Famous Birthdays on February 9

Jalen Romande Green is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was a consensus five-star recruit and the best shooting guard in the 2020 class, with ESPN ranking him number one overall. He finished his high school career at Prolific Prep in Napa, California, and he chose to forgo college basketball to join the NBA G League Ignite team in its inaugural season. Green has won three gold medals with the United States at the junior level and was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the 2018 FIBA Under-17 World Cup. Green was selected by the Houston Rockets with the second overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft. He is the third player in the NBA of Filipino descent, following Raymond Townsend and Jordan Clarkson.

John Philip Walker Lindh is an American Taliban member who was captured by United States forces as an enemy combatant during the United States' invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001. He was detained at Qala-i-Jangi fortress, which was used as a prison. He denied participating in the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi, a violent uprising of the Taliban prisoners, stating that he was wounded in the leg and hid in the cellar of the Pink House, in the southern half of the fort. He was one of the 86 prisoners who survived the uprising, from an estimated 400 prisoners in total. CIA officer Johnny Micheal Spann was killed during that uprising. Brought to trial in United States federal court in February 2002, Lindh accepted a plea bargain; he pleaded guilty to two charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released on parole on May 23, 2019, for a three-year period of supervised release.

Ronald Charles Colman was an English actor who started his career in theatre and silent film in his native country, then emigrated to the United States, where he had a highly successful Hollywood film career. Colman starred in silent films and successfully transitioned to sound, aided by his distinctive, pleasing voice. He was most popular during the 1930s and 1940s. Colman received Oscar nominations for Bulldog Drummond (1929), Condemned (1929), and Random Harvest (1942). He starred in several classic films, including A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Lost Horizon (1937), and The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). Colman also played the starring role in the Technicolor classic Kismet (1944), with Marlene Dietrich. In 1947, he won an Academy Award for Best Actor and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film A Double Life.

Kermit Barron Gosnell was an American serial killer and abortion doctor. At his clinic in West Philadelphia, Gosnell provided illegal late-term abortions, committed post-labor infanticide after many live births, and ran a prescription pill mill which eventually attracted federal attention. Gosnell was convicted of the murders of three infants who were born alive after using drugs to induce labor, the manslaughter of one woman who died of an anesthetic overdose during an abortion procedure, and of several other abortion- and drug-related crimes. Staff at Gosnell's clinic testified that there were hundreds of infants born alive during abortion procedures and subsequently killed either by Gosnell himself or on Gosnell's orders by staff.

Logan Daniel Ryan is an American former professional football player who was a defensive back in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. He played college football for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights as a cornerback and was selected by the New England Patriots in the third round of the 2013 NFL draft. Ryan also played for the Tennessee Titans, New York Giants, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and San Francisco 49ers. He played cornerback for the first seven seasons of his career before switching to safety in 2020 and playing the position in his last four seasons. Since retiring from playing, Ryan has worked as an NFL analyst for CBS television broadcasts.

Sharon Case is an American actress and former model. At the age of 17, Case began working as a model, relocating briefly to Japan, before pursuing an acting career. She is best known for her roles on daytime television soap operas, scoring parts in the serials General Hospital and As the World Turns during the early stages of her career. In 1994, she stepped into the role of Sharon Newman on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless, which she still plays. Case, who is considered a leading actress in the series, won the 1999 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her performance.

Jameer Lamar Nelson Sr. is an American former professional basketball player who currently serves as the executive vice president of basketball operations for the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Saint Joseph's Hawks, where he was named national college player of the year in 2004. Drafted 20th overall in the 2004 NBA draft, Nelson spent the first ten years of his NBA career with the Orlando Magic. In 2009, he was named an All-Star and made an appearance in the NBA Finals with the Magic. He also played in the NBA for the Dallas Mavericks, Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, New Orleans Pelicans, and Detroit Pistons.

Daisuke Sekimoto is a Japanese professional wrestler, He is currently signed to Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) in the Strong BJ division. where he is a three-time BJW World Strong Heavyweight Champion, former one-time BJW Heavyweight Champion former thirteen-time BJW Tag Team Champion and former six-time Yokohama Shopping Street 6-Man Tag Team Champion. He is also known for his appearances in Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max. while also being a former one-time NWA Pan-Pacific Premium Heavyweight Champion and a two-time Zero1 World Heavyweight Champion and Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw), where former one-time wXw Unified World Wrestling Champion. Other major promotions with DDT Pro-Wrestling, All Japan Pro-Wrestling and Kaientai Dojo, winning singles championships include the where former one-time Gaora TV Champion, former one-time KO-D Openweight Champion and former one-time Strongest-K Champion. Also a successful tag team wrestler, he has held the AJPW World Tag Team Championship three times, the All Asia Tag Team Championship two time and the KO-D Tag Team Championship two times with his most successful tag team combination being with Yuji Okabayashi.

Ruth Ke‘elikōlani, or sometimes written as Luka Ke‘elikōlani, also known as Ruth Ke‘elikōlani Keanolani Kanāhoahoa or Ruth Keanolani Kanāhoahoa Ke‘elikōlani, was a member of the House of Kamehameha who served as Governor of the Island of Hawaiʻi and for a period, was the largest and wealthiest landowner in the Hawaiian Islands. Keʻelikōlani's genealogy is controversial. Her mother's identity is not disputed, while her grandfather Pauli Kaōleiokū's relationship to Kamehameha I is. While her father was legally identified as early as 1864, disputes to that lineage continued as late as 1919. As one of the primary heirs to the Kamehameha family, Ruth held much of the land that would become the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate, funding the Kamehameha Schools.

Henri-Joseph Rigel was a German-born composer of the Classical era who spent most of his working life in France. He was born in Wertheim am Main where his father was musical intendant to the local prince. After an education in the Holy Roman Empire, where his teachers included Niccolò Jommelli, Rigel moved to Paris in 1767. He quickly acquired a reputation in musical circles and published harpsichord pieces, string quartets, symphonies and concertos. He began composing for the Concert Spirituel, most notably four hiérodrames : La sortie d'Egypte (1774), La destruction de Jericho (1778), Jephté (1783) and Les Macchabées. These show the influence of Christoph Willibald Gluck, and Gluck himself praised La sortie d'Égypte. Between 1778 and 1799 Rigel also wrote 14 operas, including the opéra comique Le savetier et le financier (1778).

Magdalena "Lena" Holzer is a retired German professional biathlete. She is the most successful woman of all time at Biathlon World Championships and a two-time Olympic gold medalist. At the age of 21, she became the youngest Overall World Cup winner in the history of the International Biathlon Union (IBU). With 34 World Cup wins, Neuner is ranked second all-time for career victories on the Biathlon World Cup tour. She has won the Overall World Cup title three times, in 2007–08, in 2009–10 and her final season in 2011–12. At only 25 years old, Neuner retired from the sport in March 2012, citing a lack of motivation and her desire for a normal life.

Maria de Lourdes Villiers "Mia" Farrow is an American actress and activist. She first gained notice for her role as Allison MacKenzie in the prime-time television soap opera Peyton Place and gained further recognition for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra. She achieved her career breakthrough and international acclaim as the titular character Rosemary in Roman Polanski's psychological horror film Rosemary's Baby (1968), receiving nominations for a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. She went on to appear in several films throughout the 1970s, such as Follow Me! (1972), The Great Gatsby (1974), and Death on the Nile (1978). Her younger sister is Prudence Farrow.

Joseph Eugene Stiglitz is an American New Keynesian economist, a public policy analyst, political activist, and a professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979). He is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank. He is also a former member and chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers. He is known for his support for the Georgism public finance theory and for his critical view of the management of globalization, of laissez-faire economists, and of international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Glenn Donald McGrath is an Australian former international cricketer whose career spanned 14 years. He was a fast-medium pace bowler and is considered one of cricket's greatest bowlers and a leading contributor to Australia's domination of world cricket from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s. McGrath was a member of the Australian team that won three consecutive World Cup trophies, winning the 1999 Cricket World Cup, the 2003 Cricket World Cup, and the 2007 Cricket World Cup. In the 2003 final, he took the winning wicket of Zaheer Khan. McGrath was also a member of the team that won the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy.

James Henry Webb Jr. is an American politician and author who served as a United States senator from Virginia from 2007 to 2013. He previously served as secretary of the Navy, assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs, counsel for the United States House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and is a retired Marine Corps officer. Webb has been a member of the Democratic Party since 2006, having initially been a Republican. He was the first Democratic senator to be elected in Virginia since 1994 and is the most recently elected senator who did not serve as governor of Virginia.

Lawrence Semon was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter during the silent film era. In his day, Semon was considered a major movie comedian, but he is now remembered mainly for working with both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy before they started working together. He directed and appeared in the 1925 silent film The Wizard of Oz, which had a slight influence on the better-known 1939 talkie The Wizard of Oz released by MGM. The film was included in the 2005 three-disc DVD version of the 1939 film, along with other silent Oz movies.

Judith Ellen Light is an American actress. She made her professional stage debut in 1970, before making her Broadway debut in the 1975 revival of A Doll's House. Her breakthrough role was in the ABC daytime soap opera One Life to Live from 1977 to 1983, where she played the role of Karen Wolek; for this role, she won two consecutive Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1980 and 1981. In 2024, Light won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for Poker Face.

William "Holly" Johnson is an English singer, songwriter and artist. He is best known as lead vocalist of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, who achieved huge commercial success in the mid-1980s. Prior to that, in the late 1970s he was a bassist for the band Big in Japan. In 1989, Johnson's debut solo album, Blast, reached number one in the UK Albums Chart. Two singles from the album – "Love Train" and "Americanos" – reached the top 5 of the UK Singles Chart. In the 1990s, he also embarked on writing, painting, and printmaking careers.

Karl Johan Siward Mjällby is a Swedish football manager and former professional player who played as a centre-back. He represented AIK, Celtic, and Levante during a career that spanned between 1989 and 2006. A full international between 1997 and 2004, he won 49 caps and scored 4 goals for the Sweden national team. Mjällby was the team captain during the 2002 FIFA World Cup, and also took part in UEFA Euro 2000 and 2004. He has been assistant manager of Bolton Wanderers and Celtic, working alongside former Celtic team-mate and manager Neil Lennon.