Did you know about David Duchovny
David Duchovny received another Golden Globe for his portrayal of Hank Moody on the television series Californication (2007–2014).
Famous Birthdays on August 7
August 7 has 211 recorded notable births across history, from 317 to 2000. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.
1960 — David Duchovny
American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Famous Birthdays
211 source records
317 – 2000
Leo
Today in history
Major events on August 7
See what else happened on this day in history.
Did you know about Abbie Cornish
In 2018, she portrayed Cathy Mueller in the first season of Amazon Video series Jack Ryan opposite John Krasinski, a role she reprised in the fourth and final season in 2023.
Did you know about Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone
Sydney Michelle McLaughlin-Levrone is an American hurdler and sprinter who holds the world record for the 400 meters hurdles and the American record for the flat 400 meters.
Did you know about Garrison Keillor
Garrison Keillor created the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) show A Prairie Home Companion, which he hosted from 1974 to 2016.
Did you know about Alan Page
After playing college football at the University of Notre Dame, Page gained national recognition as a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) during 15 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears.
More major people born on August 7
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
1982
Abbie Cornish
Australian actress
Abbie Cornish is an Australian actress and rapper. In film, Cornish is known for her roles as Heidi in Somersault (2004), Fanny Brawne in Bright Star (2009), Sweet Pea in Sucker Punch (2011), Lindy in Limitless (2011), Clara Murphy in RoboCop (2014), and Sarah Wilson in Geostorm (2017). She worked with writer/director Martin McDonagh in Seven Psychopaths (2012) and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017). For the latter, Cornish won her first Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the cast. In 2018, she portrayed Cathy Mueller in the first season of Amazon Video series Jack Ryan opposite John Krasinski, a role she reprised in the fourth and final season in 2023. She also played Dixy in the film The Virtuoso (2021) alongside Anthony Hopkins.
1955
Wayne Knight
American actor, comedian and voice actor
Wayne Elliot Knight is an American actor. After several smaller film parts, including in box office successes like Dirty Dancing and Basic Instinct, Knight's breakthrough role was portraying Dennis Nedry in the film adaptation of Jurassic Park (1993), which earned him a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination. His other two most prominent roles followed on television, where he played Newman on the NBC sitcom Seinfeld (1992–1998) and Officer Don Orville on the NBC sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996–2001), which earned him a Q Award nomination for Best Recurring Player and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, respectively.
1999
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone
American hurdler and sprinter
Sydney Michelle McLaughlin-Levrone is an American hurdler and sprinter who holds the world record for the 400 meters hurdles and the American record for the flat 400 meters. She won gold in the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics, as well as at the 2022 World Athletics Championships and 2025 World Athletics Championships. She set a world record time in the 400 m hurdles of 50.37 seconds at the 2024 Summer Olympics on August 8, 2024, breaking the world record she previously set of 50.65 seconds. She set a championship record in the flat 400 of 47.78 at the 2025 World Championships, making her the second fastest woman in history over that distance. She was the first woman to break the 52-second and 51-second barriers in the 400 m hurdles. She won a silver medal at the 2019 World Championships. At all four competitions, she also took gold as part of the women's 4 × 400 m relay team.
1942
Garrison Keillor
American humorist, novelist, short story writer, and radio host
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, singer, humorist, voice actor, and radio personality. He created the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) show A Prairie Home Companion, which he hosted from 1974 to 2016. Keillor created the fictional Minnesota town Lake Wobegon, the setting of many of his books, including Lake Wobegon Days and Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories. Other creations include Guy Noir, a detective voiced by Keillor who appeared in A Prairie Home Companion comic skits. Keillor is also the creator of the five-minute daily radio/podcast program The Writer's Almanac, which pairs poems of his choice with a script about important literary, historical, and scientific events that coincided with that date in history.
1945
Alan Page
American football player and jurist
Alan Cedric Page is an American former Minnesota Supreme Court judge and professional football player. After playing college football at the University of Notre Dame, Page gained national recognition as a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) during 15 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears. Following his retirement, he then embarked on a legal career. Page earned a B.A. in political science from the University of Notre Dame in 1967 and a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1978. Page served as an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court from 1993 until he reached the court's mandatory retirement age of 70 in 2015.
1975
Édgar Rentería
Colombian baseball player
Édgar Enrique Rentería Herazo, nicknamed "the Barranquilla Baby", is a Colombian former professional baseball shortstop. He played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Florida Marlins, St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves, Detroit Tigers, San Francisco Giants, and Cincinnati Reds. Rentería finished second to Todd Hollandsworth in the 1996 Rookie of the Year Award balloting. In 1997, his RBI single off Charles Nagy in the eleventh inning of Game 7 of the 1997 World Series won the first World Series in Marlins' history over the Cleveland Indians. In the 2010 World Series against the Texas Rangers, Rentería won the World Series Most Valuable Player Award with the San Francisco Giants after he hit game-winning home runs in Game 2 and Game 5. Rentería was inducted into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2025.
1966
Shobna Gulati
British actress
Shobna Gulati is an English actor and presenter. Gulati is known for playing Anita in dinnerladies and Sunita Alahan in the soap opera Coronation Street from 2001 to 2013. They also played Mari Hoff in the 2006 UK Tour of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. From 2013 to 2014, Gulati appeared as a panellist on the lunchtime talk show Loose Women. They took over the role of Ray in the West End production of Everybody's Talking About Jamie in 2019 and also reprised the role for the film adaptation. Most recently, they played the role of Nima in Hullraisers and reprised the role of Ray in Everybody's Talking About Jamie for its 2023–2024 UK and Ireland Tour.
1958
Alberto Salazar
Cuban-American runner and coach
Alberto Salazar is an American former track coach and long-distance runner. Born in Cuba, Salazar immigrated to the United States as a child with his family, living in Connecticut and then in Wayland, Massachusetts, where Salazar competed in track and field in high school. Salazar won the New York City Marathon three times in the early 1980s, and won the 1982 Boston Marathon in a race known as the "Duel in the Sun". He set American track records for 5,000 m and 10,000 m in 1982. Salazar was later the head coach of the Nike Oregon Project until it was shut down in 2019 for doping violations. He won the IAAF Coaching Achievement Award in 2013.
1992
Simon Yates
English cyclist
Simon Philip Yates is a retired British professional road and track racing cyclist who last rode for UCI WorldTeam Visma–Lease a Bike. He won the gold medal in the points race at the 2013 Track Cycling World Championships. Following a doping ban in 2016, he won the young rider classification in the 2017 Tour de France and the general classification in the 2018 Vuelta a España and 2025 Giro d'Italia. Yates has taken more than thirty professional victories, including eleven Grand Tour stage victories – six at the Giro d'Italia, three at the Tour de France and two at the Vuelta a España. Yates has been a resident of Andorra since 2015.
1826
August Ahlqvist
Finnish professor, poet, scholar of the Finno-Ugric languages, author, and literary critic (died 1889)
Karl August Engelbrekt Ahlqvist, who wrote as A. Oksanen, was a Finnish professor, poet, scholar of the Finno-Ugric languages, author, and literary critic. He served as professor of Finnish language and literature at the Imperial Alexander University from 1863 as the successor to Elias Lönnrot, and as the university's rector from 1884 to 1887. Ahlqvist is regarded as one of the founders of Finno-Ugric studies alongside Matthias Alexander Castrén, and as a poet under the pen name A. Oksanen he introduced several new verse forms into Finnish-language poetry. He is also remembered as the sharpest critic of the writer Aleksis Kivi, who later rose to the position of the national author of Finland.
1982
Juan Martín Hernández
Argentine rugby player
Juan Martín Hernández is an Argentine retired rugby union player. A mainstay of the Argentina national team The Pumas. He played for the club Toulon in the French Top 14 competition. His 2010 move to Racing brought him back to the city where he had begun his professional career in 2003 with Stade Français. He has also played in the South African Currie Cup with the Sharks, and was slated to play with the Sharks in Super Rugby in 2010, but suffered a back injury that knocked him out of the Super Rugby season. Hernández is a "utility back" capable of playing at fly-half, centre, or fullback, though he generally prefers fly-half.
1726
James Bowdoin
American banker and politician, 2nd Governor of Massachusetts (died 1790)
James Bowdoin II was an American politician from Boston, Massachusetts who was active during the American Revolution and the following decade. He initially gained fame and influence as a wealthy merchant. He served in both branches of the Massachusetts General Court from the 1750s to the 1770s. Although he was initially supportive of the royal governors, he opposed British colonial policy and eventually became an influential advocate of independence. He authored a highly political report on the 1770 Boston Massacre that has been described by historian Francis Walett as one of the most influential pieces of writing that shaped public opinion in the colonies.
1972
Gerry Peñalosa
Filipino boxer and promoter
Geronimo "Gerry" J. Peñalosa is a Filipino boxing promoter and former professional boxer who competed from 1989 to 2010. He is a two-weight world champion, having held the World Boxing Council (WBC) super-flyweight title from 1997 to 1998, and the World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight title from 2007 to 2009. Originally from the city of San Carlos, Negros Occidental, Peñalosa currently resides in Manila. He was trained mainly by Freddie Roach and went on to become a boxing trainer and a promoter himself after retirement. Peñalosa's older brother, Dodie Boy Peñalosa, who is also a former boxer and world champion.
1991
Luis Salom
Spanish motorcycle racer (died 2016)
Luis Jaime Salom Horrach was a Spanish Grand Prix motorcycle racer. Salom died after a practice accident in the home event, at Circuit de Catalunya, when making contact with his bike and the wall after a high-speed accident. Racing in the Moto2 class since 2014, he finished 41 races, with three podium appearances, including a second-place finish at the 2016 Qatar season opener. At the time of his death, Salom ranked tenth in the 2016 Moto2 Championship point standings. Previously, he had competed in Moto3, accumulating nine race victories, finishing second and third in the 2012 and 2013 championships, respectively.
1862
Henri Le Sidaner
French painter (died 1939)
Henri Eugène Augustin Le Sidaner was an intimist painter known for his paintings of domestic interiors and quiet street scenes. His style contained elements of impressionism with the influences of Édouard Manet, Monet and of the Pointillists discernible in his work. Le Sidaner favoured a subdued use of colour, preferring nuanced greys and opals applied with uneven, dappled brushstrokes to create atmosphere and mysticism. A skilled nocturne painter, he travelled widely throughout France and Europe before settling at Gerberoy in the Picardy countryside from where he painted for over thirty years.
1890
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
American author and activist (died 1964)
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was an American labor leader and feminist. In the early years of her activist career, she was an organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World. During World War I she founded the Workers Defense Union (WDU), to advocate for anyone arrested and imprisoned for violating the Espionage Act while championing the cause of labor. In 1920, Flynn helped found the American Civil Liberties Union. She joined the Communist Party USA in 1936 during the Popular Front period and became one of its most recognized and beloved leaders.
1965
Raul Malo
American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (died 2025)
Raul Francisco Martínez-Malo Jr. was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer. He was both the lead singer and songwriter of country music band the Mavericks, co-writing many of their singles, as well as Rick Trevino's 2003 single "In My Dreams". After the disbanding of the Mavericks in the early 2000s, Malo pursued a solo career. He also participated from 2001 in the Los Super Seven supergroup. The Mavericks re-formed in 2012 and continued to tour extensively. In 2015, they won the Americana music award for duo/group of the year.
1975
Megan Gale
Australian model and actress
Megan Kate Gale is an Australian model and actress. Born in Medina, Western Australia, Gale won a modelling contest when she was 18 in her home town. In 1999 she was cast in a series of commercials for Vodafone Italy. This led to wide exposure in both Italy and her homeland Australia, and she appeared in Vodafone advertising until 2006. Gale has also appeared in Italian movies and television shows, and as an actress, Gale played Fatma in The Water Diviner (2014) and Valkyrie in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).
1955
Greg Nickels
American lawyer and politician, 51st Mayor of Seattle
Gregory James Nickels is an American politician who served as the 51st mayor of Seattle, Washington, and as of 2025 is the last Seattle mayor who has served more than one term in office. He took office on January 1, 2002, and was reelected to a second term in 2005. In August 2009, Nickels finished third in the primary election for Seattle mayor, failing to qualify for the November 2009 general election, and losing his bid for a third term as mayor. He left office on January 1, 2010.