Important Events on 05 February in History

• 2021: Police riot in Mexico City as they try to break up a demonstration by cyclists who were protesting after a bus ran over a bicyclist. Eleven police officers are arrested. Read more
• 2020: United States President Donald Trump is acquitted by the United States Senate in his first impeachment trial. Read more
• 2020: Pegasus Airlines Flight 2193 overshoots the runway at Sabiha Gökçen International Airport and crashes, killing three people and injuring 179. Read more
• 2019: Pope Francis becomes the first Pope in history to visit and perform papal mass in the Arabian Peninsula during his visit to Abu Dhabi. Read more
• 2016: New Zealand politician Steven Joyce is hit by a flung rubber dildo in a Waitangi Day protest. Read more
• 2008: A major tornado outbreak across the Southern United States kills 57. Read more
• 2004: Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion. Read more
• 2000: Russian forces massacre at least 60 civilians in the Novye Aldi suburb of Grozny, Chechnya. Read more
• 1997: The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families. Read more
• 1994: Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers. Read more
• 1994: Markale massacres, more than 60 people are killed and some 200 wounded as a mortar shell explodes in a downtown marketplace in Sarajevo. Read more
• 1988: Manuel Noriega is indicted on drug smuggling and money laundering charges. Read more
• 1985: Ugo Vetere, then the mayor of Rome, and Chedli Klibi, then the mayor of Carthage, meet in Tunis to sign a treaty of friendship officially ending the Third Punic War which lasted 2,131 years. Read more
• 1981: Operation Soap: The Metropolitan Toronto Police Force raids four gay bathhouses in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, arresting just under 300, triggering mass protest and rallies. Read more
• 1975: Riots break out in Lima, Peru after the police forces go on strike the day before. The uprising (locally known as the Limazo) is bloodily suppressed by the military dictatorship. Read more
• 1971: Astronauts land on the Moon in the Apollo 14 mission. Read more
• 1967: Cultural Revolution: The Shanghai People’s Commune is formally proclaimed, with Yao Wenyuan and Zhang Chunqiao being appointed as its leaders. Read more
• 1963: The European Court of Justice’s ruling in Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen establishes the principle of direct effect, one of the most important, if not the most important, decisions in the development of European Union law. Read more
• 1962: French President Charles de Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence. Read more
• 1958: Gamal Abdel Nasser is nominated to be the first president of the United Arab Republic. Read more
• 1958: A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered. Read more
• 1945: World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila. Read more
• 1941: World War II: Allied forces begin the Battle of Keren to capture Keren, Eritrea. Read more
• 1939: Generalísimo Francisco Franco becomes the 68th “Caudillo de España”, or Leader of Spain. Read more
• 1933: Mutiny on Royal Netherlands Navy warship HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën off the coast of Sumatra, Dutch East Indies. Read more
• 1924: The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal. Read more
• 1919: Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith launch United Artists. Read more
• 1918: Stephen W. Thompson shoots down a German airplane; this is the first aerial victory by the U.S. military. Read more
• 1918: SS Tuscania is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland; it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk. Read more
• 1917: The current constitution of Mexico is adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Read more
• 1917: The Congress of the United States passes the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto. Read more
• 1913: Greek military aviators Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis perform the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane. Read more
• 1913: Claudio Monteverdi’s last opera L’incoronazione di Poppea was performed theatrically for the first time in more than 250 years. Read more
• 1907: Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world’s first synthetic plastic. Read more
• 1905: In Mexico, the General Hospital of Mexico is inaugurated, started with four basic specialties. Read more
• 1901: J. P. Morgan incorporates U.S. Steel in the state of New Jersey, although the company would not start doing business until February 25 and the assets of Andrew Carnegie’s Carnegie Steel Company, Elbert H. Gary’s Federal Steel Company, and William Henry Moore’s National Steel Company were not acquired until April 1. Read more
• 1885: King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal possession. Read more
• 1869: The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the “Welcome Stranger”, is found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia. Read more
• 1859: Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Prince of Moldavia, is also elected as prince of Wallachia, joining the two principalities as a personal union called the United Principalities, an autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire, which ushered in the birth of the modern Romanian state. Read more
• 1852: The New Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, opens to the public. Read more
• 1818: Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway. Read more
• 1810: Peninsular War: Siege of Cádiz begins. Read more

 Important Births on 05 February in History

• 2016: Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck, Bhutanese prince Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck is the heir apparent to the Bhutanese throne. He is the first child of King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Queen Jetsun Pema. Read more
• 2002: Jisung, South Korean rapper Park Ji-sung, also known mononymously as Jisung is a South Korean rapper, singer, songwriter, dancer and actor. He began his career as a child actor, model and dancer, as part of the Nam Hyun-Joon and Kids dance crew. He debuted as cameo actor with “Tree with Deep Roots” in 2011 and made more screentime as supporting role in “Go, Stop Murder” in 2013. After that, he became a trainee under SM Entertainment in 2013 and was part of its pre-debut trainee team SM Rookies. Jisung made his idol debut in August 2016 as a member of South Korean boy group NCT through the sub-unit NCT Dream. Read more
• 2002: Taehyun, South Korean singer-songwriter Kang Tae-hyun, known mononymously as Taehyun, is a South Korean singer and songwriter. He is a member of the South Korean boy band Tomorrow X Together, formed by Big Hit Entertainment in 2019. Read more
• 2001: Kim Min-ju, South Korean actress Kim Min-ju is a South Korean actress and former singer. She is best known as a former member of the South Korean–Japanese girl group Iz*One, having finished 11th in Mnet’s girl group survival show Produce 48, representing Urban Works. As an actress, she is represented by Management Soop and has appeared in Tempted (2018), The Fault Is Not Yours (2019), The Forbidden Marriage (2022–2023), and Hear Me: Our Summer (2024). Read more
• 1997: Patrick Roberts, English footballer Patrick John Joseph Roberts is an English professional footballer who plays as a winger for EFL Championship club Birmingham City. Read more
• 1996: Stina Blackstenius, Swedish footballer Emma Stina Blackstenius is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a forward for Arsenal in the English Women’s Super League and the Sweden national team. Read more
• 1995: Adnan Januzaj, Belgian-Albanian footballer Adnan Januzaj is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a winger for La Liga club Sevilla. Read more
• 1993: Leilani Latu, Australian rugby league player Leilani Latu is a Tonga international rugby league footballer who played as a prop most recently for the Warrington Wolves in the Super League. Read more
• 1993: Ty Rattie, Canadian ice hockey player Ty Rattie is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who is currently playing for Linköping HC of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). Read more
• 1992: Stefan de Vrij, Dutch footballer Stefan de Vrij is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Serie A club Inter Milan and the Netherlands national team. Read more
• 1992: Neymar, Brazilian footballer Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, simply known as Neymar Júnior or mononymously as Neymar, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or a forward for Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Santos, which he captains, and the Brazil national team. Known for his dribbling, technical ability, playmaking, and finishing, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. He is one of only five players to have scored 100 goals with three different clubs, both the all-time Brazilian top goalscorer (43) and assist provider (33) in the UEFA Champions League, ranks second for the all-time South American men’s top goalscorers in international football (79), and was the all-time top assist provider in international football (59) for two years. He has scored over 400 senior career goals and registered over 250 assists for club and country. Read more
• 1991: Nabil Bahoui, Swedish footballer Nabil Bahoui is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a forward for Allsvenskan club IF Brommapojkarna. Read more
• 1991: Gerald Tusha, Albanian footballer Gerald Tusha is an Albanian professional footballer who plays as a left midfielder for KF Vora. Read more
• 1990: Dmitry Andreikin, Russian chess player Dmitry Vladimirovich Andreikin is a Russian chess grandmaster, World Junior Chess Champion in 2010 and two-time Russian Chess Champion. He won the Tashkent leg of FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15 and finished runners-up in Chess World Cup 2013 and Belgrade leg of FIDE Grand Prix 2022. He is also currently the second-highest rated chess player from Russia, only behind Ian Nepomniachtchi. Read more
• 1990: Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Indian cricketer Bhuvneshwar Kumar Singh is an Indian cricketer who has played for the Indian cricket team in all three formats of the game. He plays for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League and Uttar Pradesh in domestic cricket. A right-arm medium bowler, he is known for his ability to effectively swing the ball both ways at will. Kumar was a member of the India team that won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. He is the first bowler to win the IPL Purple Cap in two consecutive seasons. Read more
• 1990: Jordan Rhodes, Scottish footballer Jordan Luke Rhodes is a former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is currently the loans manager at Blackburn Rovers. Born in England, he represented the Scotland national team. Read more
• 1989: Marina Melnikova, Russian tennis player Marina Anatolyevna Melnikova is a Russian tennis player. Read more
• 1989: Jeremy Sumpter, American actor Jeremy Robert Myron Sumpter is an American actor. His prominent roles include the title role in the 2003 fantasy adventure film Peter Pan, Jacob in the 2014 disaster film Into the Storm, and the recurring role of J. D. McCoy in the NBC television series Friday Night Lights (2008–2010). Read more
• 1988: Karin Ontiveros, Mexican model Karin Cecilia Ontiveros Meza is a Mexican TV host, model, sportscaster and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Nuestra Belleza México 2010 and represented Mexico at Miss Universe 2011. Read more
• 1987: Darren Criss, American actor, singer, and entrepreneur Darren Everett Criss is an American actor, singer, and songwriter. He rose to fame starring on the television series Glee (2010–2015) and received a Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award for his leading role as spree killer Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (2018). He has also appeared on Broadway and in film and has released several musical albums. Read more
• 1987: Curtis Jerrells, American basketball player Curtis Louis Jerrells Jr. is an American former professional basketball player. Standing at 1.85 m, he plays at the point guard position. Read more
• 1987: Alex Kuznetsov, Ukrainian-American tennis player Alex Kuznetsov is a retired professional tennis player. He is a former hitting partner of Maria Sharapova. Read more
• 1987: Linus Omark, Swedish ice hockey player Linus Karl Heimer Omark is a Swedish professional ice hockey left winger for the HC Lugano of the NL. Omark has previously played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Buffalo Sabres and Edmonton Oilers. He was drafted into the NHL by the Edmonton Oilers in the fourth round, 97th overall, of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. Read more
• 1987: Donald Sanford, American-Israeli sprinter Donald Eugene Blair-Sanford is an American-Israeli Olympic sprinter, who specialises in the 400 metre dash. Read more
• 1986: Vedran Ćorluka, Croatian footballer Vedran Ćorluka is a Croatian football coach and former player who played as a centre-back or right-back. He is an assistant to Zlatko Dalić in the Croatia national team. Read more
• 1986: Kevin Gates, American rapper, singer, and entrepreneur Kevin Jerome Gilyard, known professionally as Kevin Gates, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is currently signed to Bread Winners’ Association with a partnership with Atlantic Records. His debut studio album, Islah, released in January 2016 and peaked at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. Prior to Islah, Gates also released a number of mixtapes, including Stranger Than Fiction (2013), By Any Means (2014), and Luca Brasi 2 (2014), all of which peaked in the top 40 on the Billboard 200 chart. Read more
• 1986: Sekope Kepu, Australian rugby player Sekope Kepu is an Australian former professional rugby union player. He was a prop and last played for Moana Pasifika in the Super Rugby in 2024. He has previously played for Australian club New South Wales Waratahs, French club Bordeaux, and English side London Irish, as well as the Australia national team. Kepu made his international debut for Australia in 2008 and became a regular squad member, earning over 100 caps in his international career. Read more
• 1986: Billy Sharp, English footballer Billy Louis Sharp is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for EFL League One club Doncaster Rovers. Read more
• 1986: Reed Sorenson, American race car driver Bradley Reed Sorenson is an American former professional stock car racing driver and spotter. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 27 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for Premium Motorsports, the Nos. 74/77 Camaro for Spire Motorsports, and the No. 7 Camaro for Tommy Baldwin Racing. As of 2024, he works as a spotter for Kaulig Racing’s No. 11 of Josh Williams in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Sorenson began competing in NASCAR in 2004 as a Busch Series driver; he has four wins in the series. His first Cup start came in 2005 before moving to a full schedule the following year. Read more
• 1986: Carlos Villanueva, Chilean footballer Carlos Andrés Villanueva Rolland is a Chilean former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Read more
• 1985: Lloyd Johansson, Australian rugby player Lloyd Johansson is an Australian rugby union professional player of Tongan and Swedish descent. He plays for the Melbourne Rising in the National Rugby Championship, and his usual position is centre. Read more
• 1985: Laurence Maroney, American football player Laurence Maroney is an American former professional football player who was a running back for five seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Minnesota Golden Gophers and was selected by the New England Patriots with the 21st overall pick in the 2006 NFL draft. He also played a season for the Denver Broncos. Read more
• 1985: Paul Vandervort, American actor, film producer, and former model Paul Jeffrey Vandervort is an American businessman, and a former actor, film producer, and model. Read more
• 1985: Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, nicknamed CR7, is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr and the Portugal national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in history, he has won numerous individual accolades throughout his career, including five Ballon d’Ors, a record three UEFA Men’s Player of the Year Awards, and four European Golden Shoes. He was also named the world’s best player five times by FIFA. He has won 34 trophies in his career, including five UEFA Champions Leagues and the UEFA European Championship. He holds the records for most goals (140) and assists (42) in the Champions League, goals (14) and assists (8) in the European Championship, and most international appearances (226) and international goals (143). He is the only player to have scored 100 goals with four different clubs. He has made over 1,300 professional career appearances, the most by an outfield player, and has scored over 960 official senior career goals for club and country, making him the top goalscorer of all time. Read more
• 1984: Carlos Tevez, Argentinian footballer Carlos Alberto Tevez is an Argentine professional football manager and former player. A dynamic forward in his prime, Tevez was capable of playing as a striker, as a winger, as a supporting forward, or as an attacking midfielder. He is the head coach of Primera División club Talleres. Read more
• 1983: Anja Hammerseng-Edin, Norwegian handball player Anja Hammerseng-Edin is a Norwegian former handball player. She previously played for Larvik HK and for the Norwegian national team. Read more
• 1982: Laura del Río, Spanish footballer Laura del Río García is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a forward. She last managed men’s club Flat Earth FC. Read more
• 1982: Kevin Everett, American football player Kevin Everett is an American former professional football player who was a tight end for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Bills in the third round of the 2005 NFL draft. He played college football for the Miami Hurricanes after transferring from Kilgore College, where he played on an undefeated team in 2001 under head coach Jimmy Rieves. Read more
• 1982: Tomáš Kopecký, Slovak ice hockey player Tomáš Kopecký is a Slovak former professional ice hockey forward. He played in the National Hockey League with the Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks and Florida Panthers. Read more
• 1982: Rodrigo Palacio, Argentinian footballer Rodrigo Sebastián Palacio Alcalde is a former professional footballer who played as a second striker. He is the son of José Ramón Palacio, a historic player of Club Olimpo during the 1980s. Palacio holds a Spanish passport, allowing him to be counted as an EU player. Read more
• 1981: Mia Hansen-Løve, French director and screenwriter Mia Hansen-Løve is a French film director, screenwriter, and former actress. She has won several accolades for her work. Her first feature film, All Is Forgiven, won the Louis Delluc Prize for Best First Film in 2007 along with Céline Sciamma’s Water Lilies. Hansen-Løve’s film Father of My Children won the Special Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. In 2014, Hansen-Løve was awarded the status of Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2016, she won the Silver Bear for Best Director for her film Things to Come at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival, as well as becoming a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Read more
• 1981: Loukas Vyntra, Czech-Greek footballer Loukas Vyntra is a Greek former professional footballer. Mainly a central defender, he could also play as a right back, left back, or a defensive midfielder. Read more
• 1980: Brad Fitzpatrick, American programmer, created LiveJournal Bradley Joseph Fitzpatrick is an American programmer. He is best known as the creator of LiveJournal and is the author of a variety of free software projects such as memcached, WebSub, OpenID, and Perkeep. Read more
• 1980: Jo Swinson, Scottish politician Joanne Kate Swinson is a Scottish former politician who was Leader of the Liberal Democrats from July to December 2019. Swinson was Member of Parliament (MP) for East Dunbartonshire from 2005 to 2015 and 2017 to 2019. In September 2020, Swinson became Director of Partners for a New Economy (P4NE). Read more
• 1979: Nate Holzapfel, American entrepreneur and television personality Nate Holzapfel is an American entrepreneur and convicted fraudster known for his appearance on ABC’s Shark Tank, where he pitched as a representative of the Mission Belt Co. He then pursued a career in consulting and public speaking. Read more
• 1978: Brian Russell, American football player Brian William Russell is an American former professional football player who was a safety for nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL) from 2001 to 2009. He was signed by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2001 and last played for the Houston Texans. He played college football for the Penn Quakers and San Diego State Aztecs. Read more
• 1978: Samuel Sánchez, Spanish cyclist Samuel “Samu” Sánchez González is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally in the sport between 2000 and 2017 for the Euskaltel–Euskadi and BMC Racing Team squads. He was the gold medal winner in the road race at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In the following years Sánchez proved himself in hilly classics and stage races as one of the most important riders in the peloton. He was also known as one of the best descenders in the peloton. He finished in the top 6 of the Tour de France three times and in the top 10 of the Vuelta a España 6 times. Other notable achievements include winning the Vuelta a Burgos in 2010, the 2012 Tour of the Basque Country and five stages of the Vuelta a España. Read more
• 1977: Ben Ainslie, English sailor Sir Charles Benedict Ainslie is a British competitive sailor. Ainslie is the most successful sailor in Olympic history. He won medals at five consecutive Olympics from 1996 onwards, including gold at four consecutive Games from 2000 to 2012. Read more
• 1977: Adam Dykes, Australian rugby league player Adam Dykes is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He played in the National Rugby League for Sydney clubs, the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks and the Parramatta Eels, and in the Super League for English club Hull FC. Dykes’ usual position was five-eighth, though he has also been shuffled around the backs during his career, playing minor parts of it at both lock and in the halfback role. He is the father of Kade Dykes. Read more
• 1977: Adam Everett, American baseball player and coach Jeffery Adam Everett is an American former professional baseball shortstop and third baseman. He played college baseball for both the NC State Wolfpack and South Carolina Gamecocks. He was drafted in the first round of the 1998 Major League Baseball draft and established himself for his defensive prowess as the starting shortstop for the Houston Astros in 2003. Everett continued his involvement in baseball as a roving infield instructor for the Astros minor league system, and was named bench coach for the Astros on September 1, 2014. Read more
• 1976: John Aloisi, Australian footballer and manager John Aloisi is an Australian former soccer player and current head coach of Chinese Super League club Chengdu Rongcheng. In a professional career that spanned 20 seasons, with league totals of 459 games and 127 goals, he was the first Australian ever to play and score in La Liga, the Premier League and Serie A. Read more
• 1976: Abhishek Bachchan, Indian actor Abhishek Amitabh Bachchan is an Indian actor and film producer known for his work in Hindi films. Part of the Bachchan family, he is the son of actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan. From 2012 to 2016, Bachchan appeared in Forbes India’s Celebrity 100 list, based on his income and popularity. Read more
• 1975: Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Dutch footballer and manager Giovanni Christiaan van Bronckhorst is a Dutch football manager and former player. Originally a midfielder, he moved to left-back later in his career. He is currently an assistant coach for Premier League club Liverpool. Read more
• 1974: Michael Maguire, Australian rugby league player and coach Michael “Madge” Maguire is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and former player who is the head coach of the Brisbane Broncos in the National Rugby League, whom he coached to victory in the 2025 NRL Grand Final. Previously, he coached New South Wales and New Zealand at international level. In the 1990s, Maguire played as a fullback, winger and centre. Read more
• 1973: Richard Matvichuk, Canadian ice hockey player and coach Richard Dorian Matvichuk is a Canadian former ice hockey defenceman. He played 14 seasons in the National Hockey League with the Minnesota North Stars/Dallas Stars, and the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League. Read more
• 1973: Trijntje Oosterhuis, Dutch singer-songwriter Judith Katrijntje “Trijntje” Oosterhuis is a Dutch singer and songwriter. She formed the band Total Touch in 1990 with her brother Tjeerd Oosterhuis before she started as a solo singer. She represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song “Walk Along”, placing fourteen in the first semi-final with 33 points and winning the Barbara Dex Award of the year. Read more
• 1973: Luke Ricketson, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster Luke Ricketson is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. An Australian and Ireland international, and New South Wales State of Origin representative back-row forward, he played his entire club football career for the Sydney Roosters of the National Rugby League (NRL). Read more
• 1972: Queen Mary of Denmark Mary is Queen of Denmark as the wife of King Frederik X. Read more
• 1972: Brad Fittler, Australian rugby league player, coach, and sportscaster Bradley Scott Fittler, also known by the nickname of “Freddy”, is an Australian rugby league commentator, television presenter, and former player. Read more
• 1971: Michel Breistroff, French ice hockey player (died 1996) Michel Breistroff was a French professional ice hockey defenceman. Read more
• 1971: Sara Evans, American country singer Sara Lynn Evans is an American country music singer and songwriter. She had five songs reach the number one spot on the Billboard country songs chart and has sold over six million albums. Nine additional singles have reached the top ten of the Billboard country chart, including “I Could Not Ask for More”, “I Keep Looking”, and “Cheatin'”. Among her top 20 charting singles are “Saints & Angels”, “Backseat of a Greyhound Bus”, and “As If”. She has won accolades from the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association. She has also been nominated for several more accolades from both associations, including Female Vocalist of the Year and Single of the Year. Read more
• 1970: Jean-Marc Jaumin, Belgian basketball player and coach Jean-Marc Jaumin is a Belgian professional basketball coach and former basketball player. He was most recently the head coach of Landstede Hammers of the BNXT League. Read more
• 1970: Darren Lehmann, Australian cricketer and coach Darren Scott Lehmann is an Australian cricket coach and former cricketer who coached the Australian national team. He is currently head coach at Northamptonshire County Cricket Club. Lehmann made his ODI debut in 1996 and Test debut in 1998. He was on the fringes of national selection for the entirety of the 1990s, and only became a regular in the ODI team in 2001 and Test team in late 2002, before being dropped in early 2005. Primarily an aggressive left-handed batsman, Lehmann was also a part-time left arm orthodox bowler, and gained renown for his disregard for physical fitness and modern dietary regimes. He announced his retirement from first-class cricket in November 2007. Lehmann was a member of the Australian team that won the 1999 Cricket World Cup and the 2003 Cricket World Cup, where in the 1999 final, he scored the winning boundary, and took the winning catch in the 2003 final. Read more
• 1970: Jeremy Rockliff, Australian politician, 47th Premier of Tasmania Jeremy Page Rockliff MP is an Australian politician currently serving as the 47th premier of Tasmania. Rockliff’s premiership began in 2022 following the resignation of Peter Gutwein. He previously served as deputy premier from 2014 to 2022. Read more
• 1969: Bobby Brown, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor Robert Barisford Brown Sr. is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and dancer. Alongside frequent collaborator Teddy Riley, he is recognized as a pioneer of new jack swing: a fusion of hip-hop and R&B. Brown rose to fame as a founding member of the R&B/pop vocal group New Edition, contributing to hits like “Candy Girl”, “Cool It Now”, and “Mr. Telephone Man”. He left the group in 1985 to pursue a solo career but later reunited with them for their Billboard 200 number-one album Home Again (1996). Read more
• 1969: Michael Sheen, Welsh actor and director Michael Christopher Sheen is a Welsh actor. After training at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), he worked mainly in theatre throughout the 1990s with stage roles in Romeo and Juliet (1992), Don’t Fool with Love (1993), Peer Gynt (1994), The Seagull (1995), The Homecoming (1997), and Henry V (1997). He received Olivier Awards nominations for his performances in Amadeus (1998) at the Old Vic, Look Back in Anger (1999) at the National Theatre and Caligula (2003) at the Donmar Warehouse. Read more
• 1969: Derek Stephen Prince, American voice actor Steve Prince is an American voice actor who provided the voice of Elgar in the live-action Power Rangers Turbo and Power Rangers in Space series, along with various characters in the Digimon series. Read more
• 1968: Roberto Alomar, Puerto Rican-American baseball player and coach Roberto Alomar Velázquez is a Puerto Rican former second baseman who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for seventeen seasons. He is regarded as one of the greatest second basemen in baseball history and overall players of his generation. During his career, the 12-time All-Star won more Gold Glove Awards (10) than any other second baseman in baseball history, in addition to winning four Silver Slugger Awards for his hitting. Among second basemen, he ranks third in games played (2,320), fifth in stolen bases (474), sixth in plate appearances (10,400), seventh in doubles (504) and assists (6,524), and eighth in hits (2,724), runs (1,508), at-bats (9,073), and double plays turned (1,407). In 2011, Alomar was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Read more
• 1968: Chris Barron, American rock singer Christopher Barron Gross, best known as Chris Barron is an American singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer of Spin Doctors. Read more
• 1968: Marcus Grönholm, Finnish race car driver Marcus Ulf Johan “Bosse” Grönholm is a Finnish former rally and rallycross driver, being part of a family of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland lineage. His son, Niclas Grönholm, is an upcoming FIA World Rallycross Championship driver. Grönholm’s nicknames are either “Bosse” or “Magic Marcus”. Grönholm is one of the most successful WRC drivers of all time, ranking third in rally wins (30), and winning two championships, in 2000 and 2002. After Peugeot withdrew from the World Rally Championship, Grönholm moved to Ford for the 2006 season and placed second in the drivers’ world championship, losing out to Sébastien Loeb by one point. The next year he again placed second, four points behind Loeb. He and his co-driver Timo Rautiainen retired from rallying after the 2007 season but returned to the championship in 2009 driving a private Subaru for a short period of time, and in the 2019 World Rally Championship where he competed in a Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT-maintained Toyota Yaris under the GRX Team banner. Read more
• 1967: Chris Parnell, American actor and comedian Thomas Christopher Parnell is an American actor and comedian. First breaking through as a performer with the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings, Parnell found wider success during his tenure as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1998 to 2006. After leaving SNL, he played the role of Dr. Leo Spaceman on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock (2006–2013). Parnell is also a prominent voice actor known for his deep and distinctive voice. In animation, he voices the narrator on the PBS Kids series WordGirl (2007–2015), Cyril Figgis on the FX series Archer (2009–2023), Jerry Smith on Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty (2013–present), and Doug on Fox’s Family Guy (2019–2022). His work also extends into commercials, having voiced the Hamburger Helper mascot “Lefty”, appeared in advertisements as “America’s Dad” for Orbit Gum, and voiced “The Progressive Box” in a series of advertisements by the Progressive Corporation. Read more
• 1966: José María Olazábal, Spanish golfer José María Olazábal Manterola is a Spanish professional golfer from the Basque Country, Spain who has enjoyed success on both the European Tour and the PGA Tour. He has won 30 professional tournaments, including two major championships, both the 1994 and 1999 Masters Tournaments. Read more
• 1966: Rok Petrovič, Slovenian skier (died 1993) Rok Petrovič was a Yugoslav and Slovenian alpine skier. Read more
• 1965: Tarik Benhabiles, Algerian-French tennis player and coach Tarik Benhabiles is an Algerian-born French former tennis player. He achieved his highest ATP-ranking on 8 June 1987, when the right-hander was listed as the number 22 player in the world. Read more
• 1965: Gheorghe Hagi, Romanian footballer and manager Gheorghe Hagi is a Romanian professional football manager and former player, who is currently the owner of Liga I club Farul Constanța. Deployed as an attacking midfielder, Hagi was considered one of the best players in the world during the 1980s and 1990s, and is regarded by many as the greatest Romanian footballer of all time. Fans of Turkish club Galatasaray, with whom Hagi ended his career, called him Comandante, while he was known as Regele to Romanian supporters. Nicknamed “The Maradona of the Carpathians”, he was a creative advanced playmaker renowned for his dribbling, technique, vision, passing and shooting. Read more
• 1965: Keith Moseley, American bass player and songwriter Keith Moseley is an American musician and songwriter, who plays bass guitar among other instruments for The String Cheese Incident, a jam band from Boulder, Colorado, of which he is a founding member. Read more
• 1965: Quique Sánchez Flores, Spanish footballer and manager Enrique “Quique” Sánchez Flores is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a right-back. Read more
• 1965: Jon Spencer, American singer, guitarist, and bandleader Jon Spencer is an American singer, guitarist, and bandleader known for his work in the noise- and garage-rock scenes with Pussy Galore, Boss Hog, and especially Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. In the mid-1990s he collaborated with Mississippi hill country blues musician R. L. Burnside on the album A Ass Pocket of Whiskey (1996), a crossover that drew wider attention to Burnside beyond blues audiences. After announcing in 2022 that the Blues Explosion had ended, Spencer issued new music and toured with Jon Spencer & the Hitmakers, featuring Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss, and later formed a trio with Kendall Wind and Macky “Spider” Bowman of The Bobby Lees. Read more
• 1964: Laura Linney, American actress Laura Leggett Linney is an American actress and director. She is the recipient of several awards, including four Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards, five Tony Awards, and a BAFTA. Read more
• 1964: Ha Seung-moo, Korean poet, pastor, historical theologian Ha Seung-moo is a South Korean poet, Presbyterian minister, seminary professor, and theologian. Read more
• 1964: Duff McKagan, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer Michael Andrew “Duff” McKagan is an American musician. He was the bassist of hard rock band Guns N’ Roses for twelve years, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. McKagan rejoined the band in 2016, following their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Read more
• 1963: Steven Shainberg, American film director and producer Steven Shainberg is an American film director and producer. He is the nephew of author Lawrence Shainberg. Both are part of the Shainberg family of Memphis, Tennessee, founder of the Shainberg’s chain of stores, which is now part of Dollar General. Read more
• 1962: Jennifer Jason Leigh, American actress, screenwriter, producer and director Jennifer Jason Leigh is an American actress. She began her career on television during the 1970s before making her film breakthrough in the teen film Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). She received critical praise for her performances in Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989), Miami Blues (1990), Backdraft (1991), Single White Female (1992), and The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of Dorothy Parker in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994).
  For her role as fugitive Daisy Domergue in The Hateful Eight (2015), she was nominated for the Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Read more
• 1961: Savvas Kofidis, Greek footballer and manager Savvas Kofidis is a Greek professional football manager and former player. He is regarded as one of the best football players of his generation in Greece, and is most famous for his successful partnership with Vasilis Hatzipanagis at Iraklis and his flamboyant haircuts which he has kept to this day. He also appeared 67 times for the Greece national team, scoring once and being a vital part of the team’s qualification to the 1994 World Cup in the United States. Read more
• 1961: Tim Meadows, American actor and screenwriter Tim Meadows is an American actor and comedian. He was one of the longest-running cast members on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, where he appeared for 10 seasons from 1991 to 2000. For his work on SNL, he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series in 1993. He played main character John Glascott on the ABC sitcom Schooled for its two-season run after playing the same character in a recurring role for six seasons on The Goldbergs. Meadows is also known for his role as Principal Duvall in the 2004 teen comedy film Mean Girls, a role he then reprised in Mean Girls 2 and in the film’s 2024 musical adaptation. Read more
• 1960: Aris Christofellis, Greek soprano and musicologist Aris Christofellis is a Greek sopranist and musicologist. Read more
• 1960: Bonnie Crombie, Canadian businesswoman and politician, 6th Mayor of Mississauga Bonnie-Michelle Teresa Bernadette Stack Sawarna Crombie is a Canadian politician and businesswoman who was the sixth mayor of Mississauga from 2014 to 2024 and the leader of the Ontario Liberal Party from 2023 to 2026. Read more
• 1960: Micky Hazard, English footballer Michael Hazard is an English football coach and former professional footballer. Read more
• 1959: Jennifer Granholm, Canadian-American lawyer and politician, 47th Governor of Michigan Jennifer Mulhern Granholm is a Canadian-born American politician who was the 16th United States Secretary of Energy from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as the 47th Governor of Michigan from 2003 to 2011 and as the 51st Attorney General of Michigan from 1999 to 2003, the first woman to hold either office. Read more
• 1957: Jüri Tamm, Estonian hammer thrower and politician (died 2021) Jüri Tamm was an Estonian hammer thrower and politician. In his sporting career Tamm represented the Soviet Union, he won a bronze medal in the 1980 and 1988 Summer Olympics and a silver medal at the 1987 World Championships in Athletics. He set the world record for the hammer in 1980. Tamm was member of Estonian parliament Riigikogu from 2007 to 2011 as a member of the Social Democratic Party. Read more
• 1956: Vinnie Colaiuta, American drummer Vincent Peter “Vinnie” Colaiuta is an American drummer known for his technical mastery who has worked as a session musician in many genres. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2014. Colaiuta has won one Grammy Award and has been nominated twice. Since the late 1970s, he has recorded and toured with Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, and Sting, among many other appearances in the studio and in concert. Read more
• 1956: Héctor Rebaque, Mexican race car driver Héctor Alonso Rebaque is a Mexican former racing driver and businessman, who competed in Formula One from 1977 to 1981. Read more
• 1956: David Wiesner, American author and illustrator David Wiesner is an American illustrator and writer of children’s books, known best for picture books including some that tell stories without words. As an illustrator he has won three Caldecott Medals recognizing the year’s “most distinguished American picture book for children” and he was one of five finalists in 2008 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest recognition available for creators of children’s books. Read more
• 1956: Mao Daichi, Japanese actress Mayumi Morita , better known as Mao Daichi , is a Japanese actress and former Top Star otokoyaku of the Japanese Takarazuka Revue’s Moon Troupe. Read more
• 1955: Mike Heath, American baseball player and manager Michael Thomas Heath is an American former professional baseball catcher. He played 14 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the New York Yankees (1978), Oakland Athletics (1979–1985), St. Louis Cardinals (1986), Detroit Tigers (1986–1990), and Atlanta Braves (1991). Read more
• 1954: Cliff Martinez, American drummer and songwriter Cliff Robert Martinez is an American musician and composer. Early in his career, Martinez was known as a drummer notably with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. Since the 1990s, he has worked primarily as a film score composer, writing music for Spring Breakers (2012), The Foreigner (2017), and multiple films by Steven Soderbergh, Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), Solaris (2002), Contagion (2011) and Traffic (2000) and Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive (2011), Only God Forgives (2013), The Neon Demon (2016) and the miniseries Too Old to Die Young (2019). Read more
• 1954: Frank Walker, Australian journalist and author

   

  Frank William Walker is an Australian journalist and non-fiction writer. He writes non-fiction books, mostly on military history including about the British nuclear tests at Maralinga, in South Australia. Read more

• 1953: Freddie Aguilar, Filipino singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2025) Ferdinand “Freddie” Pascual Aguilar, also known by his Muslim name Abdul Farid, was a Filipino musician regarded as one of the pillars and icons of Original Pilipino Music (OPM). He was best known for his international hit, “Anak” (1978), which became the best-selling Philippine music record of all time, selling 33 million copies worldwide, and the only Filipino song translated into 51 languages. His rendition of “Bayan Ko” became the anthem of the opposition against the regime of Ferdinand Marcos during the 1986 People Power Revolution. He was heavily associated with Pinoy rock. Read more
• 1953: John Beilein, American basketball player and coach John Patrick Beilein is an American professional basketball coach who currently serves as a college basketball analyst for the Big Ten Network. Before being hired by the Big Ten Network, Beilein served as the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Prior to joining the Cavaliers, he coached the Michigan Wolverines (2007–2019), West Virginia Mountaineers (2002–2007), Richmond Spiders (1997–2002), Canisius Golden Griffins (1992–1997) in NCAA Division I as well as the Le Moyne Dolphins (1983–1992), Nazareth College (1982–1983), and Erie Community College (1978–1982). Beilein has won 754 career games at four-year universities and 829 games altogether, including those at the junior college level. Beilein’s overall career wins counting the time spent in Cleveland is 843 games. Read more
• 1953: Gustavo Benítez, Paraguayan footballer and manager Gustavo Benítez is a retired Paraguayan football defender and coach. Read more
• 1952: Daniel Balavoine, French singer-songwriter and producer (died 1986) Daniel Xavier-Marie Balavoine was a French singer and songwriter. He was popular in the French-speaking world in the early 1980s; he inspired many singers of his generation such as Jean-Jacques Goldman, Michel Berger, who was his closest friend, as well as the Japanese pop-rock group Crystal King. Balavoine was a part of the original cast of the rock opera Starmania in 1978, which was written by Berger. Read more
• 1952: Vladimir Moskovkin, Ukrainian-Russian geographer, economist, and academic Vladimir Mikhailovich Moskovkin is a Post-Soviet and Ukrainian geographer, economist, scientometrist, teacher, publicist. Doctor of Geographical Sciences, professor. Read more
• 1951: Nikolay Merkushkin, Mordovian engineer and politician, 1st Head of the Republic of Mordovia Nikolay Ivanovich Merkushkin is a Russian politician who served as Governor of Samara Oblast from 2012 to 2017 and as Head of the Republic of Mordovia from 1995 to 2012. From 24 January to 22 September 1995, he served as Chairman of the State Assembly of Mordovia. Read more
• 1950: Jonathan Freeman, American actor and singer Jonathan Freeman is an American actor and puppeteer. He is known for voicing Jafar in Disney’s Aladdin franchise, as well as the Kingdom Hearts franchise and the 2011 Aladdin musical. Read more
• 1950: Rafael Puente, Mexican footballer Rafael Puente Suárez is a Mexican former professional footballer and manager. He currently works as an analyst for ESPN Deportes and ESPN Mexico. Read more
• 1949: Kurt Beck, German politician Kurt Beck is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), who served as the 7th Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1994 to 2013 and as the 55th President of the Bundesrat in 2000–01. In May 2006, he succeeded Matthias Platzeck as chairman of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). He resigned from that post in September 2008. Read more
• 1949: Maidarjavyn Ganzorig, Mongolian cosmonaut and academic (died 2021) Maidarjavyn Ganzorig was a Mongolian cosmonaut and academic. Read more
• 1949: Yvon Vallières, Canadian educator and politician Yvon Vallières is a retired Canadian politician and teacher. He was a member of National Assembly of Quebec for the riding of Richmond in the Estrie region from 1973 to 1976 and from 1981 to 2012. Formerly the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 2003 to 2007, he is the current chair of the Government Caucus. He was a member of the Quebec Liberal Party. Read more
• 1948: Sven-Göran Eriksson, Swedish footballer and manager (died 2024) Sven-Göran Eriksson was a Swedish football player and manager. After a playing career as a right-back, Eriksson went on to experience major success in club management between 1977 and 2001, winning 18 trophies with a variety of league clubs in Sweden, Portugal, and Italy. In European competition, he won the UEFA Cup in 1982, the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1999, the last edition of the tournament before its abolition, the UEFA Super Cup in 1999, and reached the European Cup final in 1990. Read more
• 1948: Christopher Guest, British-American actor and director Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest, known professionally as Christopher Guest, is an American and British actor, comedian, screenwriter and director. Guest has written, directed, and starred in his series of comedy films shot in mockumentary style. He co-wrote and acted in the rock satire This Is Spinal Tap (1984), and later directed a string of satirical mockumentary films such as Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), For Your Consideration (2006), and Mascots (2016). He also acted in the films Death Wish (1974), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), The Princess Bride (1987), and A Few Good Men (1992); and was a regular cast member on the 10th season of Saturday Night Live. Read more
• 1948: Barbara Hershey, American actress Barbara Lynn Herzstein, better known as Barbara Hershey, is an American actress. In a career spanning more than 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema in several genres, including Westerns, horrors, and comedies. She began acting at age 17 in 1965, but did not achieve widespread critical acclaim until the 1980s. By that time, the Chicago Tribune referred to her as “one of America’s finest actresses”. Read more
• 1948: Errol Morris, American director and producer Errol Mark Morris is an American film director known for documentaries that interrogate the epistemology of their subjects, and the invention of the Interrotron. In 2003, his The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. His film The Thin Blue Line placed fifth on a Sight & Sound poll of the greatest documentaries ever made. Morris is known for making films about unusual subjects; Fast, Cheap & Out of Control interweaves the stories of an animal trainer, a topiary gardener, a robot scientist, and a naked mole-rat specialist. Read more
• 1948: Tom Wilkinson, English actor (died 2023) Thomas Geoffrey Wilkinson was an English actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, he received numerous accolades including a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards. In 2005, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). Read more
• 1947: Mary L. Cleave, American engineer and astronaut (died 2023) Mary Louise Cleave was an American engineer and NASA astronaut. She also served from 2005 to 2007 as NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. Read more
• 1947: Clemente Mastella, Italian politician, Italian Minister of Justice Mario Clemente Mastella is an Italian politician who has been the mayor of Benevento since 20 June 2016. He also served as leader of the Union of Democrats for Europe (UDEUR), a minor centrist and Christian-democratic Italian party. Mastella, who began his career in the Christian Democracy (DC) party, being elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1976, is known for his trasformismo, changing over his career many political parties and affiliations. Read more
• 1947: Darrell Waltrip, American race car driver and sportscaster Darrell Lee Waltrip is an American motorsports analyst, author as well as a former national television broadcaster and stock car driver. He raced from 1972 to 2000 in the NASCAR Cup Series, most notably driving the No. 11 Chevrolet for Junior Johnson. Waltrip is a three-time Cup Series champion. Read more
• 1946: Amnon Dankner, Israeli journalist and author (died 2013) Amnon Dankner was an Israeli newspaper editor and author. He was the editor of the mass-circulation daily Maariv for six years. Read more
• 1946: Charlotte Rampling, English actress Tessa Charlotte Rampling is an English actress. An icon of the Swinging Sixties, she began her career as a model. She was cast in the role of Meredith in the 1966 film Georgy Girl, which starred Lynn Redgrave. She soon began making French and Italian arthouse films, notably Luchino Visconti’s The Damned (1969) and Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter (1974). She went on to star in many European and English-language films, including Stardust Memories (1980), The Verdict (1982), Long Live Life (1984), and The Wings of the Dove (1997). In the 2000s, she became the muse of French director François Ozon, appearing in several of his films, notably Under the Sand (2000), Swimming Pool (2003) and Young & Beautiful (2013). On television, she is known for her role as Dr. Evelyn Vogel in Dexter (2013). Read more
• 1945: Douglas Hogg, English lawyer and politician, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Douglas Martin Hogg, 3rd Viscount Hailsham, Baron Hailsham of Kettlethorpe, is a British politician and barrister. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in John Major’s second government as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1995 to 1997, and was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1979 to 2010. Read more
• 1944: J. R. Cobb, American guitarist and songwriter (died 2019) James Barney Cobb Jr. was an American guitarist and songwriter, most notable for co-writing “Spooky”, “Stormy” and “Traces”, among others, as a member of the Classics IV, plus “Champagne Jam” and “Do It Or Die”, among others, as a member of the Atlanta Rhythm Section. Read more
• 1944: Henfil, Brazilian journalist, author, and illustrator (died 1988) Henrique de Souza Filho, commonly known as Henfil, was a Brazilian cartoonist, caricaturist, journalist and writer, born in Ribeirão das Neves, Minas Gerais. Read more
• 1944: Al Kooper, American singer-songwriter and producer Al Kooper is an American songwriter, record producer, and musician. Throughout much of the 1960s and 1970s he was a prolific studio musician, including playing organ on the Bob Dylan song “Like a Rolling Stone”, French horn and piano on the Rolling Stones song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, and lead guitar on Rita Coolidge’s “The Lady’s Not for Sale”. He also formed and named Blood, Sweat & Tears, though he did not stay with the group long enough to share in its subsequent popularity. Kooper produced a number of one-off collaboration albums, such as the Super Session album that saw him work separately with guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills. Read more
• 1944: Tamanoumi Masahiro, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 51st Yokozuna (died 1971) Tamanoumi Masahiro was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Aichi. He was the sport’s 51st yokozuna. Making his professional debut in 1959, he reached the top makuuchi division in 1964. He won six tournament championships and was runner-up in 12 others. Earlier in his career he also earned six special prizes and four gold stars. He was promoted to yokozuna simultaneously with his friend and rival Kitanofuji in January 1970 and the two men represented the dawning of a new era after the dominance of Taihō. He died suddenly in October 1971 after a delayed appendectomy. Read more
• 1943: Nolan Bushnell, American engineer and businessman, founded Atari, Inc. Nolan Kay Bushnell is an American businessman and electrical engineer. He established Atari, Inc., and the Chuck E. Cheese chain. He has been inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame and the Consumer Electronics Association Hall of Fame, received the BAFTA Fellowship and the Nations Restaurant News “Innovator of the Year” award and was named one of Newsweek’s “50 Men Who Changed America”. He has started more than 20 companies and is one of the founding fathers of the video game industry. He is on the board of Anti-Aging Games. In 2012, he founded an educational software company called Brainrush that uses video game technology in educational software. Read more
• 1943: Michael Mann, American director, producer, and screenwriter Michael Kenneth Mann is an American film director, screenwriter, author and producer. Best known for his stylized crime dramas, he has won two Primetime Emmy Awards, as well as earned nominations for four Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a BAFTA Award. His most acclaimed works include the films Thief (1981), Manhunter (1986), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Heat (1995), The Insider (1999), Ali (2001), Collateral (2004), Public Enemies (2009), and Ferrari (2023). He was executive producer on the popular TV series Miami Vice (1984–90), which he adapted into a 2006 feature film. Read more
• 1943: Craig Morton, American football player and sportscaster Larry Craig Morton is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos. He played college football for the California Golden Bears, receiving All-American honors, and was selected by the Cowboys fifth overall in the 1965 NFL draft. Following nine seasons with the Cowboys, a quarterback controversy with Roger Staubach led to Morton joining the New York Giants for three seasons. He spent his final six seasons as a member of the Broncos, winning NFL Comeback Player of the Year and AFC Offensive Player of the Year in 1977. Read more
• 1943: Dušan Uhrin, Czech and Slovak footballer and manager Dušan Uhrin is a Czech and Slovak football coach and former player. He was the coach of Slovan Bratislava. Born in the Nitra District in the Slovak part of Czechoslovakia, he has lived in Prague since the age of 16. Read more
• 1942: Roger Staubach, American football player, sportscaster, and businessman Roger Thomas Staubach, nicknamed “Roger the Dodger”, “Captain America”, and “Captain Comeback”, is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy, where he played college football for the Navy Midshipmen and won the 1963 Heisman Trophy. After graduation, he served in the U.S. Navy, including a tour of duty in Vietnam. Read more
• 1941: Stephen J. Cannell, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (died 2010) Stephen Joseph Cannell was an American television producer, writer, novelist, actor, and founder of Cannell Entertainment and The Cannell Studios. Read more
• 1941: Henson Cargill, American country music singer (died 2007) Henson Cargill was an American country music singer best known for the socially controversial 1968 country number-one hit “Skip a Rope”. His music career began in Oklahoma in clubs around Oklahoma City and Tulsa. He earned national recognition after getting a Nashville producer to agree to produce “Skip a Rope”. Read more
• 1941: David Selby, American actor and playwright David Lynn Selby is an American film, television, and stage actor and writer. He played Quentin Collins on the daytime soap Dark Shadows (1968–1971) and Richard Channing on the prime-time soap Falcon Crest (1982–1990). Selby also had prominent roles in the television series Flamingo Road (1981–1982) and the feature film Raise the Titanic (1980). Read more
• 1941: Barrett Strong, American soul singer-songwriter and pianist (died 2023) Barrett Strong Jr. was an American singer and songwriter known for his recording of “Money “, which was the first hit single for the Motown record label. He is also known for his songwriting work in association with producer Norman Whitfield; together, they penned such songs as “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”, “War”, “Just My Imagination “, and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone”. Read more
• 1941: Kaspar Villiger, Swiss engineer and politician, 85th President of the Swiss Confederation Kaspar Villiger is a Swiss businessman, former tobacco manufacturer and politician. He served as a member of the Federal Council (Switzerland) since 1 February 1989 for The Liberals. Villiger served two terms as President of the Swiss Confederation in 1995 and again in 2002. He previously served on the Council of States (Switzerland) from 1987 to 1989 and on the National Council (Switzerland) from 1982 to 1987. Read more
• 1940: H. R. Giger, Swiss painter, sculptor, and set designer (died 2014) Hans Ruedi Giger was a Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as “biomechanical”. He was part of the special effects team that won an Academy Award for the visual design of Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi horror film Alien, and was responsible for creating the xenomorph alien itself. His work is on permanent display at the H. R. Giger Museum in Gruyères, Switzerland. His style has been adapted to many forms of media, including album covers, furniture, and music videos. Read more
• 1940: Luke Graham, American wrestler (died 2006) James Grady Johnson was an American professional wrestler, best known by his ring name, “Crazy” Luke Graham. As Luke Graham, Johnson was part of the Graham family, a stable of wrestlers. All members were billed as kayfabe brothers. He worked extensively for various National Wrestling Alliance territories as well as the World Wide Wrestling Federation, where he was a three-time tag-team champion and the inaugural WWWF World Tag Team Champion. Read more
• 1939: Brian Luckhurst, English cricketer (died 2005) Brian William Luckhurst was an English cricketer, who played his entire county career for Kent County Cricket Club. He played for Kent from 1958 to 1976, usually opening the batting, then in 1985, in an emergency, played in one more match against the Australians. He was cricket manager from 1981 to 1986, then became cricket administrator. He went on to become president of the club, and held that position until his death. He played 355 matches for Kent and represented England in 21 Test matches and three one day internationals. Read more
• 1939: Jane Bryant Quinn, American financial journalist Jane Bryant Quinn is an American financial journalist. Her columns talk about financial topics such as investor protection, health insurance, Social Security, and the sufficiency of retirement plans. Read more
• 1938: Rafael Nieto Navia, Colombian lawyer, jurist, and diplomat Rafael Nieto Navia was a Colombian jurist and political scientist. Read more
• 1937: Stuart Damon, American actor and singer (died 2021) Stuart Damon was an American actor. He was best known for his 30-year portrayal of Dr. Alan Quartermaine on the American soap opera General Hospital, for which he won an Emmy Award in 1999. Outside the United States, he was known for the role of Craig Stirling in The Champions. Read more
• 1937: Larry Hillman, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 2022) Lawrence Morley Hillman was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman and coach. One of the most travelled players in hockey history, he played for 15 different teams in his 22 professional seasons. He played in the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1955 and 1973, and then in the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1973 to 1976. After retiring he spent parts of three seasons as a coach in the WHA. Hillman had his name engraved on the Stanley Cup six times during his playing career. Read more
• 1937: Gaston Roelants, Belgian runner Gaston, Baron Roelants, is a Belgian former elite steeplechaser and cross country runner. He won the 1962 European and 1964 Olympic titles in the 3000 m steeplechase and twice broke the world record. Read more
• 1937: Alar Toomre, Estonian-American astronomer and mathematician Alar Toomre is an American astronomer and mathematician. He is a professor of applied mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Toomre’s research is focused on the dynamics of galaxies. He is a 1984 MacArthur Fellow. Read more
• 1937: Wang Xuan, Chinese computer scientist and academic (died 2006) Wang Xuan was a Chinese computer scientist. He was a computer application specialist and innovator of the Chinese printing industry, as well as an academician at both the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He was the vice-president of the CPPCC and founder of the major technology conglomerate company Founder Group in 1986. Read more
• 1936: K. S. Nissar Ahmed, Indian poet and academic (died 2020) Kokkare Hosahalli Shekh Haider Nissar Ahmed was an Indian poet and writer in the Kannada language. He was awarded the Padma Shri (2008), the Rajyotsava Award (1981) and the Pampa award for his work (2017). He became a household name for his work Nityotsava, which is a poem about Karnataka, a piece he composed after seeing Jog falls. He has numerous poems, translations and children’s books to his credit. He is known for using simple words that resonate deeply with the public in his literary work. Read more
• 1935: Alex Harvey, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1982) Alexander James Harvey was a Scottish rock and blues musician. Although his career spanned almost three decades, he is best remembered as the frontman of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, with whom he built a reputation as an exciting live performer during the era of glam rock in the 1970s. Read more
• 1935: Johannes Geldenhuys, South African military commander (died 2018) General Johannes Jacobus (Jannie) Geldenhuys was a South African military commander who served as Chief of the South African Defence Force from 1985 to 1990. Read more
• 1934: Hank Aaron, American baseball player (died 2021) Henry Louis Aaron, nicknamed “Hammer” or “Hammerin’ Hank”, was an American professional baseball right fielder who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1954 through 1976. Considered one of the greatest baseball players in history, he spent 21 seasons with the Milwaukee / Atlanta Braves in the National League (NL) and two seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers in the American League (AL). At the time of his retirement, Aaron held most of the game’s key career power-hitting records. He broke the long-standing MLB record for career home runs held by Babe Ruth and remained the career leader for 33 years, until Barry Bonds surpassed his famous total of 755 in 2007. He hit 24 or more home runs every year from 1955 through 1973 and is one of only two players to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least fifteen times. Read more
• 1934: Don Cherry, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and sportscaster Donald Stewart Cherry is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. He played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins. After concluding a playing career in the American Hockey League, he coached the Bruins for five seasons leading the team to four division titles and two appearances in the Stanley Cup Final. Read more
• 1933: Jörn Donner, Finnish director and screenwriter (died 2020) Jörn Johan Donner was a Finnish writer, film director, actor, producer, politician and founder of Finnish Film Archive. He was also a publisher, editor, and a prominent literary and film critic. He produced Ingmar Bergman’s film Fanny and Alexander, which won four Academy Awards in 1984. Donner also served in the Finnish parliament and the European Parliament, making significant contributions to both cinema and politics. Read more
• 1933: B. S. Johnson, English author, poet, and critic (died 1973) Bryan Stanley William Johnson was an English experimental novelist, poet and literary critic. He also produced television programmes and made films. Read more
• 1932: Cesare Maldini, Italian footballer and manager (died 2016) Cesare Maldini was an Italian professional football manager and player who played as a defender. Read more
• 1929: Hal Blaine, American session drummer (died 2019) Hal Blaine was an American drummer and session musician, thought to be among the most recorded studio drummers in the music industry, claiming over 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles. His drumming is featured on 150 US top 10 hits, 40 of which went to number one. Read more
• 1929: Luc Ferrari, French pianist and composer (died 2005) Luc Ferrari was a French composer of Italian heritage and a pioneer in musique concrète and electroacoustic music. He was a founding member of RTF’s Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRMC), working alongside composers such as Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry. Read more
• 1929: Fred Sinowatz, Austrian politician, 19th Chancellor of Austria (died 2008) Alfred Sinowatz was an Austrian historian and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), who served as Chancellor of Austria from 1983 to 1986. Prior to becoming Chancellor, he had served as Minister of Education from 1971 to 1983 and Vice-Chancellor from 1981 to 1983. Read more
• 1928: Hristu Cândroveanu, Romanian editor, literary critic and writer (died 2013) Hristu Cândroveanu was a Romanian editor, literary critic, poet, prose writer and translator of Aromanian ethnicity. He published several works related to the Aromanians, led several Aromanian magazines and was involved in some Aromanian organizations. Read more
• 1928: Tage Danielsson, Swedish author, actor, and director (died 1985) Tage Ivar Roland Danielsson was a Swedish author, actor, comedian, poet and film director. He worked together with Hans Alfredson in the comedy duo Hasse & Tage. Read more
• 1928: Andrew Greeley, American priest, sociologist, and author (died 2013) Andrew M. Greeley was an American Catholic priest, sociologist, journalist and novelist. He was a professor of sociology at the University of Arizona and the University of Chicago, and a research associate with the National Opinion Research Center (NORC). Read more
• 1928: P. J. Vatikiotis, Israeli-American historian and political scientist (died 1997)
  Panayiotis Jerasimof Vatikiotis was a Greek-American political scientist and historian of the Middle East. He was Professor of Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, in London. Read more
• 1927: Robert Allen, American pianist and composer (died 2000) Robert Allen Deitcher was an American pianist and an arranger and writer of music for popular songs. Read more
• 1927: Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten, Dutch captain and pilot (died 1977) Jacob Louis Veldhuyzen van Zanten was a Dutch aircraft captain and flight instructor. He was the captain of KLM Flight 4805, and died in the Tenerife airport disaster, the deadliest accident in aviation history. He was KLM’s chief instructor and commonly appeared on advertising. Read more
• 1924: Duraisamy Simon Lourdusamy, Indian cardinal (died 2014) Duraisamy Simon Lourdusamy was an Indian cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was the Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches in the Roman Curia and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1985. His episcopical motto was Aedificare domum Dei which means “To build the house of God”. He was the fourth cardinal from India and the first curial cardinal of Asia outside of the Middle East. Read more
• 1923: Claude King, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2013) Claude King was an American country music singer and songwriter, best known for his 1962 million-selling hit, “Wolverton Mountain”. Read more
• 1923: James E. Bowman, American physician and academic (died 2011) James Edward Bowman Jr. was an American physician and specialist in pathology, hematology, and genetics. He was a professor of pathology and genetics at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago. He published more than ninety works across the fields of human genetics; population genetics; and ethical, legal and public policy issues in human genetics. He received many awards, including the Chicago African American History Makers Award and recognition from the Hastings Center and Stanford’s Kaiser Family Foundation, and Howard University. Read more
• 1921: Ken Adam, German-born English production designer and art director (died 2016) Sir Kenneth Adam was a German-British movie production designer, best known for his set designs for the James Bond films of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as for Dr. Strangelove and Salon Kitty. Read more
• 1919: Red Buttons, American actor (died 2006) Red Buttons was an American actor and comedian. He won an Oscar and Golden Globe for Sayonara. He was nominated for awards for his work such as Harlow (1965), They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969), and Pete’s Dragon (1977). Read more
• 1919: Tim Holt, American actor (died 1973) Charles John “Tim” Holt III was an American actor. He was a popular Western star during the 1940s and early 1950s, appearing in forty-six B westerns released by RKO Pictures. Read more
• 1919: Andreas Papandreou, Greek economist and politician, Prime Minister of Greece (died 1996) Andreas Georgiou Papandreou was a Greek academic and economist who was prime minister of Greece from 1981 to 1989 and again from 1993 to 1996. He founded the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK). Read more
• 1917: Edward J. Mortola, American academic and president of Pace University (died 2002) Edward Joseph Mortola was an American academic and education executive who served as president of New York’s Pace University from 1960 to 1984, when he became chancellor. He was the university’s third president and oversaw its growth from a Lower Manhattan business school to one of the largest independent universities in the U.S., with a centrally located campus at One Pace Plaza, across from City Hall. Read more
• 1917: Isuzu Yamada, Japanese actress (died 2012) Isuzu Yamada was a Japanese stage and screen actress whose career spanned seven decades. Read more
• 1915: Robert Hofstadter, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1990) Robert Hofstadter was an American physicist. He was the joint winner of the 1961 Nobel Prize in Physics “for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his consequent discoveries concerning the structure of nucleons”. Read more
• 1914: William S. Burroughs, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (died 1997) William Seward Burroughs II was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced both underground and popular culture and literature. Much of Burroughs’s work is highly experimental and features unreliable narrators. Also noted as semi-autobiographical, his work often drew from his experiences with drug addiction, and featured his various places of residence as settings in much of his work. With Brion Gysin, Burroughs popularized the cut-up, an aleatory literary technique. His writing also engaged frequent mystical, occult, or otherwise magical themes, constant preoccupations in both his fiction and real life. Read more
• 1914: Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, English physiologist, biophysicist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1998) Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin was a British physiologist and biophysicist who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Andrew Huxley and John Eccles. Read more
• 1911: Jussi Björling, Swedish tenor (died 1960) Johan Jonatan “Jussi” Björling was a Swedish tenor. One of the leading operatic singers of the 20th century, Björling appeared for many years at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and less frequently at the major European opera houses, including the Royal Opera House in London and La Scala in Milan. He sang the Italian, French and Russian opera repertory with taste. Read more
• 1910: Charles Philippe Leblond, French-Canadian biologist and academic (died 2007) Charles Philippe Leblond was a pioneer of cell biology and stem cell research and a Canadian former professor of anatomy. Leblond is notable for developing autoradiography and his work showing how cells continuously renew themselves, regardless of age. Read more
• 1910: Francisco Varallo, Argentinian footballer (died 2010) Francisco Antonio Varallo was an Argentine footballer who played as a forward for the Argentina national team from 1930 to 1937, also representing the country at the inaugural FIFA World Cup in 1930. Read more
• 1909: Grażyna Bacewicz, Polish violinist and composer (died 1969) Grażyna Bacewicz Biernacka was a Polish composer and violinist of Lithuanian origin. She is the second Polish female composer to have achieved national and international recognition, the first being Maria Szymanowska in the early 19th century. Read more
• 1908: Marie Baron, Dutch swimmer and diver (died 1948) Mietje “Marie” Baron was a Dutch swimmer and diver who competed at the 1924 and 1928 Olympics. In 1924 she was sixth in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay. She was disqualified in the first round of the 200 m breaststroke event, as the judges believed she touched the wall with one hand instead of two hands at one of the turns. Meanwhile, her time of 3:22.6 was several seconds ahead of the gold medalist’s. Four years later she swam 3:15.2, but this was only enough for a silver medal, as her main rival Germany’s Hilde Schrader clocked 3:12.6. At the 1928 Games Baron also competed in the 10 m platform diving event and finished fourth. Read more
• 1908: Peg Entwistle, Welsh-American actress (died 1932) Millicent Lilian “Peg” Entwistle was a British stage and screen actress. She began her stage career in 1925, appearing in several Broadway productions. She appeared in only one film, Thirteen Women, which was released posthumously. Entwistle gained notoriety after she jumped to her death from atop the ‘H’ on the Hollywoodland sign in September 1932, at the age of 24. Read more
• 1908: Eugen Weidmann, German criminal (died 1939) Eugen Weidmann was a German criminal and serial killer who was executed by guillotine in France in June 1939, the last public execution in France. Read more
• 1907: Birgit Dalland, Norwegian politician (died 2007) Birgit Ellenora Johanne Dalland was a Norwegian politician for the Communist Party. Read more
• 1907: Pierre Pflimlin, French politician, Prime Minister of France (died 2000) Pierre Eugène Jean Pflimlin was a French Christian Democrat politician who served as the Prime Minister of the Fourth Republic for a few weeks in 1958, before being replaced by Charles de Gaulle during the crisis of that year. Read more
• 1906: John Carradine, American actor (died 1988) John Carradine was an American actor, considered one of the greatest character actors in American cinema. He was a member of Cecil B. DeMille’s stock company and later John Ford’s company, known for his roles in horror films, Westerns, and Shakespearean theater, most notably portraying Count Dracula in House of Frankenstein (1944), House of Dracula (1945), Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966), and Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula (1979). Among his other notable roles was “Preacher Casy” in John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath. In later decades of his career, he starred mostly in low-budget B-movies. In total, he holds 351 film and television credits, making him one of the most prolific English-speaking film and television actors of all time. Read more
• 1903: Koto Matsudaira, Japanese diplomat, ambassador to the United Nations (died 1994) Koto Matsudaira was a Japanese diplomat who served as an ambassador to the United Nations from 1957 to 1961. Read more
• 1903: Joan Whitney Payson, American businesswoman and philanthropist (died 1975) Joan Whitney Payson was an American heiress, businesswoman, philanthropist, patron of the arts and art collector, and a member of the prominent Whitney family. She co-founded, and was the majority owner of, Major League Baseball’s New York Mets baseball franchise, making her the first woman to own a major league team in North America without inheriting it. Read more
• 1900: Adlai Stevenson II, American soldier, politician, and diplomat, 5th United States Ambassador to the United Nations (died 1965) Adlai Ewing Stevenson II was an American politician and diplomat who was the United States ambassador to the United Nations from 1961 until his death in 1965. He previously served as the 31st governor of Illinois from 1949 to 1953 and was the Democratic Party nominee for president of the United States in 1952 and 1956, losing both elections to Dwight D. Eisenhower. Read more
• 1897: Dirk Stikker, Dutch businessman and politician, 3rd Secretary General of NATO (died 1979) Dirk Uipko Stikker was a Dutch politician and diplomat of the defunct Liberal State Party (LSP), co-founder of the defunct Freedom Party (PvdV) and of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), and businessman. Stikker was known for his abilities as a manager and negotiator. Stikker continued to comment on political affairs as a statesman until his death. He holds the distinction as the first Secretary General of NATO from the Netherlands. Read more
• 1892: Elizabeth Ryan, American tennis player (died 1979) Elizabeth Montague Ryan was an American tennis player who was born in Anaheim, California, but lived most of her adult life in the United Kingdom. Ryan won 26 Grand Slam titles, 19 in women’s doubles and 7 in mixed doubles at Wimbledon, an all-time record for those two events. Twelve of her Wimbledon titles were in women’s doubles and seven were in mixed doubles. Ryan also won four women’s doubles titles at the French Championships, as well as one women’s doubles title and two mixed-doubles titles at the U.S. Championships. During a 19-year run Ryan amassed a total of 659 titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Read more
• 1891: Renato Petronio, Italian rower (died 1976) Renato Petronio was an Italian rowing coxswain who competed in the 1928 Summer Olympics and in the 1936 Summer Olympics. Read more
• 1889: Patsy Hendren, English cricketer and footballer (died 1962) Elias Henry “Patsy” Hendren was an English first-class cricketer, active 1907 to 1937, who played for Middlesex and England. He also had a concurrent career as a footballer and had a long tenure with Brentford F.C. He was born in Turnham Green and died in Tooting Bec. A right-handed batsman who occasionally bowled off breaks, Hendren was one of the most prolific batsmen of the inter-war period, averaging 47.63 in his 51 Test matches and 50.80 in all his first-class matches. He has the third highest first-class run aggregate of 57,611 runs, and his total of 170 centuries ranks second only to Hobbs, who was a personal friend. Hendren was a noted wit, a keen practical joker and had a talent for mimicry. Read more
• 1889: Ernest Tyldesley, English cricketer (died 1962) George Ernest Tyldesley was an English cricketer. The younger brother of Johnny Tyldesley and the leading batsman for Lancashire. He remains Lancashire’s most prolific run-getter of all time, and is one of only a few batsmen to have scored 100 centuries in the first-class game. Read more
• 1889: Recep Peker, Turkish officer and politician (died 1950) Mehmet Recep Peker was a Turkish military officer and politician. A heavy-handed modernist, he served in various ministerial posts and finally as the Prime Minister of Turkey between 1946 and 1947. Read more
• 1880: Gabriel Voisin, French pilot and engineer (died 1973) Gabriel Voisin was a French aviation pioneer and the creator of Europe’s first manned, engine-powered, heavier-than-air aircraft capable of a sustained (1 km), circular, controlled flight, which was made by Henri Farman on 13 January 1908 near Paris, France. During World War I, the company founded by Voisin became a major producer of military aircraft, notably the Voisin III. Subsequently, he switched to the design and production of luxury automobiles under the name Avions Voisin. Read more
• 1878: André Citroën, French engineer and businessman, founded Citroën (died 1935) André-Gustave Citroën was a French industrialist and the founder of French automaker Citroën. He is also remembered for his application of double helical gears. Read more
• 1876: Ernie McLea, Canadian ice hockey player (died 1931) Ernest Hope “Ernie” McLea was a Canadian amateur ice hockey player, in the era before professional hockey. McLea played in the 1890s for the Montreal Victorias and was a member of four Stanley Cup-winning teams. He scored the first hat trick in Stanley Cup play, and scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal in a challenge game in 1896. Read more
• 1870: Charles Edmund Brock, British painter and book illustrator (died 1938) Charles Edmund Brock was a widely published English painter, line artist and book illustrator, who signed most of his work C. E. Brock. He was the eldest of four artist brothers, including Henry Matthew Brock, also an illustrator. Read more
• 1866: Domhnall Ua Buachalla, Irish politician, 3rd and last Governor-General of the Irish Free State (died 1963) Domhnall Ua Buachalla was an Irish politician and member of the First Dáil who served as third and final governor-general of the Irish Free State from 1932 to 1936, and later served as a member of the Council of State from 1959 until his death. Read more
• 1852: Terauchi Masatake, Japanese field marshal and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Japan (died 1919) Count Terauchi Masatake was a Japanese military officer and politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1916 to 1918. He was a Gensui in the Imperial Japanese Army. Read more
• 1848: Joris-Karl Huysmans, French author and critic (died 1907) Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans was a French novelist and art critic who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans. He is most famous for the novel À rebours. He supported himself by way of a 30-year career in the French civil service. Read more
• 1848: Ignacio Carrera Pinto, Chilean lieutenant (died 1882) Ignacio Carrera Pinto (1848–1882) was a Chilean
  soldier and Captain of the 4th Company of the “Chacabuco” 6th Line Battalion who was killed in action at the Battle of La Concepción. A hero of the War of the Pacific, Carrera is commemorated on the thousand peso banknote. Read more
• 1847: Eduard Magnus Jakobson, Estonian missionary and engraver (died 1903) Eduard Magnus Jakobson was an Estonian wood engraver and Baptist missionary. He illustrated many books and designed the masthead logo for Sakala, a newspaper founded by his older brother, Carl Robert Jakobson. Read more
• 1840: John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish businessman, co-founded Dunlop Rubber (died 1921) John Boyd Dunlop was a Scottish inventor and veterinary surgeon who spent most of his career in Ireland. Familiar with making rubber devices, he invented the practical pneumatic tyres for his child’s tricycle and developed them for use in cycle racing. He sold his rights to the pneumatic tyres to a company he formed with the president of the Irish Cyclists’ Association, Harvey du Cros, for a small cash sum and a small shareholding in their pneumatic tyre business. Dunlop withdrew in 1896. The company that bore his name, Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company, was not incorporated until later and, despite its name, was Du Cros’s creation. Read more
• 1840: Hiram Maxim, American engineer, invented the Maxim gun (died 1916) Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim was an American-born British inventor best known as the creator of the first automatic machine gun, the Maxim gun. Maxim held patents on numerous mechanical devices such as hair-curling irons, a mousetrap, and steam pumps. Maxim laid claim to inventing the lightbulb. Read more
• 1837: Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist and publisher, founded Moody Church, Moody Bible Institute, and Moody Publishers (died 1899) Dwight Lyman Moody, also known as D. L. Moody, was an American evangelist and publisher connected with Keswickianism, who founded the Moody Church, Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts, Moody Bible Institute, and Moody Publishers. One of his most famous quotes was “Faith makes all things possible… Love makes all things easy.” Moody gave up his lucrative boot and shoe business to devote his life to revivalism, working first in the Civil War with Union troops through YMCA in the United States Christian Commission. In Chicago, he built one of the major evangelical centers in the nation, which is still active. Working with singer Ira Sankey, he toured the country and the British Isles, drawing large crowds with a dynamic speaking style. Read more
• 1827: Peter Lalor, Irish-Australian activist and politician (died 1889) Peter Fintan Lalor ; 5 February 1827 – 9 February 1889) was an Irish-Australian rebel and, later, politician, who rose to fame for his leading role in the Eureka Rebellion, an event identified with the “birth of democracy” in Australia. Read more
• 1810: Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist and composer (died 1880) Ole Bornemann Bull was a Norwegian virtuoso violinist and composer. According to Robert Schumann, he was on a level with Niccolò Paganini for the speed and clarity of his playing. Read more
• 1808: Carl Spitzweg, German painter and poet (died 1885) Carl Spitzweg was a German romantic painter, especially of genre subjects. He is considered to be one of the most important artists of the Biedermeier era. Read more
• 1804: Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Finnish poet and hymn-writer (died 1877) Johan Ludvig Runeberg was a Finnish priest, lyric and epic poet. He wrote exclusively in Swedish. He is considered a national poet of Finland. He is the author of the lyrics to Vårt land which became the Finnish national anthem. Runeberg was also involved in the modernization of the Finnish Lutheran hymnal and produced many texts for the new edition. Read more

 Important Deaths on 05 February in History

• 2025: Irv Gotti, American record producer, co-founded Murder Inc Records (born 1970) Irving Domingo Lorenzo Jr., known professionally as Irv Gotti or DJ Irv, was an American record producer and record executive. Gotti started off as a New York hip-hop DJ in the 1980s, then becoming an A&R talent scout for TVT Records in 1995 and moved to Def Jam Recordings in 1997. He co-founded the record label Murder Inc. Records with his brother Chris in 1999, which was an imprint of Def Jam. Gotti is credited with having helped discover or sign rappers Jay-Z, DMX, and Ja Rule, as well as singers Ashanti and Lloyd. Read more
• 2024: Toby Keith, American country singer (born 1961) Toby Keith Covel was an American country music singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and businessman. He used the stage name Toby Keith since early in his music career. Read more
• 2023: Pervez Musharraf, Pakistani military officer and politician, 10th President of Pakistan (born 1943) Pervez Musharraf was a Pakistani politician and a military officer who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. He overthrew Nawaz Sharif’s government in the 1999 coup d’état and proclaimed himself the chief executive of Pakistan, under martial law. Read more
• 2021: Christopher Plummer, Canadian actor (born 1929) Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage, and television. His accolades included an Academy Award, two Tony Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards, making him the only Canadian recipient of the “Triple Crown of Acting”. He also received a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as a nomination for a Grammy Award. Read more
• 2020: Kirk Douglas, American actor (born 1916) Kirk Douglas was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Douglas soon developed into a leading box-office star throughout the 1950s, known for serious dramas, including westerns and war films. During his career, he appeared in more than 90 films and was known for his explosive acting style. He was named by the American Film Institute the 17th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood cinema. Read more
• 2016: Ciriaco Cañete, Filipino martial artist (born 1919) Ciriaco “Cacoy” Cañete was a Filipino martial artist of the Doce Pares Eskrima Club. He was the last surviving member of the club, which was founded in January 1932. He was also a 12th degree black belt. His version of the Doce Pares Eskrima system is known as Cacoy Doce Pares. In 1951 he developed a personal system of his named Eskrido. Read more
• 2015: K. N. Choksy, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, Minister of Finance of Sri Lanka (born 1933) Kairshasp Nariman Choksy, PC, MP was a Sri Lankan lawyer, politician and a former member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
  He was Cabinet Minister of Finance under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe. He had also served as Cabinet Minister of Constitutional & State Affairs from 1993 to 1994 under President D. B. Wijetunga and was a member of parliament from 1989 to 2010 continuously. Read more
• 2015: Marisa Del Frate, Italian actress and singer (born 1931) Marisa Del Frate was an Italian singer, actress and television personality who was mainly active in the 1950s and 60s. Read more
• 2015: Val Logsdon Fitch, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1923) Val Logsdon Fitch was an American nuclear physicist who, with co-researcher James Cronin, was awarded the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physics for a 1964 experiment using the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron at Brookhaven National Laboratory that proved that certain subatomic reactions do not adhere to fundamental symmetry principles. Specifically, they proved, by examining the decay of K-mesons, that a reaction run in reverse does not retrace the path of the original reaction, which showed that the reactions of subatomic particles are not indifferent to time. Thus the phenomenon of CP violation was discovered. This demolished the faith that physicists had that natural laws were governed by symmetry. Read more
• 2015: Herman Rosenblat, Polish-American author (born 1929) Herman A. Rosenblat was a Polish-born American author, known for writing a fictitious Holocaust memoir titled Angel at the Fence, purporting to tell the story of a girl who passed him food through the barbed-wire fence at the Schlieben sub-camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp in World War II. The book was planned to be published in 2009 by Berkley Books, but was cancelled after it turned out that many elements of his memoir were fabricated and some were contrary to verifiable historical facts. Rosenblat later admitted to lying on purpose with the intention of “bringing joy”. Read more
• 2014: Robert Dahl, American political scientist and academic (born 1915) Robert Alan Dahl was an American political theorist and Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University. Read more
• 2013: Reinaldo Gargano, Uruguayan journalist and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Uruguay (born 1934) Reinaldo Apolo Gargano Ostuni was a Uruguayan political figure. Read more
• 2013: Egil Hovland, Norwegian composer and conductor (born 1924) Egil Hovland was a Norwegian composer. Read more
• 2013: Tom McGuigan, New Zealand soldier and politician, 23rd New Zealand Minister of Health (born 1921) Thomas Malcolm McGuigan was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. Read more
• 2012: Sam Coppola, American actor (born 1932) Sam Coppola was an American character actor of stage, film, and television, appearing in more than 35 films and nearly 40 television shows, since 1968. Read more
• 2012: Al De Lory, American keyboard player, conductor, and producer (born 1930) Alfred V. De Lory was an American record producer, arranger, conductor and session musician. He was the producer and arranger of a series of worldwide hits by Glen Campbell in the 1960s, including John Hartford’s “Gentle on My Mind”, Jimmy Webb’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”, “Wichita Lineman” and “Galveston”. He was also a member of the 1960s Los Angeles session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew, and inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2007. Read more
• 2012: John Turner Sargent Sr., American publisher (born 1924) John Turner Sargent Sr. was president and CEO of the Doubleday and Company publishing house from 1963 to 1978, taking over from the previous president, Douglas Black. He led the expansion of the company from “a modest, family-controlled business to an industry giant with interests extending into broadcasting and baseball.” A socialite, he was active in New York’s cultural circles. Read more
• 2012: Jo Zwaan, Dutch sprinter (born 1922) Jo Zwaan was a Dutch sprinter. He competed in the Men’s 100 m and 4 × 100 m relay events at the 1948 Summer Olympics. Two years earlier he had already been present at the 1946 European Athletics Championships as part of the Dutch 4 × 100 m relay team, that finished in 4th position in 42.3 seconds. Read more
• 2011: Brian Jacques, English author and radio host (born 1939) James Brian Jacques, known professionally as Brian Jacques, was an English author known for his Redwall series of children’s fantasy novels and Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series. He also completed two collections of short stories entitled The Ribbajack & Other Curious Yarns and Seven Strange and Ghostly Tales. Read more
• 2011: Peggy Rea, American actress and casting director (born 1921) Peggy Jane Rea was an American actress known for her many roles in television, often playing matronly characters. Read more
• 2010: Brendan Burke, Canadian ice hockey player and activist (born 1988) Brendan Gilmore Burke was an athlete and student manager at Miami University for the RedHawks men’s ice hockey team. The youngest son of Brian Burke, former general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, longtime executive of various other NHL teams and of the US Olympic hockey team, in November 2009, he made international headlines for coming out, advocating for tolerance and speaking out against homophobia in professional sports. Burke’s coming out was widely praised and supported by sports news outlets and fans, generating multiple discussions about homophobia in sports, and in hockey in particular. He was viewed as a pioneer in advocacy against homophobia in hockey, described as “the closest person to the NHL ever to come out publicly and say that he is gay.” Read more
• 2010: Harry Schwarz, South African lawyer, anti-apartheid leader, and diplomat, 13th South Africa Ambassador to United States (born 1924) Harry Heinz Schwarz was a South African lawyer, statesman, and long-time political opposition leader against apartheid in South Africa who eventually served as the South African Ambassador to the United States during the country’s transition to majority rule. Read more
• 2008: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian guru, founded Transcendental Meditation (born 1918) Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was the creator of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and leader of the worldwide organization that has been characterized in multiple ways, including as a new religious movement and as non-religious. He became known as Maharishi and Yogi as an adult. Read more
• 2007: Leo T. McCarthy, New Zealand-American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 43rd Lieutenant Governor of California (born 1930) Leo Tarcissus McCarthy was an American politician and businessman. He served as the 43rd lieutenant governor of California from 1983 to 1995. Read more
• 2006: Norma Candal, Puerto Rican-American actress (born 1927) Norma Daniela Candal Penedo, was a Puerto Rican actress and comedian who was best known for her role as Petunia on La criada malcriada. Read more
• 2005: Gnassingbé Eyadéma, Togolese general and politician, President of Togo (born 1937) Gnassingbé Eyadéma was a Togolese military officer and politician who served as the third president of Togo from 1967 until his death in 2005, after which he was immediately succeeded by his son, Faure Gnassingbé. Read more
• 2005: Michalina Wisłocka, Polish gynecologist and sexologist (born 1921) Michalina Anna Wisłocka was a Polish gynecologist, sexologist, and author of Sztuka kochania, the first guide to sexual life in a communist country. Her book became a bestseller, with a total circulation of 7 million copies, and started greater openness about matters of sex and sex life in Poland. Read more
• 2004: John Hench, American animator (born 1908) John Hench was an American artist, designer and director at the Walt Disney Company. For 65 years, he helped design and develop various Disney attractions and theme parks. Read more
• 2000: Claude Autant-Lara, French director and screenwriter (born 1901) Claude Autant-Lara was a French film director, screenwriter, set designer and costume designer who worked in films for over 50 years. He made films characterised by bourgeois realism, anti-clericalism and sexual frankness, often from literary sources. His career was frequently marked by controversy. Even though he was considered left-wing during most of his life, in his late 80s he was elected to the European Parliament as a member for the far-right National Front: he stepped down two months later after making antisemitic statements. Read more
• 1999: Wassily Leontief, Russian-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1906) Wassily Wassilyevich Leontief was a Soviet-American economist known for his research on input–output analysis and how changes in one economic sector may affect other sectors. Read more
• 1998: Tim Kelly, American guitarist (born 1963) Timothy Patrick Kelly was an American guitarist for the band Slaughter. Read more
• 1997: Pamela Harriman, English-American diplomat, 58th United States Ambassador to France (born 1920) Pamela Beryl Harriman, also known as Pamela Churchill Harriman, was an English political activist for the Democratic Party in the United States, diplomat, and socialite. She married three times: her first husband was Randolph Churchill, the son of prime minister Winston Churchill; her third husband was W. Averell Harriman, an American diplomat who also served as Governor of New York. Her only child, Winston Churchill, was named after his famous grandfather. She served as US ambassador to France from 1993 until her death in 1997. Read more
• 1997: René Huyghe, French historian and author (born 1906) René Huyghe was a French writer on the history, psychology and philosophy of art. He was also a curator at the Louvre’s department of paintings, a professor at the Collège de France director of the Musée Jacquemart-André, and, beginning in 1960 a member of the Académie Française. He was the father of the writer François-Bernard Huyghe. Read more
• 1995: Doug McClure, American actor (born 1935) Douglas Osborne McClure was an American actor whose career in film and television extended from the 1950s to the 1990s. He is best known for his role as the cowboy Trampas during the entire run from 1962 to 1971 of the series The Virginian and mayor turned police chief Kyle Applegate on Out of This World. From 1961 to 1963, he was married to actress BarBara Luna. Read more
• 1993: Seán Flanagan, Irish footballer and politician, 7th Irish Minister for Health (born 1922) Seán Flanagan was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and Gaelic footballer who served as Minister for Health from 1966 to 1969, Minister for Lands from 1969 to 1973 and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1965 to 1966. He served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Connacht–Ulster constituency from 1979 to 1989. He was as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo South constituency from 1951 to 1969 and for the Mayo East constituency from 1969 to 1977. Read more
• 1993: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1909) Joseph Leo Mankiewicz was an American filmmaker. A four-time Academy Award winner, he is best known for his witty and literate dialogue and his preference for voice-over narration and narrative flashbacks. Also known as an actor’s director, Mankiewicz directed several prominent actors, including Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart and Elizabeth Taylor, to several of their memorable onscreen performances. Read more
• 1993: William Pène du Bois, American author and illustrator (born 1916) William Sherman Pène du Bois was an American writer and illustrator of books for young readers. He is best known for The Twenty-One Balloons, published in April 1947 by Viking Press, for which he won the 1948 Newbery Medal. He was twice a runner-up for the Caldecott Medal for illustrating books written by others, and the two Caldecott Honor picture books, which he also wrote. Read more
• 1992: Miguel Rolando Covian, Argentinian-Brazilian physiologist and academic (born 1913) Miguel Rolando Covian, was an Argentine-Brazilian physiologist, medical educator and writer. Read more
• 1991: Dean Jagger, American actor (born 1903) Dean Jagger was an American film, stage, and television actor who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Henry King’s Twelve O’Clock High (1949). Read more
• 1989: Joe Raposo, American pianist and composer (born 1937) Joseph Guilherme Raposo, OIH was an American composer and songwriter. He is best known for his work on the children’s television series Sesame Street, for which he wrote the theme song, and several notable songs, including “Bein’ Green”, “C Is For Cookie” and “Sing”. He also wrote music for other television shows including The Electric Company, Shining Time Station and the sitcoms Three’s Company and The Ropers, including their theme songs. Additionally, he composed scores for three Dr. Seuss television specials produced by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises: Halloween Is Grinch Night (1977), Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You? (1980), and The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat (1982). Read more
• 1987: William Collier Jr., American actor and producer (born 1902) William Collier Jr. was an American stage performer, producer, and a film actor who in the silent and sound eras was cast in no fewer than 89 motion pictures. Read more
• 1983: Margaret Oakley Dayhoff, American chemist and academic (born 1925) Margaret Belle (Oakley) Dayhoff was an American biophysicist and a pioneer in the field of bioinformatics. Dayhoff was a professor at Georgetown University Medical Center and a noted research biochemist at the National Biomedical Research Foundation, where she pioneered the application of mathematics and computational methods to the field of biochemistry. She dedicated her career to applying the evolving computational technologies to support advances in biology and medicine, most notably the creation of protein and nucleic acid databases and tools to interrogate the databases. She originated one of the first substitution matrices, point accepted mutations (PAM). The one-letter code used for amino acids was developed by her, reflecting an attempt to reduce the size of the data files used to describe amino acid sequences in an era of punch-card computing. Read more
• 1982: Neil Aggett, Kenyan-South African physician and union leader (born 1953) Neil Aggett was a Kenyan and South African doctor and trade union organiser who was killed, while in detention, by the Security Branch of the Apartheid South African Police Service after being held for 70 days without trial. Read more
• 1981: Ella Grasso, American politician, 83rd Governor of Connecticut (born 1919) Ella Rosa Giovianna Oliva Grasso was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as the 83rd governor of Connecticut from January 8, 1975, to December 31, 1980, after rejecting past offers of candidacies for Senate and governor. She was the first woman elected governor in Connecticut and the fourth woman to be elected governor of a U.S. state. She is also the first female governor to not be the spouse or widow of a former governor. She resigned as governor due to her battle with ovarian cancer. Read more
• 1977: Oskar Klein, Swedish physicist and academic (born 1894) Oskar Benjamin Klein was a Swedish theoretical physicist now best remembered for the Klein-Gordon equation of relativistic quantum mechanics, the Kaluza-Klein theory, a unified field theory of gravitation and electromagnetism, and the Klein-Nishina cross section in quantum electrodynamics. Read more
• 1976: Rudy Pompilli, American saxophonist (Bill Haley & His Comets) (born 1926) Rudolph Clement Pompilii was an American musician best known for playing tenor saxophone with Bill Haley and His Comets. He was usually credited under the alternate spelling Rudy Pompilli and occasionally as Rudy Pell. Read more
• 1972: Marianne Moore, American poet, author, critic, and translator (born 1887) Marianne Craig Moore was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for its formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit. In 1968, she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature by Nobel Committee member Erik Lindegren. Read more
• 1970: Rudy York, American baseball player, coach, and manager (born 1913) Preston Rudolph York was an American professional baseball player, coach, scout, and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher and a first baseman between 1934 and 1948, most notably as a member of the Detroit Tigers. Read more
• 1969: Thelma Ritter, American actress (born 1902) Thelma Ritter was an American character actress who, known for her strong New York City accent, diminutive size, and plain look, favored working-class roles. She earned a Tony Award and six Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress, more than any other actress in the category. Read more
• 1967: Leon Leonwood Bean, American businessman, founded L.L.Bean (born 1872) Leon Leonwood Bean was an American inventor, author, outdoor enthusiast, and founder of the company L.L.Bean. Read more
• 1962: Jacques Ibert, French-Swiss composer (born 1890) Jacques François Antoine Marie Ibert was a French composer of classical music. Having studied music from an early age, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won its top prize, the Prix de Rome at his first attempt, despite studies interrupted by his service in World War I. Read more
• 1957: Sami Ibrahim Haddad, Lebanese surgeon and author (born 1890) Sami Ibrahim Haddad, Arabic: سامي ابراهيم حداد was a doctor, surgeon and writer. He was born in Palestine and spent most of his life in Lebanon. Read more
• 1955: Victor Houteff, Bulgarian religious reformer and author (born 1885) Victor Tasho Houteff was a Bulgarian-American religious leader who was the founder of the Davidian Seventh-day Adventist organization, known as The Shepherd’s Rod. Read more
• 1954: Hossein Sami’i, Iranian politician, diplomat, writer and poet (born 1876) Mirza Hossein Khan Sami’i also known by his court title of Adib al Saltaneh was an Iranian writer, poet, diplomat and politician. He served in many positions in both the Qajar and Pahlavi governments. Read more
• 1952: Adela Verne, English pianist and composer (born 1877)
  Adela Verne was a distinguished English pianist of German descent, born in Southampton. She was considered the greatest woman pianist of her era, ranked alongside the male keyboard giants of the time. She toured with great success in many parts of the world. She composed a Military March dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother; her sister Mathilde’s pupil. Read more
• 1948: Johannes Blaskowitz, German general (born 1883) Johannes Albrecht Blaskowitz was a German Generaloberst during World War II. After joining the Imperial German Army in 1901, Blaskowitz served throughout World War I, where he earned the Iron Cross for bravery. During WWII, Blaskowitz led the 8th Army during the Invasion of Poland and was the Commander in Chief of Occupied Poland from 1939 to 1940. He was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. He commanded Army Group G during the Allied invasion of Southern France and Operation Nordwind, the last major German offensive of World War II on the Western Front. Blaskowitz later commanded the remnants of Army Group H as it withdrew to Northern Netherlands before surrendering to Allied forces. Read more
• 1946: George Arliss, English actor and playwright (born 1868) George Arliss was an English actor, author, playwright, and filmmaker who found success in the United States. He was the first British actor to win an Academy Award – which he won for his performance as Victorian-era British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli in Disraeli (1929) – as well as the earliest-born actor of any category to win the honour. He specialized in successful biopics, such as Disraeli, Voltaire (1933), and Cardinal Richelieu (1935), as well as light comedies, which included The Millionaire (1931) and A Successful Calamity (1932). Read more
• 1941: Banjo Paterson, Australian journalist, author, and poet (born 1864) Andrew Barton “Banjo” Paterson was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author, widely considered one of the greatest writers of Australia’s colonial period. Read more
• 1941: Otto Strandman, Estonian lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Estonia (born 1875) Otto August Strandman was an Estonian politician, who served as Prime Minister (1919) and State Elder of Estonia (1929–1931). Read more
• 1938: Hans Litten, German lawyer and jurist (born 1903) Hans Achim Litten was a German lawyer who represented opponents of the Nazis at important political trials between 1929 and 1932, defending the rights of workers during the Weimar Republic. Read more
• 1937: Lou Andreas-Salomé, Russian-German psychoanalyst and author (born 1861) Lou Andreas-Salomé was a Russian-born psychoanalyst and a well-traveled author, narrator, and essayist from a French Huguenot-German family. Her diverse intellectual interests led to friendships with a broad array of distinguished thinkers, including Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Paul Rée, and Rainer Maria Rilke. Read more
• 1933: Josiah Thomas, English-Australian miner and politician (born 1863) Josiah Thomas was an Australian politician. He was elected to the House of Representatives at the inaugural 1901 federal election, representing the Labor Party. Thomas served as a minister in Andrew Fisher’s first two governments, as Postmaster-General and Minister for External Affairs (1911–1913). He joined the Nationalist Party after the 1916 Labor split and transferred to the Senate at the 1917 election, serving as a Senator for New South Wales from 1917 to 1923 and from 1925 to 1929. Read more
• 1931: Athanasios Eftaxias, Greek politician, 118th Prime Minister of Greece (born 1849) Athanasios Eftaxias was a Greek politician. He was born in Amfikleia, Phthiotis, and was briefly Prime Minister of Greece from 19 July to 23 August 1926. He died in Athens. Read more
• 1927: Inayat Khan, Indian mystic and educator (born 1882) Inayat Khan Rehmat Khan, was an Indian professor of musicology, singer, exponent of the sarasvati vina, poet, philosopher, writer, and pioneer of the transmission of Sufism to the West. At the urging of his students, and on the basis of his ancestral Sufi tradition and four-fold training and authorisation at the hands of Sayyid Abu Hashim Madani of Hyderabad, he established an order of Sufism in London in 1914. By the time of his death in 1927, centers had been established throughout Europe and North America, and multiple volumes of his teachings had been published. Read more
• 1922: Slavoljub Eduard Penkala, Croatian engineer, invented the mechanical pencil (born 1871) Slavoljub Eduard Penkala was a Croatian engineer and inventor. Read more
• 1917: Jaber II Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti ruler (born 1860) Jaber II Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah,, was the eighth ruler of the Sheikhdom of Kuwait from the Al-Sabah dynasty. He was the eldest son of Mubarak Al-Sabah and is the ancestor of the Al-Jaber branch of the Al-Sabah family. He ruled the country from 28 November 1915 to his death on 5 February 1917 and was succeeded by his brother, Salim Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah. Read more
• 1915: Ross Barnes, American baseball player and manager (born 1850) Charles Roscoe Barnes was one of the stars of baseball’s National Association (1871–1875) and the early National League (1876–1881), playing second base and shortstop. He played for the dominant Boston Red Stockings teams of the early 1870s, along with Albert Spalding, Cal McVey, George Wright, Harry Wright, Jim O’Rourke, and Deacon White. Despite playing for these star-studded teams, many claim that Ross was the most valuable to his teams. However, injuries limited his power in his peak and his professional career ended at the age of 31. Read more
• 1892: Emilie Flygare-Carlén, Swedish author (born 1807) Emilie Flygare-Carlén was a Swedish novelist. Read more
• 1882: Adolfo Rivadeneyra, Spanish orientalist and diplomat (born 1841) Adolfo Rivadeneyra was a Spanish diplomat, orientalist, editor and traveler. Read more
• 1881: Thomas Carlyle, Scottish philosopher, historian, and academic (born 1795) Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. Known as the “sage of Chelsea”, his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the Victorian era. Read more
• 1818: Charles XIII, king of Sweden (born 1748) Charles XIII or Carl XIII was King of Sweden from 1809 and King of Norway from 1814 to his death. He was the second son of King Adolf Frederick of Sweden and Louisa Ulrika of Prussia, sister of Frederick the Great. Read more
• 1807: Pasquale Paoli, Corsican commander and politician (born 1725) Filippo Antonio Pasquale de’ Paoli was a Corsican patriot, statesman, and military leader who was at the forefront of resistance movements against the Genoese and later French rule over the island. He became the President of the Executive Council of the General Diet of the People of Corsica and wrote the Constitution of the state. Read more