Famous Birthdays on August 29

John Locke was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of the Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism". His important works include A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), Two Treatises of Government (1689/90), both published anonymously, and An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689/90). His writing on toleration contends that religion is a matter for the individual and that the churches are voluntary associations, ruling out religious coercion and uniformity. The ideas on the separation of church and state originated with Sir Harry Vane in Vane’s two pamphlets “Zeal Examined” in 1651 and “A Healing Question” published in 1656. His Two Treatises on Government argues for government based on the consent of the governed and the right to revolt against tyrannous government which has lost consent. The Two Treatises are believed to have influenced the language that Thomas Jefferson chose in his drafting the July 1776 Declaration of Independence during the War of American Independence.

Elizabeth Davidson Fraser is a Scottish singer. She achieved worldwide success as the vocalist for the band Cocteau Twins from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. The band's studio albums Victorialand (1986) and Heaven or Las Vegas (1990) reached the top ten of the UK Album Charts, while other albums, including Blue Bell Knoll (1988), Four-Calendar Café (1993), and Milk & Kisses (1996), charted on the Billboard 200 album charts in the United States and the top 20 in the UK. She also performed as part of the 4AD group This Mortal Coil, including the successful 1983 single "Song to the Siren", and as a guest with Massive Attack on several tracks from their 1998 album Mezzanine, most notably the commercially successful single "Teardrop", and album tracks "Black Milk" and "Group Four". She later collaborated with the band again on the track "Silent Spring", released on their 2006 compilation Collected.

Vivien Theodore Thomas was an American laboratory supervisor who, in the 1940s, played a major role in developing a procedure now called the Blalock–Thomas–Taussig shunt used to treat blue baby syndrome along with surgeon Alfred Blalock and cardiologist Helen B. Taussig. He was the assistant to Blalock in Blalock's experimental animal laboratory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and later at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Thomas was unique in that he did not have any professional education or experience in a research laboratory; however, he served as supervisor of the surgical laboratories at Johns Hopkins for 35 years. In 1976, Johns Hopkins awarded him an honorary doctorate and named him an Instructor of Surgery for the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Without any education past high school, Thomas rose above poverty to become a cardiac surgery pioneer and a teacher of operative techniques to many of the country's most prominent surgeons.

Donn Charles Fendler was an American author and public speaker. Born in Rye, New York, Fendler, at the age of 12, became separated from his family and was lost on Maine's Mount Katahdin in July 1939. His disappearance launched a search party, which became headline news throughout the United States. Donn survived for nine days without food or proper clothing, before following a stream and telephone line out of the woods near Stacyville, Maine. Fendler was dehydrated, covered with insect bites, and 16 pounds lighter than at the beginning of his odyssey, but otherwise unharmed. He credited his experience as a Boy Scout in helping him survive the ordeal.

Iris Apfel was an American businesswoman, interior designer, and fashion designer, known for her flamboyant style, outspoken personality and oversized eyeglasses. In business with her husband, Carl, from 1950 to 1992, Apfel had a career in textiles, including a contract with the White House that spanned nine presidencies. In retirement, she drew acclaim for a 2005 show at the Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art featuring her collection of costume jewelry and styled with clothes on mannequins as she would wear them. She became a fashion icon, was the focus of the 2014 Albert Maysles documentary Iris, then signed to IMG in 2019 as a model at age 97.

Lucero Hogaza León is a Mexican singer, actress, and television personality. Dubbed "the Americas' Girlfriend", she is known for her influence in Latin music and Latin American television, with a career spanning over four decades. She started her career at age ten as a child actress on Televisa shows such as Alegrías de Mediodía, Chiquilladas, and later starred in Chispita. In 1982, she debuted as a singer with Él and soon became one of the most popular teen pop stars of the 1980s. Her albums from that time include Un Pedacito de Mí (1986), Ocho Quince (1988), and Cuéntame (1989).

Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck, also known as Count/Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911 "in appreciation of his many-sided literary activities, and especially of his dramatic works, which are distinguished by a wealth of imagination and by a poetic fancy, which reveals, sometimes in the guise of a fairy tale, a deep inspiration, while in a mysterious way they appeal to the readers' own feelings and stimulate their imaginations". The main themes in his work are death and the meaning of life. He was a leading member of the group La Jeune Belgique, and his plays form an important part of the Symbolist movement. In later life, Maeterlinck faced credible accusations of plagiarism.

Gottfried John was a German stage, screen, and voice actor. A longtime collaborator of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, John appeared in nine of his films between 1975 and 1981, the year before Fassbinder's death, including Eight Hours Don't Make a Day, Mother Küsters' Trip to Heaven, Despair, The Marriage of Maria Braun, and Berlin Alexanderplatz. His distinctive, gaunt appearance saw him frequently cast as villains, and he is best known to audiences for his role as the corrupt General Arkady Ourumov in the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye and his comedic turn as Julius Caesar in Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar (1999), for the latter of which he won the Bavarian Film Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Richard Blackwell, also known as Mr. Blackwell, was an American fashion critic, journalist, television and radio personality, artist, child actor and fashion designer. He was the creator of the "Ten Worst Dressed Women List", an annual awards presentation he unveiled in January of each year. Blackwell published the "Fabulous Fashion Independents" list and an annual Academy Awards fashion review, both of which receive somewhat less media attention. His partner of 60 years, Beverly Hills hairdresser Robert L. Spencer, was also his manager. He wrote two books, Mr. Blackwell: 30 Years of Fashion Fiascos and an autobiography, From Rags to Bitches.

Hiroki Kikuta is a Japanese composer and game designer. His major works are Secret of Mana, Trials of Mana, Soukaigi, and Koudelka, for which he also acted as producer and concept designer. He has composed music for seven other games, and worked as a concept designer in addition to composer for the unreleased MMORPG Chou Bukyo Taisen. He became interested in music at an early age, but earned a degree in Religious Studies, Philosophy, and Cultural Anthropology from Kansai University. He spent the next few years working first as a manga illustrator, then as a composer for anime series, before coming to work for Square in 1991.

John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, was a fourteenth-century English nobleman and soldier. He also held the titles of Baron Abergavenny and Lord of Wexford. He was born in Sutton Valence, the son of Laurence Hastings, 1st Earl of Pembroke, and Agnes Mortimer, Countess of Pembroke. His father died when John Hastings was around one year old, and he became a ward of King Edward III while remaining in his mother's care. The King arranged for John to marry Edward's daughter Margaret in 1359, which drew John into the royal family. However, Margaret died two years later. John Hastings inherited his father's earldom, subsidiary titles and estates in 1368. The same year, he made a second marriage, to Anne, daughter of Walter, Lord Mauny. The following year, Pembroke began the career in royal service that continued for the rest of his life.

Sir Lenworth George Henry is a British comedian, actor, presenter and writer. He gained success as a stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1970s and early 1980s, becoming a regular cast member of the children's entertainment show Tiswas and the sketch comedy show Three of a Kind. In 1984, he began The Lenny Henry Show, which ran until 2005 and varied between sketch show and sitcom during its run. He was the most prominent black British comedian of the late 1970s and 1980s, and much of his material served to celebrate and parody his African-Caribbean roots.

Alfred Shaw was a Victorian cricketer and rugby footballer, who bowled the first ball in Test cricket and was the first to take five wickets in a Test innings (5/35). He made two trips to North America and four to Australia, captaining the English cricket team in four Test matches on the all-professional tour of Australia in 1881/82, where his team lost and drew two each. He was also, along with James Lillywhite and Arthur Shrewsbury, co-promoter of the tour. He also organised the first British Isles rugby tour to Australasia in 1888.

Henry Ramón Blanco is a Venezuelan former professional baseball catcher who currently serves as the manager for the Sultanes de Monterrey of the Mexican League. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1997 to 2013, appearing for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers, Atlanta Braves, Minnesota Twins, Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres, New York Mets, Arizona Diamondbacks, Toronto Blue Jays, and Seattle Mariners. He later served as quality assurance coach for the Cubs. Although a light-hitting player, he was regarded as one of the best defensive catchers of his era.

Daryll Saskia Neita is a British sprinter. She won a silver medal in the 200 metres at the 2024 European Championships along with bronze in the 100 metres at the 2022 European Championships, 2022 Commonwealth Games and in the 60 metres at the 2023 European Indoor Championships. She has also won several medals as part of Great Britain 4 × 100 m relay teams, including an Olympic silver medal in 2024 and bronze medals in 2016 and 2021, World Championships silver medals in 2017 and 2019 and European gold in 2018.

Dimitris Papamichael was a popular Greek actor and director. In 1965, he married Aliki Vougiouklaki, the so-called "national star" of Greece, whom he met at the National Theatre of Greece Drama School. The star couple remained married for a decade, co-starring in several films that marked the "golden era" of Greek cinema. His second marriage was to Nana Eilikrini and lasted until 1990. In the 1990s he had a relationship with the actress Mina Heimona. His last partner, up to his death, was the actress Nadia Mourouzi.

Joe Swail is a Northern Irish former professional snooker player from Belfast. He retired in May 2019 after being relegated from the tour. He has reached ten major ranking semi-finals, including the 2000 and 2001 World Championships but only one final. Swail is renowned for playing well at the Crucible Theatre, having reached the last 16 on four further occasions. He is also a former English amateur champion and Northern Ireland amateur runner-up, and has captained Northern Ireland internationally. He was Irish champion in 1992 and 2005.

Kim Ku, also known by his art name Paekpŏm, was a Korean independence activist and statesman. He was a leader of the Korean independence movement against the Empire of Japan, head of the Korean Provisional Government from 1926 to 1927 and from 1940 to 1945, and a Korean reunification activist after 1945. Kim is revered in South Korea, where he is considered one of the greatest figures in Korean history; his legacy is also somewhat less enthusiastically celebrated in North Korea, due to his anti-communist views.

Carla Gugino is an American actress. After early roles in the films Troop Beverly Hills (1989), This Boy's Life (1993), Son in Law (1993), and Snake Eyes (1998), Gugino received wider recognition for her starring roles in the Spy Kids trilogy (2001–2003), Sin City (2005), Night at the Museum (2006), American Gangster (2007), Righteous Kill (2008), Race to Witch Mountain (2009), Sally Jupiter in Watchmen (2009), Sucker Punch (2011), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), San Andreas (2015), Gerald's Game (2017), Gunpowder Milkshake (2021), and Lisa Frankenstein (2024).