History of Today 12 July: Important Events, Births and Deaths

Welcome to History of Today 12 July. On this page, you can read important historical events, famous births, notable deaths and general knowledge facts related to 12 July. This information is useful for UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, State PSC and other competitive exams.

Last updated on 12 July 2026, 01:03 AM

Important Events on 12 July in History

12 Jul 2024: Gazpromavia Flight 9608 crashes in Russia's Kolomensky District near Kolomna, killing three. Read more
12 Jul 2013: Six people are killed and 200 injured in a French passenger train derailment in Brétigny-sur-Orge. Read more
12 Jul 2012: Syrian Civil War: Government forces target the homes of rebels and activists in Tremseh and kill anywhere between 68 and 150 people. Read more
12 Jul 2012: A tank truck explosion kills more than 100 people in Okobie, Nigeria. Read more
12 Jul 2007: U.S. Army Apache helicopters engage in airstrikes against armed insurgents in Baghdad, Iraq, where civilians are killed; footage from the cockpit is later leaked to the Internet. Read more
12 Jul 2006: A cross-border raid by Hezbollah militants starts the 2006 Lebanon War. Read more
12 Jul 2001: Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-104, carrying the Quest Joint Airlock to the International Space Station. Read more
12 Jul 1998: The Ulster Volunteer Force attacked a house in Ballymoney, County Antrim, Northern Ireland with a petrol bomb, killing the Quinn brothers. Read more
12 Jul 1998: France win their first World Cup title, defeating defending champions Brazil 3–0. Read more
12 Jul 1995: Chinese seismologists successfully predict the 1995 Myanmar–China earthquake, reducing the number of casualties to 11. Read more
12 Jul 1979: The island nation of Kiribati becomes independent from the United Kingdom. Read more
12 Jul 1975: São Tomé and Príncipe declare independence from Portugal. Read more
12 Jul 1973: A fire destroys the entire sixth floor of the National Personnel Records Center of the United States. Read more
12 Jul 1971: The Australian Aboriginal flag is flown for the first time. Read more
12 Jul 1967: Riots begin in Newark, New Jersey. Read more
12 Jul 1963: Pauline Reade, 16, disappears in Gorton, England, the first victim in the Moors murders. Read more
12 Jul 1961: Indian city Pune floods due to failure of the Khadakwasla and Panshet dams, killing at least two thousand people. Read more
12 Jul 1961: ČSA Flight 511 crashes at Casablanca–Anfa Airport in Morocco, killing 72. Read more
12 Jul 1960: Orlyonok, the main Young Pioneer camp of the Russian SFSR, is founded. Read more
12 Jul 1948: Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion orders the expulsion of Palestinians from the towns of Lod and Ramla. Read more
12 Jul 1943: World War II: Battle of Kursk: German and Soviet forces engage in the Battle of Prokhorovka, one of the largest armored engagements of all time. Read more
12 Jul 1920: The Soviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty is signed, by which Soviet Russia recognizes the independence of Lithuania. Read more
12 Jul 1918: The Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Kawachi blows up at Shunan, western Honshu, Japan, killing at least 621. Read more
12 Jul 1917: The Bisbee Deportation occurs as vigilantes kidnap and deport nearly 1,300 striking miners and others from Bisbee, Arizona. Read more
12 Jul 1913: Serbian forces begin their siege of the Bulgarian city of Vidin; the siege is later called off when the war ends. Read more
12 Jul 1913: The Second Revolution breaks out against the Beiyang government, as Li Liejun proclaims Jiangxi independent from the Republic of China. Read more
12 Jul 1862: The Medal of Honor is authorized by the United States Congress. Read more
12 Jul 1847: A riot occurred in Woodstock, New Brunswick, between Catholics and members of the Orange Order that resulted in up to ten deaths. Read more
12 Jul 1812: The American Army of the Northwest briefly occupies the Upper Canadian settlement at what is now at Windsor, Ontario. Read more
12 Jul 1806: At the insistence of Napoleon, Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg and thirteen minor principalities leave the Holy Roman Empire and form the Confederation of the Rhine. Read more
12 Jul 1801: British ships inflict heavy damage on Spanish and French ships in the Second Battle of Algeciras. Read more

Famous Births on 12 July

12 Jul 2004: Diabé Bolumbu, French footballer Diabé Ousmane Cothy Bolumbu Sombo is a French professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Ligue 3 club Caen. Read more
12 Jul 2002: Nico Williams, Spanish footballer Nicholas Williams Arthuer is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a winger for La Liga club Athletic Bilbao and the Spain national team. He is recognised for his speed and dribbling skills. Read more
12 Jul 2001: Kaylee McKeown, Australian swimmer Kaylee Rochelle McKeown is an Australian swimmer and multiple Olympic gold medalist. She is widely considered the greatest backstroker of all time, holding a record 10 individual backstroke titles across the Olympic Games and World Aquatics Championships. She is the reigning Olympic champion in the 100 and 200 metres backstroke. She is the world record holder in the long course 50 metre backstroke, and the long course and short course 200 metre backstroke, and is the former world record holder in both the long course and short course 100 metre backstroke. She won gold in both the 100 metre and 200 metre backstroke at both the 2020 and 2024 Olympics. In 2023, she was named as the "Best Female Swimmer of the Year" by World Aquatics, after sweeping gold in all three events of backstroke at all three World Cup legs, held in Berlin, Athens and Budapest in October, 2023. Read more
12 Jul 2000: Vinícius Júnior, Brazilian footballer Vinícius José Paixão de Oliveira "Vini" Júnior is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a forward for La Liga club Real Madrid and the Brazil national team. Considered one of the best players in the world, he is known for his pace, technique, and dribbling ability. Read more
12 Jul 1998: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Canadian basketball player Shaivonte Aician Gilgeous-Alexander, also known by his initials SGA, is a Canadian professional basketball player for the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely regarded as one of the greatest point guards of all time, he is known for his elite slashing ability, shot efficiency, and free-throw rate. Read more
12 Jul 1997: Claire Chicha, French Korean singer-songwriter known by the stage name Spill Tab Claire Chicha, known by her stage name Spill Tab, is a Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter. She sings in English and French. An alternative pop musician, she has been noted by music media outlets for her lo-fi vocals and sound. Read more
12 Jul 1997: Jean-Kévin Duverne, French footballer Jean-Kévin Duverne is a professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Belgian Pro League club Gent on loan from French club Nantes. Born in France, he plays for the Haiti national team. Read more
12 Jul 1997: Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani-English activist, Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani female education activist, and producer of film and television. She is the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history, receiving the Peace Prize in 2014 at age 17, and is the second Pakistani and the only Pashtun to receive a Nobel Prize. Yousafzai is a human rights advocate for the education of women and children in her native district, Swat, where the Pakistani Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. Her advocacy has grown into an international movement, and according to former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, she has become Pakistan's "most prominent citizen". Read more
12 Jul 1996: Moussa Dembélé, French footballer Moussa Dembélé is a French professional footballer who plays as a striker for Saudi Pro League club Al-Ettifaq. Read more
12 Jul 1996: Jordan Romero, American mountaineer Jordan Romero is an American mountaineer who was 13 years old when he reached the summit of Mount Everest. Romero was accompanied by his father, Paul Romero, his step-mother, Karen Lundgren, and three Sherpas, Ang Pasang Sherpa, Lama Dawa Sherpa, and Lama Karma Sherpa. The previous record for youngest to climb Everest was held by Ming Kipa of Nepal who was 15 years old when she reached the summit on May 22, 2003. Read more
12 Jul 1995: Evania Pelite, Australian rugby union player Evania Faaea "Vani" Pelite is an Australian rugby union and rugby league player. She won a gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. Read more
12 Jul 1995: Luke Shaw, English footballer Luke Paul Hoare Shaw is an English professional footballer who plays as a left-back or centre-back for Premier League club Manchester United and the England national team. Read more
12 Jul 1995: Moses Simon, Nigerian footballer Moses Daddy-Ajala Simon is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a forward or left winger for Ligue 1 club Paris FC and the Nigeria national team. Read more
12 Jul 1995: Jordyn Wieber, American gymnast Jordyn Marie Wieber Brooks is an American former artistic gymnast and gymnastics coach. From April 2019 to April 2026, she was the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks gymnastics team. Read more
12 Jul 1994: Kanako Momota, Japanese singer-songwriter Kanako Momota is a Japanese singer and actress, represented by Stardust Promotion. She is best known as the leader of the girl group Momoiro Clover Z. She has also provided the Japanese dub for Shuri in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starting from Black Panther (2018). Read more
12 Jul 1993: Jonas Brodin, Swedish ice hockey player Jonas Brodin is a Swedish professional ice hockey player who is a defenceman for the Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League (NHL). After recording four assists through 42 games as a 17-year-old in the Swedish Hockey League, Brodin was drafted in the first round, 10th overall, by the Wild in the 2011 NHL entry draft. Read more
12 Jul 1992: Bartosz Bereszyński, Polish footballer Bartosz Bereszyński is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Ekstraklasa club Motor Lublin and the Poland national team. Read more
12 Jul 1992: Luke Berry, English footballer Luke David Berry is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder. He is currently a free agent. Read more
12 Jul 1991: Pablo Carreño Busta, Spanish tennis player Pablo Carreño Busta is a Spanish professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 10 by the ATP, achieved on 11 September 2017. He has won seven singles titles on the ATP Tour, including a Masters 1000 title at the Canadian Open, and achieved his best major results at the US Open, reaching the semifinals of the 2017 and 2020 editions. Representing Spain, Carreño Busta has won an Olympic bronze medal in men's singles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, defeating world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the bronze match. He also was a member of the Spanish team that won the 2019 Davis Cup. Read more
12 Jul 1991: Salih Dursun, Turkish footballer Salih Dursun is a Turkish footballer who plays as a right back and defensive midfielder for TFF 1. Lig club Sakaryaspor. Read more
12 Jul 1991: James Rodríguez, Colombian footballer James David Rodríguez Rubio is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger and captains the Colombia national team. Regarded as one of the best Colombian players of all time, he has been praised for his technique, vision, and playmaking skills. He is often considered the successor to his compatriot Carlos Valderrama. During the last decade, various statistical performance analyses and models in European football positioned him as the best attacking midfielder in the world. Read more
12 Jul 1991: Erik Per Sullivan, American actor Erik Per Sullivan is an American former actor. He is best known for his role as Dewey on the Fox series Malcolm in the Middle (2000–2006). Read more
12 Jul 1990: Bebé, Portuguese footballer Tiago Manuel Dias Correia, commonly known as Bebé, is a professional footballer who plays as either a winger or attacking midfielder for Primera Federación – Group 2 club Ibiza. Born in Portugal, and a former Portuguese youth international at under-21 level, he represents the Cape Verde national team. Read more
12 Jul 1990: Rachel Brosnahan, American actress Rachel Elizabeth Brosnahan is an American actress. She rose to fame for her performance as Midge Maisel in the Amazon Prime Video period comedy series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017–2023), for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2018 and two consecutive Golden Globe Awards in 2018 and 2019. She is also recognized for portraying Lois Lane in the DC Universe (DCU), a role she first played in the film Superman (2025). Read more
12 Jul 1989: Nick Palmieri, American ice hockey player Nicholas Palmieri is an American former professional ice hockey player. He was selected by the New Jersey Devils in the third-round of the 2007 NHL Draft. Read more
12 Jul 1989: Phoebe Tonkin, Australian actress Phoebe Jane Elizabeth Tonkin is an Australian actress. Her accolades include an AACTA Award, in addition to a nomination for a Logie Award. Read more
12 Jul 1989: Hilary Knight, American ice hockey player Hilary Atwood Knight is an American ice hockey player who is a forward for the PWHL Detroit in the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). She is also captain of the United States women's national ice hockey team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in women's hockey history, Knight holds numerous records and has been a dominant force in both international and professional hockey for nearly two decades. Read more
12 Jul 1988: Patrick Beverley, American basketball player Patrick Beverley is an American professional basketball player who last played for PAOK Thessaloniki of the Greek Basketball League (GBL) and the EuroCup. Originally from Chicago's West Side, Beverley played college basketball for the Arkansas Razorbacks. He spent the first five years of his pro career overseas, playing in Ukraine, Greece, and Russia. In January 2013, he signed with the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Read more
12 Jul 1988: LeSean McCoy, American football player LeSean Kamel McCoy, nicknamed "Shady", is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Pittsburgh Panthers and was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the second round of the 2009 NFL draft. McCoy attended Bishop McDevitt High School from 2002 to 2006. In his senior year of high school, McCoy suffered a major ankle injury, which threatened his career. In his first year at Pittsburgh in 2007, he rushed for over 1,300 yards and recorded 14 touchdowns. In 2008, McCoy was selected as a second-team All-American. His 21 rushing touchdowns were third in the nation, only one behind the two leaders. Read more
12 Jul 1988: Inbee Park, South Korean golfer Inbee Park is a South Korean professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour and the LPGA of Japan Tour. She has been the number one ranked player in the Women's World Golf Rankings for four separate runs: April 2013 to June 2014, October 2014 to February 2015, June 2015 to October 2015, and from April to July 2018. Read more
12 Jul 1987: Lisbeth Torfing, Danish politician Lisbeth Heidemann Torfing is a Danish politician and Member of the Folketing. A member of the Red–Green Alliance, she has represented West Jutland since March 2026. Read more
12 Jul 1986: Didier Digard, French footballer Didier Frédéric Thierry Digard is a French professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Le Havre. As a player, he was a defensive midfielder. Read more
12 Jul 1986: Hannaliis Jaadla, Estonian footballer Hannaliis Jaadla is an Estonian footballer who plays as a defender for English club Oxford United and for the Estonia national team. As well as playing for Tammeka Tartu and Flora Tallinn of the Naiste Meistriliiga, she previously turned out for Tottenham Hotspur in England. Read more
12 Jul 1986: JP Pietersen, South African rugby player Jon-Paul Roger "JP" Pietersen is a South African former rugby union player for the Sharks in the Currie Cup. He generally played fullback or wing, but occasionally he played at outside centre. He played in 69 tests for the Springboks. Read more
12 Jul 1986: Simone Laudehr, German footballer Simone Melanie Laudehr is a German former footballer who played as a central midfielder or winger. Read more
12 Jul 1985: Paulo Vitor Barreto, Brazilian footballer Paulo Vitor de Souza Barreto, known as Barreto, is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a striker. Read more
12 Jul 1985: Gianluca Curci, Italian footballer Gianluca Curci is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. A product of the Roma youth system, he made his professional debut for the club in 2004 and went on to play over 200 matches in Serie A for Roma, Siena, Sampdoria and Bologna. Curci also had spells abroad with German side Mainz 05 and in Sweden with AFC Eskilstuna and Hammarby IF. Read more
12 Jul 1985: Keven Lacombe, Canadian cyclist Keven Lacombe is a Canadian professional racing cyclist. He was also an ice hockey player for Drummondville Voltigeurs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Read more
12 Jul 1985: Ismael Londt, Surinamese-Dutch kickboxer Ismael Londt is a Surinamese-Dutch kickboxer. Read more
12 Jul 1984: Gareth Gates, English singer-songwriter Gareth Paul Gates is an English singer-songwriter and actor. He was the runner-up in the first series of the ITV talent show Pop Idol in 2002. As of 2008, Gates had sold over 3.5 million records in the UK. He is also known for having a stutter, and has talked about his speech impediment publicly. Read more
12 Jul 1984: Jonathan Lewis, American football player Jonathan M. Lewis is an American former professional football player who was a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Arizona Cardinals in the sixth round of the 2006 NFL draft. He played college football for the Virginia Tech Hokies. Read more
12 Jul 1984: Natalie Martinez, American actress Natalie Martinez is an American actress and model. She appeared in the 2008 film Death Race, several music videos between 2003 and 2011, and two short-lived telenovelas in 2006 and 2007. Martinez starred in the single season of the crime drama Detroit 1-8-7, had a recurring role for one season of CSI: NY, starred in one season of the drama series Kingdom, and appeared in the 2019 science fiction miniseries The I-Land. She has since appeared in the NBC drama series Ordinary Joe (2021-2022) and the Apple TV black comedy crime series Bad Monkey (2024-present). Read more
12 Jul 1984: Michael McGovern, Northern Irish footballer Michael McGovern is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He has represented the Northern Ireland national team at international level and is currently goalkeeping coach at Scottish Championship club Queen's Park. Read more
12 Jul 1984: Sami Zayn, Canadian professional wrestler Rami Sebei is a Canadian professional wrestler. He has been signed to WWE since 2013, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Sami Zayn. Read more
12 Jul 1982: Antonio Cassano, Italian footballer Antonio Cassano is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a forward. A talented and technically gifted player, he was usually deployed as a supporting forward, but could also play as an attacking midfielder, winger, or as a striker. Nicknamed Il Gioiello di Bari Vecchia, and Fantantonio, he was known for his short temper as much as his skill and ability on the pitch. Cassano won an Italian and Spanish league title each throughout his career as major honours. Read more
12 Jul 1982: Jason Wright, American football player, businessman, and executive Jason Gomillion Wright is an American business consultant and former professional football player. Wright attended Northwestern University in the early 2000s and played running back for the Wildcats while earning a degree in psychology. He played as a reserve running back and special teamer in the National Football League (NFL) for the Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns, and Arizona Cardinals. He additionally served as the NFLPA representative for the Cardinals during the 2011 NFL lockout before retiring. Read more
12 Jul 1981: Adrienne Camp, South African singer-songwriter Adrienne “Adie” Camp is a South African singer and songwriter, who is known as the lead singer of the Christian pop-rock band the Benjamin Gate before the group disbanded in 2003. She briefly contributed to other artist's albums, namely her duet with rapper John Reuben featured on his album Professional Rapper and her background vocals on husband Jeremy Camp's albums Restored and Live Unplugged, after the Benjamin Gate disbanded. Read more
12 Jul 1981: Pradeepan Raveendran, Sri Lankan director, producer, and screenwriter Pradeepan Raveendran was born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka on 12 July 1981. He is a self-taught photographer and filmmaker. The Pradeepan's first directorial debut was in 2009 with the short film A Mango Tree in the Front Yard. This film was an official selection at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2009 and subsequently nominated for a Golden Bear. His second short film Shadows of Silence was completed in 2010. This film premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2010, as part of its ‘Director’s Fortnight’.
His debut feature film Soundless Dance (2019) premiered at Atlanta International Film Festival. Read more
12 Jul 1980: Kristen Connolly, American actress Kristen Connolly is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Dana Polk in the 2011 film The Cabin in the Woods, Christina Gallagher on the Netflix series House of Cards and Jamie Campbell on the CBS series Zoo. Read more
12 Jul 1979: Nikos Barlos, Greek basketball player Nikolaos "Nikos" Barlos is a Greek retired professional basketball player and coach. During his playing career, at a height of 2.03 m tall, he played at both the small forward and power forward positions. Read more
12 Jul 1979: Maya Kobayashi, Japanese journalist Maya Kobayashi is a Japanese journalist. Read more
12 Jul 1978: Topher Grace, American actor Christopher John "Topher" Grace, is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Eric Forman in the sitcom That '70s Show (1998–2005) and Eddie Brock / Venom in the film Spider-Man 3 (2007). He has also starred in the films Traffic (2000), Mona Lisa Smile (2003), p.s. (2004), Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004), In Good Company (2004), Valentine's Day (2010), and Predators (2010). Read more
12 Jul 1978: Michelle Rodriguez, American actress Mayte Michelle Rodríguez is an American actress. She began her career in 2000, playing a troubled boxer in the independent sports drama film Girlfight (2000), where she won the Independent Spirit Award and Gotham Award for Best Debut Performance. Rodriguez played Letty Ortiz in the Fast & Furious franchise and Rain Ocampo in the Resident Evil franchise. She has starred in the crime thriller S.W.A.T. (2003), James Cameron's science fiction epic Avatar (2009), and in the action film Battle: Los Angeles (2011). Read more
12 Jul 1977: Neil Harris, English footballer and manager Neil Harris is an English professional football manager and former footballer who played as a striker. He is the manager of EFL League One club Cambridge United. Read more
12 Jul 1977: Steve Howey, American actor Steven Michael Robert Howey is an American actor. He was previously best known for his roles as Van Montgomery on The WB/The CW sitcom television series Reba and Kevin Ball on the Showtime series Shameless. He is currently playing Captain Nick Wagner on the ABC series High Potential. Howey has also appeared in the films Supercross, DOA: Dead or Alive, Bride Wars, Game Over, Man!, Day Shift and Something Borrowed. Read more
12 Jul 1977: Brock Lesnar, American mixed martial artist and wrestler Brock Edward Lesnar is an American professional wrestler, former mixed martial artist, amateur wrestler and professional American football player. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on a part-time basis. Lesnar had two previous tenures with the company from 2000 to 2004 and 2012 to 2020. Lesnar is the only person to have won the primary heavyweight championships of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), the Inoki Genome Federation (IGF), and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Read more
12 Jul 1977: Francesca Lubiani, Italian tennis player Francesca Lubiani is a former professional tennis player from Italy. Read more
12 Jul 1977: Marco Silva, Portuguese football manager Marco Alexandre Saraiva da Silva is a Portuguese football manager and former player who played as a right-back. He is the head coach of Primeira Liga club Benfica. Read more
12 Jul 1976: Dan Boyle, Canadian ice hockey player Daniel Denis Boyle is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played in the National Hockey League (NHL). Undrafted, Boyle played in the NHL for the Florida Panthers; Tampa Bay Lightning, with which he won the Stanley Cup in 2004; San Jose Sharks; and New York Rangers. Read more
12 Jul 1976: Anna Friel, English actress Anna Louise Friel is an English actress. She first achieved fame as Beth Jordache in the British soap opera Brookside (1993–1995), later coming to wider prominence through her role as Charlotte "Chuck" Charles on Pushing Daisies (2007–2009), for which she received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. In 2017, she won the International Emmy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the title character in the detective drama series Marcella (2016–2021). Her other accolades include a Drama Desk Award, an honorary degree, and a BAFTA nomination. Read more
12 Jul 1976: Tracie Spencer, American singer-songwriter and actress Tracie Monique Spencer is an American singer-songwriter. Spencer first came to attention in 1987, when the then 11-year-old won the junior vocalist competition on the television show Star Search. Spencer soon signed a contract with Capitol Records, at the time the youngest female artist to do so. She went on to gain attention for her R&B and pop singles "Symptoms of True Love" (1988), "This House" (1990), "Tender Kisses" (1991) and "It's All About You " (1999). Read more
12 Jul 1975: Phil Lord, American filmmaker and actor Philip Anderson Lord and Christopher Robert Miller are an American filmmaking and acting duo. Their films are known for subversion of genre and detailed visual sensation, spanning various styles of live-action and animation. They are known for co-creating the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Lego Movie and the Spider-Verse film franchises. Read more
12 Jul 1974: Sharon den Adel, Dutch singer-songwriter Sharon Janny den Adel is a Dutch singer and songwriter who is the lead vocalist of the symphonic metal band Within Temptation. She has been performing since age 14, and co-founded Within Temptation with partner Robert Westerholt in 1996. She was also elected to be the Dutch chairperson of the jury for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. Read more
12 Jul 1974: Stelios Giannakopoulos, Greek footballer and manager Stylianos Giannakopoulos, known mononymously as Stelios due to his long surname, is a Greek football manager and former player. During his playing career, Stelios was a winger or attacking midfielder and a well-known figure in Greek football, especially during his tenure at Bolton Wanderers and at UEFA Euro 2004, where Greece won. Read more
12 Jul 1974: Gregory Shane Helms, American professional wrestler Gregory Shane Helms is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE under a legends contract, and works as a producer for WWE programming. In WWE, Helms has wrestled as The Hurricane, Gregory Helms, and Hurricane Helms. He is also known for his time with World Championship Wrestling (WCW), where he wrestled as "Sugar" Shane Helms. Read more
12 Jul 1973: Christian Vieri, Italian footballer Christian "Bobo" Vieri is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a centre forward. Having been born in Italy, Vieri moved with his family to Australia as a child, before returning to Italy to pursue his professional career at a young age. He then spent the bulk of his career playing in the Serie A. In March 2004, he was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pelé as a part of FIFA's centenary celebrations. Read more
12 Jul 1972: Jake Wood, English actor Jake Dylan Wood is a British actor and podcaster from Westminster, known for his role as Max Branning in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. He has also made guest appearances in series including Only Fools and Horses and Red Dwarf. In 2014, Wood competed on BBC's Strictly Come Dancing alongside professional dancer Janette Manrara. In the United States, he is known as the voice of the GEICO gecko in a series of television adverts for the American insurance company GEICO. In 2018, he began co-hosting Pound for Pound, a boxing podcast with Spencer Oliver. Read more
12 Jul 1971: Andriy Kovalenco, Ukrainian-Spanish rugby player Andriy Kovalenco is a Ukrainian-born Spanish rugby union player. He plays as a fly-half. Read more
12 Jul 1971: Loni Love, American comedian, actress, and talk show host Loni Love is an American comedian, television host, actress, author, and former electrical engineer. While working as an electrical engineer in the early 2000s, she switched to music engineering, until later launching a career in stand-up comedy. She was the runner-up on Star Search 2003 and was named among the "Top 10 Comics to Watch" in both Variety and Comedy Central in 2009. She was one of the co-hosts of the syndicated daytime talk show The Real, which ran from July 15, 2013, and ended on June 3, 2022. Read more
12 Jul 1971: Kristi Yamaguchi, American figure skater Kristine Tsuya Yamaguchi is an American former competitive figure skater, author and philanthropist. A former competitor in women's singles, Yamaguchi is the 1992 Olympic champion, a two-time World champion, and the 1992 U.S. champion. In 1992, she became the first Asian American to win a gold medal in a Winter Olympic competition. As a pairs skater with Rudy Galindo, she is the 1988 World Junior champion and a two-time national champion. Read more
12 Jul 1970: Aure Atika, Portuguese-French actress, director, and screenwriter Aure Atika is a French actress, writer, and director. Read more
12 Jul 1970: Lee Byung-hun, South Korean actor, singer, and dancer Lee Byung-hun is a South Korean actor. He has received acclaim for his work in a wide range of genres, most notably Joint Security Area (2000); A Bittersweet Life (2005); The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008); I Saw the Devil (2010); Masquerade (2012); and the television series All In (2003), Iris (2009), Mr. Sunshine (2018), and Our Blues (2022). His other notable South Korean films include Inside Men (2015), Master (2016), Ashfall (2019), The Man Standing Next (2020), and No Other Choice (2025), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe. Read more
12 Jul 1970: Susan Tyler Witten, American politician Susan Tyler Witten is an American politician who has served as a Republican member of the Kentucky House of Representatives since January 2023. She represents Kentucky's 31st House district which comprises part of Jefferson County. Read more
12 Jul 1969: Chantal Jouanno, French politician, French Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Chantal Jouanno is a French politician who served as Minister of Sports in the government of Prime Minister François Fillon from 14 November 2010 and 26 September 2011, succeeding to Roselyne Bachelot and being replaced by David Douillet, before taking office as senator on 1 October 2011. She was a close ally of president Sarkozy and former president of ADEME. Read more
12 Jul 1969: Alan Mullally, English cricketer and sportscaster Alan Mullally is an English former first-class cricketer, who played Tests and ODIs. Mullally grew up in Western Australia, and played for the Australian Under-19 side against their West Indian counterparts in 1987/88. Read more
12 Jul 1969: Anne-Sophie Pic, French chef Anne-Sophie Pic is a French chef best known for regaining the third Michelin star for her restaurant Maison Pic, in southeast France. She is the fourth female chef to win three Michelin stars, and was named the Best Female Chef by The World's 50 Best Restaurants in 2011. She currently holds 10 Michelin stars, the most for any female chef. Read more
12 Jul 1969: Jesse Pintado, Mexican-American guitarist (died 2006) Jesus "Jesse" Ernesto Pintado Andrade was a Mexican-American guitarist best known as a guitarist for the British grindcore band Napalm Death. Read more
12 Jul 1968: Catherine Plewinski, French swimmer Catherine Plewinski is a former freestyle and butterfly swimmer from France, who won two bronze medals at the Summer Olympics. She first did so in Seoul at the 1988 Summer Olympics in the 100 m freestyle. Four years later she captured the bronze in the 100 m butterfly at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. Read more
12 Jul 1967: Richard Herring, English comedian and screenwriter Richard Keith Herring is an English stand-up comedian and writer whose early work includes the comedy double act Lee and Herring. He is described by The British Theatre Guide as "one of the leading hidden masters of modern British comedy". Read more
12 Jul 1967: Mac McCaughan, American singer and guitarist Ralph Lee "Mac" McCaughan is an American musician and record label owner, based in North Carolina. His main musical projects have been Superchunk since 1989, and Portastatic since the early 1990s. In 1989 he founded the independent record label Merge Records with Superchunk bandmate Laura Ballance. Read more
12 Jul 1967: John Petrucci, American singer-songwriter and guitarist John Peter Petrucci is an American guitarist and a founding member of the progressive metal band Dream Theater. He produced all of Dream Theater's albums from Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (1999), often co-producing alongside drummer Mike Portnoy before Portnoy's departure between 2010 and 2023, and has been the sole producer since A Dramatic Turn of Events (2011). Petrucci has also released two solo albums: Suspended Animation (2005) and Terminal Velocity (2020). Read more
12 Jul 1967: Bruny Surin, Canadian sprinter Bruny Surin is a Canadian former track and field athlete, who was the winner of a gold medal in the 4 × 100 metres relay at the 1996 Summer Olympics. In 2008 he was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame as part of the 1996 Summer Olympics 4 × 100 relay team. In the 100 metres, he has broken the 10-second barrier multiple times and holds a personal record of 9.84 seconds. Read more
12 Jul 1966: Jeff Bucknum, American race car driver Jeff Bucknum is an American race car driver. Jeff is the son of Formula One and Championship Car racer Ronnie Bucknum. Read more
12 Jul 1966: Annabel Croft, English tennis player and sportscaster Annabel Nicola Croft is a British former professional tennis player and current radio and television presenter. As a tennis player, she won the WTA Tour event Virginia Slims of San Diego and represented Great Britain in the Fed Cup and the Wightman Cup. Read more
12 Jul 1966: Taiji, Japanese bass player and songwriter (died 2011) Taiji Sawada , also known mononymously as Taiji, was a Japanese musician and songwriter. He is best known as bassist of the rock band X from 1986 to 1992. The band rose to prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s, credited as founders of the Japanese visual kei movement. After leaving X in January 1992, Taiji went on to work with many other recording acts, including Loudness and D.T.R. Read more
12 Jul 1965: Sanjay Manjrekar, Indian cricketer and sportscaster Sanjay Vijay Manjrekar is an Indian cricket commentator and former player. He played international cricket for India from 1987 until 1996 as a right-handed middle order batsman. He was a part of the Indian squads which won the 1990–91 Asia Cup and 1995 Asia Cup. Read more
12 Jul 1965: Robin Wilson, American singer and guitarist Robin Wilson is an American musician most notable for his work as the lead vocalist of the alternative rock band Gin Blossoms. Read more
12 Jul 1964: Gaby Roslin, English television host and actress Gaby Roslin is an English television and radio presenter who rose to fame co-presenting Motormouth on ITV between 1989 and 1992, and The Big Breakfast on Channel 4 between 1992 and 1996. Roslin also presented the Children in Need charity telethons on the BBC between 1995 and 2004. Read more
12 Jul 1962: Julio César Chávez, Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez González, also known as Julio César Chávez Sr., is a Mexican former professional boxer who competed from 1980 to 2005. A multiple-time world champion in three weight divisions, Chávez was listed by The Ring magazine as the world's best boxer, pound for pound, from 1990 to 1993. During his career he held the WBC super featherweight title from 1984 to 1987, the WBA and WBC lightweight titles between 1987 and 1989, the WBC light welterweight title twice between 1989 and 1996, and the IBF light welterweight title from 1990 to 1991. He also held the Ring magazine and lineal lightweight titles from 1988 to 1989, and the lineal light welterweight title twice between 1990 and 1996. Chávez was named Fighter of the Year for 1987 and 1990 by the Boxing Writers Association of America and The Ring respectively. Read more
12 Jul 1962: Luc De Vos, Belgian singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2014) Luc De Vos was a Belgian musician and writer, best known as the lead singer of the Dutch-language alternative rock formation Gorki and as a guest in multiple television shows. He also voiced VW bus in the Flemish version of the Disney movie Cars. He died of acute organ failure on the 29 November 2014 in his working apartment in Ghent. Read more
12 Jul 1962: Dan Murphy, American musician Daniel David Murphy is an American musician best known as a co-founder lead guitarist for the alternative rock band, Soul Asylum from 1981 to 2012. He is also a member of Golden Smog. Read more
12 Jul 1962: Joanna Shields, American-English businesswoman Joanna Shields, Baroness Shields, is an American–British technology executive and member of the House of Lords. She was made a Life Peer in 2014 and served as the United Kingdom’s first Minister for Internet Safety and Security under Prime Ministers David Cameron and Theresa May. Read more
12 Jul 1962: Dean Wilkins, English footballer and manager Dean Mark Wilkins is an English football coach and former professional player. He is currently player transition coach at EFL Championship club Southampton. Read more
12 Jul 1961: Heikko Glöde, German footballer and manager Heikko Glöde is a retired German football manager and former player. Read more
12 Jul 1961: Shiva Rajkumar, Indian actor, singer, and producer Shiva Rajkumar is an Indian actor, film producer and television presenter who predominantly works in Kannada cinema. In a career spanning over three decades, he has worked in over 125 films in Kannada and has received several awards, including four Karnataka State Film Awards, four Filmfare Awards South and six South Indian International Movie Awards. Read more
12 Jul 1959: David Brown, Australian meteorologist David Brown is a former Australian meteorologist and TV weather presenter. Read more
12 Jul 1959: Tupou VI, King of Tonga Tupou VI is King of Tonga since 2012, having previously served as Prime Minister of Tonga from 2000 to 2006 during the reign of his father, Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV. He became king after his elder brother, George Tupou V, died without any legitimate issue. Read more
12 Jul 1959: Karl J. Friston, English psychiatrist and neuroscientist Karl John Friston is a British neuroscientist and theoretician at University College London. He is an authority on brain imaging and theoretical neuroscience, especially the use of physics-inspired statistical methods to model neuroimaging data and other random dynamical systems.
Friston is a key architect of the free energy principle and active inference. In imaging neuroscience he is best known for statistical parametric mapping and dynamic causal modelling. Friston also acts as a scientific advisor to numerous groups in industry. Read more
12 Jul 1959: Charlie Murphy, American actor and comedian (died 2017) Charles Quinton Murphy was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He was best known as a writer and cast member of the Comedy Central sketch-comedy series Chappelle's Show, and a co-star of the sitcom Black Jesus. He was the older brother of actor and comedian Eddie Murphy. Read more
12 Jul 1958: J. D. Hayworth, American politician and radio host John David Hayworth Jr. is an American television host and former politician. He served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 2007 from Arizona's 5th Congressional District. He later hosted Newsmax Prime, a television news/talk prime time show that aired weekdays at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time and 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Newsmax TV. Previously, he hosted a conservative talk radio program on KFYI in Phoenix until January 2010, when he resigned due to his run for the U.S. Senate. Read more
12 Jul 1958: Tonya Lee Williams, English-Canadian actress and producer Tonya Williams is a Canadian actress, producer, and activist. Sometimes credited as Tonya Lee Williams, she is best known for her role as Dr. Olivia Barber Winters on the American daytime drama The Young and the Restless from 1990 to 2005 and 2007 to 2012. She is the founder and executive director of Reelworld Film Festival. Read more
12 Jul 1957: Catherine Connolly, Irish politician, 10th President of Ireland Catherine Martina Ann Connolly is an Irish politician serving as the president of Ireland since 11 November 2025. She had been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Galway West constituency from 2016 until her election as president in 2025. Read more
12 Jul 1957: Rick Husband, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (died 2003) Rick Douglas Husband was an American astronaut and fighter pilot. He traveled into space twice: as pilot of STS-96 and commander of STS-107. Husband and the rest of the crew of STS-107 were killed when Columbia disintegrated during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. He is also a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. Read more
12 Jul 1957: Dave Semenko, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster (died 2017) David John Semenko was a Canadian professional ice hockey player, coach, scout, and colour commentator. During his National Hockey League (NHL) career, Semenko played for the Edmonton Oilers, Hartford Whalers and Toronto Maple Leafs as an enforcer. During his tenure with Edmonton, he notably protected Wayne Gretzky as an "on-ice bodyguard" during Gretzky's early career. Semenko won two Stanley Cups with the Oilers in 1984 and 1985. He was also the last player to score a goal in the World Hockey Association (WHA) before it folded and merged with the NHL. Read more
12 Jul 1956: Mel Harris, American actress Mel Harris is an American actress best known for her role as Hope Murdoch Steadman in the ABC drama series Thirtysomething (1987–1991), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination in 1990. Read more
12 Jul 1956: Pate Mustajärvi, Finnish rock singer (died 2025) Pauli Antero "Pate" Mustajärvi was a Finnish rock singer. He was known as the vocalist, frontman and until his death in late 2025 the only original member of Popeda as well as a solo artist. In his birthplace of Tampere he was known as "Ikurin turbiini". Read more
12 Jul 1956: Sandi Patty, American singer and pianist Sandra Faye "Sandi" Patty is an American Christian music singer, known for her wide soprano vocal range and expressive flexibility. Read more
12 Jul 1956: Mario Soto, Dominican baseball player Mario Melvin Soto is a Dominican former pitcher, mostly as a starter, for the Cincinnati Reds of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1977 through 1988. He currently works in the Reds' front office. Read more
12 Jul 1955: Timothy Garton Ash, English historian and author Timothy Garton Ash is a British historian, author and commentator. He is Professor of European Studies emeritus at the University of Oxford and a Senior Fellow of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Most of his work has been concerned with the contemporary history of Europe, with a special focus on Central and Eastern Europe. In 1989, George Kennan described him as a 'historian of the present'. Read more
12 Jul 1955: Jimmy LaFave, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2017) Jimmy LaFave was an American singer-songwriter and folk musician. After moving to Stillwater, Oklahoma, LaFave became a supporter of Woody Guthrie. He later became an Advisory Board member and regular performer at the annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival. Read more
12 Jul 1954: Eric Adams, American singer-songwriter Louis Marullo, known professionally as Eric Adams, is an American singer who has been the frontman of the heavy metal band Manowar since its inception in 1980. Previously, he sang for the group Looks, which also included childhood friend and future Manowar bassist Joey DeMaio. His stage name is a combination of the names of his sons, Eric and Adam. Read more
12 Jul 1954: Robert Carl, American pianist and composer Robert Carl is an American composer who currently resides in Hartford, Connecticut. He was chair of the composition program at the Hartt School, University of Hartford. Read more
12 Jul 1954: Wolfgang Dremmler, German footballer and coach Wolfgang Dremmler is a German former footballer who played as a midfielder. Read more
12 Jul 1952: Voja Antonić, Serbian computer scientist and journalist, designed the Galaksija computer Vojislav "Voja" Antonić is a Serbian inventor, journalist, and writer. He is known for creating a build-it-yourself home computer Galaksija and originating a related "Build your own computer Galaksija" initiative with Dejan Ristanović. This initiative encouraged and enlightened thousands of computer enthusiasts during the 1980s in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Antonić has donated many of his personal creations to the public domain. He was also a magazine editor and contributed to a number of radio shows. Read more
12 Jul 1952: Irina Bokova, Bulgarian politician, Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Irina Georgieva Bokova is a Bulgarian politician and a former Director-General of UNESCO (2009–2017). During her political and diplomatic career in Bulgaria, she served, among others, two terms as a member of the National parliament, and deputy minister of foreign affairs and minister of foreign affairs ad interim under Prime Minister Zhan Videnov. She also served as Bulgaria's ambassador to France and to Monaco, and was Bulgaria's Permanent Delegate to UNESCO. Bokova was also the personal representative of Bulgaria's president to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (2005–2009). Read more
12 Jul 1952: Philip Taylor Kramer, American bass player (died 1995) Philip Taylor Kramer was an American bass guitar player for the rock group Iron Butterfly and associated groups between 1974 and 1980. He later became a computer engineering executive and inventor. He disappeared in February 1995 and was found dead in May 1999. Read more
12 Jul 1951: Joan Bauer, American author Joan Baehler Bauer is an American writer of young adult literature currently residing with her husband Evan Bauer in Brooklyn. Bauer was born in River Forest, Illinois. They are the parents of one daughter, Jean. Before becoming a famous author Joan spent years working for McGraw-Hill and the Chicago Tribune. She also did some work in advertising, marketing, and screenwriting. Read more
12 Jul 1951: Brian Grazer, American screenwriter and producer, founded Imagine Entertainment Brian Thomas Grazer is an American film and television producer. He founded Imagine Entertainment in 1985 with Ron Howard. The films they produced have grossed over $15 billion. Grazer was personally nominated for four Academy Awards for Splash (1984), Apollo 13 (1995), A Beautiful Mind (2001), and Frost/Nixon (2008). His films and television series have been nominated for 47 Academy Awards and 217 Emmy Awards. Read more
12 Jul 1951: Cheryl Ladd, American actress Cheryl Ladd is an American actress, singer, and author best known for her role as Kris Munroe in the ABC television series Charlie's Angels, whose cast she joined in its second season in 1977 to replace Farrah Fawcett-Majors. Ladd remained on the show until its cancellation in 1981. Her film roles include Purple Hearts (1984), Millennium (1989), Lisa (1990), Poison Ivy (1992), Permanent Midnight (1998), and Unforgettable (2017). Read more
12 Jul 1951: Piotr Pustelnik, Polish mountaineer Piotr Pustelnik is a Polish alpine and high-altitude climber. He is the 20th man to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders. He is also a doctor of chemistry and researcher at the Łódź University of Technology. Read more
12 Jul 1951: Jamey Sheridan, American actor James Patrick Sheridan is an American actor known for playing a wide range of roles in theater, film, and television. He is known for Randall Flagg in The Stand (1994), Captain James Deakins on Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001–2006), and Robert Queen on Arrow (2012–2019). Read more
12 Jul 1950: Eric Carr, American drummer and songwriter (died 1991) Paul Charles Caravello, better known as Eric Carr, was an American musician. He was the drummer for the rock band Kiss from 1980 until his death in 1991. Caravello was selected as the new Kiss drummer after Peter Criss departed. He created the stage name "Eric Carr" and designed his on-stage Fox persona. He remained a member of Kiss until his death from heart cancer in 1991. Read more
12 Jul 1950: Gilles Meloche, Canadian ice hockey player and coach Gilles Emile Meloche is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach, scout and former player. Meloche played as a goaltender in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Chicago Black Hawks, California Golden Seals, Cleveland Barons, Minnesota North Stars and Pittsburgh Penguins. He is currently a special assignment scout for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Until 2013 he was the team's longtime goaltending coach, during which time the team won three Stanley Cups. Meloche was born in Montreal, Quebec. Read more
12 Jul 1949: Simon Fox, English drummer (died 2024) Simon Andrew David Fox was an English rock drummer, who played in different rock bands during the 1970s and the 1980s, most notably the progressive rock group Be-Bop Deluxe. Read more
12 Jul 1949: Rick Hendrick, American businessman, founded Hendrick Motorsports Joseph Riddick "Rick" Hendrick III is an American businessman. He is best known as the owner of the NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsports. He is also a co-owner of JR Motorsports and founder of the Hendrick Automotive Group, the largest privately held dealership group in the United States. Read more
12 Jul 1948: Ben Burtt, American director, screenwriter, and sound designer Benjamin Burtt Jr. is an American sound designer, film director, film editor, screenwriter, and voice actor. As a sound designer, his credits include the Star Wars and Indiana Jones film series, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), WALL-E (2008), and Star Trek (2009). Read more
12 Jul 1948: Walter Egan, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Walter Egan is an American rock musician, best known for his 1978 gold status hit single "Magnet and Steel" from his second album release, Not Shy, produced by Egan, Lindsey Buckingham and Richard Dashut. The song reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 18 on the Easy Listening chart. In Canada it reached No. 9. Overseas, it peaked at No. 32 on the Australian Singles Chart, Kent Music Report. Read more
12 Jul 1948: Elias Khoury, Lebanese intellectual, playwright and novelist (died 2024) Elias Khoury was a Lebanese novelist and advocate of the Palestinian cause. His novels and literary criticism have been translated into several languages. In 2000, he won the Prize of Palestine for his book Gate of the Sun, and he won the Al Owais Award for fiction writing in 2007. Khoury also wrote three plays and two screenplays. Read more
12 Jul 1948: Richard Simmons, American fitness trainer and actor (died 2024) Milton Teagle "Richard" Simmons was an American fitness instructor and television personality. He was a promoter of weight-loss programs, most prominently through his television show, The Richard Simmons Show and later the Sweatin' to the Oldies line of aerobics videos. Read more
12 Jul 1947: Gareth Edwards, Welsh rugby player and sportscaster Sir Gareth Owen Edwards is a Welsh former rugby union player who played scrum-half and has been described by the BBC as "arguably the greatest player ever to don a Welsh jersey". Read more
12 Jul 1947: Carl Lundgren, American artist and illustrator Carl Lundgren is an American artist and illustrator, primarily known for his 1960s-era rock posters and fantasy art. Read more
12 Jul 1947: Richard C. McCarty, American psychologist and academic Richard C. McCarty is a professor of psychology and the former provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to serving as provost, he was dean of Vanderbilt's College of Arts and Science. Read more
12 Jul 1946: Sian Barbara Allen, American television actress (died 2025) Sian Barbara Allen was an American actress who mainly appeared on television throughout the 1970s. A native of Reading, Pennsylvania, Allen studied at the Pasadena Playhouse before appearing in her first screen role on the series O'Hara, U.S. Treasury in 1971. She went on to appear in numerous television series in the ensuing years, including recurring appearances on The Waltons, Gunsmoke, and Ironside. Read more
12 Jul 1945: Butch Hancock, American country-folk singer-songwriter and musician Butch Hancock is an American country recording artist and songwriter. He is a member of The Flatlanders along with Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, but he has principally performed solo. Read more
12 Jul 1944: Simon Blackburn, English philosopher and academic Simon Walter Blackburn is an English philosopher known for his work in metaethics, where he defends quasi-realism, and in the philosophy of language. More recently, he has gained a large general audience from his efforts to popularise philosophy. He has appeared in multiple episodes of the documentary series Closer to Truth. During his long career, he has taught at Oxford University, Cambridge University, and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Read more
12 Jul 1944: Delia Ephron, American author, playwright, and screenwriter Delia Ephron is an American writer and film producer. Read more
12 Jul 1943: Christine McVie, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player (died 2022) Christine Anne McVie was an English musician. She was the keyboardist and one of the vocalists and songwriters of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. Read more
12 Jul 1943: Paul Silas, American basketball player and coach (died 2022) Paul Theron Silas was an American professional basketball player and head coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA). As a player, he was a two-time NBA All-Star and earned five selections to the NBA All-Defensive Team, including twice on the first team. He won three NBA championships: two with the Boston Celtics and one with the Seattle SuperSonics. Silas is the leader in most rebounds per game with 12.1 in Suns franchise history. Read more
12 Jul 1942: Swamp Dogg, American R&B singer-songwriter and musician Jerry Williams Jr., generally credited under the pseudonym Swamp Dogg after 1970, is an American country soul and R&B singer, musician, songwriter and record producer. Williams has been described as "one of the great cult figures of 20th century American music." Read more
12 Jul 1942: Roy Palmer, English cricketer and umpire Roy Palmer is a former cricketer who had a relatively short first-class career as a player with Somerset from 1965 to 1970 and a much longer career as a first-class umpire. He also officiated in two Test matches in 1992 and 1993 and in eight One Day International games between 1983 and 1995. Read more
12 Jul 1942: Billy Smith, Australian rugby league footballer and coach William John Smith is an Australian former rugby league footballer. He was the leading halfback in Australian rugby league during the late 1960s, and a keystone of the latter part of the St. George Dragons' eleven consecutive premiership victories between 1956 and 1966. He represented Australia in eighteen Tests and eight World Cup games between 1964 and 1970. He captained Australia in a World Cup game against Great Britain in 1970. Read more
12 Jul 1942: Steve Young, American country singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2016) Steve Young was an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist, known for his song "Seven Bridges Road". He was a pioneer of the country rock, Americana, and alternative country sounds, and he was also a vital force behind the outlaw movement. Read more
12 Jul 1941: Benny Parsons, American race car driver and sportscaster (died 2007) Benjamin Stewart Parsons was an American NASCAR driver, and later an announcer/analyst/pit reporter on SETN, TBS, ABC, ESPN, NBC, and TNT. He became famous as the 1973 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion, and was a 2017 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee. He was the older brother of former NASCAR driver, car owner, and broadcaster Phil Parsons of Phil Parsons Racing. Read more
12 Jul 1939: Phillip Adams, Australian journalist and producer Phillip Andrew Hedley Adams is an Australian humanist, social commentator, former broadcaster, public intellectual, and farmer. He hosted Late Night Live, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) program on Radio National from 1991 to 2024. Read more
12 Jul 1939: Bill Cooper, American football player Bill Cooper, nicknamed "Cannonball", is an American former professional football player who was a fullback and linebacker for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Muskingum Fighting Muskies and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000. Read more
12 Jul 1938: Ron Fairly, American baseball player and sportscaster (died 2019) Ronald Ray Fairly was an American professional baseball player and television sports presenter. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman and right fielder from 1958 to 1978, most prominently as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers, with whom he was a member of three World Series winning teams. Fairly was also a two-time All-Star. Read more
12 Jul 1938: Wieger Mensonides, Dutch swimmer Wieger Emile Mensonides is a former Dutch swimmer, who won the bronze medal in the 200 m breaststroke at the 1960 Summer Olympics. For forty years he was the only Dutch male swimmer to have won an Olympic medal. Pieter van den Hoogenband followed in his footsteps at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Read more
12 Jul 1938: Eiko Ishioka, Japanese art director and graphic designer (died 2012) Eiko Ishioka was a Japanese art director, costume designer, and graphic designer known for her work in stage, screen, advertising, and print media. Read more
12 Jul 1937: Bill Cosby, American actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter William Henry Cosby Jr. is an American former comedian, actor, and media personality. Often deemed a trailblazer for African Americans in the entertainment industry, Cosby was well known in the United States for his stand-up comedy routines and television career before achieving global recognition for his portrayal of Cliff Huxtable in the sitcom The Cosby Show (1984–1992). He was also prolific in advertising for decades and was the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees throughout his career, many of which were revoked after dozens of allegations of sexual assault were made against him, starting in 2014 and culminating in a 2018 conviction for aggravated indecent assault. Read more
12 Jul 1937: Mickey Edwards, American lawyer and politician Marvin Henry "Mickey" Edwards is an American politician who was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, serving Oklahoma's 5th congressional district from 1977 to 1993. Read more
12 Jul 1937: Lionel Jospin, French civil servant and politician, 165th Prime Minister of France (died 2026) Lionel Robert Jospin was a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002. Read more
12 Jul 1937: Robert McFarlane, American colonel and diplomat, 13th United States National Security Advisor (died 2022) Robert Carl "Bud" McFarlane was an American Marine Corps officer who served as National Security Advisor to President Ronald Reagan from 1983 to 1985. Within the Reagan administration, McFarlane was a leading architect of the Strategic Defense Initiative, a project intended to defend the US from Soviet ballistic missile attacks. He resigned as National Security Adviser in late 1985 because of disagreements with other administration figures but remained involved in negotiations with Iran and with Hezbollah. Read more
12 Jul 1937: Guy Woolfenden, English composer and conductor (died 2016) Guy Anthony Woolfenden was an English composer and conductor. He was head of music at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon for 37 years, making music an integral part of over 150 productions there. He completed scores for the full canon of Shakespeare plays. Read more
12 Jul 1936: Jan Němec, Czech director and screenwriter (died 2016) Jan Němec was a Czech filmmaker whose most important work dates from the 1960s. Film historian Peter Hames has described him as the "enfant terrible of the Czech New Wave." Read more
12 Jul 1936: Frank Ryan, American football player and mathematician (died 2024) Francis Beall Ryan was an American professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for the Los Angeles Rams (1958–1961), Cleveland Browns (1962–1968), and Washington Redskins (1969–1970). He played college football for the Rice Owls. A three-time Pro Bowl selection with Cleveland, Ryan led the Browns to their most recent National Football League title in 1964. He was also a mathematician, serving as a faculty member at Case Western Reserve University from 1967 to 1974. Read more
12 Jul 1935: Satoshi Ōmura, Japanese biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate Satoshi Ōmura is a Japanese biochemist. He is known for the discovery and development of hundreds of pharmaceuticals originally occurring in microorganisms. In 2015 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Tu Youyou and with William C. Campbell for their role in the discovery of the world's first endectocide, ivermectin, a safe and highly effective microfilaricide. It is believed that the large molecular size of ivermectin prevents it from crossing the blood/aqueous humour barrier, and renders the drug an important treatment of helminthically-derived blindness. Read more
12 Jul 1934: Van Cliburn, American pianist and composer (died 2013) Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. was an American pianist. At the age of 23, Cliburn achieved worldwide recognition when in 1958 he won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Read more
12 Jul 1933: Victor Poor, American engineer, developed the Datapoint 2200 (died 2012) Victor "Vic" Poor was an American engineer and computer pioneer. At Computer Terminal Corporation, he co-created the architecture that was ultimately implemented in the first successful computer microprocessor, the Intel 8008. Subsequently, Computer Terminal Corporation created the first personal computer, the Datapoint 2200 programmable terminal. Read more
12 Jul 1933: Donald E. Westlake, American author and screenwriter (died 2008) Donald Edwin Westlake was an American writer with more than one hundred novels and non-fiction books to his credit. He specialized in crime fiction, especially comic capers, with an occasional foray into science fiction and other genres. Westlake created two professional criminal characters who each starred in a long-running series: the relentless, hardboiled Parker, and John Dortmunder, who featured in a more humorous series. Read more
12 Jul 1932: Monte Hellman, American director and producer (died 2021) Monte Hellman was an American film director, producer, writer, and editor. Hellman began his career as an editor's apprentice at ABC TV, and made his directorial debut with the horror film Beast from Haunted Cave (1959), produced by Gene Corman, Roger Corman's brother. Read more
12 Jul 1932: Otis Davis, American sprinter (died 2024) Otis Crandall Davis was an American athlete, winner of two gold medals for record-breaking performances in the 400 m and 4 × 400 m relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics. He set a new world record of 44.9 seconds in the 400 m and became the first person to break the 45-second barrier. Read more
12 Jul 1931: Eric Ives, English historian and academic (died 2012) Eric William Ives was a British historian who was an expert on the Tudor period, and a university administrator. He was emeritus Professor of English History at the University of Birmingham. Read more
12 Jul 1931: Geeto Mongol, Canadian-American wrestler and trainer (died 2013) Newton Tattrie was a Canadian professional wrestler better known by his ring name, Geeto Mongol. Read more
12 Jul 1931: Giuseppe Malandrino, Italian Roman Catholic prelate (died 2025) Giuseppe Malandrino was an Italian Roman Catholic prelate. Read more
12 Jul 1930: Gordon Pinsent, Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2023) Gordon Edward Pinsent was a Canadian actor, writer, director, and singer. He was known for his roles in numerous productions, including Away from Her, The Rowdyman, John and the Missus, A Gift to Last, Due South, The Red Green Show, and Quentin Durgens, M.P. He was the voice of King Babar in the Babar the Elephant television and film productions from 1989 to 2015. Read more
12 Jul 1930: Guy Ligier, French race car driver and team owner (died 2015) Guy Camille Ligier was a French racing driver and team owner. He maintained many varied and successful careers over the course of his life, including rugby player, butcher, racing driver and Formula One team owner. Read more
12 Jul 1928: Alastair Burnet, English journalist (died 2012) Sir James William Alexander Burnet, known as Alastair Burnet, was a British journalist and broadcaster, who had a career working in news and current affairs programmes, including a long career with Independent Television News (ITN) as chief presenter of the flagship News at Ten; Sir Robin Day described Burnet as "the booster rocket that put ITN into orbit". Read more
12 Jul 1928: Elias James Corey, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate Elias James Corey is an American organic chemist. In 1990, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his development of the theory and methodology of organic synthesis", specifically retrosynthetic analysis. Read more
12 Jul 1928: Imero Fiorentino, American lighting designer (died 2013) Imero (Immie) Fiorentino was an American lighting designer, considered one of the most respected pioneers and leaders in the American entertainment industry. Beginning his career as a lighting designer in the Golden Age of Television, he designed productions for such celebrated series as Omnibus, U.S. Steel Hour, Pulitzer Prize Playhouse and Kraft Television Theatre. Fiorentino's expertise was often called upon by industry professionals throughout the world to consult on the planning and development of major productions, exhibits, museums and architectural projects; from the Republican National Convention and Democratic National Convention and numerous United States presidential election debates, major concert tours and television specials to the environmental lighting for Epcot’s World Showcase at Walt Disney World. His consulting work on major corporate events with clients included: Anheuser-Busch, Michelin, Electrolux, American Express and Xerox. Read more
12 Jul 1927: Françoys Bernier, Canadian pianist, conductor, and educator (died 1993) Françoys Joseph Arthur Maurice Bernier was a Canadian pianist, conductor, radio producer, arts administrator, and music educator. He served as the music director of the Montreal Festivals from 1956 to 1960 and was an active conductor and a producer for CBC Radio during the 1950s and early 1960s. He was the General Director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec from 1960 to 1966 and then the orchestra's Music Director from 1966 to 1968. He was also active as a teacher of conducting at a number of universities, notably serving as the first director of the Music Department at the University of Ottawa. Read more
12 Jul 1927: Conte Candoli, American trumpet player (died 2001) Secondo "Conte" Candoli was an American jazz trumpeter based on the West Coast. He played in the big bands of Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman, and Dizzy Gillespie, and in Doc Severinsen's NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He played with Gerry Mulligan, and on Frank Sinatra's TV specials. He also recorded with Supersax, a Charlie Parker tribute band that consisted of a saxophone quintet, the rhythm section, and either a trumpet or trombone. Read more
12 Jul 1927: Jack Harshman, American baseball player (died 2013) John Elvin Harshman was an American Major League Baseball pitcher with the New York Giants, Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, and Cleveland Indians between 1948 and 1960. He batted and threw left-handed. Read more
12 Jul 1927: Harley Hotchkiss, Canadian businessman (died 2011) Harley Norman Hotchkiss was a Canadian business and community leader who was best known for his contributions to health and sports development in Canada. He was part of the consortium that brought the Atlanta Flames of the National Hockey League (NHL) to Calgary in 1980, and remained a part-owner of the Calgary Flames until shortly before his death. For much of that time, he was the team's governor, and hence the public face of the ownership group. He served as chairman of the board of the NHL between 1995 and 2007, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 2006. Read more
12 Jul 1925: Albert Lance, Australian-French tenor (died 2013) Albert Lance was an Australian tenor, also holding French citizenship. He was Australia's principal tenor during the 1950s and later enjoyed a highly successful career in France. Read more
12 Jul 1925: Roger Smith, American businessman (died 2007) Roger Bonham Smith was the chairman and CEO of General Motors Corporation from 1981 to 1990, and is widely known as the main subject of Michael Moore's 1989 documentary film Roger & Me. Read more
12 Jul 1924: Faidon Matthaiou, Greek basketball player and coach (died 2011) Faidon Matthaiou, was a Greek professional basketball player and coach. He was a center at the start of his career, and at the end of his career, he also played as a point guard. He wore the number 1 jersey throughout his career. He represented Greece twice at the Summer Olympic Games. As a rower at the 1948 Summer Olympics, and as a basketball player at the 1952 Summer Olympics. Read more
12 Jul 1924: Michel d'Ornano, French politician (died 1991) Michel d'Ornano was a French politician. Read more
12 Jul 1923: James E. Gunn, American science fiction author (died 2020) James Edwin Gunn was an American science fiction writer, editor, scholar, and anthologist. His work as an editor of anthologies includes the six-volume Road to Science Fiction series. He won the Hugo Award for "Best Related Work" in 1983 for a book about author Isaac Asimov, and he won or was nominated for several other awards for his non-fiction works in the field of science fiction studies. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America made him its 24th Grand Master in 2007, and he was inducted by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2015. His novel The Immortals was adapted into a 1970–71 TV series starring Christopher George. Read more
12 Jul 1922: Mark Hatfield, American soldier and politician, 29th Governor of Oregon (died 2011) Mark Odom Hatfield was an American politician and educator from the state of Oregon. A moderate Republican, he served eight years as the 29th governor of Oregon, followed by 30 years as one of its United States senators, including time as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. A native Oregonian, he served in the United States Navy in the Pacific Theater during World War II after graduating from Willamette University. After the war he earned a graduate degree from Stanford University before returning to Oregon and Willamette as a professor. Read more
12 Jul 1920: Pierre Berton, Canadian journalist and author (died 2004) Pierre Francis de Marigny Berton was a Canadian historian, writer, journalist and broadcaster. Berton wrote 50 best-selling books, mainly about Canadiana, Canadian history and popular culture. He also wrote critiques of mainstream religion, anthologies, children's books and historical works for youth. He was a reporter and war correspondent, an editor at Maclean's Magazine and The Toronto Star and, for 39 years, a panelist on Front Page Challenge. He was a founder of the Writers' Trust of Canada, and won many honours and awards. Read more
12 Jul 1920: Bob Fillion, Canadian ice hockey player and manager (died 2015) Joseph Louis Robert Edgar Fillion was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played seven seasons for the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1943 and 1950. He was a member of two Stanley Cup-winning teams during his career with Montreal; in 1944 and 1946. He also spent time with the Buffalo Bisons of the AHL and the Sherbrooke Saints of the Quebec Senior Hockey League (QSHL). He died on August 13, 2015. At the time of his death, Fillion was the last surviving member of the Canadiens' 1944 Stanley Cup team. Read more
12 Jul 1920: Paul Gonsalves, American saxophonist (died 1974) Paul Gonsalves was an American jazz tenor saxophonist best known for his association with Duke Ellington. At the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival, Gonsalves played a 27-chorus solo in the middle of Ellington's "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue", a performance credited with revitalizing Ellington's waning career in the 1950s. Read more
12 Jul 1920: Randolph Quirk, Manx linguist and academic (died 2017) Charles Randolph Quirk, Baron Quirk was a British linguist and politician. He was the Quain Professor of English language and literature at University College London from 1968 to 1981. He sat as a crossbencher in the House of Lords. Read more
12 Jul 1920: Beah Richards, American actress (died 2000) Beulah Elizabeth Richardson, known professionally as Beah Richards and Bea Richards, was an American actress of stage, screen, and television. She was also a poet, playwright, author and activist. Read more
12 Jul 1917: Luigi Gorrini, Italian soldier and pilot (died 2014) Luigi Gorrini, MOVM, was an Italian World War II fighter pilot in the Regia Aeronautica and in the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana. During the conflict, he flew with the Corpo Aereo Italiano during the Battle of Britain, fought over Libya and Tunisia, and was involved in the defence of the Italian mainland. Gorrini is believed to have shot down 19 Allied planes, and damaged another 9, of several types: Bristol Beaufighter, Bristol Blenheim, Curtiss P-40, Spitfire, P-38 Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt, B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator. He piloted the biplane Fiat C.R.42 and monoplanes Macchi C.202 and C.205 Veltro. With the Veltro he shot down 14 Allied planes and damaged six more. At the time of his death, he was the only surviving fighter pilot awarded the Medaglia d'Oro al Valor Militare. Read more
12 Jul 1917: Satyendra Narayan Sinha, Indian statesman (died 2006) Satyendra Narayan Sinha was an Indian politician and statesman, participant in the Indian independence movement, a leading light of Jaya Prakash Narayan's ‘complete revolution’ movement during the Emergency and a former Chief Minister of Bihar. Affectionately called Chhote Saheb, he was also a seven-time Member of Parliament from the Aurangabad constituency, a three-term Member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly, and a Member of the Bihar Legislative Council once. Regarded to be one of India's most influential regional people of the time, his reputation was synonymous with being a strict disciplinarian and tough taskmaster. Read more
12 Jul 1917: Andrew Wyeth, American artist (died 2009) Andrew Newell Wyeth was an American visual artist and one of the best-known American artists of the middle 20th century. Though he considered himself to be an "abstractionist," Wyeth was primarily a realist painter who worked in a regionalist style, often painting the land and people of his hometown in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and his summer home in Cushing, Maine. Read more
12 Jul 1916: Lyudmila Pavlichenko, Ukrainian-Russian soldier and sniper (died 1974) Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko was a Soviet sniper in the Red Army during World War II. She is the deadliest female sniper, one of the deadliest snipers in history, with 309 confirmed kills. She served in the Red Army during the siege of Odessa and the siege of Sevastopol, during the early stages of the fighting on the Eastern Front. Read more
12 Jul 1914: Mohammad Moin, Iranian linguist and lexicographer (died 1971) Mohammad Moin was an Iranian scholar of Persian literature and Iranian studies. Read more
12 Jul 1913: Willis Lamb, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2008) Willis Eugene Lamb Jr. was an American physicist who was able to precisely determine a surprising shift in electron energies in a hydrogen atom, known as the Lamb shift. For this work, Lamb shared the 1955 Nobel Prize in Physics with Polykarp Kusch. He was a professor at the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences. Read more
12 Jul 1911: Evald Mikson, Estonian footballer (died 1993) Evald Mikson was an Estonian athlete and police officer. A multi-sport athlete, he played basketball and football and was a goalkeeper for the Estonia national football team, winning seven caps between 1934 and 1938. During the 1941–1944 Nazi German occupation of Estonia, he has been accused of being a collaborator with Germany during his service in the police force of Estonian Self-Administration and of committing war crimes against Jews. He later emigrated to Iceland, where he became heavily involved in sports and is credited as one of the pioneers in introducing basketball to the nation. Read more
12 Jul 1909: Joe DeRita, American actor, 'Curly' of the Three Stooges (died 1993) Joseph Wardell, known professionally as Joe DeRita, was an American actor and comedian, who is best known for his stint as a member of The Three Stooges in the persona of Curly Joe DeRita. Read more
12 Jul 1909: Motoichi Kumagai, Japanese photographer and illustrator (died 2010) Motoichi Kumagai was a Japanese photographer and illustrator of books for children, known for his portrayal of rural and school life. He has illustrated numerous children's books, books containing his photography, and other works. His works have won prizes, beginning with a photography prize from the Mainichi Shimbun in 1955. Read more
12 Jul 1909: Fritz Leonhardt, German engineer, designed Fernsehturm Stuttgart (died 1999) Fritz Leonhardt was a German structural engineer who made major contributions to 20th-century bridge engineering, especially in the development of cable-stayed bridges. His book Bridges: Aesthetics and Design is well known throughout the bridge engineering community. Read more
12 Jul 1909: Herbert Zim, American naturalist, author, and educator (died 1994) Herbert Spencer Zim was an American naturalist, author, editor and educator best known as the founder (1945) and editor-in-chief of the Golden Guides series of nature books. Read more
12 Jul 1908: Milton Berle, American comedian and actor (died 2002) Milton Berle was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over eight decades, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and television. As the host of NBC's Texaco Star Theatre (1948–1953), he was the first major American television star and was known to millions of viewers as "Uncle Miltie" and "Mr. Television" during the first Golden Age of Television. He was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in both radio and TV. Read more
12 Jul 1908: Alain Cuny, French actor (died 1994) René Xavier Marie Alain Cuny was a French actor of stage and screen. He was closely linked with the works of Paul Claudel and Antonin Artaud, and for his performances for the Théâtre national populaire and Odéon-Théâtre de France. Read more
12 Jul 1908: Paul Runyan, American golfer and sportscaster (died 2002) Paul Scott Runyan was an American professional golfer. Among the world's best players in the mid-1930s, he won two PGA Championships and is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Runyan was also a golf instructor. Read more
12 Jul 1907: Weary Dunlop, Australian colonel and surgeon (died 1993) Colonel Sir Ernest Edward "Weary" Dunlop, was an Australian surgeon who was renowned for his leadership while being held prisoner by the Japanese during the Second World War. Read more
12 Jul 1905: Prince John of the United Kingdom, Youngest son of George V and Mary of Teck (died 1919) Prince John of the United Kingdom was the fifth son and youngest of the six children of King George V and Queen Mary. At the time of his birth, his father was heir apparent to John's grandfather Edward VII. In 1910, John's father acceded to the throne upon Edward VII's death, and John became fifth in the line of succession to the British throne. Read more
12 Jul 1904: Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet and diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1973) Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old and wrote in a variety of styles, including surrealist poems, historical epics, political manifestos, a prose autobiography, and passionate love poems such as the ones in his collection Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924). Read more
12 Jul 1902: Günther Anders, German philosopher and journalist (died 1992) Günther Anders was a German-born philosopher, journalist and critical theorist. Read more
12 Jul 1902: Vic Armbruster, Australian rugby league footballer (died 1984) Louis Victor Armbruster was an Australian rugby league footballer for New South Wales, Queensland and Australia. He is considered one of the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century. Standing 6 feet 1 inches tall (1.85m) and weighing 191 lbs (86 kg), Armbruster primarily played in the Second-row, but he could also play Lock. Read more
12 Jul 1900: Marcel Paul, French communist politician and Holocaust survivor (died 1982) Marcel Paul was a French trade unionist and communist politician. He was also a Nazi concentration camp survivor and later served as a member of the French parliament. Read more
12 Jul 1895: Kirsten Flagstad, Norwegian soprano (died 1962) Kirsten Malfrid Flagstad was a Norwegian opera singer, who was the outstanding Wagnerian soprano of her era. Her triumphant debut in New York on 2 February 1935 is one of the legends of opera. Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the longstanding General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera said, "I have given America two great gifts — Caruso and Flagstad." Read more
12 Jul 1895: Buckminster Fuller, American architect and engineer, designed the Montreal Biosphère (died 1983) Richard Buckminster Fuller Jr. was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more than 30 books and coining or popularizing such terms as "Spaceship Earth", "Dymaxion", "ephemeralization", "synergetics", and "tensegrity". Read more
12 Jul 1895: Oscar Hammerstein II, American director, producer, and songwriter (died 1960) Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and director in musical theater for nearly 40 years. He won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Many of his songs are standard repertoire for vocalists and jazz musicians. He co-wrote 850 songs. Read more
12 Jul 1892: Bruno Schulz, Ukrainian-Polish author and painter (died 1942) Bruno Schulz was a Polish-Jewish writer, literary critic, visual artist, and art teacher. Read more
12 Jul 1888: Zygmunt Janiszewski, Polish mathematician and academic (died 1920) Zygmunt Janiszewski was a Polish mathematician. Read more
12 Jul 1886: Jean Hersholt, Danish-American actor and director (died 1956) Jean Pierre Carl Buron, known professionally as Jean Hersholt, was a Danish-American actor. He is most famous for starring on the CBS radio series Dr. Christian from 1937–1954, reprising the role in a film series from 1939-1941. He also co-starred with Shirley Temple in the film Heidi (1937). When asked how to pronounce his name, he told The Literary Digest, "in English her'sholt; in Danish, hairs'hult." From 1924 to 1955, he had 140 motion picture credits: 75 silent film and 65 "talkies"; he directed four. Read more
12 Jul 1884: Bob Diry, Austrian-born wrestler and boxer (died 1935) Robert "Bob" Diry was an Austrian middleweight world champion 1908 in wrestling. In 1910, he trained in Jiu-Jitsu under T.Tobari of the Tenshin-Shin-Yo-ryu and Kodokan Judo at the Vienna Athletics Club which helped him win a lightweight wrestling title. After his migration to America he tried boxing, making him versed in all 3 areas common to modern MMA. He was defeated by George Ashe (boxer) in 1913 in a knockout. Bob would continue wrestling in the US and coached at the New York Athletics club around the years of 1930. Read more
12 Jul 1884: Louis B. Mayer, Russian-born American film producer, co-founded Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (died 1957) Louis Burt Mayer was a Canadian-American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios (MGM) in 1924. Under Mayer's management, MGM became the film industry's most prestigious movie studio, accumulating the largest concentration of leading writers, directors, and stars in Hollywood. Read more
12 Jul 1884: Amedeo Modigliani, Italian painter and sculptor (died 1920) Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor of the École de Paris who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterised by a surreal elongation of faces, necks, and figures — works that were not received well during his lifetime, but later became much sought after. Modigliani was born and spent his youth in Italy, where he studied the art of antiquity and the Renaissance. In 1906, he moved to Paris, where he came into contact with such artists as Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brâncuși. By 1912, Modigliani was exhibiting highly stylised sculptures with Cubists of the Section d'Or group at the Salon d'Automne. Read more
12 Jul 1881: Natalia Goncharova, Russian theatrical costume and set designer, painter and illustrator (died 1962) Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova was a Russian avant-garde artist, painter, costume designer, writer, illustrator, and set designer. Goncharova's lifelong partner was fellow Russian avant-garde artist Mikhail Larionov. She was a founding member of both the Jack of Diamonds (1909–1911), Moscow's first radical independent exhibiting group, the more radical Donkey's Tail (1912–1913), and with Larionov invented Rayonism (1912–1914). She was also a member of the German-based art movement Der Blaue Reiter. Born in Russia, she moved to Paris in 1921 and lived there until her death. Read more
12 Jul 1880: Tod Browning, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1962) Tod Browning was an American film director, film actor, screenwriter, vaudeville performer, and carnival sideshow and circus entertainer. He directed a number of films of various genres between 1915 and 1939, but was primarily known for horror films. Some film writers have referred to Browning as "the Edgar Allan Poe of cinema." Read more
12 Jul 1879: Margherita Piazzola Beloch, Italian mathematician (died 1976) Margherita Piazzola Beloch was an Italian mathematician who worked in algebraic geometry, algebraic topology and photogrammetry. Read more
12 Jul 1879: Han Yong-un, Korean poet (died 1944) Han Yong-un was a twentieth century Korean Buddhist reformer, poet, and independence activist against colonial rule. This name was his religious name, given by his meditation instructor in 1905, and Manhae (만해) was his art name; his birth name was Han Yu-cheon. Read more
12 Jul 1878: Peeter Põld, Estonian scientist and politician, 1st Estonian Minister of Education (died 1930) Peeter Siegfried Nikolaus Põld was an Estonian pedagogy specialist, school director, and politician, and the first Estonian Minister of Education. He was born in Puru, Kreis Wierland, Governorate of Estonia. As the curator of the University of Tartu (1918–1925), he oversaw the university's transition to instruction in Estonian in the newly independent country. Read more
12 Jul 1876: Max Jacob, French poet, painter, and critic (died 1944) Max Jacob was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic. Read more
12 Jul 1872: Emil Hácha, Czech lawyer and politician, 3rd President of Czechoslovakia (died 1945) Emil Dominik Josef Hácha was a Czech lawyer, serving as the president of Czechoslovakia from November 1938 to March 1939. In March 1939, after the breakup of Czechoslovakia, Hácha was the nominal president of the newly proclaimed German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Read more
12 Jul 1870: Louis II, Prince of Monaco (died 1949) Louis II was Prince of Monaco from 26 June 1922 to 9 May 1949. Read more
12 Jul 1868: Stefan George, German poet and translator (died 1933) Stefan Anton George was a German symbolist poet and a translator of Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, Hesiod, and Charles Baudelaire. He is also known for his role as leader of the highly influential literary circle called the George-Kreis and for founding the literary magazine Blätter für die Kunst. Read more
12 Jul 1863: Albert Calmette, French physician, bacteriologist, and immunologist (died 1933) Léon Charles Albert Calmette ForMemRS was a French physician, bacteriologist and immunologist, and an important officer of the Pasteur Institute. He co-discovered the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin, an attenuated form of Mycobacterium bovis used in the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis. He also developed the first antivenom for snake venom, the Calmette's serum. Read more
12 Jul 1863: Paul Drude, German physicist and academic (died 1906) Paul Karl Ludwig Drude was a German physicist specializing in optics. He is known for the Drude model. Read more
12 Jul 1861: Anton Arensky, Russian pianist, composer, and educator (died 1906) Anton Stepanovich Arensky was a Russian composer of Romantic classical music, pianist, conductor and professor of music. He is known especially for his chamber music, songs and piano works, and for a style often associated with the lyricism of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Read more
12 Jul 1857: George E. Ohr, American potter (died 1918) George Edgar Ohr was an American ceramic artist and the self-proclaimed "Mad Potter of Biloxi" in Mississippi. In recognition of his innovative experimentation with modern clay forms from 1880 to 1910, some consider him a precursor to the American Abstract-Expressionism movement. Read more
12 Jul 1855: Ned Hanlan, Canadian rower, academic, and businessman (died 1908) Edward "Ned" Hanlan was a Canadian professional sculler, hotelier, and alderman from Toronto, Ontario. He was the world sculling champion from 1880 to 1884. According to Rowing Canada Aviron, Hanlan is "widely regarded as Canada’s first individual sporting hero." Read more
12 Jul 1854: George Eastman, American businessman, founded Eastman Kodak (died 1933) George Eastman was an American innovator and entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. After a decade of experiments in photography, he patented and sold a roll film camera, making amateur photography accessible to the general public for the first time. Working as the treasurer and later president of Kodak, he oversaw the expansion of the company and the film industry. Read more
12 Jul 1852: Hipólito Yrigoyen, Argentinian lawyer and politician, 19th President of Argentina (died 1933) Juan Hipólito del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Yrigoyen was an Argentine politician of the Radical Civic Union who served as President of Argentina from 1916 to 1922 and again from 1928 until his overthrow in 1930. He was the first president elected democratically by means of the secret ballot and mandatory male suffrage established by the Sáenz Peña Law of 1912. His activism was the prime impetus behind the passage of that law in Argentina. Read more
12 Jul 1850: Otto Schoetensack, German anthropologist and academic (died 1912) Otto Karl Friedrich Schoetensack was a German industrialist and later professor of anthropology, having retired from the chemical firm which he had founded. During a 1908 archeological dig, he oversaw the worker Daniel Hartmann who found the lower jaw of a hominid, the oldest human fossil then known, which Schoetensack later described formally as Homo heidelbergensis. Read more
12 Jul 1849: William Osler, Canadian physician and author (died 1919) Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet was a Canadian physician and one of the "Big Four" founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. Osler created the first residency program for specialty training of physicians. He has frequently been described as the Father of Modern Medicine and one of the "greatest diagnosticians ever to wield a stethoscope". In addition to being a physician he was a bibliophile, historian, author, and renowned practical joker. He was passionate about medical libraries and medical history, having founded the History of Medicine Society, at the Royal Society of Medicine, London. He was also instrumental in founding the Medical Library Association of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Association of Medical Librarians along with three other people, including Margaret Charlton, the medical librarian of his alma mater, McGill University. He left his own large history of medicine library to McGill, where it became the Osler Library. Read more
12 Jul 1824: Eugène Boudin, French painter (died 1898) Eugène Louis Boudin was one of the first French landscape painters to paint outdoors. Boudin was a marine painter, and expert in the rendering of all that goes upon the sea and along its shores. His pastels, summary and economic, garnered the splendid eulogy of Baudelaire; and Corot called him the "King of the skies". Read more
12 Jul 1821: D. H. Hill, American general and academic (died 1889) Daniel Harvey Hill, commonly known as D. H. Hill, was a Confederate general who commanded infantry in the eastern and western theaters of the American Civil War. Read more
12 Jul 1817: Henry David Thoreau, American essayist, poet, and philosopher (died 1862) Henry David Thoreau was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience", an argument in favor of citizen disobedience against an unjust state. Read more
12 Jul 1817: Alvin Saunders, Territorial Governor and Senator from Nebraska (died 1899) Alvin Saunders was a U.S. senator from Nebraska, as well as the final and longest-serving governor of the Nebraska Territory, a tenure he served during most of the American Civil War. Read more
12 Jul 1813: Claude Bernard, French physiologist and academic (died 1878) Claude Bernard was a French physiologist. I. Bernard Cohen of Harvard University called Bernard "one of the greatest of all men of science". He originated the term milieu intérieur and the associated concept of homeostasis. Read more
12 Jul 1807: Thomas Hawksley, English engineer and academic (died 1893) Thomas Hawksley was an English civil engineer of the 19th century, particularly associated with early water supply and coal gas engineering projects. Hawksley was, with John Frederick Bateman, the leading British water engineer of the nineteenth century and was personally responsible for upwards of 150 water-supply schemes, in the British Isles and overseas. Read more
12 Jul 1803: Peter Chanel, French priest and saint (died 1841) Peter Louis Marie Chanel, SM, was a Catholic priest, missionary, and martyr. Chanel was a member of the Society of Mary and was sent as a missionary to Oceania. He arrived on the island of Futuna in November 1837. Chanel was clubbed to death in April 1841 at the instigation of a chief upset because his son had converted. Read more

Notable Deaths on 12 July

12 Jul 2024: Tonke Dragt, Dutch children's writer and illustrator (born 1930) Antonia "Tonke" Johanna Dragt was a Dutch writer and illustrator of children's literature. Her book De brief voor de koning was chosen by CPNB as the best Dutch youth book of the latter half of the twentieth century. Read more
12 Jul 2024: Bill Viola, American video and installation artist (born 1951) William John Viola Jr. was an American video artist whose artistic expression depended upon electronic, sound, and image technology in new media. His works focus on the ideas behind fundamental human experiences such as birth, death, and aspects of consciousness. Read more
12 Jul 2024: Ruth Westheimer, German-American sex therapist (born 1928) Karola Ruth Westheimer, better known as Dr. Ruth, was a German and American sex therapist and talk show host. Read more
12 Jul 2024: Evan Wright, American writer (born 1964) Evan Alan Wright was an American writer, known for his reporting on subcultures for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. He was best known for his book on the Iraq War, Generation Kill (2004). He also wrote an exposé about a top Central Intelligence Agency officer who allegedly worked as a Mafia hitman, How to Get Away with Murder in America (2012). Read more
12 Jul 2024: Noriko Ohara, Japanese voice actress and narrator (born 1935) Noriko Tobe , née Ohara, better known by her stage name Noriko Ohara , was a Japanese actress and narrator. Read more
12 Jul 2020: Kelly Preston, American actress and model (born 1962) Kelly Kamalelehua Smith, known professionally as Kelly Preston, was an American actress. She appeared in more than 60 television and film productions, including Mischief (1985), Twins (1988), Jerry Maguire (1996), and For Love of the Game (1999). She married John Travolta in 1991, and collaborated with him on the comedy film The Experts (1989) and the biographical film Gotti (2018). She also starred in the films SpaceCamp (1986), The Cat in the Hat (2003), What a Girl Wants (2003), Sky High (2005), and Old Dogs (2009). Read more
12 Jul 2020: Wim Suurbier, Dutch football player (born 1945) Wilhelmus Lourens Johannes Suurbier was a Dutch professional footballer. He played as a right back and was part of the Netherlands national team and AFC Ajax teams of the 1970s. Read more
12 Jul 2019: Emily Hartridge, English YouTuber and television presenter (born 1984) Emily Hartridge, also known as Emily Hart, was an English YouTuber and television presenter. Read more
12 Jul 2018: Annabelle Neilson, English socialite (born 1969) Iona Annabelle Neilson was a British socialite, fashion model, author and television personality. She first gained media attention as the muse of the fashion designer Alexander McQueen. She appeared as a cast member on the Bravo reality television series Ladies of London (2014–2015). Read more
12 Jul 2016: Goran Hadžić, Serbian politician (born 1958) Goran Hadžić was a Croatian Serb politician and President of the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina, during the Croatian War of Independence. He was accused of crimes against humanity and of violation of the laws and customs of war by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Read more
12 Jul 2015: D'Army Bailey, American lawyer, judge, and actor (born 1941) D'Army Bailey was an American lawyer, circuit court judge, civil rights activist, author, and film actor. Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, he served as a city councilman in Berkeley, California, from 1971 to 1973. Read more
12 Jul 2015: Chenjerai Hove, Zimbabwean journalist, author, and poet (born 1956) Chenjerai Hove, was a Zimbabwean poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both English and Shona. "Modernist in their formal construction, but making extensive use of oral conventions, Hove's novels offer an intense examination of the psychic and social costs – to the rural population, especially, of the war of liberation in Zimbabwe." He died on 12 July 2015 while living in exile in Norway, with his death attributed to liver failure. Read more
12 Jul 2015: Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, Tibetan monk and activist (born 1950) Lithang Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche or Tenzing Deleg (1950–2015) was a Tibetan Buddhist leader from Garze, Sichuan. He is also known for working to develop social, medical, educational and religious institutions for Tibetan nomads in eastern Tibet, as an advocate for environmental conservation in the face of indiscriminate logging and mining projects, and as a mediator between Tibetans and Chinese. Read more
12 Jul 2015: Cheng Siwei, Chinese engineer, economist, and politician (born 1935) Cheng Siwei was a Chinese economist, chemical engineer and politician. He was the chairman of China Soft Science Research Association; president of the Chinese Society for Management Modernization; director of the Research Center on Fictitious Economy and Data Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences; dean of the School of Management of the Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and honorary president of East China University of Science and Technology. Read more
12 Jul 2014: Jamil Ahmad, Pakistani author (born 1931) Jamil Ahmad was a Pakistani civil servant, novelist and story writer. He wrote in the English language. He is known for his anthology, The Wandering Falcon which was short listed for Man Asian Literary Prize, widely known as Asia's highest literary award, in 2011. The book was also a finalist for DSC prize for South Asian Literature in 2013. Read more
12 Jul 2014: Nestor Basterretxea, Spanish painter and sculptor (born 1924) Nestor Basterretxea Arzadun was a Basque artist, born in Bermeo, Biscay, Basque Country. In the 1950s and 1960s, he spearheaded along with other artists such as Jorge Oteiza, Remigio Mendiburu, or Eduardo Chillida, an avant-garde artistic movement concerned with the crisis of Basque identity, and formally a special focus on large volumes and the concept of emptiness. Read more
12 Jul 2014: Emil Bobu, Romanian politician (born 1927) Emil Bobu was a Romanian Communist activist and politician, who served as Interior Minister from 1973 to 1975 and as Labor Minister from 1979 to 1981. He was an influential figure in the later years of the Communist regime until his downfall during the 1989 Revolution. Read more
12 Jul 2014: Alfred de Grazia, American political scientist and author (born 1919) Alfred de Grazia, born in Chicago, Illinois, was a political scientist and author. He developed techniques of computer-based social network analysis in the 1950s, developed new ideas about personal digital archives in the 1970s, and defended the catastrophism thesis of Immanuel Velikovsky. Read more
12 Jul 2014: Kenneth J. Gray, American soldier and politician (born 1924) Kenneth James Gray was an American businessman and politician. He was a veteran of World War II, and represented Illinois in the United States House of Representatives from 1955 to 1974, and again from 1985 to 1989. Read more
12 Jul 2014: Valeriya Novodvorskaya, Russian journalist and politician (born 1950) Valeriya Ilyinichna Novodvorskaya was a Russian and Soviet dissident, writer and liberal politician. She was the founder and the chairwoman of the Democratic Union party and a member of the editorial board of The New Times. Read more
12 Jul 2013: Amar Bose, American businessman, founded the Bose Corporation (born 1929) Amar Gopal Bose was an American entrepreneur and academic. An electrical engineer and sound engineer, he was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for over 45 years. He was also the founder and chairman of Bose Corporation. Read more
12 Jul 2013: Takako Takahashi, Japanese author (born 1932) Takako Takahashi was a Japanese author. Her maiden name was Takako Okamoto . Read more
12 Jul 2013: Elaine Morgan, Welsh writer (born 1920) Elaine Morgan OBE, FRSL, was a Welsh writer for television and the author of several books on evolutionary anthropology. She advocated the aquatic ape hypothesis, which advocated as a corrective to what she saw as theories that purveyed gendered stereotypes and failed to account for women's role in human evolution adequately. The Descent of Woman, published in 1972, became an international bestseller, translated into ten languages. In 2016, she was named one of "the 50 greatest Welsh men and women of all time" in a press survey. Read more
12 Jul 2013: Alan Whicker, Egyptian-English journalist (born 1921) Donald Alan Whicker was a British journalist and television presenter and broadcaster. His career spanned almost 60 years, during which time he presented the documentary television programme Whicker's World for over 30 years. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2005 for services to broadcasting. Read more
12 Jul 2012: Alimuddin, Pakistani cricketer (born 1930) Alimuddin was a Pakistani cricketer who played 25 Tests for Pakistan between 1954 and 1962. His name is sometimes rendered Alim-ud-Din. A fast-scoring, right-handed opening batsman and occasional right-arm leg break bowler, he was the youngest player ever to appear in first-class cricket, aged 12 years and 73 days. In international cricket, he scored 1,091 runs at the average of 25.37, including two centuries and seven fifties. In 1954, he was a member of the Pakistani squad which toured England and recorded Pakistan's first Test match win. Former Pakistani captain Mushtaq Mohammad said about him that he was "a thorough gentleman as well as a great cricketer for Pakistan". Read more
12 Jul 2012: Dara Singh, Indian wrestler, actor, and politician (born 1928) Dara Singh was an Indian professional wrestler, actor, and politician. Widely regarded as one of India's greatest wrestlers, Singh earned international recognition during the 1950s and 1960s for his victories in both Indian and world wrestling circuits. In 1968, Singh became world champion by defeating Lou Thesz. Read more
12 Jul 2012: Eddy Brown, English footballer and manager (born 1926) Edwin Brown was an English footballer who played as a centre forward. He played professionally for a number of clubs, but the peak of his career was spent with Birmingham City during their most successful period in the 1950s. Over a professional career of nearly 400 appearances in the Football League, he scored at a rate of one goal every two games. He was a pioneer of the goal celebration. Read more
12 Jul 2012: Else Holmelund Minarik, Danish-American author and illustrator (born 1920) Else Holmelund Minarik was an American author of more than 40 children's books. She was most commonly associated with her Little Bear series of children's books, which were adapted for television. Minarik was also the author of No Fighting, No Biting! Read more
12 Jul 2012: Roger Payne, English mountaineer (born 1956) Roger Payne was a British mountaineer. He was formerly general secretary of the British Mountaineering Council (BMC) and a qualified mountain guide from 1983, taking part in over 20 expeditions to the Karakoram and Himalayan ranges, including K2 and the north face of Changabang. He was an avalanche instructor and climbed in the Alps every year from 1977. Read more
12 Jul 2012: Hamid Samandarian, Iranian director and playwright (born 1931) Hamid Samandarian was an Iranian film and theater director and translator. He staged numerous dramas including No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre, Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams and Marriage of Mr. Mississippi by Friedrich Durrenmatt. Read more
12 Jul 2012: George C. Stoney, American director and producer (born 1916) George Cashel Stoney was an American documentary filmmaker, educator, and the "father of public-access television." Among his films were Palmour Street, A Study of Family Life (1949), All My Babies (1953), How the Myth Was Made (1979) and The Uprising of '34 (1995). All My Babies was entered into the National Film Registry in 2002. Stoney's life and work were the subject of a Festschrift volume of the journal Wide Angle in 1999. Read more
12 Jul 2011: Sherwood Schwartz, American screenwriter and producer (born 1916) Sherwood Charles Schwartz was an American television screenwriter and producer. He worked on radio shows in the 1940s, but he now is best known for creating the 1960s television series Gilligan's Island on CBS and The Brady Bunch on ABC. On March 7, 2008, Schwartz, at the time still active in his 90s, was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That same year, Schwartz was also inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. Read more
12 Jul 2010: Olga Guillot, Cuban-American singer (born 1922) Olga Guillot was a Cuban singer who was known as the "Queen of Bolero". She was a native of Santiago de Cuba. Read more
12 Jul 2010: James P. Hogan, English-American author (born 1941) James Patrick Hogan was a British science fiction author. His major works include the Giants series of five novels published between 1977 and 2005. Read more
12 Jul 2010: Paulo Moura, Brazilian clarinetist and saxophonist (born 1932) Paulo Moura was a Brazilian clarinetist and saxophonist. Read more
12 Jul 2010: Pius Njawé, Cameroonian journalist (born 1957) Pius Njawé was a Cameroonian journalist and director of Le Messager as well as Le Messager Populi. Arrested over 100 times for his reporting, Njawé won several awards for his work, including the 1991 CPJ International Press Freedom Award and the 1993 Golden Pen of Freedom. In 2000, he was named one of International Press Institute's fifty World Press Freedom Heroes of the previous fifty years. In Njawé's obituary, the New York Times described him as "a symbol of opposition to the autocratic regime of Paul Biya". Read more
12 Jul 2010: Harvey Pekar, American author and critic (born 1939) Harvey Lawrence Pekar was an American underground comic book writer, music critic, and media personality, best known for his autobiographical American Splendor comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a well-received film adaptation of the same name. Read more
12 Jul 2008: Bobby Murcer, American baseball player, coach, and sportscaster (born 1946) Bobby Ray Murcer was an American professional baseball outfielder who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1965 and 1983. He played the majority of his career for the New York Yankees, whom he later rejoined as a longtime broadcaster. A Gold Glove winner and five-time All-Star, and was voted to the Associated Press's American League 1970s All-Decade team. Murcer led the American League in on-base percentage in 1971, and in runs and total bases in 1972. Read more
12 Jul 2008: Tony Snow, American journalist, 26th White House Press Secretary (born 1955) Robert Anthony Snow was an American journalist, political commentator, anchor, columnist, musician, and the 25th White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, from May 2006 until his resignation in September 2007. Snow also worked for the President George H. W. Bush as chief speechwriter and Deputy Assistant of Media Affairs, from 1991 to 1993. Read more
12 Jul 2007: Robert Burås, Norwegian singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1975) Robert Solli Burås was a Norwegian musician and songwriter, best known as the guitarist for the rock band Madrugada. He was also the frontman and guitarist for the rock band My Midnight Creeps. Burås appeared on five studio albums with Madrugada and two releases with My Midnight Creeps. He is the winner of six Norwegian Spellemann Awards, five with Madrugada and one with My Midnight Creeps. Read more
12 Jul 2007: Stan Zemanek, Australian radio and television host (born 1947) Stan Zemanek was an Australian shock jock, radio broadcaster, television presenter, radio producer and author who presented a night-time show on 2UE in Sydney and which was networked across parts of Australia via Southern Cross. Read more
12 Jul 2005: John King, Baron King of Wartnaby, English businessman (born 1917) John Leonard King, Baron King of Wartnaby was a British businessman, who was noted for leading British Airways. He was also directly involved with the "dirty tricks" campaign waged by British Airways against Virgin Atlantic. Read more
12 Jul 2004: Betty Oliphant, English-Canadian ballerina, co-founded the National Ballet School of Canada (born 1918) Nancy Elizabeth Oliphant was a co-founder of the National Ballet School of Canada. Read more
12 Jul 2003: Benny Carter, American trumpet player, saxophonist, and composer (born 1907) Bennett Lester Carter was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. With Johnny Hodges, he was a pioneer on the alto saxophone. From the beginning of his career in the 1920s, he worked as an arranger, including writing charts for Fletcher Henderson's big band that shaped the swing style. He had an unusually long career that lasted into the 1990s. During the 1980s and 1990s, he was nominated for eight Grammy Awards, which included receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award. Read more
12 Jul 2003: Mark Lovell, English race car driver (born 1960) Mark Johnathon Lovell was a British rally driver. He won the 1986 British Rally Championship in a Ford RS200 Group B, the 1987 and 1988 Irish Tarmac Rally Championship, the 1988 International Dutch Rally Drivers' Championship and the 2001 SCCA ProRally Drivers' Championship in the United States. He also won the 2003 Pikes Peak Rally only two weeks before his death. Read more
12 Jul 2001: Fred Marcellino, American author and illustrator (born 1939) Fred Marcellino was an American illustrator and later an author of children's books who was very influential in the book industry. Publisher Nan Talese said that Marcellino could "in one image, translate the whole feeling and style of a book." Such was the case with his evocative painting for Judith Rossner's August, published and edited by Talese. Read more
12 Jul 2000: Charles Merritt, Canadian colonel and politician, Victoria Cross recipient (born 1908) Charles Cecil Ingersoll Merritt VC, ED was a Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross for his actions during the Dieppe Raid in 1942. Later he served as Member of Parliament. Read more
12 Jul 1999: Rajendra Kumar, Indian actor (born 1921) Rajendra Kumar was an Indian actor who starred in Bollywood films. Starting his career in 1949, he worked in more than 80 films in a career spanning over four decades. Kumar is considered as one of the greatest and most successful actors in Indian cinema. He was popularly known as the Jubilee Kumar during the 1960s, when he consecutively starred in several commercially successful films. Read more
12 Jul 1998: Jimmy Driftwood, American singer-songwriter and banjo player (born 1907) James Corbitt Morris, known professionally as Jimmy Driftwood or Jimmie Driftwood, was an American folk-style songwriter and musician, most famous for his songs "The Battle of New Orleans" and "Tennessee Stud". Driftwood wrote more than 6,000 folk songs, of which more than 300 were recorded by various musicians. Read more
12 Jul 1998: Arkady Ostashev, Soviet/Russian scientist and engineer (born 1925) Arkady Ilyich Ostashev was a Soviet and Russian scientist, engineer – mechanic in the former Soviet space program, working on as a designer many of rocket propulsion and control system of Soviet satellites. He was a participant in the launch of the first artificial satellite of the Earth and the first cosmonaut, candidate of technical sciences, docent, laureate of the Lenin (1960) and State (1979) prizes, one of the leading managers of work in the field of experimental development of rocket technology OKB-1, personal pensioner of republican significance, student and interpersonal relationship of Sergei Korolev. Read more
12 Jul 1998: Serge Lemoyne, Canadian painter (born 1941) Serge Lemoyne was a Canadian artist from Quebec. He worked as a performance artist as well as creating paintings, assemblages and prints. Lemoyne explored themes such as the environment, technology, and social justice. Lemoyne's work was exhibited in Canada and internationally, and he received numerous awards throughout his career. He died in 1998 at the age of 57. Read more
12 Jul 1997: François Furet, French historian and author (born 1927) François Furet was a French historian and president of the Saint-Simon Foundation, best known for his books on the French Revolution. From 1985 to 1997, Furet was a professor of French history at the University of Chicago. Read more
12 Jul 1996: John Chancellor, American journalist (born 1927) John William Chancellor was an American journalist who spent most of his career with NBC News. He is considered a pioneer in television news. Chancellor served as anchor of the NBC Nightly News from 1970 to 1982 and continued to do editorials and commentaries for NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw until 1993. Read more
12 Jul 1994: Eila Campbell, English geographer and cartographer (born 1915) Eila Muriel Joice Campbell was an English geographer and cartographer. She was best known for her work on Domesday Geography of England and her work on the international journal, Imago Mundi. Read more
12 Jul 1993: Dan Eldon, English photographer and journalist (born 1970) Daniel Robert Eldon was a British-American photojournalist, artist and activist who was killed in Somalia whilst working as a Reuters photojournalist. His journals were published posthumously in four volumes by Chronicle Books, including The Journey Is the Destination, The Art of Life, and Safari as a Way of Life. Read more
12 Jul 1992: Caroline Pafford Miller, American journalist and author (born 1903) Caroline Pafford Miller was an American novelist. She gathered the folktales, stories, and archaic dialects of the rural communities she visited in her home state of Georgia in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and wove them into her first novel, Lamb in His Bosom, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1934, and the French literary award, the Prix Femina Americain in 1935. Her success as the first Georgian winner of the fiction prize inspired Macmillan Publishers to seek out more southern writers, resulting in the discovery of Margaret Mitchell, whose first novel, Gone with the Wind, also won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937. Miller's story about the struggles of nineteenth-century south Georgia pioneers found a new readership in 1993 when Lamb in His Bosom was reprinted, one year after her death. In 2007, Miller was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. Read more
12 Jul 1990: João Saldanha, Brazilian footballer, manager, and journalist (born 1917) João Alves Jobin Saldanha was a Brazilian journalist and football manager. He coached the Brazil national football team during the South American Qualifying to the 1970 FIFA World Cup. Nicknamed João Sem Medo by Nelson Rodrigues, Saldanha played for Botafogo. He then started a career in journalism and became one of Brazil's most prolific sports columnists. He often criticised players, managers and teams, and was a member of then-illegal Brazilian Communist Party. Read more
12 Jul 1983: Chris Wood, English saxophonist (born 1944) Christopher Gordon Blandford Wood was a British rock musician, best known as a founding member of the rock band Traffic, along with Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Dave Mason. Read more
12 Jul 1982: Kenneth More, English actor (born 1914) Kenneth Gilbert More was an English actor. Read more
12 Jul 1980: John Warren Davis, American educator, college administrator, and civil rights leader (born 1888) John Warren Davis was an American educator, college administrator, and civil rights leader. He was the fifth and longest-serving president of West Virginia State University in Institute, West Virginia, a position he held from 1919 to 1953. Born in Milledgeville, Georgia, Davis relocated to Atlanta in 1903 to attend high school at Atlanta Baptist College. He worked his way through high school and college at Morehouse and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1911. At Morehouse, Davis formed associations with John Hope, Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, Samuel Archer, Benjamin Griffith Brawley, Booker T. Washington, and W. E. B. Du Bois. He completed graduate studies in chemistry and physics at the University of Chicago from 1911 to 1913 and served on the faculty of Morehouse as the registrar and as a professor in chemistry and physics. While in Atlanta, Davis helped to found one of the city's first chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Read more
12 Jul 1979: Olive Morris, Jamaican-English civil rights activist (born 1952) Olive Elaine Morris was a Jamaican-born British-based community leader and activist in the feminist, black nationalist, and squatters' rights campaigns of the 1970s. At the age of 17, she claimed she was assaulted by Metropolitan Police officers following an incident involving a Nigerian diplomat in Brixton, South London. She joined the British Black Panthers, becoming a Marxist–Leninist communist and a radical feminist. She squatted buildings on Railton Road in Brixton; one hosted Sabarr Books and later became the 121 Centre, another was used as offices by the Race Today collective. Morris became a key organiser in the Black Women's Movement in the United Kingdom, co-founding the Brixton Black Women's Group and the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent in London. Read more
12 Jul 1979: Minnie Riperton, American singer-songwriter (born 1947) Minnie Julia Riperton was an American soul singer and songwriter best known for her 1974 single "Lovin' You", her five-octave vocal range, and her use of the whistle register. Read more
12 Jul 1975: James Ormsbee Chapin, American painter and illustrator (born 1887) James Ormsbee Chapin was an American painter and illustrator. He was the father of jazz musician Jim Chapin and grandfather of folk singer Harry Chapin. Read more
12 Jul 1973: Lon Chaney Jr., American actor (born 1906) Creighton Tull Chaney, known by his stage name Lon Chaney Jr., was an American actor known for playing Larry Talbot in the film The Wolf Man (1941) and its various crossovers, Count Alucard in Son of Dracula, Frankenstein's monster in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), the Mummy in three pictures, and various other roles in many Universal horror films, including six films in their 1940s Inner Sanctum series, making him a horror icon. He also portrayed Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men (1939) and played supporting parts in dozens of mainstream movies, including High Noon (1952), The Defiant Ones (1958), and numerous Westerns, musicals, comedies and dramas. Read more
12 Jul 1971: Yvon Robert, Canadian wrestler (born 1914) Yvon Robert, nicknamed "The Lion", was a Canadian professional wrestler. Read more
12 Jul 1969: Henry George Lamond, Australian farmer and author (born 1885) Henry George Lamond was an Australian farmer and writer, notable for his novels about the land, people and animals of outback Queensland. In addition to his fiction and non-fiction books, he wrote over 900 essays and articles for magazines including Walkabout. At one point in his career he was considered to be the Australian 'Thompson Seton'. Read more
12 Jul 1966: D. T. Suzuki, Japanese philosopher and author (born 1870) Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki , was a Japanese essayist, philosopher, religious scholar, and translator. He was an authority on Buddhism, especially Zen and Shin, and was instrumental in spreading interest in these to the West. He was also a prolific translator of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and Sanskrit literature. Suzuki spent several lengthy stretches teaching or lecturing at Western universities and devoted many years to a professorship at Ōtani University, a Japanese university of the Ōtani School of Jōdo Shinshū. Read more
12 Jul 1965: Christfried Burmeister, Estonian speed skater (born 1898) Christfried Burmeister was an Estonian speed skater and bandy player who competed in the 1928 Winter Olympics. Read more
12 Jul 1962: Roger Wolfe Kahn, American composer and bandleader (born 1907) Roger Wolfe Kahn was an American jazz and popular musician, composer, bandleader and an aviator. Read more
12 Jul 1961: Mazo de la Roche, Canadian author and playwright (born 1879) Mazo de la Roche was a Canadian writer who wrote the Jalna novels, one of the most popular series of books of her time. Read more
12 Jul 1956: John Hayes, Australian politician, 25th Premier of Tasmania (born 1868) John Blyth Hayes was an Australian politician who served as a Senator for Tasmania from 1923 to 1947. He was President of the Senate from 1938 to 1941. Before entering federal politics, he had been a member of the Parliament of Tasmania from 1913 to 1923 and served as Premier of Tasmania for almost exactly one year, from 1922 to 1923. Read more
12 Jul 1950: Elsie de Wolfe, American actress, author, and interior decorator (born 1865) Elsie de Wolfe, Lady Mendl was an American actress who became a prominent interior designer and author. Born in New York City, de Wolfe was acutely sensitive to her surroundings from her earliest years and became one of the first female interior decorators, replacing dark and ornate Victorian decor with lighter, simpler styles and uncluttered room layouts. Read more
12 Jul 1949: Douglas Hyde, Irish scholar and politician, 1st President of Ireland (born 1860) Douglas Ross Hyde, known as An Craoibhín Aoibhinn, was an Irish academic, linguist, scholar of the Irish language, politician, and diplomat who served as the first president of Ireland from June 1938 to June 1945. He was a leading figure in the Gaelic revival, and the first president of the Gaelic League, one of the most influential cultural organisations in Ireland at the time. Read more
12 Jul 1947: Jimmie Lunceford, American saxophonist and bandleader (born 1902) James Melvin Lunceford was an American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader in the swing era. Read more
12 Jul 1946: Ray Stannard Baker, American journalist and author (born 1870) Ray Stannard Baker was an American journalist, historian, biographer, and writer. Read more
12 Jul 1945: Boris Galerkin, Russian mathematician and engineer (born 1871) Boris Grigoryevich Galerkin was a Soviet mathematician and an engineer. Read more
12 Jul 1945: Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen, German field marshal (born 1895) Wolfram Karl Ludwig Moritz Hermann Freiherr von Richthofen was a German World War I flying ace who rose to the rank of Generalfeldmarschall in the Luftwaffe during World War II. Read more
12 Jul 1944: Theodore Roosevelt Jr., American general and politician, Governor of Puerto Rico (born 1887) Theodore Roosevelt III, often known as Theodore Jr., was an American brigadier general and politician. He was the eldest son of President Theodore Roosevelt and First Lady Edith Roosevelt. Roosevelt is known for his World War II service, including the directing of troops at Utah Beach during the Normandy landings, for which he received the Medal of Honor. Read more
12 Jul 1935: Alfred Dreyfus, French colonel (born 1859) Alfred Dreyfus was a French Army officer best known for his central role in the Dreyfus affair. In 1894, Dreyfus fell victim to a judicial conspiracy that eventually sparked a major political crisis in the French Third Republic when he was wrongfully accused and convicted of being a German spy due to antisemitism. Dreyfus was arrested, cashiered from the French army and imprisoned on Devil's Island in French Guiana. Eventually, evidence emerged showing that Dreyfus was innocent and the true culprit was fellow officer Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy. Read more
12 Jul 1934: Ole Evinrude, Norwegian-American inventor and businessman, invented the outboard motor (born 1877) Ole Evinrude, born Ole Andreassen Aaslundeie was an American entrepreneur, known for the invention of the first outboard motor with practical commercial application. Read more
12 Jul 1931: Nathan Söderblom, Swedish archbishop, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1866) Lars Olof Jonathan Söderblom was a Swedish bishop. He was the Church of Sweden Archbishop of Uppsala from 1914 to 1931, and recipient of the 1930 Nobel Peace Prize. He is commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on 12 July. Read more
12 Jul 1929: Robert Henri, American painter and educator (born 1865) Robert Henri was an American painter and teacher. Read more
12 Jul 1926: Gertrude Bell, English archaeologist and spy (born 1868) Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist. She spent much of her life exploring and mapping the Middle East, and became influential in British imperial policy-making as an Arabist due to her knowledge of the region and the contacts built up during her extensive travels there. During her lifetime, she was highly esteemed and trusted by British officials such as High Commissioner for Mesopotamia Percy Cox, giving her great influence. She participated in both the 1919 Paris Peace Conference (briefly) and the 1921 Cairo Conference, which helped decide the territorial boundaries and governments of the post-War Middle East as part of the partition of the Ottoman Empire. Bell believed that the momentum of Arab nationalism was unstoppable, and that the British government should ally with nationalists rather than stand against them. Along with T. E. Lawrence, she advocated for independent Arab states in the Middle East following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and supported the installation of Hashemite monarchies in what is today Jordan and Iraq. Read more
12 Jul 1926: Charles Wood Irish composer (born 1866) Charles Wood was an Irish composer and teacher; his students included Ralph Vaughan Williams at Cambridge and Herbert Howells at the Royal College of Music. He is primarily remembered and performed as an Anglican church music composer, but he also wrote songs and chamber music, particularly for string quartet. Read more
12 Jul 1910: Charles Rolls, English engineer and businessman, co-founded Rolls-Royce Limited (born 1877) Charles Stewart Rolls was a British motoring and aviation pioneer. With Henry Royce, he co-founded the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm. He was the first Briton to be killed in an aeronautical accident with a powered aircraft, when the tail of his Wright Flyer broke off during a flying display in Bournemouth. He was aged 32. Read more
12 Jul 1908: William D. Coleman, 13th President of Liberia (born 1842) William David Coleman was an Americo-Liberian politician. A True Whig Party member, he served as the 13th president of Liberia from 1896 to 1900. Born in Fayette County, Kentucky, United States, he emigrated to Liberia in 1853. In 1877, he was elected to the House of Representatives and served as Speaker of the House of Representatives until 1879. Later he served in the Senate and then as vice president before assuming the presidency when Joseph James Cheeseman died in office. Read more
12 Jul 1892: Alexander Cartwright, American firefighter, invented baseball (born 1820) Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr. was a founding member of the New York Knickerbockers Base Ball Club in the 1840s. Although he was an inductee of the Baseball Hall of Fame and he was sometimes referred to as a "father of baseball", the importance of his role in the development of the game may have been exaggerated. Read more
12 Jul 1870: John A. Dahlgren, American admiral (born 1809) John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren was a United States Navy officer who founded his service's Ordnance Department and launched significant advances in gunnery. Read more
12 Jul 1855: Pavel Nakhimov, Russian admiral (born 1802) Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov was a Russian admiral in the Imperial Russian Navy known for his victory in the Battle of Sinop and his leadership in the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855) during the Crimean War. Read more
12 Jul 1850: Robert Stevenson, Scottish engineer (born 1772) Robert Stevenson was a Scottish civil engineer, and designer and builder of lighthouses. His works include the Bell Rock Lighthouse. Read more
12 Jul 1845: Henrik Wergeland, Norwegian linguist, poet, and playwright (born 1808) Henrik Arnold Thaulow Wergeland was a Norwegian writer, most celebrated for his poetry but also a prolific playwright, polemicist, historian, and linguist. He is often described as a leading pioneer in the development of a distinctly Norwegian literary heritage and of modern Norwegian culture. Read more
12 Jul 1804: Alexander Hamilton, American general, economist, and politician, 1st United States Secretary of the Treasury (born 1755) Alexander Hamilton was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 under the presidency of George Washington. He also founded America's first political party, the Federalist Party, in 1791. Read more

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