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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Li Rui (simplified Chinese: 李锐; traditional Chinese: 李銳; pinyin: Lǐ Ruì; 14 April 1917 – 16 February 2019) was a Chinese politician, historian and dissident Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member.

As a young student activist, Li joined the Communists in 1937 during the Chinese Civil War. By 1958, he had become the vice-minister of the Ministry of Water Resources. His vocal opposition to the proposed Three Gorges Dam brought him to the attention of the Chairman of the CCP, Mao Zedong. Li impressed Mao, who made him his personal secretary for industrial affairs. However, Li was known for his independence of thought, and defied Mao at the 1959 Lushan Conference. Li was expelled from the party and sent to a prison camp, beginning nearly twenty years of political exile. Denounced by his family for anti-Mao activities during the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, he spent eight years in solitary confinement at the Qincheng Prison. (Full article...)
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Beecham rehearsing in 1948
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, (29 April 1879 – 8 March 1961) was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras. From the early 20th century until his death, Beecham was a major influence on the musical life of Britain and, according to the BBC, was Britain's first international conductor.

Born to a rich industrial family, Beecham began his career as a conductor in 1899. He used his access to the family fortune to finance opera from the 1910s until the start of the Second World War, staging seasons at Covent Garden, Drury Lane and His Majesty's Theatre with international stars, his own orchestra and a wide repertoire. Among the works he introduced to England were Richard Strauss's Elektra, Salome and Der Rosenkavalier and three operas by Frederick Delius. (Full article...)
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Ngô Đình Cẩn (Vietnamese: [ŋo˧ ɗɨ̞̠n˦˩ kəŋ˦˩]; 1911 – 9 May 1964) was the younger brother and confidant of South Vietnam's first president, Ngô Đình Diệm, and an important member of the Diệm government. Diệm put Cẩn in charge of central Vietnam, stretching from Phan Thiết in the south to the border at the 17th parallel, with Cẩn ruling the region as a virtual dictator. Based in the former imperial capital of Huế, Cẩn operated private armies and secret police that controlled the central region and earned himself a reputation as the most oppressive of the Ngô brothers.

In his youth, Cẩn was a follower of the nationalist Phan Bội Châu. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he worked to organise support for Diệm as various Vietnamese groups and international powers sought to stamp their authority over Vietnam. Cẩn, who succeeded in eliminating alternative nationalist opposition in central Vietnam, became the warlord of the region when his brother became president of the southern half of the partitioned nation in 1955. He became notorious for his involvement in smuggling and corruption, as well as his autocratic rule. Cẩn was regarded as an effective leader against the Viet Cong communist insurgency, which was much weaker in central Vietnam than in other parts of South Vietnam. His Popular Force militia was regarded by US officials in central Vietnam as a successful counter to the communists. (Full article...)
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George Abramovich Koval (Russian: Жорж (Георгий) Абрамович Коваль, IPA: [ˈʐorʐ (ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj) ɐˈbraməvʲɪtɕ kɐˈvalʲ] , Zhorzh Abramovich Koval; December 25, 1913 – January 31, 2006) was an American engineer who acted as a Soviet intelligence officer for the Soviet atomic bomb project. Koval's infiltration of the Manhattan Project as a GRU (Soviet military intelligence) agent reduced the time it took for the Soviet Union to develop nuclear weapons.

Koval was born in Sioux City, Iowa to Jewish emigrants from the Russian Empire (now Belarus). As an adult, he traveled with his parents to the Soviet Union to settle in the Jewish Autonomous Region near the Chinese border. Koval was recruited by the GRU, trained, and assigned the code name DELMAR. He returned to the United States in 1940 and was drafted into the U.S. Army in early 1943. Koval worked at atomic research laboratories and, according to the Russian government, relayed back to the Soviet Union information about the production processes and volumes of the polonium, plutonium, and uranium used in American atomic weaponry, and descriptions of the weapon production sites. In 1948, Koval left on a European vacation but never returned to the United States. In 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin posthumously awarded Koval the Hero of the Russian Federation decoration for his service. (Full article...)
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Makhno in 1921

Nestor Ivanovych Makhno (Ukrainian: Нестор Івaнович Махно, pronounced [ˈnɛstor iˈʋɑnowɪt͡ʃ mɐxˈnɔ]; 7 November 1888 – 25 July 1934), also known as Bat'ko Makhno (батько Махно, lit. 'Father Makhno'), was a Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary and the commander of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine during the Ukrainian War of Independence. He established the Makhnovshchina (loosely translated as "Makhno movement"), a mass movement by the Ukrainian peasantry to establish anarchist communism in the country between 1918 and 1921. Initially centered around Makhno's home province of Katerynoslav and hometown of Huliaipole, it came to exert a strong influence over large areas of southern Ukraine, specifically in what is now the Zaporizhzhia Oblast of Ukraine.

Raised by a peasant family and coming of age amid the fervor around the 1905 Revolution, Makhno participated in a local anarchist group and spent seven years imprisoned for his involvement. With his release during the 1917 Revolution, Makhno became a local revolutionary leader in his hometown and oversaw the expropriation and redistribution of large estates to the peasantry. In the Ukrainian Civil War, Makhno sided with the Soviet Russian Bolsheviks against the Ukrainian nationalists and White movement, but his alliances with the Bolsheviks did not last. He rallied Bolshevik support to lead an insurgency, defeating the Central Powers' occupation forces at the Battle of Dibrivka and establishing the Makhnovshchina. Makhno's troops briefly integrated with the Bolshevik Red Army in the 1919 Soviet invasion of Ukraine, but split over differences on the movement's autonomy. Makhno rebuilt his army from the remains of Nykyfor Hryhoriv's forces in western Ukraine, routed the White Army at the Battle of Perehonivka, and captured most of southern and eastern Ukraine, where they again attempted to establish anarchist communism. (Full article...)
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Engraving by Jules Porreau [fr], 1859

Sophie Blanchard (French pronunciation: [sɔfi blɑ̃ʃaʁ]; 25 March 1778 – 6 July 1819), commonly referred to as Madame Blanchard, was a French aeronaut and the wife of ballooning pioneer Jean-Pierre Blanchard. Blanchard was the first woman to work as a professional balloonist, and after her husband's death she continued ballooning, making more than 60 ascents. Known throughout Europe for her ballooning exploits, Blanchard entertained Napoleon Bonaparte, who promoted her to the role of "Aeronaut of the Official Festivals", replacing André-Jacques Garnerin. On the restoration of the monarchy in 1814 she performed for Louis XVIII, who named her "Official Aeronaut of the Restoration".

Ballooning was a risky business for the pioneers. Blanchard lost consciousness on a few occasions, endured freezing temperatures and almost drowned when her balloon crashed in a marsh. In 1819, she became the first woman to be killed in an aviation accident when, during an exhibition in the Tivoli Gardens in Paris, she launched fireworks that ignited the gas in her balloon. Her craft crashed on the roof of a house and she fell to her death. (Full article...)
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Du Bois in 1907

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (/duːˈbɔɪs/ doo-BOYSS; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist.

Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relatively tolerant and integrated community. After completing graduate work at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin and Harvard University, where he was its first African American to earn a doctorate, Du Bois rose to national prominence as a leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of black civil rights activists seeking equal rights. Du Bois and his supporters opposed the Atlanta Compromise. Instead, Du Bois insisted on full civil rights and increased political representation, which he believed would be brought about by the African-American intellectual elite. He referred to this group as the talented tenth, a concept under the umbrella of racial uplift, and believed that African Americans needed the chances for advanced education to develop its leadership. (Full article...)
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Henry in full regalia (depicted in the 11th-century Evangelion of Saint Emmeram's Abbey)

Henry IV (German: Heinrich IV; 11 November 1050 – 7 August 1106) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 to 1105, King of Germany from 1054 to 1105, King of Italy and Burgundy from 1056 to 1105, and Duke of Bavaria from 1052 to 1054. He was the son of Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor—the second monarch of the Salian dynasty—and Agnes of Poitou. After his father's death on 5 October 1056, Henry was placed under his mother's guardianship. She made grants to German aristocrats to secure their support. Unlike her late husband, she could not control the election of the popes, thus the idea of the "liberty of the Church" strengthened during her rule. Taking advantage of her weakness, Archbishop Anno II of Cologne kidnapped Henry in April 1062. He administered Germany until Henry came of age in 1065.

Henry endeavoured to recover the royal estates that had been lost during his minority. He employed low-ranking officials to carry out his new policies, causing discontent in Saxony and Thuringia. Henry crushed a riot in Saxony in 1069 and overcame the rebellion of the Saxon aristocrat Otto of Nordheim in 1071. The appointment of commoners to high office offended German aristocrats, and many of them withdrew from Henry's court. He insisted on his royal prerogative to appoint bishops and abbots, although the reformist clerics condemned this practice as simony (a forbidden sale of church offices). Pope Alexander II blamed Henry's advisors for his acts and excommunicated them in early 1073. Henry's conflicts with the Holy See and the German dukes weakened his position and the Saxons rose up in open rebellion in the summer of 1074. Taking advantage of a quarrel between the Saxon aristocrats and peasantry, he forced the rebels into submission in October 1075. (Full article...)
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Gold dinar of al-Mu'tadid, AH 285 (AD 892/3)

Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Ṭalḥa ibn Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Hārūn Al-Muʿtaḍid bi'Llāh (Arabic: أبو العباس أحمد بن طلحة الموفق), 853/4 or 860/1 – 5 April 902, better known by his regnal name al-Muʿtaḍid bi-llāh (Arabic: المعتضد بالله, "Seeking Support in God"), was the caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate from 892 until his death in 902.

Al-Mu'tadid was the son of al-Muwaffaq, who was the regent and effective ruler of the Abbasid state during the reign of his brother, Caliph al-Mu'tamid. As a prince, the future al-Mu'tadid served under his father during various military campaigns, most notably in the suppression of the Zanj Rebellion, in which he played a major role. When al-Muwaffaq died in June 891 al-Mu'tadid succeeded him as regent. He quickly sidelined his cousin and heir-apparent al-Mufawwid; when al-Mu'tamid died in October 892, he succeeded to the throne. Like his father, al-Mu'tadid's power depended on his close relations with the army. These were first forged during the campaigns against the Zanj and were reinforced in later expeditions which the Caliph led in person: al-Mu'tadid would prove to be the most militarily active of all Abbasid caliphs. Through his energy and ability, he succeeded in restoring to the Abbasid state some of the power and provinces it had lost during the turmoil of the previous decades. (Full article...)
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Group Captain Eaton commanding RAAF Southern Area, 1945

Charles Eaton, OBE, AFC (21 December 1895 – 12 November 1979) was a senior officer and aviator in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), and later served as a diplomat. Born in London, he joined the British Army upon the outbreak of World War I and saw action on the Western Front before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917. Posted as a bomber pilot to No. 206 Squadron, he was twice captured by German forces, and twice escaped. Eaton left the military in 1920 and worked in India until moving to Australia in 1923. Two years later he joined the RAAF, serving initially as an instructor at No. 1 Flying Training School. Between 1929 and 1931, he was chosen to lead three expeditions to search for lost aircraft in Central Australia, gaining national attention and earning the Air Force Cross for his "zeal and devotion to duty".

In 1939, on the eve of World War II, Eaton became the inaugural commanding officer of No. 12 (General Purpose) Squadron at the newly established RAAF Station Darwin in Northern Australia. He was promoted group captain in 1940, and appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire the following year. In 1943, he took command of No. 79 Wing at Batchelor, Northern Territory, and was mentioned in despatches during operations in the South West Pacific. Retiring from the RAAF in December 1945, Eaton took up diplomatic posts in the Dutch East Indies, heading a United Nations commission as Consul-General during the Indonesian National Revolution. He returned to Australia in 1950, and served in Canberra for a further two years. Popularly known as "Moth" Eaton, he was a farmer in later life, and died in 1979 aged 83. He is commemorated by several memorials in the Northern Territory. (Full article...)
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Portrait of Boz's Juba from an 1848 London playbill

Master Juba (ca. 1825 – ca. 1852 or 1853) was an African-American dancer active in the 1840s. He was one of the first black performers in the United States to play onstage for white audiences and the only one of the era to tour with a white minstrel group. His real name was believed to be William Henry Lane, and he was also known as "Boz's Juba" following Dickens's graphic description of him in American Notes.

As a teenager, he began his career in the rough saloons and dance halls of Manhattan's Five Points neighborhood, moving on to minstrel shows in the mid-1840s. "Master Juba" frequently challenged and defeated the best white dancers, including the period favorite, John Diamond. At the height of his American career, Juba's act featured a sequence in which he imitated a series of famous dancers of the day and closed by performing in his own style. Being a black man, he appeared with minstrel troupes in which he imitated white minstrel dancers caricaturing black dance, obscuring his underlying ethnic identity with blackface . Even with his success in America, his greatest success came in England. (Full article...)
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Posthumous portrait

Du Fu (Chinese: 杜甫; Wade–Giles: Tu Fu; 712–770) was a Chinese poet and politician during the Tang dynasty. Together with his elder contemporary and friend Li Bai, Du is often considered one of the greatest Chinese poets. His greatest ambition was to serve his country as a successful civil servant, but Du proved unable to make the necessary accommodations. His life, like all of China, was devastated by the An Lushan Rebellion of 755, and his last 15 years were a time of almost constant unrest.

Although initially he was little-known to other writers, his works came to be hugely influential in both Chinese and Japanese literary culture. Of his poetic writing, nearly fifteen hundred poems have been preserved over the ages. He has been called the "Poet-Historian" and the "Poet-Sage" by Chinese critics, while the range of his work has allowed him to be introduced to Western readers as "the Chinese Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Wordsworth, Béranger, Hugo or Baudelaire". (Full article...)
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Walpole c. 1920–1925

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, CBE (13 March 1884 – 1 June 1941) was an English novelist. He was the son of an Anglican clergyman, intended for a career in the church but drawn instead to writing. Among those who encouraged him were the authors Henry James and Arnold Bennett. His skill at scene-setting and vivid plots, as well as his high profile as a lecturer, brought him a large readership in the United Kingdom and North America. He was a best-selling author in the 1920s and 1930s but has been largely neglected since his death.

After his first novel, The Wooden Horse, in 1909, Walpole wrote prolifically, producing at least one book every year. He was a spontaneous story-teller, writing quickly to get all his ideas on paper, seldom revising. His first novel to achieve major success was his third, Mr Perrin and Mr Traill, a tragicomic story of a fatal clash between two schoolmasters. During the First World War he served in the Red Cross on the Russian-Austrian front, and worked in British propaganda in Petrograd and London. In the 1920s and 1930s Walpole was much in demand not only as a novelist but also as a lecturer on literature, making four exceptionally well-paid tours of North America. (Full article...)
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Charles Domery (c. 1778 – after 1800), later also known as Charles Domerz, was a Polish soldier serving in the Prussian and French armies, noted for his unusually large appetite. Serving in the Prussian Army against France during the War of the First Coalition, he found that the rations of the Prussians were insufficient and deserted to the French Army in return for food. Although generally healthy, he was voraciously hungry during his time in the French service and ate any available food. While stationed near Paris, he was recorded as having eaten 174 cats in a year, and although he disliked vegetables, he would eat 4 to 5 pounds (1.8 to 2.3 kg) of grass each day if he could not find other food. During service on the French ship Hoche, he attempted to eat the severed leg of a crew member hit by cannon fire, before other members of the crew wrestled it from him.

In February 1799, the Hoche was captured by British forces and the crew, including Domery, were interned in Liverpool, where he shocked his captors with his voracious appetite: despite being put on ten times the usual rations, he ate the prison cat and at least 20 rats, and would often eat the prison candles. In one experiment, over the course of a day, he ate 16 pounds (7.3 kg) of raw cow's udder, raw beef and tallow candles and four bottles of porter, all of which he ate and drank without defecating, urinating, or vomiting. (Full article...)
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Chollet at Canisius College, in 1948

Leroy Patrick Chollet (March 5, 1925 – June 10, 1998) was an American professional basketball player. Chollet and his brothers attended Holy Cross School in New Orleans and excelled in sports. After a year in the United States Navy, Chollet enrolled at Loyola University New Orleans and led the Loyola Wolf Pack to their first NAIA men's basketball championship in 1945. Louisiana schools were segregated at the time. Chollet had an African American great-grandparent, and when this was revealed he was pressured into leaving Loyola. He moved to New York and played three seasons for Canisius College. In New York, he passed as white; Canisius would later claim Chollet to be the school's first African American basketball player.

Chollet played for several professional teams, including the Syracuse Nationals. During the inaugural season of the National Basketball Association (NBA), he became a role player behind established veterans, and the team made it to the 1950 NBA Finals. An ankle injury limited Chollet's second year in the NBA. The Elmira Colonels, an American Basketball League team, signed Chollet for his third and final season. He married Barbara Knaus in June 1950. After retiring from professional basketball in 1952, he moved to her hometown, Lakewood, Ohio. They had three children: Lawrence, Melanie, and David. In Lakewood, Chollet worked on the construction of St. Edward High School and became a teacher and varsity head coach. He was inducted into the Halls of Fame of Holy Cross School, Loyola University, and Canisius College. He died in 1998. (Full article...)

Today anniversaries

Pre-1600

968 – Minamoto no Yorinobu, Japanese samurai (d. 1048)
1401 – Masaccio, Italian painter (d. 1428)
1468 – William Conyers, 1st Baron Conyers, English baron (d. 1524)
1505 – Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, English politician (d. 1550)
1538 – Luigi d'Este, Catholic cardinal (d. 1586)
1542 – Thomas Allen, English mathematician and astrologer (d. 1632)
1550 – Man Singh I, Mughal noble (d. 1614)
1596 – Peter Mohyla, Ruthenian Orthodox metropolitan and saint (d. 1646)

1601–1900

1603 – Roger Williams, English minister, theologian, and politician, 9th President of the Colony of Rhode Island (d. 1684)
1615 – Benedict Arnold, Rhode Island colonial governor (d. 1678)
1672 – Benjamin Schmolck, German pastor and composer (d. 1737)
1714 – John Bradstreet, Canadian-English general (d. 1774)
1728 – Hermann Raupach, German harpsichord player and composer (d. 1778)
1778 – Anders Sandøe Ørsted, Danish jurist and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Denmark (d. 1860)
1795 – Jack Russell, English priest, hunter, and dog breeder (d. 1883)
1795 – Leopold von Ranke, German historian, author, and academic (d. 1886)
1803 – Achille Vianelli, Italian painter and academic (d. 1894)
1804 – Benjamin Disraeli, English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1881)
1805 – Thomas Graham, Scottish chemist and academic (d. 1869)
1811 – Archibald Tait, Scottish-English archbishop (d. 1882)
1815 – Thomas Couture, French painter and educator (d. 1879)
1820 – William H. Osborn, American businessman (d. 1894)
1830 – Bartolomé Masó, Cuban soldier and politician (d. 1907)
1832 – John H. Ketcham, American general and politician (d. 1906)
1840 – Ernest de Munck, Belgian cellist and composer (d. 1915)
1840 – Namık Kemal, Turkish journalist, playwright, and activist (d. 1888)
1843 – Thomas Bracken, Irish-New Zealander journalist, poet, and politician (d. 1898)
1850 – Zdeněk Fibich, Czech composer and poet (d. 1900)
1851 – Thomas Chipman McRae, American lawyer and politician, 26th Governor of Arkansas (d. 1929)
1857 – Joseph Carruthers, Australian politician, 16th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1932)
1859 – Gustave Kahn, French poet and critic (d. 1936)
1866 – Maud Gonne, Irish nationalist and political activist (d. 1953)
1868 – George W. Fuller, American chemist and engineer (d. 1934)
1872 – Trevor Kincaid, Canadian-American zoologist and academic (d. 1970)
1872 – Lorenzo Perosi, Italian priest and composer (d. 1956)
1872 – Albert Payson Terhune, American journalist and author (d. 1942)
1876 – Jack Lang, Australian lawyer and politician, 23rd Premier of New South Wales (d. 1975)
1877 – Jaan Sarv, Estonian mathematician and scholar (d. 1954)
1878 – Jan Łukasiewicz, Polish-Irish mathematician and philosopher (d. 1956)
1884 – María Cadilla, Puerto Rican writer, educator, women's rights activist (d. 1951)
1885 – Frank Patrick, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1960)
1888 – Jean Bouin, French runner and rugby player (d. 1914)
1889 – Sewall Wright, American geneticist and biologist (d. 1988)
1890 – Hermann Joseph Muller, American geneticist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)
1891 – John William McCormack, American lawyer and politician, 53rd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1980)
1892 – Walter Hagen, American golfer (d. 1969)
1892 – Rebecca West, English journalist and author (d. 1983)
1896 – Konstantin Rokossovsky, Marshal of the Soviet Union during World War II (d. 1968)
1900 – Luis Arturo González López, Guatemalan supreme court judge and briefly acting president (d. 1965)

1901–present

1905 – Käte Fenchel, German mathematician (d. 1983)
1905 – Anthony Powell, English author (d. 2000)
1909 – Seichō Matsumoto, Japanese journalist and author (d. 1992)
1911 – Josh Gibson, American baseball player (d. 1947)
1913 – Arnold Friberg, American illustrator and painter (d. 2010)
1914 – Frank Fenner, Australian microbiologist and virologist (d. 2010)
1917 – Heinrich Böll, German novelist and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1985)
1918 – Donald Regan, American colonel and politician, 11th White House Chief of Staff (d. 2003)
1918 – Kurt Waldheim, Austrian colonel and politician; 9th President of Austria (d. 2007)
1919 – Doug Young, American voice actor (d. 2018)
1920 – Alicia Alonso, Cuban ballerina and choreographer, founded the Cuban National Ballet (d. 2019)
1920 – Adele Goldstine, American computer programmer (d. 1964)
1922 – Itubwa Amram, Nauruan pastor and politician (d. 1989)
1922 – Cécile DeWitt-Morette, French mathematician and physicist (d. 2017)
1922 – Paul Winchell, American actor, voice artist, and ventriloquist (d. 2005)
1923 – Wat Misaka, American basketball player (d. 2019)
1926 – Arnošt Lustig, Czech author and playwright (d. 2011)
1926 – Joe Paterno, American football player and coach (d. 2012)
1930 – Phil Roman, American animator
1932 – U. R. Ananthamurthy, Indian author, poet, and critic (d. 2014)
1932 – Edward Hoagland, American author and critic
1933 – Jackie Hendriks, Jamaican cricketer
1933 – Robert Worcester, American businessman and academic, founded MORI
1934 – Giuseppina Leone, Italian sprinter
1934 – Hanif Mohammad, Pakistani cricketer (d. 2016)
1935 – John G. Avildsen, American director, producer, and cinematographer (d. 2017)
1935 – Lorenzo Bandini, Italian racing driver (d. 1967)
1935 – Phil Donahue, American talk show host and producer (d. 2024)
1935 – Stela Popescu, Romanian actress (d. 2017)
1935 – Edward Schreyer, Canadian academic and politician, Governor General of Canada
1937 – Jane Fonda, American actress and activist
1938 – Larry Bryggman, American actor
1939 – Lloyd Axworthy, Canadian academic and politician, 2nd Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs
1939 – Wafic Saïd, Syrian-Saudi Arabian financier, businessman and philanthropist
1940 – Frank Zappa, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, composer and producer (d. 1993)
1942 – Hu Jintao, Chinese engineer and politician, 5th Paramount leader of China
1942 – Carla Thomas, American singer
1943 – Albert Lee, English guitarist and songwriter
1943 – Walter Spanghero, French rugby player
1944 – Michael Tilson Thomas, American pianist, composer, and conductor
1944 – Zheng Xiaoyu, Chinese diplomat (d. 2007)
1945 – Doug Walters, Australian cricketer
1946 – Roy Karch, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1946 – Carl Wilson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1998)
1947 – Paco de Lucía, Spanish guitarist, songwriter, and producer (d. 2014)
1948 – Barry Gordon, American actor and voice artist; longest-serving president of the Screen Actors Guild (1988–95)
1948 – Samuel L. Jackson, American actor and producer
1948 – Dave Kingman, American baseball player
1949 – Thomas Sankara, Burkinabé captain and politician, 5th President of Burkina Faso (d. 1987)
1949 – Nikolaos Sifounakis, Greek lawyer and politician
1950 – Jeffrey Katzenberg, American screenwriter and producer, co-founded DreamWorks Animation
1950 – Max Maven, American magician and mentalist (d. 2022)
1950 – Lillebjørn Nilsen, Norwegian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2024)
1951 – Steve Perryman, English footballer and manager
1952 – Joaquín Andújar, Dominican baseball player (d. 2015)
1952 – Dennis Boutsikaris, American actor
1952 – Steve Furniss, American swimmer
1953 – András Schiff, Hungarian-English pianist and conductor
1953 – Betty Wright, American singer-songwriter (d. 2020)
1954 – Chris Evert, American tennis player and coach
1955 – Jane Kaczmarek, American actress
1955 – Kazuyuki Sekiguchi, Japanese singer-songwriter and bass player
1956 – Dave Laut, American shot putter (d. 2009)
1957 – Ray Romano, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
1957 – Tony Lewis, English singer and songwriter (d. 2020)
1958 – Tamara Bykova, Russian high jumper
1959 – Florence Griffith Joyner, American sprinter and actress (d. 1998)
1959 – Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Indian cricketer
1960 – Sherry Rehman, Pakistani journalist, politician, and diplomat, 25th Pakistan Ambassador to the United States
1961 – Ryuji Sasai, Japanese bass player and composer
1963 – Govinda, Indian actor, singer, and politician
1964 – Kunihiko Ikuhara, Japanese director and illustrator
1964 – Joe Kocur, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1965 – Glenn Coleman, Australian rugby league player
1965 – Andy Dick, American actor and comedian
1965 – Anke Engelke, Canadian-German actress, director, and screenwriter
1966 – Michelle Hurd, American actress
1966 – William Ruto, 5th President of Kenya
1966 – Kiefer Sutherland, British-Canadian actor, director, and producer
1967 – Terry Mills, American basketball player and coach
1967 – Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgian lawyer and politician, 3rd President of Georgia
1969 – Julie Delpy, French model, actress, director, and screenwriter
1969 – Mihails Zemļinskis, Latvian footballer, coach, and manager
1971 – Matthieu Chedid, French singer-songwriter and guitarist
1971 – Natalie Grant, American singer-songwriter and author
1972 – Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy, Indian Politician, 17th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh
1973 – Irakli Alasania, Georgian colonel and politician, Georgian Minister of Defense
1973 – Matías Almeyda, Argentine footballer and manager
1974 – Karrie Webb, Australian golfer
1975 – Paloma Herrera, Argentine ballerina
1977 – Buddy Carlyle, American baseball player
1977 – Corey Collymore, Barbadian cricketer
1977 – Leon MacDonald, New Zealand rugby player
1977 – Emmanuel Macron, French politician, 25th President of France
1977 – Freddy Sanchez, American baseball player
1978 – Emiliano Brembilla, Italian swimmer
1978 – Charles Dera, American pornographic actor, dancer, model, and mixed martial arts fighter
1978 – Shaun Morgan, South African musician, singer, and guitarist
1978 – Rutina Wesley, American actress
1979 – Steve Montador, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2015)
1981 – Marta Fernández, Spanish basketball player
1981 – Cristian Zaccardo, Italian footballer
1982 – Primo Colón, Puerto Rican wrestler
1982 – Philip Humber, American baseball player
1982 – Tom Payne, English actor
1983 – Taylor Teagarden, American baseball player
1983 – Steven Yeun, American actor
1985 – Tom Sturridge, English actor
1987 – Khris Davis, American baseball player
1988 – Danny Duffy, American baseball player
1988 – Perri Shakes-Drayton, English sprinter and hurdler
1989 – Mark Ingram II, American football player
1989 – Tamannaah, Indian actress
1991 – Nic Maddinson, Australian cricketer
1991 – Otis, American wrestler
1991 – Riccardo Saponara, Italian footballer
1992 – Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, American football player
1992 – Jamie Oleksiak, Canadian ice hockey player
1994 – Luke Brooks, Australian rugby league player
1996 – Ben Chilwell, English footballer
1996 – Kaitlyn Dever, American actress
1997 – Madelyn Cline, American actress and model
1997 – Charlie McAvoy, American ice hockey player
2002 – Clara Tauson, Danish tennis player
2006 – Cooper Flagg, American basketball player (Full article...)

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