Famous Birthdays on March 4

Landon Timothy Donovan is an American former professional soccer player and coach who played as a winger or forward. He most recently was the interim head coach of San Diego Wave FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Widely regarded as one of the greatest American players in history and as the greatest U.S. men's national team player of all time, Donovan was the all-time top assist provider in international football (58) until 2023 and is tied with Clint Dempsey for the most international goals scored by a male U.S. player (57). Donovan won a record six MLS Cups and is the league's all-time assists leader with 136. The Major League Soccer MVP Award has been renamed the Landon Donovan MVP Award in his honor.

Sarah Stock is a Canadian professional wrestler. She is known for her role in All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and as a trainer and producer for WWE. Previously began her career in Canada and moved back and forth across the country, working for various promotions, facing both male and female wrestlers. She then moved to Mexico, where she worked under the ring name Dark Angel for Lucha Libre AAA World Wide (AAA) and later for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). She is also known for her time in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where under the ring name Sarita she became the inaugural and two-time TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champion, holding the title the first time with Taylor Wilde and the second time with Rosita. She has also worked in Japan for JDStar and World Wonder Ring Stardom, where she held the Wonder of Stardom Championship.

Samuel Edgar Langford was a Canadian professional boxer who competed from 1902 to 1926. Called the "Greatest Fighter Almost Nobody Knows" by ESPN, Langford is considered by many boxing historians to be one of the greatest fighters of all time. Originally from Weymouth Falls, Nova Scotia, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts as a teenager, and began his professional boxing career there in 1902. Langford was known as "the Boston Bonecrusher", "the Boston Terror", and, most famously, "the Boston Tar Baby". Langford stood 5 ft 6+1⁄2 in (1.69 m) and weighed 185 lb (84 kg) in his prime. He fought from lightweight to heavyweight and defeated many world champions and legends of the time in each weight class. Considered a devastating puncher even at heavyweight, The Ring rated Langford second on their list of the "100 greatest punchers of all time". One boxing historian described Langford as "experienced as a heavyweight James Toney with the punching power of Mike Tyson".

Ryszard Kapuściński was a Polish journalist, photographer and author. He received many prestigious awards and was considered a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Kapuściński's personal journals in book form attracted both controversy and admiration for blurring the conventions of reportage with the allegory and magical realism of literature. He was the Communist-era Polish Press Agency's only correspondent in Africa during decolonization, and also worked in South America and Asia. Between 1956 and 1981 he reported on 27 revolutions and coups, until he was fired because of his support for the pro-democracy Solidarity movement in his native country. He was celebrated by other practitioners of the genre; Tiziano Terzani, Gabriel García Márquez, and Luis Sepúlveda accorded him the title "Maestro".

Bernard Johan Herman Haitink was a Dutch conductor and violinist. He was the principal conductor of several international orchestras, beginning with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1961. He moved to London, as principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 1967 to 1979, music director at Glyndebourne Opera from 1978 to 1988 and of the Royal Opera House from 1987 to 2002, when he became principal conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden. Finally, he was principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 2010. The focus of his prolific recording was classical symphonies and orchestral works, but he also conducted operas. He conducted 90 concerts at The Proms in London, the last on 3 September 2019 with the Vienna Philharmonic. His awards include Grammy Awards and the 2015 Gramophone Award for his lifetime achievements.

Robert Norman "Badger Bob" Johnson was an American college, international, and professional ice hockey coach. He coached the Wisconsin Badgers men's ice hockey team from 1966 to 1982, where he led the Badgers to seven appearances at the NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championships, including three titles. During his time as the head coach at Wisconsin, Johnson also coached the United States men's national ice hockey team at the 1976 Winter Olympics and seven other major championships, including the Canada Cup and IIHF World Championships. He then coached the Calgary Flames for five seasons that included a Stanley Cup Final loss in 1986. Johnson achieved the peak of his professional coaching career in his only season as coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1990–91, when the Penguins won the 1991 Stanley Cup Final, becoming the second American-born coach to win it and the first in 53 years. In August 1991, following hospitalization due to a brain aneurysm, Johnson was diagnosed with brain cancer. He died on November 26 of the same year.

Sandra Reynolds Price is a South African former tennis player who won four Grand Slam women's doubles championships and one Grand Slam mixed doubles championship. Her best Grand Slam singles result was reaching the 1960 Wimbledon final, losing to Maria Bueno 8–6, 6–0. Reynolds is the only South African woman to reach the Wimbledon singles final, and is one of three to have reached a major singles final. In 1961, she was seeded No. 1 for the Wimbledon singles event, making her the only South African player ever to be seeded first in a singles major. She was the runner-up at the 1959 U.S. Women's Clay Court Championships, losing to Sally Moore in the final. Price won the German Championships in 1960, 1961, and 1962. She was the runner-up at the 1959 Italian Championships, having defeated Bueno in the semifinals, then losing to Christine Truman in the final.

Svend Robinson is a Canadian politician. He was a member of Parliament (MP) from 1979 to 2004, representing suburban Vancouver-area constituencies in the city of Burnaby for the New Democratic Party (NDP). He was the first member of Parliament in Canadian history to come out as gay while in office. In 2004, he pleaded guilty to stealing an expensive ring and decided not to run in the June 2004 election. At the time, he was one of the longest-serving members in the House of Commons, having been elected and re-elected for seven consecutive terms. In the 2019 Canadian federal election, Robinson was the NDP candidate for the riding of Burnaby North—Seymour but lost to Liberal incumbent Terry Beech by 1,560 votes.

Edwards Pierrepont was an American attorney, reformer, jurist, traveler, New York U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Minister to England, and orator. Having graduated from Yale in 1837, Pierrepont studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1840. During the American Civil War, Pierrepont was a Democrat, although he supported President Abraham Lincoln. Pierrepont initially supported President Andrew Johnson's conservative Reconstruction efforts having opposed the Radical Republicans. In both 1868 and 1872, Pierrepont supported Ulysses S. Grant for president. For his support, President Grant appointed Pierrepont United States Attorney in 1869. In 1871, Pierrepont gained the reputation as a solid reformer, having joined New York's Committee of Seventy that shut down Boss Tweed's corrupt Tammany Hall. In 1872, Pierrepont modified his views on Reconstruction and stated that African American freedman's rights needed to be protected.

Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo was a Malagasy poet who is widely considered to be Africa's first modern poet and the greatest literary artist of Madagascar. Part of the first Malagasy generation raised under French colonization, Rabearivelo grew up impoverished and failed to complete secondary education. His passion for French literature and traditional Malagasy oral poetry (hainteny) prompted him to read extensively and educate himself on a variety of subjects, including the French language and its poetic and prose traditions. He published his first poems as an adolescent in local literary reviews, soon obtaining employment at a publishing house where he worked as a proofreader and editor of its literary journals. He published numerous poetry anthologies in French and Malagasy as well as literary critiques, an opera, and two novels.

John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, was an English jurist and Whig statesman. Somers first came to national attention in the trial of the Seven Bishops where he was on their defence counsel. He published tracts on political topics such as the succession to the crown, where he elaborated his Whig principles in support of the Exclusionists. He played a leading part in shaping the Revolution settlement. He was Lord High Chancellor of England under King William III and was a chief architect of the union between England and Scotland achieved in 1707 and the Protestant succession achieved in 1714. He was a leading Whig during the twenty-five years after 1688; with four colleagues he formed the Whig Junto.

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha was an American novelist, producer, director, and artist of South Korean origin, best known for her 1982 novel, Dictée. Considered an avant-garde artist, Cha was fluent in Korean, English, and French. The main body of Cha's work is "looking for the roots of language before it is born on the tip of the tongue." Cha's practice experiments with language through repetition, manipulation, reduction, and isolation, exploring the ways in which language marks one's identity, in unstable and multiple expressions. Cha's interdisciplinary background was clearly evident in Dictée, which experiments with juxtaposition and hypertext of both print and visual media. Cha's Dictée is frequently taught in contemporary literature classes including women's literature.

Thomas Sigismund Stribling was an American writer. Although he acquired a law degree and practiced law for a few years, his career was mainly that of an author of fiction. Known first for adventure stories published in fiction magazines, he later published novels of social satire set mainly in the southern USA. His best-known work is the Vaiden trilogy, set in Florence, Alabama. The first volume is The Forge (1931). He won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1933 for the second novel of this series, The Store. The last, set during the 1920s, is The Unfinished Cathedral (1934). Both the second and third novels were chosen as selections by the Literary Guild.

William Herbert Deverell is a Canadian writer, criminal lawyer, and civil liberties activist. One of Canada's best-known novelists, his debut novel Needles, based on his legal experience, won the $50,000 Seal First Novel Award from McClelland & Stewart. He received the Hammett Prize in 1998 for Trial of Passion, which also won the 1998 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel; April Fool won the same award in 2003. Trial of Passion launched his long-running crime series about Arthur Beauchamp, a classically trained, self-doubting barrister who solves crimes in releases such as April Fool, Kill All the Judges, Snow Job, I'll See You in My Dreams, Sing a Worried Song, Whipped, and Stung.

Charles Corm (1894–1963) was a Lebanese writer, industrialist, and philanthropist. He is considered to be the leader of the Phoenicianism movement in Lebanon, which ignited a surge of nationalism that led to Lebanon's independence. In a country torn by sectarian conflicts, his intention was to find a common root shared by all Lebanese beyond their religious beliefs. At the age of 40, he quit a successful business empire to dedicate his time to writing and philanthropy. In addition to his prolific literary legacy that can now be found in most libraries and universities around the world, Charles Corm left one of the most substantial fortunes in the Middle East.

David Thayer Hersey, known professionally as Thayer David, was an American actor. He was best known to television audiences for his roles on the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows (1966–71). His notable film roles included Count Saknussemm in the film Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), Reverend Silas Pendrake in Little Big Man (1970), Charlie Robbins in Save the Tiger (1973), Dragon in The Eiger Sanction (1975), fight promoter Miles Jergens in Rocky (1976), and private detective Nero Wolfe in the 1979 ABC television film. He also appeared in numerous Broadway plays, and his raspy, distinctive voice lent itself to voice-over work in commercials and instructional films.

Paul William Scott Anderson is an English filmmaker who is best known for his science fiction films and video game adaptations. Anderson made his feature-length directorial debut with the independent film Shopping (1994). In 1992, he and producer Jeremy Bolt co-founded Impact Pictures, under which most of his films have been produced. He found commercial success with his second film, Mortal Kombat (1995), based on the namesake video games. He came to wider attention for his work on the first, fourth, fifth and sixth films of the Resident Evil series (2002–2016), based on the video games of the same name; his entries collectively grossed over $1 billion worldwide.

Carl Aldo Marzani was an Italian-born American political activist with a series of careers as a volunteer soldier in the Spanish Civil War, organizer for the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), United States intelligence official, documentary filmmaker with an Academy Award nomination, author, and publisher. During World War II he served in the federal intelligence agency, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), and later the U.S. Department of State. He picked the targets for the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, which took place on April 18, 1942. Marzani served nearly three years in prison for having concealed his former CPUSA membership when joining the American war effort in 1942.

Christopher Ford, better known by the ring name Crowbar, is an American professional wrestler performing on the independent circuit. He is best known for his tenure in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), where he was a one-time Hardcore Champion, a one-time World Tag Team Champion with David Flair, and a one-time Cruiserweight Champion, which he held jointly with Daffney. He, Jerry Lynn and Christopher Daniels are the only wrestlers in history to have wrestled for World Wrestling Federation (WWF), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), Ring Of Honor (ROH), and All Elite Wrestling (AEW).