Did you know about Amy Lee
A classically trained pianist, Lee began writing music at age 11 and co-founded Evanescence at 13, inspired by various musical genres and film scores from an early age.
Famous Birthdays on December 13
December 13 has 135 recorded notable births across history, from 1272 to 2009. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.
1981 — Amy Lee
American singer, songwriter and pianist
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Famous Birthdays
135 source records
1272 – 2009
Sagittarius
Today in history
Major events on December 13
See what else happened on this day in history.
- 1962 NASA launches Relay 1, the first active repeater communications satellite in orbit. Source
- 1939 The Battle of the River Plate is fought off the coast of Uruguay; the first naval battle of World War II. The Kriegsmarine's Deutschland-class cruiser (pocket battleship) Admiral Graf Spee engages with three Royal Navy cruisers: HMS Ajax, HMNZS Achilles and HMS Exeter. Source
Did you know about Ted Nugent
Ted Nugent's first three solo albums, Ted Nugent (1975), Free-for-All (1976) and Cat Scratch Fever (1977), as well as the live album Double Live Gonzo!
Did you know about Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark (died 1968)
In 1934, she married Prince George, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of King George V and Queen Mary.
Did you know about Ben Bernanke
Ben Shalom Bernanke is an American economist who served as the 14th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014.
Did you know about Larry Doby
Lawrence Eugene Doby was an American professional baseball player in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball (MLB) who was the second black player to break baseball's color barrier and the first black player in the American League.
More major people born on December 13
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
1948
Ted Nugent
American musician
Theodore Anthony Nugent is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He goes by several nicknames, including Uncle Ted, the Nuge, and Motor City Madman. Nugent initially gained fame as the lead guitarist and occasional vocalist of the Amboy Dukes, a band formed in 1963 that played psychedelic rock and hard rock. After dissolving the band, he embarked on a successful solo career. His first three solo albums, Ted Nugent (1975), Free-for-All (1976) and Cat Scratch Fever (1977), as well as the live album Double Live Gonzo! (1978), were certified multi-platinum in the United States. His latest album, Detroit Muscle, was released in 2022. In 2023, he embarked on a farewell tour known as the "Adios Mofo Tour"; however, he has since continued to perform.
1906
Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark (died 1968)
Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, later Duchess of Kent, was a Greek and Danish princess by birth and a British princess by marriage. A granddaughter of King George I of Greece and Queen Olga, she was the daughter of Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark and Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia. In 1934, she married Prince George, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of King George V and Queen Mary. They had three children: Edward, Alexandra, and Michael. She was widowed in 1942, when her husband was killed in a plane crash while on active service, and remained active in royal duties throughout her later life, attending public engagements across the Commonwealth, including the independence celebrations for Ghana and Botswana. She died in 1968, aged 61.
1953
Ben Bernanke
American economist
Ben Shalom Bernanke is an American economist who served as the 14th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014. After leaving the Federal Reserve, he was appointed a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution. During his tenure as chairman, Bernanke oversaw the Federal Reserve's response to the 2008 financial crisis, for which he was named the 2009 Time Person of the Year. Before becoming Federal Reserve chairman, Bernanke was a tenured professor at Princeton University and chaired the Department of Economics there from 1996 to September 2002, when he went on public service leave. Bernanke was awarded the 2022 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, jointly with Douglas Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig, "for research on banks and financial crises", more specifically for his analysis of the Great Depression.
1923
Larry Doby
American baseball player (died 2003)
Lawrence Eugene Doby was an American professional baseball player in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball (MLB) who was the second black player to break baseball's color barrier and the first black player in the American League. A native of Camden, South Carolina, and three-sport all-state athlete while in high school in Paterson, New Jersey, Doby accepted a basketball scholarship from Long Island University. At 17 years of age, he began his professional baseball career with the Newark Eagles as the team's second baseman. Doby joined the United States Navy during World War II. His military service complete, Doby returned to baseball in 1946, and along with teammate Monte Irvin, helped the Eagles win the Negro League World Series.
1991
Dave Leduc
Canadian martial artist
Dave Leduc is a Canadian-Burmese Lethwei fighter. He is a former six-time Lethwei world champion who held the Openweight Lethwei World Championship and was undefeated under traditional rules KO to win. In 2014, Leduc first gained widespread notoriety by winning his fight in the controversial Prison Fight against an inmate inside Klongpai maximum security prison in Thailand. In 2016, he travelled to Myanmar to fight Burmese bareknuckle boxing, considered the world's most brutal sport, and defeated the reigning champion Tun Tun Min to become the first non-Burmese to win the Lethwei Golden Belt title. He married Moldovan model Irina Terehova in a nationally televised traditional Burmese wedding ceremony in Yangon watched by 30 million viewers in Myanmar and became a superstar celebrity in the country.
1989
Hellen Obiri
Kenyan runner
Hellen Onsando Obiri is a Kenyan middle- and long-distance runner. She is the only woman to have won world titles in indoor track, outdoor track and cross country. Obiri is a two-time Olympic 5,000 metres silver medallist from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro and 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she also placed fourth over the 10,000 metres. She is a two-time world champion after winning the 5,000 m in 2017 and again in 2019, when she set a new championship record. Obiri also took world bronze for the 1,500 metres in 2013 and silver in the 10,000 m in 2022. She won the 3,000 metres race at the 2012 World Indoor Championships, claimed silver in 2014, and placed fourth in 2018. She is the 2019 World Cross Country champion. Obiri triumphed in the 2023 Boston Marathon, her second marathon race. She places fifth in the half marathon on the world all-time list.
1912
Luiz Gonzaga
Brazilian singer-songwriter and accordion player (died 1989)
Luiz Gonzaga do Nascimento was a Brazilian singer, songwriter, musician and poet and one of the most influential figures of Brazilian popular music in the twentieth century. He has been credited with having presented the rich universe of Northeastern musical genres to all of Brazil, having popularized the musical genre baião and has been called a "revolutionary" by Antônio Carlos Jobim. According to Caetano Veloso, he was the first significant cultural event with mass appeal in Brazil. Luiz Gonzaga received the Shell prize for Brazilian Popular Music in 1984 and was only the fourth artist to receive this prize after Pixinguinha, Antônio Carlos Jobim and Dorival Caymmi. The Luiz Gonzaga Dam was named in his honor.
1908
Elizabeth Alexander
English geologist, academic, and physicist (died 1958)
Frances Elizabeth Somerville Alexander was a British geologist, academic, and physicist, whose wartime work with radar and radio led to early developments in radio astronomy and whose post-war work on the geology of Singapore is considered a significant foundation to contemporary research. Alexander earned her PhD from Newnham College, Cambridge, and worked in Radio Direction Finding at Singapore Naval Base from 1938 to 1941. In January 1941, unable to return to Singapore from New Zealand, she became Head of Operations Research in New Zealand's Radio Development Lab, Wellington. In 1945, Alexander correctly interpreted that anomalous radar signals picked up on Norfolk Island were caused by the sun. This interpretation became pioneering work in the field of radio astronomy, making her one of the first women scientists to work in that field, albeit briefly.
1897
Albert Aalbers
Dutch architect, designed the Savoy Homann Bidakara Hotel (died 1961)
Albert Frederik Aalbers was a Dutch architect who created villas, hotels, and office buildings in Bandung, Indonesia, during Dutch colonial rule in the 1930s. Aalbers worked in the Netherlands between 1924 and 1930 and then migrated to the Dutch East Indies, working there until he returned to the Netherlands in 1942 due to World War II and political circumstances following Indonesian independence. During his stay in Bandung, in a period when the city was dubbed the city of architecture laboratory, a number of his buildings were considered architectural masterpieces. Aalbers' style was inspired by expressionist Frank Lloyd Wright and modernist Le Corbusier. In Bandung, the DENIS bank in Braga Street and the Savoy Homann Hotel in Asia-Afrika Street, still carry Aalber's ocean wave ornamentation.
1972
Matti Kärki
Swedish heavy metal singer
Matti Kärki is a Swedish singer who is best known for his work with Dismember. Before he joined Dismember in 1991, he was the singer in the Swedish band Carnage (1989–1990). The first band fronted by Kärki was Therion in 1989. He also appears with the Autopsy-inspired Murder Squad since 1993. Furthermore, he was part of the experimental band Carbonized from 1988 to 1990. Kärki appeared as a guest-singer of Entombed and sang "But Life Goes On" on the Entombed show in Sala on 24 June 1990. Moreover, he was the bass player for General Surgery from 1988 to 1990, and joined again in early 2000 when the band was temporarily resurrected to record a song for the Carcass tribute album Requiems of Revulsion.
1971
Scott Sattler
Australian rugby league player
Scott Sattler is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played during the 1990s and 2000s, later becoming the Football Manager of the Gold Coast Titans. He is the son of South Sydney Rabbitohs great John Sattler. A Queensland State of Origin representative lock, he played his club football for the Gold Coast Chargers from 1992 to 1993 as well as a second spell with the club between 1997 and 1998. He also played for the Eastern Suburbs Roosters in 1994, the South Queensland Crushers between 1995 and 1996, the Penrith Panthers between 1999 and 2003 and one season with the Wests Tigers in 2004. He is the son of former player John Sattler.
1560
Maximilien de Béthune
Duke of Sully, 2nd Prime Minister of France (died 1641)
Maximilien de Béthune Sully, 1st Prince of Sully, Marquis of Rosny and Nogent, Count of Muret and Villebon, Viscount of Meaux was a French nobleman, soldier, statesman, and counselor of King Henry IV of France. Historians emphasize Sully's role in building a strong, centralized administrative system in France using coercion and highly effective new administrative techniques. While not all of his policies were original, he used them well to revitalize France after the European wars of religion. Most, however, were repealed by later monarchs who preferred absolute power. Historians have also studied his Neostoicism and his ideas about virtue, prudence, and discipline.
1887
Alvin C. York
American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient (died 1964)
Alvin Cullum York, also known by his rank as Sergeant York, was one of the most decorated United States Army soldiers of World War I. He received the Medal of Honor for leading an attack on a German machine gun nest, gathering 35 machine guns, killing at least 25 enemy soldiers, and capturing 132 prisoners. York's Medal of Honor action occurred during the United States-led portion of the Meuse–Argonne offensive in France, which sought to breach the Hindenburg line and force the Germans to surrender. He earned decorations from several Allied countries during the war, including France, Italy, and Montenegro.
1995
Emma Corrin
English actor
Emma Louise Corrin is an English actor who has worked on stage and screen. They gained international recognition for portraying Diana, Princess of Wales, in the fourth season of the Netflix historical drama The Crown (2020), for which they won a Golden Globe and a Critics' Choice Award, and received Primetime Emmy and Actor Awards nominations. Corrin has since appeared in the romantic dramas My Policeman (2022) and Lady Chatterley's Lover (2022), the television series A Murder at the End of the World (2023), and the films Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), Nosferatu (2024), and 100 Nights of Hero (2025).
1533
Eric XIV of Sweden (died 1577)
Erik XIV or Eric XIV became King of Sweden following the death of his father, Gustav I, on 29 September 1560. During his reign, Erik sought to centralize royal authority and expand Swedish influence in the Baltic region, incorporating Reval and northern Estonia into the realm in 1561 to lay the foundations of the Swedish Baltic Empire. To consolidate control, he enacted the Articles of Arboga (1561), which restricted the political power of his half-brothers. His ambitions to control Baltic trade routes also led Sweden into the Northern Seven Years' War (1563–1570) against Denmark–Norway and Lübeck.
2002
Brock Bowers
American football player
Brock Allen Bowers is an American professional football player who is a tight end for the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). Bowers played college football for the Georgia Bulldogs, where he was a three-time All-American, two-time John Mackey Award winner, and won two national championships. He was selected by the Raiders in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft, setting rookie season records for receptions in a season and the most receiving yards by a tight end, earning Pro Bowl and All-Pro honors in the process.
1906
Laurens van der Post
South African-English soldier and author (died 1996)
Sir Laurens Jan van der Post,, was a South African Afrikaner writer, farmer, soldier, educator, journalist, humanitarian, philosopher, explorer and conservationist. He was noted for his interest in Jungianism and the Kalahari Bushmen, his experiences during World War II, as well as his relationships with notable figures such as King Charles III and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. After his death, there was controversy over claims that he had exaggerated many aspects of his life, as well the revelation that he had impregnated a 14-year-old girl entrusted to his care.
1936
J. C. Martin
American baseball player
Joseph Clifton Martin is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher from 1959 to 1972. Martin played the bulk of his career with the Chicago White Sox, but is most prominent for his involvement in a controversial play that occurred during the 1969 World Series as a member of the New York Mets. He ended his career playing for the Chicago Cubs. After his playing career, he worked as a White Sox color commentator alongside Harry Caray on WSNS television in 1975.
1272
King Frederick III of Sicily (died 1337)
Frederick III ; 13 December 1272 – 25 June 1337) was the regent of the Kingdom of Sicily from 1291 until 1295 and subsequently King of Sicily from 1295 until his death. He was the third son of Peter III of Aragon and served in the War of the Sicilian Vespers on behalf of his father and brothers, Alfonso ΙΙΙ and James ΙΙ. He was confirmed as king by the Peace of Caltabellotta in 1302. His reign saw important constitutional reforms: the Constitutiones regales, Capitula alia, and Ordinationes generales.