Famous Birthdays on October 4

Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th president of the United States, serving from 1877 to 1881. He served as Cincinnati's city solicitor from 1858 to 1861 and was known as a staunch abolitionist who defended refugee slaves in court proceedings. At the start of the Civil War, Hayes left a fledgling political career to join the Union army. He was wounded five times, most seriously at the Battle of South Mountain in 1862. Hayes earned a reputation for bravery in combat, rising in the ranks to serve as brevet major general. After the war, he was a prominent member of the "Half-Breed" faction of the Republican Party. Hayes served in Congress from 1865 to 1867 and was elected governor of Ohio, serving two consecutive terms from 1868 to 1872 and half of a third two-year term from 1876 to 1877 before his swearing-in as president.

Armand Anthony Assante Jr. is an American actor. He played mobster John Gotti in the 1996 HBO television film Gotti alongside Anthony Quinn, Odysseus in the 1997 miniseries adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey, Nietzsche in When Nietzsche Wept, and Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer in 1982's I, the Jury. He has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Assante also played 'Dominic Cattano', who was based on the real-life Lucchese family boss Carmine Tramunti, in the 2007 film American Gangster alongside Denzel Washington, Josh Brolin and Russell Crowe, which was nominated for two Oscars at the 80th Academy Awards in 2008.

George Michael Ward Jr., often known by his nickname, "Irish" Micky Ward, is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2003. He challenged once for the IBF light welterweight title in 1997, and held the WBU light welterweight title in 2000. Ward is widely known for his trilogy of fights with Arturo Gatti, two of which received Fight of the Year awards by The Ring magazine, as well as his devastating left hook to the body and his relentless pressure fighting style. From 2001 to 2003, Ward featured in three straight Fights of the Year. He was portrayed by Mark Wahlberg in the 2010 film The Fighter, which was based on his early career. After retirement he has become a philanthropist.

Elena Sergeyevna Katina, better known as Lena Katina, is a Russian singer who gained fame as one half of the pop/electronica duo t.A.T.u. She started her career at the age of eight, joining the Russian children's act Avenue, soon after that joining Neposedy. In 1999, producer Ivan Shapovalov chose Katina and Julia Volkova for his project t.A.T.u. The duo would later become Russia's most successful pop music act. The group produced several hits, including "All the Things She Said", "Not Gonna Get Us", and "All About Us". Their first single, "All the Things She Said", peaked at No. 1 in nineteen countries, including the UK, Russia, and Australia.

Engelbert Dollfuss was an Austrian politician and dictator who served as chancellor of Austria between 1932 and 1934. Having served as Minister for Forests and Agriculture, he ascended to Federal Chancellor in 1932 in the midst of a crisis for the conservative and nationalist government. This crisis culminated in the self-elimination of the Austrian Parliament, a coup sparked by the resignation of the presiding officers of the National Council. Suppressing the Socialist movement in the Austrian Civil War and later banning the Austrian Nazi Party, he cemented his rule through the First of May Constitution in 1934. Later that year, Dollfuss was assassinated as part of a failed coup attempt by Nazi agents. His successor Kurt Schuschnigg maintained the regime until Adolf Hitler's Anschluss in 1938.

Charles IX, also Carl, reigned as King of Sweden from 1604 until 1611. He was the youngest son of King Gustav I and his second wife, Margaret Leijonhufvud, the brother of King John III and half-brother of King Erik XIV, and the uncle of Sigismund, who became king both of Sweden and of Poland. By his father's will, Charles received, by way of appanage, the Duchy of Södermanland, which included the provinces of Närke and Värmland; but he did not come into actual possession of them till after the fall of Eric and the succession to the throne of John in 1569.

Sarah Marie Fisher is an American retired professional race car driver who competed in the Indy Racing League and the Indianapolis 500 intermittently from 1999 to 2010. She also raced in the NASCAR West Series in 2004 and 2005. Fisher took part in 81 IndyCar Series events, achieving a career-best finish of second at the 2001 Infiniti Grand Prix of Miami—the highest placing for a woman in the IRL until Danica Patrick's victory in the 2008 Indy Japan 300. In 2002, Fisher was the first female driver to win a pole position in a major American open-wheel race and competed in the Indianapolis 500 nine times, more than any other woman.

Saki is a Japanese heavy metal musician and songwriter, best known as guitarist of the band Mary's Blood from 2012 until their hiatus in 2022. She is currently active as a solo artist, as one-half of the duo Amahiru with Frédéric Leclercq, and in the rock band Like-an-Angel. Before making her professional debut as part of the short-lived rock trio Mixx in 2010, Saki was briefly a member of the pioneering all-female metal band Destrose, and was later a member of Nemophila from 2019 to 2024. She has been sponsored by Killer Guitars since she was a teenager, and often uses custom-made Fascist models. In 2021, they released her signature model, the seven-string KG-Fascinator Seven the Empress.

Bernice Johnson Reagon was an American song leader, composer, professor of American history, curator at the Smithsonian, and social activist. In the early 1960s, she was a founding member of the Freedom Singers, organized by the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the Albany Movement for civil rights in Georgia. In 1973, she founded the all-black female a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, based in Washington, D.C. She was the founder/the 1st member of Sweet Honey in the Rock from 1973 to 2006. Reagon, along with other members of the SNCC Freedom Singers, realized the power of collective singing to unify the disparate groups who began to work together in the 1964 Freedom Summer protests in the South."After a song", Reagon recalled, "the differences between us were not so great. Somehow, making a song required an expression of that which was common to us all.... This music was like an instrument, like holding a tool in your hand."

Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı was a Turkish poet. Identified with the poem "Otuz Beş Yaş", Tarancı adhered to the understanding of "art for art's sake". He mostly included the themes of joy of life and death in his poems; He also wrote poems about lost loves, happy loves, loneliness, the bitterness of the bohemian life he lived, and childhood longing. Many of his poems were composed by different composers. In addition to his poetry books Ömrümde Sükût (1933), Otuz Beş Yaş (1946), Düşten Güzel (1952) and after his death "Sonrası"(1957) and Bütün Şiirleri (1983), he wrote various stories, and these stories were published on the 50th anniversary of Tarancı's death. It was published under the title " Gün Eksilmesin Penceremden" (2006). Most of the letters the poet wrote to his family members, friends and close friends, who also translated poems from French literature, were published under the names of Ziya'ya Mektuplar (1957) and Evime ve Nihal'e Mektuplar (1989).

Prudente José de Morais Barros was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the third president of Brazil from 1894 to 1898. Morais was elected in 1894, being the first civilian president of the country, the first to be elected by direct popular ballot under the permanent provisions of Brazil's 1891 Constitution, and the first to serve a full term. Before his presidency he served as president (governor) of the state of São Paulo and president of the Senate from 1891 to 1894. He was also president of the Constituent Assembly that drafted and enacted the 1891 Constitution.

Leigh-Anne Gray is an English singer and actress. She rose to prominence as a member of the girl group Little Mix, which was formed on and won the eighth series of The X Factor. As part of the group, she won three Brit Awards and achieved 19 top-ten singles and five number-one entries on the UK Singles Chart before the group went on hiatus in 2022. In 2023, Pinnock began her solo career, releasing the singles "Don't Say Love" and "My Love" featuring Ayra Starr, both of which reached the top 30 of the UK Singles Chart.

Caitríona Mary Balfe is an Irish actress and former model. She began her career as a fashion model in Paris at age 18, working with fashion houses such as Chanel and Louis Vuitton, before transitioning to acting a decade later. Balfe gained early recognition with roles in The Beauty Inside (2012) and H+: The Digital Series (2012–2013), along with appearances in films like Super 8 (2011), Now You See Me (2013), and Escape Plan (2013). Her breakout role was as Claire Fraser in Outlander (2014–2026), for which she has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards.

Frank Peter Joseph Crosetti, nicknamed "The Crow", was an American baseball player. From 1932 to 1948, he spent his entire seventeen-year Major League Baseball playing career with the New York Yankees at shortstop. After his retirement as a player, he became third base coach with the franchise for an additional twenty seasons. From 1932 to 1968, Crosetti won a combined total of 17 World Series Championships, 8 as a player, and 9 as a coach, the most by any individual. Crosetti is tied with NHL legend Jean Béliveau for the most combined championships in sports.

James Ford Cairns was an Australian politician who was prominent in the Labor movement through the 1960s and 1970s, and was briefly Treasurer and the fourth deputy prime minister of Australia, both in the Whitlam government. He is best remembered as a leader of the movement against Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, for his affair with Junie Morosi, and for his later renunciation of conventional politics. He was also an economist, and a prolific writer on economic and social issues. Many of his books were self-published, and self-marketed at stalls he ran across Australia.

John Francis McFall, Baron McFall of Alcluith,, is a Scottish politician and life peer who was Lord Speaker, the presiding officer of the House of Lords, from 2021 to 2026. He was a member of Parliament for the Labour and Co-operative Party from 1987 to 2010, first for Dumbarton and then from 2005 for West Dunbartonshire. He was also Chairman of the House of Commons Treasury Committee. Following his appointment to the House of Lords, McFall was Senior Deputy Speaker from 2016 to 2021 before succeeding Lord Fowler as Lord Speaker.

Evgeni Krasnopolski is a Ukrainian-born Israeli retired pair skater. Krasnopolski and Andrea Davidovich were the first pair representing Israel to qualify for Israel at the 2014 Olympics. They finished 15th in Sochi. Krasnopolski competed with Danielle Montalbano from 2009 to 2012. He competed for Israel at the 2018 Winter Olympics with Paige Conners in figure skating in pairs skating and a team event in Pyeongchang, South Korea. He and Hailey Kops competed at the 2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy and qualified to compete for Israel at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Robert Lee "Sam" Huff was an American professional football player whose frequent battles against Cleveland Browns star fullback Jim Brown made him the first member of the defense to gain widespread prominence in the National Football League. He starred for the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins in the pro ranks and the West Virginia Mountaineers in college. The one-time NFL champion, two-time All-Pro and five-time Pro Bowl selection is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Alan L. Hart was an American physician, radiologist, tuberculosis researcher, writer, and novelist. Hart pioneered the use of X-ray photography in tuberculosis detection; he worked in sanitariums and X-ray clinics in New Mexico, Illinois, Washington, and Idaho. For the last 16 years of his life, he headed mass X-ray programs that screened for tuberculosis in Connecticut. X-rays were not regularly used to screen for tuberculosis prior to Hart's innovation, and are still used today, which has led researchers to believe that he saved countless lives.