Famous Birthdays on April 23

Stephen Arnold Douglas was an American politician and lawyer from Illinois. A Democrat, he served in the United States Senate for fourteen years and defeated Abraham Lincoln to win reelection in 1858, a campaign known for the pivotal Lincoln–Douglas debates. He was the representative of the Northern Democrats in the 1860 United States presidential election; with the Democrats split between northern and southern factions in the leadup to the American Civil War, he was defeated by Lincoln, the Republican nominee. During his senate career, Douglas was one of the brokers of the Compromise of 1850, which sought to avert a sectional crisis over the issue of slavery. To deal with the volatile issue of whether to extend slavery into US territories, Douglas became the foremost advocate of popular sovereignty, which held that the voters of each territory should be allowed to decide. At just 5 feet 4 inches (1.63 m) tall, Douglas was nicknamed the "Little Giant" because he was short in physical stature but a forceful and dominant figure in politics.

Narada Michael Walden is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He began his career as a drummer, working primarily in the jazz fusion realm, appearing with John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Chick Corea, Jaco Pastorius, Tommy Bolin, Jeff Beck, Wayne Shorter and Weather Report, and Allan Holdsworth. After being mentored by Quincy Jones, he transitioned into a role as a songwriter and producer, working in the 1980s and 1990s with numerous R&B acts such as Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Stacy Lattisaw, Angela Bofill, Jermaine Stewart, Tevin Campbell and Mariah Carey, as well as other singers across a number of genres. In 2020, he became the drummer of Journey replacing Steve Smith. In 2021, he became one of two drummers in the band alongside the returning Deen Castronovo prior to leaving in 2022. He appears on the band's album Freedom (2022), having co-produced and played on the album before his departure.

Gail Charles Goodrich Jr. is an American former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is best known for scoring a then record 42 points for UCLA in the 1965 NCAA championship game vs. Michigan, and his part in the Los Angeles Lakers' 1971–72 season. During that season the team won a still-record 33 consecutive games, posted what was at the time the best regular season record in NBA history, and also won the franchise's first NBA championship since relocating to Los Angeles. Goodrich was the leading scorer on that team. He is also acclaimed for leading UCLA to its first two national championships under the legendary coach John Wooden, the first in 1963–64 being a perfect 30–0 season when he played with teammate Walt Hazzard. In 1996, 17 years after his retirement from professional basketball, Goodrich was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Goodrich is the leader in highest average minutes per game played in Suns franchise history with 39.9.

Lieutenant-General Guy Granville Simonds, was a senior Canadian Army officer who served with distinction during World War II. Acknowledged by many military historians and senior commanders, among them Sir Max Hastings and Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, as one of the best Canadian generals of the war, Simonds, after serving the first few years of the Second World War mainly as a staff officer, commanded the 1st Canadian Infantry Division with distinction in Sicily and Italy from July 1943 until January 1944, and later II Canadian Corps during the Battle of Normandy from June−August 1944 and throughout the subsequent campaign in Western Europe from 1944, towards the end of which he temporarily commanded the First Canadian Army during the Battle of the Scheldt, until victory in Europe Day in May 1945. The historian J. L. Granatstein states about Simonds: "No Canadian commander rose higher and faster in the Second World War, and none did as well in action. Simonds owed his success wholly to his own abilities and efforts—and those of the men who served under him".

Alexandra Konstantinovna Kosteniuk is a Russian and Swiss chess grandmaster who was the Women's World Chess Champion from 2008 to 2010 and Women's World Rapid Chess Champion in 2021. She was European women's champion in 2004 and a two-time Russian Women's Chess Champion. Kosteniuk won the team gold medal playing for Russia at the Women's Chess Olympiads of 2010, 2012 and 2014; the Women's World Team Chess Championship of 2017; and the Women's European Team Chess Championships of 2007, 2009, 2011, 2015 and 2017 and the Women's Chess World Cup 2021. In 2022, due to sanctions imposed on Russian players after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she switched federations, and since March 2023 she has represented Switzerland.

Sven Kramer is a retired Dutch long track speed skater who has won an all-time record nine World Allround Championships as well as a record ten European Allround Championships. He is the Olympic champion of the 5000 meters at the Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014 and Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics, and won a record 21 gold medals at the World Single Distance Championships; eight in the 5000 meters, five in the 10,000 meters, and eight in the team pursuit. Kramer used to be the world record holder in the team pursuit and broke the world records in the 5000 meter and 10,000 meter events three times. By winning the 2010 World Allround Championship, Kramer became the first speed skater in history to win four consecutive world allround championships and eight consecutive international all round championships. He was undefeated in the 18 international allround championships he participated in from the 2006/2007 season until the 2016/2017 season. From November 2007 to March 2009, he was ranked first in the Adelskalender, but despite his dominance as an all-round skater he has since been overtaken on that list by Shani Davis and, more recently, by his teammate Patrick Roest and Jordan Stolz.

Avram Davidson was an American writer of fantasy fiction, science fiction, and crime fiction, as well as the author of many stories that do not fit into a genre niche. He won a Hugo Award and three World Fantasy Awards in the science fiction and fantasy genres, a World Fantasy Life Achievement award, and an Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine short story award and an Edgar Award in the mystery genre. Davidson edited The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1962 to 1964. His last novel The Boss in the Wall: A Treatise on the House Devil was completed by Grania Davis and was a Nebula Award finalist in 1998. His posthumous collection The Avram Davidson Treasury won the Locus Award for Best Collection in 1999. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction says "he is perhaps sf's most explicitly literary author".

Unity Dow is a Motswana lawyer, author, human rights activist, Vice President of Botswana Congress Party and Member of Parliament for Kgatleng West since October 2024. She formerly served as a judge on the High Court of Botswana and in various Botswana government ministries. Born in the Bechuanaland Protectorate to a seamstress and a farmer, who insisted on their children obtaining an education, Dow grew up in a traditional rural village before modernisation. She earned a law degree in 1983 from the University of Botswana and Swaziland, though her studies were completed in Swaziland and University of Edinburgh, Scotland, as Botswana had no law school at the time. After her graduation, Dow opened the first all-woman law firm in Botswana and in 1997 became the first woman to be appointed as a judge to the country's High Court.

Ivan Ribar, known as Ivo Lola or Ivo Lolo, was a Yugoslav Croat communist politician and military leader. In the 1930s, he became one of the closest associates of Josip Broz Tito, leader of the Yugoslav Communist Party. In 1936, Ribar became secretary of the Central Committee of SKOJ. During World War II in Yugoslavia, Ribar was among the main leaders of the Yugoslav Partisans and was a member of the Partisan Supreme Headquarters. During the war, he founded and ran several leftist youth magazines. In 1942, Ribar was among the founders of the Unified League of Anti-Fascist Youth of Yugoslavia (USAOJ). He was killed by a German bomb in 1943 near Glamoč while boarding an airplane for Cairo, where he was to become the first representative of Communist Yugoslavia to the Middle East Command.

Wei Yuan, born Wei Yuanda (魏遠達), courtesy names Moshen (默深) and Hanshi (漢士), art name Liangtu (良圖), was a Chinese scholar-official, historian, geographer, and a major reformist thinker of the late Qing Dynasty of China. Born in Shaoyang, Hunan, he lived during the reigns of the Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang, and Xianfeng emperors, and he is widely known as one of the first Qing scholar-officials to advocate for the reformation of the Qing military and government, and for the adaptation of western policies following the Qing's defeat in the First Opium War. Wei viewed the war as a signal that the Qing was significantly underdeveloped in comparison to western powers, prompting his advocacy for innovation and learning from the west to allow the Qing to catch up to the west technologically and militarily.

Claude Julien is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and former player. He is currently an assistant coach of the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League (NHL). Before his firing by the Boston Bruins in 2017, he was the longest tenured head coach in the NHL. He had previously served as head coach of the New Jersey Devils in the NHL, as well as in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Hamilton Bulldogs. In 2011, he coached the Bruins to the Stanley Cup Final, against the Vancouver Canucks, winning in seven games, guiding Boston to their sixth franchise Stanley Cup title. In 2013, he brought Boston to another Stanley Cup Final; however, they lost the series to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games.

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" or simply "the Bard". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, 3 long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

Roger Matthew Freeman, also known as Matt McCall, is an American musician best known as the bassist of punk rock band Rancid. After forming several bands with guitarist and vocalist Tim Armstrong in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including ska-punk pioneers Operation Ivy, he and Armstrong formed Rancid with drummer Brett Reed. The band's success helped revive mainstream interest in punk, and they have released ten albums since their formation. Freeman has several side projects as well, including Devil's Brigade, in which Freeman sings lead vocals and plays bass. Freeman's style is characterized by aggressive walking lines and fills, typically played on a Fender Precision Bass.

Edmund Brisco "Henry" Ford was a British ecological geneticist. He was a leader among those British biologists who investigated the role of natural selection in nature. As a schoolboy Ford became interested in lepidoptera, the group of insects which includes butterflies and moths. He went on to study the genetics of natural populations, and invented the field of ecological genetics. Ford was awarded the Royal Society's Darwin Medal in 1954. In the wider world his best known work is Butterflies (1945). Ford was a member of the UK Eugenics Society, of which he was a council member in 1933-1934, also contributing to its publications.

Bonnie Blair Brown is an American theater, film and television actress. She has had a number of high-profile roles, including in the play Copenhagen on Broadway, the leading actress in the films Altered States (1980), Continental Divide (1981) and Strapless (1989), as well as a run as the title character in the comedy-drama television series The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, which ran from 1987 to 1991 and earned her four consecutive Outstanding Comedy Series Actress Emmy Award nominations. Her later roles include Nina Sharp on the Fox television series Fringe and Judy King on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black.

James Patrick Donleavy, popularly known as J. P. Donleavy, was an American-Irish author, short story writer, novelist, and playwright. Known for the dark humor in his writings, he first achieved critical acclaim with his picaresque novel The Ginger Man (1955), initially published in Paris. The novel became an international bestseller, selling 50 million copies worldwide. It is one of the best-selling books of all time and has been translated into over 30 languages. The novel is Donleavy's best-known work, and in 1998, it was ranked 99th by the Modern Library in its list of the "100 Best Novels of the 20th century".

Janet Vivian Hooks was an American actress and comedian. She was best known for her tenure on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, where she was a repertory player from 1986 to 1991. After leaving SNL, she continued to make cameo appearances until 1994. Her subsequent work included a regular role on the last two seasons of Designing Women, a recurring role on 3rd Rock from the Sun, and a number of other film and television roles, including on 30 Rock and The Simpsons. She died of complications of throat cancer on October 9, 2014 at the age of 57.

Neville Stanley Brody is an English graphic designer, typographer and art director. He is known for his work on The Face magazine (1981–1986), Arena magazine (1987–1990), and designing record covers for artists such as Clock DVA, Cabaret Voltaire, The Bongos, 23 Skidoo and Depeche Mode. He created the company Research Studios in 1994 and is a founding member of Fontworks. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). He was the Dean of the School of Communication at the Royal College of Art, London until September 2018. He is now Professor of Communication.

Alistair Edward Brownlee is an English former triathlete. He is the only athlete to hold two Olympic titles in the individual triathlon event, winning gold medals in the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. He is also a four-time World Champion in triathlon being Triathlon World Champion twice and World Team Champion twice, a four-time European Champion, and the 2014 Commonwealth champion. Brownlee is the only male athlete,, to have completed a grand slam of Olympic, World, and continental championships. Brownlee is also a one-time world champion in aquathlon. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest male Triathletes ever.