Famous Birthdays on January 11

Thomas Frederick Dixon Jr. was an American white supremacist and polymath: a Baptist minister, politician, lawyer, lecturer, writer, and filmmaker. Dixon wrote two best-selling novels, The Leopard's Spots: A Romance of the White Man's Burden—1865–1900 (1902) and The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905), that romanticized Southern white supremacy, endorsed the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, opposed equal rights for black people, and glorified the Ku Klux Klan as heroic vigilantes. Film director D. W. Griffith adapted The Clansman for the screen in The Birth of a Nation (1915). The film inspired the creators of the 20th-century rebirth of the Klan.

Mascarita Sagrada is a Mexican wrestler. He is one of the most well-known Mexican Mini-Estrellas of the modern era. He is the original Mascarita Sagrada although there have been several wrestlers who have used the same gimmick through the years. In Mexico, Mascarita Sagrada has worked for AAA, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and a long list of independent promoters over the years. He has also worked for American wrestling promotions World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/WWE), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) and Lucha VaVOOM. In the late 1990s he worked for the WWF as Mini Nova. He has also been featured in several films and marketing campaigns, including an uncredited cameo in the film My Giant with Billy Crystal and an ad campaign for Virgin Mobile.

Ernst Nolte was a German historian and philosopher. Nolte's major interest was the comparative studies of fascism and communism. Originally trained in philosophy, he was professor emeritus of modern history at the Free University of Berlin, where he taught from 1973 until his 1991 retirement. He was previously a professor at the University of Marburg from 1965 to 1973. He was best known for his seminal work Fascism in Its Epoch, which received widespread acclaim when it was published in 1963. Nolte was a prominent academic from the early 1960s and was involved in many controversies related to the interpretation of the history of fascism and communism, including the Historikerstreit in the late 1980s. In later years, Nolte focused on Islamism and "Islamic fascism".

Charles Hartley Huhn is an American rock singer, songwriter, guitarist and keyboard player. He got his start in Grand Rapids, Michigan, playing with local groups Cirrus, Tanglewood, and Vic Amato & Co before joining Ted Nugent in January, 1978. While recording 1 Platinum and 3 Gold Records with Nugent, including 3 world headliner tours, he followed up recording the LPs Dirty Fingers and Do You Want Some Moore with Gary Moore, and toured in the U.K in 81 & 82. In 1983, he joined Victory and recorded 4 albums and performed 4 European and American tours. In 1988 he joined Humble Pie and recorded the CD Live At The Agora, and performed live with the band until 2000 when Huhn joined Foghat after the untimely death of singer Dave Peverett, and recorded and performed steadily until retiring in 2022.

Brett Elias Bodine III is an American former stock car racing driver, former driver of the pace car in Cup Series events, and current NASCAR employee. He is the younger brother of 1986 Daytona 500 winner Geoff Bodine and the older brother of 2006 and 2010 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Todd Bodine. He was born in Chemung, New York. Bodine has been named one of the 50 greatest NASCAR modified drivers of all time, was the runner-up for the 1986 Busch Series championship, and collected a total of five Busch Series wins and sixteen pole positions. Bodine made 480 Cup Series starts with one win and five pole positions. He has led over one-thousand career laps in both the NASCAR Winston Cup Series and the NASCAR Busch Series.

Theodoros Pangalos was a Greek general, politician and dictator, who ruled Greece from 24 June 1925 to 22 August 1926. A distinguished staff officer and an ardent Venizelist and anti-royalist, Pangalos participated in the Goudi coup in 1909, served with distinction in the Balkan Wars, Macedonian front of World War I, and the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), and played a leading role in the September 1922 revolt that deposed King Constantine I and in the establishment of the Second Hellenic Republic. In June 1925, Pangalos staged a bloodless coup d'État, and his assumption of power was recognised by the National Assembly, which named him prime minister. As a "constitutional dictator", he ruled the country until his overthrow in August 1926. From April 1926 until his deposition, he had also occupied the office of President of the Republic.

Madeline Manning-Mims, née Madeline Manning, is a former American runner and Olympic champion. Between 1967 and 1981 she won ten national titles and set a number of American records. She participated in the 1968, 1972, and 1976 Summer Olympics. She likely also would have participated in the 1980 Games in Moscow, had they not been boycotted by the United States. At the 1968 Olympics she won a gold medal in the 800 m, one of only two American women to win this event. Until 2008, she was the youngest winner of the event. At the 1972 Games in Munich she won a silver medal in the 4 × 400 m relay with teammates Mable Fergerson, Kathy Hammond, and Cheryl Toussaint. When she was three years old, she was diagnosed with spinal meningitis and not expected to live. She recovered, but was consistently sick until she was a teen.

August Friedrich Heissmeyer or Heißmeyer, was a German member of the Nazi Party who rose to become an SS-Obergruppenführer in the Schutzstaffel (SS). He held several major commands, including as the chief of the SS Main Office from 1935 to 1939 and as the Higher SS and Police Leader of the Berlin district from 1939 to 1945. He was also headed the National Political Institutes of Education, a network of elite secondary boarding schools established to train future leaders of the Nazi state. He was the husband of Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, the head of the National Socialist Women's League. After the Second World War, Heissmeyer underwent denazification, was convicted as a major offender and served three years in prison.

Sir James Paget, 1st Baronet was an English surgeon and pathologist who is best remembered for first describing Paget's disease and who is considered, together with Rudolf Virchow, as one of the founders of scientific medical pathology. His famous works included Lectures on Tumours (1851) and Lectures on Surgical Pathology (1853). There are several medical conditions which were described by, and later named after, Paget:Paget's disease of bone Paget's disease of the nipple Extramammary Paget's disease refers to a group of similar, more rare skin lesions discovered by Radcliffe Crocker in 1889 which affects the male and female genitalia. Paget–Schroetter disease Paget's abscess, an abscess that recurs at the site of a former abscess which had resolved.

Constantin Fehrenbach, sometimes erroneously Konstantin Fehrenbach,, was a German politician who was one of the major leaders of the Catholic Centre Party. He served as president of the Reichstag in 1918 and then as president of the Weimar National Assembly from 1919 to 1920. In June 1920, Fehrenbach became Chancellor of Germany. During his time in office, the central issue he had to face was German compliance with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. He resigned in May 1921 when his cabinet was unable to reach a consensus on war reparations payments to the Allies. Fehrenbach remained in the Reichstag and headed the Centre Party's contingent there from 1923 until his death in 1926.

Hiroshi Wajima was a Japanese sumo and professional wrestler. Born in Nanao, Ishikawa, he was the sport's 54th yokozuna and is the first wrestler with a collegiate background to reach its highest rank. Entering professional sumo in January 1970, he won a total of 14 tournament championships or yūshō during his career before retiring in March 1981. He was nicknamed "Golden Left" in reference to his trademark gold mawashi and his preferred technique of a left-handed underarm throw. He was later head coach of Hanakago stable, but after several controversies, Wajima was forced to leave the sumo world and turned to professional wrestling, retiring in 1988.

Theodosius I, also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. He won two civil wars and was instrumental in establishing the Nicene Creed as the orthodox doctrine for Nicene Christianity. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule the entire Roman Empire. After his death, his sons Arcadius and Honorius ruled from separate courts in the east and the west, continuing the late Roman practice of rule by multiple emperors. He ended the Gothic War (376–382), but did so on terms disadvantageous to the empire, with the Goths remaining politically autonomous within Roman territory, albeit as nominal allies.

Oliver Wolcott Jr. was an American politician and judge. He was the second United States secretary of the treasury, a judge of the United States Circuit Court for the Second Circuit, and the 24th governor of Connecticut. His adult life began with working in Connecticut, followed by participating in the U.S. federal government in the Department of Treasury, before returning to Connecticut, where he spent his life before his death. Throughout his time in politics, Wolcott's political views shifted from Federalist, to Toleration, and finally Jacksonian. Oliver Wolcott Jr. is the son to Oliver Wolcott Sr., part of the Griswold-Wolcott family.

Darren Lynn Bousman is an American film director and screenwriter, best known for his work in horror films. He has directed four of the Saw films: Saw II, Saw III, Saw IV, and Spiral. He also directed the horror musical films Repo! The Genetic Opera and The Devil's Carnival. Bousman is co-creator and writer of alternate reality games (ARG) and immersive experiences, The Tension Experience (2016), The Lust Experience (2017), Theatre Macabre (2018), iConfidant (2020), and One Day Die (2020). As of July 2025, Bousman is the co-host of the filmmaking podcast Darren and Josh Make a Movie alongside Josh Stolberg.

Bryan Robson is an English former football manager and player. He began his career with West Bromwich Albion in 1972, where he amassed over 200 appearances and was club captain, before moving to Manchester United in 1981, where he became the longest-serving captain in the club's history. He won two Premier Leagues, three FA Cups, one Football League Cup, two FA Charity Shields and a European Cup Winners' Cup during his time there. Nicknamed "Captain Marvel", Robson was voted the greatest ever Manchester United player in August 2011 in a poll of the club's former players.

Wang Chongyang is the founder of the Quanzhen school of Taoism. In his life he had many devotees and followers, but formally accepted seven major disciples which are known as the Seven Perfected or the Seven Masters of Quanzhen: Ma Danyang, Qiu Chuji, Tan Chuduan, Liu Chuxuan, Hao Datong, Wang Chuyi, and Sun Bu’er. Wang Chongyang is one of the Five Northern Patriarchs of Quanzhen, which in order they are: Wang Xuanfu 王玄甫, Zhongli Quan 钟离权, Lü Dongbin 吕洞宾, Liu Haichan 刘海蟾, Wang Chongyang 王重阳. He is also one of the Eight Immortals of Taoism.

Eva Le Gallienne was an English-born American stage actress, producer, director, translator, and author. A Broadway star by age 21, in 1926 she left Broadway behind to found the Civic Repertory Theatre, where she served as director, producer, and lead actress. Noted for her boldness and idealism, she was a pioneering figure in the American theater, setting the stage for the Off-Broadway and regional theater movements that swept the country later in the 20th century. She had significant success with her stage adaptation of Alice in Wonderland which was staged multiple times on Broadway.

David Lloyd Wolper was an American television and film producer, responsible for shows such as Roots, The Thorn Birds, and North and South, and the theatrically-released films Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) and L.A. Confidential (1997). He was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 57th Academy Awards in 1985 for his work producing the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, as well as helping to bring the games there. His 1971 film about the study of insects, The Hellstrom Chronicle, won an Academy Award.

Alfonso Arau Incháustegui is a Mexican filmmaker and actor. He worked as an actor and director in both Mexican and Hollywood productions for over 40 years, before his international breakthrough with the 1992 film Like Water for Chocolate, based on his wife Laura Esquivel's novel of the same name. His other films include A Walk in the Clouds (1995), Picking Up the Pieces (2000), The Magnificent Ambersons (2002) and Zapata: El sueño del héroe (2004). He is a five-time Ariel Award winner, including Best Director for Like Water for Chocolate, and a BAFTA nominee.