Famous Birthdays on July 29

Fernando Alonso Díaz is a Spanish racing driver who competes in Formula One for Aston Martin. Alonso has won two Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in 2005 and 2006 with Renault, and has won 32 Grands Prix across 23 seasons. In endurance racing, Alonso won the 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship and is a two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Toyota as well as a winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2019 with WTR. He is the only driver to have won both the Formula One World Drivers' Championship and the World Sportscar/World Endurance Drivers' Championship.

Timothy MacKenzie Gunn is an American author, academic, and television personality. He served on the faculty of Parsons School of Design in Greenwich Village, New York from 1982 to 2007 and was chair of fashion design at the school from August 2000 to March 2007, after which he joined Liz Claiborne as its chief creative officer. Over 16 seasons, Gunn became well known as the on-air mentor to designers on the reality television program Project Runway. Gunn's popularity on Project Runway led to two spin-off shows: Bravo's Tim Gunn's Guide to Style and Lifetime's Under the Gunn. He has written five books. In addition to being an executive producer, Gunn has been a mentor for teen designers on Project Runway: Junior. He also provides the voice of Baileywick, the castle steward in the Disney Jr. television show Sofia the First, and narrated the sitcom Mixology.

Corrosion of Conformity is an American heavy metal band from Raleigh, North Carolina, formed in 1982. The band has undergone multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with lead guitarist Woody Weatherman as the sole constant member. Weatherman, founding bassist Mike Dean, founding drummer Reed Mullin and vocalist/rhythm guitarist Pepper Keenan are widely regarded as its "classic" lineup. After a hiatus in 2006, Corrosion of Conformity returned in 2010 without Keenan, who had been busy touring and recording with Down, but announced their reunion with him in December 2014. More lineup changes have happened since then, with John Green replacing Mullin after his death in 2020 and Dean departing from the band once again in 2024.

Sally Jane Janet Gunnell, OBE, DL is a British former track-and-field athlete, who won the 1992 Olympic gold medal in the 400 metres hurdles. During a 24-month period between 1992 and 1994, Gunnell won every international event open to her, claiming Olympic Games, World Championship, European Championship, Commonwealth Games, Goodwill Games, IAAF World Cup and European Cup golds in the event, and breaking the British, European and World records in it. She is the only female British athlete to have won all four 'majors'; Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth titles, and was the first female 400 metres hurdler in history to win the Olympic and World titles and break the world record. Her former world record time of 52.74 secs in 1993 is still the current British record. She was named World and European Female Athlete of the Year in 1993, and was made an MBE in 1993 and an OBE in 1998.

Thelma Alice Todd was an American actress and businesswoman, variously nicknamed "the Ice Cream Blonde" and "Hot Toddy", who appeared in about 120 feature films and shorts between 1926 and 1935. She is remembered for her comedic roles opposite ZaSu Pitts; in films such as the Marx Brothers' Monkey Business and Horse Feathers; and in a number of Charley Chase's short comedies. She co-starred with Buster Keaton and Jimmy Durante in Speak Easily. She also had roles in several Wheeler and Woolsey and Laurel and Hardy films; her role in the last of these was drastically shrunk in post-production following her sudden death in 1935 at the age of 29.

Muhammad al-Mahdi is believed by Twelver Shia Muslims to be the last of the Twelve Imams and the Mahdi, who will reemerge in the End Times to restore justice and defeat tyranny alongside Isa (Jesus). Following the death of the eleventh Imam Hasan al-Askari in 873, his chief representative Uthman ibn Sa'id al-Asadi reported that the eleventh Imam had an infant son named Muhammad al-Mahdi, who had been kept hidden from the public out of fear of Abbasid persecution and had entered occultation. Representatives of al-Askari supported these assertions, while Shia Muslims fragmented into several sects over al-Askari's succession. All of these sects either disappeared within a few decades or were eventually absorbed into the mainstream Twelver Shia Islam, whose adherents recognized al-Askari's son as the final Imam and the Mahdi, who entered occultation and remains alive until his eventual reappearance.

Mary Elizabeth Alexander Dole is an American attorney, author, and politician who served as a United States senator from North Carolina from 2003 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served in five presidential administrations, including as U.S. Secretary of Transportation under Ronald Reagan from 1983 to 1987 and as U.S. Secretary of Labor under Reagan's successor, George H. W. Bush, from 1989 until 1990. Dole then left government to serve as president of the American Red Cross from 1991 to 1999; she departed from that position to seek the Republican nomination in the 2000 presidential election, but eventually withdrew from the race.

Fernando Francisco González Ciuffardi is a Chilean former professional tennis player. During his career, he reached at least the quarterfinals of all four major tournaments. He contested his only major final at the 2007 Australian Open, losing to top-seeded Roger Federer. González is the fourth man in history to have won an Olympic tennis medal in every color, with gold in doubles and bronze in singles at Athens 2004, and silver in singles at Beijing 2008. The gold medal that González won partnering Nicolás Massú at the 2004 Olympics in men's doubles was Chile's first-ever Olympic gold medal. During his career, González defeated many top players, including Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Carlos Moyá, Gustavo Kuerten, Marat Safin, Pete Sampras, and Andy Murray. González qualified twice for the year-end Masters Cup event and was runner-up at two Masters Series tournaments. González was known for having one of the strongest forehands on the tour. In Spanish he is nicknamed El Bombardero de La Reina and Mano de Piedra.

Robert Blake Theodore Lindsay was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played as a forward for the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Black Hawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). Lindsay scored over 800 points in his Hockey Hall of Fame career, won the Art Ross Trophy in 1950, and won the Stanley Cup four times. Often referred to as "Terrible Ted", Lindsay helped to organize the first attempt at a Players' Association in the late 1950s, an action which led to his trade to Chicago. In 2017, Lindsay was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in history. Lindsay played a pivotal role in improving the lives of NHL players. After his retirement, he worked a variety of jobs, serving as a sports broadcaster on NBC before becoming general manager of the Red Wings. He also served as head coach for the Hillsdale College Chargers from 1976 to 1977 and also coached the Red Wings for a time.

Douglas Wesley Ashdown is an Australian rock music singer-songwriter from Adelaide. He had a top 40 hit on the Australian singles chart with "Winter in America" or "Leave Love Enough Alone" (1976). It also reached No. 13 on the Dutch Singles Chart in 1978 and charted in 14 of the first 15 editions of the Dutch annual Top 2000 of all time, with a peak position of 820 in 1999. In 1988, "Winter in America" was covered by Dutch singer René Froger, and in 1994 by Australian group the Robertson Brothers. Ashdown also reached the Australian top 50 with "The Saddest Song of All" (1970).

Okinoumi Ayumi is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Okinoshima, Shimane. He joined professional sumo in 2005, reaching the top division in 2010. He was runner-up in makuuchi three times in the January 2011, March 2013, and November 2017 tournaments, all with an 11–4 record. His highest rank was sekiwake, which he held for one tournament in March 2015 and then held again in November 2016. He has won four Fighting Spirit prizes, one prize for Outstanding Performance, and four gold stars for defeating yokozuna. He wrestled for Hakkaku stable. Upon his retirement, Okinoumi became a sumo coach under the name of Kimigahama.

George Dixon was a Canadian professional boxer. After winning the bantamweight title in 1890, he became the first ever black athlete to win a world championship in any sport; he was also the first Canadian-born boxing champion. Ring Magazine founder Nat Fleischer ranked Dixon as the #1 featherweight of all time. He was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1955, the Ring Magazine Hall of Fame in 1956 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame as a first-class inductee in 1990. In 2018 he was named one of the greatest 15 athletes in Nova Scotia's history, ranking sixth.

Julie Elliott, Baroness Elliott of Whitburn Bay, is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sunderland Central from 2010 to 2024. Elliott served as Shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change from 2013 to 2015, with specific responsibility for renewable energy, the Green Investment Bank, and skills and supply chain issues. She was a member of the European Scrutiny; Business, Innovation and Skills; Digital, Culture, Media and Sport; and Regulatory Reform Committees. Elliott stood down as an MP at the 2024 general election and was subsequently appointed to the House of Lords in 2025.

Erich Priebke was a German mid-level Schutzstaffel (SS) commander in the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) of Nazi Germany. In 1996, he was convicted of war crimes in Italy for commanding the unit which was responsible for the Ardeatine massacre in Rome on 24 March 1944 in which 335 Italian civilians were killed in retaliation for a partisan attack that killed 33 men of the German SS Police Regiment Bozen. Priebke was one of the men held responsible for this mass execution. After the end of World War II in Europe, he fled to Argentina, where he lived for almost 50 years.

Ronald "Flip" Murray is an American former professional basketball player. At 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m), 200 lb, Murray played as a point guard–shooting guard. After attending Strawberry Mansion High School in Philadelphia, where he starred on the basketball team, he played college basketball for four seasons, first at the Meridian Community College in Meridian, Mississippi, from 1997 to 1999, and then at Shaw University located in Raleigh, North Carolina, from 2000 to 2002. He is nicknamed "Flip" by childhood friends who often said he looked like Bernie Mac's character, "Flip", from the movie Above The Rim.

Tarjei Bø is a former Norwegian professional biathlete. Awarded Olympic gold medals, World Championship gold medals and World Cup victories from 2010 to 2025. Bø debuted in the Biathlon World Cup on 26 March 2009 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. In the 2010 Winter Olympics, he earned his first gold medal in the 4 × 7.5 km biathlon relay. On 10 December 2010 he won the World Cup sprint race in Hochfilzen, his first world cup victory. He also won the following pursuit race and anchored the winning relay team. Bø is the older brother of biathlete Johannes Thingnes Bø.

Jason Belmonte is an Australian professional ten-pin bowler. He plays on the PBA Tour in the United States and in world events. He is known for being one of the first bowlers to gain media attention for using the two-handed approach style to deliver his shot. He has won 32 PBA titles, including a record 15 major championships; he is only one of eight bowlers in PBA tour history to achieve 30 wins, making him the only 30-time winner in PBA Tour history who is not currently a member of the PBA Hall of Fame.

Melvin Mouron Belli was an American lawyer and writer known as "The King of Torts" and by insurance companies as "Melvin Bellicose". He had many celebrity clients, including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Errol Flynn, Chuck Berry, Muhammad Ali, The Rolling Stones, Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker, Martha Mitchell, Maureen Connolly, Lana Turner, Tony Curtis, and Mae West. During his legal career, he won over $600 million in damages for his clients. He was also the attorney for Jack Ruby, who shot Lee Harvey Oswald days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Charles Henry Christian was an American swing and jazz guitarist. He was among the first electric guitarists and was a key figure in the development of bebop and cool jazz. He gained national exposure as a member of the Benny Goodman Sextet and Orchestra from August 1939 to June 1941. His single-string technique, combined with early adoption of the electric guitar, helped bring the guitar out of the rhythm section and into the forefront as a solo instrument. For this, he is often credited with pioneering the development of the lead guitar role.