Famous Birthdays on September 17

Abdul-Malik Kashie Yoba is an American actor. He is known for his starring role as NYPD Detective J. C. Williams on the Fox police drama New York Undercover and as Yul Brenner in the film Cool Runnings. He appeared as former FBI agent Bill Harken on the Syfy drama series Alphas, as Jim Hudson in Revolution, and as Vernon Turner in Empire. He also starred in the role of FBI Deputy Director Jason Atwood in the ABC political drama Designated Survivor. In 2018, he joined the Netflix drama Seven Seconds as a member of a support group for parents who had lost their children. He also appeared in Jordan Peele’s TBS comedy The Last OG with Tracy Morgan.

Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann was a German mathematician who made profound contributions to analysis, number theory, and differential geometry. In the field of real analysis, he is mostly known for the first rigorous formulation of the integral, the Riemann integral, and his work on Fourier series. His contributions to complex analysis include most notably the introduction of Riemann surfaces, breaking new ground in a natural, geometric treatment of complex analysis. His 1859 paper on the prime-counting function, containing the original statement of the Riemann hypothesis, is regarded as a foundational paper of analytic number theory. Through his pioneering contributions to differential geometry, Riemann laid the foundations of the mathematics of general relativity. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest mathematicians of all time.

William Carlos Williams was an American poet and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. His Spring and All (1923) was written in the wake of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922). In his five-volume poem Paterson (1946–1958), he took Paterson, New Jersey as "my 'case' to work up. It called for a poetry such as I did not know, it was my duty to discover or make such a context on the 'thought.'" Some of his best-known poems, "This Is Just to Say" and "The Red Wheelbarrow", are reflections on the everyday. Other poems reflect the influence of the visual arts. He, in turn, influenced the visual arts; his poem "The Great Figure" inspired the painting I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold by Charles Demuth. Williams was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems (1962).

Chaim Herzog was an Irish-Israeli politician, military officer, lawyer and author who served as President of Israel from 1983 to 1993. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Dublin, the son of Ireland's Chief Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1935. He served in the Haganah Jewish paramilitary group during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt and in the British Army during World War II. Following the end of the British Mandate and Israel's Declaration of Independence in 1948, he served in the Israel Defense Forces and fought in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. He remained in the Israeli military as an officer following the war until retiring in 1962 with the rank of major-general.

Maqbool Fida Husain was an Indian painter and film director who painted narrative paintings in a modified Cubist style. One of the founding members of Bombay Progressive Artists' Group, Husain is associated with Indian modernism in the 1940s. His early association with the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group used modern technique, and was inspired by the "new" India after the partition of 1947. His narrative paintings, executed in a modified Cubist style, can be caustic and funny as well as serious and sombre. His themes—sometimes treated in series—included topics as diverse as Gandhi, Mother Teresa, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the British Raj, and motifs of Indian urban and rural life. In September 2020, his painting titled Voices, auctioned for a record $2.5 million.

Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis of Condorcet, known as Nicolas de Condorcet, was a French philosopher, political economist, politician, and mathematician. His ideas, including support for free markets, public education, constitutional government, and equal rights for women and people of all races, and a welfare state have been said to embody the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment, of which he has been called the "last witness", and Enlightenment rationalism. As he was a critic of the constitution proposed by Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles in 1793, the Convention Nationale – and the Jacobin faction in particular – voted to have Condorcet arrested. He died in prison after a period of hiding from the French Revolutionary authorities.

Pope Paul V, born Camillo Borghese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 16 May 1605 to his death, in January 1621. In 1611, he honored Galileo Galilei as a member of the papal Accademia dei Lincei and supported his discoveries. In 1616, Pope Paul V instructed Cardinal Robert Bellarmine to inform Galileo that the Copernican theory could not be taught as fact, but Bellarmine's certificate allowed Galileo to continue his studies in search for evidence and use the geocentric model as a theoretical device. That same year Paul V assured Galileo that he was safe from persecution so long as he, the Pope, should live. Bellarmine's certificate was used by Galileo for his defense at the trial of 1633.

Ty Tabor is an American musician. He is the lead guitarist, songwriter, and co-lead vocalist for the hard rock band King's X. Tabor has a wide-ranging guitar style, from big guitar riffs to middling melodic passages. His use of volume swells and ambient passages add an elemental texture to his compositions. He names his main influences as the Beatles, Allan Holdsworth, Johnny Winter, Ace Frehley, Mel Galley, Brian May, Joe Perry, Mick Box, Buck Dharma, Steve Marriott, Dave Davies, Pete Townshend, Mark Farner, John Fogerty, Alex Lifeson, Phil Keaggy, and the original Alice Cooper band. In 2008, Tabor was added to the guitar show "Chop Shop's" list of "Top 100 Most Complete Guitar Players of All Time" at number 84.

Kathleen Ann Deines is an American soccer midfielder–defender. She most recently played for Turbine Potsdam in the German Bundesliga and Seattle Reign FC of the National Women's Soccer League. Deines was a fourth round pick of the Atlanta Beat of Women's Professional Soccer in the 2012 WPS Draft of college seniors on January 13, 2012. The WPS Board of Governors voted to suspend the 2012 season on January 30 citing pending legal issues. Subsequently, she was free to sign with other teams and rejoined the Seattle Sounders Women, the organization she had previously played for from 2007 to 2009. After the formation of the National Women's Soccer League in late 2012, Deines played for the Seattle Reign during the league's first two seasons. She was traded to FC Kansas City in late 2014 but announced her retirement from professional soccer on March 31, 2015, before the 2015 season began.

Michael John Catt OBE is a South African-born former rugby union player who played for the England national rugby union team. He played professionally for the clubs London Irish and Bath. He earned 75 international caps for England and played in two World Cup Finals, in 2003 and 2007. With his appearance in the October 2007 final, at age 36 years 1 month, he became the oldest ever player to play in a Rugby World Cup final. Since 2008, Catt has coached various rugby teams, and from 2019 to 2024 was assistant coach for the Ireland national rugby team. He is currently Attack Coach for the NSW Waratahs.

Marshal of the Royal Air Force David Brownrigg Craig, Baron Craig of Radley, is a retired Royal Air Force officer and member of the House of Lords. He was a fast jet pilot in the 1950s, a squadron commander in the 1960s and a station commander in the 1970s. He served as Chief of the Air Staff during the late 1980s, when the Boeing Airborne early warning and control system was ordered and the European Fighter programme was being developed. He then served as Chief of the Defence Staff during the Gulf War. He was granted a life peerage as Baron Craig of Radley after his retirement from active service in 1991, sitting as a crossbencher. As of 2026, he is the oldest serving British parliamentarian and the last living officer in the British Armed Forces to have held a five-star rank whilst on active service.

John Willard Marriott Sr. was an American entrepreneur and businessman. He was the founder of the Marriott Corporation, the parent company of the world's largest hospitality, hotel chains, and food services companies. The Marriott company rose from a small root beer stand in Washington, D.C., in 1927 to a chain of family restaurants by 1932, to its first motel in 1957. By the time he died in 1985, the Marriott company operated 1,400 restaurants and 143 hotels and resorts worldwide, including two theme parks, earned US$4.5 billion in revenue annually with 154,600 employees. The company's interests also extended to a line of cruise ships.

Patrick Lavon Mahomes II is an American professional football quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). After becoming the Chiefs' starting quarterback in 2018, he led the team to seven consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances and five Super Bowl appearances, winning three. He is one of only five quarterbacks in NFL history to win three or more Super Bowls as a starter. Mahomes is widely regarded as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. He is often considered the best quarterback of his generation, with many outlets ranking him as the league's top player at the position.

Junius Richard Jayewardene, also known by his initials JR, was a Sri Lankan lawyer, who served as prime minister of Sri Lanka from 1977 to 1978 and as president of Sri Lanka from 1978 to 1989. He was a leader of the nationalist movement in Ceylon and served in a variety of cabinet positions in the decades following independence. A longtime member of the United National Party, he led the party to a landslide victory in the 1977 parliamentary elections and served as prime minister for half a year before becoming the country's first executive president under an amended constitution.

James Mark Cornette is an American author, sports historian, and podcaster who previously worked in the professional wrestling industry as an agent, booker, color commentator, manager, photographer, promoter, trainer, and occasional professional wrestler. Cornette is widely considered to be one of the greatest managers in wrestling history by fans and publications, as well as industry personnel. Cornette currently hosts two podcasts along with co-host and producer Brian Last—The Jim Cornette Experience and Jim Cornette's Drive-Thru— with the latter being the most-played wrestling podcast as of July 2026 and both being among the most popular wrestling podcasts of all time.

Robert Brown Parker was an American writer, primarily of fiction within the mystery/detective genre. His most famous works include the 40 novels written about the fictional private detective Spenser. In the mid-1980s, based on the character of detective Spenser, ABC television network developed the television series Spenser: For Hire. A series of TV movies was also produced based on the same character. His works incorporate encyclopedic knowledge of the Boston metropolitan area. The Spenser novels have been cited as reviving and changing the detective genre by critics and bestselling authors, including Robert Crais, Harlan Coben, and Dennis Lehane.

Catherine Grace Garner, known professionally as Slayyyter, is an American singer and songwriter. Known for her brash and sex-positive lyricism and electropop production, she started her career independently releasing songs through SoundCloud. Her debut mixtape, Slayyyter, was independently released in 2019. Her debut album, Troubled Paradise, was released in June 2021, and her second album, Starfucker, in September 2023. Her third album, Worst Girl in America, was released in March 2026 on Columbia Records and achieved breakout success. In addition to four solo tours, Slayyyter has toured in support of Charli XCX, Kesha, and Tove Lo.

Altaf Hussain is a British Pakistani politician who is known as the founder of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. He fled Pakistan in 1992 after the Operation Clean-up crackdown against his party was launched, moving to live in exile in the United Kingdom. Since 2015, he has been a fugitive from the Anti Terrorism Court of Pakistan on the charges of 'murder, targeted killing, treason, inciting violence and hate speech'. He went on trial in the UK in January 2022 for 'promoting terrorism and unrest through hate speech in Pakistan', and was acquitted the next month.

Philip Douglas Jackson is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and executive in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Jackson is a 13-time NBA champion, having won two as a player and eleven as a head coach. His eleven championships as a head coach are the most in NBA history. In 2007, Jackson was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and was named one of the ten greatest coaches in league history in 1996. He holds numerous other records as a coach, including the most postseason wins (229), and most conference titles (13).