Did you know about Roger Clemens
William Roger Clemens, nicknamed "Rocket", is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), most notably with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.
Famous Birthdays on August 4
August 4 has 210 recorded notable births across history, from 1222 to 1998. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.
1962 — Roger Clemens
American baseball player and actor
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Famous Birthdays
210 source records
1222 – 1998
Leo
Today in history
Major events on August 4
See what else happened on this day in history.
- 1944 Under the state of emergency law, the Finnish Parliament elects Marshal C. G. E. Mannerheim as the President of Finland to replace the resigned Risto Ryti. Source
- 1936 Prime Minister of Greece Ioannis Metaxas suspends parliament and the Constitution and establishes the 4th of August Regime. Source
Did you know about Percy Bysshe Shelley
American literary critic Harold Bloom describes him as "a superb craftsman, a lyric poet without rival, and surely one of the most advanced sceptical intellects ever to write a poem."
Did you know about Jeff Gordon
Jeff Gordon is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential drivers in NASCAR history, helping the sport reach mainstream popularity in the 1990s and 2000s.
Did you know about Nikos Liberopoulos
On 10 May 2012, he reached a milestone 100 goals for AEK Athens after a brace against Atromitos, making him the only player in history to score a hundred goals for both Athens clubs.
Did you know about Jessica Mauboy
Born and raised in Darwin, Northern Territory, she rose to fame in 2006 on the fourth season of Australian Idol, where she was runner-up and subsequently signed a recording contract with Sony Music Australia.
More major people born on August 4
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
1792
Percy Bysshe Shelley
English poet and playwright (died 1822)
Percy Bysshe Shelley was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achievements in poetry grew steadily following his death, and he became an important influence on subsequent generations of poets, including Robert Browning, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Thomas Hardy, and W. B. Yeats. American literary critic Harold Bloom describes him as "a superb craftsman, a lyric poet without rival, and surely one of the most advanced sceptical intellects ever to write a poem."
1971
Jeff Gordon
American race car driver and actor
Jeffery Michael Gordon is an American stock car racing executive and former professional stock car racing driver who currently serves as the vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series and Sprint Cup Series, and also served as a substitute driver for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in select races during the 2016 season. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential drivers in NASCAR history, helping the sport reach mainstream popularity in the 1990s and 2000s.
1975
Nikos Liberopoulos
Greek footballer
Nikos Liberopoulos is a retired Greek former international footballer who played as a forward. He is famous for his aim-to-goal shot, his innate in-play instincts, and his technical attacking skills. Liberopoulos is a unique player in Greek domestic football, as he is equally adored by fans of both AEK Athens and Panathinaikos. He is the only player to be recorded in the top ten scorers of all time for both these teams. Indeed, after seven seasons at Panathinaikos Liberopoulos scored 103 goals. On 10 May 2012, he reached a milestone 100 goals for AEK Athens after a brace against Atromitos, making him the only player in history to score a hundred goals for both Athens clubs. On 8 September 2017, he became the Technical Director of AEK.
1989
Jessica Mauboy
Australian singer-songwriter and actress
Jessica Hilda Mauboy is an Australian singer and actress. Born and raised in Darwin, Northern Territory, she rose to fame in 2006 on the fourth season of Australian Idol, where she was runner-up and subsequently signed a recording contract with Sony Music Australia. After releasing a live album of her Idol performances and briefly being a member of the girl group Young Divas in 2007, Mauboy released her debut studio album, Been Waiting, the following year. It included her first number-one single, "Burn", and became the second highest-selling Australian album of 2009, certified double platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).
1958
Mary Decker
American runner
Mary Teresa Decker, is an American retired middle-distance and long-distance runner. During her career, she won gold medals in the 1500 meters and 3000 meters at the 1983 World Championships and was the world-record holder in the mile, 5000 meters and 10,000 meters. In total, she set 17 official and unofficial world records, and she was the first woman to break 4:20 for the mile. She also set 36 U.S. national records at distances ranging from 800 meters to 10,000 meters, and has held the U.S. record in the 2000 meters and 3000 meters since the early 1980s, while her 1500 meters record stood for 32 years and her mile record stood for 38 years. In 2003, she was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame. She was retroactively banned for two years from June 1996 for a doping violation for a high testosterone to epitestosterone ratio.
1998
Lil Skies
American rapper
Kimetrius Christopher Foose, known by his stage name Lil Skies, is an American rapper and singer from Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. He signed with Atlantic Records in 2017 to release the singles "I", "Nowadays", and "Red Roses." The songs peaked at numbers 39, 55, and 69 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively. His eighth mixtape and major label debut, Life of a Dark Rose (2018), peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200 and received platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). His debut studio album, Shelby (2019), and its follow-up Unbothered (2021), peaked at numbers five and 50 on the chart, respectively. He has since released the mixtape “Out Ur Body Music” in March 2024, and the album “Evolution of the Rose” in June 2025, and his new album “LS4*” will be released in 2026.
1960
Bernard Rose
English director, screenwriter, and cinematographer
Bernard Rose is an English filmmaker, considered a pioneer of digital filmmaking. He is best known for directing the horror films Paperhouse (1988) and Candyman (1992), the historical romances Immortal Beloved (1994) and Anna Karenina (1997), and the independent drama Ivans xtc (2000), for which he was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Director and the John Cassavetes Award. He has also been nominated for the Grand Prix des Amériques and the Venice Horizons Prize. He has frequently cast actors Danny Huston and Tony Todd in his films. In the 1980s, he directed music videos for UB40, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Bronski Beat.
1926
Perry Moss
American football player and coach (died 2014)
Perry Lee Moss was an American professional football player, coach, and executive. Moss played tailback at the University of Tulsa and quarterback at Illinois during the 1940s. As a Tulsa tailback, he was on the Orange Bowl team that beat Georgia Tech, 26–12, in the 1945 Orange Bowl and later as an Illinois T-quarterback, he directed a Rose Bowl team which routed UCLA, 45–14, in 1947. Moss served two years in the United States Air Force between his playing time at Tulsa and Illinois. At Illinois, he was named to All-Big Ten Conference and All-American teams. He was drafted in 1948 by the Green Bay Packers in the 13th round and played at the professional level for one year before returning to Illinois as an assistant. He started one game at quarterback for the Packers.
1922
Mayme Agnew Clayton
American librarian (died 2006)
Mayme Agnew Clayton was a librarian, and the founder, president, and leader of the Western States Black Research and Education Center (WSBREC), the largest privately held collection of African-American historical materials in the world. The collection represents the core holdings of the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum (MCLM), formerly located in Culver City, California. This collection was curated and managed by her son, Avery Clayton. The museum is the largest and most academically substantial independently held collection of objects, documents, and memorabilia on African American history and culture. On July 31, 2019, the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum closed permanently. The bulk of its collections went to the West Los Angeles College in unincorporated Los Angeles County on a temporary basis.
1964
Andrew Bartlett
Australian social worker and politician
Andrew John Julian Bartlett is an Australian politician, social worker, academic, and social campaigner who served as a Senator for Queensland from 1997 to 2008 and from 2017 to 2018. He represented the Australian Democrats in his first stint in the Senate, including as party leader from 2002 to 2004 and deputy leader from 2004 to 2008. In November 2017, he returned to the Senate as a member of the Australian Greens, replacing Larissa Waters after her disqualification during the parliamentary eligibility crisis. He resigned from the Senate in August 2018 in an unsuccessful attempt to win the House of Representatives seat of Brisbane, allowing Waters to fill his seat in advance of the 2019 election.
1604
François Hédelin
abbé d'Aubignac, French cleric and author (died 1676)
François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac was a French author and cleric. He was a grandson of the surgeon Ambroise Paré. D'Aubignac worked as a lawyer in his early life, but he then joined the clergy. He was appointed as a tutor to a nephew of Cardinal Richelieu and secured the patronage of Richelieu himself. After the early death of his student in 1646, he devoted most of his time to literature and the theatre. He wrote four tragedies between 1642 and 1650, but he is primarily known for his non-fiction works on dramatic theory. He also wrote a book which disputed the historicity of Homer.
1901
Louis Armstrong
American trumpet player and singer (died 1971)
Louis Daniel Armstrong, nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American jazz and blues trumpeter and vocalist. Among the most influential figures in jazz, his career spanned five decades and several eras in the history of the genre. Armstrong received numerous accolades, including the Grammy Award for Best Male Vocal Performance for "Hello, Dolly!" in 1965, as well as a posthumous win for the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1972. His influence crossed musical genres, with inductions into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame, among others.
1965
Dennis Lehane
American author, screenwriter, and producer
Dennis Lehane is an American author and screenwriter. He has published more than a dozen novels; the first several were a series of mysteries featuring recurring characters, including A Drink Before the War (1994). Four of his novels have been adapted into films of the same name: Clint Eastwood's Mystic River (2003), Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (2010), and Gone Baby Gone (2007) and Live by Night (2016), both directed by Ben Affleck. His short story "Animal Rescue" was also adapted into the 2014 film The Drop, noted for being the final film role for actor James Gandolfini.
1930
Ali al-Sistani
Iranian-Iraqi cleric and scholar
Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani is an Islamic scholar and the dean of the Hawza in Najaf, Iraq. A Grand Ayatollah, Sistani is considered one of the leading religious leaders of Twelver Shia Muslims. After the invasion of Iraq and the subsequent overthrow of the authoritarian Baathist regime, Sistani advocated for democratization instead of the system of Wilayat al-Faqih. He has likewise endorsed rule of law, Iraqi nationalism, non-sectarianism and popular sovereignty. He has been a vocal critic of foreign interference in Iraqi affairs and has warned foreign actors against imposing their will on the Iraqi people.
1929
Kishore Kumar
Indian singer-songwriter and actor (died 1987)
Kishore Kumar was an Indian playback singer, musician and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest, most influential and dynamic singers in the history of Indian music. Kumar was one of the most popular singers in the Indian subcontinent, notable for his yodelling and ability to sing songs in different voices. He used to sing in different genres but some of his rare compositions, considered classics, were lost in time. In 2013, Kumar was voted "The Most Popular Male Playback Singer" in a poll conducted by the Filmfare magazine.
1957
John Wark
Scottish footballer and sportscaster
John Wark is a Scottish former footballer who spent most of his playing time with Ipswich Town. He won a record four Player of the Year awards before becoming one of the four inaugural members of the club's Hall of Fame. Wark had long spells at the club, which bookended his career, and a third, brief interlude dividing his briefer periods at Liverpool and Middlesbrough. A versatile player, Wark played most of his professional games as a midfielder, although he sometimes played as a central defender and on occasion as a striker.
1821
James Springer White
American religious leader, co-founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church (died 1881)
James Springer White, also known as Elder White, was a co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the husband of Ellen G. White. In 1849, he started the first Sabbatarian Adventist periodical entitled The Present Truth, in 1855 he relocated the fledgling center of the movement to Battle Creek, Michigan, and in 1863 played a pivotal role in the formal organization of the denomination. He later played a major role in the development of the Adventist educational structure beginning in 1874 with the formation of Battle Creek College.
1834
John Venn
English mathematician and philosopher (died 1923)
John Venn, FRS, FSA was an English mathematician, logician and philosopher noted for introducing Venn diagrams, which are used in logic, set theory, probability, statistics, and computer science. In 1866, Venn published The Logic of Chance, a groundbreaking book which espoused the frequency theory of probability, arguing that probability should be determined by how often something is forecast to occur as opposed to "educated" assumptions. Venn then further developed George Boole's theories in the 1881 work Symbolic Logic, where he highlighted what would become known as Venn diagrams.
1888
Taher Saifuddin
Indian religious leader, 51st Da'i al-Mutlaq (died 1965)
Syedna Taher Saifuddin, also known as Taher Saifuddin, was the 51st and longest serving Da'i al-Mutlaq of the Dawoodi Bohras. Saifuddin adapted the modernisation in Western and European ideas, and established its benefits for the Bohras, whilst still steeped in the traditions and the culture of the community's Fatimid heritage. Saifuddin laid substantial groundwork in terms of philanthropy, education, entrepreneurship, social outreach, political outreach, and community upliftment upon which his successors continued to build, resulting in an unprecedented era of prosperity among the Dawoodi Bohras.