Famous Birthdays on July 4

Amol Rajan is an Indian–British journalist, broadcaster and writer working in the United Kingdom. Formerly the media editor of BBC News, he presented the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 from 2021 to 2026. He has presented University Challenge on BBC Two since 2023. Prior to joining the BBC, Rajan was the editor of The Independent newspaper between 2013 and 2016.

Veronica Jane Ancona is a British actress, comedian, impressionist, and writer. She co-wrote and starred in The Big Impression, which was, for four years, one of BBC One's top-rated comedy programmes, winning a BAFTA in 2003. She also starred in the first series of the ITV series The Sketch Show, and has appeared in Last Tango in Halifax since its creation in 2012. She is a co-director, alongside Sally Phillips and Nick Hamson, of the production company Captain Dolly. In 2026, she played the role of Bea Pollard in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders.

American supercentenarians are citizens or residents of the United States who have attained or surpassed 110 years of age. By January 2015, the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) had validated the longevity claims of 782 American supercentenarians. The oldest living American is Naomi Whitehead, aged 116 years, 34 days. The longest-lived American ever was Sarah Knauss, of Hollywood, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, who died on December 30, 1999, aged 119 years and 97 days. The oldest validated American man ever is Danish-born Christian Mortensen, who immigrated to the United States at age 21 in 1903. The oldest validated American-born man ever is Walter Breuning.

Todd Marvin Marinovich is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL), Canadian Football League (CFL), and Arena Football League (AFL). He played college football for the USC Trojans. Marinovich is known for the well-documented, intense focus of his training as a young athlete and his brief career as a professional, cut short primarily because of his addiction to drugs.

Morganna Roberts is an American entertainer who became known as Morganna or Morganna, the Kissing Bandit in baseball and other sports from 1969 through 1999. She was also billed as "Morganna the Wild One" when appearing as a dancer in the 1980s.

Harvey Grant is an American former professional National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball player. He is the identical twin brother of Horace Grant, also a former NBA player.

David Allan Jensen is a Canadian-born British radio DJ and television presenter. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Jensen began as a radio DJ on Radio Luxembourg. Jensen was later a broadcaster for the BBC from 1976 to 1984, as a host on BBC Radio 1 and presenter on the TV music programme Top of the Pops from 1976 to 1984. Jensen has also hosted and presented for Capital FM and ITV among other stations.

Jin Akanishi is a Japanese singer-songwriter and actor. He has been active since 1998 as one of the two lead vocalists of the J-pop boy-band KAT-TUN before starting a solo career in 2009. Akanishi has also acted in several films and dramas.

Brock Sterling Berlin is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Florida Gators and Miami Hurricanes. Berlin was signed by the Miami Dolphins of the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2005, and was also a member of the Hamburg Sea Devils, Dallas Cowboys, St. Louis Rams, and Detroit Lions.

Vladimir Tismăneanu is a Romanian American political scientist, political analyst, sociologist, and professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. A specialist in political systems and comparative politics, he is director of the University of Maryland's Center for the Study of Post-Communist Societies, having served as chairman of the editorial committee (2004–2008) and editor (1998–2004) of the East European Politics and Societies academic review. Over the years, Tismăneanu has been a contributor to several periodicals, including Studia Politica, Journal of Democracy, Sfera Politicii, Revista 22, Evenimentul Zilei, Idei în Dialog and Cotidianul. He has also worked with the international radio stations Radio Free Europe and Deutsche Welle, and authored programs for the Romanian Television Company. As of 2009, he is Academic Council Chairman of the Institute for People's Studies, a think tank of the Romanian Democratic Liberal Party. Between February 2010 and May 2012, he was also President of the Scientific Council of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania.

Rafael Arévalo González is a retired professional tennis player from El Salvador. The majority of Arévalo's professional career has been restricted to playing on the Futures (ITF) circuit, with a further 22 appearances for the El Salvador Davis Cup team; he also had modest success in the juniors, reaching a peak of No. 10 in 2004. However, in 2008, aided by the Salvadoran Tennis Federation, he was awarded an invitation to the 2008 Beijing Olympics tennis tournament. The Tripartite Commission, which issued the invitation, is composed of representatives from International Olympic Committee (IOC), National Olympic Committees (NOCs), and the International Tennis Federation (ITF). It is standard practice to award such invitations to countries with small Olympic teams. Arévalo was the first player from El Salvador to represent the country in a tennis competition at the Olympics. Arévalo defeated South Korea's Lee Hyung-taik in three sets in the first round, before being beaten by Swiss World No. 1 Roger Federer in the second. Later that year, Arévalo won his only ATP Challenger Tour match, beating Borja Malo in Quito, before losing to Julio Cesar Campozano.

Carol MacReady is an English actress. She has been working in the profession since 1961. She is known for the role of Mrs Dribelle in the series Bodger and Badger.

Norm Drucker was a major influence in professional basketball officiating for over 35 years. His NBA and ABA officiating career as both a referee and Supervisor of Officials spanned the careers of all-time pro basketball greats, from George Mikan, Bob Cousy, Dolph Schayes and Bob Pettit in the 1950s, to Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Bill Russell in the 1960s, to Julius Erving, Rick Barry, Bill Bradley and Walt Frazier in the 1970s and to Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in the 1980s.

Sébastien Japrisot was a French author, screenwriter and film director. His pseudonym was an anagram of Jean-Baptiste Rossi, his real name. Renowned for subverting the rules of the crime genre, Japrisot broke down the established formulas "into their component pieces to re-combine them in original and paradoxical ways." Some critics argue that though Japrisot's work may lack the explicit experimental element present in the novels of some of his contemporaries, it shows influences of structuralist theories and the unorthodox techniques of the New Novelists.

AD 68 (LXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Silius Italicus and Trachalus, or the start of the Year of the Four Emperors. The denomination AD 68 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. These are now used throughout the world.

Mikhail of Asyut, was the elder metropolitan of the Holy Metropolis of Asyut (Lycopolis), (Hieracon, and of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and was the abbot of the Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great, in Scetes, Lower Egypt until early 2009, when he decided to resign this responsibility due to his failing health and also due to the demise of Matta El-Meskeen, the Chief Hegumen in-charge of the Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great in 2008.

Christopher Clemence "Cle" Kooiman is an American former soccer defender. He played professionally in both Mexico and the United States including the first Major Indoor Soccer League, Western Soccer Alliance, American Professional Soccer League and Major League Soccer. He earned twelve caps, scoring one goal, with the U.S. national soccer team in 1993 and 1994. He was a member of the U.S. team at the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Belinda Dann was an Indigenous Australian born as Quinlyn Wardagoo to an Irish cattle station manager and a Nyikina mother in the Lunlungai community in Derby, Western Australia. At the age of 6, 7, or 8 she was taken away and sent to Beagle Bay Mission with other members of the stolen generation. Her name was changed to Belinda Boyd to integrate with White society.

Majd ad-Dīn Usāma ibn Murshid ibn ʿAlī ibn Munqidh al-Kināni al-Kalbī or Ibn Munqidh was a medieval Arab Muslim poet, author, faris (knight), and diplomat from the Banu Munqidh dynasty of Shaizar in northern Syria. His life coincided with the rise of several medieval Muslim dynasties, the arrival of the First Crusade, and the establishment of the crusader states.

Pavel Sedláček is a Czech rock and roll singer, songwriter and guitarist. When he was 15 played "Rock Around the Clock" on the show for amateur musicians. From 1962 he collaborated with theatre Semafor. At the same time he recorded the song "Život je pes" which became his first hit. In 1968 he attended Czech Technical University in Prague.

Lake Carl Underwood was an American entrepreneur who competed as a champion in the racing of prototype automobiles and motorcycles. He was a master mechanic who, although high performance fuel delivery and carburetor design and mechanics were his specialties, also invented automobile improvements, especially in electronics for German automobiles.

Minas Hantzidis is a Greek former footballer. He played for Bayer Leverkusen, VfL Bochum, Olympiacos, Iraklis, Veria, Wuppertaler SV, SV Elversberg, Union Solingen, 1. FC Kleve, TSV 05 Ronsdorf and SpVgg Radevormwald, as well as for the national side. He competed at the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Philip Rose was a Broadway theatrical producer of such productions as A Raisin in the Sun, The Owl and the Pussycat, Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, Purlie, and Shenandoah. His work was particularly notable for its social insight and distinctive social conscience.

Robert Sinclair MacKay is a British mathematician and professor at the University of Warwick. He researches dynamical systems, the calculus of variations, Hamiltonian dynamics and applications to complex systems in physics, engineering, chemistry, biology and economics.

Stephen Giles is a Canadian sprint canoeist who competed from the early 1990s to the mid 2000s. Competing in four Summer Olympics, he won the bronze in the C-1 1000 m event at Sydney in 2000.

Eric Walters was an Australian journalist, media trainer and former television presenter. He was best known for his long-running stint as early morning anchor for the Nine Network, both on the Today and National Nine Early Morning News.

Pio Pion was an Italian entrepreneur, known for founding the first Italian company producing movie projectors, the Fumagalli, Pion & C.

Irving McClure Johnson was an American sail training pioneer, adventurer, lecturer and writer.

Leslie Bruce Hamilton was an Australian senior public servant and head of the Department of Social Services between 1966 and 1973.

Fritz Wilde was a German football player and manager, who played as a forward.

Emeritus Professor Sittampalam Shanmugaratnam, also known as Shan Ratnam, was a Singaporean obstetrician and gynaecologist.

S. Brian Willson is a U.S. American Vietnam veteran, peace activist, and attorney.

Paul Rogat Loeb is an American writer whose work has focused on activism, civic engagement, and social change.

Kevin John Nichols is a former track cyclist and Olympic gold medallist.

Vera Leth is a Greenlandic civil servant who was the County Council Ombudsman for the Parliament of Greenland between 1997 and 2023.

Mark Randolph Whiting is an American writer, director, designer and actor.

Kyriakos Karataidis is a former Greek football player. He played for Olympiacos, as well as for the national side.

Sébastien Deleigne is a French modern pentathlete. He competed in four Olympic Games between 1992 and 2004.

Wilfred Mugeyi is a Zimbabwean former footballer whose last job was coach at South African Premier Soccer League club AmaZulu FC.

Kwame Steede is a Bermudian football coach and former player. He was appointed head coach of the Devonshire Cougars in 2015.

Adérito Waldemar Alves Carvalho, commonly known as Dedé, is an Angolan former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

Mattia Serafini is an Italian footballer.

Kane Tenace is an Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).

Wason Libardo Rentería Cuesta is a Colombian retired professional footballer who played as a forward.

Ihar Syarheyevich Yasinski is a Belarusian professional footballer who plays for Bumprom Gomel.

Naoki Yamada is a Japanese footballer who plays for J3 League club FC Gifu.

Richard Mpong is a Ghanaian professional footballer who currently plays as a winger, for Elmina Sharks and the Ghana national football team.

Thomas John Hollywood-Barkhuizen is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for Bamber Bridge, on loan from National League club Barrow.