Famous Birthdays on December 7

Yuzuru Hanyu is a Japanese figure skater and ice show producer. Widely recognized as one of the greatest figure skaters in history for his well-rounded skills, achievements, innovations, longevity, popularity, and impact on the sport, he started skating at four years old and competed in the men's singles discipline from 2004 to 2022. Hanyu is the first men's singles skater in 66 years since Dick Button to win back-to-back Olympic titles, and the first Asian Olympic champion in that discipline. He is a two-time World champion, six-time Japanese national champion, and the first singles skater to win four consecutive Grand Prix Finals (2013–2016). With his win at the 2020 Four Continents Championships, he became the first skater in men's singles to complete the Super Slam, having won all major international junior and senior titles in the course of his career. He is also the only singles skater to be ranked first in the ISU World Standings for five consecutive seasons (2014–2018). Hanyu broke world records 19 times, the most in singles since the introduction of the ISU Judging System in 2003, and was the first skater to land a quadruple loop jump in international competition among other achievements. He is also the only male single skater besides German Jan Hoffmann to win seven world championship medals in the post-war era since 1946.

Constantino "Tino" Martinez is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, and Tampa Bay Devil Rays from 1990 through 2005. He also served as a hitting coach for the Miami Marlins in 2013. He was also nicknamed "The Bam-tino" after his home run in Game 1 of the 1998 World Series. Formerly a third baseman, Martinez was the first round draft pick for the Seattle Mariners in 1988 out of the University of Tampa, where he starred during his time on campus. During his 16-year MLB career, he scored 1,009 runs, drove in 1,271 runs, and hit 339 home runs. He had 100 or more RBI in six different seasons and was twice named to the All-Star team.

Alan Joseph Faneca is an American former professional football player who was a guard in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons. He played college football for Louisiana State University (LSU), and earned consensus All-America honors. He was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round of the 1998 NFL draft, and played professionally for the Steelers, New York Jets and Arizona Cardinals of the NFL. A six-time first-team All-Pro and nine-time Pro Bowl selection, Faneca won a Super Bowl ring with the Steelers in Super Bowl XL, defeating the Seattle Seahawks. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2021 and on May 10, 2021, he was introduced as the head football coach of Frank W. Cox High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Peter Philip Laviolette Jr. is an American professional ice hockey coach and former player who is the head coach for the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL). Originally undrafted by teams in the NHL, he played a total of 12 games with the Rangers in the 1988–89 season. Following retirement from active play, Laviolette also served as head coach of the New York Islanders, Carolina Hurricanes, Philadelphia Flyers, Nashville Predators, and Washington Capitals. He led the Hurricanes to a Stanley Cup win in 2006, and later coached the Flyers to the Stanley Cup Final in 2010, as well as the Predators in 2017. Laviolette is the fourth coach in NHL history to lead three teams to the Stanley Cup Final.

Walter Nowotny was an Austrian-born fighter ace of the Luftwaffe in World War II. He is credited with 258 aerial victories—that is, 258 aerial combat encounters resulting in the destruction of the enemy aircraft—in 442 combat missions. Nowotny achieved 255 of these victories on the Eastern Front and three while flying one of the first jet fighters, the Messerschmitt Me 262, in the Defense of the Reich. He scored most of his victories in the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, and approximately 50 in the Messerschmitt Bf 109. Nowotny scored an "ace in a day" on multiple occasions, shooting down at least five airplanes on the same day, including two occurrences of "double-ace in a day" in mid-1943.

Martha Layne Collins was an American businesswoman and politician from Kentucky; she served as the state's 56th governor from 1983 to 1987, the first woman to hold the office and the only one to date. Prior to that, she served as the 48th lieutenant governor of Kentucky, under John Y. Brown Jr. Her election as governor made her the highest-ranking woman in the Democratic Party. She was considered as a possible running mate for Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale in the 1984 presidential election, but Mondale chose Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro instead.

Hilda Taba was an architect, a curriculum theorist, a curriculum reformer, and a teacher educator. Taba was born in the small village of Kooraste, Estonia. Her mother's name was Liisa Leht, and her father was a schoolmaster whose name was Robert Taba. Hilda Taba began her education at the Kanepi Parish School. She then attended the Võru’s Girls’ Grammar School and earned her undergraduate degree in English and Philosophy at the University of Tartu. When Taba was given the opportunity to attend Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, she earned her master's degree. Following the completion of her degree at Bryn Mawr College, she attended Teachers College at Columbia University. She applied for a job at the University of Tartu but was turned down because she was female, so she became curriculum director at the Dalton School in New York City. In 1951, Taba accepted an invitation to become a professor at San Francisco State College, now known as San Francisco State University.

Hermann Maier is an Austrian former World Cup champion alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. Nicknamed the "Herminator", Maier ranks among the greatest alpine ski racers in history, with four overall World Cup titles, two Olympic gold medals, and three World Championship titles. His 54 World Cup race victories – 24 super-G, 15 downhills, 14 giant slaloms, and 1 combined – rank third on the men's all-time list behind Ingemar Stenmark's 86 victories and Marcel Hirscher's 67 victories. Until 2023 he held the record for the most points in one season by a male alpine skier, with 2000 points from the 2000 season. From 2000 to 2013 he also held the title of most points in one season by any alpine skier, until Tina Maze scored 2414 points in the 2013 season.

Henri Mathias Berthelot was a French general during World War I. He held an important staff position under Joseph Joffre, the French commander-in-chief, at the First Battle of the Marne, before later commanding a corps in the front line. In 1917 he helped to rebuild the Romanian Army following its disastrous defeat the previous autumn, then in summer 1918 he commanded French Fifth Army at the Second Battle of the Marne, with some British and Italian troops under his command. In the final days of the war he again returned to Romania, helping fight the Hungarians during the Hungarian–Romanian War and then briefly commanded French intervention forces in southern Russia in the Russian Civil War, fighting the Bolsheviks in Bessarabia (1918).

Shinichi Ito born December 7, 1966, in Kakuda, Miyagi, Japan) is a Japanese retired professional Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. He has raced extensively in Japanese and International championships. Ito has competed in the All Japan Road Race Championship, and won the Japanese 500 cc Championship, and is also three-time Japanese Superbike Champion. In the prestigious Suzuka 8 Hour Endurance Race, he has qualified on pole five times and won the race four times. Ito has also raced in Superbike World Championship. His considerable experience on different types of racing machine has earned him a reputation as a premier development rider.

Johannes Baptista Sumarlin was an Indonesian economist who served as Minister of Finance. Sometimes linked with the so-called Berkeley Mafia group of economic advisers which included senior Indonesian economists such as Widjojo Nitisastro, Emil Salim, and Ali Wardhana, Sumarlin held various important economics posts in the Indonesian government for many years until the late 1990s. He graduated from the Faculty of Economics, University of Indonesia (FEUI) in 1958. Positions held in government included, among others, Chairman of the Supreme Audit Agency, Minister of Finance, Chairman of the National Planning Agency (Bappenas), and Minister for Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform.

Robert Józef Kubica is a Polish racing and rally driver who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for AF Corse. He competed in Formula One between 2006 and 2010, and again in 2019 and 2021, and the WRC from 2013 to 2016. He won the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix with BMW Sauber, and remains the only Polish driver to compete in Formula One. In endurance racing, Kubica won the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans for AF Corse, as well as three LMP2 titles across WEC and ELMS.

Columba or Colmcille was an Irish abbot and missionary credited with spreading Christianity at the start of the Hiberno-Scottish mission in what became Scotland. He founded the important abbey on Iona, which became a dominant religious and political institution in the region for centuries. He is the patron saint of Derry and one of the patron saints of Ireland along with Patrick and Brigid. He was venerated by both the Gaels of Dál Riata and the Picts, and is remembered as one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.

Fabien Pelous is a retired French rugby union player. A lock who also occasionally played as a number eight and flanker, he played the bulk of his professional career for Stade Toulousain, and is the all-time leader in appearances for the France national team. He retired as the most-capped lock for any nation in rugby history, with 100 of his 118 France appearances at that position, a record later broken by South Africa's Victor Matfield. Pelous was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2017.

Damien George Rice is an Irish singer-songwriter. He began his career as a member of the 1990s rock group Juniper, who were signed to Polygram Records in 1997. The band enjoyed moderate success in Ireland with two released singles, "The World is Dead" and "Weatherman." After leaving the band in 1998, Rice worked as a farmer in Tuscany and busked throughout Europe before returning to Ireland in 2001 and beginning a solo career. The rest of Juniper went on to perform under the name Bell X1.

Eric Cesar Chavez is an American professional baseball coach and former third baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics (1998–2010), New York Yankees (2011–2012), and Arizona Diamondbacks (2013–2014). During his playing career, Chavez won six Gold Glove Awards (2001–2006) and a Silver Slugger Award (2002). Chavez served as the bench coach for the New York Mets during the 2023 season between stints as the hitting coach in 2022 and 2024-2025. In 2022, he was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame.

Louis Leo Prima was an American trumpeter, singer, entertainer, and bandleader. While rooted in New Orleans jazz, swing music, and jump blues, Prima touched on various genres throughout his career: he formed a seven-piece New Orleans–style jazz band in the late 1920s, fronted a swing combo in the 1930s and a big band group in the 1940s, helped to popularize jump blues in the late 1940s and early to mid 1950s, and performed frequently as a Vegas lounge act beginning in the 1950s.

Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley was King of Scotland as the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, from 29 July 1565 until his murder. Darnley had one child with Mary, James VI of Scotland and I of England. Less than a year after the birth of his son, Darnley was murdered at Kirk o' Field in 1567. Many contemporary narratives describing his life and death refer to him as simply Lord Darnley, his title as heir apparent to the Earldom of Lennox.

Kazue Itō is a Japanese actress from Seya-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture. She made her acting debut in 1978 as a Horipro talent and has also voiced Shura in the anime Rurouni Kenshin. She also performs as a singer, including the opening and ending theme songs for the tokusatsu series Morimori Bokkun. Itoh is best known for her portrayal of Miki Masaki in the 2007 Super Sentai Series Juken Sentai Gekiranger. She also portrayed Mako Shiraishi's mother in Samurai Sentai Shinkenger.