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

Image 1

McGraw in 1910

John Joseph McGraw (April 7, 1873 – February 25, 1934) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) player and manager who was for almost thirty years manager of the New York Giants. He was also the third baseman of the pennant-winning 1890s Baltimore Orioles teams, noted for their innovative, aggressive play.

McGraw was born into poverty in Truxton, New York. He found an escape from his hometown and a bad family situation through baseball, beginning a quick rise through the minor leagues that led him to the Orioles at the age of 18. Under the tutelage of manager Ned Hanlon, the Orioles of the 1890s won three National League (NL) pennants; McGraw was one of the stalwarts of the team alongside Wee Willie Keeler, Hughie Jennings, and Wilbert Robinson. The Orioles perfected the hit and run play and popularized the Baltimore chop; they also sought to win by intimidating the opposing team and the umpire. (Full article...)
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MacArthur in 1945

Douglas MacArthur (26 January 1880 – 5 April 1964) was an American general who served as a top commander during World War II and the Korean War, achieving the rank of General of the Army. He served with distinction in World War I; as chief of staff of the United States Army from 1930 to 1935; as Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area, from 1942 to 1945 during WWII; as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers overseeing the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951; and as head of the United Nations Command in the Korean War from 1950 to 1951. MacArthur was nominated for the Medal of Honor three times, and was awarded it for his WWII service in the Philippines. He is one of only five men to rise to the rank of General of the Army, and the only one to hold the rank of Field Marshal in the Philippine Army.

MacArthur, the son of Medal of Honor recipient Arthur MacArthur Jr., was raised on Army posts in the Old West. He was valedictorian of the West Texas Military Academy and First Captain at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated first in his class in 1903. During the 1914 U.S. occupation of Veracruz, he conducted a reconnaissance mission for which he was nominated for the Medal of Honor. In 1917, he was promoted from major to colonel and became chief of staff of the 42nd (Rainbow) Division. On the Western Front during World War I, he rose to the rank of brigadier general, was again nominated for a Medal of Honor, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross twice and the Silver Star seven times. From 1919 to 1922, MacArthur served as Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy, where he initiated a series of reforms. His next posting was in the Philippines, where in 1924 he was instrumental in quelling the Philippine Scout Mutiny. In 1925, MacArthur became the Army's youngest major general at the age of 45, and in 1930 was appointed Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. He was involved in the controversial expulsion of the Bonus Army protesters from Washington, D.C., in 1932, and took charge of the Civilian Conservation Corps. In 1935, MacArthur became the Military Advisor to the Commonwealth of the Philippines. He retired from the Army in 1937, but continued as advisor and was Field Marshal of the Philippine Army from 1936. (Full article...)
Image 3

John Leak, c. 1916

John Leak, VC (c. 1892 – 20 October 1972) was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in battle that could be awarded at that time to a member of the Australian armed forces. Leak enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in early 1915, and served with the 9th Battalion in the Gallipoli Campaign during the First World War. Evacuated suffering from dysentery, Leak rejoined his battalion after it had been withdrawn to Egypt. Along with his unit, he transferred to the Western Front in France and Belgium, where he participated in the Battle of Pozières in July 1916. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions during the battle. The following month he was seriously wounded in the Battle of Mouquet Farm.

Leak was evacuated to the United Kingdom, and did not return to his unit until October 1917. Suffering from the effects of his service, Leak was convicted of desertion by a court-martial in November, but his sentence was ultimately suspended, and he returned to the 9th Battalion. In early March 1918 he was gassed, and did not rejoin to his unit until the Armistice of 11 November 1918. He returned to Australia and was discharged in 1919. (Full article...)
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In this c. 1772 portrait, Adams points at the Massachusetts Charter, which he viewed as a constitution that protected the peoples' rights.

Samuel Adams (September 27 [O.S. September 16], 1722 – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence and other founding documents, and one of the architects of the principles of American republicanism that shaped the political culture of the United States. He was a second cousin to his fellow Founding Father, President John Adams. He founded the Sons of Liberty.

Adams was born in Boston, brought up in a religious and politically active family. A graduate of Harvard College, he was an unsuccessful businessman and tax collector before concentrating on politics. He was an influential official of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Boston Town Meeting in the 1760s, and he became a part of a movement opposed to the British Parliament's efforts to tax the British American colonies without their consent. His 1768 Massachusetts Circular Letter calling for colonial non-cooperation prompted the occupation of Boston by British troops, eventually resulting in the Boston Massacre of 1770. Adams and his colleagues devised a committee of correspondence system in 1772 to help coordinate resistance to what he saw as the British government's attempts to violate the British Constitution at the expense of the colonies, which linked like-minded Patriots throughout the Thirteen Colonies. Continued resistance to British policy resulted in the 1773 Boston Tea Party and the coming of the American Revolution. Adams was actively involved with colonial newspapers publishing accounts of colonial sentiment over British colonial rule, which were fundamental in uniting the colonies. (Full article...)
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Doonan in 1890

James Aloysius Doonan (November 8, 1841 – April 12, 1911) was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit, who was the president of Georgetown University from 1882 to 1888. During that time he oversaw the naming of Gaston Hall and the construction of a new building for the School of Medicine. Doonan also acquired two historic cannons that were placed in front of Healy Hall. His presidency was financially successful, with a reduction in the university's burdensome debt that had accrued during the construction of Healy Hall.

Prior to his administration of Georgetown, Doonan was a student there and at Woodstock College. He then taught at Loyola College in Maryland and Boston College. He spent his later years teaching and ministering at Boston College and at Saint Joseph's College in Philadelphia, as well as at St. Francis Xavier College in New York and at the Catholic Summer School of America. (Full article...)
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Mathew Charles "Matt" Lamb (5 January 1948 – 7 November 1976) was a Canadian spree killer who, in 1967, avoided Canada's then-mandatory death penalty for capital murder by being found not guilty by reason of insanity. Abandoned by his teenage mother soon after his birth in Windsor, Ontario, Lamb had an abusive upbringing at the hands of his step-grandfather, leading him to become emotionally detached from his relatives and peers. He developed violent tendencies that manifested themselves in his physical assault of a police officer at the age of 16 in February 1964, and his engaging in a brief shoot-out with law enforcement ten months later. After this latter incident he spent 14 months, starting in April 1965, at Kingston Penitentiary, a maximum security prison in eastern Ontario.

Seventeen days after his release from jail in June 1966, Lamb took a shotgun from his uncle's house and went on a shooting spree around his East Windsor neighborhood, killing two strangers and wounding two others. He was charged with capital murder, which under the era's Criminal Code called for a mandatory death penalty, but he avoided this fate when the court found, in January 1967, that he had not been sane at the time of the incident. He was committed for an indefinite time in a psychiatric unit. Over the course of six years in care at Penetanguishene Mental Health Centre's Oak Ridge facility he displayed a profound recovery, prompting an independent five-man committee to recommend to the Executive Council of Ontario that he be released, saying that he was no longer a danger to society. The Council approved Lamb's release in early 1973 on the condition that he spend a year living and working under the supervision of one of Oak Ridge's top psychiatrists, Elliot Barker. (Full article...)
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Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Richardson

Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Richardson (c. 10 March 1769 – 10 November 1850) was a British naval officer of the 18th and 19th centuries. His naval career began when he joined HMS Vestal as a captain's servant in 1787. In Vestal he made an aborted journey to China before serving on the East Indies Station where he transferred to HMS Phoenix and fought in the Battle of Tellicherry and the Third Anglo-Mysore War in 1791 and 1792. Having returned to England as a master's mate, Richardson fought at the Glorious First of June on HMS Royal George in 1794 before being promoted to lieutenant in HMS Circe. In 1797, he successfully combated the Nore mutiny in Circe before fighting in the Battle of Camperdown where he personally captured the Dutch admiral Jan Willem de Winter. Afterwards he became flag lieutenant to Admiral Adam Duncan and fought at the Battle of Callantsoog and the Vlieter Incident in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland of 1799. He then sailed to Egypt in HMS Kent where he again went onshore, fighting in the battles of Abukir, Mandora, and Alexandria in 1801.

Promoted to commander in July 1801, Richardson was given command of the en flute HMS Alligator. After the Napoleonic Wars began in 1803 he was sent to the Leeward Islands Station, where he captured three Dutch settlements in September. Richardson made a valuable contribution in the Battle of Suriname in the following year for which he was given command of HMS Centaur and promoted to post-captain. Leaving Centaur in 1805, at the start of the next year he received command of HMS Caesar. In Caesar Richardson fought at the battles of Les Sables-d'Olonne and the Basque Roads in 1809. He joined the Walcheren Campaign later in the year, where he took command of a naval brigade operating ashore. In 1810 he was given command of HMS Semiramis in the English Channel; cooperating with HMS Diana he fought an action against two French warships and a small convoy off the Gironde that was complimented by Spencer Perceval, the prime minister. (Full article...)
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Waller on the bridge of HMAS Stuart in 1940

Hector Macdonald Laws Waller, (4 April 1900 – 1 March 1942) was a senior officer in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). His career spanned almost thirty years, including service in both world wars. At the helm of the flotilla leader HMAS Stuart in the Mediterranean from 1939 to 1941, he won recognition as a skilful ship's captain and flotilla commander. He then transferred to the South West Pacific as captain of the light cruiser HMAS Perth, and went down with his ship during the Battle of Sunda Strait in early 1942.

Born in Benalla, Victoria, Waller entered the Royal Australian Naval College aged thirteen. After graduating, he served with the Royal Navy in the closing stages of World War I. Between the wars, he specialised in communications and was posted as signals officer to several British and Australian warships. He gained his first seagoing command in 1937, as captain of the destroyer HMS Brazen. In September 1939, he took command of HMAS Stuart and four other obsolete destroyers that together became known as the "Scrap Iron Flotilla". In 1940, these were augmented by other ships to form the 10th Destroyer Flotilla, supporting Allied troops in North Africa. (Full article...)
Image 9
Elizabeth Needham (right foreground) as portrayed in William Hogarth's A Harlot's Progress

Elizabeth Needham (died 3 May 1731), also known as Mother Needham, was an English procuress and brothel-keeper of 18th-century London, who has been identified as the bawd greeting Moll Hackabout in the first plate of William Hogarth's series of satirical etchings, A Harlot's Progress. Although Needham was notorious in London at the time, little is recorded of her life, and no genuine portraits of her survive. Her house was the most exclusive in London and her customers came from the highest strata of fashionable society, but she eventually ran afoul of the moral reformers of the day and died as a result of the severe treatment she received after being sentenced to stand in the pillory. (Full article...)
Image 10

Jackson in 2009

General Sir Michael David Jackson, (21 March 1944 – 15 October 2024) was a British Army officer and one of its most high-profile generals since the Second World War. Originally commissioned into the Intelligence Corps in 1963, he transferred to the Parachute Regiment in 1970, with which he served two of his three tours of duty in Northern Ireland. On his first, he was present as an adjutant at the events of the Ballymurphy massacre (1971), where eleven unarmed civilians were shot dead by British troops, and then at Bloody Sunday in 1972, when British soldiers opened fire on unarmed protesters, killing fourteen. On his second, he was a company commander in the aftermath of the Warrenpoint ambush (1979), when the IRA killed 18 soldiers with two roadside bombs, the British Army's heaviest single loss of life during the Troubles. He was assigned to a staff post at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 1982 before assuming command of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment, in 1984. Jackson was posted to Northern Ireland for the third time, as a brigade commander, in the early 1990s.

In 1995–1996, Jackson served his first tour in the Balkans, where he commanded a multi-national division of the Implementation Force. Following a staff job in the UK, he was appointed commander of NATO's Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) in 1997. He returned to the Balkans with the ARRC during the Kosovo War, during which he famously refused to obey an order from American General Wesley Clark, his immediate superior in the NATO chain of command, to block the runways of Pristina Airport and isolate the Russian contingent that was positioned there. He reportedly told Clark, "I'm not going to start the Third World War for you". The incident attracted controversy, particularly in the United States, and earned Jackson the nickname "Macho Jacko" in the British tabloid press. Jackson established a working relationship with the Russian general commanding the detachment at Pristina, giving him a bottle of whisky, of which Jackson was known to be fond, and providing the Russians with the protection of a squad of British soldiers, commanded by his son, Mark. (Full article...)
Image 11

Messiaen in 1986

Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (UK: /ˈmɛsiæ̃/, US: /mɛˈsjæ̃, meɪˈsjæ̃, mɛˈsjɒ̃/; French: [ɔlivje øʒɛn pʁɔspɛʁ ʃaʁl mɛsjɑ̃]; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th century, he was also an outstanding teacher of composition and musical analysis.

Messiaen entered the Paris Conservatoire at age 11 and studied with Paul Dukas, Maurice Emmanuel, Charles-Marie Widor and Marcel Dupré, among others. He was appointed organist at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris, in 1931, a post he held for 61 years, until his death. He taught at the Schola Cantorum de Paris during the 1930s. After the fall of France in 1940, Messiaen was interned for nine months in the German prisoner of war camp Stalag VIII-A, where he composed his Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) for the four instruments available in the prison—piano, violin, cello and clarinet. The piece was first performed by Messiaen and fellow prisoners for an audience of inmates and prison guards. Soon after his release in 1941, Messiaen was appointed professor of harmony at the Paris Conservatoire. In 1966, he was appointed professor of composition there, and he held both positions until retiring in 1978. His many distinguished pupils included Iannis Xenakis, George Benjamin, Alexander Goehr, Pierre Boulez, Jacques Hétu, Tristan Murail, Karlheinz Stockhausen, György Kurtág, and Yvonne Loriod, who became his second wife. (Full article...)
Image 12

Official portrait, 2019

Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and retired politician. He served as a United States senator from Utah from 2019 to 2025 and as the 70th governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007. He was the Republican Party's nominee in the 2012 U.S. presidential election.

Mitt Romney is a son of George W. Romney, a former governor of Michigan. Raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Mitt spent over two years in France as a Mormon missionary. He married Ann Davies in 1969; they have five sons. Active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) throughout his adult life, Romney served as bishop of his ward and later as a stake president for an area covering Boston and many of its suburbs. By 1971, he had participated in the political campaigns of both his parents. In 1971, Romney graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English from Brigham Young University (BYU) and in 1975 he received a JD–MBA degree from Harvard. He became a management consultant and in 1977 joined Bain & Company in Boston. As Bain's chief executive officer (CEO), he helped lead the company out of a financial crisis. In 1984, he co-founded and led the spin-off company Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm that became one of the largest of its kind in the nation. (Full article...)
Image 13

Gold dinar minted in Fustat in the name of al-Musta'li, 1099/1100

Abū al-Qāsim Aḥmad ibn al-Mustanṣir (Arabic: أبو القاسم أحمد بن المستنصر; 15/16 September 1074 – 11/12 December 1101), better known by his regnal name al-Mustaʿlī biʾllāh (المستعلي بالله, lit. 'The One Raised Up by God'), was the ninth Fatimid caliph and the 19th imam of Musta'li Ismailism.

Although not the eldest (and most likely the youngest) of the sons of Caliph al-Mustansir Billah, al-Musta'li became caliph through the machinations of his brother-in-law, the vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah. In response, his oldest brother and most likely candidate for their father's succession, Nizar, rose in revolt in Alexandria but was defeated and executed. This caused a major split in the Isma'ili movement. Many communities, especially in Persia and Iraq, split off from the officially sponsored Isma'ili hierarchy and formed their own Nizari movement, holding Nizar and his descendants as the rightful imams. (Full article...)
Image 14

Edward as Colonel of the Welsh Guards in 1919

Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January 1936 until his abdication in December of the same year.

Edward was born during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary. He was created Prince of Wales on his 16th birthday, seven weeks after his father succeeded as king. As a young man, Edward served in the British Army during the First World War and undertook several overseas tours on behalf of his father. The Prince of Wales gained popularity due to his charm and charisma, and his fashion sense became a hallmark of the era. After the war, his conduct began to give cause for concern; he engaged in a series of sexual affairs that worried both his father and the British prime minister, Stanley Baldwin. (Full article...)
Image 15
Portrait of Ælfwynn's foster-son King Edgar flanked by the Virgin Mary and St Peter in the Winchester New Minster Charter of 966

Ælfwynn or Ælfwyn (died 8 July 983) was a member of a wealthy Anglo-Saxon family in Huntingdonshire who married Æthelstan Half-King, the powerful ealdorman of East Anglia, in about 932. She is chiefly known for having been foster-mother to the future King Edgar the Peaceful following his mother's death in 944, when he was an infant. She had four sons, and the youngest, Æthelwine, became the chief secular magnate and leading supporter of the monastic reform movement. Ælfwynn donated her estates for his foundation of Ramsey Abbey in 966 and was probably buried there. (Full article...)

Today anniversaries

Pre-1600

1361 – Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia (d. 1419)
1416 – Christopher of Bavaria (d. 1448)
1564 – Christopher Marlowe, English playwright, poet and translator (d. 1593)
1584 – Albert VI, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1666)
1587 – Stefano Landi, Italian composer and educator (d. 1639)

1601–1900

1629 – Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll, Scottish peer (d. 1685)
1651 – Quirinus Kuhlmann, German Baroque poet and mystic (d. 1689)
1671 – Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, English philosopher and politician (d. 1713)
1672 – Antoine Augustin Calmet, French monk and theologian (d. 1757)
1677 – Nicola Fago, Italian composer and teacher (d. 1745)
1718 – Johan Ernst Gunnerus, Norwegian bishop, botanist and zoologist (d. 1773)
1720 – Gian Francesco Albani, Italian cardinal (d. 1803)
1729 – Anders Chydenius, Finnish economist, philosopher and Lutheran priest (d. 1803)
1746 – Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma (d. 1804)
1770 – Anton Reicha, Bohemian composer and flautist (d. 1836)
1777 – Matija Nenadović, Serbian priest, historian, and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Serbia (d. 1854)
1786 – François Arago, French mathematician and politician, 25th Prime Minister of France (d. 1853)
1802 – Victor Hugo, French author, poet, and playwright (d. 1885)
1808 – Honoré Daumier, French painter, illustrator, and sculptor (d. 1879)
1808 – Nathan Kelley, American architect, designed the Ohio Statehouse (d. 1871)
1829 – Levi Strauss, German-American fashion designer, founded Levi Strauss & Co. (d. 1902)
1842 – Camille Flammarion, French astronomer and author (d. 1925)
1846 – Buffalo Bill, American soldier and hunter (d. 1917)
1852 – John Harvey Kellogg, American surgeon, co-created Corn flakes (d. 1943)
1857 – Émile Coué, French psychologist and pharmacist (d. 1926)
1861 – Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (d. 1948)
1861 – Nadezhda Krupskaya, Russian soldier and politician (d. 1939)
1866 – Herbert Henry Dow, Canadian-American businessman, founded the Dow Chemical Company (d. 1930)
1871 – Matti Turkia, Finnish politician (d. 1946)
1877 – Henry Barwell, Australian politician, 28th Premier of South Australia (d. 1959)
1877 – Rudolph Dirks, German-American illustrator (d. 1968)
1879 – Frank Bridge, English viola player and composer (d. 1941)
1880 – Kenneth Edgeworth, Irish astronomer (d. 1972)
1881 – Janus Djurhuus, Faroese poet (d. 1948)
1882 – Husband E. Kimmel, American admiral (d. 1968)
1885 – Aleksandras Stulginskis, Lithuanian farmer and politician, 2nd President of Lithuania (d. 1969)
1887 – Grover Cleveland Alexander, American baseball player and coach (d. 1950)
1887 – William Frawley, American actor and vaudevillian (d. 1966)
1887 – Stefan Grabiński, Polish author and educator (d. 1936)
1893 – Wallace Fard Muhammad, American religious leader, founded the Nation of Islam (disappeared 1934)
1893 – Dorothy Whipple, English novelist (d. 1966)
1896 – Andrei Zhdanov, Ukrainian-Russian civil servant and politician (d. 1948)
1899 – Max Petitpierre, Swiss jurist and politician, 54th President of the Swiss Confederation (d. 1994)
1900 – Halina Konopacka, Polish discus thrower and poet (d. 1989)
1900 – Fritz Wiessner, German-American mountaineer (d. 1988)

1901–present

1902 – Jean Bruller, French author and illustrator, co-founded Les Éditions de Minuit (d. 1991)
1903 – Giulio Natta, Italian chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
1903 – Orde Wingate, English general (d. 1944)
1906 – Madeleine Carroll, English actress (d. 1987)
1908 – Tex Avery, American animator, producer, and voice actor (d. 1980)
1908 – Nestor Mesta Chayres, Mexican operatic tenor and bolero vocalist (d. 1971)
1908 – Jean-Pierre Wimille, French racing driver (d. 1949)
1909 – Fanny Cradock, English chef, author, and critic (d. 1994)
1909 – Talal of Jordan (d. 1972)
1910 – Vic Woodley, English footballer (d. 1978)
1911 – Tarō Okamoto, Japanese painter and sculptor (d. 1996)
1914 – Robert Alda, American actor, singer, and director (d. 1986)
1916 – Jackie Gleason, American actor and singer (d. 1987)
1918 – Otis Bowen, American physician and politician, 44th Governor of Indiana (d. 2013)
1918 – Pyotr Masherov, Leader of Soviet Belarus (d. 1980)
1918 – Theodore Sturgeon, American author and critic (d. 1985)
1919 – Mason Adams, American actor (d. 2005)
1920 – Danny Gardella, American baseball player and trainer (d. 2005)
1920 – Tony Randall, American actor, director, and producer (d. 2004)
1920 – Lucjan Wolanowski, Polish journalist and author (d. 2006)
1921 – Betty Hutton, American actress and singer (d. 2007)
1922 – Bill Johnston, Australian cricketer and businessman (d. 2007)
1922 – Margaret Leighton, English actress (d. 1976)
1924 – Marc Bucci, American composer, lyricist, and dramatist (d. 2002)
1924 – Noboru Takeshita, Japanese soldier and politician, 74th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 2000)
1925 – Everton Weekes, Barbadian cricketer and referee (d. 2020)
1926 – Doris Belack, American actress (d. 2011)
1926 – Verne Gagne, American football player, wrestler, and trainer (d. 2015)
1926 – Henry Molaison, American medical patient (d. 2008)
1927 – Tom Kennedy, American game show host and actor (d. 2020)
1928 – Fats Domino, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2017)
1928 – Ariel Sharon, Israeli general and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Israel (d. 2014)
1931 – Ally MacLeod, Scottish footballer and manager (d. 2004)
1931 – Robert Novak, American journalist and author (d. 2009)
1931 – Josephine Tewson, English actress (d. 2022)
1932 – Johnny Cash, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (d. 2003)
1933 – James Goldsmith, French-British businessman and politician (d. 1997)
1934 – Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina, Algerian director, producer, and screenwriter
1936 – José Policarpo, Portuguese cardinal (d. 2014)
1937 – Paul Dickson, American football player and coach (d. 2011)
1939 – Chuck Wepner, American boxer
1940 – Oldřich Kulhánek, Czech painter, illustrator, and stage designer (d. 2013)
1942 – Jozef Adamec, Slovak footballer and manager (d. 2018)
1943 – Paul Cotton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2021)
1943 – Bill Duke, American actor and director
1943 – Dante Ferretti, Italian art director and costume designer
1943 – Bob Hite, American singer-songwriter and musician (d. 1981)
1944 – Christopher Hope, South African author and poet
1944 – Ronald Lauder, American businessman and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Austria
1945 – Peter Brock, Australian racing driver (d. 2006)
1945 – Marta Kristen, Norwegian-American actress
1945 – Mitch Ryder, American singer-songwriter
1946 – Colin Bell, English footballer (d. 2021)
1946 – Bingo Smith, American basketball player (d. 2023)
1946 – Ahmed Zewail, Egyptian-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2016)
1947 – Sandie Shaw, English singer and psychotherapist
1948 – Sharyn McCrumb, American author
1949 – Simon Crean, Australian trade union leader and politician, 14th Australian Minister for the Arts (d. 2023)
1949 – Elizabeth George, American author and educator
1949 – Emma Kirkby, English soprano
1950 – Jonathan Cain, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer
1950 – Helen Clark, New Zealand academic and politician, 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand
1951 – Wayne Goss, Australian lawyer and politician, 34th Premier of Queensland (d. 2014)
1953 – Michael Bolton, American singer-songwriter and actor
1953 – Barbara Niven, American actress and writer
1954 – Prince Ernst August of Hanover
1954 – Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkish politician, 12th President of Turkey
1955 – Andreas Maislinger, Austrian historian and academic, founded the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service
1956 – Michel Houellebecq, French author, poet, screenwriter, and director
1957 – David Beasley, American lawyer and politician, 113th Governor of South Carolina
1957 – Joe Mullen, American ice hockey player and coach
1957 – John Jude Palencar, American artist and illustrator
1957 – Keena Rothhammer, American swimmer
1958 – Greg Germann, American actor and director
1958 – Liza 'N' Eliaz, Belgian, transgender, hardcore DJ
1958 – Susan Helms, American general, engineer, and astronaut
1958 – Tim Kaine, American lawyer and politician, 70th Governor of Virginia
1959 – Rolando Blackman, Panamanian-American basketball player
1959 – Ahmet Davutoğlu, Turkish political scientist, academic, and politician, 37th Prime Minister of Turkey
1960 – Jaz Coleman, English singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer
1962 – Ahn Cheol-soo, South Korean physician, academic, and politician
1963 – Chase Masterson, American actress, singer, and activist
1964 – Mark Dacascos, American actor, martial artist, and television personality
1965 – James Mitchell, American wrestler and manager
1966 – Garry Conille, Haitian physician and politician, 14th Prime Minister of Haiti
1966 – Marc Fortier, French-Canadian ice hockey player
1966 – Jennifer Grant, American actress
1966 – Najwa Karam, Lebanese singer
1967 – Kazuyoshi Miura, Japanese footballer
1967 – Gene Principe, Canadian sports reporter and broadcaster
1968 – Tim Commerford, American bass player
1968 – Leif Rohlin, Swedish ice hockey player
1969 – Hitoshi Sakimoto, Japanese composer and producer
1970 – Predrag Danilović, Serbian basketball player and executive
1970 – Mark Harper, English accountant and politician, Minister of State for Immigration
1971 – Erykah Badu, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1971 – Max Martin, Swedish-American record producer and songwriter
1971 – Hélène Segara, French singer-songwriter and actress
1972 – Maz Jobrani, American comedian and actor
1973 – Marshall Faulk, American football player
1973 – Ole Gunnar Solskjær, Norwegian footballer and manager
1973 – Jenny Thompson, American swimmer
1974 – Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski, Filipina television actress, host and equestrienne
1974 – Sébastien Loeb, French racing driver
1974 – Bonnie Somerville, American actress
1975 – P. J. Axelsson, Swedish ice hockey player
1976 – Nalini Anantharaman, French mathematician
1976 – Chad Urmston, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1977 – Marty Reasoner, American ice hockey player and coach
1977 – Greg Rikaart, American actor
1977 – Tim Thomas, American basketball player
1977 – James Wan, Australian film director, screenwriter, and producer
1977 – Shane Williams, Welsh rugby union player
1978 – Abdoulaye Faye, Senegalese footballer
1979 – Corinne Bailey Rae, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1979 – Steve Evans, Welsh footballer
1979 – Pedro Mendes, Portuguese footballer
1980 – Steve Blake, American basketball player
1981 – Kevin Dallman, Canadian-Kazakhstani ice hockey player
1981 – Kertus Davis, American race car driver
1981 – Simon Maljevac, Slovenian politician
1981 – Robert Mathis, American football player
1981 – Oh Seung-bum, South Korean footballer
1982 – Li Na, Chinese tennis player
1982 – Matt Prior, South African-English cricketer
1982 – Nate Ruess, American singer-songwriter
1983 – Jerome Harrison, American football player
1983 – Pepe, Brazilian-Portuguese footballer
1984 – Emmanuel Adebayor, Togolese footballer
1984 – Natalia Lafourcade, Mexican singer-songwriter
1984 – Beren Saat, Turkish actress
1985 – Fernando Llorente, Spanish footballer
1986 – Mārtiņš Karsums, Latvian ice hockey player
1986 – Hannah Kearney, American skier
1986 – Teresa Palmer, Australian actress
1989 – Gabriel Obertan, French footballer
1990 – Takanoiwa Yoshimori, Mongolian sumo wrestler
1991 – Lee Chae-rin, South Korean singer
1991 – Kevin Plawecki, American baseball player
1992 – Mikael Granlund, Finnish hockey player
1993 – Morgan Gautrat, American soccer player
1994 – Jacob Trouba, American ice hockey player
1994 – Mahra Al Maktoum, Emirati princess.
1997 – Jessie Bates, American football player
2000 – Yeat, American rapper
2003 – Jamal Musiala, German footballer (Full article...)

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