Chichester, English pilot and sailor (died 1972)

Sir Francis Charles Chichester KBE was a British businessman, pioneering aviator and solo sailor.

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17/09/1900

Hughie Critz, American baseball player (died 1980)

Hugh Melville Critz was an American second baseman in Major League Baseball for the Cincinnati Reds in the 1920s and the New York Giants in the 1930s.

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Lena Frances Edwards, African-American physician, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (died 1986)

Lena Frances Edwards was a New Jersey physician who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964.

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J. Willard Marriott, American businessman, founded the Marriott Corporation (died 1985)

John Willard Marriott Sr. was an American entrepreneur and businessman. He was the founder of the Marriott Corporation, the parent company of the world's largest hospitality, hotel chains, and food services companies. The Marriott company rose from a small root beer stand in Washington, D.C., in 1927 to a chain of family restaurants by 1932, to its first motel in 1957. By the time he died in 1985, the Marriott company operated 1,400 restaurants and 143 hotels and resorts worldwide, including two theme parks, earned US$4.5 billion in revenue annually with 154,600 employees. The company's interests also extended to a line of cruise ships.

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Martha Ostenso, Canadian screenwriter and novelist (died 1963)

Martha Ostenso was a Norwegian American novelist and screenwriter who is also an important figure in Canadian literary history.

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Hedwig Ross, New Zealand-born educator and political activist, founding member of the Communist Party of New Zealand (died 1971)

Hedwig "Hettie" Ross was a New Zealand-born Australian educator and political activist. She was a founding member of the Communist Party of New Zealand and a leader of the Australian Militant Woman's Group, a department of the Communist Party of Australia, and edited several Australian political publications including the Young Communist. Throughout her career, she was an advocate for the children of the poor, and argued for the centrality of education in raising their position in society.

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17/09/1897

Earl Webb, American baseball player and coach (died 1965)

William Earl Webb was an American professional baseball outfielder and first baseman in Major League Baseball, playing from 1925 to 1933. He played for five teams, including the Boston Red Sox for three years. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed. He was born in White County, Tennessee.

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17/09/1886

Anton Irv, Estonian captain (died 1919)

Anton Irv VR I/2, VR II/2, VR II/3 was a highly decorated Estonian combat soldier and military officer during World War I and in the Estonian War of Independence.

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17/09/1884

Charles Griffes, American pianist and composer (died 1920)

Charles Tomlinson Griffes was an American composer for piano, chamber ensembles and voice. His initial works are influenced by German Romanticism, but after he relinquished the German style, his later works make him the most famous American representative of musical Impressionism, along with Charles Martin Loeffler. He was fascinated by the exotic, mysterious sound of the French Impressionists, and was compositionally much influenced by them while he was in Europe. He also studied the work of contemporary Russian composers such as Scriabin, whose influence is also apparent in his use of synthetic scales.

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17/09/1883

William Carlos Williams, American poet, short story writer, and essayist (died 1963)

William Carlos Williams was an American-Puerto Rican poet and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. His Spring and All (1923) was written in the wake of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922). In his five-volume poem Paterson (1946–1958), he took Paterson, New Jersey as "my 'case' to work up. It called for a poetry such as I did not know, it was my duty to discover or make such a context on the 'thought.'" Some of his best known poems, "This Is Just to Say" and "The Red Wheelbarrow", are reflections on the everyday. Other poems reflect the influence of the visual arts. He, in turn, influenced the visual arts; his poem "The Great Figure" inspired the painting I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold by Charles Demuth. Williams was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems (1962).

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17/09/1881

Alfred Carpenter, English admiral, Victoria Cross recipient (died 1955)

Vice-Admiral Alfred Francis Blakeney Carpenter, VC was a Royal Navy officer who was selected by his fellow officers and men to receive the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

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17/09/1879

Rube Foster, American baseball player and manager (died 1930)

Andrew "Rube" Foster was an American baseball co-founder, player, manager, and executive in the Negro leagues. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981.

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Periyar, Indian social activist and politician (died 1973)

Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy, commonly known as Periyar, was an Indian social activist and politician. He was the organiser of the Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam and is considered the architect of Dravidian politics, as well as a leading figure of left-wing politics in India.

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17/09/1878

Vincenzo Tommasini, Italian composer (died 1950)

Vincenzo Tommasini was an Italian composer.

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17/09/1874

Walter Murdoch, Australian author and academic (died 1970)

Sir Walter Logie Forbes Murdoch, was a prominent Australian academic and essayist famous for his intelligence and wit. He was a founding professor of English and former Chancellor of the University of Western Australia (UWA) in Perth, Western Australia.

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17/09/1871

Eivind Astrup, Norwegian explorer (died 1895)

Eivind Astrup was a Norwegian explorer and writer. Astrup participated in Robert Peary's expedition to Greenland in 1891–92 and mapped northern Greenland. In the follow-up Greenland expedition by Peary during 1893–94 he explored and mapped Melville Bay on the north-west coast of Greenland. Among his works is Blandt Nordpolens Naboer from 1895. He was awarded the Knight of the Order of St. Olav in 1892.

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17/09/1869

Christian Lous Lange, Norwegian political scientist, historian, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1938)

Christian Lous Lange was a Norwegian historian, teacher, and political scientist. He was one of the world's foremost exponents of the theory and practice of internationalism.

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17/09/1868

James Alexander Calder, Canadian educator and politician, Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence (died 1956)

James Alexander Calder was a Canadian politician.

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17/09/1867

Vera Yevstafievna Popova, Russian chemist (died 1896)

Vera Yevstafievna Popova was a Russian chemist. She was one of the first female chemists in Russia, and the first Russian female author of a chemistry textbook. She "probably became the first woman to die in the cause of chemistry" as a result of an explosion in her laboratory.

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17/09/1865

William Murray McPherson, Australian politician, 31st Premier of Victoria (died 1932)

Sir William Murray McPherson, KBE was an Australian philanthropist and politician. He was the 31st Premier of Victoria.

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17/09/1864

Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky, Ukrainian writer (died 1913)

Mykhailo Mykhailovych Kotsiubynsky was a Ukrainian author whose writings described typical Ukrainian life at the start of the 20th century. Kotsiubynsky's early stories were described as examples of an ethnographic realism; in the years to come, with his style of writing becoming more and more sophisticated, he evolved into one of the most talented Ukrainian impressionist and modernist writers. The popularity of his novels later led to some of them being made into Soviet movies.

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James Tancred, English admiral (died 1943)

Vice-Admiral James Charles Tancred, born James Charles Cleghorn, was a British officer of the Royal Navy. He saw service in the First World War, and rose to the rank of vice-admiral.

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17/09/1860

Mihkel Martna, Estonian journalist and politician (died 1934)

Mihkel Martna was an Estonian politician and journalist.

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17/09/1859

Frank Dawson Adams, Canadian geologist and academic (died 1942)

Frank Dawson Adams was a Canadian geologist.

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Billy the Kid, American gunman (died 1881)

Henry McCarty, alias William H. Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid, was an American outlaw and gunfighter of the Old West who was linked to nine murders. He was solely responsible for four of them, and he may have played a role in five, alongside other men. He is also noted for his involvement in New Mexico's Lincoln County War.

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I. L. Patterson, American politician, 18th Governor of Oregon (died 1929)

Isaac Lee Patterson, was the 18th governor of Oregon from 1927 to 1929. An Oregon native, he served in the Oregon Legislative Assembly from 1918 to 1922, and was a farmer in the Willamette Valley. He was the first governor of Oregon born in the state after it was admitted to the Union.

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17/09/1857

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Russian scientist and engineer (died 1935)

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was a Russian rocket scientist who pioneered astronautics. Along with Hermann Oberth and Robert H. Goddard, he is one of the pioneers of space flight and the founding father of modern rocketry and astronautics.

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17/09/1854

David Dunbar Buick, Scottish-American businessman, founded Buick Motor Company (died 1929)

David Dunbar Buick was a Scottish-born American inventor, widely known for founding the Buick Motor Company. He headed this company and its predecessor from 1899–1906, thereby helping to create one of the most successful nameplates in United States motor vehicle history.

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17/09/1853

Frederick Corbett, British officer and Victoria Cross recipient (died 1912)

Frederick Corbett was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Corbett was born on 17 September 1853 in Maldon, Essex, and died there in 1912. His name at birth was David Embleton. He served in first the King's Royal Rifle Corps (1873–83) and second, the Royal Artillery (1884–91).

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17/09/1850

Guerra Junqueiro, Portuguese journalist, lawyer, and politician (died 1923)

Abílio Manuel Guerra Junqueiro was a Portuguese top civil servant, member of the Portuguese House of Representatives, journalist, author, and poet. His work helped inspire the creation of the Portuguese First Republic. Junqueiro wrote highly satiric poems criticizing conservatism, romanticism, and the Church leading up to the Portuguese Revolution of 1910. He was one of Europe's greatest poets. Junqueiro studied law at the University of Coimbra.

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17/09/1826

Bernhard Riemann, German-Italian mathematician and academic (died 1866)

Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann was a German mathematician who made profound contributions to analysis, number theory, and differential geometry. In the field of real analysis, he is mostly known for the first rigorous formulation of the integral, the Riemann integral, and his work on Fourier series. His contributions to complex analysis include most notably the introduction of Riemann surfaces, breaking new ground in a natural, geometric treatment of complex analysis. His 1859 paper on the prime-counting function, containing the original statement of the Riemann hypothesis, is regarded as a foundational paper of analytic number theory. Through his pioneering contributions to differential geometry, Riemann laid the foundations of the mathematics of general relativity. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest mathematicians of all time.

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17/09/1825

Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II, American jurist and politician, 16th United States Secretary of the Interior (died 1893)

Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II was a Confederate soldier, American politician, diplomat, and jurist. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Mississippi in both houses of Congress, served as the United States Secretary of the Interior, and was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He also served as an official in the Confederate States of America.

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17/09/1821

Arthur Saint-Léon, French choreographer (died 1870)

Arthur Saint-Léon was the Maître de Ballet of St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet from 1859 until 1869 and is famous for creating the choreography of the ballet Coppélia.

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17/09/1820

Émile Augier, French playwright (died 1889)

Guillaume Victor Émile Augier was a French dramatist. He was the thirteenth member to occupy seat 1 of the Académie française on 31 March 1857.

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Earl Van Dorn, Confederate general (died 1863)

Earl Van Dorn was an American Major General who started his military career as a United States Army officer and became famous for successfully leading two defenses of a Native American settlement from the Comanche. He joined Confederate forces in 1861 after the Civil War broke out and was a major general when he was killed in a private conflict.

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17/09/1819

Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, South African general and politician, 1st President of the South African Republic (died 1901)

Marthinus Wessel Pretorius was a South African political leader. An Afrikaner, he helped establish the South African Republic, was the first president of the ZAR, and also compiled its constitution.

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17/09/1817

Herman Adolfovich Trautscohold, German geologist and paleontologist (died 1902)

Gustav Heinrich Ludwig Hermann Trautschold was a German-Russian geologist and paleontologist and also pharmacist. From 1869 to 1888 he was a professor at the Petrovsky Agricultural and Forestry Academy. Trautschold was known as a specialist in the paleontology and stratigraphy of Carboniferous, Jurassic and Cretaceous deposits of the European part of Russia. He was brother of painter Wilhelm Trautschold.

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17/09/1797

Heinrich Kuhl, German naturalist and zoologist (died 1821)

Heinrich Kuhl was a German naturalist and zoologist.

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17/09/1787

Teresa Casati, Italian noblewomen and revolutionary (died 1830)

Teresa Casati Confalonieri was an Italian noblewoman and revolutionist. She is known as the wife of revolutionist Federico Confalonieri, sister of former Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia, Gabrio Casati, and as an important figure in the Risorgimento.

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17/09/1783

Nadezhda Durova, Russian soldier (died 1866)

Alexander Andreevich Alexandrov was a Russian cavalry soldier and writer who participated in the Napoleonic Wars. Alexandrov was assigned female at birth, but solely presented as a man in adulthood.

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17/09/1773

Jonathan Alder, American captain and farmer (died 1849)

Jonathan Alder was an American pioneer, and the first Euro-American settler in Madison County, Ohio. As a young child living in Virginia, Alder was kidnapped by Shawnee, and later adopted by a Mingo chief in the Ohio Country. He lived with the Native Americans for many years before returning to the white community.

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17/09/1771

Johann August Apel, German jurist and author (died 1816)

Johann August Apel was a German writer and jurist. Apel was born and died in Leipzig.

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17/09/1743

Marquis de Condorcet, French mathematician and political scientist (died 1794)

Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis of Condorcet, known as Nicolas de Condorcet, was a French philosopher, political economist, politician, and mathematician. His ideas, including support for free markets, public education, constitutional government, and equal rights for women and people of all races, and a welfare state have been said to embody the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment, of which he has been called the "last witness", and Enlightenment rationalism. As he was a critic of the constitution proposed by Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles in 1793, the Convention Nationale – and the Jacobin faction in particular – voted to have Condorcet arrested. He died in prison after a period of hiding from the French Revolutionary authorities.

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17/09/1739

John Rutledge, American judge and politician, 2nd Chief Justice of the United States (died 1800)

John Rutledge Jr. was an American Founding Father, politician, and jurist who served as one of the original associate justices of the Supreme Court and the second chief justice of the United States. Additionally, he served as the first president of South Carolina and later as its first governor after the Declaration of Independence was signed.

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17/09/1730

Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Prussian-American general (died 1794)

Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand Freiherr von Steuben, also referred to as Baron von Steuben, was a Prussian-born army officer who played a leading role in the American Revolutionary War by reforming the Continental Army into a disciplined and professional fighting force. His contributions marked a significant improvement in the performance of U.S. troops, and he is consequently regarded as one of the fathers of the United States Army.

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17/09/1688

Maria Luisa of Savoy, queen consort of Spain (died 1714)

Princess Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy, nicknamed La Savoyana, was Queen of Spain by marriage to King Philip V. She acted as regent during her husband's absence from 1702 until 1703 and had great influence as a political adviser during the War of the Spanish Succession, during which she was often regent while Philip fought to protect his legitimacy and his place on the throne. Despite her young age, Maria Luisa proved herself to be mature, intelligent, hard-working and resolute, and her regencies were effective, winning the respect of her subjects and becoming very popular and well-loved by her people. At the end of the War of Spanish Succession, Philip V was recognised as King of Spain, establishing the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon, which still rules over Spain to this day. Two of her four sons, Louis I and Ferdinand VI, took their turns as King of Spain. Maria Luisa died from tuberculosis at just 25.

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17/09/1639

Hans Herr, Swiss bishop (died 1725)

Hans Herr was born in Zürich, Switzerland. While often cited as a descendant of the knight Hugo Herr, scholarship done in the 20th century has put this claim in doubt. He joined the Swiss Brethren and became a bishop. He was the first Mennonite bishop to emigrate to America.

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17/09/1630

Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma (died 1694)

Ranuccio II Farnese was the sixth Duke of Parma and Piacenza from 1646 until his death nearly 50 years later. He was also the Duke of Castro from 1646 until 1649.

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17/09/1605

Francesco Sacrati, Italian composer (died 1650)

Francesco Sacrati was an Italian composer of the Baroque era, who played an important role in the early history of opera. He wrote for the Teatro Novissimo in Venice as well as touring his operas throughout Italy. His most famous piece is La finta pazza, said to be the first opera ever performed in France. The manuscript of this work was long thought to be lost but a touring edition of the manuscript was discovered by musicologist Lorenzo Bianconi in 1984. Some of the music bears striking similarities to the score of Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, prompting scholars to speculate that Sacrati had a part in composing the surviving version of that opera. The United States premiere of La finta pazza, and first performance outside Europe, occurred in April 2010 at Yale University.

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17/09/1578

John Prideaux, English administrator and bishop (died 1650)

John Prideaux was an English academic and Bishop of Worcester.

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17/09/1565

Edward Fortunatus, German nobleman (died 1600)

Edward Fortunatus of Baden was Margrave of Baden-Rodemachern and Baden-Baden.

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17/09/1550

Paul V, pope of the Catholic Church (died 1621)

Pope Paul V, born Camillo Borghese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 16 May 1605 to his death, in January 1621. In 1611, he honored Galileo Galilei as a member of the papal Accademia dei Lincei and supported his discoveries. In 1616, Pope Paul V instructed Cardinal Robert Bellarmine to inform Galileo that the Copernican theory could not be taught as fact, but Bellarmine's certificate allowed Galileo to continue his studies in search for evidence and use the geocentric model as a theoretical device. That same year Paul V assured Galileo that he was safe from persecution so long as he, the Pope, should live. Bellarmine's certificate was used by Galileo for his defense at the trial of 1633.

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17/09/1479

Celio Calcagnini, Italian astronomer (died 1541)

Celio Calcagnini, also known as Caelius Calcagninus, was an Italian humanist and scientist from Ferrara. His learning as displayed in his collected works is very broad.

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17/09/1433

James of Portugal, Portuguese prince and cardinal (died 1459)

Jaime or James of Portugal, also known as James of Coimbra, James of Lusitania, was a Portuguese infante (prince) of the House of Aviz, and a bishop and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

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17/09/0879

Charles the Simple, Frankish king (died 929)

Charles III, called the Simple or the Straightforward, was the king of West Francia from 898 until 922 and the king of Lotharingia from 911 until 919–923. He was a member of the Carolingian dynasty.

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