Did you know about Stephen Merchant
With Gervais and Karl Pilkington, he hosted The Ricky Gervais Show in its radio, podcast, audiobook, and television formats; the radio version won a bronze Sony Award.
Famous Birthdays on November 24
November 24 has 241 recorded notable births across history, from 1273 to 1998. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.
1974 — Stephen Merchant
English actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Famous Birthdays
241 source records
1273 – 1998
Sagittarius
Today in history
Major events on November 24
See what else happened on this day in history.
- 2016 The government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People's Army sign a revised peace deal, bringing an end to the country's more than 50-year-long civil war. Source
- 1642 Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania). Source
Did you know about Oscar Robertson
In the 1970–71 NBA season, he was a key player on the team that brought the Bucks their first NBA title.
Did you know about Tom Odell
Tom Odell won an Ivor Novello Award for Songwriter of the Year in 2014.
Did you know about Donald "Duck" Dunn
Donald "Duck" Dunn was an American bass guitarist, session musician, record producer, and songwriter.
Did you know about Maria Amalia of Saxony (died 1760)
Maria Amalia of Saxony was Queen of Spain from 10 August 1759 until her death in 1760 as the wife of King Charles III.
More major people born on November 24
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
1938
Oscar Robertson
American basketball player and sportscaster
Oscar Palmer Robertson, nicknamed "the Big O", is an American former professional basketball player who played for the Cincinnati Royals and Milwaukee Bucks in the National Basketball Association (NBA). As a 12-time All-Star, 11-time member of the All-NBA Team, and winner of the 1964 MVP, Robertson is considered to be one of the greatest point guards of all time. In 1962, he became the first player in NBA history to average a triple-double for a season. In the 1970–71 NBA season, he was a key player on the team that brought the Bucks their first NBA title. His playing career, especially during high school and college, was plagued by racism.
1990
Tom Odell
English singer-songwriter
Thomas Peter Odell is an English singer-songwriter. His debut EP, Songs from Another Love, was released in 2012, earning him a BRITs Critics' Choice Award. He won an Ivor Novello Award for Songwriter of the Year in 2014. His first full-length album, Long Way Down, came out in 2013 and was followed by Wrong Crowd in 2016. Odell went on to release Jubilee Road (2018) and Monsters (2021), both through Columbia Records. In 2022, he became an independent artist and released two more studio albums: Best Day of My Life (2022) and Black Friday (2024), the latter featuring the breakout track "Black Friday", which is one of his most successful singles to date. In 2025, he published A Wonderful Life.
1941
Donald "Duck" Dunn
American bass player, songwriter, and producer (died 2012)
Donald "Duck" Dunn was an American bass guitarist, session musician, record producer, and songwriter. Dunn was notable for his 1960s recordings with Booker T. & the M.G.'s and as a session bassist for Stax Records. At Stax, Dunn played on thousands of records, including hits by Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, William Bell, Eddie Floyd, Johnnie Taylor, Albert King, Bill Withers, Elvis Presley, and many others. In 1992, he was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Booker T. & the M.G.'s. In 2017, he was ranked 40th on Bass Player magazine's list of "The 100 Greatest Bass Players of All Time".
1724
Maria Amalia of Saxony (died 1760)
Maria Amalia of Saxony was Queen of Spain from 10 August 1759 until her death in 1760 as the wife of King Charles III. Previously, she had been Queen of Naples and Sicily since marrying Charles on 19 June 1738. She was born a princess of Poland and Saxony, daughter of King Augustus III of Poland and Princess Maria Josepha of Austria. Maria Amalia and Charles had thirteen children, of whom seven survived into adulthood. A popular consort, Maria Amalia oversaw the construction of the Caserta Palace outside Naples as well as various other projects, and she is known for her influence upon the affairs of state.
1912
Teddy Wilson
American pianist and educator (died 1986)
Theodore Shaw Wilson was an American jazz pianist. Described by critic Scott Yanow as "the definitive swing pianist", Wilson's piano style was gentle, elegant, and virtuosic. His style was highly influenced by Earl Hines and Art Tatum. His work was featured on the records of many of the biggest names in jazz, including Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald. With Goodman, he was one of the first black musicians to perform prominently alongside white musicians. In addition to his extensive work as a sideman, Wilson also led his own groups and recording sessions from the late 1920s to the 1980s.
1894
Herbert Sutcliffe
English cricketer and businessman (died 1978)
Herbert Sutcliffe was an English professional cricketer who represented Yorkshire and England as an opening batsman. Apart from one match in 1945, his first-class career spanned the period between the two world wars. His first-class debut was delayed by the First World War until 1919 and his career was effectively terminated in August 1939 when he was called up for military service in the imminent Second World War. He was the first cricketer to score 16 centuries in Test match cricket. He is most famous for being the partner of Jack Hobbs and the partnership between the two, Hobbs and Sutcliffe, is widely regarded as the greatest partnership of all time.
1967
Jon Hein
American radio personality
Jon Hein is an American radio personality and former webmaster. He created the website jumptheshark.com and works for The Howard Stern Show. Hein has written three books, Jump the Shark: When Good Things Go Bad as well as Fast Food Maniac: From Arby’s to White Castle, One Man’s Supersized Obsession with America’s Favorite Food. Hein also wrote, Jump the Shark: TV Edition. He is an alumnus of the University of Michigan where he appeared in the sketch comedy troupe Comedy Company with Jon Glaser. The two also were a part of the comedy troupe Just Kidding along with Craig Neuman, Matt Schlein, Kristin Sobditch, Sara Mathison, H. Anthony Lehv.
1932
Fred Titmus
English cricketer and coach (died 2011)
Frederick John Titmus was an English cricketer, whose first-class career, mostly for Middlesex with a short stint for Surrey, spanned five decades. He was the fourth man after W.G. Grace, Wilfred Rhodes and George Hirst to take 2,500 wickets and make 20,000 runs in first-class cricket. Although he was best known for his off-spin, he was an accomplished lower-order batsman who deserved to be called an all-rounder, even opening the batting for England on six occasions. Outside cricket, Titmus was also a footballer; at one stage he was contracted to Watford as a professional, having earlier played for amateur club Leytonstone, and then for Chelsea as a junior.
1910
Larry Siemering
American football player and coach (died 2009)
Lawrence Edwin Siemering was an American football player and coach. He played college football at the University of San Francisco and professionally in the National Football League (NFL) with the Boston Redskins in 1935 and 1936. Siemering served as the head football coach at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California from 1947 to 1951 and at Arizona State University in 1951, compiling a career college football coached record of 41–8–4. He also was the head coach of the Canadian Football League's Calgary Stampeders in 1954. In all, Siemering's football career as a player and coach lasted more than forty years. At the time of his death, he was the oldest surviving professional football player at 98 years of age.
1895
Esther Applin
American geologist and paleontologist (died 1972)
Esther Applin was an American geologist and paleontologist. She completed her undergraduate degree in 1919 from the University of California, Berkeley. Later, she completed a master's degree which was focused on microfossils. She was a leading figure in the use of microfossils to determine the age of rock formation for use in oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico region. Her job was to examine microfossils collected in drill holes to determine the age of the rock into which the company was drilling. Applin's discoveries were crucial to successful drilling operations across the entire oil industry. Additionally, her contribution to geology and the study of micropaleontology was pivotal in earning women geologists respect in the field.
1930
Bob Friend
American baseball player and politician (died 2019)
Robert Bartmess Friend was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher between 1951 and 1966, most notably as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates. A four-time All-Star, Friend was an integral member of the Pirates team that defeated the New York Yankees in the 1960 World Series. He played for the New York Yankees and New York Mets in his final season of 1966. As of 2019, he still held Pirates records for career innings pitched and strikeouts. He was the first man to lead the league in ERA while pitching for a last place team.
1964
Garret Dillahunt
American actor
Garret Lee Dillahunt is an American actor. He is best known for his work in television, including the roles Burt Chance on the Fox sitcom Raising Hope, for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series, Jack McCall and Francis Wolcott in Deadwood, and John Dorie in Fear the Walking Dead. He has also appeared in The 4400, ER, Against the Sun, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Burn Notice, Justified, and The Mindy Project. He starred in the Amazon Studios drama series Hand of God (2014–2017) and the HBO superhero series Lanterns (2026).
1954
Clem Burke
American drummer (died 2025)
Clement Anthony Burke was an American musician best known as the drummer for the band Blondie. He joined the band shortly after its formation in 1975 and remained with Blondie throughout the band's entire career until his death in 2025. He appeared on all of the band's albums with two of the founding members, Debbie Harry and Chris Stein. He was drummer for the Ramones for a brief time in 1987 under the name Elvis Ramone, and played on albums by other artists, including Eurythmics, Bob Dylan and Iggy Pop. He was a member of the Romantics from 1990 until 2004.
1935
Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa
Bahraini politician, Prime Minister of Bahrain (died 2020)
Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa was a Bahraini politician and member of the Al Khalifa royal family who served as the Prime Minister of Bahrain from 10 January 1970 until his death in 2020. He took office over a year before Bahrain achieved its independence in 31 August 1971. Khalifa was considered the effective leader of Bahrain during the reign of his brother, Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, until the monarch's death in 1999, and remained influential under Isa's successor Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. He was the longest-serving prime minister in the world at the time of his death.
1806
William Webb Ellis
English priest, created Rugby football (died 1872)
William Webb Ellis was an English Anglican clergyman who has been credited as the inventor of rugby football while a pupil at Rugby School. According to accounts by Matthew Bloxam, Webb Ellis caught the ball and ran with it during a school football match in 1823, thus creating the "rugby" style of play. The first accounts of the origins of rugby football appeared in 1876 and were investigated by the Old Rugbeian Society in 1895, producing a report in 1897 supporting Matthew Bloxam's accounts. These accounts are now discounted by some rugby historians as an origin myth.
1784
Zachary Taylor
American general and politician, 12th President of the United States (died 1850)
Zachary Taylor was the 12th president of the United States, serving from 1849 until his death in 1850. Before his presidency, Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to the rank of major general and becoming a national hero for his victories in the Mexican–American War. As a result, he won election to the White House despite his vague political beliefs. His top priority as president was to preserve the Union. He died 16 months into his term from a stomach disease. Taylor had the third-shortest presidential term in U.S. history.
1859
Cass Gilbert
American architect, designed the United States Supreme Court Building and Woolworth Building (died 1934)
Cass Gilbert was an American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers, his works include the Woolworth Building, the United States Supreme Court Building, the state capitols of Minnesota, Arkansas, and West Virginia, the Detroit Public Library, and the Saint Louis Art Museum and Public Library. His public buildings in the Beaux Arts style reflect the optimistic American sense that the nation was heir to Greek democracy, Roman law and Renaissance humanism. Gilbert's achievements were recognized in his lifetime; he served as president of the American Institute of Architects in 1908–09.
1881
Ye Gongchuo
Chinese politician, poet, and calligrapher (died 1968)
Ye Gongchuo was a Chinese politician, calligrapher, poet, and art patron. Born in Panyu County, Guangdong, to the family of a Qing dynasty official, Ye passed the imperial examination and joined the Ministry of Posts and Communications. He rose through the ministry rapidly, then allied himself with Sun Yat-sen's anti-Qing movement in the 1911 Revolution. During the first decades of the Republic of China, Ye occupied several ministerial positions as a member of the Communications Clique, at times working with the Beiyang government and other times siding with the Kuomintang.
1887
Raoul Paoli
French boxer and rower (died 1960)
Jacques Marie Lucien Raoul Simonpaoli was a French athlete, boxer, wrestler, rower and actor. Aged 12, he served as a coxswain in the French coxed pair and won a bronze medal at the 1900 Summer Olympics. He competed in the shot put at the 1912, 1920, 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics with the best result of ninth place in 1924. In 1912 he also took part in the Greco-Roman wrestling contest and served as the Olympic flag bearer for France, and in 1928 he finished 29th in the discus throw.