Famous Birthdays on October 21

Amber Rose Levonchuck is an American model and television personality. She gained attention after she starred in the music video for Young Jeezy's 2008 single "Put On", which featured Kanye West. She began a romantic relationship with West, leading her to model for the Louis Vuitton brand; she then signed a modeling contract with Ford Models. She earned wider recognition as a video vixen in more hip hop videos. After splitting from West in 2010, she dated and in 2013 married rapper Wiz Khalifa, but filed for divorce in 2014. Simon & Schuster then published her book How to Be a Bad Bitch. In 2015 she founded the Los Angeles chapter of the SlutWalk protest march, an annual feminist demonstration founded in Toronto. The next year she hosted her own talk show, The Amber Rose Show, for VH1, and began hosting the syndicated radio call-in program Loveline.

Steven Lee Lukather is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and record producer, best known as the sole continuous founding member of the rock band Toto. His reputation as a skilled guitarist led to a steady flow of session work beginning in the 1970s that has since established him as a prolific session musician, recording guitar tracks for more than 1,500 albums spanning a broad array of artists and genres. He has also contributed to albums and hit singles as a songwriter, arranger, and producer. Notably, Lukather played guitar on Boz Scaggs's albums Down Two Then Left (1977) and Middle Man (1980), and was a prominent contributor to Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982). Lukather has released nine solo albums, the latest of which, Bridges, was released in June 2023.

Kane Allen Brown is an American country singer and songwriter. First garnering a mass following on social media, he released his debut extended play (EP) Closer in June 2015, and followed it up with the single, "Used to Love You Sober" in October of that year. After Brown signed with RCA Nashville in early 2016, the song was included on his second EP and major label debut, Chapter 1 in March 2016. He released his eponymous debut studio album later that year in December. The album spawned the single "What Ifs", and in October 2017, Brown became the first artist to have simultaneous number ones on all five main Billboard country charts. Brown released his second album, Experiment, in November 2018, which became his first number one album on the Billboard 200.

Sir Georg Solti was a Hungarian and British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt, and London, and as a long-serving music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Born in Budapest, he studied there with Béla Bartók, Leó Weiner, and Ernő Dohnányi. In the 1930s, he was a répétiteur at the Hungarian State Opera and worked at the Salzburg Festival for Arturo Toscanini. His career was interrupted by the rise of the Nazis' influence on Hungarian politics, and being Jewish, he fled the increasingly harsh Hungarian anti-Jewish laws in 1938. After conducting a season of Russian ballet in London at the Royal Opera House, he found refuge in Switzerland, where he remained during the Second World War. Prohibited from conducting there, he earned a living as a pianist.

Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov is a Russian filmmaker and actor. He made his directorial debut with the Red Western film At Home Among Strangers (1974) after appearing in a series of films, including the romantic comedy Walking the Streets of Moscow (1964), the war drama The Red and the White (1967), the romantic drama A Nest of Gentry (1969) and the adventure drama The Red Tent (1969). His subsequent films include the romantic comedy-drama A Slave of Love (1976), the drama An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano (1977), the romantic drama Five Evenings (1978), the drama Without Witness (1983) and the romantic comedy-drama Dark Eyes (1987). Mikhalkov then directed, co-wrote and appeared in the adventure drama film Close to Eden (1991), for which he received the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival and an Academy Award nomination.

Charles-Pierre-François Augereau, duc de Castiglione was a French military commander and a Marshal of the Empire who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. After serving in the Revolutionary Wars, he earned rapid promotion while fighting against Spain and soon found himself as a division commander under Napoleon Bonaparte in Italy. He fought in all of Bonaparte's battles of 1796 with great distinction. During the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon entrusted Augereau with important commands. He distinguished himself as a corps commander at Jena, although at Eylau he led a charge into a snowstorm that proved disastrous. His life ended under a cloud because of his poor timing in switching sides between Napoleon and Louis XVIII. Napoleon wrote of Augereau that he "has plenty of character, courage, firmness, activity; is inured to war; is well liked by the soldiery; is fortunate in his operations". Augereau is generally counted as one of the most capable generals of the Napoleonic Wars.

Michael Edward Keenan is a Canadian-American former professional ice hockey coach. Previously, he served as head coach and/or general manager with several NHL teams between 1984 and 2009. He currently ranks sixth in playoff wins with 96. He is noted for his early career success in coaching, which started with reaching the Stanley Cup Final in his rookie season in 1985. In 1987, he reached the Finals once again. Months later, he led Team Canada to win the 1987 Canada Cup round-robin tournament in a thrilling best-of-three series finale against Viktor Tikhonov's Red Army team. He left the Flyers for Chicago in 1988. He reached the Finals once again in 1992 but lost again. After leaving the Blackhawks and spending a year away from coaching, Keenan won a Stanley Cup championship as coach of the New York Rangers in 1994.

Louis P. Lamoriello is an American professional ice hockey executive who most recently served as the President of Hockey Operations and General Manager for the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was formerly the long-time general manager of the New Jersey Devils and also served in the position with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Lamoriello's tenure as president and general manager of the New Jersey Devils from 1987 to 2015 was the third-longest tenure by an NHL general manager with a single team, following those of Conn Smythe and Art Ross. Lamoriello resigned from New Jersey on May 4, 2015, and became the 16th general manager of the Maple Leafs on July 23 of the same year. After three years with the Maple Leafs, Lamoriello joined the Islanders with whom he served until 2025.

Lavinia Corina Miloșovici is a retired Romanian artistic gymnast. Also known as "Milo" in the gymnastics community, Miloșovici is considered to be one of Romania's top gymnasts and one of the most prolific female all-around medalists ever, earning a total 19 World Championships or Olympic medals in a span of six years. She medalled in every single World Championships meet, Olympic Games and European Championships between 1991 and 1996, and is only the third female gymnast ever, after Larisa Latynina and Věra Čáslavská, to win at least one World Championships or Olympic title on all four events. Miloșovici was also the last gymnast, along with Lu Li, to ever receive the perfect mark of 10.0 in an Olympic competition and the last to receive the benchmark score of 9.95 at the World Championships. She was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2011.

Louis de Lorraine, cardinal de Guise et prince-évêque de Metz was a French Roman Catholic cardinal and Bishop during the Italian Wars and French Wars of Religion. The fourth son of Claude, Duke of Guise and Antoinette de Bourbon he was destined from a young age for a church career. At the age of 18 he was appointed Bishop of Troyes, a position he could only serve in an administrative capacity as he would not reach the Canonical Age for another 9 years. Having served in this position for 5 years, he transferred to become Bishop of Albi, staying in this role until 1561, when he was replaced due to his lethargic suppression of 'heresy'. From here he moved to become Archbishop of Sens, a see he would hold from 1561 to 1562, during which time a massacre of Protestants would occur in the city. By 1562 he decided to retire from active episcopal involvement. Nevertheless, he would become Prince-Bishop of Metz in 1568, an office he would hold until his death a decade later. While he lacked much interest in spiritual matters and was renowned for his drinking, he built up a considerable empire of abbeys during his life, which he passed on to his nephew Claude, chevalier d'Aumale.

Brent Matthew Hayden is a Canadian retired competitive swimmer. Representing Canada for a decade, Hayden is regarded as the fastest swimmer in Canadian history. Hayden won a bronze medal in the 100 m freestyle at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London with a time of 47.80, and was world champion in the same event in 2007 with Filippo Magnini of Italy. By winning the 100 metre, Hayden became the first Canadian in 21 years to win a gold medal at the World Aquatics Championships, and was also the first Canadian to appear in the 100 metre final at the Olympics since Dick Pound at the 1960 Summer Olympics, and the first Canadian to win an Olympic medal in the 100 metre. Hayden added a further three silver and one bronze medal to his World Championship totals.

Martin Gardner was an American writer on popular mathematics and popular science. His interests also encompassed magic, scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literature – especially the writings of Lewis Carroll, L. Frank Baum, and G. K. Chesterton. He was a leading authority on Lewis Carroll; The Annotated Alice, which incorporated the text of Carroll's two Alice books, was his most successful work and sold over a million copies. He had a lifelong interest in magic and illusion and in 1999, MAGIC magazine named him as one of the "100 Most Influential Magicians of the Twentieth Century". He was considered the doyen of American puzzlers. He was a prolific and versatile author, publishing more than 100 books.

Shri Krishna Singh (Sinha) (21 October 1887 – 31 January 1961), also known as Shri Babu, was the first chief minister of the Indian state of Bihar (1946–61). Except for the period of World War II, Sinha was the chief minister of Bihar from the time of the first Congress Ministry in 1937 until his death in 1961. He led the Dalit entry into the Baidyanath Dham, Deoghar. He was the first chief minister in the country to abolish the zamindari system. He was imprisoned for a total of about eight years in British India. He held mass meetings at which he spoke. He was known as Bihar Kesari for his "lionlike roars" in public speaking.

Mary Blair was an American artist, illustrator, animation concept artist, colorist, designer and writer. She was prominent in producing art for The Walt Disney Company, drawing concept art for such films as Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Song of the South and Cinderella. Blair also created character designs for enduring attractions such as Disneyland's It's a Small World, the fiesta scene in El Rio del Tiempo in the Mexico pavilion in Epcot's World Showcase, and an enormous mosaic inside Disney's Contemporary Resort. Several of her illustrated children's books from the 1950s remain in print, such as I Can Fly by Ruth Krauss. Blair was inducted into the group of Disney Legends in 1991.

Hadise Açıkgöz is a Belgian-born Turkish singer, songwriter, dancer and television personality. Born and raised in Belgium, her family is of Lezgin-Kumyk origin who settled in Sivas, Turkey. In 2003, she participated in the Belgian singing competition show Idool 2003, but rose to fame after releasing her debut album Sweat in 2005. The album spawned 5 singles and earned Hadise both a TMF Award (Belgium) and Golden Butterfly Award (Turkey). Hadise established and maintained a successful career in both Belgium and Turkey with the release of her self-titled album Hadise (2008). The album, which includes English and Turkish songs, features the single "Deli Oğlan" that became a number-one hit in Turkey.

Lee Chong Wei is a Malaysian former professional badminton player. As a singles player, Lee was ranked first worldwide for a record of 349 weeks, including a 199-week streak from 21 August 2008 to 14 June 2012. He is the fifth Malaysian player after Foo Kok Keong, Rashid Sidek, Roslin Hashim and Wong Choong Hann to achieve such a ranking, and is the only Malaysian shuttler who has held the number one ranking for more than a year. On 2 May 2023, Lee was inducted to BWF Badminton Hall of Fame. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest badminton players of all time.

Edward Charles "Whitey" Ford, nicknamed "the Chairman of the Board", was an American professional baseball pitcher who played his entire 16-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the New York Yankees. He was a 10-time All-Star and six-time World Series champion. In 1961, he won both the Cy Young Award and World Series Most Valuable Player Award. Ford led the American League (AL) in wins three times and in earned run average twice. He is the Yankees franchise leader in career wins (236), shutouts (45), innings pitched, and games started by a pitcher. Ford was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was an American author. She is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the Earthsea fantasy series. Her work was first published in 1959, and her literary career spanned nearly sixty years, producing more than twenty novels and more than a hundred short stories, in addition to poetry, literary criticism, translations, and children's books. Frequently described as an author of science fiction, Le Guin has also been called a "major voice in American Letters". Le Guin said that she would prefer to be known as an "American novelist".

Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold was an English composer and conductor. His works feature music in many genres, including a cycle of nine symphonies, numerous concertos, concert works, chamber music, choral music and music for brass band and wind band. His style is tonal and rejoices in lively rhythms, brilliant orchestration, and an unabashed tunefulness. He wrote extensively for the theatre, with five ballets specially commissioned by the Royal Ballet, as well as two operas and a musical. He also produced scores for more than a hundred films, among these The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won an Oscar.