Famous Birthdays on May 9

May 9 has 113 recorded notable births across history, from 1147 to 2000. This page lists every one of them, with the best-known people first.

What happened on the day you were born?

Billy Joel

1949 — Billy Joel

American singer-songwriter and pianist

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Famous Birthdays 113 source records 1147 – 2000 Taurus Emerald birthstone Lily of the valley birth flower

Major events on May 9

See what else happened on this day in history.

  1. 2022 Russo-Ukrainian war: United States President Joe Biden signs the 2022 Lend-Lease Act into law, a rebooted World War II-era policy attempting to expedite American equipment to Ukraine and other Eastern European countries. Source
  2. 1877 Mihail Kogălniceanu reads, in the Chamber of Deputies, the Declaration of Independence of Romania. The date will become recognised as the Independence Day of Romania. Source

Did you know about Billy Joel

Nicknamed the Piano Man, after his 1973 signature song of the same name, he has had a successful career as a solo artist since the 1970s.

Did you know about John Brown

John Brown was an American abolitionist in the decades preceding the American Civil War.

Did you know about Candice Bergen

Candice Bergen won five Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards as the title character on the CBS sitcom Murphy Brown.

Did you know about Rosario Dawson

Rosario Dawson made her feature-film debut in the 1995 independent drama Kids.

Did you know about Noah Centineo

Noah Centineo achieved wider recognition by starring in the Netflix romantic comedy films To All the Boys franchise (2018–2021), Sierra Burgess Is a Loser (2018), and The Perfect Date (2019) when he was 23.


More major people born on May 9

Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.

1800 John Brown

John Brown

American abolitionist (died 1859)
John Brown was an American abolitionist in the decades preceding the American Civil War. An evangelical Christian of strong religious convictions, Brown was profoundly influenced by the Puritan faith of his upbringing. He believed that he was "an instrument of God", raised to strike the "death blow" to slavery in the United States, a "sacred obligation". Brown was the leading exponent of violence in the American abolitionist movement, believing it was necessary to end slavery after decades of peaceful efforts had failed.
1946 Candice Bergen

Candice Bergen

American actress and producer
Candice Patricia Bergen is an American actress. She won five Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards as the title character on the CBS sitcom Murphy Brown. She is also known for her role as Shirley Schmidt on the ABC drama Boston Legal (2005–2008). In films, Bergen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Starting Over (1979) and for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Gandhi (1982).
1979 Rosario Dawson

Rosario Dawson

American actress
Rosario Isabel Dawson is an American actress and activist. She made her feature-film debut in the 1995 independent drama Kids. Her subsequent film roles include He Got Game (1998), Josie and the Pussycats (2001), 25th Hour (2002), Men in Black II (2002), The Rundown (2003), Rent (2005), Sin City (2005), Clerks II (2006), Death Proof (2007), Seven Pounds (2008), Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), Unstoppable (2010), Zookeeper (2011), Trance (2013), Top Five (2014), Zombieland: Double Tap (2019), Clerks 3 (2022), and Haunted Mansion (2023). Dawson has provided voice-over work for Disney/Marvel, Warner Bros./DC Comics, and Paramount Skydance's Nickelodeon unit. She is also recognized for her portrayal of the live-action Ahsoka Tano in the Star Wars franchise.
1996 Noah Centineo

Noah Centineo

American actor
Noah Gregory Centineo is an American actor. He began his career performing on television, first in roles on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, most notably on Austin & Ally (2011–2012), and later had a breakout role as Jesus Adams Foster in the Freeform drama series The Fosters (2015–2018). He achieved wider recognition by starring in the Netflix romantic comedy films To All the Boys franchise (2018–2021), Sierra Burgess Is a Loser (2018), and The Perfect Date (2019) when he was 23.
1961 John Corbett

John Corbett

American actor
John Joseph Corbett Jr. is an American actor and singer. On television, he is best known for his roles as Chris Stevens on Northern Exposure (1990–1995), Aidan Shaw on Sex and the City (2000–2003) and sequel series And Just Like That... (2023–2025), Max Gregson on United States of Tara (2009–2011), and Seth Holt on Parenthood (2011–2015). In film, he is known for roles in the My Big Fat Greek Wedding franchise, Raising Helen (2004), The Messengers (2007), Sex and the City 2 (2010), Ramona & Beezus (2010), and the To All the Boys film trilogy (2018–2021).
1995 Shaboozey

Shaboozey

American rapper and singer-songwriter
Collins Obinna Chibueze, known professionally as Shaboozey, is an American singer. His music combines country, Americana, and hip-hop. After releasing two albums, Lady Wrangler (2018) and Cowboys Live Forever, Outlaws Never Die (2022), he gained wider recognition through his appearances on the soundtrack to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter (2024).
1970 Ghostface Killah

Ghostface Killah

American rapper and actor
Dennis David Coles, better known by his stage name Ghostface Killah, is an American rapper and a member of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan. After the group achieved breakthrough success in the aftermath of Enter the Wu-Tang , the members went on to pursue solo careers to varying levels of success. Ghostface Killah debuted his solo career with Ironman, which was well received by music critics, in 1996. He has enjoyed continued success in the years that have followed, releasing critically acclaimed albums such as Supreme Clientele (2000) and Fishscale (2006). His stage name was taken from one of the characters in the 1979 kung fu film The Mystery of Chess Boxing. He is the founder of his own record label, Starks Enterprises.
1960 Tony Gwynn

Tony Gwynn

American baseball player and coach (died 2014)
Anthony Keith Gwynn Sr., nicknamed "Mr. Padre", was an American professional baseball right fielder who played 20 seasons (1982–2001) in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres. The left-handed hitting Gwynn won eight batting titles in his career, which is tied for the most in National League (NL) history. He was a 15-time All-Star and won seven Silver Slugger Awards and five Gold Glove Awards. Gwynn stayed with the Padres his entire career and played in the only two World Series appearances in San Diego franchise history. Having hit over .300 for 19 straight seasons, Gwynn retired with a .338 career batting average, the highest mark since Ted Williams retired in 1960; Gwynn also holds the highest adjusted batting average of all time at .342. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007 in his first year of eligibility, and is widely considered the best pure hitter of his generation.
1936 Albert Finney

Albert Finney

English actor (died 2019)
Albert Finney was an English actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked in the theatre before attaining fame for film acting during the early 1960s, debuting with The Entertainer (1960), directed by Tony Richardson, who had previously directed him in theatre. He maintained a successful career on stage and screen.
1874 Howard Carter

Howard Carter

English archaeologist and historian (died 1939)
Howard Carter was a British archaeologist and Egyptologist who became known for discovering the intact tomb of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun in November 1922, the best-preserved pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the Kings.
2000

Trey Lance

American football player
Trey Aubrey Lance is an American professional football quarterback for the Los Angeles Chargers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the North Dakota State Bison, winning the Walter Payton and Jerry Rice awards in 2019 en route to a victory in the 2020 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game. Lance was selected third overall by the San Francisco 49ers in the 2021 NFL draft, but limited play and injuries led to him being traded after two seasons to the Dallas Cowboys. Lance spent two seasons as a backup with the Cowboys before signing with the Chargers in 2025.
1540 Maharana Pratap

Maharana Pratap

Indian ruler (died 1597)
Pratap Singh I, popularly known as Maharana Pratap, was king of the Kingdom of Mewar, in north-western India in the present-day state of Rajasthan, from 1572 until his death in 1597. He is notable for leading the Rajput resistance against the expansionist policy of the Mughal Emperor Akbar including the battle of Haldighati.
1940 James L. Brooks

James L. Brooks

American director, producer, and screenwriter
James Lawrence Brooks is an American filmmaker. He is the founder of Gracie Films and co-created the sitcoms The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Taxi, as well as co-developed The Simpsons. He also directed the films Terms of Endearment (1983), Broadcast News (1987), and As Good as It Gets (1997). In a career spanning six decades, Brooks received numerous accolades including three Academy Awards, 22 Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award.
1956 Wendy Crewson

Wendy Crewson

Canadian actress and producer
Wendy Jane Crewson is a Canadian actress and producer. She began her career on Canadian television, before her breakthrough role in the 1991 dramatic film The Doctor.
1936 Glenda Jackson

Glenda Jackson

English actress and politician (died 2023)
Glenda May Jackson was an English actress and politician. Over the course of her distinguished career she received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, three Emmy Awards and a Tony Award, making her one of the few performers to achieve the "Triple Crown of Acting". Her other accolades include two BAFTA Awards and a Golden Globe Award. A member of the Labour Party, she served continuously as a Member of Parliament (MP) for 23 years, first for Hampstead and Highgate from 1992 to 2010, and then, following boundary changes, for Hampstead and Kilburn from 2010 to 2015.
1984 Prince Fielder

Prince Fielder

American baseball player
Prince Semien Fielder is an American former professional baseball first baseman and designated hitter, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Milwaukee Brewers, Detroit Tigers, and Texas Rangers. He was selected in the first round of the 2002 Major League Baseball draft by the Brewers out of Eau Gallie High School in Melbourne, Florida, and spent the first seven years of his MLB career with the Brewers before signing with the Tigers, in January 2012. In November 2013, Fielder was traded to the Rangers, where he played the remainder of his career.
1860 J. M. Barrie

J. M. Barrie

Scottish novelist and playwright (died 1937)
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet was a British novelist and playwright. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several successful novels and plays. There he met the Llewelyn Davies boys, who inspired him to write about a baby boy who has magical adventures in Kensington Gardens, then to write Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, a 1904 West End "fairy play" about an ageless boy and an ordinary girl named Wendy who have adventures in the fantasy setting of Neverland.
1883 José Ortega y Gasset

José Ortega y Gasset

Spanish philosopher, author, and critic (died 1955)
José Ortega y Gasset was a Spanish philosopher and essayist. He worked during the first half of the 20th century while Spain oscillated between monarchy, republicanism and dictatorship. His philosophy has been characterized as a "philosophy of life" that comprised "a long-hidden beginning in a pragmatist metaphysics" inspired by William James and with a general method from a realist phenomenology imitating Edmund Husserl, which served both his proto-existentialism, and his realist historicism, which has been compared to both Wilhelm Dilthey and Benedetto Croce.
1918 Mike Wallace

Mike Wallace

American journalist (died 2012)
Myron Leon Wallace was an American broadcast journalist, and television personality. Known for his investigative journalism, he interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers during his seven-decade career. He was one of the original correspondents featured on CBS news magazine program 60 Minutes, which debuted in 1968. Wallace retired as a regular full-time correspondent in 2006, but still appeared occasionally on the series until 2008. He was the father of broadcast journalist Chris Wallace.
1992 Dan Burn

Dan Burn

English footballer
Daniel Johnson Burn is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre-back or left-back and captains Premier League club Newcastle United and plays for the England national team.
1942 John Ashcroft

John Ashcroft

American lawyer and politician, 79th United States Attorney General
John David Ashcroft is an American lawyer, lobbyist, and former politician who served as the 79th United States attorney general under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. A Republican from Missouri, Ashcroft represented the state in the United States Senate from 1995 to 2001, and held statewide office as the 29th auditor (1973–1975), 38th attorney general (1976–1985), and 50th governor of Missouri (1985–1993). He later founded The Ashcroft Group, a Washington D.C. lobbying firm.
1951 Alley Mills

Alley Mills

American actress
Allison Mills, also known as Alley Bean, is an American actress known for her roles on television. She starred as Norma Arnold in the coming-of-age ABC comedy series The Wonder Years (1988–1993). In 2006, she began playing the role of Pamela Douglas, the sister of the late Forrester matriarch Stephanie Forrester, on the CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. From 2022 to 2024, Mills also portrayed the antagonistic Heather Webber on the ABC soap opera General Hospital, for which she won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Drama Series twice.
1938 Carroll Cole

Carroll Cole

American serial killer (died 1985)
Carroll Edward "Eddie" Cole was an American serial killer who was executed in Nevada in 1985 for killing two women by strangulation. He was also convicted of murdering three other women in Texas and is believed to have murdered dozens between 1947 and 1980.
1975 Tamia

Tamia

Canadian singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
Tamia Marilyn Washington Hill is a Canadian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Windsor, Ontario, Tamia performed in various singing and dancing competitions as a child. In 1994, after signing a development deal with Warner Bros. Records, she was asked by veteran producer Quincy Jones to appear on his album Q's Jook Joint (1995), earning her Grammy Award nominations for their collaboration on "You Put a Move on My Heart" and "Slow Jams". Her self-titled debut album was released in 1998 and followed by a series of successful albums with Elektra Records, including A Nu Day (2000) and More (2004). Several songs from these albums became hit singles on the pop and R&B record charts, including "So Into You", "Stranger in My House", and "Imagination", as well as her collaborations "Into You", "Missing You", and "Spend My Life with You".
1989 Daniel Rosenfeld

Daniel Rosenfeld

German musician
Daniel Rosenfeld, known professionally as C418, is a German composer and record producer. Known for his minimalistic ambient work, he rose to fame as the original composer and sound designer for the 2011 sandbox video game Minecraft. Acclaimed for its nostalgic value and relaxing quality, his music for the game is considered one of the greatest video game soundtracks ever composed.
1932 Geraldine McEwan

Geraldine McEwan

English actress (died 2015)
Geraldine McEwan was an English actress, who had a long career in film, theatre and television. Michael Coveney described her, in a tribute article, as "a great comic stylist, with a syrupy, seductive voice and a forthright, sparkling manner".
1894 Benjamin Graham

Benjamin Graham

British-American economist, professor, and investor (died 1976)
Benjamin Graham was an English-American financial analyst, economist, accountant, investor and professor. He is widely known as the "father of value investing", and wrote two of the discipline's founding texts: Security Analysis (1934) with David Dodd, and The Intelligent Investor (1949). His investment philosophy stressed independent thinking, emotional detachment, and careful security analysis, emphasizing the importance of distinguishing the price of a stock from the value of its underlying business.
1892 Zita of Bourbon-Parma

Zita of Bourbon-Parma

last Empress of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (died 1989)
Zita of Bourbon-Parma was the last Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, in addition to other titles. She ascended to these titles when her husband, Charles I, became the last monarch of Austria-Hungary. She was declared Servant of God by Pope Benedict XVI.
1945 Jupp Heynckes

Jupp Heynckes

German footballer and manager
Josef "Jupp" Heynckes is a German retired professional footballer and manager. For the majority of his playing career he was as a striker for Borussia Mönchengladbach in its golden era of the 1960s and '70s, when they won many national championships and the DFB-Pokal, as well as the UEFA Cup. During this period the team played in its only European Cup final in 1977, losing to Liverpool. He is the fourth-highest goalscorer in the history of the Bundesliga, with 220 goals. He was a member of the West Germany national team that won the UEFA Euro 1972 and the 1974 FIFA World Cup titles.
1995 Beth Mead

Beth Mead

English footballer
Bethany Jane Mead is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for the Women's Super League club Manchester City and the England national team. She has previously played for Sunderland and Arsenal.
1995 Tommy Edman

Tommy Edman

American baseball player
Thomas Hyunsu Edman is an American professional baseball utility player for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the St. Louis Cardinals. Edman also represents the South Korean national team in international competition.
1965 Steve Yzerman

Steve Yzerman

Canadian ice hockey player and manager
Stephen Gregory Yzerman is a Canadian former professional hockey player who is currently a senior advisor for the Detroit Red Wings. A Detroit sports icon and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, Yzerman played his entire 22-season career with the Red Wings. After his retirement as a player, he served in the front office of the Red Wings, and then as general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning, while also being executive director for Team Canada in two Olympics.
1934 Alan Bennett

Alan Bennett

English screenwriter, playwright, and novelist
Alan Bennett is an English playwright, author, actor and screenwriter. He has received numerous awards and honours including four BAFTA Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and two Tony Awards. In 2005, he received the Society of London Theatre Special Award.
1147 Minamoto no Yoritomo

Minamoto no Yoritomo

Japanese shōgun (died 1199)
Minamoto no Yoritomo was a samurai, daimyo and the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate, ruling from 1192 until 1199, also the first shogun in the history of Japan to hold de-facto power over Japan. He was married to Hōjō Masako, who acted as regent (shikken) after his death.
1882 Henry J. Kaiser

Henry J. Kaiser

American shipbuilder and businessman, founded Kaiser Shipyards (died 1967)
Henry John Kaiser was an American industrialist who became known for his shipbuilding and construction projects, then later for his involvement in fostering modern American health care. Prior to World War II, Kaiser was involved in the construction industry; his company was one of those that built the Hoover Dam. He established the Kaiser Shipyards, which built Liberty ships during World War II, after which he formed Kaiser Aluminum and Kaiser Steel. Kaiser organized Kaiser Permanente health care for his workers and their families. He led Kaiser-Frazer followed by Kaiser Motors, automobile companies known for the safety of their designs. Kaiser was involved in large construction projects such as civic centers and dams, and invested in real estate, later moving into television broadcasting with Kaiser Broadcasting.
1893 William Moulton Marston

William Moulton Marston

American psychologist and author (died 1947)
William Moulton Marston, also known by the pen name Charles Moulton, was an American psychologist who, with his wife Elizabeth Holloway, invented an early prototype of the polygraph. He was also known as a self-help author and comic book writer who created the character Wonder Woman.
1907 Baldur von Schirach

Baldur von Schirach

German politician (died 1974)
Baldur Benedikt von Schirach was a German politician who was the leader (Reichsjugendführer) of the Hitler Youth from 1931 to 1940. From 1940 to 1945, he was the Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter of Vienna.
1930 Joan Sims

Joan Sims

English actress (died 2001)
Irene Joan Marion Sims was an English actress and comedienne, best remembered for her roles in the Carry On franchise, appearing in 24 of the films.
1928 Pancho Gonzales

Pancho Gonzales

American tennis player (died 1995)
Ricardo Alonso "Pancho" González, known sometimes as Richard Gonzales, was an American tennis player. He won 15 major singles titles, including two U.S. National Championships in 1948 and 1949, and 13 Professional majors. He also won three Tournament of Champions professional events in 1957, 1958, and 1959. Gonzales was ranked as the amateur world No. 1 in 1948 by Ned Potter and in 1949 by Potter and John Olliff.
1866 Gopal Krishna Gokhale

Gopal Krishna Gokhale

Indian economist and politician (died 1915)
Gopal Krishna Gokhale was an Indian political leader and a social reformer during the Indian independence movement, and political mentor of Indian freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi. Gokhale was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and the founder of the Servants of India Society. Through the Society as well as the Congress and other legislative bodies he served in, Gokhale campaigned for Indian self-rule and social reforms. He was the leader of the moderate faction of the Congress that advocated reforms by working with existing government institutions, and a major member of the Poona Association or the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha.
1912 Pedro Armendáriz

Pedro Armendáriz

Mexican-American actor (died 1963)
Pedro Gregorio Armendáriz Hastings was a Mexican actor. With the actresses Dolores del Río and María Félix, he was one of the best-known Latin American movie stars of the 1940s and 1950s. He won the Ariel Award for Best Actor twice, for The Pearl (1948) and Soledad's Shawl, a year after its 1952 release.
1914 Hank Snow

Hank Snow

Canadian-American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1999)
Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow was a Canadian-American country music guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He recorded 140 albums and charted more than 85 singles on the Billboard country charts between 1950 and 1980. Snow had success on country music record charts with his songs including: "I'm Moving On", "The Golden Rocket", "The Rhumba Boogie", "I Don't Hurt Anymore", "Let Me Go, Lover!", "I've Been Everywhere", and "Hello Love".
1958 Chuck Russell

Chuck Russell

American film director and producer (died 2026)
Charles Raymond Russell was an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He was best known for directing the films A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), The Blob (1988), The Mask (1994), Eraser (1996), and The Scorpion King (2002).
1989 Ellen White

Ellen White

English footballer
Ellen Toni Convery, commonly known as Ellen White, is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward. She is the record goalscorer for the England women's national team.
1948 Calvin Murphy

Calvin Murphy

American basketball player and radio host
Calvin Jerome Murphy is an American former professional basketball player who after a prolific collegiate career at Niagara University, where he averaged 33.1 points per game over his three years, played in the National Basketball Association as a guard for the San Diego/Houston Rockets from 1970 to 1983. He is currently a member of the Houston Rockets' Space City Home Network broadcast team. Standing at a height of 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m), Murphy has the distinction of being the shortest NBA player inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and to play in an NBA All-Star Game.
1955 Meles Zenawi

Meles Zenawi

Prime Minister of Ethiopia (died 2012)
Meles Zenawi Asres was an Ethiopian politician and former rebel militant commander who served as president of Ethiopia from 1991 to 1995 and as prime minister from 1995 until his death in 2012.
1951 Joy Harjo

Joy Harjo

American poet, musician, playwright and author, 23rd United States Poet Laureate
Joy Harjo is an American poet, musician, playwright, and author. She served as the 23rd United States poet laureate from 2019 to 2022, the first Native American to hold that honor. She was also only the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to have served three terms. Harjo is a seventh-generation descendant of Monahwee of the Muscogee people. Additionally, Harjo is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and belongs to Oce Vpofv. She is an important figure in the second wave of the literary Native American Renaissance of the late 20th century. She studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts, completed her undergraduate degree at University of New Mexico in 1976, and earned an MFA degree at the University of Iowa in its creative writing program.
1943 Vince Cable

Vince Cable

English economist and politician, former Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills
Sir John Vincent Cable is a British politician who was Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2017 to 2019. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Twickenham from 1997 to 2015 and from 2017 to 2019. He also served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade from 2010 to 2015.
1939 Ion Țiriac

Ion Țiriac

Romanian tennis player and manager
Ion Țiriac (Romanian pronunciation: [iˈon t͡siriˈak]; born 9 May 1939), also known as the "Brașov Bulldozer", is a Romanian billionaire businessman, former professional tennis and ice hockey player and president of the Romanian Tennis Federation.
1873 Anton Cermak

Anton Cermak

Czech-American captain and politician, 44th Mayor of Chicago (died 1933)
Anton Joseph Cermak was an American politician who served as the 44th Mayor of Chicago from 1931 until he was fatally wounded in 1933 by Giuseppe Zangara, who was trying to assassinate President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1870 Harry Vardon

Harry Vardon

British golfer (died 1937)
Henry William Vardon was a professional golfer from Jersey. He was a member of the Great Triumvirate with John Henry Taylor and James Braid. Vardon won The Open Championship a record six times, and also won the 1900 U.S. Open. Known as "the Stylist," Vardon's success, as well as his contributions to technique and the sport's fashion, made him golf's first international star and significantly elevated the prestige of the professional golfer. With his total of seven, Vardon holds the most major championships of any golfer from the British and Irish Isles.
1970 Doug Christie

Doug Christie

American basketball player and coach
Douglas Dale Christie is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach for the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
1987 Kevin Gameiro

Kevin Gameiro

French footballer
Kevin Dominique Gameiro is a French former professional footballer who played as a striker. He was a strong striker known for his clinical finishing, which compensated for his relatively light frame.
1942 David Gergen

David Gergen

American political consultant (died 2025)
David Richmond Gergen was an American political commentator and longtime presidential adviser who served during the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. He was later a senior political analyst for CNN and a professor of public service and the founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. Gergen was also the former editor at large of U.S. News & World Report and a contributor to CNN and Parade Magazine. He was twice a member of election coverage teams that won Peabody awards: in 1988 with MacNeil–Lehrer, and in 2008 with CNN.
1977 Averno

Averno

Mexican wrestler
Renato Ruíz Cortes, better known by his ring name Averno, is a Mexican professional wrestler. He is signed to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), where is the current NWA World Historic Light Heavyweight Champion. Ruíz initially worked for CMLL as Rencor Latino in 1995, but did not achieve any significant success until he adopted the ring name Averno in June 2001. Under his new ring name, Ruíz went on to become a one–time CMLL World Middleweight Champion, CMLL World Trios Champion, NWA World Middleweight Champion and NWA World Historic Middleweight Champion and a three–time CMLL World Tag Team Champion, and CMLL World Light Heavyweight Champion.
1895 Richard Barthelmess

Richard Barthelmess

American actor (died 1963)
Richard Semler Barthelmess was an American film actor, principally of the Hollywood silent era. He starred opposite Lillian Gish in D. W. Griffith's Broken Blossoms (1919) and Way Down East (1920) and was among the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927. Two years later he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for two films: The Patent Leather Kid and The Noose.
1980 Grant Hackett

Grant Hackett

Australian swimmer
Grant George Hackett OAM is an Australian swimmer, most famous for winning the men's 1500 metres freestyle race at both the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. This achievement has led him to be regarded as one of the greatest distance swimmers in history. He also collected a gold medal in Sydney for swimming in the heats of the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay. He was well regarded for his versatility, and has held the long course world records in the 200 m, 800 m, and 1500 m freestyle events. He dominated the 1500 m event for a decade, being undefeated in the event in finals from 1996 until the 2007 World Aquatics Championships. In total, he won 10 long-course world championship gold medals.
1968 Marie-José Pérec

Marie-José Pérec

French sprinter
Marie-José Pérec is a retired French track and field sprinter who specialised in the 200 and 400 metres and is a three-time Olympic gold medalist. She was born in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe and moved to Paris when she was 16 years old.
1977 Marek Jankulovski

Marek Jankulovski

Czech footballer
Marek Jankulovski is a Czech former professional footballer who played as a defender. His most notable achievements include winning the UEFA Champions League with AC Milan and being voted the 2007 Czech Footballer of the Year. He earned 77 caps for the Czech Republic, and represented them at three UEFA European Championships, the 2000 Summer Olympics and the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
1924 Bulat Okudzhava

Bulat Okudzhava

Russian singer, poet, and author (died 1997)
Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava was a Soviet and Russian poet, writer, musician, novelist, and singer-songwriter of Georgian-Armenian ancestry. He was one of the founders of the Soviet genre called "author song", or "guitar song", and the author of about 200 songs, set to his own poetry. His songs are a mixture of Russian poetic and folk song traditions and the French chansonnier style represented by such contemporaries of Okudzhava as Georges Brassens. Though his songs were never overtly political, the freshness and independence of Okudzhava's artistic voice presented a subtle challenge to Soviet cultural authorities, who were thus hesitant for many years to give him official recognition.
1931 Vance D. Brand

Vance D. Brand

American pilot, engineer, and astronaut
Vance DeVoe Brand is a retired American naval officer, aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. He served as command module pilot during the first U.S.-Soviet joint spaceflight in 1975, and as commander of three Space Shuttle missions.
1973 Tegla Loroupe

Tegla Loroupe

Kenyan runner
Tegla Chepkite Loroupe is a former Kenyan long-distance track and road runner. She is also a global spokeswoman for peace, women's rights and education. Loroupe holds the world records for 25 and 30 kilometers and previously held the world marathon record. She was the first African woman to hold the marathon World Record, which she held from 19 April 1998 until 30 September 2001. She is the three-time World Half-Marathon champion. Loroupe was also the first woman from Africa to win the New York City Marathon, which she has won twice. She has won marathons in London, Rotterdam, Hong Kong, Berlin and Rome.
1979 Brandon Webb

Brandon Webb

American baseball player
Brandon Tyler Webb is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Webb pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2003 through 2009, and, after multiple shoulder surgeries, signed with but did not play for the Texas Rangers in 2011. Webb attended the University of Kentucky, where he played college baseball for the Wildcats baseball team.
1935 Nokie Edwards

Nokie Edwards

American guitarist (died 2018)
Nole Floyd "Nokie" Edwards was an American musician and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was primarily a guitarist, best known for his work with The Ventures, and was known in Japan as the 'King of Guitars'. Edwards was also an actor, who appeared briefly on Deadwood, an American Western drama television series.
1968 Ruth Kelly

Ruth Kelly

British economist and politician, Secretary of State for Transport
Ruth Maria Kelly is a Northern Irish lobbyist and former politician and government minister currently serving as the chair of Water UK, the trade association representing all of the water and wastewater companies of the United Kingdom.
1801 Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood

Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood

English politician, founded the town of Fleetwood (died 1866)
Sir Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood, 1st Baronet, was an English landowner, developer and Member of Parliament who founded the town of Fleetwood, in Lancashire, England. Born Peter Hesketh, he changed his name by Royal assent to Hesketh-Fleetwood, incorporating the name of his ancestors, and was later created Baronet Fleetwood. Predeceased by an older brother, he inherited estates in west Lancashire in 1824. Inspired by the transport developments of the early 19th century, he decided to bring the railway to the Lancashire coast and develop a holiday resort and port. He hired architect Decimus Burton to design his new town, which he named Fleetwood; construction began in 1836. Hesketh-Fleetwood was instrumental in the formation of the Preston and Wyre Railway Company and with his financial support, a railway line was built between Preston and Fleetwood which opened in 1840.
1888 Francesco Baracca

Francesco Baracca

Italian fighter pilot (died 1918)
Francesco Baracca was Italy's top fighter ace of World War I. He was credited with 34 aerial victories. The emblem he wore side by side on his plane of a black horse prancing on its two rear hooves inspired Enzo Ferrari to use it on his racing car and later in his automotive company.
1983 Gilles Müller

Gilles Müller

Luxembourgian tennis player
Gilles Müller is a Luxembourgish former professional tennis player. He is a two-time major singles quarterfinalist, making him by far the most successful male tennis player in Luxembourgish history. Müller won two titles on the ATP Tour and achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 21 on 31 July 2017. He was known for his powerful left-handed serve and net skills. Following his retirement, Müller was appointed as Luxembourg's Davis Cup team captain.
1895 Lucian Blaga

Lucian Blaga

Romanian poet, playwright, and philosopher (died 1961)
Lucian Blaga was a Romanian philosopher, poet, playwright, poetry translator and novelist. He is one of the most important philosophers and poets of Romania, and a prominent philosopher of the interwar period in Eastern Europe who, due to the unfortunate circumstances surrounding his career, is barely known to the outside world.
1928 Barbara Ann Scott

Barbara Ann Scott

Canadian figure skater (died 2012)
Barbara Ann Scott was a Canadian figure skater. She was the 1948 Olympic champion, a two-time World champion (1947–1948), and a four-time Canadian national champion in ladies' singles. Known as "Canada's Sweetheart", she is the only Canadian to have won the Olympic ladies' singles gold medal, the first North American to have won three major titles in one year and the only Canadian to have won the European Championship (1947–48). During her forties, she was rated among the top equestrians in North America. She received many honours and accolades, including being made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1991 and a member of the Order of Ontario in 2008.
1746 Gaspard Monge

Gaspard Monge

French mathematician and engineer (died 1818)
Gaspard Monge, Comte de Péluse was a French mathematician, commonly presented as the inventor of descriptive geometry, technical drawing, and the father of differential geometry.
1151

al-Adid

last Fatimid caliph (died 1171)
Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf ibn al-Ḥāfiẓ, better known by his regnal name al-ʿĀḍid li-Dīn Allāh, was the fourteenth and last caliph of the Fatimid dynasty, and the twenty-fourth imam of the Hafizi Isma'ili branch of Shi'a Islam, reigning from 1160 to 1171.
1938 Charles Simić

Charles Simić

Serbian-American poet and editor (died 2023)
Dušan Simić, known as Charles Simic, was a Serbian American poet and poetry co-editor of The Paris Review. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1990 for The World Doesn't End and was a finalist of the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for Selected Poems, 1963–1983 and in 1987 for Unending Blues. He was appointed the fifteenth United States Poet Laureate in 2007.
1914 Carlo Maria Giulini

Carlo Maria Giulini

Italian conductor and director (died 2005)
Carlo Maria Giulini was an Italian conductor. From the age of five, when he began to play the violin, Giulini's musical education was expanded when he began to study at Italy's foremost conservatory, the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome at the age of 16. Initially, he studied the viola and conducting; then, following an audition, he won a place in the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
1941 Dorothy Hyman

Dorothy Hyman

English sprinter
Dorothy Hyman is an English retired sprinter. She competed at the 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics in the 100 m, 200 m and 4 × 100 m events, winning three medals. She also won individual 100 m gold and 200 m silver at the 1962 European Championships in Belgrade and, representing England, completed the 100 yd/220 yd sprint double at the 1962 Commonwealth Games.
1908 Billy Jurges

Billy Jurges

American baseball player and manager (died 1997)
William Frederick Jurges was an American shortstop, third baseman, manager, coach and scout in Major League Baseball. He was born in the Bronx, New York. During the 1930s, he was central to three National League champion Chicago Cubs teams. In July 1932, Jurges recovered from gunshot wounds—suffered when a distraught former girlfriend tried to kill him—to help lead the Cubs to the pennant.
1988 J. R. Fitzpatrick

J. R. Fitzpatrick

Canadian racing driver
John Ryan Fitzpatrick is a Canadian professional stock car racing driver. He competes part-time in the NASCAR Canada Series, driving the No. 44 Chevrolet for Glenn Styres Racing with Velocity Race Cars and J.R. Motorsports. Fitzpatrick was the youngest driver to ever win the now defunct CASCAR Super Series championship, winning in the series' final season of 2006 at the age of 18.
1977 Svein Tuft

Svein Tuft

Canadian cyclist
Svein Tuft is a Canadian former road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2005 and 2019 for the Symmetrics, Garmin–Transitions, SpiderTech–C10, Mitchelton–Scott and Rally UHC Cycling teams. Tuft was the winner of the 2006–07 UCI America Tour, and was a thirteen-time champion at the Canadian road cycling championships: twice in the road race, and eleven times in the time trial.
1825 James Collinson

James Collinson

Victorian painter (died 1881)
James Collinson was a Victorian painter who was a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood from 1848 to 1850. Collinson was known for the paintings,The Renunciation of St Elizabeth of Hungary, To Let and For Sale. Engaged at one time to the poet Christina Rossetti, their broken engagement also influenced many of her poems.
1823 Frederick Weld

Frederick Weld

English-New Zealand politician, 6th Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1891)
Sir Frederick Aloysius Weld, was an English-born New Zealand politician and colonial administrator of various British colonies and territories located in Oceania and Southeast Asia. He was the sixth Prime Minister of New Zealand, and later served as Governor of Western Australia, Governor of Tasmania, and Governor of the Straits Settlements.
1943 Colin Pillinger

Colin Pillinger

English astronomer, chemist, and academic (died 2014)
Colin Trevor Pillinger, was an English planetary scientist. He was a founding member of the Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute at The Open University in Milton Keynes; he was also the principal investigator for the British Beagle 2 Mars lander project, and worked on a group of Martian meteorites.
1914

J. Merrill Knapp

American musicologist (died 1993)
John Merrill Knapp was an American musicologist and academic. He was considered an authority on the life and works of George Frideric Handel. Born in New York City, Knapp graduated from the Hotchkiss School before entering Yale University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1936 and was a member of Skull and Bones. He then taught briefly at The Thacher School in Ojai, California before returning to Yale to assume the post of assistant director of the Yale Glee Club. He left there to pursue graduate studies at Columbia University where he earned a Master of Music degree. He served as an operations officer in the Third Fleet of United States Navy during World War II (1942-1946); earning two service stars and a commendation ribbon.
1850 Edward Weston

Edward Weston

English-American chemist (died 1936)
Edward Weston was an English-born American chemist and engineer noted for his achievements in electroplating and his development of the electrochemical cell, named the Weston cell, for the voltage standard. Weston was a competitor of Thomas Edison in the early days of electricity generation and distribution.
1947 Yukiya Amano

Yukiya Amano

Japanese diplomat (died 2019)
Yukiya Amano was a Japanese diplomat, who served as the Director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from 1 December 2009 until his death on 18 July 2019. Previously, Amano served as an international civil servant for the United Nations and its subdivisions.
1885 Gianni Vella

Gianni Vella

Maltese artist (died 1977)
Gianni Vella was a Maltese artist. After studying in Rome, he produced many religious works which can be found in many churches in the Maltese Islands, but he also produced some secular works, including landscape paintings, cartoons and a stamp design.
1814 John Brougham

John Brougham

Irish-American actor and playwright (died 1880)
John Brougham was an Irish and American actor, dramatist, poet, theatre manager, and author. As an actor and dramatist he had most of his career in the United States, where he was celebrated for his portrayals of comic Irish characters.
1888 Rolf de Maré

Rolf de Maré

Swedish art collector (died 1964)
Rolf de Maré, sometimes called Rolf de Mare, was a Swedish art collector and leader of the Ballets Suédois in Paris in 1920–25. In 1931 he founded the world's first research center and museum for dance in Paris.
1909

Gordon Bunshaft

American architect, designed the Solow Building (died 1990)
Gordon Bunshaft was an American architect, a leading proponent of modern design in the mid-twentieth century. A partner in Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), Bunshaft joined the firm in 1937 and remained with it for more than 40 years. His notable buildings include Lever House in New York, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., the National Commercial Bank in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 140 Broadway, and Manufacturers Hanover Trust Branch Bank in New York, the first post-war "transparent" bank on the East Coast.
1884 Valdemar Psilander

Valdemar Psilander

Danish actor (died 1917)
Valdemar Einar Psilander was a Danish silent film actor, who was the highest-paid performer of his period and received critical acclaim as the greatest male lead during the golden era of Danish cinema.
1907 Jackie Grant

Jackie Grant

Trinidadian cricketer (died 1978)
George Copeland "Jackie" Grant was a West Indian cricketer who captained the West Indies in Test cricket between 1930 and 1935. He was later a missionary in South Africa and Rhodesia.
1740 Giovanni Paisiello

Giovanni Paisiello

Italian composer and educator (probable; (died 1816)
Giovanni Paisiello was an Italian composer of the Classical era, and was the most popular opera composer of the late 1700s. His operatic style influenced Mozart and Rossini.
1845 Gustaf de Laval

Gustaf de Laval

Swedish engineer and businessman (died 1913)
Karl Gustaf Patrik de Laval was a Swedish engineer and inventor who made important contributions to the design of steam turbines and centrifugal separation machinery for dairy.
1895 Frank Foss

Frank Foss

American pole vaulter (died 1989)
Frank Kent Foss was an American pole vaulter. He won a gold medal at the 1920 Summer Olympics, while breaking his own unofficial world record.
1594 Louis Henry

Louis Henry

Prince of Nassau-Dillenburg, military leader in the Thirty Years' War (died 1662)
Louis Henry of Nassau-Dillenburg, was Count, and from 1654 Prince of Nassau-Dillenburg. During the Thirty Years' War, he was a senior officer. He climbed to the rank of Major General. Before 1635, he served on the Protestant side; after 1635, he served in the imperial army.
1882

George Barker

American painter (died 1965)
George Barker was a portrait and landscape painter from the United States. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, much of his work was done in Southern California. While teaching at Long Beach Polytechnic High School in the late 1920s, he mentored several art students that later went on to being accomplished artist themselves. Among them were John Williams, Sueyo Serisawa and Alan Woods.
1896

Richard Day

Canadian-American art director and set decorator (died 1972)
Richard Day was a Canadian art director in the film industry. He won seven Academy Awards and was nominated for a further 13 in the category of Best Art Direction. He worked on 265 films between 1923 and 1970. He was born in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and died in Hollywood, California.
1987

Scott Bolton

Australian rugby league player
Scott Bolton is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a prop or second-row forward for the North Queensland Cowboys in the NRL.
1824

Jacob ben Moses Bachrach

Polish apologist and author (died 1896)
Jacob ben Moses Bachrach was a noted apologist of Rabbinic Judaism. He was descended from Rabbi Yair Chayim Bacharach, and in turn from the Maharal of Prague.
1555 Jerónima de la Asunción

Jerónima de la Asunción

Spanish Catholic nun and founder of the first monastery in Manila (died 1630)
Jerónima de la Asunción, O.S.C. was a Spanish Catholic nun and abbess who founded the Real Monasterio de Santa Clara in Intramuros, Manila, Philippines.
1617 Frederick

Frederick

Landgrave of Hesse-Eschwege (died 1655)
Landgrave Frederick of Hesse-Eschwege was from 1632 until his death Landgrave of the apanage of Hesse-Eschwege, which stood under the suzerainty of Hesse-Kassel.
1763 János Batsányi

János Batsányi

Hungarian-Austrian poet and author (died 1845)
János Batsányi was a Hungarian poet.
1836 Ferdinand Monoyer

Ferdinand Monoyer

French ophthalmologist, invented the Monoyer chart (died 1912)
Ferdinand Monoyer was a French ophthalmologist, known for introducing the dioptre in 1872.
1837 Adam Opel

Adam Opel

German engineer, founded the Opel Company (died 1895)
Adam Opel was a German entrepreneur who founded the company Adam Opel AG, then a manufacturer of bicycles and sewing machines.
1855 Julius Röntgen

Julius Röntgen

German-Dutch composer (died 1932)
Julius Engelbert Röntgen was a German-Dutch composer of classical music. He was a friend of Liszt, Brahms and Grieg.
1900 Maria Malicka

Maria Malicka

Polish stage and film actress (died 1992)
Maria Malicka was a Polish stage and film actress. She appeared in ten films between 1927 and 1966.
1921 Daniel Berrigan

Daniel Berrigan

American priest, poet, and activist (died 2016)
Daniel Joseph Berrigan was an American Jesuit priest, anti-war activist, Christian pacifist, playwright, poet, and author.
1921 Sophie Scholl

Sophie Scholl

German activist (died 1943)
Sophia Magdalena Scholl was a German student and anti-Nazi political activist, active in the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany.
1927 Manfred Eigen

Manfred Eigen

German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2019)
Manfred Eigen was a German biophysical chemist who won the 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on measuring fast chemical reactions.
1955 Anne Sofie von Otter

Anne Sofie von Otter

Swedish soprano and actress
Anne Sofie von Otter is a Swedish mezzo-soprano. Her repertoire encompasses lieder, operas, oratorios and also rock and pop songs.
1956

Jana Wendt

Australian television host
Jana Bohumila Wendt is an Australian television journalist, reporter, and writer.
1970

Hao Haidong

Chinese footballer
Hao Haidong is a Chinese former international footballer who played as a forward. He holds the record for being China's top goalscorer.
1991 Majlinda Kelmendi

Majlinda Kelmendi

Kosovar judoka
Majlinda Kelmendi is a Kosovan-Albanian former judoka and judo coach.

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