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

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

Last updated on 12 September 2026, 01:00 AM

Important Events on 12 September in History

12 Sep 2021: Siberian Light Aviation Flight 51 crashes short of the runway at Kazachinskoye Airport, killing four. Read more
12 Sep 2014: Synagogue Church building collapse saw the deaths of 115 people and several injured, in the Church run by Nigeria's, T. B. Joshua. Read more
12 Sep 2013: NASA confirms that its Voyager 1 probe has become the first manmade object to enter interstellar space. Read more
12 Sep 2012: Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air Flight 251 crashes on approach to Palana Airport, killing 10 and injuring four. Read more
12 Sep 2008: The 2008 Chatsworth train collision in Los Angeles between a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight train kills 25 people. Read more
12 Sep 2007: Former Philippine President Joseph Estrada is convicted of plunder. Read more
12 Sep 2007: Two earthquakes measuring 8.4 and 7.9 on the Richter Scale hits the Indonesian island of Sumatra, killing 25 people and injuring 161. Read more
12 Sep 2005: Israeli–Palestinian conflict: the Israeli disengagement from Gaza is completed, leaving some 2,530 homes demolished. Read more
12 Sep 2003: The United Nations lifts sanctions against Libya after that country agreed to accept responsibility and recompense the families of victims in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Read more
12 Sep 2003: Iraq War: In Fallujah, U.S. forces mistakenly shoot and kill eight Iraqi police officers. Read more
12 Sep 2003: Typhoon Maemi, the strongest recorded typhoon to strike South Korea, made landfall near Busan. Read more
12 Sep 2001: Ansett Australia, Australia's first commercial interstate airline, collapses due to increased strain on the international airline industry, leaving 10,000 people unemployed. Read more
12 Sep 1994: Frank Eugene Corder fatally crashes a single-engine Cessna 150 into the White House's south lawn, striking the West wing. There were no other casualties. Read more
12 Sep 1993: NASA launches Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-51. Read more
12 Sep 1992: NASA launches Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-47 which marked the 50th shuttle mission. On board are Mae Carol Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese citizen to fly in a US spaceship, and Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the first married couple in space. Read more
12 Sep 1992: Abimael Guzmán, leader of the Shining Path, is captured by Peruvian special forces; shortly thereafter the rest of Shining Path's leadership fell as well. Read more
12 Sep 1991: NASA launches Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-48 to deploy the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite. Read more
12 Sep 1990: The two German states and the Four Powers sign the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany in Moscow, paving the way for German reunification. Read more
12 Sep 1990: The Red Cross organizations of mainland China and Taiwan sign Kinmen Agreement on repatriation of illegal immigrants and criminal suspects after two days of talks in Kinmen, Fujian Province in response to the two tragedies in repatriation in the previous two months. It is the first agreement reached by private organizations across the Taiwan Strait. Read more
12 Sep 1988: Hurricane Gilbert devastates Jamaica; it turns towards Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula two days later, causing an estimated $5 billion in damage. Read more
12 Sep 1984: Dwight Gooden sets the baseball record for strikeouts in a season by a rookie with 276, previously set by Herb Score with 246 in 1954. Gooden's 276 strikeouts that season, pitched in 218 innings, set the current record. Read more
12 Sep 1983: A Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States, is robbed of approximately US$7 million by Los Macheteros. Read more
12 Sep 1983: The USSR vetoes a United Nations Security Council Resolution deploring the Soviet destruction of Korean Air Lines Flight 007. Read more
12 Sep 1980: The 43rd government of Turkey is overthrown in a coup d'état led by General Kenan Evren. Read more
12 Sep 1980: Florida Commuter Airlines Flight 65 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off West End, Bahamas, killing 34 people. Read more
12 Sep 1977: South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko dies in police custody. Read more
12 Sep 1974: Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, 'Messiah' of the Rastafari movement, is deposed following a military coup by the Derg, ending a reign of 58 years. Read more
12 Sep 1970: Dawson's Field hijackings: Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorists blow up three hijacked airliners in Zarqa, Jordan, continuing to hold the passengers hostage in various undisclosed locations in Amman. Read more
12 Sep 1969: Philippine Air Lines Flight 158 crashes in Antipolo, near Manila International Airport in the Philippines, killing 45 people. Read more
12 Sep 1966: Gemini 11, the penultimate mission of NASA's Gemini program, and the current human altitude record holder (except for the Apollo lunar missions). Read more
12 Sep 1962: US President John F. Kennedy delivers his "We choose to go to the Moon" speech at Rice University. Read more
12 Sep 1961: The African and Malagasy Union is founded. Read more
12 Sep 1961: Air France Flight 2005 crashes near Rabat–Salé Airport, in Rabat, Morocco, killing 77 people. Read more
12 Sep 1959: The Soviet Union launches a large rocket, Lunik II, at the Moon. Read more
12 Sep 1959: Bonanza, the first regularly scheduled TV program presented in color, is launched in the United States. Read more
12 Sep 1958: Jack Kilby demonstrates the first working integrated circuit while working at Texas Instruments. Read more
12 Sep 1953: U.S. Senator and future President John Fitzgerald Kennedy marries Jacqueline Lee Bouvier at St. Mary's Church in Newport, Rhode Island. Read more
12 Sep 1944: World War II: The liberation of Yugoslavia from Axis occupation continues. Bajina Bašta in western Serbia is among the liberated cities. Read more
12 Sep 1943: World War II: Benito Mussolini is rescued from house arrest by German commando forces led by Otto Skorzeny. Read more
12 Sep 1942: World War II: RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian POWs is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa and sinks with a heavy loss of life. Read more
12 Sep 1942: World War II: First day of the Battle of Edson's Ridge during the Guadalcanal Campaign. U.S. Marines protecting Henderson Field are attacked by Imperial Japanese Army troops. Read more
12 Sep 1940: Cave paintings are discovered in Lascaux, France. Read more
12 Sep 1940: The Hercules Powder plant disaster in the United States kills 51 people and injures over 200. Read more
12 Sep 1938: Adolf Hitler demands autonomy and self-determination for the Germans of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. Read more
12 Sep 1933: Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction. Read more
12 Sep 1923: Southern Rhodesia, today called Zimbabwe, is annexed by the United Kingdom. Read more
12 Sep 1915: French soldiers rescue over 4,000 Armenian genocide survivors stranded on Musa Dagh. Read more
12 Sep 1910: Premiere performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 in Munich (with a chorus of 852 singers and an orchestra of 171 players. Mahler's rehearsal assistant conductor was Bruno Walter). Read more
12 Sep 1906: The Newport Transporter Bridge is opened in Newport, South Wales by Viscount Tredegar. Read more
12 Sep 1897: Tirah campaign: In the Battle of Saragarhi, ten thousand Pashtun tribesmen suffer several hundred casualties while attacking 21 Sikh soldiers in British service. Read more
12 Sep 1890: Salisbury, Rhodesia, is founded. Read more
12 Sep 1885: Arbroath 36–0 Bon Accord, a world record scoreline in professional association football. Read more
12 Sep 1857: The SS Central America sinks about 160 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, drowning a total of 426 passengers and crew, including Captain William Lewis Herndon. The ship was carrying 13–15 tons of gold from the California gold rush. Read more
12 Sep 1848: A new constitution marks the establishment of Switzerland as a federal state. Read more
12 Sep 1847: Mexican–American War: the Battle of Chapultepec begins. Read more
12 Sep 1814: Battle of North Point: an American detachment halts the British land advance to Baltimore in the War of 1812. Read more

Famous Births on 12 September

12 Sep 2001: Ziaire Williams, American basketball player Ziaire Williams Jr. is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Stanford Cardinal. Read more
12 Sep 1999: Jerome Ford, American football player Jerome Ford is an American professional football running back. Ford played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide and Cincinnati Bearcats and was selected by the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round of the 2022 NFL draft. He has also played for the Washington Commanders. Read more
12 Sep 1997: Sydney Sweeney, American actress Sydney Bernice Sweeney is an American actress. She gained early recognition for her roles in Everything Sucks!, The Handmaid's Tale, and Sharp Objects in 2018. She received wider acclaim for her performances in the drama series Euphoria (2019–2026) and the first season of the anthology series The White Lotus (2021), both of which earned her nominations for Primetime Emmy Awards. Read more
12 Sep 1997: Almida de Val, Swedish curler Almida Winquist de Val is a Swedish curler from Sundbyberg. She currently plays third on Team Isabella Wranå. With this team, she won a gold medal at the 2017 World Junior Curling Championships. Partering with Oskar Eriksson, she is the bronze medalist at 2022 Winter Olympics mixed doubles curling tournament. Read more
12 Sep 1996: Colin Ford, American actor Colin Lee Ford is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Josh Wheeler in Daybreak; Joe McAlister in Under the Dome; the voice of Jake on Jake and the Never Land Pirates; Mikey on Can You Teach My Alligator Manners?, which earned him a Young Artist Award; young Sam Winchester in Supernatural; and Dylan Mee in the family film We Bought a Zoo. Read more
12 Sep 1995: Steven Gardiner, Bahamian sprinter Steven Gardiner is a Bahamian track and field sprinter competing in the 400 metres and 200 metres. He is the 2020 Olympic and 2019 world champion in the 400 m, and also won the silver medal at the 2017 World Championships in that event. His winning time of 43.48 s from the 2019 World Championships is the Bahamian record and makes him the eighth‑fastest man in the history of the event. Gardiner also owns the Bahamian records in the outdoor 300 m and 200 m, with times of 31.83 s and 19.75 s respectively, and the world best in the indoor 300 m at 31.56 s. Read more
12 Sep 1994: Druski, American comedian and actor Drew Desbordes, known professionally as Druski, is an American comedian, actor, and influencer. He is known for his sketch comedy, Coulda Been Records, and collaborations with various musicians in their music videos, including Drake, Lil Yachty, Jack Harlow, and others. Read more
12 Sep 1994: RM, South Korean rapper, songwriter and record producer Kim Nam-joon, known professionally as RM, is a South Korean rapper, songwriter, and record producer. He is the leader of South Korean boy band BTS, under Big Hit Music. Born in Seoul and raised in Ilsan, RM began his music career in the underground Korean hip-hop scene as a teenager, going by the name Runch Randa. He joined Big Hit in 2010, and debuted as part of BTS in June 2013. Read more
12 Sep 1994: Elina Svitolina, Ukrainian tennis player Elina Mykhailivna Svitolina is a Ukrainian professional tennis player. She has career-high rankings of world No. 3 in singles and No. 108 in doubles from the WTA. Svitolina has won 20 WTA Tour singles titles, including the 2018 WTA Finals and five WTA 1000-level tournaments, and has reached four major semifinals. Read more
12 Sep 1994: Mohammed Asif, Indian sailor and researcher Mohammed Asif is an Indian sailor who won the Star Vintage Gold Cup in 2025 with American skipper Luke Lawrence. Asif is a recipient of the Gold Laurel Wreath awarded to winners of the Star Vintage Gold Cup. He is a member of the Royal Madras Yacht Club and has competed internationally in the Star class. Read more
12 Sep 1993: Kelsea Ballerini, American country pop singer Kelsea Nicole Ballerini is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. A five-time Grammy Award nominee, she began having success in the 2010s, being honored with the Gene Weed Milestone Award at the Academy of Country Music Awards and the Rising Star Award at the Billboard Women in Music. Read more
12 Sep 1992: Alexia Fast, Canadian actress Alexia Fast is a Canadian actress who began her career at the age of seven when she wrote, directed and starred in the short film The Red Bridge, which premiered at the 2002 Atlantic and Reel to Reel Film Festivals. She obtained her first agent at the age of 11 and starred in her first feature film, Fido (2006), at 13. Read more
12 Sep 1992: Sviatlana Pirazhenka, Belarusian tennis player Sviatlana Aliaksandrauna Pirazhenka is a Belarusian former tennis player. Read more
12 Sep 1991: Mike Towell, Scottish professional boxer (died 2016) Mike Towell was a Scottish professional boxer. Read more
12 Sep 1991: Scott Wootton, English footballer Scott James Wootton is a former English professional footballer who played as a defender. Read more
12 Sep 1989: Freddie Freeman, American-Canadian baseball player Frederick Charles Freeman is a Canadian and American professional baseball first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). Freeman made his MLB debut with the Atlanta Braves in 2010 and played with them for 12 seasons. After the Braves won the 2021 World Series over the Houston Astros, Freeman entered free agency and signed a six-year, $162 million contract with the Dodgers. Read more
12 Sep 1989: Andrew Luck, American football player Andrew Austen Luck is an American football executive and former professional quarterback who is the general manager of the Stanford Cardinal. He previously played in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons with the Indianapolis Colts. Considered one of the best draft prospects during his college football career with Stanford, Luck won the Maxwell, Walter Camp, and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm awards in 2011. He was selected by the Colts first overall in the 2012 NFL draft. Read more
12 Sep 1988: Amanda Jenssen, Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist Jenny Amanda Katarina Jenssen is a Swedish singer and songwriter who first rose to prominence as the Swedish Idol 2007 runner-up. Her first album, Killing My Darlings (2008), became one of that year's best-selling albums in Sweden, peaking at number 1 on the Swedish album chart. She also had success with her music singles, with seven individual placements on the Swedish singles chart. Read more
12 Sep 1988: Guðmundur Ari Sigurjónsson, Icelandic politician Guðmundur Ari Sigurjónsson is an Icelandic politician and member of the Althing. A member of the Social Democratic Alliance, he has represented the Southwest constituency since November 2024. Read more
12 Sep 1986: Alfie Allen, English actor Alfie Evan Allen is an English actor. He portrayed Theon Greyjoy on all eight seasons of the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones (2011–2019), for which he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2019. In film, he is best known for his starring roles in John Wick (2014), The Predator (2018), and Jojo Rabbit (2019). Read more
12 Sep 1986: Joanne Jackson, English swimmer Joanne Amy Jackson is an English freestyle swimmer. She is the sister of retired Olympic swimmer Nicola Jackson. She was born in Northallerton and went to Richmond School, North Yorkshire. Read more
12 Sep 1986: Yuto Nagatomo, Japanese footballer Yūto Nagatomo is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a full back for J1 League club FC Tokyo and the Japan national team. Read more
12 Sep 1986: Dimitrios Regas, Greek sprinter Dimítrios Régas, in Lesbos (Mytilini) island, is a Greek sprint athlete. Read more
12 Sep 1986: Emmy Rossum, American singer and actress Emmanuelle Grey Rossum Esmail is an American actress and singer. Her accolades include a Critics' Choice Award and a Saturn Award, in addition to nominations for a Golden Globe Award and an Independent Spirit Award. Read more
12 Sep 1984: Nashat Akram, Iraqi footballer Nashat Akram Abid Ali Al-Eissa is an Iraqi former professional footballer. Popularly dubbed "The Maestro", he usually played as a playmaker or as an attacking midfielder and was known for his exceptional vision and excellent passing ability, as well as his ability to score goals from long range. Read more
12 Sep 1984: Chelsea Carey, Canadian curler Chelsea Danielle Carey is a Canadian curler from Calgary, Alberta. She currently skips her own team out of Manitoba. She is the 2016 and 2019 Canadian and Alberta women's champion skip and 2014 Manitoba provincial women's champion skip. She currently coaches the Beth Peterson rink. Read more
12 Sep 1984: Petra Marklund, Swedish singer Petra Linnea Paula Marklund, known also by her previous stage name September, is a Swedish singer, songwriter, and television presenter. Marklund started recording in professional studios around the age of twelve, and first came to the attention of the music scene with September's debut single "La La La " in 2003, released from her studio album September (2004). Read more
12 Sep 1983: Tom Geißler, German footballer Tom Geißler is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Read more
12 Sep 1983: Daniel Muir, American football player Daniel Travanti Muir is an American former professional football player who was a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). He was signed by the Green Bay Packers as an undrafted free agent in 2007. He played college football for the Kent State Golden Flashes.
Muir was also a member of the Indianapolis Colts, St. Louis Rams, New York Jets, Kansas City Chiefs, Houston Texans and Oakland Raiders. Read more
12 Sep 1983: Sergio Parisse, Argentinian-Italian rugby player Sergio Francesco Parisse is an Italian-Argentine former rugby union player. He is currently the lineout coach for French club Toulon. He played for the Italy national team from 2002 until the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Parisse is Italy's most-capped player, and currently the seventh most-capped player of all time. He was the first Italian rugby union player to be nominated for the IRB International Player of the Year, in 2008 and again in 2013. Parisse is widely considered one of the greatest number eights of the modern era, and among the greatest Italian rugby player of all time. He also holds the joint record of playing in five Rugby World Cups. Read more
12 Sep 1983: Clayton Richard, American baseball player Clayton Colby Richard is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox, San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs, and Toronto Blue Jays. Read more
12 Sep 1983: Carly Smithson, Irish singer-songwriter Carly Sarah Smithson is an Irish soul and pop rock singer who was the sixth place finalist on the seventh season of American Idol in 2008. In 2001, Smithson had released her first studio album for MCA Records called Ultimate High. Smithson was dropped from the record label in 2002. After being introduced to former Evanescence guitarist Ben Moody in early 2009, plans for Smithson's post-Idol solo album were scrapped and instead she became the lead singer of the rock band We Are the Fallen. She also sings in The Tribe, a revolving group of Los Angeles musicians and singers that includes Stephen John Kalinich, Freebo, Fuzzbee Morse, Gary Stockdale, Grant Geissman, Rosemary Butler, Marc Mann, Gary Griffin, The Honeys, and Band Manager Lauri Reimer. Read more
12 Sep 1983: Niels Tas, Belgian politician Niels E. M. Tas is a Belgian politician and member of the Chamber of Representatives. A member of Vooruit, he has represented East Flanders since March 2025. Read more
12 Sep 1982: Zoran Planinić, Croatian basketball player Zoran Planinić is a Croatian former professional basketball player. Read more
12 Sep 1982: Sal Rinauro, American wrestler Salvatore Rinauro is an American professional wrestler, He is performing for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). He is best known for his work in Ring of Honor (ROH) and Full Impact Pro (FIP). in addition to being a member of The Embassy. He also makes appearances on the independent circuit. Read more
12 Sep 1981: Jennifer Hudson, American singer and actress Jennifer Kate Hudson, also known by her nickname J.Hud, is an American singer, actress, producer, and talk show host. Having received numerous accolades for her work in music, film, television, and theater, Hudson became the youngest woman and third African-American recipient of all four major American entertainment awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT) in 2022. She was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013, and Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2020. Read more
12 Sep 1981: Staciana Stitts, American swimmer Staciana Stitts Winfield, née Staciana Stitts, is an American former competition swimmer and breaststroke specialist. She was a 2000 Summer Olympics and 1999 Pan American Games gold medalist, and 1998 Goodwill Games silver medalist. Read more
12 Sep 1980: Sean Burroughs, American baseball player (died 2024) Sean Patrick Burroughs was an American professional baseball third baseman, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2002 to 2005 and 2011 to 2012 for the San Diego Padres, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Minnesota Twins. He won a gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Read more
12 Sep 1980: Fernando César de Souza, Brazilian footballer Fernando César de Souza is a footballer from Brazil who plays as a defender. He has spent much of his playing career in the Swiss Super League. Read more
12 Sep 1980: Yao Ming, Chinese basketball player Yao Ming is a Chinese basketball executive and former professional player. He played for the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), and then spent his entire nine-year National Basketball Association (NBA) career with the Houston Rockets. He was an eight-time NBA All-Star, and was named to the All-NBA Team five times. At 7 feet 6 inches (2.29 m), he was the NBA's tallest active player in his final season. Read more
12 Sep 1980: Kevin Sinfield, English rugby player Sir Kevin Sinfield is an English rugby union coach who is the skills and kicking coach for the England national team. He is a former professional rugby league footballer who played for the Leeds Rhinos, England and Great Britain. He played as a loose forward or stand-off and occasionally as a hooker. Read more
12 Sep 1980: Josef Vašíček, Czech ice hockey player (died 2011) Josef Vašíček was a Czech professional ice hockey player. Vašíček last played for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and died in the 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash. He had played seven seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Carolina Hurricanes, Nashville Predators and New York Islanders before moving to Russia in 2008 to play for Yaroslavl. Read more
12 Sep 1978: Elisabetta Canalis, Italian model and actress Elisabetta Canalis is an Italian actress and television personality. Read more
12 Sep 1978: Benjamin McKenzie, American actor Benjamin McKenzie Schenkkan is an American actor, author, and commentator. He is best known for his starring television roles as Ryan Atwood on the teen drama The O.C. (2003–2007), Ben Sherman on the crime drama Southland (2009–2013), and James "Jim" Gordon on the crime drama Gotham (2014–2019). Read more
12 Sep 1978: Ruben Studdard, American R&B, pop, and gospel singer Christopher Theodore Ruben Studdard is an American singer and actor. He rose to fame as the winner of the second season of American Idol and received a Grammy Award nomination in 2003 for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for his recording of "Superstar". In the years following Idol, Studdard has released seven studio albums, including his platinum-selling debut, Soulful, and the top-selling gospel follow-up, I Need an Angel. He is most well known for his recording career, which has produced hits including "Flying Without Wings", "Sorry 2004", and "Change Me", but he has also segued into television and stage work. Most notably, he starred as Fats Waller in a national tour revival of Ain't Misbehavin', which spawned a Grammy-nominated soundtrack. Read more
12 Sep 1977: Nathan Bracken, Australian cricketer Nathan Wade Bracken is a former Australian cricketer. A tall left-arm fast-medium bowler, Bracken is capable of swinging the ball both ways. He has represented Australia in all forms of the game. Bracken represented New South Wales in Australian domestic cricket, Eastern Suburbs in Sydney Grade Cricket and also appeared for English County team Gloucestershire in 2004. On 28 January 2011 he announced his retirement from the game due to a chronic knee injury. On 9 February 2012 it was reported that he sued Cricket Australia over the latter's alleged incompetency in managing his knee injury. With his time representing Australia, Bracken won multiple ICC titles with the team: the 2003 Cricket World Cup, the 2007 Cricket World Cup, and the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy. Read more
12 Sep 1977: Grant Denyer, Australian racing driver and journalist Grant Craig Denyer is an Australian television and radio presenter and motor racing driver. He has worked for several television networks, including Seven Network and Network 10, mostly serving as a presenter. He previously hosted
Family Feud and Australia's Got Talent. Currently, he hosts Channel 10's main game show Deal or No Deal. Read more
12 Sep 1977: Jeff Irwin, American singer-songwriter and producer Jeff Irwin is an American musician and multi-instrumentalist. He has performed with Griffin House, Cerys Matthews, Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken, Mat Kearney, Taylor Sorensen & the Trigger Code, and Counting Crows. Read more
12 Sep 1977: David Thompson, English footballer David Anthony Thompson is an English football pundit currently working for the BBC. Thompson played as a midfielder, though he had to retire aged 29 through an osteochondral defect of the left knee sustained at age 25. He is currently a UEFA A and B licensed coach working towards his professional licence. In August 2021, he became a director of football at Europa in the Gibraltar National League. Read more
12 Sep 1976: Lauren Stamile, American actress Lauren Stamile is an American actress. She is best known for portraying Nurse Rose on the ABC series Grey's Anatomy, Michelle Slater on the NBC series Community, and CIA Agent Dani Pearce on the USA Network series Burn Notice. Read more
12 Sep 1976: Maciej Żurawski, Polish footballer Maciej Stanisław Żurawski is a Polish former professional footballer who played as a forward. Read more
12 Sep 1975: Luis Castillo, Dominican baseball player Luis Antonio Castillo is a Dominican former professional baseball second baseman. He played in Major League Baseball for the Florida Marlins, New York Mets, and Minnesota Twins from 1996 through 2010. Read more
12 Sep 1975: Bill Kirby, Australian swimmer and coach William Ashley Kirby is an Australian swimmer who was competitive on an international level in the nineties and early 2000s. He specialized in freestyle and butterfly and won a gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney as part of the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay team. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder. Read more
12 Sep 1974: Caroline Aigle, French soldier and pilot (died 2007) Commandant Caroline Aigle was a French aviator who achieved a historical first when at the age of 25, she became the first woman fighter pilot in the French Air Force. Her promising military career was cut short by death from cancer seven years later. She was posthumously awarded the Médaille de l'Aéronautique. Read more
12 Sep 1974: Jennifer Nettles, American singer-songwriter Jennifer Odessa Nettles is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Read more
12 Sep 1974: Guy Smith, English race car driver Guy James Mutlow Smith is a British professional racing driver, who has competed in various levels of motorsport, most notably the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which he won in 2003, and the American Le Mans Series, which he won in 2011. Read more
12 Sep 1974: Kenichi Suzumura, Japanese voice actor and singer-songwriter Kenichi Suzumura is a Japanese voice actor, narrator, and singer who is affiliated with and a representative of INTENTION, a voice acting company he founded in March 2012. He voiced Morley in Macross 7, Hikaru Hitachiin in Ouran High School Host Club, Zack Fair in the Final Fantasy VII metaseries, Masato Hijirikawa in Uta no Prince-sama, Sandalphon in Granblue Fantasy, Kyoichi Kanzaki in BOYS BE, Shiki Tohno in Tsukihime, Mikiya Kokuto in The Garden of Sinners, Tsubaki Asahina in Brothers Conflict, Yuya Aso in Super Gals!, Atsushi Murasakibara in Kuroko's Basketball, Momotaro Mikoshiba in Free!, Shinn Asuka in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny & Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom, Leo Stenbuck in Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, Sōgo Okita in Gintama, Rogue Cheney in Fairy Tail, Lavi in D.Gray-man, Obanai Iguro in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Ryutaros in Kamen Rider Den-O and Rakushun in The Twelve Kingdoms. He is part of the group Nazo no Shin Unit STA☆MEN (謎の新ユニットＳＴＡ☆ＭＥＮ) with Junichi Suwabe, Daisuke Kishio, Hiroki Takahashi, Hiroyuki Yoshino, Makoto Yasumura, and Kohsuke Toriumi. His younger brother is stunt coordinator, stuntman and actor Masaki Suzumura. Read more
12 Sep 1974: Nuno Valente, Portuguese footballer and coach Nuno Jorge Pereira da Silva Valente is a former Portuguese professional footballer who played as a left-back or a winger. He later became a manager. Read more
12 Sep 1973: Kara David, Filipino journalist and documentarian Kara Patria Constantino David-Cancio is a Filipino journalist, host, professor, and educational administrator.
She is known because of investigative and multi-awarded documentaries in i-Witness. These documentaries are "Bitay", "Selda Inosente", "Buto't Balat", and “Ambulansiyang de Paa”. Read more
12 Sep 1973: Martina Ertl-Renz, German skier Martina Maria Ertl-Renz is a German former alpine skier. She was two times world champion and also won several medals at Olympic Winter Games and World Championships. Read more
12 Sep 1973: Martin Lapointe, Canadian ice hockey player and coach Martin T. Lapointe is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, and Ottawa Senators. He won the Stanley Cup as a member of the Red Wings in both 1997 and 1998. As of 2025, he is the director of player development for the Montreal Canadiens. Read more
12 Sep 1973: Paul Walker, American actor (died 2013) Paul William Walker IV was an American actor. He was best known for his role as Brian O'Conner in the Fast & Furious franchise (2001–2015). Read more
12 Sep 1972: Gideon Emery, English-American actor, producer, and screenwriter Gideon Emery is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Deucalion in Teen Wolf and starring as himself in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. His career also includes providing voice-over work in video games, television series and films, notably as Fenris in Dragon Age II. Read more
12 Sep 1972: Paul Green, Australian rugby league player and coach (died 2022) Paul Gregory Green was an Australian professional rugby league football coach, best known for taking the North Queensland Cowboys to the NRL premiership in 2015, and a professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. Read more
12 Sep 1972: Sidney Souza, Brazilian footballer Sidney da Silva Souza known as Sidney is a Brazilian footballer who plays for Cerâmica. Sidney spent most of his career in Rio Grande do Sul. Read more
12 Sep 1971: Younes El Aynaoui, Moroccan tennis player Younes El Aynaoui is a Moroccan coach and former professional tennis player. Read more
12 Sep 1971: Shocker, Mexican wrestler José Luis Jair Soria, best known under the ring name Shocker, is a Mexican retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure with Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). He has previously worked for AAA in Mexico, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in the United States and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in Japan. Soria is a second-generation professional wrestler; his father, Rubén Soria, was an active wrestler from 1963 to the 1970s. Read more
12 Sep 1970: Will Chase, American actor, director, and singer Frank William Chase is an American actor, director, and singer, best known for his work on Broadway and for his role as country superstar Luke Wheeler on ABC's Nashville. Read more
12 Sep 1970: Nathan Larson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Nathan Peter Larson is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and author. He came to prominence in the 1990s as the guitarist for the rock group Shudder to Think. He has since worked on many film score compositions. He is married to Nina Persson, the lead singer of the Swedish rock band The Cardigans, and the couple has collaborated on several musical projects. Read more
12 Sep 1969: Max Boot, Russian-American historian and author Max A. Boot is a Russian-born naturalized American author, editorialist, lecturer, and military historian. He worked as a writer and editor for The Christian Science Monitor and then for The Wall Street Journal in the 1990s. Since then, he has been the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a contributor to The Washington Post. He has written for such publications as The Weekly Standard, the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times, and he has authored books of military history. In 2018, Boot published The Road Not Taken, a biography of Edward Lansdale, which was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for biography, and The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right, which details Boot's "ideological journey from a 'movement' conservative to a man without a party", in the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. His biography of Ronald Reagan, Reagan: His Life and Legend, was a New York Times Bestseller and named one of the New York Times' 10 Best Books of 2024, as well as one of the year's best books by The Washington Post and The New Yorker. Read more
12 Sep 1969: Ángel Cabrera, Argentinian golfer Ángel Leopoldo Cabrera is an Argentine professional golfer who has played on both the European Tour and PGA Tour. He is known affectionately as "El Pato" in Spanish ("The Duck") for his waddling gait. He is a two-time major champion, with wins at the U.S. Open in 2007 and the Masters in 2009; he was the first Argentine and South American to win either. He also lost in a sudden death playoff at the Masters in 2013. Read more
12 Sep 1969: James Frey, American author and screenwriter James Christopher Frey is an American writer and fabulist. His first two books, A Million Little Pieces (2003) and My Friend Leonard (2005), were bestsellers marketed as memoirs. Large parts of the books were later found to be exaggerated or fabricated, sparking a media controversy. His 2008 novel Bright Shiny Morning was similarly a bestseller. Read more
12 Sep 1969: Shigeki Maruyama, Japanese golfer Shigeki Maruyama is a Japanese professional golfer. Read more
12 Sep 1968: Larry LaLonde, American guitarist and songwriter Reid Laurence LaLonde, also known as Ler LaLonde, is an American musician. He has been the guitarist for the rock band Primus since 1989, where he is known for his experimental accompaniment to the bass playing of bandmate Les Claypool. Previously, he played guitar for several groups including Possessed and Blind Illusion. He also has collaborated more recently with artists such as Serj Tankian and Tom Waits. Read more
12 Sep 1968: Nicholas Russell, 6th Earl Russell, English politician (died 2014) Nicholas Lyulph Russell, 6th Earl Russell, styled Viscount Amberley between 1987 and 2004, was the elder son of Conrad Russell, 5th Earl Russell and Elizabeth Russell. He succeeded to the Earldom of Russell on his father's death on 14 October 2004. Read more
12 Sep 1968: Richard Snell, South African cricketer and physiotherapist Richard Peter Snell is a former South African cricketer who played in five Test matches and 42 One Day Internationals for South Africa. Read more
12 Sep 1968: Paul F. Tompkins, American comedian, actor, and writer Paul Francis Tompkins is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He has worked in television on such programs as BoJack Horseman, Mr. Show with Bob and David, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Best Week Ever, later renamed Best Week Ever with Paul F. Tompkins. Read more
12 Sep 1967: Louis C.K., American comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter Louis Alfred Székely, known professionally as Louis C.K., is an American stand-up comedian, actor and filmmaker. C.K. has won six Emmy Awards, and three Grammy Awards, three Critics' Choice Awards, three Peabody Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for two Golden Globe Awards. He was listed as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2012 and Rolling Stone ranked him fourth on its 2017 list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time. Read more
12 Sep 1967: Pat Listach, American baseball player, coach, and manager Patrick Alan Listach is an American professional baseball shortstop, coach, and manager. As a player, Listach appeared in Major League Baseball for the Milwaukee Brewers and Houston Astros from 1992 and 1997. He won the American League Rookie of the Year Award in 1992. Listach has also been a major league third base coach and minor league manager. Read more
12 Sep 1966: Darren E. Burrows, American actor Darren E. Burrows is an American actor. He is best known for playing Ed Chigliak in the television series Northern Exposure. He also appeared in the films Cry-Baby (1990), Amistad (1997), Sunset Strip (2000), Forty Shades of Blue (2005), in a season six episode of The X-Files and in Season 9 of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Read more
12 Sep 1966: Ben Folds, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer Benjamin Scott Folds is an American singer-songwriter. After playing in several small independent bands from the late 1980s through the early '90s, Folds came to prominence as the frontman and pianist of the alternative rock trio Ben Folds Five from 1993 to 2000, and again during their reunion from 2011 to 2013. Folds has recorded a number of solo albums, most recently Sleigher (2024). He has also collaborated with musicians such as Regina Spektor, "Weird Al" Yankovic and yMusic, and undertaken experimental songwriting projects with actor William Shatner and authors such as Nick Hornby and Neil Gaiman. Folds was the artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. from 2017 until 2025. Read more
12 Sep 1966: Vezio Sacratini, Canadian ice hockey player Vezio Sacratini is a retired Italian-Canadian professional ice hockey player who played for various teams across Europe, most notably the Cardiff Devils, and the Italian national team. Sacratini was a member of the Italian team that finished 9th in the 1994 Winter Olympics. Read more
12 Sep 1965: Einstein Kristiansen, Norwegian animator and producer Øistein Kristiansen, formerly known under his artist name Einstein Kristiansen, is a Norwegian cartoonist, designer, entrepreneur, TV host and co-founder of Earthtree Media AS, who together with his two business partners Henry Steed and Mark Hillman, produces children's television programming, animation and image campaigns for MTV Asia, Nickelodeon and Mediacorp. He usually draws with bright colours and exaggerated details. Read more
12 Sep 1965: Vernon Maxwell, American basketball player Vernon Maxwell is an American former professional basketball player. He was a shooting guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for thirteen seasons during the late 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. Read more
12 Sep 1965: Midnight, Jamaican wrestler Ann-Marie Crooks is a Jamaican-born American former female bodybuilder and professional wrestler. She fought for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1999 under the ring name Midnight. Read more
12 Sep 1964: Greg Gutfeld, American television journalist and author Gregory John Gutfeld is an American television host, political commentator, comedian, and author. He is the host of the late-night comedy talk show Gutfeld!, which was formerly aired on Saturday nights as The Greg Gutfeld Show from May 2015 until March 2021, when it was announced that the show would move to weeknights. Read more
12 Sep 1964: Dieter Hecking, German footballer and manager Dieter-Klaus Hecking is a German former professional football manager and player who is currently VfL Wolfsburg's managing director for sport. Read more
12 Sep 1962: Sunay Akın, Turkish poet, journalist, and philanthropist Sunay Akın is a Turkish poet, writer, TV host, journalist, and a philanthropist. He is the founder of Istanbul Toy Museum. Read more
12 Sep 1962: Amy Yasbeck, American actress Amy Yasbeck is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Casey Chappel Davenport on the sitcom Wings from 1994 to 1997 and for having played the mermaid Madison in the television film Splash, Too in 1988. Yasbeck has guest-starred in several television shows and appeared in the films House II: The Second Story, Pretty Woman, Problem Child, Problem Child 2, The Mask, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and Dracula: Dead and Loving It.
She is the widow of John Ritter. Read more
12 Sep 1961: Mylène Farmer, Canadian-French singer-songwriter, producer, and actress Mylène Jeanne Gautier, known professionally as Mylène Farmer, is a French singer-songwriter and record producer. Having sold more than 35 million records worldwide, she is among the most successful recording artists of all time in France, where she holds the record for the most number one hit singles, with twenty-one – eight of which were consecutive. Read more
12 Sep 1960: Road Warrior Animal, American wrestler (died 2020) Joseph Michael Laurinaitis, better known by his ring name Road Warrior Animal, was an American professional wrestler. Along with Road Warrior Hawk, he was one-half of the tag team the Road Warriors. Read more
12 Sep 1960: Evan Jenkins, American academic and politician Evan Hollin Jenkins is an American politician and judge. He served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, joining the Court in 2018 and serving as chief justice in 2021. He resigned from the court on February 4, 2022. He served as a U.S. Representative from West Virginia from 2015 to 2018. He is a Republican, having switched his party affiliation from Democratic in 2013. Read more
12 Sep 1960: Stefanos Korkolis, Greek pianist and composer Stefanos Korkolis is a Greek composer and pianist. He has performed in theaters and auditoriums all around the world, including the Concertgebouw, the Belém Cultural Center, the Royal Theater Carré, the Athens Concert Hall, the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. Read more
12 Sep 1959: Scott Brown, American colonel and politician Scott Philip Brown is an American diplomat and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he was the United States ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa from 2017 to 2020 under President Donald Trump. Read more
12 Sep 1959: Deron Cherry, American football player and sportscaster Deron Leigh Cherry is an American former professional football player who was a safety for the Kansas City Chiefs in the National Football League (NFL) from 1981 to 1991. Cherry was a free safety and punter at Rutgers University, intercepting a total of 9 passes over his three seasons, which he returned for 126 yards and two touchdowns. In 1979, he was named the team's MVP. In 1979 and 1980, Cherry earned AP All-East honors. In 1981, he was signed by the Kansas City Chiefs as a free agent but was released in the final teams cuts. Cherry rejoined the club as a safety, and made his first career interception against division rivals the Oakland Raiders. Read more
12 Sep 1959: Sigmar Gabriel, German educator and politician, 17th Vice-Chancellor of Germany Sigmar Hartmut Gabriel is a German politician who was the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2018 and the vice-chancellor of Germany from 2013 to 2018. He was Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 2009 to 2017, which made him the party's longest-serving leader since Willy Brandt. He was the Federal Minister of the Environment from 2005 to 2009 and the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy from 2013 to 2017. From 1999 to 2003 Gabriel was Minister-President of Lower Saxony. Read more
12 Sep 1958: Wilfred Benítez, American boxer Wilfred "Wilfredo" Benítez Rosa, better known as Wilfred Benitez, is a Puerto Rican former professional boxer and the youngest world champion in the sport's history. Earning his first of three career world titles in separate weight divisions at the age of seventeen, he is best remembered as a skilled and aggressive fighter. He is widely considered one of the greatest defensive boxers of all time. He is also remembered for his fights with Roberto Durán, Thomas Hearns, and Sugar Ray Leonard. Read more
12 Sep 1958: Gregg Edelman, American actor and singer Gregg Edelman is an American actor. He has starred in numerous Broadway productions earning four Tony Award nominations for his roles in City of Angels (1990), Anna Karenina (1993), 1776 (1998), and Into the Woods (2002). His other Broadway credits include Cabaret (1987), Anything Goes (1989), Falsettos (1992), Passion (1994), Les Misérables (1999), The Mystery of Edwin Drood (2012), and Water for Elephants (2024). Read more
12 Sep 1957: Paul M. Sharp, British academic and educator Paul Martin Sharp is a British bioinformatician who is a professor of genetics at the University of Edinburgh, where he holds the Alan Robertson chair of genetics in the Institute of Evolutionary Biology. Read more
12 Sep 1957: Jan Egeland, Norwegian politician, diplomat and humanitarian Jan Egeland is a Norwegian diplomat, political scientist, humanitarian leader, and former Labour Party politician who has been Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council since 2013. He served as State Secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1990 to 1997 and as United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator from 2003 to 2006. Read more
12 Sep 1957: Rachel Ward, English-Australian actress Rachel Claire Ward is a British and Australian actress and filmmaker. She gained recognition as an actress for her performance in the American television miniseries The Thorn Birds (1983), which earned her one of three Golden Globe Award nominations. Read more
12 Sep 1957: Hans Zimmer, German composer and producer Hans Florian Zimmer is a German film composer and music producer. He has received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and five Grammy Awards, as well as nominations for seven Primetime Emmy Awards. Zimmer was also named one of the Top 100 Living Geniuses by The Daily Telegraph in 2007. Read more
12 Sep 1956: Leslie Cheung, Hong Kong singer-songwriter and actor (died 2003) Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing was a Hong Kong singer-songwriter and actor. One of the most influential cultural icons in the Sinophone world, Cheung was known for his debonair demeanour, flamboyant screen characters, and avant-garde, androgynous stage presence. Throughout his 26-year career, he released over 40 music albums and acted in 56 films. Read more
12 Sep 1956: David Goodhart, English journalist and author David Goodhart is a British journalist, commentator and author. He is the founder and a former editor of Prospect magazine. Read more
12 Sep 1956: BA Robertson, Scottish songwriter Brian Alexander Robertson is a Scottish musician, composer and songwriter. He had a string of hits in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including "Kool in the Kaftan", "Knocked It Off", "To Be or Not to Be" and "Bang Bang". With Mike Rutherford of Genesis, he wrote the Grammy-nominated and Ivor Novello Award-winning song "The Living Years", which was a number one hit in the US, Canada, Australia and Ireland, and reached number two in his native UK. He has also written music for films. Read more
12 Sep 1956: Walter Woon, Singaporean lawyer and politician, 7th Attorney-General of Singapore Walter Woon Cheong Ming is a Singaporean lawyer who served as the fifth attorney-general of Singapore between 2008 and 2010. He is currently an Emeritus Professor at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, Lee Kong Chian Visiting professor at the Singapore Management University Yong Pung How School of Law, and the dean of the RHT Legal Training Institute. Read more
12 Sep 1955: Peter Scolari, American actor (died 2021) Peter Thomas Scolari was an American actor. He was best known for his roles as Henry Desmond in the ABC sitcom Bosom Buddies (1980–1982) and Michael Harris on the CBS sitcom Newhart (1984–1990), the latter of which earned him three consecutive nominations for Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series from 1987 to 1989. Read more
12 Sep 1955: Brian Smith, English footballer (died 2013) Brian Smith was an English professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Read more
12 Sep 1954: Robert Gober, American sculptor Robert Gober is an American sculptor. His work is often related to domestic and familiar objects such as sinks, doors, and legs. Read more
12 Sep 1954: Scott Hamilton, American saxophonist Scott Hamilton is an American jazz tenor saxophonist associated with swing and straight-ahead jazz. His eldest son, Shō Īmura, is the vocalist of the Japanese rock band Okamoto's. Read more
12 Sep 1954: Peeter Volkonski, Estonian singer-songwriter and actor Prince Peeter Volkonski is an Estonian rock-musician, composer, actor, and theatre director. Read more
12 Sep 1953: Nan Goldin, American photographer Nancy Goldin is an American photographer and activist. Her work explores in snapshot-style the emotions of the individual, in intimate relationships, and the bohemian LGBTQ subcultural communities, especially dealing with the devastating HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s. Her most notable work is The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. In the slideshow and monograph (1986) Goldin portrayed her chosen family, meanwhile documenting the post-punk and gay subcultures. She is a founding member of the advocacy group P.A.I.N. against the opioid epidemic. She lives and works in New York City. Read more
12 Sep 1952: Gerry Beckley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Gerald Linford Beckley is an American singer, songwriter and musician, and a founding member of the band America. Read more
12 Sep 1952: Neil Peart, Canadian drummer, songwriter, and producer (died 2020) Neil Ellwood Peart was a Canadian musician, songwriter and author, who was the drummer, percussionist, and primary lyricist of the progressive rock band Rush. He was nicknamed "the Professor", after his resemblance to the Gilligan's Island character of the same name. His drumming was renowned for its technical proficiency and his live performances for their exacting nature and stamina. Peart earned numerous awards for his musical performances, including an induction into the Modern Drummer Readers Poll Hall of Fame in 1983 at age 30, making him the youngest person ever so honoured. Read more
12 Sep 1951: Bertie Ahern, Irish accountant and politician, 11th Taoiseach of Ireland Bartholomew Patrick "Bertie" Ahern is an Irish former Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach from 1997 to 2008, and as Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1994 to 2008. A Teachta Dála (TD) from 1977 to 2011, he served as Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 1997. He was also Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1986 to 1987, Tánaiste from November to December 1994, and Minister for Finance from 1991 to 1994. Read more
12 Sep 1951: Norm Dubé, Canadian ice hockey player Normand G. Dubé is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played 57 games in the National Hockey League and 148 games in the World Hockey Association. He played with the Kansas City Scouts and Quebec Nordiques. His son Christian Dubé played with his teammates when he was very young. Read more
12 Sep 1951: Ray Gravell, Welsh rugby player and actor (died 2007) Raymond William Robert Gravell was a Welsh rugby union centre who played club rugby for Llanelli RFC.
At international level, Gravell earned 23 caps for Wales and was selected for the 1980 British Lions tour to South Africa. Read more
12 Sep 1951: Joe Pantoliano, American actor and producer Joseph Peter Pantoliano is an American actor who has played more than 150 roles across film, television, and theater. He won an Emmy for his portrayal of the sadistic gangster Ralph Cifaretto in HBO's The Sopranos. His film roles include Francis Fratelli in The Goonies (1985), Captain Conrad Howard in the Bad Boys film series (1995–2024), Cypher in the Wachowskis' sci-fi action film The Matrix (1999), and Teddy in Christopher Nolan's psychological thriller film Memento (2000). Read more
12 Sep 1951: Ali-Ollie Woodson, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player (died 2010) Ali-Ollie Woodson was an American R&B singer, musician, songwriter, keyboardist, drummer, and occasional actor best known for his twelve years with the Temptations alongside Otis Williams. He also worked with Aretha Franklin, Jean Carn, and Bill Pinkney. Read more
12 Sep 1950: Marguerite Blais, Canadian journalist and politician Marie Josephine Marguerite Blais is a Canadian politician, journalist, radio host and television host from Quebec. She was a Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) member of the National Assembly of Quebec (MNA) and a previous Minister Responsible for Seniors and Informal Caregivers and a member of the Comité ministériel des services aux citoyens. She was a Liberal MNA for the electoral division of Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne in Montreal from 2007 to 2015, and served as the Minister Responsible for Seniors, vice-chair of the Comité ministériel du développement social, éducatif et culturel, and a member of the Conseil du trésor. Read more
12 Sep 1950: Gustav Brunner, Austrian engineer Gustav Brunner is an Austrian Formula One designer and engineer. Read more
12 Sep 1950: Bruce Mahler, American actor and screenwriter Bruce Mahler is an American actor, producer, and writer. He is known for his role as Sgt. Fackler in the comedy films Police Academy, and as Rabbi Glickman on the sitcom Seinfeld. Read more
12 Sep 1950: Mike Murphy, Canadian ice hockey player and coach Michael John Murphy is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League for 13 years for the St. Louis Blues, New York Rangers and the Los Angeles Kings and has been assistant and head coach in the NHL for the Los Angeles Kings, Ottawa Senators, Vancouver Canucks, Toronto Maple Leafs and the New York Rangers. Murphy also played for Team Canada, winning a bronze medal in 1978, and coached Team Canada, International Hockey League (IHL). Murphy also worked as the Senior Vice President of the NHL's hockey operations. Read more
12 Sep 1949: Charles Burlingame, American captain and pilot (died 2001) Charles Frank "Chic" Burlingame III was the captain of American Airlines Flight 77, the aircraft that was crashed by terrorists into the Pentagon during the September 11 attacks. Read more
12 Sep 1949: Irina Rodnina, Russian figure skater and politician Irina Konstantinovna Rodnina is a Russian politician and retired figure skater, who is the only pair skater to win 10 successive World Championships (1969–78) and three successive Olympic gold medals. She was elected to the State Duma in the 2007 legislative election as a member of President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party. As a figure skater, she initially competed with Alexei Ulanov and later teamed up with Alexander Zaitsev. She is the first pair skater to win the Olympic title with two different partners, followed only by Artur Dmitriev. Read more
12 Sep 1948: Steve Turre, American trombonist and educator Stephen Johnson Turre is an American jazz trombonist and a pioneer of using seashells as instruments, as well as a composer, arranger, and educator at the collegiate-conservatory level. For sixty-three years, Turre has been active in jazz, rock, and Latin jazz – in live venues, recording studios, television, and cinema production. Read more
12 Sep 1948: Max Walker, Australian footballer, cricketer, sportscaster, and architect (died 2016) Maxwell Henry Norman Walker was an Australian sportsman who played both cricket and Australian rules football at high levels. After six years of balancing first-class cricket in summer, professional football in winter and study for a degree in architecture, Walker earned a place in the Australian cricket team in 1972 and represented his country in the sport until injury ended his career in 1981. Following his retirement, he worked as an architect and also commenced a career in radio and television media. He wrote 14 books over a period of thirty years and became a successful public speaker. His unorthodox cricket bowling action earned him the nickname "Tangles", and his larrikin character made him a much-loved figure with the Australian public. Walker died of multiple myeloma on 28 September 2016 after being diagnosed with the disease three years earlier. He was a part of the Australian squad which finished as runners-up at the 1975 Cricket World Cup. Read more
12 Sep 1947: David Grant, English engineer and academic Sir David Grant FLSW is a British academic who was the vice-chancellor of Cardiff University in Wales from 2001 to 2012. Following his appointment, Grant oversaw the merger between Cardiff University and the University of Wales College of Medicine, which was completed in 2004, and the award of university status to Cardiff. Read more
12 Sep 1947: Gerald Howarth, English soldier, pilot, and politician, Minister for International Security Strategy Sir James Gerald Douglas Howarth is a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aldershot from 1997 until 2017, having been the MP for Cannock and Burntwood from 1983 to 1992. Read more
12 Sep 1947: Christopher Neame, English actor Christopher Neame is an English actor who resides in the United States. Read more
12 Sep 1946: Tony Bellamy, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2009) Redbone is an American rock band that was originally formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1969 by brothers Pat and Lolly Vegas. All members during their commercial peak were of Chicano and Native American heritage, something heavily reflected in their songs, stage regalia, and album art. Read more
12 Sep 1946: Neil Lyndon, British journalist and writer Neil Alexander Lyndon is a British journalist and writer. He has written for The Sunday Times, The Times, The Independent, the Evening Standard the Daily Mail and the Telegraph. Read more
12 Sep 1945: Russell "Jungle Jim" Liberman, American drag racer (died 1977) Russell James Liberman was an American funny car drag racer, nicknamed "Jungle Jim." In 2001, he was named #17 on the list of the Top 50 NHRA drivers of all time. Liberman was known for driving backwards at 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) after doing his burnout. Read more
12 Sep 1945: Milo Manara, Italian author and illustrator Maurilio Manara, known professionally as Milo Manara, is an Italian comic book writer and artist. Read more
12 Sep 1945: John Mauceri, American conductor and producer John Francis Mauceri is an American conductor, composer, author, and educator whose work has focused on orchestral music, opera, Broadway, and film-related repertoire. A graduate of Yale University, where he later taught music for more than a decade, he has conducted the major orchestras and opera companies in the world, including the
Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, the Royal Opera House, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Cleveland Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Symphony (Washington), Philadelphia Orchestra, Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien (Vienna), San Francisco Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He has won a Tony, Grammy, and three Emmy awards, as well as an Olivier Award. Further, he conducted the Oscar–winning music for the soundtrack of the film version of Evita. As a founder and educator, he created and directed the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and was founding chancellor of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He is the author of several books on conducting and the history of 20th-century music. Read more
12 Sep 1944: Lonnie Mayne, American wrestler (died 1978) Ronald Doyle "Lonnie" Mayne was an American professional wrestler in the 1960s and 1970s who frequently went by the name Moondog Mayne. He wrestled in various National Wrestling Alliance territories, as well as the World Wide Wrestling Federation in 1973. Read more
12 Sep 1944: Vladimir Spivakov, Russian violinist and conductor Vladimir Teodorovich Spivakov is a Soviet and Russian conductor and violinist best known for his work with the Moscow Virtuosi chamber orchestra. Read more
12 Sep 1944: Barry White, American singer-songwriter (died 2003) Barry Eugene White was an American R&B, soul and disco singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer. A two-time Grammy Award winner known for his bass voice and romantic image, his greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer and with the Love Unlimited Orchestra, who made the #1 hit "Love's Theme" written by White. His music contains elements of multiple genres, such as R&B, soul, and disco; this is evident in his two biggest hits: "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" and "You're the First, the Last, My Everything". Read more
12 Sep 1943: Ralph Neely, American football player (died 2022) Ralph Eugene Neely was an American professional football player who was an offensive tackle for the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League (NFL). He played 13 seasons and 172 games for the Cowboys from 1965 to 1977. Read more
12 Sep 1943: Michael Ondaatje, Sri Lankan-Canadian author and poet Philip Michael Ondaatje is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer and essayist. Read more
12 Sep 1942: Michel Drucker, French journalist Michel Drucker, CQ is a popular French journalist and TV host. He has been on screen for so long on various shows and different networks, both public and private, that he once said that some people joked that he was included in the price of their TV sets. Read more
12 Sep 1942: Tomás Marco, Spanish composer Tomás Marco Aragón is a Spanish composer and writer on music. Read more
12 Sep 1942: Maria Muldaur, American folk and blues singer Maria Muldaur is an American folk and blues singer who was part of the American folk music revival in the early 1960s. She recorded the 1973 hit song "Midnight at the Oasis" and has recorded albums in the folk, blues, early jazz, gospel, country, and R&B traditions. Read more
12 Sep 1942: François Tavenas, Canadian engineer and academic (died 2004) François Tavenas, was a Canadian engineer and academic. Read more
12 Sep 1940: Linda Gray, American model and actress Linda Ann Gray is an American actress, best known for her role as Sue Ellen Ewing, the long-suffering wife of Larry Hagman's character J.R. Ewing on the CBS television drama series Dallas. The role also earned her a nomination for the 1981 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series as well as two Golden Globe Awards nominations. Read more
12 Sep 1939: Henry Waxman, American lawyer and politician Henry Arnold Waxman is an American politician and lobbyist who was a U.S. representative from California from 1975 to 2015. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Read more
12 Sep 1938: Judy Clay, American soul and gospel singer (died 2001) Judy Clay was an American soul and gospel singer, who achieved greatest success as a member of two recording duos in the 1960s. Read more
12 Sep 1938: Claude Ruel, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 2015) Claude Ruel was a professional ice hockey coach for the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL). Read more
12 Sep 1938: Tatiana Troyanos, American operatic soprano (died 1993) Tatiana Troyanos was an American mezzo-soprano remembered as "one of the defining singers of her generation". Her voice, "a paradoxical voice — larger than life yet intensely human, brilliant yet warm, lyric yet dramatic" — "was the kind you recognize after one bar, and never forget", wrote Cori Ellison in Opera News. Read more
12 Sep 1937: George Chuvalo, Canadian boxer George Louis Chuvalo is a Canadian former professional boxer who was a five-time Canadian heavyweight champion and two-time world heavyweight title challenger. He is famous for having never been knocked down in any of his 93 professional bouts including fights against Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman. Chuvalo unsuccessfully challenged Muhammad Ali for the heavyweight championship in 1966. Chuvalo was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 1995. Read more
12 Sep 1937: Wes Hall, Barbadian cricketer and politician Sir Wesley Winfield Hall is a Barbadian former cricketer and politician. A tall, strong and powerfully built man, Hall was a genuine fast bowler and despite his very long run up, he was renowned for his ability to bowl long spells. Hall played 48 Test matches for the West Indies from 1958 to 1969. Hall's opening bowling partnership with fellow Barbadian Charlie Griffith was a feature of the strong West Indies teams throughout the 1960s. Hall was one of the most popular cricketers of his day and was especially popular in Australia, where he played two seasons in the Sheffield Shield with Queensland. Read more
12 Sep 1935: Richard Hunt, American sculptor (died 2023) Richard Howard Hunt was an American artist and sculptor. In the second half of the 20th century, he became "the foremost African-American abstract sculptor and artist of public sculpture." A Chicago native, Hunt studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1950s. While there he received multiple prizes for his work. In 1971, he was the first African-American sculptor to have a retrospective at Museum of Modern Art. Hunt has created over 160 public sculpture commissions, more than any other sculptor in prominent locations in 24 states across the United States. Read more
12 Sep 1934: Glenn Davis, American hurdler, sprinter, and football player (died 2009) Glenn Ashby "Jeep" Davis was an American Olympic hurdler and sprinter who won a total of three gold medals in the 1956 and 1960 Olympic games. Read more
12 Sep 1934: Jaegwon Kim, South Korean-American philosopher and academic (died 2019) Jaegwon Kim was a Korean-American philosopher. At the time of his death, Kim was an emeritus professor of philosophy at Brown University. He also taught at several other leading American universities during his lifetime, including the University of Michigan, Cornell University, the University of Notre Dame, Johns Hopkins University, and Swarthmore College. He is best known for his work on mental causation, the mind–body problem and the metaphysics of supervenience and events. Key themes in his work include: a rejection of Cartesian metaphysics, the limitations of strict psychophysical identity, supervenience, and the individuation of events. Kim's work on these and other contemporary metaphysical and epistemological issues is well represented by the papers collected in Supervenience and Mind: Selected Philosophical Essays (1993). Read more
12 Sep 1934: Nellie Wong, Chinese American poet and activist Nellie Wong was an American poet and activist for feminist and socialist causes. Wong was also an active member of the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women. Read more
12 Sep 1932: Atli Dam, Faroese engineer and politician, 5th Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (died 2005) Atli Pætursson Dam was a Faroese politician who served as prime minister of the Faroe Islands on three occasions. From 1970 to 1981, 1985 to 1989, and 1991 to 1993. To this date, he is the longest-serving prime minister in Faroese history, having served a total of 16 years. Read more
12 Sep 1931: Ian Holm, English actor (died 2020) Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert was an English actor. After graduating from RADA and beginning his career on the British stage as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he became a successful and prolific performer on television and in film. He received numerous accolades including two BAFTA Awards and a Tony Award, along with a nomination for an Academy Award. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998 for services to drama. Read more
12 Sep 1931: George Jones, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2013) George Glenn Jones was an American country musician, singer, and songwriter. He achieved international fame for a long list of hit records, and is well known for his distinctive voice and phrasing. For the last two decades of his life, he was frequently referred to as "the greatest living country singer", "The Rolls-Royce of Country Music". Read more
12 Sep 1930: Larry Austin, American composer and educator (died 2018) Larry Don Austin was an American composer noted for his electronic and computer music works. He was a co-founder and editor of the avant-garde music periodical Source: Music of the Avant Garde. Austin gained additional international recognition when he realized a completion of Charles Ives's Universe Symphony. Austin served as the president of the International Computer Music Association (ICMA) from 1990 to 1994 and served on the board of directors of the ICMA from 1984 to 1988 and from 1990 to 1998. Read more
12 Sep 1929: Harvey Schmidt, American composer and illustrator (died 2018) Harvey Lester Schmidt was an American composer for musical theatre and illustrator. He was best known for composing the music for the longest running musical in history, The Fantasticks, which ran off-Broadway for 42 years, from 1960 to 2002. Read more
12 Sep 1928: Robert Irwin, American painter and gardener (died 2023) Robert Walter Irwin was an American installation artist who explored perception and the conditional in art, often through site-specific, architectural interventions that alter the physical, sensory and temporal experience of space. Read more
12 Sep 1928: Muriel Siebert, American businesswoman and philanthropist (died 2013) Muriel Faye Siebert was an American businesswoman who was the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and the first woman to head one of the NYSE's member firms. She joined the 1,365 male members of the exchange on December 28, 1967. Siebert is sometimes known as the "first woman of finance", despite being preceded in owning a brokerage by Victoria Woodhull. Read more
12 Sep 1928: Ernie Vandeweghe, Canadian-American basketball player and physician (died 2014) Ernest Maurice Vandeweghe Jr. was a Canadian professional basketball player. Vandeweghe was best known for playing for the New York Knicks of the NBA and for the athletic successes of his family. Read more
12 Sep 1928: Joseph John Gerry, American Roman Catholic prelate (died 2023) Joseph John Gerry, O.S.B., was an American Benedictine monk and prelate of the Catholic Church. Read more
12 Sep 1927: Mathé Altéry, French soprano and actress Mathé Altéry is a French soprano prominent in the 1950s and 1960s. Mathé Altéry is the daughter of French tenor Mario Altéry. In 1956, both Altéry and Dany Dauberson individually represented France in the first Eurovision Song Contest. Read more
12 Sep 1925: Stan Lopata, American baseball player (died 2013) Stanley Edward Lopata was an American professional baseball player. A catcher, Lopata played in Major League Baseball for 13 seasons in the National League with the Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Braves. In 853 career games, Lopata recorded a batting average of .254 and accumulated 661 hits, 116 home runs, and 379 runs batted in (RBI). Read more
12 Sep 1925: Dickie Moore, American actor (died 2015) John Richard Moore Jr. was an American actor who was one of the last survivors of the silent film era. A busy and popular actor during his childhood and youth, he appeared in over 100 films until the early 1950s. Among his most notable appearances were the Our Gang series and films such as Oliver Twist, Blonde Venus, The Story of Louis Pasteur, The Life of Emile Zola, Sergeant York, Out of the Past, and Eight Iron Men. Read more
12 Sep 1924: Amílcar Cabral, Guinea-Bissauan political leader (died 1973) Amílcar Lopes Cabral was a Bissau-Guinean and Cape Verdean agricultural engineer, political organizer, diplomat, and half-brother of Luís Cabral. He was widely remembered as one of Africa's foremost anti-colonial leaders. He was also a pan-Africanist and intellectual nationalist revolutionary poet. Read more
12 Sep 1922: Antonio Cafiero, Argentinian accountant and politician, Governor of Buenos Aires Province (died 2014) Antonio Francisco Cafiero was an Argentine Justicialist Party politician. Cafiero held a number of important posts throughout his career, including, most notably, the governorship of Buenos Aires Province from 1987 to 1991, the Cabinet Chief's Office under interim president Eduardo Camaño from 2001 to 2002, and a seat in the Senate of the Nation from 1993 to 2005. Read more
12 Sep 1922: Jackson Mac Low, American poet, playwright, and composer (died 2004) Jackson Mac Low was an American poet, performance artist, composer and playwright, known to most readers of poetry as a practitioner of systematic chance operations and other non-intentional compositional methods in his work, which Mac Low first experienced in the musical work of John Cage, Earle Brown, and Christian Wolff. He was married to the artist Iris Lezak from 1962 to 1978, and to the poet Anne Tardos from 1990 until his death. Read more
12 Sep 1922: Mark Rosenzweig, American psychologist and academic (died 2009) Mark Richard Rosenzweig was an American research psychologist whose research on neuroplasticity in animals indicated that the adult brain remains capable of anatomical remodelling and reorganization based on life experiences, overturning the conventional wisdom that the brain reached full maturity in childhood. Read more
12 Sep 1921: Frank McGee, American journalist (died 1974) Frank McGee was an American television journalist, best known for his work with NBC from the late 1950s into the early 1970s. Read more
12 Sep 1921: Stanisław Lem, Polish philosopher and author (died 2006) Stanisław Herman Lem was a Polish writer. He was the author of many novels, short stories, and essays on various subjects, including philosophy, futurology, and literary criticism. Many of his science fiction stories are of satirical and humorous character. Lem's books have been translated into more than 50 languages and have sold more than 45 million copies. Worldwide, he is best known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris. In 1976, Theodore Sturgeon wrote that Lem was the most widely read science fiction writer in the world. Read more
12 Sep 1921: Turgut Cansever, Turkish architect, city planner, and thinker (died 2009) Turgut Cansever was a Turkish architect and city planner. He is the only architect to win the Aga Khan Award for Architecture three times. He is known as "the wise architect." He played a significant role in urban planning, zoning, and protected area projects across various towns. He is credited with designing Beyazıt Square and authored the first doctoral thesis on art history in Turkey. Read more
12 Sep 1914: Desmond Llewelyn, Welsh-English soldier and actor (died 1999) Desmond Wilkinson Llewelyn was a Welsh actor. He was best known for his role as Q, MI6's quartermaster, in 17 of the Eon-produced James Bond films between 1963 and 1999. Read more
12 Sep 1913: Jesse Owens, American sprinter and long jumper (died 1980) James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete. He made history at the 1936 Olympic Games by winning four gold medals, setting individual Olympic records in each event, plus another as a member of the 400-meter relay. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes in track and field history. Read more
12 Sep 1909: Donald MacDonald, Canadian trade union leader and politician (died 1986) Donald MacDonald was a Canadian social democratic politician and trade unionist who led the Nova Scotia Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and was elected as a member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly in 1941. In 1968 he was elected President of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). Read more
12 Sep 1908: Werner Flume, German jurist (died 2009) Werner Flume was a German jurist and professor of Roman law, private law, tax law and a legal historian. He has significantly influenced the modern development of German private law and has been called a "lawyer of the century" for his contributions. Read more
12 Sep 1905: Linda Agostini, English-Australian murder victim (died 1934) On 1 September 1934, the badly burned body of a woman with a bullet through the neck was found in a culvert running under Howlong Road in Albury, New South Wales, Australia. The woman became known as the Pyjama Girl. Read more
12 Sep 1902: Juscelino Kubitschek, Brazilian physician and politician, 21st President of Brazil (died 1976) Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, also known by his initials JK, was a Brazilian politician who served as the 21st president of Brazil from 1956 to 1961. Kubitschek's government plan, dubbed "50 years in 5", was centered on economic and social development. During his term the country experienced a period of notable economic growth and relative political stability. However, there was also a significant increase in external debt, inflation, income concentration and wage erosion. At the time, there was no re-election and, on 31 January 1961, he was succeeded by Jânio Quadros, supported by the UDN. Kubitschek is best known for the construction of Brazil's new capital, Brasília, which was inaugurated on 21 April 1960, replacing Rio de Janeiro. Read more
12 Sep 1902: Marya Zaturenska, Ukrainian-American poet and author (died 1982) Marya Zaturenska was an American lyric poet, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1938. Read more
12 Sep 1901: Shmuel Horowitz, Israeli agronomist and academic (died 1999) Shmuel Hurwitz was an Israeli agronomist. Read more
12 Sep 1900: Martha Atwell, American radio director (died 1949) Martha Atwell was an American radio director, known for her association with Frank and Anne Hummert. Read more
12 Sep 1900: Haskell Curry, American mathematician, logician, and academic (died 1982) Haskell Brooks Curry was an American mathematician and computer scientist. Curry is best known for his work in combinatory logic. Although its initial concept was based on a paper by Moses Schönfinkel, Curry did much of the development. Curry is also known for Curry's paradox and the Curry–Howard correspondence. Named for him are the programming languages Haskell, Brook and Curry, and the concept of currying, a method to transform functions, used in mathematics and computer science. Read more
12 Sep 1898: Salvador Bacarisse, Spanish composer (died 1963) Salvador Bacarisse Chinoria was a Spanish composer. Read more
12 Sep 1898: Alma Moodie, Australian violinist and educator (died 1943) Alma Mary Templeton Moodie was an Australian violinist who established an excellent reputation in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. She was regarded as being among the foremost female violinists during the inter-war years, along with such players as Erica Morini, Jelly d'Arányi and Kathleen Parlow; and she premiered violin concertos by Kurt Atterberg, Hans Pfitzner and Ernst Krenek. She and Max Rostal were considered the best pre-war proponents of the Carl Flesch tradition. She became a teacher at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. However, Alma Moodie made no recordings, and she appears in very few reference sources. Despite her former renown, her name became virtually unknown for many years. She appeared in earlier editions of Grove's and Baker's Dictionaries, but does not appear in the more recent editions. Read more
12 Sep 1898: Ben Shahn, Lithuanian-American painter and photographer (died 1969) Ben Shahn was an American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as The Shape of Content. Read more
12 Sep 1897: Irène Joliot-Curie, French chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1956) Irène Joliot-Curie was a French chemist and physicist who received the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, for their discovery of induced radioactivity. The couple also discovered positron emission in their process. They were the second married couple, after her parents, to win the Nobel Prize, adding to the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. This made the Curies the family with the most Nobel laureates to date. Read more
12 Sep 1897: Walter B. Gibson, American magician and author (died 1985) Walter Brown Gibson was an American writer and professional magician, best known for his work on the pulp fiction character The Shadow, and as a ghost-writer for many of his friend Harry Houdini's books. Gibson, under the pen-name Maxwell Grant, wrote 282 of the original 325 'The Shadow' novels/novellas during the 1930s/1940s, writing up to "10,000 words a day" to satisfy public demand during the character's golden age. He authored several novels in the Biff Brewster juvenile series of the 1960s. He was married to Litzka R. Gibson, also a writer, and the couple lived in New York state. Read more
12 Sep 1895: Freymóður Jóhannsson, Icelandic painter and composer (died 1973) Freymóður Jóhannsson was an Icelandic artist, painter and song composer. Read more
12 Sep 1894: Kyuichi Tokuda, Japanese lawyer and politician (died 1953) Kyuichi Tokuda was a Japanese politician and first chairman of the Japanese Communist Party from 1945 until his death in 1953. Read more
12 Sep 1894: Dorothy Maud Wrinch, Argentinian-English mathematician, biochemist and philosopher (died 1976) Dorothy Maud Wrinch was a mathematician and biochemical theorist best known for her attempt to deduce protein structure using mathematical principles. She was a champion of the controversial 'cyclol' hypothesis for the structure of proteins. Read more
12 Sep 1892: Alfred A. Knopf Sr., American publisher, founded Alfred A. Knopf Inc. (died 1984) Alfred Abraham Knopf Sr. was an American publisher of the 20th century, and co-founder of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. His contemporaries included the likes of Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, and Frank Nelson Doubleday, J. Henry Harper and Henry Holt. Knopf paid special attention to the quality of printing, binding and design in his books, and earned a reputation as a purist in both content and presentation. Read more
12 Sep 1891: Pedro Albizu Campos, Puerto Rican lawyer and politician (died 1965) Pedro Albizu Campos was a Puerto Rican attorney and politician, and a leading figure in a small but significant Puerto Rican independence movement. He was the president and spokesperson of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico from 1930 until his death. He led the nationalist revolts of October 1950 against the United States government in Puerto Rico. Albizu Campos spent a total of twenty-six years in prison at various times for his Puerto Rican independence activities. Read more
12 Sep 1891: Jean-François Martial, Belgian actor (died 1977) Jean-François Martial was a Belgian actor who appeared in mostly French films beginning in the silent film era of the early 1910s until his retirement in the early 1960s. Read more
12 Sep 1891: Arthur Hays Sulzberger, American publisher (died 1968) Arthur Hays Sulzberger was publisher of The New York Times from 1935 to 1961. During that time, daily circulation rose from 465,000 to 713,000 and Sunday circulation from 745,000 to 1.4 million; the staff more than doubled, reaching 5,200; advertising linage grew from 19 million to 62 million column inches per year; and gross income increased almost sevenfold, reaching $117 million. Read more
12 Sep 1889: Ugo Pasquale Mifsud, Maltese politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Malta (died 1942) Sir Ugo Pasquale Mifsud was a Maltese politician, the 3rd Prime Minister of Malta under British home rule, and the first to serve a full term in power.
He held office from 1924 to 1927 and from 1932 to 1933. He was a member of the Nationalist Party and the Maltese Italian community. Read more
12 Sep 1888: Maurice Chevalier, French actor, singer, and dancer (died 1972) Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French singer, actor, and entertainer. He is best known for his signature songs, including "Livin' In The Sunlight", "Valentine", "Louise", "Mimi", and "Thank Heaven for Little Girls", and for his films, including The Love Parade, The Big Pond, The Smiling Lieutenant, One Hour with You, and Love Me Tonight. His trademark attire was a boater hat and tuxedo. Read more
12 Sep 1885: Heinrich Hoffmann, German photographer and art dealer (died 1957) Heinrich Hoffmann was a German Nazi politician and publisher who was Adolf Hitler's official photographer and a member of his inner circle. Hoffmann's photographs were a significant part of Hitler's propaganda campaign to present himself and the Nazi Party as a significant mass phenomenon. He received royalties from all uses of Hitler's image, which made him a millionaire over the course of Hitler's rule. After the Second World War he was tried and sentenced to 10 years in prison for war profiteering. He was classified by the Allies' Art Looting Investigators to be a "major offender" in Nazi art plundering of Jews, as both art dealer and collector. His art collection, which contained many artworks looted from Jews, was subsequently confiscated by the Allies. Read more
12 Sep 1884: Martin Klein, Estonian wrestler and coach (died 1947) Martin Klein was an Estonian wrestler who competed for the Russian Empire at the 1912 Summer Olympics. He won the silver medal in the middleweight class, becoming the first Olympic medalist born in the territory of modern Estonia. In the semi-final against the reigning world champion Alfred Asikainen, the two grappled for 11 hours and 40 minutes on a sunny day outdoors, until Klein managed to pin Asikainen. Klein was so exhausted from the bout – the longest wrestling match ever recorded – that he was unable to wrestle for the gold the next day, leaving Swedish wrestler Claes Johansson with the gold medal. Read more
12 Sep 1882: Ion Agârbiceanu, Romanian journalist, politician, and archbishop (died 1963) Ion Agârbiceanu was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian writer, journalist, politician, theologian and Greek-Catholic priest. Born among the Romanian peasant class of Transylvania, he was originally an Orthodox, but chose to embrace Eastern Catholicism. Assisted by the Catholic congregation of Blaj, he graduated from Budapest University, after which he was ordained. Agârbiceanu was initially assigned to a parish in the Apuseni Mountains, which form the backdrop to much of his fiction. Before 1910, Agârbiceanu had achieved literary fame in both Transylvania and the Kingdom of Romania, affiliating with ASTRA cultural society in 1912; his work was disputed between the rival schools of Sămănătorul and Poporanism. After a debut in poetry, he became a highly prolific author of novels, novellas, and other forms of prose, being rated as "Chekhovian" or "Tolstoyan" for his talents in describing the discreet suffering of common folk. Read more
12 Sep 1880: H. L. Mencken, American journalist and critic (died 1956) Henry Louis Mencken was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on literature, music, prominent politicians, and contemporary movements. His satirical reporting on the Scopes trial, which he dubbed the "Monkey Trial", also earned him attention. The term Menckenian has entered multiple dictionaries to describe anything of or pertaining to Mencken, including his combative rhetorical and prose styles. Read more
12 Sep 1875: Matsunosuke Onoe, Japanese actor and director (died 1926) Matsunosuke Onoe , sometimes known as Medama no Matchan , was a Japanese actor. His birth name is Tsuruzo Nakamura. He is sometimes credited as Yukio Koki, Tamijaku Onoe, or Tsunusaburo Onoe, and as a kabuki artist he went by the name Tsurusaburo Onoe. He gained great popularity, appearing in over 1,000 films, and has been called the first superstar of Japanese cinema. Read more
12 Sep 1869: Paweł Owerłło, Polish actor (died 1957) Paweł Owerłło was a Polish stage and film actor. He appeared in more than 45 films between 1912 and 1939. Read more
12 Sep 1866: Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon, English cricketer and politician, 13th Governor General of Canada (died 1941) Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon, styled as the Earl of Willingdon between 1931 and 1936, was a British Liberal politician and administrator who served as Governor General of Canada and as Viceroy and Governor-General of India. Read more
12 Sep 1862: Carl Eytel, German-American painter and illustrator (died 1925) Carl Eytel was a German American artist who built his reputation for paintings and drawings of desert subjects in the American Southwest. Immigrating to the United States in 1885, he settled in Palm Springs, California in 1903. With an extensive knowledge of the Sonoran Desert, Eytel traveled with the author George Wharton James as he wrote the successful Wonders of the Colorado Desert, and contributed over 300 drawings to the 1908 work. While he enjoyed success as an artist, he lived as an ascetic and would die in poverty. Eytel's most important work, Desert Near Palm Springs, hangs in the History Room of the California State Library. Read more
12 Sep 1857: Manuel Espinosa Batista, Colombian pharmacist and politician (died 1919) Manuel Espinosa Batista was a Colombian pharmacist turned politician who campaigned for a separate Panama state and became one of "Founders of the Republic". He is known for his philanthropy. Read more
12 Sep 1856: Johann Heinrich Beck, American composer and conductor (died 1924) Johann Heinrich Beck was an American composer and conductor. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he wrote a number of pieces for orchestra, as well as a string sextet and a string quartet. He also gave music composition instruction to African-American opera composer Harry Lawrence Freeman. Read more
12 Sep 1855: Simon-Napoléon Parent, Canadian lawyer and politician, 12th Premier of Quebec (died 1920) Simon-Napoléon Parent, KC was the 12th premier of Quebec from October 3, 1900 to March 21, 1905, as well as serving as President of the Quebec Bridge and Railway Company. Read more
12 Sep 1852: H. H. Asquith, English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1928) Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, was a British statesman, Liberal politician and barrister who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 until his resignation in 1916. Having served as Leader of the Opposition from 1920 to 1922, Asquith was the last member of the Liberal Party to do so, and the last prime minister from the Party to command a majority government, which he had inherited from Henry Campbell-Bannerman. Read more
12 Sep 1837: Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse (died 1892) Louis IV was the Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine from 13 June 1877 until his death in 1892. Through his marriage to Queen Victoria's second daughter Alice, he was connected to the British royal family. Two of his daughters married into the House of Romanov. Read more
12 Sep 1830: William Sprague, American businessman and politician, 27th Governor of Rhode Island (died 1915) William Sprague IV was an American politician who served as the 27th governor of Rhode Island from 1860 to 1863, and a U.S. senator from 1863 to 1875. He participated in the First Battle of Bull Run during the American Civil War while he was a sitting governor. Read more
12 Sep 1829: Anselm Feuerbach, German painter (died 1880) Anselm Feuerbach was a German painter. He was the leading neoclassical painter of the German 19th-century school. Read more
12 Sep 1829: Charles Dudley Warner, American essayist and novelist (died 1900) Charles Dudley Warner was an American essayist, novelist, and friend of Mark Twain, with whom he co-authored the novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. Read more
12 Sep 1828: William Morgan, English-Australian politician, 14th Premier of South Australia (died 1883) Sir William Morgan was the Premier of South Australia between 1878 and 1881. Read more
12 Sep 1818: Richard Jordan Gatling, American inventor, invented the Gatling gun (died 1903) Richard Jordan Gatling was an American inventor. He is best known for having invented the Gatling gun, which is considered to be the first successful machine gun. Read more
12 Sep 1818: Theodor Kullak, German pianist, composer, and educator (died 1882) Theodor Kullak was a German pianist, composer and teacher. Read more
12 Sep 1816: Aurora von Qvanten, Swedish writer and artist (died 1907) Aurora Magdalena von Qvanten was a Swedish writer, translator and artist who used the pseudonym Turdus Merula. Read more
12 Sep 1812: Edward Shepherd Creasy, English historian and jurist (died 1878) Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy was an English historian and jurist. Read more
12 Sep 1812: Richard March Hoe, American engineer and businessman, invented the Rotary printing press (died 1886) Richard March Hoe was an American inventor from New York City who designed a rotary printing press identical to Josiah Warren's original invention, and related advancements, including the "Hoe web perfecting press" in 1871; it used a continuous roll of paper and revolutionized newspaper publishing. Read more

Notable Deaths on 12 September

12 Sep 2024: Sitaram Yechury, Indian politician and leader of CPI(M) (born 1952) Sitaram Yechury was an Indian Marxist politician, theorist and statesman who was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He also a member of the Politburo of the CPI(M) from 1992 until his death in September 2024. Previously, he was a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, West Bengal, from 2005 to 2017. Read more
12 Sep 2019: ʻAkilisi Pōhiva, Tongan politician and activist, Prime Minister of Tonga (born 1941) Samiuela ʻAkilisi Pōhiva was a Tongan pro-democracy activist and politician. A key leader of the Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands (DPFI), he served as the Prime Minister of Tonga from 2014 to his death in 2019. He was only the fourth commoner to serve as Prime Minister, and the first commoner to be elected to that position by Parliament rather than appointed by the King. Read more
12 Sep 2019: Elsie Vartanian, American politician and director of the United States Women's Bureau (born 1930) Elsie Vartanian was an American politician from New Hampshire. She served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives from 1979 to 1990, and later served as the director of the United States Women's Bureau. Read more
12 Sep 2018: Shen Chun-shan, Taiwanese academic (born 1932) Shen Chun-shan was a Taiwanese physicist who served as president of National Tsing Hua University from 1994 to 1997. He was known as one of the "four princes of Taiwan" along with Chen Li-an, Fredrick Chien, and Lien Chan, all of whose fathers attained prominence in politics prior to their sons' successes. Read more
12 Sep 2017: Allan MacEachen, Canadian economist and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Canada (born 1921) Allan Joseph MacEachen was a Canadian politician and statesman who served as a senator and several times as a Cabinet minister. He was the first deputy prime minister of Canada and served from 1977 to 1979 and 1980 to 1984. Read more
12 Sep 2017: Edith Windsor, American LGBT rights activist and technology manager at IBM (born 1929) Edith Windsor was an American LGBT rights activist and a technology manager at IBM. She was the lead plaintiff in the 2013 Supreme Court of the United States case United States v. Windsor, which overturned Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act and was considered a landmark legal victory for the same-sex marriage movement in the United States. The Obama administration and federal agencies extended rights, privileges and benefits to married same-sex couples because of the decision. Read more
12 Sep 2015: Claudia Card, American philosopher and academic (born 1940) Claudia Falconer Card was an American philosopher who was the Emma Goldman (WARF) Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, with teaching affiliations in Women's Studies, Jewish Studies, Environmental Studies, and LGBT Studies. Read more
12 Sep 2014: Atef Ebeid, Egyptian academic and politician, 47th Prime Minister of Egypt (born 1932) Atef Muhammad Ebeid was an Egyptian politician who served in various capacities in the governments of Egypt. He was the 47th prime minister of Egypt from 1999 to 2004. Read more
12 Sep 2014: John Gustafson, English singer-songwriter and bass player (born 1942) John Frederick "Johnny" Gustafson was an English bass guitar player and singer, who had a lengthy recording and live performance career. During his career, he was a member of the bands The Big Three, The Merseybeats, Quatermass, Roxy Music, The Pirates and Ian Gillan Band. Read more
12 Sep 2014: Ian Paisley, Northern Irish evangelical pastor (Free Presbyterian Church) and politician, 2nd First Minister of Northern Ireland (born 1926) Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside was a loyalist politician and Protestant religious leader from Northern Ireland who served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 1971 to 2008 and First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2007 to 2008. Read more
12 Sep 2014: Joe Sample, American pianist and composer (born 1939) Joseph Leslie Sample was an American jazz keyboardist and composer. He was one of the founding members of The Jazz Crusaders in 1960, whose name was shortened to "The Crusaders" in 1971. He remained a part of the group until its final album in 1991, and also the 2003 reunion album Rural Renewal. Read more
12 Sep 2013: Ray Dolby, American engineer and businessman, founded Dolby Laboratories (born 1933) Ray Milton Dolby was an American engineer and inventor of the noise reduction system known as Dolby NR, which has been said to have "transformed sound reproduction". Read more
12 Sep 2013: Warren Giese, American football player, coach, and politician (born 1924) Warren Kenneth Giese was an American state legislator in South Carolina and a college football coach. He served as the head football coach for the South Carolina Gamecocks for five years at the University of South Carolina. He later served in the South Carolina State Senate. Read more
12 Sep 2013: Erich Loest, German author and screenwriter (born 1926) Erich Loest was a German writer born in Mittweida, Saxony. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Hans Walldorf, Bernd Diksen and Waldemar Naß. Read more
12 Sep 2013: Candace Pert, American neuroscientist and pharmacologist (born 1946) Candace Beebe Pert was an American neuroscientist and pharmacologist who discovered the opioid receptor, the cellular binding site for endorphins in the brain. Read more
12 Sep 2012: Arkadii Dragomoshchenko, Russian poet and author (born 1946) Arkadii Trofimovich Dragomoshchenko was a Russian poet, writer, translator, and lecturer. He is considered the foremost representative of language poetry in contemporary Russian literature. Read more
12 Sep 2012: Jon Finlayson, Australian actor and screenwriter (born 1938) Jon Douglas Finlayson was an Australian stage and screen character actor, radio performer, writer, director, producer and singer Read more
12 Sep 2012: Tom Sims, American skateboarder and snowboarder, founded Sims Snowboards (born 1950) Tom Sims was an American athlete, inventor, and entrepreneur. Sims was World Snowboarding Champion (1983), World Champion Skateboarder (1975), and founder of SIMS Snowboards and SIMS Skateboards. He lived in Santa Barbara, California from 1971 until his death. Read more
12 Sep 2011: Alexander Galimov, Russian ice hockey player (born 1985) Alexander Saidgereyevich Galimov was a Russian professional ice hockey player. At the time of his death, he was a member of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) whose team plane crashed on 7 September 2011 killing all but one of the 45 crew and passengers on board. Read more
12 Sep 2010: Claude Chabrol, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1930) Claude Henri Jean Chabrol was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues and contemporaries Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Éric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette, Chabrol was a critic for the influential film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma before beginning his career as a filmmaker. Read more
12 Sep 2010: Giulio Zignoli, Italian footballer (born 1946) Giulio Zignoli was an Italian professional footballer, who played as a defender. He made 108 appearances in Serie A, most notably for Cagliari and Milan, during the late 1960s and 1970s. He died in Cantù, aged 64. Read more
12 Sep 2009: Norman Borlaug, American agronomist and humanitarian, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1914) Norman Ernest Borlaug was an American agronomist who led initiatives worldwide that contributed to the extensive increases in agricultural production termed the Green Revolution. Borlaug was awarded multiple honors for his work, including the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal, one of only seven people to have received all three awards. Read more
12 Sep 2009: Jack Kramer, American tennis player and sportscaster (born 1921) John Albert Kramer was an American tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s, and a pioneer promoter who helped drive the sport towards professionalism at the elite level. Kramer also ushered in the serve-and-volley era in tennis, a playing style with which he won three Grand Slam tournaments. He also led the U.S. Davis Cup tennis team to victory in the 1946 and 1947 Davis Cup finals. Read more
12 Sep 2009: Willy Ronis, French photographer and author (born 1910) Willy Ronis was a French photographer. His best-known work shows life in post-war Paris and Provence. Read more
12 Sep 2008: Bob Quinn, Australian footballer and coach (born 1915) Robert Berrima Quinn MM was a champion Australian rules footballer with the Port Adelaide Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), and a decorated soldier of the Second World War. Read more
12 Sep 2008: David Foster Wallace, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (born 1962) David Foster Wallace was an American writer and professor who published novels, short stories, and essays. He is most widely known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest. In 2008, David Ulin wrote for the Los Angeles Times that Wallace was "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last twenty years". Read more
12 Sep 2007: Bobby Byrd, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1934) Bobby Howard Byrd was an American rhythm and blues, soul and funk singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, bandleader, pianist and talent dedicated. He played a part in the development of soul and funk music in association with James Brown. Read more
12 Sep 2005: Serge Lang, French-American mathematician, author and academic (born 1927) Serge Lang was a French-American mathematician and activist who taught at Yale University for most of his career. He is known for his work in number theory and for his mathematics textbooks, including the influential Algebra. He received the Frank Nelson Cole Prize in 1960 and was a member of the Bourbaki group. Read more
12 Sep 2003: Johnny Cash, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (born 1932) John R. Cash was an American singer-songwriter. Most of his music contains themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially songs from the later stages of his career. He was known for his deep, calm, bass-baritone voice, the distinctive sound of his backing band, the Tennessee Three, that was characterized by its train-like chugging guitar rhythms, a rebelliousness coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor, and his free prison concerts. Cash wore a trademark all-black stage wardrobe, which earned him the nickname "Man in Black". Read more
12 Sep 2003: Arthur Johnson, canoeist (born 1921) Arthur Leonard Johnson was a Canadian sprint canoeist who competed in the early 1950s. He finished eighth in the C-2 1000 m event at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. Read more
12 Sep 2000: Stanley Turrentine, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (born 1934) Stanley William Turrentine, nicknamed Mr. T, was an American Grammy nominated jazz tenor saxophonist and record producer. He began his career playing R&B for Earl Bostic and later soul jazz recording for the Blue Note label from 1960, touching on jazz fusion during a stint on CTI in the 1970s. He was described by critic Steve Huey as "renowned for his distinctively thick, rippling tone [and] earthy grounding in the blues." In the 1960s Turrentine was married to organist Shirley Scott, with whom he frequently recorded, and he was the younger brother of trumpeter Tommy Turrentine, with whom he also recorded. Read more
12 Sep 1997: Judith Merril, American-Canadian science fiction writer, editor and political activist (born 1923) Judith Josephine Grossman, who took the pen-name Judith Merril around 1945, was an American and then Canadian science fiction writer, editor and political activist, and one of the first women to be widely influential in those roles. Read more
12 Sep 1996: Ernesto Geisel, Brazilian general and politician, 29th President of Brazil (born 1907) Ernesto Beckmann Geisel was a Brazilian Army officer and politician, who served as the 29th president of Brazil from 1974 to 1979, during the Brazilian military dictatorship. Read more
12 Sep 1995: Jeremy Brett, English actor (born 1933) Peter Jeremy William Huggins, known professionally as Jeremy Brett, was an English actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes from 1984 to 1994 in 41 episodes of the Granada TV series. He also played the smitten Freddy Eynsford-Hill in the 1964 Warner Bros. production of My Fair Lady. His career spanned stage, television and film, to Shakespeare and musical theatre. Read more
12 Sep 1995: Yasutomo Nagai, Japanese motorcycle racer (born 1965) Yasutomo Nagai was a motorcycle road racer, born in Koshigaya, Japan. Read more
12 Sep 1994: Tom Ewell, American actor (born 1909) Tom Ewell was an American film, stage and television actor, and producer. His most successful and most identifiable role was that of Richard Sherman in The Seven Year Itch, a character he played in the Broadway production (1952–1954) and reprised for the 1955 film adaptation. He received a Tony Award for his work in the play and a Golden Globe Award for his performance in the film. Although Ewell preferred acting on stage, he accepted several other screen roles in light comedies of the 1950s, most notably The Girl Can't Help It (1956). He appeared in the film version of the musical State Fair (1962) and in a small number of additional ones released between the early 1960s and 1980s. Read more
12 Sep 1994: Boris Yegorov, Russian physician and astronaut (born 1937) Boris Borisovich Yegorov was a Soviet and Russian physician and cosmonaut who became the first physician to travel to space. Read more
12 Sep 1993: Raymond Burr, Canadian-American actor and director (born 1917) Raymond William Stacy Burr was a Canadian actor who had a lengthy Hollywood film career and portrayed the title roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. Read more
12 Sep 1992: Ruth Nelson, American actress (born 1905) Ruth Gloria Nelson was an American stage and film actress. She is known for her roles in films such as Wilson, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Humoresque, 3 Women, The Late Show and Awakenings. She was the fourth wife of John Cromwell, with whom she acted on multiple occasions. Read more
12 Sep 1992: Anthony Perkins, American actor, singer, and director (born 1932) Anthony Perkins was an American actor. He is best known for portraying Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho. Read more
12 Sep 1991: Bruce Matthews, Canadian general and businessman (born 1909) Major General Albert Bruce Matthews was a senior Canadian Army officer and businessman. Although not a professional soldier, he nevertheless rose to be the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division during the final months of the Second World War, after having served with distinction in campaigns in Sicily, Italy and Western Europe from 1943-1945. He became noted for his personal bravery and the accuracy and reliability of the artillery under his command. Post-war, his business career continued. In addition, he was active in the Canadian Liberal Party. Read more
12 Sep 1990: Athene Seyler, English actress (born 1889) Athene Seyler was an English actress. Read more
12 Sep 1987: John Qualen, Canadian-American actor (born 1899) John Qualen was a Canadian-American character actor of Norwegian heritage who specialized in Scandinavian roles. Read more
12 Sep 1986: Jacques Henri Lartigue, French painter and photographer (born 1894) Jacques Henri Lartigue was a French photographer and painter, known for his photographs of automobile races, planes and female Parisian fashion models. Read more
12 Sep 1986: Charlotte Wolff, German-English psychotherapist and physician (born 1897) Charlotte Wolff was a German-British physician who worked as a psychotherapist and wrote on sexology and hand analysis. Her writings on lesbianism and bisexuality were influential early works in the field. Read more
12 Sep 1982: Federico Moreno Torroba, Spanish composer and conductor (born 1891) Federico Moreno Torroba was a Spanish composer, conductor, and theatrical impresario. He is especially remembered for his contributions to the classical guitar repertoire, becoming one of the leading twentieth-century composers for the instrument. He was also one of the foremost composers of zarzuelas, a form of Spanish light opera. His 1932 zarzuela Luisa Fernanda has proved to be enduringly popular. In addition, he composed ballets, symphonic works, and piano pieces, as well as one-act operas and one full-length opera, El poeta, which premiered in 1980, starring tenor Plácido Domingo. Moreno Torroba also ran his own zarzuela company, which toured extensively, especially in Latin America. Read more
12 Sep 1981: Eugenio Montale, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1896) Eugenio Montale was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator. In 1975, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions." Read more
12 Sep 1978: William Hudson, New Zealand-Australian engineer (born 1896) Sir William Hudson was a New Zealand-born engineer who headed construction of the Snowy Mountains Scheme for hydroelectricity and irrigation in Australia from 1949 to 1967, when he reluctantly retired at 71. The scheme was completed in 1974, under budget and before time. Read more
12 Sep 1977: Steve Biko, South African activist (born 1946) Bantu Stephen Biko OMSG was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s. His ideas were articulated in a series of articles published under the pseudonym Frank Talk. Read more
12 Sep 1977: Robert Lowell, American poet (born 1917) Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the Mayflower. His ancestors and contemporary family were important subjects in his poetry. Growing up in Boston also informed his poems, which were frequently set in Boston and the New England region. Literary scholar Paula Hayes argues that, particularly in his early work, Lowell mythologized New England. Read more
12 Sep 1972: William Boyd, American actor and producer (born 1895) William Lawrence Boyd was an American actor and film producer, known for portraying the cowboy hero Hopalong Cassidy in dozens of Western films released during the 1930s and '40s. Read more
12 Sep 1971: Walter Egan, American golfer (born 1881) Walter Eugene Egan was an American golfer who competed in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Read more
12 Sep 1968: Tommy Armour, Scottish-American golfer and journalist (born 1894) Thomas Dickson Armour was a Scottish-born golfer who played primarily in the United States. He was nicknamed The Silver Scot. He was the winner of three of golf's major championships: 1927 U.S. Open, 1930 PGA, and 1931 Open Championship. Armour popularized the term yips, the colloquial term for a sudden and unexplained loss of skills in experienced athletes. Read more
12 Sep 1967: Vladimir Bartol, Italian-Slovene author and playwright (born 1903) Vladimir Bartol was a writer from the Slovene minority in Italy. He is best known for his 1938 novel Alamut, the most popular work of Slovene literature around the world, which has been translated into numerous languages. Read more
12 Sep 1965: Raja Aziz Bhatti, Pakistani Major who received the Nishan-e-Haider in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. Raja Aziz Bhatti NH was a Pakistani military officer and the 4th recipient of Pakistan's highest military honour, the Nishan-e-Haider, which he was posthumously awarded for his brave defence of Lahore during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. Read more
12 Sep 1962: Spot Poles, American baseball player and soldier (born 1887) Spottswood Poles was an American outfielder in baseball's Negro leagues. One of the fastest players of his era, Poles was sometimes referred to as "the black Ty Cobb." Read more
12 Sep 1962: Rangeya Raghav, Indian author and playwright (born 1923) Rangeya Raghava was an Indian writer. Read more
12 Sep 1961: Carl Hermann, German physicist and academic (born 1898) Carl Heinrich Hermann, also spelled Karl Hermann, was a German physicist, crystallographer, and resistance fighter in Nazi Germany. He is known for his research in crystallographic symmetry, nomenclature, and mathematical crystallography in N-dimensional spaces. Read more
12 Sep 1956: Sándor Festetics, Hungarian politician, Hungarian Minister of War (born 1882) Count Sándor Ágost Dénes Festetics de Tolna was a Hungarian nobleman and cabinet minister who later became an advocate of Nazism in Hungary. Read more
12 Sep 1953: James Hamilton, 3rd Duke of Abercorn, English politician, Governor of Northern Ireland (born 1869) James Albert Edward Hamilton, 3rd Duke of Abercorn, styled Marquess of Hamilton between 1885 and 1913, was a British peer and Unionist politician. He was the first Governor of Northern Ireland, a post he held between 1922 and 1945. Read more
12 Sep 1953: Hugo Schmeisser, German engineer (born 1884) Hugo Schmeisser was a German firearm developer. Read more
12 Sep 1953: Lewis Stone, American actor (born 1879) Lewis Shepard Stone was an American film actor, best known for his 29 years as a contract player at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and for his portrayal of Judge James Hardy in the studio's popular Andy Hardy film series. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, in 1929, for his performance as Russian Count Pahlen in The Patriot (1928). Stone was also cast in seven films with Greta Garbo, including Grand Hotel (1932) in which he portrayed Doctor Otternschlag. Read more
12 Sep 1949: Erik Adolf von Willebrand, Finnish physician (born 1870) Erik Adolf von Willebrand was a Finnish physician who made major contributions to hematology. Von Willebrand disease and von Willebrand factor are named after him. He also researched metabolism, obesity and gout, and was one of the first Finnish physicians to use insulin to treat a diabetic coma. Read more
12 Sep 1945: Hajime Sugiyama, Japanese field marshal and politician, 44th Japanese Minister of War (born 1880) Hajime Sugiyama was a Japanese field marshal and one of Japan's military leaders for most of the Second World War. Read more
12 Sep 1942: Valentine Baker, Welsh co-founder of the Martin-Baker Aircraft Company (born 1888) Captain Valentine Henry Baker MC AFC, nicknamed "Bake", served in all three of the British Armed Forces during the First World War. After the war he became a civilian flight instructor, and co-founder of the Martin-Baker Aircraft Company. He was the father of novelist Denys Val Baker. Read more
12 Sep 1927: Sarah Frances Whiting, American physicist and astronomer (born 1847) Sarah Frances Whiting was an American physicist and astronomer. In February 1896 Whiting founded both the physics and astronomy departments; and was the first professor of physics and astronomy at Wellesley College, where she taught for over 30 years. At Wellesley College, Whiting instructed several notable astronomers and physicists, including Annie Jump Cannon. Whiting was one of the founders and the first director of the Whitin Observatory. Read more
12 Sep 1923: Jules Violle, French physicist and academic (born 1841) Jules Louis Gabriel Violle was a French physicist and inventor. Read more
12 Sep 1919: Leonid Andreyev, Russian author and playwright (born 1871) Leonid Nikolaievich Andreyev was a Russian playwright, novelist and short-story writer, who is considered to be a father of expressionism in Russian literature. He is regarded as one of the most talented and prolific representatives of the Silver Age literary period. Andreyev's style combines the elements of realist, naturalist, and symbolist schools in literature. Of his 25 plays, his 1915 play He Who Gets Slapped is regarded as his finest achievement. Read more
12 Sep 1918: George Reid, Australian accountant and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Australia (born 1845) Sir George Houston Reid was the fourth prime minister of Australia, serving from 1904 to 1905. He held office as the leader of the Free Trade Party, previously serving as the 12th premier of New South Wales from 1894 to 1899, and later as the high commissioner of Australia to the United Kingdom from 1910 to 1916. Read more
12 Sep 1912: Pierre-Hector Coullié, French cardinal (born 1829) Pierre-Hector Coullié was a French Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Lyon from 1893 to 1912. He was previously Bishop of Orléans from 1878 to 1893 and was made a cardinal in 1897. Read more
12 Sep 1907: Ilia Chavchavadze, Georgian poet, journalist, and lawyer (born 1837) Tavadi (Prince) Ilia Chavchavadze was a Georgian journalist, publisher, writer and poet who spearheaded the revival of Georgian nationalism during the second half of the 19th century in the period of Tsarist rule. To this day, he has been called Georgia's "most universally revered hero" and the "Father of the Nation" of the modern Georgia. Read more
12 Sep 1903: Duncan Gillies, Scottish-Australian businessman and politician, 14th Premier of Victoria (born 1834) Duncan Gillies, was an Australian colonial politician who served as the 14th Premier of Victoria. Read more
12 Sep 1874: François Guizot, French historian and politician, 22nd Prime Minister of France (born 1787) François Pierre Guillaume Guizot was a French historian, orator and statesman. Guizot was a dominant figure in French politics between the July Revolution and the Revolution of 1848. Read more
12 Sep 1870: Eleanora Atherton, English philanthropist (born 1782) Eleanora Atherton was an English philanthropist and heiress associated with Manchester during the late Georgian and Victorian periods. She funded churches, schools, hospitals, and charitable institutions across Manchester and Salford and became one of the wealthiest women in nineteenth-century Britain. Read more
12 Sep 1870: Fitz Hugh Ludlow, American journalist, explorer, and author (born 1836) Fitz Hugh Ludlow, sometimes seen as Fitzhugh Ludlow, was an American author, journalist, and explorer; best known for his autobiographical book The Hasheesh Eater (1857). Read more
12 Sep 1869: Peter Mark Roget, English physician, theologian, and lexicographer (born 1779) Peter Mark Roget was a British physician, natural theologian, lexicographer, and founding secretary of The Portico Library. He is best known for publishing, in 1852, the Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases, a classified collection of related words (thesaurus). In 1824, he read a paper to the Royal Society about a peculiar optical illusion which is often (falsely) regarded as the origin of the ancient persistence of vision theory that was later commonly, yet incorrectly, used to explain apparent motion in film and animation. Read more
12 Sep 1836: Christian Dietrich Grabbe, German playwright (born 1801) Christian Dietrich Grabbe was a German dramatist of the Vormärz era. He wrote many historical plays conceiving a disillusioned and pessimistic world view, with some shrill scenes. Heinrich Heine saw him as one of Germany's foremost dramatists, calling him "a drunken Shakespeare" and Sigmund Freud described Grabbe as "an original and rather peculiar poet." Read more
12 Sep 1819: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prussian general (born 1742) Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Graf (count), later elevated to Fürst (prince) von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall. He earned his greatest recognition after leading his army against Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 and the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Read more
12 Sep 1814: Robert Ross, Irish general (born 1766) Major-General Robert Ross was a British Army officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. Read more
12 Sep 1810: Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet, English banker and politician (born 1740) Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet was a British merchant, banker and politician. A member of the Baring family, he became the first of the Baring baronets. Read more

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