Famous Birthdays on May 24

Germanicus Julius Caesar was a Roman general and politician most famously known for his campaigns against Arminius in Germania. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia the Younger, Germanicus was born into an influential branch of the patrician gens Claudia. The agnomen Germanicus was added to his full name in 9 BC when it was posthumously awarded to his father in honor of his victories in Germania. In AD 4 he was adopted by his paternal uncle Tiberius, himself the stepson and heir of Germanicus' great-uncle Augustus; ten years later, Tiberius succeeded Augustus as Roman emperor. As a result of his adoption, Germanicus became an official member of the gens Julia, another prominent family, to which he was related on his mother's side. His connection to the Julii Caesares was further consolidated through a marriage between him and Agrippina the Elder, a granddaughter of Augustus. He was also the father of Caligula, the maternal grandfather of Nero, and the older brother of Claudius.

Sir Roger Alexander Deakins ASC, BSC is an English cinematographer. Regarded as one of the greatest and most influential cinematographers in cinema history, he is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and five BAFTA Awards for Best Cinematography. He has collaborated multiple times with directors such as the Coen brothers, Sam Mendes, Michael Radford, and Denis Villeneuve. Some of his best-known works include The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Fargo (1996), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), A Beautiful Mind (2001), No Country for Old Men (2007), True Grit (2010), Skyfall (2012), Sicario (2015), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and 1917 (2019), the last two of which earned him Academy Awards.

Jean-Paul Marat was a French scientist, physician, political theorist, journalist, and politician. Before the French Revolution, he pursued a career in medicine and science and spent more than ten years abroad. He published works on subjects including optics, electricity, political theory, and criminal law. During the Revolution he became one of its most prolific, radical and controversial journalists. Through his newspaper L'Ami du peuple, Marat responded rapidly to political events but also publicized complaints and grievances brought to him by ordinary citizens, presenting himself as their advocate against officials and others whom he accused of injustice or abuse. Publication reached an extraordinary intensity in 1791, when about 500 issues appeared.

Emma Jennifer McKeon, is an Australian retired competitive swimmer. She is an eight-time world record holder, three current and five former, in relays. Her total career haul of 14 Olympic medals following the 2024 Olympic Games includes one gold medal from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, four gold medals from the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and one gold medal from the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. With four gold and three bronze medals she was the most decorated athlete across all sports at the 2020 Summer Olympics, and tied for the most medals won by a woman in a single Olympic Games. She also won 20 medals, including five gold medals, at the World Aquatics Championships; and a record 20 medals, including 14 gold, at the Commonwealth Games.

Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit FRS was a physicist, inventor, and scientific instrument maker. He was born in Poland to a family of German origin, although he spent much of his life in the Dutch Republic. Fahrenheit significantly improved the design and manufacture of thermometers; his were accurate and consistent enough that different observers, each with their own Fahrenheit thermometers, could reliably compare temperature measurements with each other. Fahrenheit is also credited with producing the first successful mercury-in-glass thermometers, which were more accurate than the spirit-filled thermometers of his time and of a generally superior design. The popularity of his thermometers also led to the widespread adoption of his Fahrenheit scale, with which they were provided.

Suzanne Rachel Flore Lenglen was a French tennis player. She was the inaugural world No. 1 from 1921 to 1926, winning eight Grand Slam titles in singles and twenty-one in total. She was also a four-time World Hard Court Champion in singles, and ten times in total. Lenglen won six Wimbledon singles titles, including five in a row from 1919 to 1923, and was the champion in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles at the first two open French Championships in 1925 and 1926. In doubles, she was undefeated with her usual partner, Elizabeth Ryan, highlighted by another six titles at Wimbledon. Lenglen was the first leading amateur to turn professional. She ranked as the greatest women's tennis player from the amateur era in the 100 Greatest of All Time series on the Tennis Channel in 2012.

Henri Michaux was a Belgian-born French experimental poet, writer and painter. Michaux is renowned for his strange, highly original poetry and prose, and also for his art: the Paris Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York had shows of his work in 1978. His autobiographical texts that chronicle his psychedelic experiments with LSD and mescaline include Miserable Miracle and The Major Ordeals of the Mind and the Countless Minor Ones. He is recognised for his idiosyncratic travelogues and books of art criticism. Michaux is also known for his stories about Plume – "a peaceable man" – one of the most unenterprising heroes in literature, a character subject to many misfortunes.

Barry Robert O'Farrell is an Australian former politician who was Australia's High Commissioner to India and non-resident Ambassador to Bhutan from February 2020 to 30 June 2023. O'Farrell was the 43rd Premier of New South Wales and Minister for Western Sydney from 2011 to 2014. He was the Leader of the New South Wales Liberal Party from 2007 to 2014, and was a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1995 to 2015, representing Northcott until 1999 and representing Ku-ring-gai on the Upper North Shore of Sydney from 1999 to 2015. He was President and Independent Board Chair of Diabetes Australia, Chair of the Wests Tigers Rugby League Football Club and CEO of Racing Australia Ltd until taking up his role in India.

Rodrigo Alejandro Bueno, also known by his stage name Rodrigo or his nickname "El Potro", was an Argentine singer of cuarteto music. He is widely regarded as the best, most famous and most influential singer in the history of this genre. Bueno's style was marked by his on-stage energy and charisma. His short, dyed hair and casual clothes differed from typical cuarteto singers with strident colors and long curly hair. During his career, Bueno expanded cuarteto music to the Argentine national scene, remaining one of the main figures of the genre. The son of Eduardo Alberto Bueno, a record shop owner and music producer, and Beatriz Olave, a songwriter and newsstand owner, Rodrigo Bueno was born into the cuarteto musical scene in Córdoba, Argentina. He first appeared on television at the age of two, on the show Fiesta de Cuarteto, along with family friend Juan Carlos "La Mona" Jiménez. With the help of his father, he recorded an album of children's songs, Disco Baby, at the age of five. During his preteen years he informally joined the local band Chébere during live performances. He dropped out of school at the age of twelve and successfully auditioned for the band Manto Negro. After five years without success in Córdoba, Bueno's father decided to try to launch his son's career as a soloist in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1990, Bueno released his first record, La Foto de tu Cuerpo, on Polygram Records. Bueno introduced his next album, Aprendiendo a Vivir, with a live performance at the nightclub Fantástico Bailable. The performance brought him his first recognition in the tropical music scene.

Lionel Pretoria Conacher, nicknamed "the Big Train", was a Canadian athlete and politician. Voted the country's top athlete of the first half of the 20th century, he won championships in numerous sports. His first passion was Canadian football; he was a member of the 1921 Grey Cup champion Toronto Argonauts. He was also a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team that won the International League championship in 1926. In hockey, he won the Memorial Cup in 1920, and the Stanley Cup twice: with the Chicago Black Hawks in 1934 and the Montreal Maroons in 1935. Additionally, he won wrestling, boxing and lacrosse championships during his playing career. He is one of three players, including Joe Miller and Carl Voss, to have their names engraved on both the Grey Cup and Stanley Cup.

Aled Siôn Davies is a British Paralympian athlete competing mainly in category F42 throwing events. In 2012 he became the world record holder of the F42 shot put and in the 2012 Summer Paralympics he took the bronze medal in shot put and gold in the discus. In 2013 Davies took the World Championship gold in both the shot put and discus in Lyon. He won double gold in his home country at the 2014 IPC Athletics European Championships in the shot put and discus. This followed his silver medal in the F42-44 discus from the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow where he represented Wales. Davies also took part in the Channel 4 TV series Celebrity SAS: Who dares wins

Floyd "Chip" Ganassi Jr. is an American businessman, former racing driver, current team owner and member of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. He has been involved with the North American auto racing scene for over 30 years. He is owner and CEO of Chip Ganassi Racing which operates teams in the IndyCar Series, WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, FIA World Endurance Championship, and Extreme E. He is the only team owner in history to have won the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400, the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring and even a GT class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

William Foxwell Albright was an American archaeologist, biblical scholar, philologist, and expert on ceramics. He is considered "one of the twentieth century's most influential American biblical scholars," having become known to the public in 1948 for his role in the authentication of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He was a leading theorist and practitioner of biblical archaeology, and is regarded as the founder of the biblical archaeology movement. Albright served as the W. W. Spence Professor of Semitic Languages at Johns Hopkins University from 1930 to 1958 and was the Director of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem for several terms between 1922 and 1936.

Sir Jacob William Rees-Mogg is a British politician, businessman and broadcaster who served as the member of Parliament (MP) for North East Somerset from 2010 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council from 2019 to 2022. He also served as Minister of State for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency from February to September 2022, and Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from September to October 2022. Rees-Mogg previously chaired the eurosceptic European Research Group (ERG) from 2018 to 2019 and has been associated with socially conservative views.

Anthony Minichiello is a former professional rugby league footballer who captained the Sydney Roosters in the National Rugby League, and retired having set records for most games and most tries in the club's history. An Australia and Italy international as well as a New South Wales State of Origin representative wing turned fullback, he played his entire career with the Roosters, with whom he won the 2002 and 2013 NRL Premierships, before retiring at the conclusion of the club's 2014 campaign. Minichiello also won the Golden Boot Award for international player of the year in 2005, and is the brother of fellow Italian international, Mark Minichiello.

Steven John Norris is a British former politician and businessman. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Oxford East from 1983 to 1987. After narrowly losing that marginal seat he re-entered the House of Commons at a by-election for Epping Forest in 1988, which he held until stepping down to focus on his business career in 1997. Norris was subsequently chosen by Conservative Party members to be their candidate for Mayor of London in 2000 and 2004 in which he secured 42% and 45% of the vote respectively, coming second to Ken Livingstone on both occasions.

Paul Marie-Adolphe Charles Paray was a French conductor, organist and composer. After winning France's top musical award, the Prix de Rome, he fought in the First World War and was a prisoner of war for nearly four years. He held a succession of chief conductorships, including those of the Lamoureux and Colonne Orchestras in Paris and the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra in Monaco. For ten years from 1952 he was chief conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, with which he made a celebrated series of recordings for Mercury Records' "Living Presence" series, many of which have been digitally released in the 21st century.

Artem Alekseevich Anisimov is a Russian former professional ice hockey player. He was a centre who previously played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New York Rangers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Chicago Blackhawks, and Ottawa Senators and Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the Kontinental Hockey League. The Rangers originally selected him in the second round, 54th overall, of the 2006 NHL entry draft. In international play, Anisimov represented Russia at the 2014 Olympic Games and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey and several world championships and world junior championships. He won one gold, three silver, and two bronze medals in his international career.

William Wendell Gilman III is an American country music singer. Starting as a young country artist, he is known for his debut single "One Voice", a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and a Top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 2000. He has released five albums, including three for Epic Nashville. In 2016, Gilman auditioned for season 11 of the US edition of The Voice and competed as part of Team Adam Levine, finishing as runner-up for the season. He also performed Michael Jackson's song "Ben" at Michael's 30th Anniversary Celebration of his solo years.