History of Today 24 August: Important Events, Births and Deaths

Welcome to History of Today 24 August. On this page, you can read important historical events, famous births, notable deaths and general knowledge facts related to 24 August. This information is useful for UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, State PSC and other competitive exams.

Last updated on 24 August 2026, 01:01 AM

Important Events on 24 August in History

• 24 Aug 2023: Japan officially begins discharging treated radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean, sparking international concerns and condemnation. Read more
• 24 Aug 2020: Erin O'Toole is elected leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. Read more
• 24 Aug 2017: The National Space Agency of Taiwan successfully launches the observation satellite Formosat-5 into space. Read more
• 24 Aug 2016: An earthquake strikes Central Italy with a magnitude of 6.2, with aftershocks felt as far as Rome and Florence. Around 300 people are killed. Read more
• 24 Aug 2016: Proxima Centauri b, the closest exoplanet to Earth, is discovered by the European Southern Observatory. Read more
• 24 Aug 2014: A magnitude 6.0 earthquake strikes the San Francisco Bay Area; it is the largest in that area since 1989. Read more
• 24 Aug 2012: Anders Behring Breivik, perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, is sentenced to 21 years of preventive detention. Read more
• 24 Aug 2010: In San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, 72 illegal immigrants are killed by Los Zetas and eventually found dead by Mexican authorities. Read more
• 24 Aug 2010: Henan Airlines Flight 8387 crashes at Yichun Lindu Airport in Yichun, Heilongjiang, China, killing 44 out of the 96 people on board. Read more
• 24 Aug 2010: Agni Air Flight 101 crashes near Shikharpur, Makwanpur, Nepal, killing all 14 people on board. Read more
• 24 Aug 2008: Sixty-five passengers are killed when Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 6895 crashes during an emergency landing at Manas International Airport in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Read more
• 24 Aug 2008: A Cessna 208 Caravan crashes in Cabañas, Zacapa, Guatemala, killing 11 people. Read more
• 24 Aug 2006: The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines the term "planet" such that Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet. Read more
• 24 Aug 2004: Ninety passengers die after two airliners explode after flying out of Domodedovo International Airport, near Moscow. The explosions are caused by suicide bombers from Chechnya. Read more
• 24 Aug 2001: Air Transat Flight 236 loses all engine power over the Atlantic Ocean, forcing the pilots to conduct an emergency landing in the Azores. Read more
• 24 Aug 1998: First radio-frequency identification (RFID) human implantation tested in the United Kingdom. Read more
• 24 Aug 1995: Microsoft releases Windows 95 to the public in North America. Read more
• 24 Aug 1992: Hurricane Andrew makes landfall in Homestead, Florida as a Category 5 hurricane, causing up to $25 billion (1992 USD) in damages. Read more
• 24 Aug 1991: Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Read more
• 24 Aug 1991: Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union. Read more
• 24 Aug 1989: Colombian drug barons declare "total war" on the Colombian government. Read more
• 24 Aug 1989: Tadeusz Mazowiecki is chosen as the first non-communist prime minister in Central and Eastern Europe. Read more
• 24 Aug 1981: Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon. Read more
• 24 Aug 1970: Vietnam War protesters bomb Sterling Hall at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, leading to an international manhunt for the perpetrators. Read more
• 24 Aug 1967: Led by Abbie Hoffman, the Youth International Party temporarily disrupts trading at the New York Stock Exchange by throwing dollar bills from the viewing gallery, causing trading to cease as brokers scramble to grab them. Read more
• 24 Aug 1963: Buddhist crisis: As a result of the Xá Lợi Pagoda raids, the US State Department cables the United States Embassy, Saigon to encourage Army of the Republic of Vietnam generals to launch a coup against President Ngô Đình Diệm if he did not remove his brother Ngô Đình Nhu. Read more
• 24 Aug 1954: The Communist Control Act goes into effect, outlawing the Communist Party in the United States. Read more
• 24 Aug 1954: Vice president João Café Filho takes office as president of Brazil, following the suicide of Getúlio Vargas. Read more
• 24 Aug 1951: United Air Lines Flight 615 crashes near Decoto, California, killing 50 people. Read more
• 24 Aug 1950: Edith Sampson becomes the first black U.S. delegate to the United Nations. Read more
• 24 Aug 1949: The treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization goes into effect. Read more
• 24 Aug 1944: World War II: Allied troops begin the attack on Paris. Read more
• 24 Aug 1942: World War II: The Battle of the Eastern Solomons. Japanese aircraft carrier Ryūjō is sunk, with the loss of seven officers and 113 crewmen. The US carrier USS Enterprise is heavily damaged. Read more
• 24 Aug 1941: The Holocaust: Adolf Hitler orders the cessation of Nazi Germany's systematic T4 euthanasia program of the mentally ill and the handicapped due to protests, although killings continue for the remainder of the war. Read more
• 24 Aug 1938: Kweilin incident: A Japanese warplane shoots down the Kweilin, a Chinese civilian airliner, killing 14. It is the first recorded instance of a civilian airliner being shot down. Read more
• 24 Aug 1937: Spanish Civil War: the Basque Army surrenders to the Italian Corpo Truppe Volontarie following the Santoña Agreement. Read more
• 24 Aug 1937: Spanish Civil War: Sovereign Council of Asturias and León is proclaimed in Gijón. Read more
• 24 Aug 1936: The Australian Antarctic Territory is created. Read more
• 24 Aug 1933: The Crescent Limited train derails in Washington, D.C., after the bridge it is crossing is washed out by the 1933 Chesapeake–Potomac hurricane. Read more
• 24 Aug 1932: Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop (from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey). Read more
• 24 Aug 1931: Resignation of the United Kingdom's Second Labour Government. Formation of the UK National Government. Read more
• 24 Aug 1929: Second day of two-day Hebron massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots: Arab attacks on the Jewish community in Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine, result in the death of 65–68 Jews; the remaining Jews are forced to flee the city. Read more
• 24 Aug 1914: World War I: German troops capture Namur. Read more
• 24 Aug 1914: World War I: The Battle of Cer ends as the first Allied victory in the war. Read more
• 24 Aug 1911: Manuel de Arriaga is elected and sworn in as the first President of Portugal. Read more
• 24 Aug 1909: Workers start pouring concrete for the Panama Canal. Read more
• 24 Aug 1898: Count Muravyov, Foreign Minister of Russia presents a rescript that convoked the First Hague Peace Conference. Read more
• 24 Aug 1870: The Wolseley expedition reaches Manitoba to end the Red River Rebellion. Read more
• 24 Aug 1857: The Panic of 1857 begins, setting off one of the most severe economic crises in United States history. Read more
• 24 Aug 1821: The Treaty of Córdoba is signed in Córdoba, now in Veracruz, Mexico, concluding the Mexican War of Independence from Spain. Read more
• 24 Aug 1820: Constitutionalist insurrection at Oporto, Portugal. Read more
• 24 Aug 1816: The Treaty of St. Louis is signed in St. Louis, Missouri. Read more
• 24 Aug 1815: The modern Constitution of the Netherlands is signed. Read more
• 24 Aug 1814: British troops capture Washington, D.C. and set the Presidential Mansion, Capitol, Navy Yard and many other public buildings ablaze. Read more
• 24 Aug 1812: Peninsular War: A coalition of Spanish, British, and Portuguese forces succeed in lifting the two-and-a-half-year-long Siege of Cádiz. Read more

Famous Births on 24 August

• 24 Aug 2001: Mildred Maldonado, Mexican rhythmic gymnast Mildred Maldonado Ramírez is a Mexican rhythmic gymnast. Read more
• 24 Aug 2000: Griffin Gluck, American actor Griffin Alexander Gluck is an American actor. Gluck began his career as a child actor in comedy films such as Just Go with It (2011) and Why Him? (2016). He had his first leading role as a comatose teenager in the drama series Red Band Society (2014–2015) and gained acclaim for playing a young film prodigy in the Netflix mockumentary series American Vandal (2017–2018) and as Gabe/Dodge in the Netflix horror series Locke & Key (2020–2022). He also had further leading roles in comedy films Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (2016); Big Time Adolescence (2019); Tall Girl (2019) and its 2022 sequel; and North Hollywood (2021). He appeared in the second season of the Freeform thriller anthology Cruel Summer (2023). Read more
• 24 Aug 1998: Sofia Richie, American model and social media personality Sofia Alexandra Richie Grainge is an American social media personality and model. She has been featured in campaigns by a number of major brands including Stuart Weitzman, Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors, and Adidas. She is the daughter of singer Lionel Richie and younger sister of Miles Richie. Read more
• 24 Aug 1997: Alan Walker, British-Norwegian DJ and record producer Alan Olav Walker is a Norwegian DJ and record producer. His songs "Faded", "Sing Me to Sleep", "Alone", "All Falls Down", "Ignite", and "Darkside" have each been multi-platinum-certified and reached number 1 on the VG-lista chart in Norway. Walker values his anonymity and is known to wear a hoodie and mask to remain inconspicuous. His musical style is primarily described as house music, and is characterized by emotionally rich and grandiose melodies. Read more
• 24 Aug 1997: Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary Karoline Claire Leavitt is an American political spokesperson who has served as the 36th White House press secretary since 2025. A member of the Republican Party, she was the party's nominee in the 2022 election for New Hampshire's 1st congressional district. Read more
• 24 Aug 1995: Noah Vonleh, American basketball player Noah Vonleh is an American professional basketball player who last played for Zenit Saint Petersburg of the VTB United League. He played college basketball for the Indiana Hoosiers. Read more
• 24 Aug 1995: Lady Amelia Windsor, member of the British royal family Lady Amelia Sophia Theodora Mary Margaret Windsor is a British fashion model and a member of the extended British royal family. As of 2026, she is 45th in the line of succession to the British throne. She is a granddaughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, and therefore a great-great-granddaughter of George V and Queen Mary. She is also a second cousin once removed of King Charles III. Read more
• 24 Aug 1994: Kelsey Plum, American basketball player Kelsey Christine Plum is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and for the Phantom of Unrivaled. Nicknamed "Plum Dawg", she is a five-time WNBA All-Star and was named the WNBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 2022. Plum won gold medals with the United States in 3×3 basketball in 2020 and in 5×5 basketball in 2024. She is also the founder of the Dawg Class basketball camp. Read more
• 24 Aug 1993: Maryna Zanevska, Belgian tennis player Maryna Volodymyrivna Zanevska is a Ukrainian-born Belgian former professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 62, achieved on 23 May 2022, and a WTA doubles ranking of 86, reached on 16 June 2014. Zanevska won one WTA Tour singles title and one title in singles and one in doubles on the WTA Challenger Tour. She also reached four WTA Tour doubles finals. Read more
• 24 Aug 1992: Jemerson, Brazilian footballer Jemerson de Jesus Nascimento, known simply as Jemerson, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back. Read more
• 24 Aug 1991: Enrique Hernández, Puerto Rican baseball player Enrique José Hernández González Jr., nicknamed Kiké, is a Puerto Rican professional baseball utility player for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Houston Astros, Miami Marlins, and Boston Red Sox. Read more
• 24 Aug 1991: Wang Zhen, Chinese race walker Wang Zhen is a Chinese race walker who specialises in the 10 kilometres and 20 kilometres race walk. He holds the senior Asian record for the 20 km with his time of 1:17:36 hours and is also the Asian, Chinese and junior world record holder over 10 km. He was the bronze medallist over 20 km at the 2012 London Olympics and the gold medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Read more
• 24 Aug 1990: Juan Pedro Lanzani, Argentinian actor and singer Juan Pedro "Peter" Lanzani is an Argentine actor and singer and former child model. He is best known for his role on the Cris Morena television series Casi Ángeles playing Thiago Bedoya Agüero, and as a member of the music group Teen Angels. He is also known for his roles in Argentina 1985 by Santiago Mitre and El Clan by Pablo Trapero. Read more
• 24 Aug 1990: Luke Lawrence, American sailor Luke Lawrence is an American yachtsman and professional sailor who has competed internationally across dinghy and keelboat sailing championships. He has won world championship titles in the Finn, J/24, J/22, and Star classes, and is a medalist at the Youth Sailing World Championships and a winner of the Star Vintage Gold Cup. Read more
• 24 Aug 1989: Reynaldo, Brazilian footballer Reynaldo dos Santos Silva, known as just Reynaldo, is a Brazilian retired professional footballer who played as a forward. Read more
• 24 Aug 1989: Rocío Igarzábal, Argentinian actress and singer Rocío Igarzábal, also known as Rochi Igarzábal, is an Argentine actress and singer. Read more
• 24 Aug 1988: Rupert Grint, English actor Rupert Alexander Lloyd Grint is an English actor. He rose to fame for his role as Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter film series, for which he was cast at age eleven, having previously acted only in school plays and his local theatre group. Grint portrayed Weasley in all eight films in the series, beginning with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) and concluding with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011). Since then, he has continued to work in film, television, and theatre. Read more
• 24 Aug 1988: Brad Hunt, Canadian ice hockey player Bradley Michael Hunt is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman. He played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Edmonton Oilers, St. Louis Blues, Nashville Predators, Vegas Golden Knights, Minnesota Wild, Vancouver Canucks and Colorado Avalanche. Hunt beginning his professional career in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Chicago Wolves, where he was an All-Star in the 2012–13 season. He is considered undersized for a defenseman, but is known for possessing a hard slapshot. Read more
• 24 Aug 1988: Manu Ma'u, New Zealand rugby league player Manu Maʻu is a rugby league footballer who plays as a second-row forward for the Souths Sharks in Mackay, Queensland. He has played for both Tonga and New Zealand at international level. Read more
• 24 Aug 1988: Maya Yoshida, Japanese footballer Maya Yoshida is a Japanese professional footballer who captains and plays as a centre-back for Major League Soccer club LA Galaxy. Read more
• 24 Aug 1987: Anže Kopitar, Slovenian ice hockey player Anže Kopitar is a Slovenian former professional ice hockey player. Kopitar played as a centre and spent his entire 20-season NHL career with the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL). The 11th overall pick in the 2005 NHL entry draft, Kopitar became the first Slovenian to play in the NHL upon making his debut in 2006. Kopitar led the Kings team in scoring in all but four seasons and is first in franchise history in points, third in goals, and first in assists. He scored his 1,000th career point in 2021. Following the 2015–16 season, he was named the Kings' captain. Noted for both his offensive and defensive play, Kopitar was awarded the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the best defensive forward in the NHL in 2016 and 2018 while also being a finalist in 2014 and 2015, as well as the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for gentlemanly play in 2016, 2023 and 2025 while also being a finalist in 2015 and 2026. He was also a finalist for the Hart Memorial Trophy in 2018. Read more
• 24 Aug 1986: Joseph Akpala, Nigerian footballer Joseph Eneojo Akpala is a Nigerian football manager and former professional footballer who played as a forward. Since 2022, he is the current assistant coach of Club Brugge. Akpala has been assistant coach at Kortrijk, taking over as caretaker coach for one match in September 2023, in between the dismissal of Edward Still and the appointment of Glen De Boeck, and taking the reins again following De Boeck's sacking in November 2023. Read more
• 24 Aug 1986: Arian Foster, American football player, rapper, and actor Arian Isa Foster is an American former football player who is a musical artist under the name Bobby Feeno. He played professionally as a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for seven and a half seasons. Read more
• 24 Aug 1984: Erin Molan, Australian journalist and sportscaster Erin Molan is an Australian podcaster, host of the Erin Molan Show, who previously worked on Sky News Australia, a past radio presenter on 2Day FM and a former columnist for Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph. Read more
• 24 Aug 1984: Charlie Villanueva, Dominican-American basketball player Charlie Alexander Villanueva Mejia is a Dominican-American former professional basketball player who played for the Toronto Raptors, Milwaukee Bucks, Detroit Pistons and Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Read more
• 24 Aug 1984: Yesung, South Korean singer Kim Kang-hoon, known professionally as Yesung, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, actor, radio personality, and television presenter. He debuted in 2005 as a member of Super Junior and its subgroups Super Junior-K.R.Y. (2006), Super Junior-H (2008) and participated in SM Entertainment's projects SM The Ballad (2014). Aside from group activities, he has recorded songs for various television dramas and movies, participated in various television dramas, movies, musicals and radio hosting. Read more
• 24 Aug 1983: Brett Gardner, American baseball player Brett Michael Gardner is an American former professional baseball outfielder who spent his entire 14-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the New York Yankees. Read more
• 24 Aug 1983: Marcel Goc, German ice hockey player Marcel Goc is a German former professional ice hockey player. Read more
• 24 Aug 1982: José Bosingwa, Portuguese footballer José Bosingwa da Silva is a former professional footballer who played as a right-back. Read more
• 24 Aug 1982: Kim Källström, Swedish footballer Kim Mikael Källström is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He was noted for his play-making ability and free-kick taking. Read more
• 24 Aug 1981: Chad Michael Murray, American actor, model, and author Chad Michael Murray is an American actor, writer, and model. He starred as Lucas Scott in The WB/CW drama series One Tree Hill and had recurring roles as Tristin DuGray on Gilmore Girls (2000–01), Charlie Todd on Dawson's Creek (2001–02), and Edgar Evernever on Riverdale (2019), all on the same network. He currently stars as Cal Jones in the CTV romantic drama series Sullivan's Crossing (2023–present). Read more
• 24 Aug 1979: Vahur Afanasjev, Estonian author and poet Vahur Afanasjev was an Estonian novelist, poet, musician and film director best known for his novel Serafima and Bogdan a story following the lives in a village of Russian Orthodox Old Believers on the shore of the lake Peipus from the end of the World War II to the nineties. The novel won the 2017 Estonian Writers' Union's Novel Competition. Read more
• 24 Aug 1979: Orlando Engelaar, Dutch footballer Orlando Engelaar is a Dutch former footballer who played as a midfielder. Known for his imposing physical presence and passing range, he represented the Netherlands at UEFA Euro 2008. Read more
• 24 Aug 1979: Michael Redd, American basketball player Michael Wesley Redd is an American former professional basketball player. Standing 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) tall and weighing 215 pounds (98 kg), he played 12 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), primarily with the Milwaukee Bucks. Born in Columbus, Ohio, Redd attended West High School and later Ohio State University. As an Ohio State student, he was selected 43rd overall in the 2000 NBA draft. Redd spent both his collegiate and professional career at the shooting guard and small forward positions. He was also a member of the U.S. national basketball team and was an All-Star in 2004. Read more
• 24 Aug 1978: Derek Morris, Canadian ice hockey player Derek Terrence Morris is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played over 1,100 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, Phoenix Coyotes, Boston Bruins and New York Rangers. He was originally drafted out of the Western Hockey League (WHL) 13th overall by the Calgary Flames in the 1996 NHL entry draft. Read more
• 24 Aug 1977: Denílson de Oliveira Araújo, Brazilian footballer Denílson de Oliveira, known simply as Denílson or sometimes Denílson Show, is a Brazilian football pundit and former professional player who played as a winger. Read more
• 24 Aug 1977: Robert Enke, German footballer (died 2009) Robert Enke was a German professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Read more
• 24 Aug 1977: Per Gade, Danish footballer Per Gade is a Danish former football player, who played as a defender. His preferred field position is as a right defender. He started his career with youth football in Nibe Boldklub, before he joined the Superliga team Aalborg BK, but never broke into the first team due to injuries. He moved to lower-league team FC Nordjylland in 2000, and when the club went bankrupt, he joined AC Horsens in the summer of 2004. Read more
• 24 Aug 1977: John Green, American author and vlogger John Michael Green is an American author and YouTuber. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including The Fault in Our Stars (2012), which is one of the best-selling books of all time. Green's rapid rise to fame and idiosyncratic voice are credited with creating a major shift in the young adult fiction market. Green is also well known for his work in online video, most notably his YouTube ventures with his younger brother Hank Green. Read more
• 24 Aug 1977: Jürgen Macho, Austrian footballer Jürgen Macho is an Austrian football coach and former goalkeeper who is goalkeeper coach of Rapid Wien. During his playing career, he kept goal at several clubs across Austria, England, Germany and Greece. Read more
• 24 Aug 1976: Simon Dennis, English rower and academic Simon John Dennis MBE is a British rower and Olympic gold medalist. He was born in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. He started rowing at St Paul's School, London, coached by Michael Streat and his first international appearance was in 1994 in the GB eight at the World Rowing Junior Championships, winning a bronze medal. After school, he attended Imperial College London, winning two Henley Royal Regatta races with them. Read more
• 24 Aug 1976: Alex O'Loughlin, Australian actor, writer, director, and producer Alex O'Loughlin is an Australian actor. He is known for his portrayal of Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett on CBS' remake of the TV series Hawaii Five-0 (2010–2020). He had starring roles in the films Oyster Farmer (2004) and The Back-up Plan (2010), as well as on such television series as Moonlight (2007–2008) and Three Rivers (2009–2010). Read more
• 24 Aug 1975: Roberto Colombo, Italian footballer Roberto Colombo is an Italian former professional football goalkeeper. Read more
• 24 Aug 1975: Mark de Vries, Surinamese-Dutch footballer Mark Lyndon Patrick de Vries is a Dutch football coach and former player. During his playing career he played in Holland, England and Scotland and has since coached in the Faroe Islands and Hungary. After Cambuur, he started working as a coach. Read more
• 24 Aug 1974: Jennifer Lien, American actress Jennifer Anne Lien is an American former actress known for playing Kes on the television series Star Trek: Voyager. Read more
• 24 Aug 1973: Andrew Brunette, Canadian ice hockey player and coach Andrew D. Brunette is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and former player who is the head coach for the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League (NHL). As a player, Brunette played over 1,100 career games in the NHL with the Washington Capitals, Nashville Predators, Atlanta Thrashers, Minnesota Wild, Colorado Avalanche, and Chicago Blackhawks between 1996 and 2012. He previously served as interim head coach for the Florida Panthers, as an assistant coach for the Minnesota Wild and New Jersey Devils, and as the Wild's assistant general manager. Read more
• 24 Aug 1973: Dave Chappelle, American comedian, actor, producer and screenwriter David Khari Webber Chappelle is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and former sketch comedian. He debuted his half-hour TV special in 1998 and his hour-long TV special in 2000. He co-created and starred in the sketch comedy series Chappelle's Show (2003–2006) on Comedy Central before quitting in the middle of production of the third season. After a hiatus, Chappelle returned to performing stand-up comedy across the United States. By 2006, Chappelle was called the "comic genius of America" by Esquire magazine and, in 2013, "the best" by a Billboard writer. In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked him No. 9 in their "50 Best Stand Up Comics of All Time". Read more
• 24 Aug 1973: James D'Arcy, English actor James D'Arcy is an English actor, screenwriter, and film director. He is known for his portrayals of Howard Stark's butler, Edwin Jarvis, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe television series Agent Carter (2015–16) and the 2019 film Avengers: Endgame, and murder suspect Lee Ashworth in the second season of the series Broadchurch (2015). D'Arcy also co-starred in Christopher Nolan's war movies Dunkirk (2017) and Oppenheimer (2023). He wrote and directed Made in Italy (2020). Read more
• 24 Aug 1973: Inge de Bruijn, Dutch swimmer Inge de Bruijn is a Dutch former competitive swimmer. She is a four-time Olympic champion and a former world record-holder in multiple swimming events. Read more
• 24 Aug 1973: Carmine Giovinazzo, American actor Carmine Dominick Giovinazzo, is an American actor, writer, painter and musician, known for his role as Detective Danny Messer in CSI: NY. Read more
• 24 Aug 1972: Jean-Luc Brassard, Canadian skier and radio host Jean-Luc Brassard is a Canadian freestyle skier who won the gold medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics. Brassard has been credited with popularizing the wearing of bright knee pads to show off absorption and leg position for mogul skiers to best show judges how smoothly the athlete is taking the turns. He was born in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec. In his other Olympic appearances, Brassard placed 7th in 1992, 4th in 1998 and 21st in 2002. Read more
• 24 Aug 1972: Ava DuVernay, American director and screenwriter Ava Marie DuVernay is an American filmmaker. She is a recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards, two NAACP Image Awards, a BAFTA Film Award, and a BAFTA TV Award, as well as a nominee for an Academy Award and Golden Globe. In 2011, she founded her independent distribution company ARRAY. After making her directoral debut, I Will Follow (2010), DuVernay won the directing award in the U.S. dramatic competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for her second feature film Middle of Nowhere, becoming the first black woman to win the award. Read more
• 24 Aug 1972: Todd Young, American politician Todd Christopher Young is an American politician and attorney serving as the senior United States senator from Indiana, a seat he has held since 2017. From 2011 to 2017, he was the U.S. representative for Indiana's 9th congressional district. Young is a member of the Republican Party. Read more
• 24 Aug 1970: Rich Beem, American golfer Richard Michael Beem is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and is best known for his upset victory at the 2002 PGA Championship. Read more
• 24 Aug 1970: David Gregory, American journalist David Michael Gregory is an American television personality and the former host of NBC News' Sunday morning talk show Meet the Press. Gregory has served as a CNN political analyst since 2016. Read more
• 24 Aug 1970: Tugay Kerimoğlu, Turkish footballer and manager Tugay Kerimoğlu, known in England as just Tugay, is a Turkish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He played most notably for Galatasaray, followed by Rangers and Blackburn Rovers. After retirement, he was the coordinator of the Galatasaray youth academy, after a short spell working with Mark Hughes at Manchester City. He then served as Roberto Mancini's assistant at Galatasaray during the 2013–14 season. Read more
• 24 Aug 1969: Jans Koerts, Dutch cyclist Jans Koerts is a Dutch former professional road bicycle racer. He was professional from 1992 until 2007. He won Stage 3 of the 2000 Vuelta a España. Read more
• 24 Aug 1968: Benoît Brunet, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster Joseph Jean Luc Benoît Brunet is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in the second round, 27th overall, of the 1986 NHL entry draft. Brunet has also played for the Dallas Stars and Ottawa Senators. Read more
• 24 Aug 1968: Shoichi Funaki, Japanese-American wrestler and sportscaster Shoichi "Sho" Funaki is a Japanese professional wrestling manager, color commentator and retired professional wrestler signed to WWE, where he works as a Japanese-language play-by-play commentator and an occasional interpreter for Japanese talents in the company. During his time as an in-ring performer, he became a one-time Cruiserweight Champion and a one-time Hardcore Champion. Read more
• 24 Aug 1968: Andreas Kisser, Brazilian guitarist, songwriter, and producer Andreas Rudolf Kisser is a Brazilian musician, best known for being the lead guitarist for the metal band Sepultura. He has been featured on every Sepultura release since their second album, Schizophrenia. Additionally, Kisser has also been involved in other bands such as the rock supergroup Hail!, Sexoturica and, more recently, De La Tierra. Read more
• 24 Aug 1968: Tim Salmon, American baseball player and sportscaster Timothy James Salmon, nicknamed "King Fish", is an American former professional baseball player and current sportcaster. He played his entire career in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1992 to 2006 with the California / Anaheim / Los Angeles Angels as an outfielder and designated hitter. Salmon was an integral member of the Angels team that won the 2002 World Series. He is an analyst for Bally Sports West's Angels Live pre-and-postgame shows. Read more
• 24 Aug 1967: Michael Thomas, English footballer Michael Lauriston Thomas is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder from 1986 to 2001. Read more
• 24 Aug 1965: Marlee Matlin, American actress and producer Marlee Matlin is an American actress, author, and advocate. Having been deaf since 18 months of age, she is known for her acting and for her activism on behalf of deaf individuals in Hollywood and other industries. Her accolades include an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for a British Academy Film Award and four Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2009, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Read more
• 24 Aug 1965: Reggie Miller, American basketball player and sportscaster Reginald Wayne Miller is an American former professional basketball player who played his entire 18-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Indiana Pacers. Widely recognized as one of the greatest shooters in NBA history, he was known for his precision three-point shooting, especially in pressure situations and most notably against the New York Knicks, for which he earned the nickname "Knick Killer". A five-time All-Star selection, Miller was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012 and named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021. Read more
• 24 Aug 1965: Brian Rajadurai, Sri Lankan-Canadian cricketer Brian Rajadurai is a Canadian and Sri Lankan cricket player. He started his career playing first-class cricket in his native Sri Lanka and emigrated to Canada. He has represented Canada in the 1997 ICC Trophy and the 1998 Commonwealth Games. Read more
• 24 Aug 1964: Éric Bernard, French racing driver Éric Bernard is a French former racing driver, who competed in Formula One between 1989 and 1994. Read more
• 24 Aug 1964: Mark Cerny, American video game designer, programmer, producer and business executive Mark Evan Cerny is an American video game designer, programmer, producer and media proprietor. Read more
• 24 Aug 1964: Salizhan Sharipov, Kyrgyzstani-Russian lieutenant, pilot, and astronaut Salizhan Shakirovich Sharipov is a retired Kyrgyz cosmonaut of Uzbek descent. Sharipov is a co-author and investigator for the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity project. He has been to space twice and has conducted two space walks. Sharipov retired on 18 July 2008. Read more
• 24 Aug 1963: John Bush, American singer-songwriter John Bush is an American heavy metal singer. He came to prominence in the 1980s as the lead singer and lyricist of Armored Saint, a heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. In 1992, he joined thrash metal band Anthrax, with whom he remained until 2005 and briefly rejoined in 2009–2010. Bush has also been active with the reformed Armored Saint intermittently from 1999 to the present, and involved with other projects such as Metal Allegiance and Category 7. Read more
• 24 Aug 1963: Hideo Kojima, Japanese director, screenwriter and video game designer Hideo Kojima is a Japanese video game designer, writer, director, and producer. He is best known for the Metal Gear franchise, which remains his most famous and acclaimed work, as well as Death Stranding and its sequel. His games are noted for being highly cinematic, the result of a passion for film and literature which began during his childhood, and he is regarded as a pioneering auteur of video games. Read more
• 24 Aug 1963: Peter Rufai, Nigerian footballer (died 2025) Peter Rufai was a Nigerian professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Having begun his career with Stationery Stores, he competed professionally abroad in Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain in a senior career that lasted 20 years. Read more
• 24 Aug 1962: Craig Kilborn, American television host Craig Lawrence Kilborn is an American television host, actor, comedian, direcor, and sports commentator. Kilborn began a career in sports broadcasting in the late 1980s, leading to an anchoring position at ESPN's SportsCenter from 1993 to 1996. He was later the first host of The Daily Show, which he hosted from 1996 to 1998, and succeeded Tom Snyder on CBS' The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn from 1999 to 2004. In comedy, Kilborn is known for his deadpan delivery. Read more
• 24 Aug 1962: Emile Roemer, Dutch educator and politician Emile Gerardus Maria Roemer is a Dutch politician serving as King's Commissioner of Limburg since December 2021. A member of the Socialist Party (SP), he was its leader and parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives from 5 March 2010 until 13 December 2017. Roemer served as a member of the House of Representatives from 2006 until 2018, as acting Mayor of Heerlen from 2018 to 2020, and as acting mayor of Alkmaar from 2020 to 2021. Read more
• 24 Aug 1961: Jared Harris, English actor Jared Francis Harris is a British actor. The son of the actor Richard Harris, he studied drama at Duke University and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. He has received accolades including a British Academy Television Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for a Golden Globe Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Read more
• 24 Aug 1960: Cal Ripken Jr., American baseball player and coach Calvin Edwin Ripken Jr., nicknamed "the Iron Man", is an American former professional baseball shortstop and third baseman who played his entire 21-season career in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Baltimore Orioles (1981–2001). One of his position's most productive offensive players, Ripken compiled 3,184 hits, 431 home runs, 1,695 runs batted in, and won two Gold Glove Awards for his defense during his career. He was a 19-time All-Star and was twice named American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP), in 1983 and 1991. Read more
• 24 Aug 1958: Steve Guttenberg, American actor and producer Steven Robert Guttenberg is an American actor, author, businessman, producer, and director. He is known for playing Carey Mahoney in the Police Academy films from 1984 to 1987. He also acted in Three Men and a Baby (1987) and its 1990 sequel as well as the films Diner (1982), Cocoon (1985), Short Circuit (1986), The Bedroom Window (1987), The Big Green (1995) and A Novel Romance (2011). Read more
• 24 Aug 1957: Jeffrey Daniel, American singer-songwriter and dancer Jeffrey Glen Daniel is an American dancer, singer, songwriter, and choreographer, and a founding member of the R&B vocal group Shalamar. In Nigeria, he is best known as a judge on the first three seasons of Nigerian Idol. Read more
• 24 Aug 1957: Stephen Fry, English actor, journalist, producer, and screenwriter Sir Stephen John Fry is an English actor, comedian, writer, and broadcaster. He began his career on the sketch comedy series Alfresco (1983–1984) and the sitcom Blackadder (1986–1989), before gaining recognition as part of the comedy duo Fry and Laurie alongside Hugh Laurie, appearing together in A Bit of Fry & Laurie (1989–1995) and Jeeves and Wooster (1990–1993). His later television roles include Kingdom (2007–2009), Bones (2007–2017), and It's a Sin (2021). Fry was the original host of the comedy panel show QI (2003–2016), for which he was nominated for six BAFTA TV Awards. In 2025, Fry was knighted for services to mental health awareness, the environment, and charity. Read more
• 24 Aug 1956: Gerry Cooney, American boxer Gerald Arthur Cooney is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1977 to 1990. He challenged twice for world heavyweight titles in 1982 and 1987. He is widely regarded as one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history. He beat Ken Norton, S. T. Gordon, Ron Lyle, and Jimmy Young late in their careers. He boasts an 85.7% knockout to win percentage. Read more
• 24 Aug 1955: Kevin Dunn, American actor Kevin Dunn is an American actor who has appeared in supporting roles in numerous films and television series since the 1980s. Read more
• 24 Aug 1955: Mike Huckabee, American minister and politician, 44th Governor of Arkansas Michael Dale Huckabee is an American politician, diplomat, and Baptist minister serving as the 29th United States ambassador to Israel since 2025. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 44th governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007, and ran for his party's presidential nomination in both 2008 and 2016. He is the father of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the current governor of Arkansas since 2023 and a former White House press secretary. Read more
• 24 Aug 1954: Alain Daigle, Canadian ice hockey player Roland Alain Daigle is a Canadian former professional ice hockey forward who played six seasons with the Chicago Black Hawks of the National Hockey League from 1974–75 to 1979–80. Read more
• 24 Aug 1954: Heini Otto, Dutch footballer, coach, and manager Heini Otto is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He is currently working as a technical coach at Ajax. Read more
• 24 Aug 1953: Sam Torrance, Scottish golfer and sportscaster Samuel Robert Torrance is a Scottish former professional golfer and sports commentator. He was one of the leading players on the European Tour from the mid-1970s to the late 1990s, with 21 Tour wins. Torrance was a member of European Ryder Cup teams on eight occasions consecutively; on Cup-winning teams four times. He was also part of the winning Scotland team at the 1995 Dunhill Cup. He was the winning non-playing captain of the European Ryder Cup team in 2002. Torrance was honoured with the MBE (1996) and OBE (2003), for his outstanding contributions to golf. Read more
• 24 Aug 1952: Marion Bloem, Dutch author, director, and painter Marion Bloem is a Dutch writer and film maker of Indo descent, best known as author of the literary acclaimed book Geen gewoon Indisch meisje and director of the 2008 feature film Ver van familie. Read more
• 24 Aug 1952: Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jamaican dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson , also known as LKJ, is a Jamaican-born, British-based dub poet and activist. In 2002, he became the second living poet, and the only black one, to be published in the Penguin Modern Classics series. His performance poetry involves the recitation of his own verse in Jamaican patois over dub-reggae, usually written in collaboration with reggae producer/artist Dennis Bovell. Read more
• 24 Aug 1951: Danny Joe Brown, American southern rock singer-songwriter and musician (died 2005) Danny Joe Brown was an American singer. He was the lead singer of the Southern rock group Molly Hatchet and was co-writer of the band's biggest hits from the late 1970s. Read more
• 24 Aug 1951: Orson Scott Card, American novelist, critic, public speaker, essayist, and columnist Orson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. As of 2024, he is the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card coproduced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2026). Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; he has provoked controversy and criticism for his public opposition to homosexuality. Read more
• 24 Aug 1951: Oscar Hijuelos, American author and academic (died 2013) Oscar Jerome Hijuelos was an American novelist of Cuban descent. During a year-long convalescence from a childhood illness spent in a Connecticut hospital, he lost his knowledge of Spanish, his parents' native language. He was educated in New York City, and wrote short stories and advertising copy. Read more
• 24 Aug 1949: Stephen Paulus, American composer and educator (died 2014) Stephen Paulus was an American Grammy Award winning composer, best known for his operas and choral music. His style is essentially tonal, and melodic and romantic by nature. Read more
• 24 Aug 1949: Joe Regalbuto, American actor and director Joe Regalbuto is an American actor and director. He is known for his role as Frank Fontana on the CBS television sitcom Murphy Brown, which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 1989. Read more
• 24 Aug 1948: Kim Sung-il, South Korean commander and pilot Kim Sung-il (Korean: 김성일) is a former Chief of Staff of the Republic of Korea Air Force. Read more
• 24 Aug 1948: Jean Michel Jarre, French pianist, composer, and producer Jean-Michel André Jarre is a French composer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient, and new-age genres, and is known for organising outdoor spectacles featuring his music, accompanied by vast laser displays, large projections and fireworks. Read more
• 24 Aug 1948: Sauli Niinistö, Finnish captain and politician, 12th President of Finland Sauli Väinämö Niinistö is a Finnish politician who served as the president of Finland from 2012 to 2024. Read more
• 24 Aug 1948: Alexander McCall Smith, Rhodesian-Scottish author and educator Sir Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith is a Scottish legal scholar and author of fiction. He was born and brought up in Southern Rhodesia and was formerly Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. He became an expert on medical law and bioethics and served on related British and international committees. He has since become known as a fiction writer, with sales in English exceeding 40 million by 2010 and translations into 46 languages. He is known as the creator of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. The "McCall" derives from his great-great-grandmother Bethea McCall, who married James Smith at Glencairn, Dumfries-shire, in 1833. Read more
• 24 Aug 1947: Anne Archer, American actress and producer Anne Archer is an American actress. Archer was named Miss Golden Globe in 1971, and in the year following, appeared in her feature-film debut The Honkers (1972). She had supporting roles in Cancel My Reservation (1972), The All-American Boy (1973), and Trackdown (1976), and appeared in Good Guys Wear Black (1978), Paradise Alley (1978), and Hero at Large (1980). Read more
• 24 Aug 1947: Paulo Coelho, Brazilian author and songwriter Paulo Coelho de Souza is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist. He has been a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters since 2002. His 1988 novel The Alchemist is an international best-seller. Read more
• 24 Aug 1947: Roger De Vlaeminck, Belgian cyclist and coach Roger De Vlaeminck is a Belgian former professional racing cyclist. He was described by Rik Van Looy as "The most talented and the only real classics rider of his generation". Nicknamed "The Gypsy" because he was born into a family of traveling clothiers, he is known for exploits in the cobbled classic Paris–Roubaix race, but his performances in other "Monument" races gave him a record that few can match. His record in Paris–Roubaix earned him another nickname, "Monsieur Paris–Roubaix". Read more
• 24 Aug 1947: Joe Manchin, American politician, 34th Governor of West Virginia Joseph Manchin III is an American politician and businessman from West Virginia. Manchin served from 2001 to 2005 as the 27th secretary of state of West Virginia, from 2005 to 2010 as the 34th governor of West Virginia, and from 2010 to 2025 as a United States senator from West Virginia. Manchin was a Democrat throughout his political career until he became an independent in 2024. Read more
• 24 Aug 1947: Vladimir Masorin, Russian admiral Admiral of the Fleet Vladimir Vasilyevich Masorin is a retired Russian naval officer who was Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy from 2005 to 2007. He was previously the Chief of the Main Staff and First Deputy Commander-in-Chief in 2005, and commanded the Black Sea Fleet from 2002 to 2005 and the Caspian Flotilla from 1996 to 2002. He was commissioned from the Nakhimov Black Sea Higher Naval School in Crimea in 1970, and commanded two destroyers, a destroyer brigade, and a squadron before reaching higher command. Masorin also graduated from the Grechko Naval Academy and the Russian General Staff Academy. As the head of the Russian navy he oversaw increased cooperation with NATO countries, for which he was made a Commander of the Legion of Merit by the United States. Read more
• 24 Aug 1945: Ronee Blakley, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress Ronee Sue Blakley is an American actress, singer-songwriter, composer, producer and director. Read more
• 24 Aug 1945: Molly Duncan, Scottish saxophonist (died 2019) Malcolm "Molly" Duncan was a Scottish tenor saxophonist, and founding member of Average White Band. Read more
• 24 Aug 1945: Ken Hensley, English rock singer-songwriter and musician (died 2020) Kenneth William David Hensley was an English musician, singer, songwriter and producer, best known for his work with Uriah Heep during the 1970s. Read more
• 24 Aug 1945: Marsha P. Johnson, American gay liberation activist and drag queen (died 1992) Marsha P. Johnson was an American LGBTQ activist, sex worker and performer. Sometimes known as the "Saint of Christopher Street", she is considered an important figure in the LGBTQ and transgender rights movements due to her involvement in the Stonewall riots, her work with Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), and her advocacy for people with AIDS. Read more
• 24 Aug 1945: Vince McMahon, American wrestler, promoter, and entrepreneur; co-founded WWE Vincent Kennedy McMahon is an American businessman and former professional wrestling promoter. McMahon, along with his later-estranged wife Linda, is co-founder of the modern WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling promotion. Outside of professional wrestling, McMahon has occasionally ventured into promoting other sports. His projects have included the World Bodybuilding Federation and the XFL football league. Read more
• 24 Aug 1944: Bill Goldsworthy, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (died 1996) William Alfred Goldsworthy was a Canadian professional ice hockey right winger who played for three teams in the National Hockey League for 14 seasons between 1964 and 1978, mostly with the Minnesota North Stars. He retired from playing after two partial seasons in the World Hockey Association. Read more
• 24 Aug 1944: Gregory Jarvis, American engineer, and astronaut (died 1986) Gregory Bruce Jarvis was an American engineer and astronaut who died during the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L, where he was serving as payload specialist for Hughes Aircraft. Read more
• 24 Aug 1944: Rocky Johnson, Canadian-American wrestler and trainer (died 2020) Rocky Johnson was a Canadian professional wrestler. Among many National Wrestling Alliance titles, he was the first Black NWA Georgia Heavyweight Champion as well as the NWA Television Champion. He won the WWF Tag Team Championship in 1983, along with his partner Tony Atlas, to become the first black tag team champions in WWE history. He was the father of actor and wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and the grandfather of wrestler Simone "Ava" Johnson. Read more
• 24 Aug 1943: John Cipollina, American rock guitarist (died 1989) John Cipollina was a guitarist best known for his role as a founder and the lead guitarist of the prominent San Francisco rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service. After leaving Quicksilver he formed the band Copperhead, was a member of the San Francisco All Stars and later played with numerous other bands. Read more
• 24 Aug 1942: Max Cleland, American captain and politician (died 2021) Joseph Maxwell Cleland was an American politician from Georgia. A member of the Democratic Party, he was a disabled U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War, a recipient of the Silver Star and the Bronze Star for valorous actions in combat, as well as a United States senator (1997–2003). Read more
• 24 Aug 1942: Jimmy Soul, American pop-soul singer (died 1988) Jimmy Soul was an American vocalist. He is best remembered for his 1963 number one hit, "If You Wanna Be Happy." Read more
• 24 Aug 1942: Karen Uhlenbeck, American mathematician Karen Keskulla Uhlenbeck ForMemRS is an American mathematician and one of the founders of modern geometric analysis. She is a professor emerita of mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin, where she held the Sid W. Richardson Foundation Regents Chair. Since 2019 she has been a distinguished visiting professor in the School of
  Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study, on an appointment running
  to 2027, and she is a visiting senior research scholar at [[Princeton
  University]]. Read more
• 24 Aug 1942: Hans Peter Korff, German actor (died 2025) Hans Peter Korff was a German actor in theatre, film and television. He worked at notable German theatres and became popular in TV series such as Diese Drombuschs. Read more
• 24 Aug 1941: Alan M. Roberts, English academic, Professor of Zoology at the University of Bristol Alan Madoc Roberts is an English academic serving as Emeritus professor of Zoology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Bristol. Read more
• 24 Aug 1940: Madsen Pirie, British academic, President and co-founder of the Adam Smith Institute Duncan Madsen Pirie is a British researcher and author. He is a co-founder and current president of the Adam Smith Institute, a UK neoliberal think tank which has been in operation since 1977. Read more
• 24 Aug 1940: Francine Lalonde, Canadian educator and politician (died 2014) Francine Lalonde was a Canadian politician who served on both the provincial and federal levels. Prior to being elected, she was a lecturer, teacher, and unionist. Read more
• 24 Aug 1940: Keith Savage, English rugby player Keith Frederick Savage is a former England international rugby union player. Read more
• 24 Aug 1938: David Freiberg, American singer and bass player David Freiberg is an American musician best known for contributing vocals, keyboards, electric bass, rhythm guitar, viola and percussion as a member of Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, and Jefferson Starship. Among other tracks, he co-wrote "Jane", a hit for Jefferson Starship. Read more
• 24 Aug 1938: Mason Williams, American guitarist and composer Mason Douglas Williams is an American classical guitarist, composer, singer, writer, comedian, and poet, best known for his 1968 instrumental "Classical Gas" and for his work as a comedy writer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and Saturday Night Live. Read more
• 24 Aug 1937: Moshood Abiola, Nigerian businessman and politician (died 1998) Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, also known as M. K. O. Abiola, was a Nigerian business magnate, publisher and politician. He was the honorary supreme military commander of the Oyo Empire and an aristocrat of the Egba clan. Read more
• 24 Aug 1937: Susan Sheehan, Austrian-American journalist and author (died 2026) Susanna Maria Sheehan was an American writer. Read more
• 24 Aug 1936: A. S. Byatt, English novelist and poet (died 2023) Dame Antonia Susan Duffy, known professionally by her former married name, A. S. Byatt, was an English critic, novelist, poet and short-story writer. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages. Read more
• 24 Aug 1936: Kenny Guinn, American banker and politician, 27th Governor of Nevada (died 2010) Kenneth Carroll Guinn was an American businessman, academic administrator, and politician who served as the 27th governor of Nevada from 1999 to 2007. He previously served as interim president of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) from 1994 until 1995. Originally a Democrat, he joined the Republican Party before running for governor. Read more
• 24 Aug 1936: Arthur B. C. Walker Jr., American physicist and academic (died 2001) Arthur Bertram Cuthbert Walker Jr. was an American solar physicist and a pioneer of EUV/XUV optics. He developed normal incidence multilayer XUV telescopes to photograph the solar corona. Two of his sounding rocket payloads, the Stanford/MSFC Rocket Spectroheliograph Experiment and the Multi-Spectral Solar Telescope Array, recorded the first full-disk, high-resolution images of the Sun in XUV with conventional geometries of normal incidence optics. This technology is used in solar telescopes such as SOHO/EIT and TRACE, and in the fabrication of microchips via ultraviolet photolithography. Read more
• 24 Aug 1934: Kenny Baker, English actor (died 2016) Kenneth George "Kenny" Baker was a British actor, comedian and musician. He portrayed the character R2-D2 in the Star Wars franchise and also appeared in The Elephant Man, Time Bandits, Willow, Flash Gordon, Amadeus and Labyrinth. Read more
• 24 Aug 1933: Prince Rupert Loewenstein, Spanish-English banker and manager (died 2014) Rupert, Prince zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, Count of Löwenstein-Scharffeneck was a Spanish-born Bavarian aristocrat and the longtime financial manager of the rock band the Rolling Stones. Read more
• 24 Aug 1932: Robert D. Hales, American captain and religious leader (died 2017) Robert Dean Hales was an American businessman and member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1994 until his death. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Hales was accepted by the church as a prophet, seer, and revelator. At the time of his death he was the fifth most senior apostle in the church. Read more
• 24 Aug 1932: Richard Meale, Australian pianist and composer (died 2009) Richard Graham Meale, AM MBE FAHA was a highly regarded Australian composer of instrumental works and operas, and an influential music educator. Read more
• 24 Aug 1932: Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, English cardinal (died 2017) Cormac Murphy-O'Connor was a British Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Westminster from 2000 to 2009. He was also president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. He was made a cardinal in 2001. Read more
• 24 Aug 1930: Jackie Brenston, American singer-songwriter and saxophonist (died 1979) Jackie Brenston was an American singer and saxophonist who, with Ike Turner's band, recorded the first version of "Rocket 88" in 1951. It was noted in a subsequent interview that Brenston stated "I had a hit record and no sense". Read more
• 24 Aug 1930: Roger McCluskey, American race car driver (died 1993) Roger McCluskey was an American IndyCar driver. He was raised in Tucson, Arizona. Read more
• 24 Aug 1929: Betty Dodson, American author and educator (died 2020) Betty Dodson was an American sex educator. An artist by training, she exhibited erotic art in New York City, before pioneering the pro-sex feminist movement. Dodson's workshops and manuals encourage women to masturbate, often in groups. Read more
• 24 Aug 1929: Pierre Mazeaud, French jurist, politician and alpinist Pierre Mazeaud is a French jurist, politician and alpinist. Read more
• 24 Aug 1927: Anjali Devi, Indian actress and producer (died 2014) Anjali Devi was an Indian actress, model and producer in Telugu and Tamil films. She was well known for her role as the Devi Sita in Lava Kusa as well as for the title roles in movies like Chenchu Lakshmi, Suvarna Sundari and Anarkali. Read more
• 24 Aug 1927: David Ireland, Australian author and playwright (died 2022) David Neil Ireland was an Australian novelist. Read more
• 24 Aug 1927: Harry Markowitz, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2023) Harry Max Markowitz was an American economist who received the 1989 John von Neumann Theory Prize and the 1990 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Read more
• 24 Aug 1926: Nancy Spero, American painter and academic (died 2009) Nancy Spero was an American visual artist known for her political and feminist paintings and hand pulled art prints. Read more
• 24 Aug 1924: Alyn Ainsworth, English singer and conductor (died 1990) Alyn Ainsworth was a British musician, singer and conductor of light entertainment music. Read more
• 24 Aug 1924: Louis Teicher, American pianist (died 2008) Louis Milton Teicher was an American piano player, half of the piano duo Ferrante & Teicher. Read more
• 24 Aug 1923: Arthur Jensen, American psychologist and academic (died 2012) Arthur Robert Jensen was an American psychologist and writer. He was a professor of educational psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Jensen was known for his work in psychometrics and differential psychology, the study of how and why individuals differ behaviorally from one another. Read more
• 24 Aug 1922: René Lévesque, Canadian journalist and politician, 23rd Premier of Quebec (died 1987) René Lévesque was a Canadian politician and journalist who served as the 23rd premier of Quebec from 1976 to 1985. He was the first Québécois political leader since Confederation to seek, through a referendum, a mandate to negotiate the political independence of Quebec. Starting his career as a reporter, and radio and television host, he later became known for his eminent role in Quebec's nationalization of hydro-electric companies and as an ardent defender of Quebec sovereignty. He was the founder of the Parti Québécois, and before that, a Liberal minister in the Lesage government from 1960 to 1966. Read more
• 24 Aug 1922: Howard Zinn, American historian, author, and activist (died 2010) Howard Zinn was an American historian and a veteran of World War II. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a political science professor at Boston University. Zinn wrote more than 20 books, including his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United States in 1980. In 2007, he published a version of it for younger readers, A Young People's History of the United States. Read more
• 24 Aug 1921: Eric Simms, English ornithologist and conservationist (died 2009) Eric Arthur Simms, DFC was an English ornithologist, naturalist, writer, sound recordist, broadcaster and conservationist, as well as a decorated wartime Bomber Command pilot/ bomb-aimer. Read more
• 24 Aug 1920: Alex Colville, Canadian painter and academic (died 2013) David Alexander Colville was a Canadian painter and printmaker. Read more
• 24 Aug 1919: Tosia Altman, member of the Polish resistance in World War II (died 1943) Tosia Altman was a courier and smuggler for Hashomer Hatzair and the Jewish Combat Organization (ŻOB) during the German occupation of Poland and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Read more
• 24 Aug 1919: J. Gordon Edwards, American entomologist, mountaineer, and DDT advocate (died 2004) J. Gordon Edwards was an American entomologist and proponent of the use and safety of the pesticide DDT. He was professor of entomology at San Jose State University for 40 years, and namesake to the university's entomology museum. He was an outspoken critic of Rachel Carson and efforts to ban DDT, famously eating the substance to demonstrate its safety to humans. He was also a noted mountain climber, spending nine seasons as a ranger-naturalist in Glacier National Park during the 1940s and '50s, and returning often to collect insects and map routes. His 1961 book A Climber's Guide to Glacier National Park, republished several times since, made him known as the "patron saint of climbing" in the park, where he died while hiking, aged 84. Read more
• 24 Aug 1919: Enrique Llanes, Mexican wrestler (died 2004) Enrique Juan Yañez González , best known under the ring name Enrique Llanes, was a Mexican professional wrestler. He was one of the premier Hispanic professional wrestlers in the early days of professional wrestling in Mexico, which is why he is considered one of its most important pioneers. Llanes held both the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship and the NWA World Middleweight Championship during his career. Enrique Llanes is the brother-in-law to Gory Guerrero and uncle to Mando Guerrero, Chavo Guerrero, Sr., Hector Guerrero and Eddie Guerrero, his brothers Mario and Sergio Llanes also wrestled as did his son Javier Llanes. Llanes is credited with innovating the La Cerrajera submission hold. Read more
• 24 Aug 1919: Niels Viggo Bentzon, Danish composer and pianist (died 2000) Niels Viggo Bentzon was a Danish composer and pianist. Read more
• 24 Aug 1918: Sikander Bakht, Indian field hockey player and politician, Indian Minister of External Affairs (died 2004) Sikander Bakht was an Indian politician. He served as Vice President of the BJP, served as its leader in the Rajya Sabha and was a cabinet minister in the NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He also s 15th governor of Kerala from 2002 until his death. In 2000, he was awarded Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian honour of the Government of India. Read more
• 24 Aug 1915: Wynonie Harris, American singer and guitarist (died 1969) Wynonie Harris was an American blues shouter best remembered as a singer of upbeat songs, featuring humorous, often ribald lyrics. He had fifteen Top 10 hits between 1946 and 1952. Harris is attributed by many music scholars to be one of the founding fathers of rock and roll. His "Good Rocking Tonight" is mentioned at least as a precursor to rock and roll. Read more
• 24 Aug 1915: James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Bradley Sheldon), American psychologist and science fiction author (died 1987) Alice Bradley Sheldon, better known as James Tiptree Jr., was an American science fiction and fantasy author. It was not publicly known until 1977 that James Tiptree Jr. was a pen name of a woman, which she used from 1967 until her death. From 1974 to 1985, she also occasionally used the pen name Raccoona Sheldon. Tiptree was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2012. Read more
• 24 Aug 1913: Charles Snead Houston, American physician and mountaineer (died 2009) Charles Snead Houston was an American physician, mountaineer, high-altitude investigator, inventor, author, film-maker, and former Peace Corps administrator. He made two important and celebrated attempts to climb the mountain K2 in the Karakoram Range. Read more
• 24 Aug 1909: Ronnie Grieveson, South African cricketer and soldier (died 1998) Ronald Eustace Grieveson was a South African cricketer who played in two Tests in 1938–39. He was born and died in Johannesburg, South Africa. He attended Parktown Boys' High School in 1922 and thereafter attended St John's College, Johannesburg from 1923 until 1926 where he matriculated. Read more
• 24 Aug 1908: Shivaram Rajguru, Indian activist (died 1931) Shivaram Hari Rajguru was an Indian anti-colonial revolutionary and independence activist. He is best known for his involvement in the 1928 assassination of a British police officer named John P. Saunders. He was an active member of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) and on 23 March 1931, he was hanged by the British government along with his associates Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev Thapar. Read more
• 24 Aug 1907: Bruno Giacometti, Swiss architect, designed the Hallenstadion (died 2012) Bruno Giacometti was a Swiss architect, the son of the painter Giovanni Giacometti, and the brother of the artists Alberto and Diego Giacometti. He was regarded as one of the most important post-World War II architects in Switzerland. The Swiss pavilion for the 1952 Venice Biennale was among his best-known works. Read more
• 24 Aug 1905: Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1974) Arthur William "Big Boy" Crudup was an American Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known, outside blues circles, for his songs "That's All Right" (1946), "My Baby Left Me" and "So Glad You're Mine", later recorded by Elvis Presley and other artists. Read more
• 24 Aug 1905: Siaka Stevens, Sierra Leonean police officer and politician, 1st President of Sierra Leone (died 1988) Siaka Probyn Stevens was the leader of Sierra Leone from 1967 to 1985, serving as Prime Minister from 1967 to 1971 and as President from 1971 to 1985. Stevens' leadership was often characterized by patrimonial rule, violence, and self-indulgence, consolidating power by means of corruption and exploitation. Read more
• 24 Aug 1904: Ida Cook, English campaigner for Jewish refugees, and romantic novelist as Mary Burchell (died 1986) Ida Cook was a British campaigner for Jewish refugees and, as Mary Burchell, a romance novelist. Read more
• 24 Aug 1903: Karl Hanke, German businessman and politician (died 1945) Karl August Hanke was a German Nazi official and politician who served as the fifth and final Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel (SS). He also served as Gauleiter of Gau Lower Silesia from 1941 to 1945 and as Oberpräsident of the Prussian Province of Lower Silesia. Captured on 6 May 1945, he was shot and wounded during an escape attempt and then beaten to death by Czech guards on 8 June, after the war had ended. Read more
• 24 Aug 1903: Mohammad Yamin, Indonesian poet, revolutionary, and politician (died 1962) Muhammad Yamin was an Indonesian poet, politician, historian and national hero who played a key role in the writing of the draft preamble to the 1945 constitution. Read more
• 24 Aug 1902: Fernand Braudel, French historian and academic (died 1985) Fernand Paul Achille Braudel was a French historian. His scholarship focused on three main projects: The Mediterranean, Civilization and Capitalism (1955–79), and the unfinished Identity of France (1970–85). He was a member of the Annales School of French historiography and social history in the 1950s and 1960s. Read more
• 24 Aug 1902: Carlo Gambino, Italian-American mob boss (died 1976) Carlo Gambino was a Sicilian crime boss who was the leader and namesake of the Gambino crime family of New York City. Following the Apalachin Meeting in 1957, and the imprisonment of Vito Genovese in 1959, Gambino took over the Commission of the American Mafia and played a powerful role in organized crime until his death from a heart attack in 1976. During a criminal career that spanned over fifty years, Gambino served only twenty-two months in prison, for a tax evasion charge in 1937. Read more
• 24 Aug 1900: Preston Foster, American actor (died 1970) Preston Stratton Foster, was an American actor of stage, film, radio, and television, whose career spanned nearly four decades. He also had a career as a vocalist. Read more
• 24 Aug 1899: Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator (died 1986) Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known works, Ficciones (transl. Fictions) and El Aleph, published in the 1940s, are collections of short stories exploring motifs such as dreams, labyrinths, chance, infinity, archives, mirrors, fictional writers, and mythology. Borges's works have contributed to philosophical literature and the fantasy genre, and have had a major influence on the magical realist movement in 20th century Latin American literature. Read more
• 24 Aug 1899: Albert Claude, Belgian biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1983) Albert Claude was a Belgian-American cell biologist and medical doctor who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974 with Christian de Duve and George Emil Palade. His elementary education started in a comprehensive primary school at Longlier, his birthplace. He served in the British Intelligence Service during the First World War, and got imprisoned in concentration camps twice. In recognition of his service, he was granted enrolment at the University of Liège in Belgium to study medicine without any formal education required for the course. He earned his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1928. Devoted to medical research, he initially joined German institutes in Berlin. In 1929 he found an opportunity to join the Rockefeller Institute in New York. At Rockefeller University he made his most groundbreaking achievements in cell biology. In 1930 he developed the technique of cell fractionation, by which he discovered the agent of the Rous sarcoma, as well as components of cell organelles such as the mitochondrion, chloroplast, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, ribosome, and lysosome. He was the first to employ the electron microscope in the field of biology. In 1945 he published the first detailed structure of cell. His collective works established the complex functional and structural properties of cells. Read more
• 24 Aug 1898: Malcolm Cowley, American novelist, poet, literary critic (died 1989) Malcolm Cowley was an American writer, editor, historian, poet, and literary critic. His best known works include his first book of poetry, Blue Juniata (1929), and his memoir, Exile's Return, written as a chronicler and fellow traveller of the Lost Generation and an influential editor and talent scout at Viking Press. Read more
• 24 Aug 1897: Fred Rose, American pianist, songwriter, and publisher (died 1954) Knowles Fred Rose was an American musician, Hall of Fame songwriter, and music publishing executive. Read more
• 24 Aug 1895: Richard Cushing, American cardinal (died 1970) Richard James Cushing was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as archbishop of Boston from 1944 to 1970 and was made a cardinal in 1958. Cushing's main role was as fundraiser and builder of new churches, schools, and institutions. Unlike his predecessor, he was on good terms with practically the entire Boston elite, as he softened the traditional confrontation between the Catholic Irish and the Protestant upper-class. He built useful relationships with Jews, Protestants, and institutions outside the usual Catholic community. He helped presidential candidate John F. Kennedy deflect fears of papal interference in American government if a Catholic became president. Read more
• 24 Aug 1893: Haim Ernst Wertheimer, German-Israeli biochemist and academic (died 1978) Haim Ernst Wertheimer was an Israeli biochemist. Read more
• 24 Aug 1890: Duke Kahanamoku, American swimmer, actor, and surfer (died 1968) Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku was a Hawaiian competition swimmer, lifeguard, and popularizer of the sport of surfing. A Native Hawaiian, he was born three years before the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. He lived to see the territory's admission as a state and became a United States citizen. He was the world record holder of the 100-meters free style in swimming, and was a five-time Olympic medalist in swimming, winning medals in 1912, 1920 and 1924. Read more
• 24 Aug 1890: Jean Rhys, Dominican-British novelist (died 1979) Jean Rhys was a British Creole novelist who was born and grew up in the Caribbean island of Dominica. From the age of 16, she resided mainly in England, where she was sent for her education. She is best known for her final novel, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), written as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Read more
• 24 Aug 1888: Valentine Baker, Welsh co-founder of the Martin-Baker Aircraft Company (died 1942) Captain Valentine Henry Baker MC AFC, nicknamed "Bake", served in all three of the British Armed Forces during the First World War. After the war he became a civilian flight instructor, and co-founder of the Martin-Baker Aircraft Company. He was the father of novelist Denys Val Baker. Read more
• 24 Aug 1887: Harry Hooper, American baseball player (died 1974) Harry Bartholomew Hooper was an American professional baseball right fielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB). Hooper batted left-handed and threw right-handed. Hooper was born in Bell Station, California, and he graduated from Saint Mary's College of California. He played for major league teams between 1909 and 1925, spending most of that time with the Boston Red Sox and finishing his career with the Chicago White Sox. Read more
• 24 Aug 1884: Earl Derr Biggers, American author and playwright (died 1933) Earl Derr Biggers was an American novelist and playwright. His novels featuring the fictional Chinese American detective Charlie Chan were adapted into popular films made in the United States and China. Read more
• 24 Aug 1872: Max Beerbohm, English essayist, parodist, and caricaturist (died 1956) Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist under the signature Max. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist. He was the drama critic for the Saturday Review from 1898 until 1910, when he relocated to Rapallo, Italy. In his later years he was popular for his occasional radio broadcasts. Among his best-known works is his only novel, Zuleika Dobson, published in 1911. His caricatures, drawn usually in pen or pencil with muted watercolour tinting, are in many public collections. Read more
• 24 Aug 1865: Ferdinand I of Romania (died 1927) Ferdinand I, nicknamed the Unifier, was King of Romania from 10 October 1914 until his death in 1927. Ferdinand was the second son of Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern, and Infanta Antónia of Portugal. His family was part of the Swabian Catholic branch of the Prussian royal House of Hohenzollern. Read more
• 24 Aug 1863: Dragutin Lerman, Croatian explorer (died 1918) Dragutin Lerman was a Croatian explorer. Read more
• 24 Aug 1862: Zonia Baber, American geographer and geologist (died 1956) Mary Arizona "Zonia" Baber was an American geographer and geologist best known for developing methods for teaching geography. Her teachings emphasized experiential learning through field work and experimentation. Read more
• 24 Aug 1860: David Bowman, Australian lawyer and politician (died 1916) David Bowman was a Labor politician in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland and Queensland Leader of the Opposition from 1908 to 1912. Read more
• 24 Aug 1852: Agnes Marshall, English culinary entrepreneur, inventor, and celebrity chef (died 1905) Agnes Bertha Marshall was an English culinary entrepreneur, inventor, and celebrity chef. An unusually prominent businesswoman for her time, Marshall was particularly known for her work on ice cream and other frozen desserts, which in Victorian England earned her the moniker "Queen of Ices". Marshall popularised ice cream in England and elsewhere at a time when it was still a novelty and is often regarded as the inventor of the modern ice cream cone. Through her work, Marshall may be largely responsible for both the look and popularity of ice cream today. Read more
• 24 Aug 1851: Tom Kendall, Australian cricketer and journalist (died 1924) Thomas Kingston Kendall was an Australian cricketer, who played in two Test matches in 1877, including the inaugural Test which was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 1877. Read more
• 24 Aug 1845: James Calhoun, American lieutenant (died 1876) James Calhoun was a soldier in the United States Army during the American Civil War and the Black Hills War. He was the brother-in-law of George Armstrong Custer and was killed along with Custer in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. His brother-in-law Myles Moylan survived the battle as part of the forces with Major Marcus Reno and Captain Frederick Benteen. Read more
• 24 Aug 1843: Boyd Dunlop Morehead, Australian politician, 10th Premier of Queensland (died 1905) Boyd Dunlop Morehead was a politician in Queensland, Australia. He was Premier of Queensland from November 1888 to June 1890. Read more
• 24 Aug 1837: Théodore Dubois, French organist, composer, and educator (died 1924) Clément François Théodore Dubois was a French Romantic composer, organist and pedagogue. Read more
• 24 Aug 1824: Antonio Stoppani, Italian geologist and scholar (died 1891) Antonio Stoppani was an Italian Catholic priest, patriot, geologist and palaeontologist. He studied the geology of the Italian region and wrote a popular treatise, Il Bel Paese, on geology and natural history. He was among the first to propose a geological epoch dominated by human activities that altered the shape of the land. Read more

Notable Deaths on 24 August

• 24 Aug 2024: Christoph Daum, German footballer and manager (born 1953) Christoph Paul Daum was a German professional football manager and player. As a manager, he won eight trophies with clubs from Germany, Turkey and Austria. In 1992, he won the Bundesliga championship with VfB Stuttgart. In the Bundesliga, he also led 1. FC Köln to two and Bayer 04 Leverkusen to three second places. He won further national championships with the Turkish clubs Beşiktaş and Fenerbahçe as well as Austria Wien. In 2000, a drug scandal prevented his appointment as German national coach. Read more
• 24 Aug 2023: Bray Wyatt, American wrestler (born 1987) Windham Lawrence Rotunda, better known by his ring name Bray Wyatt, was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his tenures in WWE from 2009 to 2021 and again from 2022 until his death in 2023. Read more
• 24 Aug 2021: Charlie Watts, English musician (born 1941) Charles Robert Watts was an English musician who was the drummer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 until his death in 2021. Read more
• 24 Aug 2020: Gail Sheehy, American author, journalist, and lecturer (born 1936) Gail Sheehy was an American author, journalist, and lecturer. She was the author of seventeen books and numerous high-profile articles for magazines such as New York and Vanity Fair. Sheehy played a part in the movement Tom Wolfe called the New Journalism, sometimes known as creative nonfiction, in which journalists and essayists experimented with adopting a variety of literary techniques such as scene setting, dialogue, status details to denote social class, and getting inside the story and sometimes reporting the thoughts of a central character. Read more
• 24 Aug 2017: Jay Thomas, American actor, comedian, and radio talk show host (born 1948) Jon "Jay" Thomas Terrell was an American actor, comedian, and radio personality. He was heard in New York from 1976 to 1979 on top-40 station 99X, and later on rhythmic CHR station 92KTU, and in Los Angeles beginning in 1986 on KPWR "Power 106", where he hosted the station's top-rated morning show until 1993. His notable television work included his co-starring role as Remo DaVinci on Mork & Mindy (1979–1981), the recurring role of Eddie LeBec, a Boston Bruins goalie on the downside of his career, on Cheers (1987–1989), the lead character of newspaper columnist Jack Stein on Love & War (1992–1995), and a repeat guest role as Jerry Gold, a talk-show host who becomes both an antagonist and love interest of the title character on Murphy Brown. He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 1990 and 1991 for portraying Gold. He was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for radio in 1989. Read more
• 24 Aug 2016: Walter Scheel, German politician, 4th President of Germany (born 1919) Walter Scheel was a German statesman. A former member of the Nazi Party who joined the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) in 1946, he first served in government as the Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development from 1961 to 1966 and later as President of Germany from 1974 to 1979. He led the FDP from 1968 to 1974. Read more
• 24 Aug 2015: Charlie Coffey, American football player and coach (born 1934) Charles Edward Coffey was an American football player and coach. A native of Shelbyville, Tennessee, Coffey attended the University of Tennessee to play football for Robert Neyland. While at the University of Tennessee he played guard, lettered from 1953 to 1955 and was selected as the team captain his senior year. Coffey also maintained the highest grade average for four years of any member of the UT squad. Coffey served as the head football coach at Virginia Tech from 1971 to 1973, compiling a record of 12–20–1. Read more
• 24 Aug 2015: Joseph F. Traub, German-American computer scientist and academic (born 1932) Joseph Frederick Traub was an American computer scientist. He was the Edwin Howard Armstrong Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He held positions at Bell Laboratories, University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon, and Columbia, as well as sabbatical positions at Stanford, Berkeley, Princeton, California Institute of Technology, and the Technical University of Munich. Read more
• 24 Aug 2015: Justin Wilson, English racing driver (born 1978) Justin Boyd Wilson was a British professional open-wheel racing driver who competed in Formula One (F1) in 2003, the Champ Car World Series (CCWS) from 2004 to 2007 and the IndyCar Series from 2008 to 2015. He won the first Formula Palmer Audi (FPA) in 1998, the International Formula 3000 Championship (IF3000) with Nordic Racing in 2001, and co-won the 2012 24 Hours of Daytona for Michael Shank Racing. Read more
• 24 Aug 2014: Richard Attenborough, English actor, director, producer, and politician (born 1923) Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough was an English actor, film director, and producer. He won a total of two Academy Awards, six BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards for his directing and acting career spanning seven decades. He was knighted in 1976 for services to film and in 1983 he received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement. Read more
• 24 Aug 2014: Antônio Ermírio de Moraes, Brazilian businessman (born 1928) Antônio Ermírio de Moraes was a Brazilian billionaire businessman and the chairman of the Votorantim Group, one of the country's largest companies, focused on metals, paper, cement and frozen orange juice. He was the grandfather of IndyCar Series driver Mario Moraes. Read more
• 24 Aug 2013: Gerry Baker, American soccer player and manager (born 1938) Gerard Austin Baker was a Scottish-American soccer player. From 1955 until 1970, he played 16 seasons in either the Scottish or English first division. He earned seven caps with the US national team in 1968 and 1969, scoring two goals. His younger brother was the footballer Joe Baker. Read more
• 24 Aug 2013: Nílton de Sordi, Brazilian footballer and manager (born 1931) Nílton de Sordi, sometimes known as just De Sordi, was a Brazilian footballer who played as a right-back. Read more
• 24 Aug 2013: Julie Harris, American actress (born 1925) Julia Ann Harris was an American actress. Widely regarded as one of the greatest actresses of the American theater, she earned numerous accolades including a record five Tony Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Play, as well as three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. She was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1979, received the National Medal of Arts in 1994, the Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 2002, and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2005. Read more
• 24 Aug 2013: Muriel Siebert, American businesswoman and philanthropist (born 1928) Muriel Faye Siebert was an American businesswoman who was the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and the first woman to head one of the NYSE's member firms. She joined the 1,365 male members of the exchange on December 28, 1967. Siebert is sometimes known as the "first woman of finance", despite being preceded in owning a brokerage by Victoria Woodhull. Read more
• 24 Aug 2012: Dadullah, Pakistani Taliban leader (born 1965) Jamal Said better known by the nom de guerre Mullah Dadullah and also Maulana Mohammad Jamal, was a senior member of the Pakistani Taliban. He was self-proclaimed Taliban leader in Pakistan's northern Bajaur Agency. He was killed in a NATO airstrike in the Shigal wa Sheltan District of Afghanistan's neighbouring Kunar Province on 24 August 2012. His deputy and ten Taliban fighters were also killed in the strike. Read more
• 24 Aug 2012: Pauli Ellefsen, Faroese surveyor and politician, 6th Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (born 1936) Joen Pauli Højgaard Ellefsen was a Faroese politician and member of the Union Party. He was Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands from 1981 to 1985. Read more
• 24 Aug 2012: Steve Franken, American actor (born 1932) Stephen Robert Franken was an American actor who worked in film and television for over fifty years. Read more
• 24 Aug 2012: Félix Miélli Venerando, Brazilian footballer and manager (born 1937) Félix Miélli Venerando was a Brazilian football player, more commonly known as Félix. Read more
• 24 Aug 2011: Seyhan Erözçelik, Turkish poet and author (born 1962) Seyhan Erözçelik was a Turkish poet. Read more
• 24 Aug 2011: Mike Flanagan, American baseball player, coach, and sportscaster (born 1951) Michael Kendall Flanagan was an American professional baseball left-handed pitcher, front office executive, and color commentator. He spent 18 years as a player in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays (1987–1990). Read more
• 24 Aug 2010: Satoshi Kon, Japanese director and screenwriter (born 1963) Satoshi Kon was a Japanese film director, animator, screenwriter and manga artist from Sapporo, Hokkaido, and a member of the Japanese Animation Creators Association (JAniCA). He was a graduate of the Graphic Design department of the Musashino Art University. He is best known for his acclaimed anime films Perfect Blue (1997), Millennium Actress (2001), Tokyo Godfathers (2003), and Paprika (2006), and the TV series Paranoia Agent (2004).
  In 2010, Kon died of pancreatic cancer at age 46. Read more
• 24 Aug 2007: Andrée Boucher, Canadian educator and politician, 39th Mayor of Quebec City (born 1937) Andrée Plamondon Boucher was a Canadian politician from the province of Quebec. She was the mayor of Quebec City from November 19, 2005, until her death. Previously, she had been the mayor of the city of Sainte-Foy, formerly a suburb of Quebec City, from 1985 until 2001, when the cities of Sainte-Foy and Quebec were merged. She was the first woman to become leader of a municipal political party in the province of Quebec. Read more
• 24 Aug 2007: Aaron Russo, American director and producer (born 1943) Aaron Russo was an American entertainment businessman, film producer, director, and political activist. He was best known for producing movies including Trading Places, Wise Guys, and The Rose. Later in life, he created various political documentaries like Mad as Hell and America: Freedom to Fascism that were libertarian-leaning, and controversial for their endorsement of some cultural and political events, some of which are referred to as conspiracy theories. He sought public office as both a Republican and a Libertarian. Read more
• 24 Aug 2006: Rocco Petrone, American soldier and engineer (born 1926) Rocco Anthony Petrone was an American mechanical engineer, U.S. Army officer and NASA official. He served as director of launch operations at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) from 1966 to 1969, as Apollo program director at NASA Headquarters from 1969 to 1973, as third director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center from 1973 to 1974, and as NASA Associate Administrator from 1974 until his retirement from NASA in 1975. Read more
• 24 Aug 2006: Léopold Simoneau, Canadian tenor and educator (born 1916) Léopold Simoneau, was a French-Canadian lyric tenor, one of the outstanding Mozarteans of his time. In 1959 he became the first recipient of the Calixa-Lavallée Award. Read more
• 24 Aug 2005: Jamshed Ansari, Pakistani film, television and radio actor (born 1942) Jamshed Ansari was a Pakistani film, television and radio actor. Read more
• 24 Aug 2004: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-American psychiatrist and academic (born 1926) Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was a Swiss and American psychiatrist, a pioneer in near-death studies, author, and developer of the five stages of grief, also known as the "Kübler-Ross model". Read more
• 24 Aug 2003: Wilfred Thesiger, Ethiopian-English explorer and author (born 1910) Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger, also known as Mubarak bin Landan, was a British military officer, explorer, and writer. Thesiger's travel books include Arabian Sands (1959), on his foot and camel crossing of the Empty Quarter of the Arabian Peninsula, and The Marsh Arabs (1964), on his time living with the Marsh Arabs of Iraq. Read more
• 24 Aug 2002: Nikolay Guryanov, Russian priest and mystic (born 1909) Nikolai Alekseievich Guryanov was a Russian Orthodox Christian and reputed myrrh-bearing starets and priest. Numerous miracles and healings are ascribed to him. Read more
• 24 Aug 2001: Jane Greer, American actress (born 1924) Jane Greer was an American film and television actress best known for her role as femme fatale Kathie Moffat in the 1947 film noir Out of the Past. In 2009, The Guardian named her one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination. Read more
• 24 Aug 2001: Roman Matsov, Estonian violinist, pianist, and conductor (born 1917) Roman Voldemarovich Matsov was a Soviet and Estonian violinist, pianist, and conductor. Read more
• 24 Aug 2000: Andy Hug, Swiss martial artist and kick-boxer (born 1964) Andreas "Andy" Hug was a Swiss karateka and kickboxer who competed in the heavyweight division. Considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight kickboxers of all time, Hug was renowned for his ability to execute numerous kicking techniques rarely seen in high-level competition. Although he was usually smaller than his opponents, standing at 1.80 m and being barely a heavyweight, weighing around 98.0 kg in his prime, he made up for his lack of size with his athleticism and speed. A southpaw, his trademark kicks included the axe kick and the "Hug Tornado", a low spinning heel kick targeting his opponents' thighs. Read more
• 24 Aug 1999: Mary Jane Croft, American actress (born 1916) Mary Jane Croft was an American actress best known for roles as Betty Ramsey on I Love Lucy, Miss Daisy Enright on the radio and television versions of Our Miss Brooks, Mary Jane Lewis on The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy, and Clara Randolph on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Read more
• 24 Aug 1999: Alexandre Lagoya, Egyptian guitarist and composer (born 1929) Alexandre Lagoya was a French classical guitarist and composer. His early career included boxing and guitar, and as he cites on the sleeve of a 1981 Columbia album, his parents hoped he would outgrow his predilection for both. Read more
• 24 Aug 1998: E. G. Marshall, American actor (born 1910) Everett Eugene Grunz, known professionally as E. G. Marshall, was an American actor. One of the first group of actors selected for the new Actors Studio, Marshall, by 1948, had performed in major plays on Broadway. Read more
• 24 Aug 1997: Luigi Villoresi, Italian racing driver (born 1907) Luigi "Gigi" Villoresi was an Italian racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1950 to 1956. Read more
• 24 Aug 1992: André Donner, Dutch academic and judge (born 1918) Andreas Matthias Donner was a Dutch judge and the second President of the European Court of Justice, a position which he served between 1958 and 1964. Read more
• 24 Aug 1991: Bernard Castro, Italian-American inventor (born 1904) Bernard Castro was the inventor of the modern convertible couch. Read more
• 24 Aug 1990: Sergei Dovlatov, Russian-American journalist and author (born 1941) Sergei Donatovich Dovlatov was a Soviet journalist and writer. Internationally, he is one of the most popular Russian writers of the late 20th century. Read more
• 24 Aug 1990: Gely Abdel Rahman, Sudanese-Egyptian poet and academic (born 1931) Gely Abdel Rahman Arabic: جيلي عبد الرحمن was one of the leading Sudanese poets of the second half of the 20th century. Read more
• 24 Aug 1987: Malcolm Kirk, English rugby player and wrestler (born 1936) Malcolm Kirk was an English professional wrestler who went by the ring name of "King Kong" Kirk as well as Kojak Kirk, Killer Kirk and "Mucky" Mal Kirk. He started as a professional rugby league player before becoming a professional wrestler. Kirk died of a heart attack on 23 August 1987 after collapsing in the ring during a tag team match at the Hippodrome in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England. The wrestling event was run by Joint Promotions with the main event being a tag team match between Kirk and King Kendo against Big Daddy and Greg Valentine in front of 1,500 people. Read more
• 24 Aug 1985: Paul Creston, American composer and educator (born 1906) Paul Creston was a prolific American composer of classical music and an organist. His catalogued works number over 120 compositions in several major musical genres. They include six symphonies, several concertante and virtuoso works for violin, piano, accordion, marimba, saxophone and trombone. He has been described as a leading American Neo-Romantic composer of his time whose music was performed widely during the 1940s and 1950s. Read more
• 24 Aug 1983: Kalevi Kotkas, Estonian-Finnish high jumper and discus thrower (born 1913) Kalevi Kotkas was an Estonian-born Finnish athlete, specializing in high jump, discus throw and shot put. He became the first ever European champion in high jump, in 1934 in Turin, and competed in the 1932 and 1936 Summer Olympics. In 1936 he cleared the same height of 2.00 m as the medalists Dave Albritton and Delos Thurber, but made more attempts and was placed fourth. Read more
• 24 Aug 1983: Scott Nearing, American economist, educator, and activist (born 1883) Scott Nearing was an American radical economist, educator, writer, political activist, pacifist, vegetarian and advocate of simple living. In 1915, he was dismissed from a teaching position at the Wharton School on account of his left-wing politics, becoming a cause célèbre of the American Left. His opposition to American entry into World War I led to his prosecution under the Espionage Act, for which he was found not guilty. After the war, he became a leading leftist intellectual associated with the Socialist Party of America, and later with the Communist Party USA. From the Great Depression until the end of his life, Nearing and his wife Helen lived a self-sufficient homesteading lifestyle. Together, they published Living the Good Life: How to Live Simply and Sanely in a Troubled World in 1954. Read more
• 24 Aug 1982: Félix-Antoine Savard, Canadian priest and author (born 1896) Félix-Antoine Savard, was a Canadian priest, academic, poet, novelist and folklorist. Read more
• 24 Aug 1980: Yootha Joyce, English actress (born 1927) Yootha Joyce Needham, known as Yootha Joyce, was a British actress best known for playing Mildred Roper opposite Brian Murphy in the sitcom Man About the House (1973–1976) and its spin-off George and Mildred (1976–1979). She had a large number of film and television credits to her name, and also made many appearances on stage. Read more
• 24 Aug 1979: Hanna Reitsch, German soldier and pilot (born 1912) Hanna Reitsch was a German aviator and test pilot. Reitsch was among the very last people to meet Adolf Hitler before his suicide in the Führerbunker in April 1945. Following her capture, she provided information about her departure from Berlin and denied that she might have helped Hitler escape. Read more
• 24 Aug 1978: Louis Prima, American singer-songwriter, trumpet player, and actor (born 1910) Louis Leo Prima was an American trumpeter, singer, entertainer, and bandleader. While rooted in New Orleans jazz, swing music, and jump blues, Prima touched on various genres throughout his career: he formed a seven-piece New Orleans–style jazz band in the late 1920s, fronted a swing combo in the 1930s and a big band group in the 1940s, helped to popularize jump blues in the late 1940s and early to mid 1950s, and performed frequently as a Vegas lounge act beginning in the 1950s. Read more
• 24 Aug 1977: Buddy O'Connor, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1916) Herbert William "Buddy" O'Connor was a Canadian professional ice hockey centre who played for the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers in the National Hockey League between 1941 and 1951. He won the Hart Trophy and Lady Byng Trophy in 1948. Read more
• 24 Aug 1974: Alexander P. de Seversky, Russian-American pilot and businessman, co-founded Republic Aviation (born 1894) Alexander Nikolayevich Prokofiev de Seversky was a Russian-American aviation pioneer, inventor, and influential advocate of strategic air power. He was also a World War I flying ace. Read more
• 24 Aug 1967: Henry J. Kaiser, American businessman, founded Kaiser Shipyards and Kaiser Aluminum (born 1882) Henry John Kaiser was an American industrialist who became known for his shipbuilding and construction projects, then later for his involvement in fostering modern American health care. Prior to World War II, Kaiser was involved in the construction industry; his company was one of those that built the Hoover Dam. He established the Kaiser Shipyards, which built Liberty ships during World War II, after which he formed Kaiser Aluminum and Kaiser Steel. Kaiser organized Kaiser Permanente health care for his workers and their families. He led Kaiser-Frazer followed by Kaiser Motors, automobile companies known for the safety of their designs. Kaiser was involved in large construction projects such as civic centers and dams, and invested in real estate, later moving into television broadcasting with Kaiser Broadcasting. Read more
• 24 Aug 1958: Paul Henry, Irish painter and educator (born 1876) Paul Henry was an Irish artist noted for depicting the West of Ireland landscape in a spare Post-Impressionist style. Read more
• 24 Aug 1957: Ronald Knox, English Catholic priest (born 1888) Ronald Arbuthnott Knox was an English Catholic priest, theologian, author, and radio broadcaster. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, where he earned a high reputation as a classicist, Knox was ordained as a priest of the Church of England in 1912. He was a fellow and chaplain of Trinity College, Oxford until he resigned from those positions following his conversion to Catholicism in 1917. Knox became a Catholic priest in 1918, continuing in that capacity his scholarly and literary work. Read more
• 24 Aug 1956: Kenji Mizoguchi, Japanese director and screenwriter (born 1898) Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese filmmaker who directed roughly one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956. His most acclaimed works include The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939), The Life of Oharu (1952), Ugetsu (1953), and Sansho the Bailiff (1954), with the latter three all being awarded at the Venice International Film Festival. A recurring theme of his films was the oppression of women in historical and contemporary Japan. Together with Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu, Mizoguchi is seen as a representative of the "golden age" of Japanese cinema. Read more
• 24 Aug 1954: Getúlio Vargas, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 14th President of Brazil (born 1882) Getúlio Dornelles Vargas was a Brazilian military officer, lawyer, and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 until his suicide in 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Brazil's provisional, constitutional, dictatorial and democratic leader, he is considered by historians as the most influential Brazilian politician of the 20th century. Read more
• 24 Aug 1946: James Clark McReynolds, American lawyer and judge, 48th United States Attorney General (born 1862) James Clark McReynolds was an American lawyer and judge from Tennessee who served as United States Attorney General under President Woodrow Wilson and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He served on the Court from 1914 to his retirement in 1941. McReynolds is best known today for his sustained opposition to the domestic programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and for his abrasive and dislikeable personality, which his contemporaries mostly viewed negatively and included documented elements of overt antisemitism and racism. Read more
• 24 Aug 1943: Antonio Alice, Argentinian painter and educator (born 1886) Antonio Alice was an Argentine portrait painter. He was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1904. Read more
• 24 Aug 1943: Ettore Muti Italian aviator, adventurer and politician (born 1902) Ettore Muti was an Italian aviator and Fascist politician. He was party secretary of the National Fascist Party from October 1939 until shortly after the entry of Italy into World War II on 10 June 1940. Read more
• 24 Aug 1943: Simone Weil, French philosopher and activist (born 1909) Simone Adolphine Weil was a French philosopher, mystic, political activist and labourer. Despite her short life, her ideas concerning religion, spirituality and politics have remained widely influential in contemporary philosophy. Read more
• 24 Aug 1940: Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, Polish-German technician and inventor, invented the Nipkow disk (born 1860) Paul Julius Gottlieb Nipkow was a German electrical engineer and inventor. He invented the Nipkow disk, which laid the foundation of television, since his disk was a fundamental component in the first televisions. Hundreds of stations experimented with television broadcasting using his disk in the 1920s and 1930s, until it was superseded by all-electronic systems in the 1940s. Read more
• 24 Aug 1939: Frederick Carl Frieseke, American painter and educator (born 1874) Frederick Carl Frieseke was an American Impressionist painter who spent most of his life as an expatriate in France. An influential member of the Giverny art colony, his paintings often concentrated on various effects of dappled sunlight. Read more
• 24 Aug 1932: Kate M. Gordon, American activist (born 1861) Kate M. Gordon was an American suffragist, civic leader, and one of the leading advocates of women's voting rights in the Southern United States. Gordon was the organizer of the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference and directed the 1918 campaign for woman suffrage in the state of Louisiana, the first such statewide effort in the American South. Read more
• 24 Aug 1930: Tom Norman, English businessman and showman (born 1860) Tom Norman, born Thomas Noakes, was an English businessman, a showman, and the last exhibitor of Joseph Merrick, who was known as the "Elephant Man". Among Norman's later exhibits were a troupe of little people, a "Man in a Trance", "John Chambers, the armless Carpenter", and the "World's Ugliest Woman". Read more
• 24 Aug 1923: Kate Douglas Wiggin, American author and educator (born 1856) Kate Douglas Wiggin was an American educator, author and composer. She wrote children's stories, most notably the classic children's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and composed collections of children's songs. She started the first free kindergarten in San Francisco, the Silver Street Free Kindergarten, in 1878. With her sister Nora during the 1880s, she also established a training school for kindergarten teachers. Wiggin devoted her adult life to the welfare of children in an era when children were commonly thought of as cheap labor. Read more
• 24 Aug 1895: Albert F. Mummery, English mountaineer and author (born 1855) Albert Frederick Mummery, was an English mountaineer and author. Although most notable for his many and varied first ascents put up in the Alps, Mummery, along with J. Norman Collie, Geoffrey Hastings, and two Gurkhas are also the first men in recorded history to have attempted to summit one of the Himalayan eight-thousanders. Read more
• 24 Aug 1888: Rudolf Clausius, German physicist and mathematician (born 1822) Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius was a German physicist and mathematician and is considered one of the central founding fathers of the science of thermodynamics. By his restatement of Sadi Carnot's principle known as the Carnot cycle, he gave the theory of heat a truer and sounder basis. His most important paper, "On the Moving Force of Heat", published in 1850, first stated the basic ideas of the second law of thermodynamics. In 1865 he introduced the concept of entropy. In 1870 he introduced the virial theorem, which applied to heat. Read more
• 24 Aug 1841: Theodore Hook, English civil servant and composer (born 1788) Theodore Edward Hook was an English writer, intellectual, prankster and civil servant. One of the first writers of the English fashionable novel, he is best known for his practical jokes, particularly the Berners Street hoax in 1810. The world's first postcard was received by Hook in 1840; he likely posted it to himself. Read more
• 24 Aug 1841: John Ordronaux, French-American soldier (born 1778) John Ordronaux was a French-born privateer and businessman. Born in Nantes, Brittany, he eventually moved to the United States. During the War of 1812, Ordronaux captained two ships, Marengo and Prince de Neufchatel, and conducted several privateering cruises with both vessels. He captured or burnt approximately 30 British merchantmen and seized a total volume of goods worth between $250,000 and $300,000 during the war. Following the end of the conflict in 1815, Ordronaux settled in New York City in 1816 and married, having five children, including a son named John. After allegedly working in the sugar industry, he died at Cartagena, Colombia, South America in 1841. Read more
• 24 Aug 1838: Ferenc Kölcsey, Hungarian poet, critic, and politician (born 1790) Ferenc Kölcsey was a Hungarian poet, literary critic, orator, and politician, noted for his support of the liberal current in Hungary regarding the politics involving the Austrian Empire. He wrote "Himnusz", the national anthem of Hungary in 1823. Read more
• 24 Aug 1832: Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, French physicist and engineer (born 1796) Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot was a French military engineer and physicist. A graduate of the École polytechnique, Carnot served as an officer in the Engineering Arm of the French Army. He also pursued scientific studies, and in June 1824 published an essay titled Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire. In that book, which would be his only publication, Carnot developed the first successful theory of the maximum efficiency of heat engines. Read more
• 24 Aug 1832: Richard Weymouth, British Royal Navy commander (born 1780/81) Richard Weymouth was a Royal Navy commander, notable as compiler of the Naval, Military, and Village Hymn Book, published in the year of his death and designed for non-denominational use: thus it aimed to exclude hymns which promulgated 'controverted doctrines'. The work also reflected his dislike of the practice of singing long hymns. Read more
• 24 Aug 1821: John William Polidori, English writer and physician (born 1795) John William Polidori was an English writer and medical doctor. He is known for his associations with the Romantic movement and credited by some as the creator of the vampire genre of fantasy fiction. Read more
• 24 Aug 1818: James Carr, American lawyer and politician (born 1777) James Carr, son of U.S. Congressman Francis Carr, was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Maine, then a District of Massachusetts. Read more
• 24 Aug 1804: Peggy Shippen, American wife of Benedict Arnold and American Revolutionary War spy (born 1760) Margaret Shippen was the second wife of General Benedict Arnold. She has been described as "the highest-paid spy in the American Revolution". Read more

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