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

Title page of the first edition of Wright's Certaine Errors in Navigation (1599)

Edward Wright (baptised 8 October 1561; died November 1615) was an English mathematician and cartographer noted for his book Certaine Errors in Navigation (1599; 2nd ed., 1610), which for the first time explained the mathematical basis of the Mercator projection by building on the works of Pedro Nunes, and set out a reference table giving the linear scale multiplication factor as a function of latitude, calculated for each minute of arc up to a latitude of 75°. This was in fact a table of values of the integral of the secant function, and was the essential step needed to make practical both the making and the navigational use of Mercator charts.

Wright was born at Garveston in Norfolk and educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow from 1587 to 1596. In 1589 the college granted him leave after Elizabeth I requested that he carry out navigational studies with a raiding expedition organised by the Earl of Cumberland to the Azores to capture Spanish galleons. The expedition's route was the subject of the first map to be prepared according to Wright's projection, which was published in Certaine Errors in 1599. The same year, Wright created and published the first world map produced in England and the first to use the Mercator projection since Gerardus Mercator's original 1569 map. (Full article...)
Image 2

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 3

Padukone at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival

Deepika Padukone (pronounced [d̪iːpɪkaː pəɖʊkoːɳeː]; born 5 January 1986) is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Hindi films. She is India's highest-paid actress, as of 2023, and her accolades include three Filmfare Awards. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2018 and awarded her the Time100 Impact Award in 2022.

Padukone, the daughter of the badminton player Prakash Padukone, was born in Copenhagen and raised in Bangalore. As a teenager, she played badminton in national level championships but left her career in the sport to become a fashion model. She soon received offers for film roles and made her acting debut in 2006 as the title character of the Kannada film Aishwarya. Padukone then played a dual role opposite Shah Rukh Khan in her first Bollywood release, the romance Om Shanti Om (2007), which won her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. Padukone received praise for her starring role in the romance Love Aaj Kal (2009), but this was followed by a brief setback. (Full article...)
Image 4

Austin in 1933

Arthur Oswin Austin (December 28, 1879 – June 7, 1964) was an American electrical engineer and inventor. He is the inventor of the Austin transformer, a double-ring toroidal transformer used to supply power for lighting circuits on radio towers. Austin's research included improvements to radio transmission equipment and the effects of lightning on high-voltage transmission lines and aircraft. He was a fellow of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and of the Institute of Radio Engineers, and was an expert in high-voltage insulators and fittings. His work on transmitting antennas included both military and civilian projects.

A native of California, Austin graduated from Leland Stanford University with a degree in electrical engineering. He lived for a few years in New York, where he worked for General Electric and the Lima Insulator Company, but spent most of his adult life in Ohio where he married, worked for the Ohio Brass Company and founded the Austin Insulator Company. He bought a large estate in Barberton, Ohio, lived in the mansion, and built an extensive outdoor electrical laboratory on the grounds. (Full article...)
Image 5

Coolidge in 1924

John Calvin Coolidge Jr. (/ˈkuːlɪdʒ/ KOOL-ij; July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929. A Republican lawyer from Massachusetts, he previously served as the 29th vice president from 1921 to 1923 under President Warren G. Harding, and as the 48th governor of Massachusetts from 1919 to 1921. Coolidge gained a reputation as a small-government conservative with a taciturn personality and dry sense of humor that earned him the nickname "Silent Cal".

Coolidge began his career as a member of the Massachusetts State House. He rose up the ranks of Massachusetts politics and was elected governor in 1918. As governor, Coolidge ran on the record of fiscal conservatism, strong support for women's suffrage, and vague opposition to Prohibition. His prompt and effective response to the Boston police strike of 1919 thrust him into the national spotlight as a man of decisive action. The following year, the Republican Party nominated Coolidge as the running mate to Senator Warren G. Harding in the 1920 presidential election, which they won in a landslide. Coolidge served as vice president until Harding's death in 1923, after which he assumed the presidency. (Full article...)
Image 6

Trescothick in 2007

Marcus Edward Trescothick (born 25 December 1975) is an English former cricketer who played first-class cricket for Somerset County Cricket Club, and represented England in 76 Test matches and 123 One Day Internationals. He was Somerset captain from 2010 to 2016 and temporary England captain for several Tests and ODIs. Since retirement he has commentated and coached at both county and international level.

A left-handed opening batsman, he made his first-class debut for Somerset in 1993 and quickly established himself as a regular member of the team. Trescothick made his One Day International (ODI) debut seven years later, against Zimbabwe in July 2000. His Test debut, against the West Indies, followed in August. Although former England captain Nasser Hussain likened Trescothick's build and batting temperament to that of Graham Gooch, his stroke play is more reminiscent of David Gower. (Full article...)
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Hobart Amory Hare "Hobey" Baker (January 15, 1892 – December 21, 1918) was an American amateur athlete of the early twentieth century. Considered the first American star in ice hockey by the Hockey Hall of Fame, he was also an accomplished American football player. Born into a prominent family from the Philadelphia area, he enrolled at Princeton University in 1910. Baker excelled on the university's hockey and football teams, and became a noted amateur hockey player for the St. Nicholas Hockey Club in New York City. He was a member of three national championship teams, for football in 1911 and hockey in 1912 and 1914, and helped the St. Nicholas Club win a national amateur championship in 1915. Baker graduated from Princeton in 1914 and worked for J.P. Morgan Bank until he enlisted in the United States Army Air Service. During World War I he served with the 103rd and the 13th Aero Squadrons before being promoted to captain and named commander of the 141st Aero Squadron. Baker died in December 1918 after a plane he was test-piloting crashed, hours before he was due to leave France and return to America.

Baker was widely regarded by his contemporaries as one of the best athletes of his time and is considered one of the best early American hockey players. When the Hockey Hall of Fame was founded in 1945, Baker was named one of the first nine inductees, the only American among them. In 1973, he became one of the initial inductees in the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1975, and is the only person to be in both the hockey and college football halls of fame. (Full article...)
Image 8
Portrait of Caspar David Friedrich, Gerhard von Kügelgen c. 1810–1820
Caspar David Friedrich (German: [ˌkaspaʁ ˌdaːvɪt ˈfʁiːdʁɪç] ; 5 September 1774 – 7 May 1840) was a German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation, whose often symbolic, and anti-classical work, conveys a subjective, emotional response to the natural world. Friedrich's paintings often set contemplative human figures silhouetted against night skies, morning mists, barren trees or Gothic ruins. Art historian Christopher John Murray described their presence, in diminished perspective, amid expansive landscapes, as reducing the figures to a scale that directs "the viewer's gaze towards their metaphysical dimension".

Friedrich was born in the town of Greifswald on the Baltic Sea in what was at the time Swedish Pomerania. He studied in Copenhagen 1794-1798, before settling in Dresden. He came of age during a period when, across Europe, a growing disillusionment with materialistic society was giving rise to a new appreciation of spirituality. This shift in ideals was often expressed through a reevaluation of the natural world, as artists such as Friedrich, J. M. W. Turner and John Constable sought to depict nature as a "divine creation, to be set against the artifice of human civilization". (Full article...)
Image 9

Charles Heaphy VC (1820 – 3 August 1881) was an English-born New Zealand explorer and recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest military award for gallantry "in the face of the enemy" that could be awarded to British and Empire forces at the time. He was the first soldier of the New Zealand armed forces to be awarded the VC. He was also a noted artist of the colonial period who created watercolours and sketches of early settler life in New Zealand.

Born in England, Heaphy joined the New Zealand Company in 1839. He arrived in New Zealand later that year and was commissioned to make a visual record of the company's work which was used to advertise the country to potential English migrants. Much of the next 2+1⁄2 years was spent travelling around New Zealand and executing paintings of the land and its inhabitants. When his contract with the company ended in 1842, he lived in Nelson for several years and explored large parts of the West Coast. He later moved north to Auckland to take up employment as a surveyor. (Full article...)
Image 10

Portrait of Rădulescu, by Mișu Popp

Ion Heliade Rădulescu or Ion Heliade (also known as Eliade or Eliade Rădulescu; Romanian pronunciation: [ˈi.on heliˈade rəduˈlesku]; 6 January 1802 – 27 April 1872) was a Wallachian, later Romanian academic, Romantic and Classicist poet, essayist, memoirist, short story writer, newspaper editor and politician. A prolific translator of foreign literature into Romanian, he was also the author of books on linguistics and history. For much of his life, Heliade Rădulescu was a teacher at Saint Sava College in Bucharest, which he helped reopen. He was a founding member and first president of the Romanian Academy.

Heliade Rădulescu is considered one of the foremost champions of Romanian culture from the first half of the 19th century, having first risen to prominence through his association with Gheorghe Lazăr and his support of Lazăr's drive for discontinuing education in Greek. Over the following decades, he had a major role in shaping the modern Romanian language, but caused controversy when he advocated the massive introduction of Italian neologisms into the Romanian lexis. A Romantic nationalist landowner siding with moderate liberals, Heliade was among the leaders of the 1848 Wallachian revolution, after which he was forced to spend several years in exile. Adopting an original form of conservatism, which emphasized the role of the aristocratic boyars in Romanian history, he was rewarded for supporting the Ottoman Empire and clashed with the radical wing of the 1848 revolutionaries. (Full article...)
Image 11
Jane Marian Joseph (31 May 1894 – 9 March 1929) was an English composer, arranger and music teacher. She was a pupil and later associate of the composer Gustav Holst, and was instrumental in the organisation and management of various of the music festivals which Holst sponsored. Many of her works were composed for performance at these festivals and similar occasions. Her early death at age 35, which prevented the full realisation of her talents, was considered by her contemporaries as a considerable loss to English music.

Holst first observed Joseph's potential when he was teaching her composition at St Paul's Girls' School. She began to act as his amanuensis in 1914, when he was composing The Planets, her special responsibility being the preparation of the score for the "Neptune" movement. She continued to assist Holst with transcriptions, arrangements and translations, and was his librettist for the choral ballet The Golden Goose. (Full article...)
Image 12

Zobel in his laboratory

Otto Julius Zobel (October 20, 1887 – January 1970) was an electrical engineer who worked for the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) in the early part of the 20th century. Zobel's work on filter design was revolutionary and led, in conjunction with the work of John R. Carson, to significant commercial advances for AT&T in the field of frequency-division multiplex (FDM) telephone transmissions.

Although much of Zobel's work has been superseded by more modern filter designs, it remains the basis of filter theory and his papers are still referenced today. Zobel invented the m-derived filter
and the constant-resistance filter, which remain in use. (Full article...)
Image 13

Edward in an early fourteenth-century Genealogical Roll of the Kings of England, British Library, Royal MS 14 B 6

Edward the Martyr (c. 962 – 18 March 978) was King of the English from 8 July 975 until he was killed in 978. He was the eldest son of King Edgar (r. 959–975). On Edgar's death, the succession to the throne was contested between Edward's supporters and those of his younger half-brother, the future King Æthelred the Unready. As they were both children, it is unlikely that they played an active role in the dispute, which was probably between rival family alliances. Edward's principal supporters were Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Æthelwine, Ealdorman of East Anglia, while Æthelred was backed by his mother, Queen Ælfthryth and her friend Æthelwold, Bishop of Winchester. The dispute was quickly settled. Edward was chosen as king and Æthelred received the lands traditionally allocated to the king's eldest son in compensation.

Edgar had been a strong and overbearing king and a supporter of the monastic reform movement. He had forced the lay nobility and secular clergy to surrender land and sell it at low prices to the monasteries. Æthelwold had been the most active and ruthless in seizing land for his monasteries with Edgar's assistance. The nobles took advantage of Edgar's death to get their lands back, mainly by legal actions but sometimes by force. The leading magnates were split into two factions, the supporters of Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia and Æthelwine, who both seized some monastic lands which they believed belonged to them, but also estates claimed by their rivals. The disputes never led to warfare. (Full article...)
Image 14

"Vine" sculpture by Bronwyn Oliver

Bronwyn Joy Oliver (née Gooda, 22 February 1959 – 10 July 2006) was an Australian sculptor whose work primarily consisted of metalwork. Her sculptures are admired for their tactile nature, aesthetics, and technical skills demonstrated in their production.

Oliver was raised in rural New South Wales. She trained at Sydney's Alexander Mackie College of Advanced Education and London's Chelsea School of Art. She had early success, winning a New South Wales Travelling Art Scholarship in 1981 and the Moet & Chandon Australian Art Fellowship in 1984. Oliver settled in Sydney, where she practised and taught until her death in 2006. (Full article...)
Image 15
Evelyn Ntoko Mase (18 May 1922 – 30 April 2004), later named Evelyn Rakeepile, was the first wife of the South African anti-apartheid activist and the future president Nelson Mandela, to whom she was married from 1944 to 1958. Mase was a nurse by profession.

Born in Engcobo, Transkei, Mase was orphaned as a child. She moved to Johannesburg to train as a nurse, and there met and married Mandela. Living together in Soweto, they raised four children, three of whom—Thembekile, Makgatho, and Makaziwe—survived into adulthood. She trained to be a midwife while working as a nurse. In the 1950s, her relationship with Mandela became strained. He was becoming increasingly involved in the African National Congress and its campaign against apartheid; Mase eschewed politics and became a Jehovah's Witness. She also accused him of adultery with several women, an accusation corroborated by later biographies, and of being physically abusive, something he always denied. They separated in 1956. She initially filed for divorce, but did not go through with the legal proceedings. In 1958, Mandela, who was hoping to marry Winnie Madikizela, obtained an uncontested divorce from Mase. (Full article...)

Today anniversaries

Pre-1600

AD 41 – Britannicus, Roman son of Claudius (d. 55)
528 – Daughter of Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei, nominal empress regnant of Northern Wei
661 – Princess Ōku of Japan (d. 702)
1074 – Conrad II of Italy (d. 1101)
1218 – Kujo Yoritsune, Japanese shōgun (d. 1256)
1322 – John Henry, Margrave of Moravia (d. 1375)
1443 – Giovanni II Bentivoglio, Italian noble (d. 1508)
1480 – Frederick II of Legnica, Duke of Legnica (d. 1547)
1540 – Won Gyun, Korean general and admiral (d. 1597)
1567 – Thomas Campion, English composer, poet, and physician (d. 1620)
1584 – Caspar Barlaeus, Dutch historian, poet, and theologian (d. 1648)

1601–1900

1606 – John Winthrop the Younger, English-American lawyer and politician, Governor of Connecticut (d. 1676)
1608 – Daniello Bartoli, Italian Jesuit priest (d. 1685)
1637 – Jan Swammerdam, Dutch biologist and zoologist (d. 1680)
1663 – Cotton Mather, English-American minister and author (d. 1728)
1665 – Rudolf Jakob Camerarius, German botanist and physician (d. 1721)
1704 – Charles Pinot Duclos, French author (d. 1772)
1706 – Johann Joseph Christian, German Baroque sculptor and woodcarver (d. 1777)
1728 – Étienne-Louis Boullée, French architect (d. 1799)
1753 – François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers, French admiral (d. 1798)
1761 – Jan Ladislav Dussek, Czech pianist and composer (d. 1812)
1768 – Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1835)
1775 – Louisa Adams, 6th First Lady of the United States (d. 1852)
1777 – Bernard Courtois, French chemist and academic (d. 1838)
1777 – Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, German author and poet (d. 1843)
1785 – Pierre Louis Dulong, French physicist and chemist (d. 1838)
1787 – Norbert Provencher, Canadian bishop and missionary (d. 1853)
1788 – Carl Reichenbach, German chemist and philosopher (d. 1869)
1791 – Peter Cooper, American businessman and philanthropist, founded Cooper Union (d. 1883)
1794 – Alexander Petrov, Russian chess player and composer (d. 1867)
1794 – Valentín Canalizo, Mexican general and politician (d. 1850)
1804 – Heinrich Lenz, German-Italian physicist and academic (d. 1865)
1809 – Charles Darwin, English geologist and theorist (d. 1882)
1809 – Abraham Lincoln, American lawyer and statesman, 16th President of the United States (d. 1865)
1819 – William Wetmore Story, American sculptor, architect, poet and editor (d. 1895)
1824 – Dayananda Saraswati, Indian monk and philosopher, founded Arya Samaj (d. 1883)
1828 – George Meredith, English novelist and poet (d. 1909)
1837 – Thomas Moran, British-American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School (d. 1926)
1857 – Eugène Atget, French photographer (d. 1927)
1857 – Bobby Peel, English cricketer and coach (d. 1943)
1861 – Lou Andreas-Salomé, Russian-German psychoanalyst and author (d. 1937)
1866 – Lev Shestov, Russian philosopher (d. 1938)
1869 – Kiến Phúc, Vietnamese emperor (d. 1884)
1870 – Marie Lloyd, English actress and singer (d. 1922)
1876 – 13th Dalai Lama (d. 1933)
1877 – Louis Renault, French engineer and businessman, co-founded Renault (d. 1944)
1880 – George Preca, Maltese priest and saint (d. 1962)
1880 – John L. Lewis, American miner and union leader (d. 1969)
1881 – Anna Pavlova, Russian-English ballerina and actress (d. 1931)
1882 – Walter Nash, English-New Zealand lawyer and politician, 27th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1968)
1884 – Max Beckmann, German painter and sculptor (d. 1950)
1884 – Johan Laidoner, Estonian-Russian general (d. 1953)
1884 – Alice Roosevelt Longworth, American author (d. 1980)
1884 – Marie Vassilieff, Russian-French painter (d. 1957)
1885 – James Scott, American composer (d. 1938)
1885 – Julius Streicher, German publisher, founded Der Stürmer (d. 1946)
1889 – Bhante Dharmawara, Cambodian monk, lawyer, and judge (d. 1999)
1893 – Omar Bradley, American general (d. 1981)
1895 – Kristian Djurhuus, Faroese lawyer and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 1984)
1897 – Charles Groves Wright Anderson, South African-Australian colonel and politician (d. 1988)
1897 – Lincoln LaPaz, American astronomer and academic (d. 1985)
1898 – Wallace Ford, English-American actor and singer (d. 1966)
1900 – Roger J. Traynor, American lawyer and jurist, 23rd Chief Justice of California (d. 1983)

1901–present

1902 – William Collier, Jr., American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1987)
1903 – Jorge Basadre, Peruvian historian (d. 1980)
1903 – Chick Hafey, American baseball player and manager (d. 1973)
1904 – Ted Mack, American radio and television host (d. 1976)
1907 – Joseph Kearns, American actor (d. 1962)
1908 – Jean Effel, French painter, caricaturist, illustrator and journalist (d. 1982)
1908 – Jacques Herbrand, French mathematician and philosopher (d. 1931)
1909 – Zoran Mušič, Slovene painter and illustrator (d. 2005)
1909 – Sigmund Rascher, German physician (d. 1945)
1911 – Charles Mathiesen, Norwegian speed skater (d. 1994)
1912 – R. F. Delderfield, English author and playwright (d. 1972)
1914 – Tex Beneke, American singer, saxophonist, and bandleader (d. 2000)
1914 – Hanna Neumann, German-Canadian mathematician (d. 1971)
1915 – Lorne Greene, Canadian-American actor (d. 1987)
1915 – Olivia Hooker, American sailor (d. 2018)
1916 – Joseph Alioto, American lawyer and politician, 36th Mayor of San Francisco (d. 1998)
1917 – Al Cervi, American basketball player and coach (d. 2009)
1917 – Dom DiMaggio, American baseball player (d. 2009)
1918 – Norman Farberow, American psychologist and academic (d. 2015)
1918 – Julian Schwinger, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
1919 – Forrest Tucker, American actor (d. 1986)
1920 – Raymond Mhlaba, South African anti-apartheid and ANC activist (d. 2005)
1922 – Hussein Onn, Malaysian lawyer and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Malaysia (d. 1990)
1923 – Franco Zeffirelli, Italian director, producer, and politician (d. 2019)
1925 – Anthony Berry, English politician (d. 1984)
1925 – Joan Mitchell, American-French painter (d. 1992)
1926 – Rolf Brem, Swiss sculptor and illustrator (d. 2014)
1926 – Joe Garagiola, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 2016)
1926 – Charles Van Doren, American academic (d. 2019)
1928 – Vincent Montana, Jr., American drummer and composer (d. 2013)
1930 – John Doyle, Irish hurler and politician (d. 2010)
1930 – Arlen Specter, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician (d. 2012)
1931 – Janwillem van de Wetering, Dutch-American author and translator (d. 2008)
1932 – Axel Jensen, Norwegian author and poet (d. 2003)
1932 – Julian Simon, American economist, author, and academic (d. 1998)
1933 – Ivan Anikeyev, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 1992)
1933 – Costa-Gavras, Greek-French director and producer
1934 – Annette Crosbie, Scottish actress
1934 – Anne Osborn Krueger, American economist and academic
1934 – Bill Russell, American basketball player and coach (d. 2022)
1935 – Gene McDaniels, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2011)
1936 – Joe Don Baker, American actor
1936 – Alan Ebringer, Australian immunologist
1938 – Judy Blume, American author and educator
1939 – Leon Kass, American physician, scientist, and educator
1939 – Ray Manzarek, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (d. 2013)
1941 – Dominguinhos, Brazilian singer-songwriter and accordion player (d. 2013)
1941 – Naomi Uemura, Japanese mountaineer and explorer (d. 1984)
1942 – Ehud Barak, Israeli general and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Israel
1942 – Terry Bisson, American science fiction and fantasy author (d. 2024)
1942 – Pat Dobson, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 2006)
1945 – Maud Adams, Swedish model and actress
1945 – David D. Friedman, American economist, physicist, and scholar
1946 – Jean Eyeghé Ndong, Gabonese politician, Prime Minister of Gabon
1946 – Ajda Pekkan, Turkish singer-songwriter and actress
1948 – Ray Kurzweil, American computer scientist and engineer
1948 – Nicholas Soames, English politician, Minister of State for the Armed Forces
1949 – Lenny Randle, American baseball player
1949 – Gundappa Viswanath, Indian cricketer
1950 – Angelo Branduardi, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1950 – Steve Hackett, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1950 – Michael Ironside, Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter
1952 – Simon MacCorkindale, English actor, director, and producer (d. 2010)
1952 – Michael McDonald, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player
1953 – Joanna Kerns, American actress and director
1954 – Zach Grenier, American actor
1954 – Joseph Jordania, Georgian-Australian musicologist and academic
1954 – Tzimis Panousis, Greek comedian, singer, and author (d. 2018)
1954 – Phil Zimmermann, American cryptographer and programmer
1955 – Bill Laswell, American musician and producer
1955 – Chet Lemon, American baseball player and coach
1956 – Arsenio Hall, American actor and talk show host
1956 – Ad Melkert, Dutch lawyer and politician, Dutch Minister of Social Affairs and Employment
1956 – Brian Robertson, Scottish musician and songwriter
1958 – Bobby Smith, Canadian ice hockey player and executive
1959 – Larry Nance, American basketball player
1961 – David Graeber, American anthropologist and activist (d. 2020)
1961 – Jim Harris, Canadian environmentalist and politician
1961 – Michel Martelly, Haitian singer and politician, 56th President of Haiti
1963 – John Michael Higgins, American actor and comedian
1964 – Omar Hakim, American drummer, producer, arranger, and composer
1964 – Raphael Sbarge, American actor and director
1965 – Rubén Amaro, Jr., American baseball player and manager
1965 – Christine Elise, American actress and producer
1965 – Brett Kavanaugh, American lawyer and jurist, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
1965 – David Westlake, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1966 – Greg Carberry, Australian rugby league player
1966 – Paul Crook, American musician, songwriter, and producer
1966 – Lochlyn Munro, Canadian actor
1968 – Josh Brolin, American actor
1968 – Chynna Phillips, American singer and actress
1968 – Nathan Rees, Australian politician, 41st Premier of New South Wales
1969 – Darren Aronofsky, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1969 – Alemayehu Atomsa, Ethiopian educator and politician (d. 2014)
1969 – Steve Backley, English javelin thrower
1969 – Anneli Drecker, Norwegian singer and actress
1969 – Hong Myung-bo, South Korean footballer and manager
1970 – Jim Creeggan, Canadian singer-songwriter and musician
1970 – Bryan Roy, Dutch footballer and manager
1970 – Judd Winick, American author and illustrator
1971 – Scott Menville, American voice actor, singer, actor and musician
1972 – Owen Nolan, Northern Irish-Canadian ice hockey player
1973 – Gianni Romme, Dutch speed skater
1973 – Tara Strong, Canadian-American voice actress and singer
1974 – Naseem Hamed, English boxer
1975 – Scot Pollard, American basketball player and actor
1976 – Christian Cullen, New Zealand rugby player
1977 – Jimmy Conrad, American soccer player and manager
1978 – Paul Anderson, English actor
1979 – Jesse Spencer, Australian actor and violinist
1980 – Juan Carlos Ferrero, Spanish tennis player
1980 – Sarah Lancaster, American actress
1980 – Gucci Mane, American rapper
1980 – Christina Ricci, American actress and producer
1981 – Wade McKinnon, Australian rugby league player
1982 – Jonas Hiller, Swiss ice hockey player
1982 – Louis Tsatoumas, Greek long jumper
1982 – Anthony Tuitavake, New Zealand rugby player
1983 – Carlton Brewster, American football player and coach
1984 – Brad Keselowski, American race car driver
1984 – Andrei Sidorenkov, Estonian footballer
1984 – Peter Vanderkaay, American swimmer
1985 – Konstantin Pushkaryov, Kazakhstani ice hockey player
1986 – Todd Frazier, American baseball player
1987 – Jérémy Chardy, French tennis player
1987 – Gabriela Mărginean, Romanian basketball player
1988 – DeMarco Murray, American football player
1988 – Nicolás Otamendi, Argentine footballer
1988 – Josh Phegley, American baseball player
1988 – Mike Posner, American singer-songwriter and producer
1989 – Josh Harrellson, American basketball player
1990 – Katherine Barrell, Canadian actress, director, writer, and producer
1990 – Robert Griffin III, American football player
1991 – Patrick Herrmann, German footballer
1991 – Kane Richardson, Australian cricketer
1992 – Magda Linette, Polish tennis player
1993 – Bud Dupree, American football player
1993 – Rafinha, Brazilian footballer
1993 – Jennifer Stone, American actress
1994 – Kemal Bilmez, Belgian politician
1994 – Arman Hall, American sprinter
1994 – Paxton Lynch, American football player
2000 – Kim Ji-min, South Korean actress
2001 – Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Georgian footballer (Full article...)

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