Portal:Biography

A page from the first edition of Foxe's Book of Martyrs, published in 1563
Third Volume of a 1727 edition of Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans printed by Jacob Tonson
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Cover of the first English publication, J. Parson's, London, 1793

A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents a subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of their life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of the subject's personality. (Full article...)

Featured biographies

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Richard Gavin Reid

Richard Gavin "Dick" Reid (17 January 1879 – 17 October 1980) was a Canadian politician who served as the sixth premier of Alberta from 1934 to 1935. He was the last member of the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) to hold the office, and that party's defeat at the hands of the upstart Social Credit League in the 1935 election made him the shortest serving premier to that point in Alberta's history.

Born near Glasgow, Scotland, Reid worked a number of jobs as a young adult—including wholesaler, army medic (during the Second Boer War), farmhand, lumberjack and dentist—and immigrated to Canada in 1903. He involved himself in local politics and joined the recently formed UFA, which nominated him to run in the 1921 provincial election as its candidate in Vermilion. The UFA won the election, and Reid served in several capacities in the cabinets of premiers Herbert Greenfield and John Edward Brownlee, where he established a reputation for competence and fiscal conservatism. When a sex scandal forced Brownlee from office in 1934, Reid was the caucus' unanimous choice to succeed him as premier. (Full article...)
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Seddon in 1992

Margaret Rhea Seddon (born November 8, 1947) is an American surgeon and retired NASA astronaut. After being selected as part of the first group of astronauts to include women in 1978, she flew on three Space Shuttle flights: as a mission specialist on STS-51-D and STS-40, and as a payload commander for STS-58, accumulating over 722 hours in space. On these flights, she built repair tools for a US Navy satellite and performed medical experiments.

A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Seddon was awarded her doctor of medicine (MD) degree in 1973. During her residency with the University of Tennessee hospitals, she was the only woman in the General Surgery Residency Program. Before, during, and after her career in the astronaut program, she was active in hospitals emergency departments in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Texas. (Full article...)
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Hudner in 1950

Thomas Jerome Hudner Jr. (August 31, 1924 – November 13, 2017) was a United States Navy officer and naval aviator. He rose to the rank of captain, and received the Medal of Honor for his actions in trying to save the life of his wingman, Ensign Jesse L. Brown, during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War.

Born in Fall River, Massachusetts, Hudner attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and the United States Naval Academy. Initially uninterested in aviation, he eventually took up flying and joined Fighter Squadron 32, flying the F4U Corsair at the outbreak of the Korean War. Arriving near Korea in October 1950, he flew support missions from the aircraft carrier USS Leyte. (Full article...)
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Hoffman in 2011

Philip Seymour Hoffman (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014) was an American actor. Known for his distinctive supporting and character roles—eccentrics, underdogs, and misfits—he acted in many films and theatrical productions, including leading roles, from the early 1990s until his death in 2014. He was voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time in a 2022 readers' poll by Empire magazine.

Hoffman studied acting at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He gained recognition for his supporting work, notably in Scent of a Woman (1992), Boogie Nights (1997), Happiness (1998), The Big Lebowski (1998), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), and Almost Famous (2000). He began to occasionally play leading roles, and for his portrayal of the author Truman Capote in Capote (2005), won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Further Oscar nominations came for playing a brutally frank CIA officer in Charlie Wilson's War (2007), a priest accused of child sexual abuse in Doubt (2008), and the charismatic leader of a Scientology-type movement in The Master (2012). (Full article...)
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Madeline Montalban (born Madeline Sylvia Royals; 8 January 1910 – 11 January 1982) was an English astrologer and ceremonial magician. She co-founded the esoteric organisation known as the Order of the Morning Star (OMS), through which she propagated her own form of Luciferianism.

Born in Blackpool, Lancashire, Montalban moved to London in the early 1930s, immersing herself in the city's esoteric subculture, and influenced by Hermeticism she taught herself ceremonial magic. She associated with significant occultists, including Thelemites like Aleister Crowley and Kenneth Grant, and Wiccans like Gerald Gardner and Alex Sanders. From 1933 to 1953 she published articles on astrology and other esoteric topics in the magazine London Life, and from then until her death in the nationally syndicated magazine Prediction. These were accompanied by several booklets on astrology, released using a variety of different pseudonyms, including Dolores North, Madeline Alvarez and Nina del Luna. (Full article...)
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Hathaway in 2023

Anne Jacqueline Hathaway (born November 12, 1982) is an American actress. Her accolades include an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Her films have grossed over $6.8 billion worldwide, and she appeared on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2009. She was among the world's highest-paid actresses in 2015.

Hathaway performed in several plays in high school. As a teenager, she was cast in the television series Get Real (1999–2000) and made her breakthrough by playing the lead role in the Disney comedy The Princess Diaries (2001). After starring in a string of family films, including Ella Enchanted (2004), Hathaway made a transition to mature roles with the 2005 drama Brokeback Mountain. The comedy-drama The Devil Wears Prada (2006), in which she played an assistant to a fashion magazine editor, was her biggest commercial success to that point. She played a recovering addict in the drama Rachel Getting Married (2008), which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. (Full article...)
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Watson in 2013

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson (born 15 April 1990) is an English actress. Known for her roles in both blockbusters and independent films, she has received a selection of accolades, including a Young Artist Award and three MTV Movie Awards. Watson has been ranked among the world's highest-paid actresses by Forbes and Vanity Fair, and was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2015. Watson was also listed by Forbes as an honouree on the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2015 and 2016.

Watson attended the Dragon School and trained in acting at the Oxford branch of Stagecoach Theatre Arts. As a child, she rose to stardom after landing her first professional acting role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series, having previously acted only in school plays. Watson made her first major forays beyond the Potter franchise starring in Ballet Shoes (2007), and lent her voice to The Tale of Despereaux (2008). After the final Harry Potter film, she took on a supporting role in My Week with Marilyn (2011), before starring as Sam, a flirtatious, free-spirited student in The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), to critical success. Further acclaim came from portraying Alexis Neiers in Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring (2013) and the titular character's adoptive daughter in Darren Aronofsky's biblical epic Noah (2014). That same year, Watson was honoured by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, winning British Artist of the Year. She also starred as Belle in the live-action musical romantic fantasy Beauty and the Beast (2017), and as Meg March in Greta Gerwig's coming-of-age drama Little Women (2019). (Full article...)
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Ruth E. Norman (born Ruth Nields; August 18, 1900 – July 12, 1993), also known as Uriel, was an American religious leader who co-founded the Unarius Academy of Science, based in Southern California. Raised in California, Norman received little education and worked from an early age in a variety of jobs. In the 1940s, she developed an interest in psychic phenomena and past-life regression. These pursuits led to her introduction to Ernest Norman, a self-described psychic, in 1954. He engaged in channeling, past-life regression, and attempts at communication with extraterrestrials. She married Ernest, her fourth husband, in the mid-1950s. Together they published several books about his revelations and formed Unarius, an organization which later became known as the Unarius Academy of Science, to popularize his teachings. The couple discussed numerous details about their alleged past lives and spiritual visits to other planets, forming a mythology from these accounts.

After Ernest died in 1971, Ruth succeeded him as their group's leader and primary channeler. She subsequently began publishing accounts of her experiences and revelations. In early 1974, she predicted that a space fleet of benevolent extraterrestrials, the Space Brothers, would land on Earth later that year, which led the Unarius Academy to purchase a property to serve as the landing site. After the extraterrestrials failed to appear, Norman said that trauma she had suffered in a past life had caused her to make an inaccurate prediction. Undaunted, she rented a building for Unarius' meetings and sought publicity for the movement, claiming to have united the Earth with an interplanetary confederation. She revised the Space Brothers' expected landing date several times, before finally settling on 2001. Her health declined in the late 1980s, prompting her students to try to heal her with rituals of past-life regression. Despite predicting that she would live to see the extraterrestrials land, Norman died in 1993. Unarius has continued to operate after her death, and formed a board of directors. Since the 2000s, leaders have concentrated on individual transformation leading to spiritual change in humankind. (Full article...)
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Carmichael in 1972 as Lord Peter Wimsey

Ian Gillett Carmichael, (18 June 1920 – 5 February 2010) was an English actor who worked prolifically on stage, screen and radio in a career that spanned seventy years. Born in Kingston upon Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, but his studies—and the early stages of his career—were curtailed by the Second World War. After his demobilisation he returned to acting and found success, initially in revue and sketch productions.

In 1955 Carmichael was noticed by the film producers John and Roy Boulting, who cast him in five of their films as one of the major players. The first was the 1956 film Private's Progress, a satire on the British Army; he received critical and popular praise for the role, including from the American market. In many of his roles he played a likeable, often accident-prone, innocent. In the mid-1960s he played Bertie Wooster in adaptations of the works of P. G. Wodehouse in The World of Wooster for BBC Television, for which he received mostly positive reviews, including from Wodehouse. In the early 1970s he played another upper-class literary character, Lord Peter Wimsey, the amateur but talented investigator created by Dorothy L. Sayers. (Full article...)
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Jordan in 2014

Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. He played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) between 1984 and 2003, winning six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls. He was integral in popularizing basketball and the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s, becoming a global cultural icon. His profile on the NBA website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time."

Jordan played college basketball with the North Carolina Tar Heels. As a freshman, he was a member of the Tar Heels' national championship team in 1982. Jordan joined the Bulls in 1984 as the third overall draft pick and quickly emerged as a league star, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring while gaining a reputation as one of the best defensive players. His leaping ability, demonstrated by performing slam dunks from the free-throw line in Slam Dunk Contests, earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness". Jordan won his first NBA title with the Bulls in 1991 and followed that achievement with titles in 1992 and 1993, securing a three-peat. Citing physical and mental exhaustion from basketball and superstardom, Jordan abruptly retired from basketball before the 1993–94 NBA season to play Minor League Baseball in the Chicago White Sox organization. He returned to the Bulls in March 1995 and led them to three more championships in 1996, 1997, and 1998, as well as a then-record 72 regular season wins in the 1995–96 NBA season. Jordan retired for the second time in January 1999, returning for two more NBA seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the Washington Wizards. He was selected to play for the United States national team during his college and NBA careers, winning four gold medals—at the 1983 Pan American Games, 1984 Summer Olympics, 1992 Tournament of the Americas and 1992 Summer Olympics—while also being undefeated. (Full article...)
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U2 performing in Brussels, Belgium, August 2017. from left to right: Larry Mullen Jr.; The Edge; Bono; Adam Clayton

U2 are an Irish rock band formed in Dublin in 1976. The group comprises Bono (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), the Edge (lead guitar, keyboards, and backing vocals), Adam Clayton (bass guitar), and Larry Mullen Jr. (drums and percussion). Initially rooted in post-punk, U2's musical style has evolved throughout their career, yet has maintained an anthemic quality built on Bono's expressive vocals and the Edge's chiming, effects-based guitar sounds. Bono's lyrics, often embellished with spiritual imagery, focus on personal and sociopolitical themes. Popular for their live performances, the group have staged several elaborate tours over their career.

The band was formed when the members were teenaged pupils of Mount Temple Comprehensive School and had limited musical proficiency. Within four years, they signed with Island Records and released their debut album, Boy (1980). Works such as their first UK number-one album, War (1983), and singles "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Pride (In the Name of Love)" helped establish U2's reputation as a politically and socially conscious group. Their fourth album, The Unforgettable Fire (1984), was their first collaboration with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, whose influence resulted in a more abstract, ambient sound for the band. By the mid-1980s, U2 had become renowned globally for their live act, highlighted by their performance at Live Aid in 1985. Their fifth album, The Joshua Tree (1987), made them international stars and was their greatest critical and commercial success. One of the world's best-selling albums with 25 million copies sold, it produced the group's only number-one singles in the US to date: "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". (Full article...)
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Major General Rupert Major Downes, (10 February 1885 – 5 March 1945) was an Australian soldier, surgeon and historian.

The son of British Army officer Major Francis Downes, Downes joined the Army as a trumpeter while he was still at school. He attended the University of Melbourne, graduating with his medical degrees in 1907 and a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1911. He was commissioned as a captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps in 1908, and after the outbreak of the First World War he joined the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in 1914 as its youngest lieutenant colonel. He served in the Gallipoli campaign, and was appointed Assistant Director of Medical Services (ADMS) of the newly formed Anzac Mounted Division in 1916, which he combined with the post of ADMS AIF Egypt. In 1917, he became Deputy Director of Medical Services (DDMS) of the Desert Mounted Corps. After the war, he wrote articles on medical aspects of the Sinai and Palestine campaign, and the section on the campaign for the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918. (Full article...)
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Raymond Pace Alexander (October 13, 1897 – November 24, 1974) was an American civil rights leader, lawyer, politician, and the first African American judge appointed to the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas. Born and raised in Philadelphia, he became the first black graduate of the Wharton School of Business in 1920. After graduation from Harvard Law School in 1923, Alexander became one of the leading civil rights attorneys in Philadelphia. He gained prominence as a black lawyer willing to fight for equal rights in the Berwyn desegregation case and represented black defendants in other high-profile cases, including the Trenton Six, a group of black men arrested for murder in Trenton, New Jersey.

Alexander began his involvement in politics with unsuccessful runs for a judgeship on the Court of Common Pleas in 1933 and 1937. In 1949 he was considered by President Harry S. Truman for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He finally won a seat on the Philadelphia City Council in 1951. After two terms on the city council, Alexander was appointed to a seat on the Court of Common Pleas and was re-elected to a ten-year term as a judge in 1959. He continued to work for racial equality throughout his time in the municipal government. Alexander assumed senior status at mandatory retirement age in 1969 and died in 1974. His legacy is honored by a professorship at the University of Pennsylvania. (Full article...)
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Nasr (1 November 1287 – 16 November 1322), full name Abu al-Juyush Nasr ibn Muhammad (Arabic: أبو الجيوش نصر بن محمد), was the fourth Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada from 14 March 1309 until his abdication on 8 February 1314. He was the son of Muhammad II al-Faqih and Shams al-Duha. He ascended the throne after his brother Muhammad III was dethroned in a palace revolution. At the time of his accession, Granada faced a three-front war against Castile, Aragon and the Marinid Sultanate, triggered by his predecessor's foreign policy. He made peace with the Marinids in September 1309, ceding to them the African port of Ceuta, which had already been captured, as well as Algeciras and Ronda in Europe. Granada lost Gibraltar to a Castilian siege in September, but successfully defended Algeciras until it was given to the Marinids, who continued its defense until the siege was abandoned in January 1310. James II of Aragon sued for peace after Granadan defenders defeated the Aragonese siege of Almería in December 1309, withdrawing his forces and leaving the Emirate's territories by January. In the ensuing treaty, Nasr agreed to pay tributes and indemnities to Ferdinand IV of Castile and yield some border towns in exchange for seven years of peace.

Despite achieving peace with relatively minimal losses, Nasr was unpopular at court as he was suspected of being pro-Christian and accused of devoting so much time to astronomy that he neglected his duties as ruler. A rebellion started by his brother-in-law Abu Said Faraj in 1311 was initially repulsed, but a second campaign by Abu Said's son Ismail ended in the capture of the Alhambra palace and Nasr's abdication on 8 February 1314 in favour of Ismail, now Ismail I. He was allowed to rule the eastern province of Guadix, styling himself "King of Guadix", and attempted to regain the throne with help from Castile. Ismail defeated the Castilian forces in the Battle of the Vega of Granada, resulting in a truce that ended their support for Nasr. Nasr died without an heir in 1322. (Full article...)
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John Young Brown (June 28, 1835 – January 11, 1904) was an American politician from the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky who represented the state in the United States House of Representatives and served as its 31st governor. Brown was elected to the House of Representatives for three non-consecutive terms, each of which was marred by controversy. He was first elected in 1859, despite his own protests that he was not yet twenty-five years old, the minimum age set by the Constitution for serving in the legislature. The voters of his district elected him anyway, but he was not allowed to take his seat until the Congress' second session, after he was of legal age to serve. After moving to Henderson, Kentucky, Brown was elected from that district in 1866. On this occasion, he was denied his seat because of alleged disloyalty to the Union during the Civil War. Voters in his district refused to elect another representative, and the seat remained vacant throughout the term to which Brown was elected. After an unsuccessful gubernatorial bid in 1871, Brown was again elected to the House in 1872 and served three consecutive terms. During his final term, he was officially censured for delivering a speech excoriating Massachusetts Representative Benjamin F. Butler. The censure was later expunged from the congressional record.

After his service in the House, Brown took a break from politics but re-entered the political arena as a candidate for governor of Kentucky in 1891. He secured the Democratic nomination in a four-way primary election, then convincingly won the general election over his Republican challenger, Andrew T. Wood. Brown's administration, and the state Democratic Party, were split between gold standard supporters (including Brown) and supporters of the free coinage of silver. Brown's was also the first administration to operate under the Kentucky Constitution of 1891, and most of the legislature's time was spent adapting the state's code of laws to the new constitution. Consequently, little of significance was accomplished during Brown's term. (Full article...)

Today anniversaries

Pre-1600

244 – Diocletian, Roman emperor (d. 311)
948 – Kang Kam-ch'an, Korean official and general (d. 1031)
1095 – Roger II of Sicily (d. 1154)
1178 – Emperor Antoku of Japan (d. 1185)
1183 – Chagatai Khan, Mongol ruler (d. 1242)
1300 – Khutughtu Khan Kusala, Mongolian emperor (d. 1329)
1459 – Sultan Cem, Ottoman politician (d. 1495)
1546 – Kuroda Yoshitaka, Japanese daimyō (d. 1604)
1550 – Cesare Cremonini, Italian philosopher and author (d. 1631)
1569 – Étienne Martellange, French architect (d. 1641)
1591 – Tommaso Dingli, Maltese architect and sculptor (d. 1666)

1601–1900

1639 – Jean Racine, French poet and playwright (d. 1699)
1666 – Guru Gobind Singh, Indian guru and poet (d. 1708)
1694 – Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher and academic (d. 1768)
1696 – James Oglethorpe, English general and politician, 1st Colonial Governor of Georgia (d. 1785)
1723 – Carl Friedrich Abel, German viol player and composer (d. 1787)
1765 – Johann Friedrich Pfaff, German mathematician and academic (d. 1825)
1799 – Nicholas Callan, Irish priest and physicist (d. 1864)
1805 – John Obadiah Westwood, English entomologist and archaeologist (d. 1893)
1807 – Johan Sebastian Welhaven, Norwegian author, poet, and critic (d. 1873)
1819 – Franz Abt, German composer and conductor (d. 1870)
1819 – Pierre Ossian Bonnet, French mathematician and academic (d. 1892)
1839 – John Nevil Maskelyne, English magician (d. 1917)
1850 – Victoriano Huerta, Mexican general and politician, 35th President of Mexico (d. 1916)
1853 – Teresa Carreño, Venezuelan-American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1917)
1853 – Evgraf Fedorov, Russian mathematician, crystallographer, and mineralogist (d. 1919)
1853 – Sarada Devi, Indian mystic and philosopher (d. 1920)
1856 – Frank B. Kellogg, American lawyer and politician, 45th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1937)
1858 – Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer and educator (d. 1924)
1862 – Connie Mack, American baseball player and manager (d. 1956)
1865 – Charles Sands, American golfer and tennis player (d. 1945)
1868 – Jaan Tõnisson, Estonian journalist, lawyer, and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Estonia (d. 1941?)
1869 – Dmitri Egorov, Russian mathematician and academic (d. 1931)
1869 – Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet and playwright (d. 1935)
1872 – Camille Guérin, French veterinarian and bacteriologist (d. 1961)
1874 – Franz Schmidt, Austrian cellist, pianist, and composer (d. 1939)
1876 – Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Egyptian-Italian poet and composer (d. 1944)
1878 – Myer Prinstein, Polish-American jumper (d. 1925)
1880 – Fred Woolley, Australian rugby league player (d. 1955)
1883 – Marcus Hurley, American cyclist (d. 1941)
1883 – Edgard Varèse, French-American composer (d. 1965)
1884 – St. Elmo Brady, African American chemist and educator (d. 1966)
1885 – Deems Taylor, American conductor and critic (d. 1966)
1887 – Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician and theorist (d. 1920)
1888 – J. Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank, English businessman, founded Rank Organisation (d. 1972)
1889 – George Hutson, English runner and soldier (d. 1914)
1892 – Herman Potočnik, Slovenian-Austrian engineer (d. 1929)
1894 – Edwin Linkomies, Finnish academic, professor and the Prime Minister of Finland (d. 1963)
1898 – Vladimir Fock, Russian physicist and mathematician (d. 1974)
1899 – Gustaf Gründgens, German actor and director (d. 1963)
1900 – Marc Allégret, French director and screenwriter (d. 1973)

1901–present

1901 – Andre Kostelanetz, Russian-American conductor and composer (d. 1980)
1903 – Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1983)
1905 – Pierre Brasseur, French-Italian actor and screenwriter (d. 1972)
1905 – Pierre Levegh, French ice hockey player and racing driver (d. 1955)
1905 – Kenneth Rexroth, American poet, translator, and academic (d. 1982)
1907 – Peggy Ashcroft, English actress (d. 1991)
1908 – Giacomo Manzù, Italian sculptor and academic (d. 1991)
1909 – Patricia Hayes, English actress (d. 1998)
1911 – Danny O'Dea, English actor (d. 2003)
1912 – Elias Degiannis, Greek commander (d. 1943)
1912 – Lady Bird Johnson, American beautification activist; 38th First Lady of the United States (d. 2007)
1913 – Giorgio Oberweger, Italian discus thrower and hurdler (d. 1998)
1915 – Barbara Billingsley, American actress (d. 2010)
1915 – Phillip Glasier, English author and academic (d. 2000)
1917 – Gene Rayburn, American game show host and actor (d. 1999)
1921 – Dimitri Fampas, Greek guitarist and composer (d. 1996)
1921 – Hawkshaw Hawkins, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1963)
1922 – Ruth Roman, American actress (d. 1999)
1922 – Jim Wright, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 56th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 2015)
1923 – Peregrine Worsthorne, English journalist and author (d. 2020)
1924 – Frank Corsaro, American actor and director (d. 2017)
1925 – Lewis Glucksman, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 2006)
1925 – Lefter Küçükandonyadis, Turkish footballer and manager (d. 2012)
1926 – Alcides Ghiggia, Italian-Uruguayan footballer and manager (d. 2015)
1926 – Roberta Leigh, English writer, artist and TV producer (d. 2014)
1928 – Fredrik Barth, German-Norwegian anthropologist and academic (d. 2016)
1929 – Wazir Mohammad, Indian-Pakistani cricketer
1930 – Ardalion Ignatyev, Russian sprinter and educator (d. 1998)
1931 – Gisela Birkemeyer, German hurdler and coach (d. 2024)
1931 – Carlos Graça, São Toméan lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe (d. 2013)
1932 – Phil Woosnam, Welsh soccer player and manager (d. 2013)
1933 – John Hartle, English motorcycle racer (d. 1968)
1934 – David Pearson, American race car driver (d. 2018)
1935 – Paulo Rocha, Portuguese director and screenwriter (d. 2012)
1936 – James Burke, Irish historian and author
1936 – Héctor Elizondo, American actor and director
1937 – Charlotte Lamb, English author (d. 2000)
1937 – Eduard Uspensky, Russian author, poet, and playwright (d. 2018)
1937 – Ken Whitmore, English author and playwright
1938 – Matty Alou, Dominican-American baseball player and scout (d. 2011)
1938 – Lucien Bouchard, Canadian lawyer and politician, 27th Premier of Quebec
1938 – Red Steagall, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, and poet
1940 – Luis Francisco Cuéllar, Colombian rancher and politician (d. 2009)
1940 – Mike Molloy, English journalist, author, and illustrator
1942 – Jerry Koosman, American baseball player
1942 – Dick Parry, English saxophonist
1943 – Stefan Janos, Slovak-Swiss physicist and academic
1943 – Paul Wolfowitz, American banker and politician, 25th United States Deputy Secretary of Defense
1944 – Mary Archer, English chemist and academic
1944 – Steve Carlton, American baseball player
1944 – Barry Jenkins, English drummer
1945 – Frances Lannon, English historian and academic
1945 – Sam Newman, Australian footballer and sportscaster
1945 – Diane Sawyer, American journalist
1946 – Roger Carr, English businessman
1946 – C. Eugene Steuerle, American economist and author
1947 – Brian Daley, American author and screenwriter (d. 1996)
1947 – Dilip Doshi, Indian cricketer
1948 – Steve Garvey, American baseball player and sportscaster
1948 – Don Kardong, American runner, journalist, and author
1948 – Rick Nielsen, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1948 – Chris Old, English cricketer and coach
1948 – Lynne Thigpen, American actress and singer (d. 2003)
1949 – Maurice Gibb, Manx-English singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2003)
1949 – Robin Gibb, Manx-English singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2012)
1949 – Ray Guy, American football player (d. 2022)
1950 – Manfred Moore, American football player and rugby league player (d. 2020)
1951 – Lasse Bengtsson, Swedish journalist
1951 – Charles de Lint, Dutch-Canadian author and critic
1951 – Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, British landowner, businessman and philanthropist (d. 2016)
1951 – Tony Isabella, American comic book writer, editor, actor, artist and critic
1951 – Jan Stephenson, Australian golfer
1952 – Sandra Kalniete, Latvian politician and diplomat, former Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs
1953 – Ian Turnbull, Canadian ice hockey player
1953 – Tom Underwood, American baseball player (d. 2010)
1954 – Hideshi Matsuda, Japanese racing driver
1954 – Derick Parry, Nevisian cricketer
1955 – Galina Murašova, Lithuanian discus thrower
1955 – Lonnie Smith, American baseball player
1955 – Thomas C. Südhof, German-American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1956 – Jane Lighting, English businesswoman
1957 – Stephen Conway, English bishop
1957 – Carole James, English-Canadian educator and politician
1957 – Peter Mortimer, Australian rugby league player
1958 – Frank Gambale, Australian guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1958 – David Heavener, American singer-songwriter, producer, actor, and director
1959 – Bernd Schuster, German footballer and manager
1960 – Jean-Michel Basquiat, American painter and poet (d. 1988)
1960 – Luther Campbell, American rapper and actor
1960 – Paul Kuniholm, Artist
1961 – Yuri Malenchenko, Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut
1962 – Ralph Fiennes, English actor
1963 – Giuseppe Bergomi, Italian footballer and coach
1963 – Brian McMillan, South African cricketer and educator
1963 – Luna H. Mitani, Japanese-American painter and illustrator
1964 – Mike Jackson, American baseball player
1964 – Simon Kirby, English businessman and politician
1965 – David S. Goyer, American screenwriter
1965 – Urszula Włodarczyk, Polish heptathlete and triple jumper
1966 – Dmitry Bilozerchev, Russian gymnast and coach
1966 – Marcel Schirmer, German singer-songwriter and bass player
1966 – David Wright, English lawyer and politician
1967 – Richey Edwards, Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1995)
1967 – Stéphane Gendron, Canadian lawyer and politician
1967 – Rebecca Harris, English businesswoman and politician
1967 – Dan Petrescu, Romanian footballer and manager
1968 – Emre Aracı, Turkish composer, conductor, and historian
1968 – Luis Hernández, Mexican footballer
1968 – Lori McKenna, American singer-songwriter
1968 – Dina Meyer, American actress
1969 – Myriam Bédard, Canadian biathlete
1969 – Mark Robins, English footballer and manager
1970 – Gary Anderson, Scottish darts player
1970 – Ted Cruz, Canadian-American lawyer and politician
1971 – Ajeenkya Patil, Indian economist and academic
1972 – Mark Hill, English musician, producer and songwriter
1972 – Kirk Maltby, Canadian ice hockey player and scout
1972 – Vanessa Paradis, French singer-songwriter and actress
1974 – Rei Hance, American actress
1975 – Sergei Aschwanden, Swiss martial artist
1975 – Dmitri Khokhlov, Russian footballer and manager
1975 – Marcin Mięciel, Polish footballer
1975 – Stanislav Neckář, Czech ice hockey player
1975 – Takuya Onishi, Japanese astronaut
1976 – Katleen De Caluwé, Belgian sprinter
1976 – Jason Lane, American baseball player and coach
1976 – Aya Takano, Japanese author and illustrator
1977 – Steve Kariya, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1978 – Danny Ahn, South Korean singer
1978 – Joy Ali, Fijian boxer (d. 2015)
1978 – Emmanuel Olisadebe, Nigerian-Polish footballer
1979 – Jamie Langfield, Scottish footballer and coach
1980 – Chris Carmack, American actor, singer, and model
1980 – Marcus Haislip, American basketball player
1981 – Marina Kuptsova, Russian high jumper
1982 – Britta Heidemann, German fencer
1982 – Alinne Moraes, Brazilian actress and model
1983 – José Fonte, Portuguese footballer
1983 – Doc Gallows, American wrestler
1983 – Viola Kibiwot, Kenyan runner
1984 – Basshunter, Swedish singer, record producer and DJ
1984 – Greg Finley, American actor
1986 – Dennis Armfield, Australian footballer
1986 – Fatih Öztürk, Turkish footballer
1987 – Zack Britton, American baseball player
1987 – Éder, Bissau-Portuguese footballer
1988 – Scott Darling, American ice hockey player
1988 – Mohamed El Shenawy, Egyptian footballer
1988 – Leigh Halfpenny, Welsh rugby player
1989 – Jordin Sparks, American singer-songwriter and actress
1989 – Jacob Stallings, American baseball player
1990 – Jean-Baptiste Maunier, French actor and singer
1991 – DaBaby, American rapper
1992 – Michaela Hončová, Slovak tennis player
1992 – Nick Johnson, American basketball player
1992 – Moonbyul, South Korean rapper, vocalist and songwriter
1993 – Sergi Darder, Spanish footballer
1993 – Raphaël Guerreiro, Portuguese footballer
1993 – Meghan Trainor, American singer-songwriter and producer
1994 – Rúben Lameiras, Portuguese footballer
1998 – G Hannelius, American actress and singer
1998 – Casper Ruud, Norwegian tennis player
2000 – Joshua Bassett, American actor and singer
2001 – Camila Osorio, Colombian tennis player
2002 – David Datro Fofana, Ivorian footballer
2006 – Callan McKenna, Scottish footballer (Full article...)

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