Famous Birthdays on August 1

Timothy Gregg Bachman was a Canadian guitarist and vocalist best known for his work with rock bands Brave Belt and Bachman–Turner Overdrive (BTO). Bachman was one of the four founding members of BTO together with his brothers Randy (guitar/vocals) and Robbie (drums), and Fred Turner (bass/vocals). BTO has sold nearly 30 million albums worldwide.

Frank Benjamin Havens was an American sprint canoeist who competed from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. He was born in Arlington, Virginia. Competing in four Summer Olympics, he won two medals: in the C-1 10000 m event with a silver in 1948, and a gold in 1952. In Havens' first shot in the 1948 Olympic games, he finished second to Capek by 35.4 seconds in a canoe he borrowed from the Czechs. In 1952, his world record was set in a canoe he and his brother, Bill, imported from Sweden for about $160. He was the only American Olympic gold medal winner in a singles canoeing event until the 2021 Tokyo Olympics where Nevin Harrison won the C-1 Womens 200 m race. He was a member of the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and an American Canoe Association Legend of Paddling. He died in July 2018 at the age of 93.

Jacob "Baby Jake" Matlala was a South African professional boxer and four-time world champion who competed from 1980 to 2002. Standing about 4 ft 10 in (147 cm), he is the shortest boxer in history to win a world title. He was a world champion in two weight classes: having held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) flyweight title from 1993 to 1995 and the WBO light-flyweight from 1995 to 1997. He scored high-profile wins against international opponents during the 1990s. He was a hugely popular national figure in South Africa — admired for his fighting spirit and charitable work — and was publicly counted among Nelson Mandela’s favourite sportspeople. In 2004, Matlala was voted #72 in the "100 Greatest South Africans" poll organized by SABC.

Stephen Whitefield Sykes was a Church of England bishop and academic specialising in divinity. He was Van Mildert Professor of Divinity at Durham University from 1974 to 1985, and Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University from 1985 to 1990. Between 1990 and 1999, he served as the Bishop of Ely, the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Ely. He was the Principal of St John's College, Durham from 1999 to 2006. He served as an Honorary Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Durham during his time as head of St John's College and in retirement.

Jens Juul Holst is a Danish physician and physiologist. He is known for discovering and describing the hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a hormone in the gut that plays an important role in the onset and development of Type 2 diabetes. In collaboration with researcher and author Arne Astrup, he discovered that GLP-1 acts as a satiety hormone in humans.

Saleh Gomaa is an Egyptian professional footballer who formerly played for Al Ahly and currently plays for Ismailia-based club, Ismaily SC, and the Egyptian national team. He competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2013 African U-20 Championship. As a 19-year-old, he played at the 2013 African U-20 championship in Algeria and won "The Player of the Tournament" award, when the Egyptians won their trophy. He is the elder brother of the Egyptian footballer Abdallah Gomaa.

Hyeonjong, personal name Wang Sun, was the 8th ruler of the Goryeo dynasty of Korea. He was a grandson of the dynastic founder King Taejo. He was appointed by the military leader Kang Cho, whom the King Mokjong had called upon to destroy a plot by Kim Ch'i-yang. During his reign, the Goryeo dynasty fought two wars against the Khitan Liao dynasty. Today Hyeonjong is considered to be among the greatest leaders in Korean history.

Lorna Gaye Goodison is a Jamaican poet, essayist and memoirist, a West Indian writer, whose career spans four decades. She is now professor emerita, English Language and Literature/Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan, previously serving as the Lemuel A. Johnson Professor of English and African and Afroamerican Studies. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Jamaica in 2017, serving in the role until 2020.

Year 126 (CXXVI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Verus and Ambibulus. The denomination 126 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Henry R. Silverman is an American entrepreneur and private equity investor. Silverman is best known for his role in building Cendant Corporation into a multibillion-dollar business services company that provided car rentals, travel reservation services as well as real estate brokerage services; it was also the largest franchisor of hotels globally.

Konstantinos Logothetopoulos was a Greek medical doctor who became Prime Minister of Greece, directing the Greek collaborationist government during the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II.

Vhrsti is a Czech illustrator, writer, children's book author, comics artist and scenarist, member of the unofficial new wave of Czech and Slovak comics Generation Zero and the Czech Cartoonists' Union. He lives in Plzeň in the Czech Republic.

Paul George Vincent O'Shaughnessy Horgan was an American writer of historical fiction and non-fiction who mainly wrote about the Southwestern United States. He was the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes for History.

Ernst Jandl was an Austrian writer, poet, and translator. He became known for his experimental lyric, mainly sound poems (Sprechgedichte) in the tradition of concrete and visual poetic forms.

Ayaka Wada is a Japanese singer signed to Yu-M Entertainment. She was a first generation member and the leader of Angerme, as well as the leader of Hello! Project.

Anne-Marie Hutchinson OBE QC (Hon) was an Irish lawyer known for her work in the UK concerning children's rights, particularly forced marriage and international child abduction.

Isobel Lilian Gloag (1865–1917) was an English Victorian painter, known for her oil and watercolour portraits, as well as posters and stained-glass designs.

James Henry Govier was a British painter and etcher, who worked in Swansea and East Anglia.

Raul Renter was an Estonian economist and chess player, who twice won the Estonian Chess Championship.

María Teresa López Boegeholz was a Chilean oceanographer and academic. She was considered a pioneer in the field of marine sciences.

Jack Shea was an American television and film director. He was the president of the Directors Guild of America from 1997 to 2002.

Derek Birdsall, was a British graphic designer.

Brian Murray Fagan was a British author of popular archaeology books and a professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Laurence John Taylor is an English sociologist and radio presenter, originally from Liverpool.

Étienne Roda-Gil was a songwriter and screenwriter. He was an anarchist and an anarcho-syndicalist.

Marco Puntoriere is an Italian footballer who plays as a forward for USD Palmese.