History of Today 29 July: Important Events, Births and Deaths

Welcome to History of Today 29 July. On this page, you can read important historical events, famous births, notable deaths and general knowledge facts related to 29 July. This information is useful for UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, State PSC and other competitive exams.

Last updated on 29 July 2026, 01:00 AM

Important Events on 29 July in History

29 Jul 2024: Three children are stabbed to death and 10 other people injured at a dance studio in Southport, England. This incident, coupled with widespread online misinformation, leads to various racially motivated riots across the UK. Read more
29 Jul 2021: The International Space Station temporarily spins out of control, moving the ISS 45 degrees out of attitude, following an engine malfunction of Russian module Nauka. Read more
29 Jul 2019: The 2019 Altamira prison riot between rival Brazilian drug gangs leaves 62 dead. Read more
29 Jul 2015: The first piece of suspected debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is discovered on Réunion Island. Read more
29 Jul 2013: Two passenger trains collide in the Swiss municipality of Granges-près-Marnand near Lausanne injuring 25 people. Read more
29 Jul 2010: An overloaded passenger ferry capsizes on the Kasai River in Bandundu Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, resulting in at least 80 deaths. Read more
29 Jul 2005: Astronomers announce their discovery of the dwarf planet Eris. Read more
29 Jul 1996: The child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act is struck down by a U.S. federal court as too broad. Read more
29 Jul 1993: The Supreme Court of Israel acquits alleged Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free. Read more
29 Jul 1987: British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President of France François Mitterrand sign the agreement to build a tunnel under the English Channel (Channel Tunnel). Read more
29 Jul 1987: Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi and President of Sri Lanka J. R. Jayewardene sign the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord on ethnic issues. Read more
29 Jul 1985: Space Shuttle Challenger launches on STS-51-F. The shuttle ends up in a lower orbit than planned due to an engine failure during ascent. Read more
29 Jul 1981: A worldwide television audience of around 750 million people watch the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral in London. Read more
29 Jul 1981: After impeachment on June 21, Abolhassan Banisadr flees with Massoud Rajavi to Paris, in an Iranian Air Force Boeing 707, piloted by Colonel Behzad Moezzi, to form the National Council of Resistance of Iran. Read more
29 Jul 1980: Iran adopts a new "holy" flag after the Islamic Revolution. Read more
29 Jul 1976: In New York City, David Berkowitz (a.k.a. the "Son of Sam") kills one person and seriously wounds another in the first of a series of attacks. Read more
29 Jul 1973: Greeks vote to abolish the monarchy, beginning the first period of the Metapolitefsi. Read more
29 Jul 1973: Driver Roger Williamson is killed during the Dutch Grand Prix, after a suspected tire failure causes his car to pitch into the barriers at high speed. Read more
29 Jul 1972: Two Avianca Douglas DC-3 airliners collide over Colombia, killing 38. Read more
29 Jul 1967: Vietnam War: Off the coast of North Vietnam the USS Forrestal catches on fire in the worst U.S. naval disaster since World War II, killing 134. Read more
29 Jul 1967: During the fourth day of celebrating its 400th anniversary, the city of Caracas, Venezuela is shaken by an earthquake, leaving approximately 500 dead. Read more
29 Jul 1965: Vietnam War: The first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrive in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay. Read more
29 Jul 1959: First United States Congress elections in Hawaii as a state of the Union. Read more
29 Jul 1958: U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Read more
29 Jul 1957: The International Atomic Energy Agency is established. Read more
29 Jul 1957: Tonight Starring Jack Paar premieres on NBC with Jack Paar beginning the modern day talk show. Read more
29 Jul 1950: Korean War: After four days, the No Gun Ri Massacre ends when the US Army 7th Cavalry Regiment is withdrawn. Read more
29 Jul 1948: Olympic Games: The Games of the XIV Olympiad: After a hiatus of 12 years caused by World War II, the first Summer Olympics to be held since the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, open in London. Read more
29 Jul 1945: The BBC Light Programme radio station is launched for mainstream light entertainment and music. Read more
29 Jul 1937: Tongzhou mutiny: In Tongzhou, China, the East Hebei Army attacks Japanese troops and civilians. Read more
29 Jul 1932: Great Depression: In Washington, D.C., troops disperse the last of the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans using arson, bayonets, sabers, tanks, tear gas, and vomit gas. Read more
29 Jul 1921: Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Read more
29 Jul 1920: Construction of the Link River Dam begins as part of the Klamath Reclamation Project. Read more
29 Jul 1914: The Cape Cod Canal opened. Read more
29 Jul 1910: The two-day Slocum massacre commences in Texas, a race riot in which more than 100 African Americans are murdered. Read more
29 Jul 1907: Sir Robert Baden-Powell sets up the Brownsea Island Scout camp in Poole Harbour on the south coast of England. The camp runs from August 1 to August 9 and is regarded as the foundation of the Scouting movement. Read more
29 Jul 1901: Land lottery begins in Oklahoma. Read more
29 Jul 1900: In Italy, King Umberto I of Italy is assassinated by the anarchist Gaetano Bresci. His son, Victor Emmanuel III, 31 years old, succeeds to the throne. Read more
29 Jul 1899: The First Hague Convention is signed. Read more
29 Jul 1871: The Connecticut Valley Railroad opens between Old Saybrook, Connecticut and Hartford, Connecticut in the United States. Read more
29 Jul 1862: American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. Read more
29 Jul 1858: United States and Japan sign the Harris Treaty. Read more
29 Jul 1851: Annibale de Gasparis discovers asteroid 15 Eunomia. Read more
29 Jul 1848: Great Famine of Ireland: Tipperary Revolt: In County Tipperary, Ireland, then in the United Kingdom, an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule is put down by police. Read more
29 Jul 1836: Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France. Read more
29 Jul 1832: An Egyptian army under Ibrahim Pascha defeats a larger Ottoman army in the battle of Belen Pass. Read more
29 Jul 1818: French physicist Augustin Fresnel submits his prizewinning "Memoir on the Diffraction of Light", precisely accounting for the limited extent to which light spreads into shadows, and thereby demolishing the oldest objection to the wave theory of light. Read more

Famous Births on 29 July

29 Jul 2003: Johnny Brackins, American long jumper and hurdler Johnny Brackins Jr. is an American long jumper and hurdler and the 2024 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships winner in the long jump. Brackins was a former U.S. U20 champion in the long jump and bronze medallist in the 4 × 100 m at the 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships. Representing the USC Trojans, Brackins also finished runner-up in the 60 meter hurdles at the 2024 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships. Read more
29 Jul 1998: Mirjam Björklund, Swedish tennis player Mirjam Björklund is a Swedish former professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 123 by the WTA, achieved on 20 June 2022. She also has a best doubles ranking of No. 281, reached on 31 January 2022. Björklund has won one doubles WTA Challenger title as well as ten titles in singles and two in doubles on the ITF Women's Circuit. Read more
29 Jul 1998: Clayton Keller, American ice hockey player Clayton Davis Keller is an American professional ice hockey player who is a forward and captain for the Utah Mammoth of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Arizona Coyotes selected him seventh overall in the 2016 NHL entry draft. He is described as a versatile forward who can play both as a center and winger at a high level and has filled both roles for the Coyotes and Mammoth organizations. Read more
29 Jul 1995: Neal Pionk, American ice hockey player Neal Robert Pionk is an American professional ice hockey player who is a defenseman for the Winnipeg Jets of the National Hockey League (NHL). An undrafted player, Pionk was signed by the New York Rangers as a college free agent from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 2017. Read more
29 Jul 1994: Liam O'Brien, Canadian ice hockey player Liam O'Brien is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a forward for the Utah Mammoth of the National Hockey League (NHL). Nicknamed "Spicy Tuna" by Utah fans, O'Brien is mostly known as an enforcer. Read more
29 Jul 1993: Nicole Melichar, American tennis player Nicole Melichar-Martinez is an American professional tennis player who specializes in doubles. On 3 July 2023, she peaked at No. 6 in the WTA rankings.
Melichar won a major title in mixed doubles at the 2018 Wimbledon Championships with Austrian partner Alexander Peya.
She has also won 19 WTA Tour doubles titles as well as two 125 titles on the WTA Challenger Tour. Read more
29 Jul 1993: Dak Prescott, American football player Rayne Dakota Prescott is an American professional football quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Mississippi State Bulldogs, twice earning first-team All-SEC honors, and was selected by the Cowboys in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL draft. Prescott ranks seventh all-time in completion percentage with at least 1,500 pass attempts, and he is eighth in the NFL's all-time regular season career passer rating. Read more
29 Jul 1992: Karen Torrez, Bolivian swimmer Karen Milenka Torrez Guzmán is a Bolivian swimmer from Cochabamba. She competes in the Women's 100m Freestyle. She was flag bearer for the nation at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Read more
29 Jul 1991: Dale Copley, Australian rugby league player Dale Copley is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who last played as a centre or winger for the Sydney Roosters in the NRL. Read more
29 Jul 1991: Irakli Logua, Russian footballer Irakli Genovich Logua is a Russian professional football player who plays for Amkal Moscow. Read more
29 Jul 1990: Shin Se-kyung, South Korean actress, singer and model Shin Se-kyung is a South Korean actress. She started as a child actress and had her breakthrough in the sitcom High Kick Through the Roof (2009). Since then, she starred in the films Hindsight (2011), R2B: Return to Base (2012) and Tazza: The Hidden Card (2014), as well as the television series Deep Rooted Tree (2011), A Girl Who Sees Smells (2015), Six Flying Dragons (2015–2016), The Bride of Habaek (2017), Black Knight: The Man Who Guards Me (2017–2018), Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung (2019), Run On (2020) and Captivating the King (2024). Read more
29 Jul 1989: Grit Šadeiko, Estonian heptathlete Grit Šadeiko is an Estonian heptathlete. She won the heptathlon at the 2011 European Athletics U23 Championships. Read more
29 Jul 1988: Tarjei Bø, Norwegian biathlete Tarjei Bø is a former Norwegian professional biathlete. Awarded Olympic gold medals, World Championship gold medals and World Cup victories from 2010 to 2025. Bø debuted in the Biathlon World Cup on 26 March 2009 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. In the 2010 Winter Olympics, he earned his first gold medal in the 4 × 7.5 km biathlon relay. On 10 December 2010 he won the World Cup sprint race in Hochfilzen, his first world cup victory. He also won the following pursuit race and anchored the winning relay team.
Bø is the older brother of biathlete Johannes Thingnes Bø. Read more
29 Jul 1985: Okinoumi Ayumi, Japanese sumo wrestler Okinoumi Ayumi is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Okinoshima, Shimane. He joined professional sumo in 2005, reaching the top division in 2010. He was runner-up in makuuchi three times in the January 2011, March 2013, and November 2017 tournaments, all with an 11–4 record. His highest rank was sekiwake, which he held for one tournament in March 2015 and then held again in November 2016. He has won four Fighting Spirit prizes, one prize for Outstanding Performance, and four gold stars for defeating yokozuna. He wrestled for Hakkaku stable. Upon his retirement, Okinoumi became a sumo coach under the name of Kimigahama. Read more
29 Jul 1985: Besart Berisha, Albanian footballer Besart Selim Berisha is a Kosovan professional football coach and former player who is the current manager of Melbourne Victory seniors academy team based in Victoria, Australia. Previously he held an assistant manager role of Kosovo Superleague club Prishtina. Best known for his time in Australia, is regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the A-League Men, having made 231 appearances and scoring 142 goals in the competition. Read more
29 Jul 1985: Simon Santoso, Indonesian badminton player Simon Santoso is an Indonesian former badminton player. He was two-time SEA Games men's singles champion winning in 2009 and 2011, also featured in Indonesia team that won the men's team title in 2003, 2007, 2009, and 2011. Santoso won the Indonesia Open a Superseries Premier tournament in 2012. He reached a career high as world number 3 in August 2010. Read more
29 Jul 1984: Oh Beom-seok, South Korean footballer Oh Beom-Seok is a South Korean former professional footballer who played as a right back and currently Analysis coach for Yongin FC. Read more
29 Jul 1984: Chad Billingsley, American baseball player Chad Ryan Billingsley is an American former professional baseball right-handed starting pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2006 through 2013 and Philadelphia Phillies in 2015. He was a National League (NL) All-Star in 2009. Read more
29 Jul 1984: Wilson Palacios, Honduran footballer Wilson Roberto Palacios Suazo is a Honduran former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. Read more
29 Jul 1983: Jason Belmonte, Australian bowler Jason Belmonte is an Australian professional ten-pin bowler. He plays on the PBA Tour in the United States and in world events. He is known for being one of the first bowlers to gain media attention for using the two-handed approach style to deliver his shot. He has won 32 PBA titles, including a record 15 major championships; he is only one of eight bowlers in PBA tour history to achieve 30 wins, making him the only 30-time winner in PBA Tour history who is not currently a member of the PBA Hall of Fame. Read more
29 Jul 1983: Inés Gómez Mont, Mexican journalist and actress Inés Gómez-Mont Arena is a Mexican television host, journalist and model. She was the host of TV Azteca's Los 25+ and co-host of Ventaneando. Read more
29 Jul 1983: Alexei Kaigorodov, Russian ice hockey player Alexei Pavlovich Kaigorodov is a Russian former professional ice hockey forward who last played with Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Read more
29 Jul 1983: Jerious Norwood, American football player Jerious Montreal Norwood is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Mississippi State Bulldogs and is the school's second all-time leading rusher. He was selected by the Atlanta Falcons in the third round of the 2006 NFL draft. Read more
29 Jul 1983: Elise Testone, American singer-songwriter Elise Nicole Testone is an American singer and songwriter from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. She placed sixth on the eleventh season of American Idol. Her debut album In This Life was released in February 2014, and her second album, This Is Love, was released in 2019. Read more
29 Jul 1982: Janez Aljančič, Slovenian footballer Janez Aljančič is a retired Slovenian football defender. Read more
29 Jul 1982: Jônatas Domingos, Brazilian footballer Jônatas Domingos, or simply Jônatas, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Read more
29 Jul 1982: Allison Mack, American actress and criminal Allison Mack is an American former actress. She played Chloe Sullivan on the superhero series Smallville (2001–2011) and had a recurring role on the comedy series Wilfred (2012–2014). Read more
29 Jul 1981: Fernando Alonso, Spanish race car driver Fernando Alonso Díaz is a Spanish racing driver who competes in Formula One for Aston Martin. Alonso has won two Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in 2005 and 2006 with Renault, and has won 32 Grands Prix across 23 seasons. In endurance racing, Alonso won the 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship and is a two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Toyota as well as a winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2019 with WTR. He is the only driver to have won both the Formula One World Drivers' Championship and the World Sportscar/World Endurance Drivers' Championship. Read more
29 Jul 1981: Andrés Madrid, Argentinian footballer Andrés David Madrid is an Argentine former footballer who played as a defensive midfielder, and is a current manager. Read more
29 Jul 1981: Troy Perkins, American soccer player Troy Perkins is an American former soccer player. During his career, he played for clubs in the United States, Canada, and Norway. The 2006 Major League Soccer Goalkeeper of the Year award winner earned seven caps with the United States national team. Read more
29 Jul 1980: Ryan Braun, Canadian-American baseball player Ryan Zachary Braun is a Canadian former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City Royals. Listed at 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) and 215 pounds (98 kg) as a player, he threw and batted right-handed. Read more
29 Jul 1980: Fernando González, Chilean tennis player Fernando Francisco González Ciuffardi is a Chilean former professional tennis player. During his career, he reached at least the quarterfinals of all four major tournaments. He contested his only major final at the 2007 Australian Open, losing to top-seeded Roger Federer. González is the fourth man in history to have won an Olympic tennis medal in every color, with gold in doubles and bronze in singles at Athens 2004, and silver in singles at Beijing 2008. The gold medal that González won partnering Nicolás Massú at the 2004 Olympics in men's doubles was Chile's first-ever Olympic gold medal. During his career, González defeated many top players, including Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Carlos Moyá, Gustavo Kuerten, Marat Safin, Pete Sampras, and Andy Murray. González qualified twice for the year-end Masters Cup event and was runner-up at two Masters Series tournaments. González was known for having one of the strongest forehands on the tour. In Spanish he is nicknamed El Bombardero de La Reina and Mano de Piedra. Read more
29 Jul 1980: Ben Koller, American drummer Ben Koller is an American drummer who has played with Converge, Mutoid Man, Killer Be Killed and All Pigs Must Die. He started playing a full drum kit at age 14. Read more
29 Jul 1980: John Morris, Australian rugby league player John Morris, is an Australian professional rugby league coach who is the Assistant Coach and defence coach for Wests Tigers and a former professional rugby league footballer. Read more
29 Jul 1979: Karim Essediri, Tunisian footballer Karim Essediri is a former professional footballer who played as a right winger. Born in France, he earned eight caps with the Tunisia national team at international level. Read more
29 Jul 1979: Ronald Murray, American basketball player Ronald "Flip" Murray is an American former professional basketball player. At 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m), 200 lb, Murray played as a point guard–shooting guard. After attending Strawberry Mansion High School in Philadelphia, where he starred on the basketball team, he played college basketball for four seasons, first at the Meridian Community College in Meridian, Mississippi, from 1997 to 1999, and then at Shaw University located in Raleigh, North Carolina, from 2000 to 2002. He is nicknamed "Flip" by childhood friends who often said he looked like Bernie Mac's character, "Flip", from the movie Above The Rim. Read more
29 Jul 1978: Mike Adams, American baseball player Jon Michael Adams is an American former professional baseball right-handed relief pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Milwaukee Brewers (2004–06), San Diego Padres (2008–11), Texas Rangers (2011–12) and Philadelphia Phillies (2013–14). Read more
29 Jul 1978: Marina Lazarovska, Macedonian tennis player Marina Lazarovska is a former Macedonian tennis player. Read more
29 Jul 1975: Yoshihiro Akiyama, Japanese mixed martial artist Yoshihiro Akiyama , also known as Choo Sung-hoon (Korean: 추성훈) and by his nickname Sexyama, is a Japanese mixed martial artist and judoka who won the gold medal at the 2001 Asian Championships for South Korea and for Japan at the 2002 Asian Games. He is the former K-1 HERO's Light Heavyweight Grand Prix Tournament Champion. Read more
29 Jul 1975: Lanka de Silva, Sri Lankan cricketer Lanka de Silva is a Sri Lankan former cricketer who played in three Test matches and 11 One Day Internationals in 1997. He is also the current interim head coach of the Sri Lanka women's national cricket team. Read more
29 Jul 1975: Corrado Grabbi, Italian footballer Corrado Grabbi is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a forward. He was nicknamed "Ciccio" throughout his career. Read more
29 Jul 1975: Jaanus Sirel, Estonian footballer Jaanus Sirel is an Estonian former professional footballer. He was playing the position of defender and midfielder. Read more
29 Jul 1974: Josh Radnor, American actor and musician Joshua Thomas Radnor is an American actor, filmmaker, author, and musician. He is best known for portraying Ted Mosby on the Emmy Award–winning CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother (2005–2014). He made his writing and directorial debut with the 2010 comedy drama film Happythankyoumoreplease, for which he won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. Read more
29 Jul 1973: Stephen Dorff, American actor and producer Stephen Hartley Dorff Jr. is an American actor. Starting his film career as a child appearing in the cult horror film The Gate (1987), Dorff first rose to prominence playing Peter Philip Kennith Keith in The Power of One (1992) and later as Stuart Sutcliffe in Backbeat (1994) and then gained further mainstream attention for portraying Deacon Frost in Blade (1998). Other notable lead roles include the titular character in John Waters' Cecil B. Demented (2000) and Johnny Marco in Sofia Coppola's Somewhere (2010). Read more
29 Jul 1973: Denis Urubko, Kazakh mountaineer Denis Urubko is a Russian-Polish climber. In 2009, he became the 15th person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders and the 8th person to achieve the feat without supplemental oxygen. During his 25 eight-thousander climbs, he completed the first winter ascents for Makalu and Gasherbrum II, as well as establishing new routes on Cho Oyu, Manaslu, and Broad Peak. Read more
29 Jul 1972: Anssi Kela, Finnish singer and songwriter Anssi Kela is a Finnish singer-songwriter multi-instrumentalist who has published six albums. During his career, Kela has sold over 230,000 records in Finland. He received four Emma awards in 2002. Read more
29 Jul 1972: Wil Wheaton, American actor, producer, and screenwriter Richard William "Wil" Wheaton III is an American actor and writer. He portrayed Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gordie Lachance in the film Stand by Me, Joey Trotta in Toy Soldiers, and Bennett Hoenicker in Flubber. Read more
29 Jul 1971: Andrea Philipp, German sprinter Andrea Philipp is a retired German sprinter. A three-time Olympian, she won a bronze medal in the 200 metres at the 1999 World Championships, and a gold medal in the 100 metres at the 1990 World Junior Championships. Read more
29 Jul 1970: Adele Griffin, American author Adele Griffin is the author of over thirty English language books across a variety of genres, including Sons of Liberty and Where I Want to Be, both National Book Award finalists. Her debut adult novel The Favor explores themes of friendship, surrogacy, and nontraditional family building. In 2024, Adele and her mother Dr. Priscilla Sands began cohosting the podcast So, Mom. Adele co-writes a dark romance series with author Julie Buxbaum under the pen name Taylor Hutton. Read more
29 Jul 1970: Andi Peters, English journalist, actor, and producer Andi Eleazu Peters is a British television presenter, producer, journalist and voice actor, currently employed by ITV and known for presenting Children's BBC, roles on breakfast TV shows Live & Kicking, GMTV, Good Morning Britain and Lorraine, and for hosting Dancing on Ice: Extra and The Big Reunion. Read more
29 Jul 1970: John Rennie, Zimbabwean cricketer John Alexander Rennie is a former Zimbabwean cricketer who played in four Test matches and 44 One Day Internationals (ODIs) from 1993 to 2000. He played as a swing bowler for the Zimbabwe national team between 1993 and 2000. Read more
29 Jul 1969: Timothy Omundson, American actor Timothy Michael Omundson is an American actor. He is notable for his supporting roles as Sean Potter on the CBS television series Judging Amy, Eli on the syndicated series Xena: Warrior Princess, Carlton Lassiter in Psych, King Richard on the ABC musical comedy series Galavant, and Cain in The CW's Supernatural. Read more
29 Jul 1968: Paavo Lötjönen, Finnish cellist and educator Paavo Lötjönen is a cello player for Finnish band Apocalyptica.
Paavo comes from a family where both of his parents were professional musicians. At the age of 6, he took a cello and decided that would be the instrument he would play all his life. Like fellow band members Perttu Kivilaakso and Eicca Toppinen, he attended Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Read more
29 Jul 1966: Sally Gunnell, English hurdler and sportscaster Sally Jane Janet Gunnell, OBE, DL is a British former track-and-field athlete, who won the 1992 Olympic gold medal in the 400 metres hurdles. During a 24-month period between 1992 and 1994, Gunnell won every international event open to her, claiming Olympic Games, World Championship, European Championship, Commonwealth Games, Goodwill Games, IAAF World Cup and European Cup golds in the event, and breaking the British, European and World records in it. She is the only female British athlete to have won all four 'majors'; Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth titles, and was the first female 400 metres hurdler in history to win the Olympic and World titles and break the world record. Her former world record time of 52.74 secs in 1993 is still the current British record. She was named World and European Female Athlete of the Year in 1993, and was made an MBE in 1993 and an OBE in 1998. Read more
29 Jul 1966: Stuart Lampitt, English cricketer Stuart Richard Lampitt is a former English cricketer. He was a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler. He played for Worcestershire from 1985 to 2002. During his career he was victorious in the 1986 final of the William Younger Cup, and the final of the NatWest Trophy in 1994. He also played in the Worcestershire side which won the County Championship in 1989, appearing especially in the second half of the season. Lampitt also helped his team to the semi-finals of the Benson and Hedges Cup of 1995. He took 370 List A wickets in all for Worcestershire, a record for the county. Read more
29 Jul 1966: Martina McBride, American singer-songwriter and producer Martina Mariea McBride is an American country music singer and songwriter. An icon in the country music world, she is known for her country pop material with a powerful soprano voice and expansive range. McBride has won the Country Music Association Award for Female Vocalist of the Year award four times and the Academy of Country Music's "Top Female Vocalist" award three times. She is also a 14-time Grammy Award nominee. Read more
29 Jul 1966: Debbie Black, American basketball player and coach Debbie Black is an American women's basketball former player and current coach. During her professional career, Black played in the Women's National Basketball League in Australia, the American Basketball League and the Women's National Basketball Association. She retired from the Connecticut Sun of the WNBA in 2005. Black was an assistant coach for the Ohio State University before being named the head coach of the Eastern Illinois University Women's Basketball team on May 16, 2013, in which position she continued until 2017. Read more
29 Jul 1965: Luis Alicea, Puerto Rican-American baseball player and coach Luis René Alicea de Jesús is a Puerto Rican former Major League Baseball second baseman and coach. Read more
29 Jul 1965: Dean Haglund, Canadian actor, producer, and screenwriter Dean Haglund is a Canadian actor, known for the role of Richard "Ringo" Langly, one of The Lone Gunmen on The X-Files. Haglund is also a stand-up comedian, specializing in improvisational comedy, including work with the Vancouver TheatreSports League. In addition to The X-Files, he played the voice of Sid in Tom Sawyer, Haglund also portrayed Langly in the spin-off The Lone Gunmen, which aired thirteen episodes in 2001. He is the inventor of the Chill Pak, a commercial external cooling product for laptop computers. Read more
29 Jul 1965: Adam Holloway, English captain and politician Adam James Harold Holloway is a British politician and military veteran who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gravesham from 2005 until 2024. He resigned from the Conservative Party in 2025 to join Reform UK. Read more
29 Jul 1965: Stan Koziol, American soccer player (died 2014) Joseph Stanley Koziol was an American soccer midfielder who played professionally in the Major Indoor Soccer League, National Professional Soccer League and American Professional Soccer League. He also competed with the Puerto Rico national football team in 1992. Read more
29 Jul 1965: Chang-Rae Lee, South Korean-American author and academic Chang-rae Lee is a Korean-American novelist and a professor of creative writing at Stanford University. He was previously Professor of Creative Writing at Princeton and director of Princeton University's Program in Creative Writing. Read more
29 Jul 1965: Xavier Waterkeyn, Australian author Xavier Waterkeyn is an Australian non-fiction and fiction writer and literary agent. He is the author of twenty-three books. Read more
29 Jul 1965: Woody Weatherman, American guitarist and songwriter Corrosion of Conformity is an American heavy metal band from Raleigh, North Carolina, formed in 1982. The band has undergone multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with lead guitarist Woody Weatherman as the sole constant member. Weatherman, founding bassist Mike Dean, founding drummer Reed Mullin and vocalist/rhythm guitarist Pepper Keenan are widely regarded as its "classic" lineup. After a hiatus in 2006, Corrosion of Conformity returned in 2010 without Keenan, who had been busy touring and recording with Down, but announced their reunion with him in December 2014. More lineup changes have happened since then, with John Green replacing Mullin after his death in 2020 and Dean departing from the band once again in 2024. Read more
29 Jul 1964: Jaanus Veensalu, Estonian footballer Jaanus Veensalu is a retired football (soccer) defender from Estonia, who retired in 1997. His last club was JK Tervis Pärnu. Veensalu obtained a total number of six caps for the Estonia national football team during the early 1990s. Read more
29 Jul 1963: Hans-Holger Albrecht, Belgian-German businessman Hans-Holger Albrecht is a German businessman. He was CEO of Deezer until 2021, one of the largest music streaming services worldwide. Deezer offers more than 53 million tracks in over 180 countries to currently more than 14 million active monthly users. He is the brother of Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. Read more
29 Jul 1963: Jim Beglin, Irish footballer and sportscaster James Martin Beglin is an Irish former professional footballer who played as a defender, and a current co-commentator for RTÉ, CBS Sports, TNT Sports, and Premier League Productions. Read more
29 Jul 1963: Julie Elliott, English politician Julie Elliott, Baroness Elliott of Whitburn Bay, is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sunderland Central from 2010 to 2024. Elliott served as Shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change from 2013 to 2015, with specific responsibility for renewable energy, the Green Investment Bank, and skills and supply chain issues. She was a member of the European Scrutiny; Business, Innovation and Skills; Digital, Culture, Media and Sport; and Regulatory Reform Committees. Elliott stood down as an MP at the 2024 general election and was subsequently appointed to the House of Lords in 2025. Read more
29 Jul 1963: Azeem Hafeez, Pakistani cricketer Raja Azeem Hafeez is a Pakistani former cricketer who played 18 Test matches for the national team from 1983 to 1985. Read more
29 Jul 1963: Alexandra Paul, American actress and producer Alexandra Elizabeth Paul is an American actress and activist. She began her career modeling in New York before landing her first major role in John Carpenter's horror film Christine (1983). This was followed with prominent roles in Just the Way You Are (1984), American Flyers (1985), 8 Million Ways to Die (1986), and Dragnet (1987). She starred as Stephanie Holden in five seasons of the television series Baywatch from (1992-97). Read more
29 Jul 1963: Graham Poll, English footballer, referee, and journalist Graham Poll is an English former football referee in the Premier League. With 26 years of experience, he was one of the most prominent referees in English football, often taking charge of the highest-profile games. His final domestic game in a career spanning 1,544 matches was the Championship play-off final on 28 May 2007 between Derby County and West Bromwich Albion. Read more
29 Jul 1962: Carl Cox, English DJ and producer Carl Andrew Cox is a British house and techno club DJ, radio DJ, motorsport team owner and record producer. He lives in Frankston, Victoria, Australia. Read more
29 Jul 1962: Frank Neubarth, German footballer and manager Frank Neubarth is a German football manager and former player who spent his whole career with SV Werder Bremen and has since managed FC Schalke 04, Holstein Kiel and FC Carl Zeiss Jena. Read more
29 Jul 1962: Vincent Rousseau, Belgian runner Vincent Rousseau is a Belgian former long-distance runner, who competed in three consecutive Summer Olympics for his native country, starting in 1984. Read more
29 Jul 1962: Scott Steiner, American wrestler Scott Rechsteiner, better known by the ring name Scott Steiner, is an American professional wrestler. Read more
29 Jul 1960: Didier Van Cauwelaert, French author Didier Van Cauwelaert is a French author and director of Belgian descent who was born in Nice. In 1994 his novel Un Aller simple won the Prix Goncourt. Read more
29 Jul 1959: Sanjay Dutt, Indian actor, singer, and producer Sanjay Balraj Dutt is an Indian actor and film producer who works primarily in Hindi cinema, and has also appeared in some Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Marathi and Punjabi films. He has acted in over 135 films. Known for his versatile roles, style, and intensity, he has often portrayed flawed heroes on screen. Dutt has received awards such as two Filmfare Awards, three Screen Awards and a Global Indian Film Award. Read more
29 Jul 1959: Ruud Janssen, Dutch blogger and illustrator Ruud Janssen is a Dutch Fluxus and mail artist currently living in Breda in the Netherlands. Read more
29 Jul 1959: Dave LaPoint, American baseball player and manager David Jeffrey LaPoint is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher. He was the manager of the Rockland Boulders, an American professional baseball team based in Pomona, New York, and member of the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball known as the Can-Am League. Read more
29 Jul 1959: John Sykes, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2024) John James Sykes was an English guitarist and singer, best known as a member of Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy and Tygers of Pan Tang. He also fronted the hard rock group Blue Murder and released several solo albums. Read more
29 Jul 1959: Dirk Graham, Canadian ice hockey player and coach Dirk Milton Graham is a Canadian former professional ice hockey forward who played for the Chicago Blackhawks and Minnesota North Stars in the National Hockey League (NHL). He was honored in 1991 as the Frank J. Selke Trophy winner for outstanding defensive play by a forward. Graham served as head coach of the Blackhawks for the first 59 games of the 1998–99 season. Graham was both the first NHL captain and head coach of African descent. Read more
29 Jul 1958: Gail Dines, English-American author, activist, and academic Gail Dines is professor emerita of sociology and women's studies at Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts. Read more
29 Jul 1958: Simon Nye, English screenwriter and producer Simon Nye is an English screenwriter, best known for television comedy. He wrote the hit sitcom Men Behaving Badly, and all of the four ITV Pantos. He co-wrote the 2006 film Flushed Away, created an adaptation of Richmal Crompton's Just William books in 2010, and wrote the drama series The Durrells. Read more
29 Jul 1958: Cynthia Rowley, American fashion designer Cynthia Rowley is an American fashion designer, known for her books, television appearances and "flirty" and "carefree" women's clothing designs. Read more
29 Jul 1957: Liam Davison, Australian author and educator (died 2014) Liam Patrick Davison was an Australian novelist and reviewer. He was born in Melbourne, where, until 2007, he taught creative writing at the Chisholm Institute in Frankston. Read more
29 Jul 1957: Viktor Gavrikov, Lithuanian-Swiss chess player (died 2016) Viktor Nikolaevich Gavrikov was a Lithuanian-Swiss chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1984. Read more
29 Jul 1957: Nellie Kim, Russian gymnast and coach Nellie Vladimirovna Kim is a retired Soviet and Belarusian gymnast of Sakhalin Korean and Tatar descent who won three gold medals and a silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, and two gold medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. She was the second woman in Olympic history to earn a perfect 10 score and the first woman to score it on the vault and on the floor exercise, rivaling Nadia Comăneci, Ludmilla Tourischeva, and other strong competitors of the 1970s. Read more
29 Jul 1956: Teddy Atlas, American boxer, trainer, and sportscaster Theodore A. Atlas Jr. is an American boxing trainer and fight commentator. Read more
29 Jul 1956: Ronnie Musgrove, American lawyer and politician, 62nd Governor of Mississippi David Ronald Musgrove is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 62nd governor of Mississippi from 2000 to 2004. A Democrat, he previously served as the 29th lieutenant governor of Mississippi from 1996 to 2000 under Governor Kirk Fordice. As governor, Musgrove had a conservative record. Read more
29 Jul 1956: Faustino Rupérez, Spanish cyclist Faustino Rupérez Rincón is a Spanish former professional road racing cyclist who raced between 1979 and 1985. Ruperez is most famous for capturing the overall title at the 1980 Vuelta a España. Read more
29 Jul 1955: Jean-Hugues Anglade, French actor, director, and screenwriter Jean-Hugues Anglade is a French actor, film director, and screenwriter. He has been twice nominated for the César Award for Best Actor, for Betty Blue (1986) and Nocturne Indien (1990), and won Best Supporting Actor for La Reine Margot (1994). In 2010, he was ascended a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters. Read more
29 Jul 1955: Dave Stevens, American illustrator (died 2008) Dave Lee Stevens was an American illustrator and comics artist. He was most famous for creating The Rocketeer comic book and film character, and for his pin-up style "glamour art" illustrations, especially of model Bettie Page. He was the first to win Comic-Con International's Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award in 1982, and received both an Inkpot Award and the Kirby Award for Best Graphic Album in 1986. Read more
29 Jul 1955: Stephen Timms, English politician, Minister of State for Competitiveness Sir Stephen Creswell Timms is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Ham, formerly Newham North East, since 1994. A member of the Labour Party, he has served as Minister of State for Social Security and Disability since July 2024. Read more
29 Jul 1953: Ken Burns, American director and producer Kenneth Lauren Burns is an American filmmaker known for his documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle United States history and culture. His work is often produced in association with WETA-TV or the National Endowment for the Humanities and distributed by PBS. Burns lives in the small town of Walpole, New Hampshire. Read more
29 Jul 1953: Tim Gunn, American television host and actor Timothy MacKenzie Gunn is an American author, academic, and television personality. He served on the faculty of Parsons School of Design in Greenwich Village, New York from 1982 to 2007 and was chair of fashion design at the school from August 2000 to March 2007, after which he joined Liz Claiborne as its chief creative officer. Over 16 seasons, Gunn became well known as the on-air mentor to designers on the reality television program Project Runway. Gunn's popularity on Project Runway led to two spin-off shows;: Bravo's Tim Gunn's Guide to Style and Lifetime's Under the Gunn. He has written five books. In addition to being an executive producer, Gunn has been a mentor for teen designers on Project Runway: Junior. He also provides the voice of Baileywick, the castle steward in the Disney Jr. television show Sofia the First, and narrated the sitcom Mixology. Read more
29 Jul 1953: Geddy Lee, Canadian musician Geddy Lee Weinrib is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the rock band Rush. Lee joined the band in September 1968 at the request of his childhood friend Alex Lifeson, replacing original bassist and frontman Jeff Jones. Along with Lifeson, Lee is one of the only two members to appear on every Rush album, and he remained in the band until their initial dissolution from 2015 to 2025. Lee's solo effort, My Favourite Headache, was released in 2000. Read more
29 Jul 1953: Frank McGuinness, Irish poet and playwright Professor Frank McGuinness is an Irish writer. As well as his own plays, which include The Factory Girls, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, Someone Who'll Watch Over Me and Dolly West's Kitchen, he is recognised for a "strong record of adapting literary classics, having translated the plays of Racine, Sophocles, Ibsen, Garcia Lorca, and Strindberg to critical acclaim". He has also published six collections of poetry, and two novels. McGuinness was Professor of Creative Writing at University College Dublin (UCD) from 2007 to 2018. Read more
29 Jul 1953: Patti Scialfa, American musician Vivienne Patricia Scialfa is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Scialfa has been a member of the E Street Band since 1984 and has been married to Bruce Springsteen since 1991. In 2014, Scialfa was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band. Read more
29 Jul 1952: Norman Blackwell, Baron Blackwell, English businessman and politician Norman Roy Blackwell, Baron Blackwell is a British former businessman, civil servant, Conservative politician, campaigner and policy advisor. Read more
29 Jul 1952: Joe Johnson, English snooker player and sportscaster Joseph Johnson is an English former professional snooker player and a snooker commentator for Eurosport. As an amateur, he became the British under-19 champion in 1971, defeating George Crimes in the final. He turned professional in 1979, having reached the finals of both the English Amateur Championship and the World Amateur Championship the previous year. He appeared in his first ranking final at the 1983 Professional Players Tournament, where he was runner-up to Tony Knowles, and he progressed to the semi-finals of the 1985 Classic. Read more
29 Jul 1952: Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou, Greek politician Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou
is a Greek politician and was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) with the New Democracy from 2004 to 2009, .
As a member of the European Parliament Mrs Panayotopoulos was vice-chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Petitions. She had a seat in its Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, its Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality and had a substitute seat for the Committee on Legal Affairs. Read more
29 Jul 1952: Scott Wedman, American basketball player Scott Dean Wedman is an American former professional basketball player who played thirteen seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was drafted by the Kansas City-Omaha Kings with the sixth pick in the first round in the 1974 NBA draft from Colorado and was a two-time NBA champion and two-time NBA All-Star. Read more
29 Jul 1951: Susan Blackmore, English psychologist and theorist Susan Jane Blackmore is a British writer, lecturer, sceptic, broadcaster, and a visiting professor at the University of Plymouth. Her fields of research include memetics, parapsychology, consciousness, and she is best known for her book The Meme Machine. She has written or contributed to over 40 books and 60 scholarly articles and is a contributor to The Guardian newspaper. Read more
29 Jul 1951: Dan Driessen, American baseball player and coach Daniel Driessen is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman from 1973 to 1987, most notably as a member of the Cincinnati Reds dynasty that won three National League pennants and two World Series championships between 1973 and 1976. He was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Baseball Hall of Fame on June 23, 2012. Read more
29 Jul 1951: Dean Pitchford, American actor, director, screenwriter, and composer Dean Pitchford is an American songwriter, screenwriter, director, actor, and novelist. His work has earned him an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for three additional Oscars, two more Golden Globes, eight Grammy Awards, and two Tony Awards. Read more
29 Jul 1950: Jenny Holzer, American painter, author, and dancer Jenny Holzer is an American neo-conceptual artist based in Hoosick, New York. Her work focuses on the delivery of words and ideas in public spaces and includes large-scale installations, advertising billboards, projections on buildings and other structures, and illuminated electronic displays. Read more
29 Jul 1949: Leslie Easterbrook, American actress Leslie Easterbrook is an American actress and producer. She played Sgt./Lt./Capt. Debbie Callahan in the Police Academy films and Rhonda Lee on the television series Laverne & Shirley. Read more
29 Jul 1949: Jamil Mahuad, Ecuadorian lawyer and politician, 51st President of Ecuador Jorge Jamil Mahuad Witt is an Ecuadorian lawyer, academic and former politician who served the 41st president of Ecuador from 1998 until he was deposed in a coup in 2000. He previously served as the 17th mayor of Quito from 1992 to 1998. Read more
29 Jul 1948: John Clarke, New Zealand-Australian comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter (died 2017) John Morrison Clarke was a New Zealand comedian, writer and satirist who lived and worked in Australia from the late 1970s. He was a highly regarded actor and writer whose work appeared on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in both radio and television and also in print. He is principally known for his character Fred Dagg and his long-running collaboration with fellow satirist Bryan Dawe, which lasted from 1989 to his death in 2017, as well as for his success as a comic actor in Australian and New Zealand film and television. Read more
29 Jul 1947: Dick Harmon, American golfer and coach (died 2006) Dick Harmon was a PGA golf professional and instructor. Read more
29 Jul 1946: Ximena Armas, Chilean painter Marta Ximena Armas Fernández is a Chilean painter, drafter and engraver active in France. Read more
29 Jul 1946: Stig Blomqvist, Swedish race car driver Stig Lennart Blomqvist is a retired Swedish rally driver. He made his international breakthrough in 1981. Driving an Audi Quattro for the Audi factory team, Blomqvist won the World Rally Championship drivers' title in 1984 and finished runner-up in 1985. He won his home event, the Swedish Rally, seven times. Read more
29 Jul 1946: Neal Doughty, American keyboard player, songwriter, and producer Neal Allan Doughty is an American keyboardist, best known as a founding member of the rock band REO Speedwagon and the only member to have played on every album. He formed the band in the fall of 1967, with original drummer Alan Gratzer. Read more
29 Jul 1946: Alessandro Gogna, Italian mountaineer and adventurer Alessandro Gogna is a mountaineer, adventurer and mountain guide from Italy. Read more
29 Jul 1946: Diane Keen, English actress Diane Keen is an English actress. With a career spanning decades, she has appeared in television series, films and stage productions. Keen's notable roles include Fliss Hawthorne in the Granada sitcom The Cuckoo Waltz, Sandy Bennett in Rings on Their Fingers, Jenny Burden in The Ruth Rendell Mysteries and Julia Parsons on the BBC soap opera Doctors. Keen also appeared in Nescafé advertisements from 1980 to 1989. Read more
29 Jul 1946: Aleksei Tammiste, Estonian basketball player Aleksei Tammiste is a retired Estonian professional basketball player, who competed for the Soviet Union. He won a gold medal at the 1971 EuroBasket Championship held in West Germany. During his career Tammiste won 10 Estonian league titles, the most domestic titles won by and Estonian basketball player. Elected to the Hall of fame of Estonian basketball in 2010. Read more
29 Jul 1945: Sharon Creech, American author and educator Sharon Creech is an American writer of children's novels. She was the first American winner of the Carnegie Medal for British children's books and the first person to win both the American Newbery Medal and the British Carnegie. Read more
29 Jul 1945: Mircea Lucescu, Romanian footballer, coach, and manager (died 2026) Mircea Lucescu was a Romanian professional football player and manager. Read more
29 Jul 1944: Jim Bridwell, American rock climber and mountaineer (died 2018) Jim Bridwell was an American rock climber and mountaineer, active from 1965 in Yosemite Valley, but later in Patagonia and Alaska. He was noted for pushing the standards of both aid climbing and big wall climbing, and later alpine climbing. He wrote numerous articles on climbing and developed several important pieces of aid climbing equipment. Bridwell was an apprentice to Royal Robbins and Warren Harding, and later the unofficial leader of the Stonemasters. Read more
29 Jul 1943: David Taylor, English snooker player and sportscaster David Taylor is an English former professional snooker player. He won the English Amateur Championship 11–6 against Chris Ross in 1968 and the 1968 World Amateur Snooker Championship 8–7 against Max Williams later that year. Those wins encouraged him to turn professional. He was nicknamed "The Silver Fox" because of his prematurely grey hair. Read more
29 Jul 1942: Doug Ashdown, Australian singer-songwriter Douglas Wesley Ashdown is an Australian rock music singer-songwriter from Adelaide. He had a top 40 hit on the Australian singles chart with "Winter in America" or "Leave Love Enough Alone" (1976). It also reached No. 13 on the Dutch Singles Chart in 1978 and charted in 14 of the first 15 editions of the Dutch annual Top 2000 of all time, with a peak position of 820 in 1999. In 1988, "Winter in America" was covered by Dutch singer René Froger, and in 1994 by Australian group the Robertson Brothers.
Ashdown also reached the Australian top 50 with "The Saddest Song of All" (1970). Read more
29 Jul 1942: Tony Sirico, American actor (died 2022) Genaro Anthony Sirico Jr. was an American actor. Often cast as a mobster, he is known for portraying Paulie Gualtieri in The Sopranos. Read more
29 Jul 1941: Jennifer Dunn, American engineer and politician (died 2007) Jennifer Jill Dunn was an American politician and engineer who served six terms as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1993 to 2005, representing Washington's 8th congressional district. Read more
29 Jul 1941: Goenawan Mohamad, Indonesian poet and playwright Goenawan Mohamad is an Indonesian poet, essayist, playwright and editor. He is the founder and editor of the Indonesian magazine Tempo. Mohamad is a vocal critic of the Indonesian government, and his magazine was periodically shut down due to its criticisms. Read more
29 Jul 1941: David Warner, English actor (died 2022) David Hattersley Warner was an English actor who portrayed a variety of villainous characters, as well as more sympathetic roles, in a career spanning six decades across stage and screen. His accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award and nominations for a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Read more
29 Jul 1940: Betty Harris, American chemist Betty Wright Harris is an American chemist. She is known for her work on the chemistry of explosives completed at Los Alamos National Laboratory. She patented a spot test for detecting 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB) in the field, which is used by the Federal Department of Homeland Security to screen for nitroaromatic explosives. Read more
29 Jul 1940: Bernard Lafayette, American civil rights movement activist (died 2026) Bernard Lafayette Jr. was an American civil rights activist, organizer and Baptist minister, who was a leader in the civil rights movement. He played a leading role in early organizing of the Selma Voting Rights Movement. He was also a member of the Nashville Student Movement and worked closely throughout the 1960s movements with groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the American Friends Service Committee. Read more
29 Jul 1940: Winnie Monsod, Filipina economist and political commentator Solita Garduño Collás-Monsod, popularly known as Mareng Winnie, is a Filipino economist, broadcaster, columnist, radio host, and public intellectual. She had been the 5th Director-General of the National Economic and Development Authority and concurrently socio-economic planning secretary of the Philippines from 1986 to 1989. Read more
29 Jul 1938: Peter Jennings, Canadian-American journalist and author (died 2005) Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings was a Canadian and American television journalist. He was best known for serving as the sole anchor of ABC World News Tonight from 1983 until his death from lung cancer in 2005. Despite dropping out of high school, Jennings transformed himself into one of American television's most prominent journalists. Read more
29 Jul 1938: Jean Rochon, Canadian physician and politician (died 2021) Jean Rochon was a Canadian politician and member of the National Assembly of Quebec. He was a cabinet minister for several ministries from 1994 to 2003 when the Parti Québécois formed the government under the leadership of Jacques Parizeau, Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry. Read more
29 Jul 1937: Daniel McFadden, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize Laureate Daniel Little McFadden is an American econometrician who shared the 2000 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with James Heckman. McFadden's share of the prize was "for his development of theory and methods for analyzing discrete choice". He is the Presidential Professor of Health Economics at the University of Southern California and Professor of the Graduate School at University of California, Berkeley. Read more
29 Jul 1936: Elizabeth Dole, American lawyer and politician, 20th United States Secretary of Labor Mary Elizabeth Alexander Dole is an American attorney, author, and politician
who served as a United States senator from North Carolina from 2003 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served in five presidential administrations, including as U.S. Secretary of Transportation under Ronald Reagan from 1983 to 1987 and as U.S. Secretary of Labor under Reagan's successor, George H. W. Bush, from 1989 until 1990. Dole then left government to serve as president of the American Red Cross from 1991 to 1999; she departed from that position to seek the Republican nomination in the 2000 presidential election, but eventually withdrew from the race. Read more
29 Jul 1935: Peter Schreier, German tenor and conductor (died 2019) Peter Schreier was a German tenor in opera, concert and lied, and a conductor. He was regarded as one of the leading lyric tenors of the 20th century. Read more
29 Jul 1933: Lou Albano, Italian-American wrestler, manager, and actor (died 2009) Louis Vincent Albano was an Italian-American professional wrestler, manager and actor, who performed under the ring/stage name "Captain" Lou Albano. He was active as a professional wrestler from 1953 until 1969, before becoming a manager until 1996. Read more
29 Jul 1933: Colin Davis, English race car driver (died 2012) Colin Charles Houghton Davis was a British racing driver from England, who won the 1964 Targa Florio. Read more
29 Jul 1933: Robert Fuller, American actor and rancher Robert Fuller is an American retired actor. Fuller was known for his deep "charcoal" voice, his roles on the popular Western series Laramie as Jess Harper and Wagon Train as Cooper Smith, and as Dr. Kelly Brackett in the medical/action drama Emergency! (1972–1977). Read more
29 Jul 1933: Randy Sparks, American folk singer-songwriter and musician (died 2024) Lloyd Arrington Sparks, known professionally as Randy Sparks, was an American musician, singer-songwriter, and founder of The New Christy Minstrels and The Back Porch Majority. Read more
29 Jul 1932: Leslie Fielding, English diplomat (died 2021) Sir Leslie Fielding was a British diplomat. In the Diplomatic Service, he spent time in the Foreign Office in London before serving as the European Commission Ambassador to Tokyo between 1978 and 1982. He was Director-General for external relations at the European Commission from 1982 to 1987. Read more
29 Jul 1932: Nancy Kassebaum, American businesswoman and politician Nancy Josephine Kassebaum Baker is an American retired politician from Kansas who served as a member of the United States Senate from 1978 to 1997. She is the daughter of Alf Landon, who was Governor of Kansas from 1933 to 1937 and the 1936 Republican nominee for president, and the widow of former U.S. Senate Majority Leader and diplomat Howard Baker. Read more
29 Jul 1931: Kjell Karlsen, Norwegian pianist, composer, and bandleader (died 2020) Kjell Oddvar Karlsen was a Norwegian band leader, composer, arranger, jazz pianist and organist, and a Nestor of Norwegian music and show business, with a career spanning more than 60 years. He was the father of the singer Webe Karlsen. Read more
29 Jul 1931: Jerry Toppazzini, Canadian ice hockey player (died 2012) Jerry "Topper" Toppazzini was a Canadian ice hockey forward who played 12 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), most notably for the Boston Bruins, between 1952 and 1964. A skilled defensive specialist and penalty killer, he set the then-NHL record for shorthanded goals in a season in 1958 with seven. Read more
29 Jul 1930: Paul Taylor, American dancer and choreographer (died 2018) Paul Belville Taylor Jr. was an American dancer and choreographer. He was one of the last living members of the third generation of America's modern dance artists. He founded the Paul Taylor Dance Company in 1954 in New York City. Read more
29 Jul 1927: Harry Mulisch, Dutch author, poet, and playwright (died 2010) Harry Kurt Victor Mulisch was a Dutch writer. He wrote more than 80 novels, plays, essays, poems, and philosophical reflections. Mulisch's works have been translated into 38 languages. Read more
29 Jul 1926: Robert Kilpatrick, Baron Kilpatrick of Kincraig, Scottish physician, academic, and politician (died 2015) Robert Kilpatrick, Baron Kilpatrick of Kincraig was a Scottish physician, educator, academic and former President of the General Medical Council. Read more
29 Jul 1925: Harold W. Kuhn, American mathematician and academic (died 2014) Harold William Kuhn was an American mathematician who studied game theory. He won the 1980 John von Neumann Theory Prize jointly with David Gale and Albert W. Tucker. A former professor emeritus of mathematics at Princeton University, he is known for the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions, for Kuhn's theorem, and for developing Kuhn poker. He described the Hungarian method for the assignment problem, but later a paper by Carl Gustav Jacobi was discovered that had described the Hungarian method a century before Kuhn, published posthumously in 1890 in Latin. Read more
29 Jul 1925: Ted Lindsay, Canadian ice hockey player, manager, and sportscaster (died 2019) Robert Blake Theodore Lindsay was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played as a forward for the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Black Hawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). Lindsay scored over 800 points in his Hockey Hall of Fame career, won the Art Ross Trophy in 1950, and won the Stanley Cup four times. Often referred to as "Terrible Ted", Lindsay helped to organize the first attempt at a Players' Association in the late 1950s, an action which led to his trade to Chicago. In 2017, Lindsay was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in history. Lindsay played a pivotal role in improving the lives of NHL players. After his retirement, he worked a variety of jobs, serving as a sports broadcaster on NBC before becoming general manager of the Red Wings. He also served as head coach for the Hillsdale College Chargers from 1976 to 1977 and also coached the Red Wings for a time. Read more
29 Jul 1925: Hilary Smart, American sailor (died 2000) Hilary Hurlburt Smart was an American sailor and Olympic champion. He competed at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, where he received a gold medal in the star class with the boat Hilarius, together with his father, Paul Smart. He often described his Olympic victory by speaking about "the unbelievable feeling of watching the torch come in at the Olympic Stadium. It made me feel proud and responsible to think that my dad and I were the only Americans in our specialty since each country was allowed just a single two-man boat." Read more
29 Jul 1925: Mikis Theodorakis, Greek composer (died 2021) Michail "Mikis" Theodorakis was a Greek composer and lyricist credited with over 1,000 works. Read more
29 Jul 1924: Lloyd Bochner, Canadian-American actor (died 2005) Lloyd Wolfe Bochner was a Canadian actor. He appeared in many Canadian and Hollywood productions between the 1950s and 1990s, including the films Point Blank (1967), The Detective (1968), The Young Runaways (1968), Ulzana's Raid (1972) and Satan's School for Girls (1973), and the television prime time soap opera Dynasty (1981–82). Bochner also voiced Mayor Hamilton Hill in Batman: The Animated Series (1992–95) and its follow-up The New Batman Adventures (1997–99). Read more
29 Jul 1924: Robert Horton, American actor (died 2016) Mead Howard "Robert" Horton Jr. was an American actor and singer. He is known for playing Flint McCullough in Wagon Train (1957–1962). Read more
29 Jul 1923: George Burditt, American screenwriter and producer (died 2013) George Henry Burditt was an American television writer and producer who wrote sketches for television variety shows and other programs such as Three's Company, for which he was also an executive producer in its last few seasons. Burditt was Emmy-nominated in writing categories alongside writing crew, including his writing partner Paul Wayne, for twice each The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and Van Dyke and Company. Read more
29 Jul 1923: Edgar Cortright, American scientist and engineer (died 2014) Edgar Maurice Cortright was a scientist and engineer, and senior official at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States. His most prominent positions during his career were Director of NASA's Langley Research Center, and Chairman of the Apollo 13 Review Board which investigated the explosion that occurred during the Apollo 13 spaceflight in 1970. Read more
29 Jul 1923: Jim Marshall, English businessman, founded Marshall Amplification (died 2012) James Charles Marshall known as The Father of Loud or The Lord of Loud, was an English businessman and pioneer of guitar amplification. His company, Marshall Amplification, founded in 1962, has created equipment that is used by some of the biggest names in rock music, producing amplifiers with an iconic status. Read more
29 Jul 1923: Gordon Mitchell, American bodybuilder and actor (died 2003) Gordon Mitchell was an American actor and bodybuilder, known for his starring roles in Italian sword-and-sandal and Spaghetti Western films. Read more
29 Jul 1921: Richard Egan, American actor (died 1987) Richard Egan was an American actor. After beginning his career in 1949, he subsequently won a Golden Globe Award for his performances in the films The Glory Brigade (1953) and The Kid from Left Field (1953). He went on to star in many films such as Underwater! (1955), Seven Cities of Gold (1955), The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956), Love Me Tender (1956), Tension at Table Rock (1956), A Summer Place (1959), Esther and the King (1960) and The 300 Spartans (1962). Read more
29 Jul 1921: Chris Marker, French photographer and journalist (died 2012) Chris Marker was a French writer, photographer, documentary film director, multimedia artist and film essayist. His best known films are La Jetée (1962), A Grin Without a Cat (1977) and Sans Soleil (1983). Marker is usually associated with the Left Bank subset of the French New Wave that occurred in the late 1950s and 1960s, and included such other filmmakers as Alain Resnais, Agnès Varda and Jacques Demy. Read more
29 Jul 1920: Neville Jeffress, Australian businessman (died 2007) Neville Jeffress was an Australian advertising executive and the founder of Media Monitors Australia, now called Isentia. Read more
29 Jul 1918: Don Ingalls, American writer and producer (died 2014) Donald George Ingalls was an American screenwriter and television producer. During his 35-year career Ingalls wrote scripts for more than 70 episodes of network television, including Adam-12, Bonanza, The Big Valley, Fantasy Island, Gunsmoke, Have Gun-Will Travel, Honey West, Marcus Welby M.D., Police Story, Serpico, Star Trek, and The Virginian. Ingalls also wrote the script for the movie Airport 1975. Read more
29 Jul 1918: Edwin O'Connor, American journalist and author (died 1968) Edwin Greene O'Connor was an American journalist, novelist, and radio commentator. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1962 for his novel The Edge of Sadness (1961). His ancestry was Irish, and his novels concerned the Irish-American experience and often dealt with the lives of politicians and priests. Read more
29 Jul 1918: Mary Lee Settle, American novelist, essayist, and memoirist (died 2005) Mary Lee Settle was an American writer. Read more
29 Jul 1917: Rochus Misch, German SS officer (died 2013) Rochus Misch was a German Oberscharführer (sergeant) in the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH). He was badly wounded during the Polish campaign during the first month of World War II in Europe. After recovering, from 1940 to April 1945, he served in the Führerbegleitkommando as a bodyguard, courier, and telephone operator for German dictator Adolf Hitler. Read more
29 Jul 1916: Budd Boetticher, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2001) Oscar Boetticher Jr., known as Budd Boetticher,
was an American film director. He is best remembered for a series of low-budget Westerns he made in the late 1950s starring Randolph Scott. Read more
29 Jul 1916: Charlie Christian, American guitarist (died 1942) Charles Henry Christian was an American swing and jazz guitarist. He was among the first electric guitarists and was a key figure in the development of bebop and cool jazz. He gained national exposure as a member of the Benny Goodman Sextet and Orchestra from August 1939 to June 1941. His single-string technique, combined with early adoption of the electric guitar, helped bring the guitar out of the rhythm section and into the forefront as a solo instrument. For this, he is often credited with pioneering the development of the lead guitar role. Read more
29 Jul 1916: Rupert Hamer, Australian politician, 39th Premier of Victoria (died 2004) Sir Rupert James "Dick" Hamer, was an Australian politician who served as the 39th premier of Victoria from 1972 to 1981, and prior to that, the 18th deputy premier of Victoria from 1971 to 1972. He held office as the leader of the Victorian division of the Liberal Party of Australia (LPA) and a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the district of Kew. Read more
29 Jul 1915: Bruce R. McConkie, American colonel and religious leader (died 1985) Bruce Redd McConkie was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1972 until his death. McConkie was a member of the LDS Church's First Council of the Seventy from 1946 until his calling to the Quorum of the Twelve. Read more
29 Jul 1915: Francis W. Sargent, American soldier and politician, 64th Governor of Massachusetts (died 1998) Francis Williams Sargent was an American politician who served as the 64th governor of Massachusetts from 1969 to 1975. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 63rd lieutenant governor of Massachusetts from 1967 to 1971. In 1969, he became acting governor when John A. Volpe resigned to become Secretary of Transportation under the Nixon administration. In 1970, he was elected governor in his own right, defeating the Democratic Party's nominee Kevin White. He lost reelection in 1974 to Democrat Michael Dukakis. Read more
29 Jul 1914: Irwin Corey, American actor and activist (died 2017) Irwin Corey was an American stand-up comic, film actor and activist, often billed as "The World's Foremost Authority". He introduced his unscripted, improvisational style of stand-up comedy at the San Francisco club the hungry i. Lenny Bruce described Corey as "one of the most brilliant comedians of all time." Read more
29 Jul 1913: Erich Priebke, German war criminal, leader of the 1944 Ardeatine massacre (died 2013) Erich Priebke was a German mid-level Schutzstaffel (SS) commander in the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) of Nazi Germany. In 1996, he was convicted of war crimes in Italy for commanding the unit which was responsible for the Ardeatine massacre in Rome on 24 March 1944 in which 335 Italian civilians were killed in retaliation for a partisan attack that killed 33 men of the German SS Police Regiment Bozen. Priebke was one of the men held responsible for this mass execution. After the end of World War II in Europe, he fled to Argentina, where he lived for almost 50 years. Read more
29 Jul 1911: Foster Furcolo, American lawyer and politician, 60th Governor of Massachusetts (died 1995) John Foster Furcolo was an American lawyer, writer, and Democratic Party politician from Massachusetts. He was the state's 60th governor, and also represented the state as a member of the United States House of Representatives. He was the first Italian-American governor of the state, and an active promoter of community colleges. Read more
29 Jul 1911: Archbishop Iakovos of America (died 2005) Archbishop Iakovos of North and South America was the primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America from 1959 until his resignation in 1996. Read more
29 Jul 1910: Gale Page, American actress (died 1983) Gale Page was an American singer and actress. Read more
29 Jul 1909: Samm Sinclair Baker, American author (died 1997) Samm Sinclair Baker was the author/co-author of many how-to and self-help books, most notably The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet which he co-authored with Dr. Herman Tarnower. Read more
29 Jul 1909: Chester Himes, American-Spanish author (died 1984) Chester Bomar Himes was an American writer. His works, some of which have been filmed, include If He Hollers Let Him Go, published in 1945, and the Harlem Detective series of novels for which he is best known, set in the 1950s and early 1960s and featuring two black policemen called Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. In 1958, Himes won France's Grand Prix de Littérature Policière. Read more
29 Jul 1907: Melvin Belli, American lawyer (died 1996) Melvin Mouron Belli was an American lawyer and writer known as "The King of Torts" and by insurance companies as "Melvin Bellicose". He had many celebrity clients, including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Errol Flynn, Chuck Berry, Muhammad Ali, The Rolling Stones, Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker, Martha Mitchell, Maureen Connolly, Lana Turner, Tony Curtis, and Mae West. During his legal career, he won over $600 million in damages for his clients. He was also the attorney for Jack Ruby, who shot Lee Harvey Oswald days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Read more
29 Jul 1906: Thelma Todd, American actress and singer (died 1935) Thelma Alice Todd was an American actress and businesswoman who carried the nicknames "the Ice Cream Blonde" and "Hot Toddy". Appearing in about 120 feature films and shorts between 1926 and 1935, she is remembered for her comedic roles opposite ZaSu Pitts, in films such as the Marx Brothers' Monkey Business and Horse Feathers, and a number of Charley Chase's short comedies. She co-starred with Buster Keaton and Jimmy Durante in Speak Easily. She also had roles in several Wheeler and Woolsey and Laurel and Hardy films, the last of which featured her in a part that was cut short by her sudden death in 1935 at the age of 29. Read more
29 Jul 1905: Clara Bow, American actress (died 1965) Clara Gordon Bow was an American actress who rose to stardom during the silent film era of the 1920s and successfully made the transition to "talkies" in 1929. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the 1927 film It brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl". Bow came to personify the Roaring Twenties and is described as its leading sex symbol. Read more
29 Jul 1905: Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish economist and diplomat, 2nd Secretary-General of the United Nations, Nobel Prize Laureate (died 1961) Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld was a Swedish economist and diplomat who served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. As of 2026, he remains the youngest person to have held the post, having been only 47 years old when he was elected. He was a son of Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1914 to 1917. Read more
29 Jul 1905: Stanley Kunitz, American poet and translator (died 2006) Stanley Jasspon Kunitz was an American poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress twice, first in 1974 and then again in 2000. Read more
29 Jul 1904: Mahasi Sayadaw, Burmese monk and philosopher (died 1982) Mahāsī Sayādaw U Sobhana was a Burmese Theravada Buddhist monk and meditation master who had a significant impact on the teaching of Vipassana (insight) meditation in the West and throughout Asia. Read more
29 Jul 1904: J. R. D. Tata, French-Indian pilot and businessman, founded Tata Motors and Tata Global Beverages (died 1993) Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata was a French-born Indian industrialist, and aviator, who was the chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Group from 1938 to 1991. Read more
29 Jul 1900: Mary V. Austin, Australian community worker and political activist (died 1986) Dame Mary Valentine Austin DBE was an Australian community worker and political activist. The daughter of Admiral Percival Hall-Thompson and his wife, Helen, she was educated in New Zealand at Marsden College, Wellington. Read more
29 Jul 1900: Eyvind Johnson, Swedish novelist and short story writer, Nobel Prize Laureate (died 1976) Eyvind Johnson was a Swedish novelist and short story writer. Regarded as the most groundbreaking novelist in modern Swedish literature he became a member of the Swedish Academy in 1957 and shared the 1974 Nobel Prize in Literature with Harry Martinson with the citation: for a narrative art, far-seeing in lands and ages, in the service of freedom. Read more
29 Jul 1900: Teresa Noce, Italian labor leader, activist, and journalist (died 1980) Teresa Noce, also known as Teresa Noce Longo since marriage, was an Italian labor leader, activist, journalist and feminist. She served as a parliamentary deputy and advocated broad social legislation benefiting mothers. Read more
29 Jul 1900: Don Redman, American composer, and bandleader (died 1964) Donald Matthew Redman was an American jazz musician, arranger, bandleader, and composer. Read more
29 Jul 1899: Walter Beall, American baseball player (died 1959) Walter Esau Beall was an American baseball player who played for the New York Yankees on several championship teams in the 1920s. Read more
29 Jul 1898: Isidor Isaac Rabi, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize Laureate (died 1988) Israel Isaac "Isidor" Rabi was an American physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1944 "for his resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei." He was also one of the first scientists in the United States to work on the cavity magnetron, which is used in microwave radar and microwave ovens. Read more
29 Jul 1897: Neil Ritchie, Guyanese-English general (died 1983) General Sir Neil Methuen Ritchie, was a British Army officer who served in the First and Second World Wars. During the Second World War he commanded the British Eighth Army in the North African campaign from November 1941 until he was dismissed in June 1942 after a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Gazala. Read more
29 Jul 1896: Maria L. de Hernández, Mexican-American rights activist (died 1986) María Rebecca Latigo de Hernández was a Mexican-American rights activist. She was born in San Pedro Garza García, Mexico. During the 1930s, she spoke publicly and demonstrated on behalf of Mexican Americans about their education in the United States. She and her husband, Pedro Hernandez Barrera, founded Orden Caballeros de America on January 10, 1929. She organized the Asociación Protectora de Madres in 1933. In 1970 she was active in the Raza Unida Party. Read more
29 Jul 1892: William Powell, American actor and singer (died 1984) William Horatio Powell was an American actor, known primarily for his film career. Under contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the Thin Man series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters created by Dashiell Hammett. Powell was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times: for The Thin Man (1934), My Man Godfrey (1936), and Life with Father (1947). Read more
29 Jul 1891: Bernhard Zondek, German-Israeli gynecologist and academic (died 1966) Bernhard Zondek was a German-born Israeli gynecologist who developed the first reliable pregnancy test in 1928. Read more
29 Jul 1887: Sigmund Romberg, Hungarian-American pianist and composer (died 1951) Sigmund Romberg was a Hungarian-born American composer. He is best known for his musicals and operettas, particularly The Student Prince (1924), The Desert Song (1926) and The New Moon (1928). Read more
29 Jul 1885: Theda Bara, American actress (died 1955) Theda Bara was an American silent film and stage actress. Bara was one of the more popular actresses of the silent era and one of cinema's early sex symbols. Her femme fatale roles earned her the nickname "the Vamp", later fueling the rising popularity in "vamp" roles based in exoticism and sexual domination. Read more
29 Jul 1884: Ralph Austin Bard, American financier and politician, 2nd Under Secretary of the Navy (died 1975) Ralph Austin Bard was a Chicago financier who served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1941–1944, and as Under Secretary, 1944–1945. He is noted for a memorandum he wrote to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson in 1945 urging that Japan be given a warning before the use of the atomic bomb on a strategic city. He was "the only person known to have formally dissented from the use of the atomic bomb without advance warning." Read more
29 Jul 1883: Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian poet and author (died 1942) Miguel Ángel Osorio Benítez, better known by his pseudonym, Porfirio Barba-Jacob, was a Colombian poet and writer. Read more
29 Jul 1883: Benito Mussolini, Italian fascist revolutionary and politician, 27th Prime Minister of Italy (died 1945) Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician, journalist, and dictator who led the Kingdom of Italy as a fascist dictatorship from 1922 until his overthrow in 1943. Known under his rule as Il Duce, he founded fascism in 1919 with the creation of the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento, which became the National Fascist Party (PNF) in 1921. Mussolini was appointed Prime Minister of Italy after the March on Rome in 1922, establishing a totalitarian dictatorship. He oversaw Italy's participation in World War II as a prominent member of the Axis Powers, and was executed by the Italian resistance near the end of the war in 1945. Read more
29 Jul 1878: Don Marquis, American author, poet, and playwright (died 1937) Donald Robert Perry Marquis was an American humorist, journalist, and author. He was variously a novelist, poet, newspaper columnist, and playwright. He is remembered best for creating the characters Archy and Mehitabel, Archy being a supposed author of humorous verse. During his lifetime he was equally famous for creating another fictitious character, "the Old Soak," who was the subject of two books, a hit Broadway play (1922–23), a silent film (1926) and a talkie (1937). Read more
29 Jul 1876: Maria Ouspenskaya, Russian-American actress and acting teacher (died 1949) Maria Alekseyevna Ouspenskaya was a Russian actress and acting teacher. She achieved success as a stage actress as a young woman in Russia, and as an older woman in Hollywood films. She was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Dodsworth (1936) and Love Affair (1939). Ouspenskaya is the first Russian actress to be nominated for an Oscar. Read more
29 Jul 1874: J. S. Woodsworth, Canadian minister and politician (died 1942) James Shaver Charleston Woodsworth was a Canadian Methodist minister, politician, and labour activist. He was a pioneer of the Canadian Social Gospel, a Christian religious movement with social democratic values and links to organized labour. A long-time leader and publicist in the movement, Woodsworth served as an member of Parliament (MP) for Winnipeg Centre and Winnipeg North Centre from 1921 until his death in 1942. In 1932, he helped to found the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), a socialist political party which was the predecessor to the New Democratic Party (NDP). Read more
29 Jul 1872: Eric Alfred Knudsen, American author, lawyer, and politician (died 1957) Eric Alfred Knudsen was an American writer, folklorist, lawyer and politician who grew up and lived on Kauai, Hawaii. His father was Valdemar Knudsen, a west Kauai sugar plantation pioneer. Read more
29 Jul 1871: Jakob Mändmets, Estonian writer and journalist (died 1930) Jakob Mändmets was an Estonian writer and journalist. Read more
29 Jul 1869: Booth Tarkington, American novelist and dramatist (died 1946) Newton Booth Tarkington was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his novels The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) and Alice Adams (1921). He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once, along with William Faulkner, John Updike, and Colson Whitehead. In the 1910s and 1920s he was considered the greatest living author in the United States. Several of his stories were adapted to film. Read more
29 Jul 1867: Berthold Oppenheim, Moravian rabbi (died 1942) Berthold Oppenheim (1867–1942) was the rabbi of Olomouc, Moravia, from 1892 to 1939. He was murdered in 1942 at the Treblinka extermination camp. Read more
29 Jul 1860: Charles Cochrane-Baillie, 2nd Baron Lamington, English politician, 8th Governor of Queensland (died 1940) Charles Wallace Alexander Napier Cochrane-Baillie, 2nd Baron Lamington,, was a British politician and colonial administrator who served as Governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901, and Governor of Bombay from 1903 to 1907. Read more
29 Jul 1859: Francisco Rodrigues da Cruz, Portuguese priest (died 1948) Francisco Rodrigues da Cruz, SJ, more commonly known as Father Cruz was a Portuguese Catholic priest. Revered in Portugal for his apostolic fervor and charity, he visited prisons and hospitals in every city, gave alms to the poor and ministered spiritually to all, achieving a great reputation for sanctity. Some called him "Blessed Father Cruz" and "Apostle of Charity" still in his lifetime. Read more
29 Jul 1849: Max Nordau, Hungarian physician, author, and critic, co-founded the World Zionist Organization (died 1923) Max Simon Nordau was a Jewish Zionist leader, physician, author, and social critic. He was a co-founder of the Zionist Organization together with Theodor Herzl, and president or vice-president of several Zionist congresses. Read more
29 Jul 1846: Sophie Menter, German pianist and composer (died 1918) Sophie Menter was a German pianist and composer who became the favorite female student of Franz Liszt. She was called l'incarnation de Liszt in Paris because of her robust, electrifying playing style and was considered one of the greatest piano virtuosos of her time. She died at Stockdorf, near Munich. Read more
29 Jul 1846: Isabel, Brazilian princess (died 1921) Dona Isabel, known as "the Redemptress", was the Princess Imperial of Brazil and heir presumptive to the throne of the Empire of Brazil. She served as regent of the empire on three occasions and was a central figure in Brazilian history during the final decades of the monarchy. Read more
29 Jul 1843: Johannes Schmidt, German linguist and academic (died 1901) Johannes Friedrich Heinrich Schmidt was a German linguist. He developed the Wellentheorie of language development. Read more
29 Jul 1841: Gerhard Armauer Hansen, Norwegian physician (died 1912) Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen was a Norwegian physician, remembered for his identification of the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae in 1873 as the etiologic agent of leprosy. His distinguished work was recognized at the International Leprosy Congress held at Bergen in 1909. Read more
29 Jul 1817: Ivan Aivazovsky, Armenian-Russian painter and illustrator (died 1900) Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky was a Russian Romantic painter who is considered one of the greatest masters of marine art. Baptized as Hovhannes Aivazian, he was born to Armenian parents in the Black Sea port of Feodosia in Crimea and was mostly based there. Read more
29 Jul 1817: Martin Körber, German pastor, composer, and conductor (died 1893) Martin Georg Emil Körber was a Baltic German pastor, composer, writer and choir leader. Read more
29 Jul 1806: Horace Abbott, American businessman and banker (died 1887) Horace Abbott was an American iron manufacturer and banker. His work included the armor plating for the USS Monitor, USS Agamenticus, USS Roanoke, and USS Monadnock. Read more
29 Jul 1805: Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian and philosopher (died 1859) Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville, was a French diplomat, political philosopher and historian. He is best known for his works Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856). In both, he analyzed the living standards and social conditions of individuals as well as their relationship to the market and state in Western societies. Democracy in America was published after Tocqueville's travels in the United States and is today considered an early work of sociology and political science. Read more
29 Jul 1801: George Bradshaw, English cartographer and publisher (died 1853) George Bradshaw was an English cartographer, engraver, printer and publisher. A devout Quaker, he developed Bradshaw's Guide, a widely sold series of combined railway guides and timetables. Read more

Notable Deaths on 29 July

29 Jul 2025: Alon Abutbul, Israeli film, television and theater actor (born 1965) Alon Moni Abutbul was an Israeli actor. He won the IFFI Best Actor Award (Male) at the 44th International Film Festival of India. Read more
29 Jul 2018: Oliver Dragojević, Croatian recording artist (born 1947) Oliver Dragojević was a Croatian singer and composer, who was considered one of the most enduring musical stars and cultural icons in Croatia with a discography that spanned nearly five decades. His style blended traditional klapa melodies of Dalmatia, a coastal region in his native Croatia, with jazz motifs wrapped up in a modern production. Read more
29 Jul 2018: Nikolai Volkoff, Yugoslav-born American professional wrestler (born 1947) Josip Hrvoje Peruzović, better known by his ring name Nikolai Volkoff, was a Croatian-American professional wrestler, best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Read more
29 Jul 2015: Antony Holland, English-Canadian actor, director, and playwright (born 1920) Antony Holland was an English actor, playwright and theatre director who until his death in 2015 lived on Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada. Read more
29 Jul 2015: Peter O'Sullevan, Anglo-Irish sportscaster (born 1918) Sir Peter O'Sullevan was an Irish-British horse racing commentator for the BBC, and a correspondent for the Press Association, the Daily Express, and Today. He was the BBC's leading horse racing commentator from 1947 to 1997, during which time he described some of the greatest moments in the history of the Grand National. Read more
29 Jul 2015: Mike Pyle, American football player and sportscaster (born 1939) Michael Johnson Pyle was an American professional football player who was a center for nine seasons between 1961 and 1969 in the National Football League (NFL) for the Chicago Bears. In 2019 he was selected as one of the 100 greatest Bears of All-Time. Read more
29 Jul 2015: Franklin H. Westervelt, American computer scientist, engineer, and academic (born 1930) Franklin Herbert Westervelt was an American engineer, computer scientist, and educator at the University of Michigan and Wayne State University. Westervelt received degrees in Mathematics, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering from the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. He attained his PhD in 1961. He was a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan and an Associate Director at the U-M Computing Center. He was involved in early studies on how to use computers in engineering education. Read more
29 Jul 2014: M. Caldwell Butler, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (born 1925) Manley Caldwell Butler was an American lawyer and politician widely admired for his integrity, bipartisanship and courage. A native of Roanoke, Butler served his hometown and wider community first as a member of the Republican Party in the Virginia General Assembly (1962–1972) and later the United States House of Representatives (1972–1983). Read more
29 Jul 2014: Jon R. Cavaiani, English-American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1943) Jonathan Robert Cavaiani was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in the Vietnam War. Read more
29 Jul 2014: Giorgio Gaslini, Italian pianist and composer (born 1929) Giorgio Gaslini was an Italian jazz pianist, composer and conductor. Read more
29 Jul 2014: María Antonia Iglesias, Spanish journalist and author (born 1945) María Antonia Iglesias González was a Spanish writer and journalist. Read more
29 Jul 2014: Péter Kiss, Hungarian engineer and politician (born 1959) Péter Kiss was a Hungarian Socialist politician. In Bajnai's government, he was a minister without portfolio. He was one of the candidates to succeed Péter Medgyessy as prime minister in 2004 but lost to Ferenc Gyurcsány. Read more
29 Jul 2014: Idris Muhammad, American drummer and composer (born 1939) Idris Muhammad was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He had an extensive career performing jazz, funk, R&B, and soul music and recorded with musicians such as Ahmad Jamal, Lou Donaldson, Pharoah Sanders, Bob James, and Tete Montoliu. Read more
29 Jul 2014: Thomas R. St. George, American soldier and author (born 1919) Thomas R. St. George was an American author, World War II veteran, reporter, editor, columnist and screenwriter. He was born in Simpson, Minnesota. Read more
29 Jul 2013: Christian Benítez, Ecuadorian footballer (born 1986) Christian Rogelio Benítez Betancourt was an Ecuadorian professional footballer who played as a striker. Read more
29 Jul 2013: Peter Flanigan, American banker and civil servant (born 1923) Peter Magnus Flanigan was an American investment banker who later became an influential aide and fundraiser for President Richard M. Nixon. Read more
29 Jul 2013: Tony Gaze, Australian soldier, pilot, and race car driver (born 1920) Frederick Anthony Owen Gaze, was an Australian fighter pilot and racing driver. He flew with the Royal Air Force in the Second World War, was a flying ace credited with 12.5 confirmed victories, and later enjoyed a successful racing career in the UK, Europe and Australia. He was the first ever Australian to take part in a Formula One Grand Prix. Read more
29 Jul 2013: Munir Hussain, Indian cricketer and sportscaster (born 1929) Munir Hussain was a cricket commentator, administrator, and journalist from Pakistan who also played a first-class cricket match for Kalat in the 1969–70 season. He was the first to introduce Urdu commentary to cricket, and was the founder of the first Urdu cricket magazine, Akhbar-e-Watan. During the 1970s, Hussain commentated on the game for Pakistan Television (PTV) and Radio Pakistan, and wrote weekly columns on cricket for the Daily Jang for many years. He received many accolades for his work for cricket. ESPNcricinfo writer Saad Shafqat described him as "a pioneering commentator, groundbreaking publisher, Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA) mandarin, and sagacious elder presence in the nation's cricket circles". He also served as the president of the Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA). Read more
29 Jul 2012: Tatiana Egorova, Russian footballer and manager (born 1970) Tatiana Egorova was a Russian footballer and manager. She played for CSK VVS Samara and Rossiyanka in the Russian Championship, and Turbine Potsdam in the German Bundesliga, and she was a member of the Russian national team, with whom she played the 1999 and 2003 World Cups. Read more
29 Jul 2012: August Kowalczyk, Polish actor and director (born 1921) August Marian Kowalczyk was a Polish actor, theatre, television and film director who was the last survivor of a breakout of prisoners from Auschwitz Concentration Camp on 10 June 1942. Read more
29 Jul 2012: Chris Marker, French photographer and journalist (born 1921) Chris Marker was a French writer, photographer, documentary film director, multimedia artist and film essayist. His best known films are La Jetée (1962), A Grin Without a Cat (1977) and Sans Soleil (1983). Marker is usually associated with the Left Bank subset of the French New Wave that occurred in the late 1950s and 1960s, and included such other filmmakers as Alain Resnais, Agnès Varda and Jacques Demy. Read more
29 Jul 2012: James Mellaart, English archaeologist and author (born 1925) James Mellaart FBA was a British and Dutch archaeologist and author who is noted for his discovery of the Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük in Turkey. He was expelled from Turkey when he was suspected of involvement with the antiquities black market. Read more
29 Jul 2012: John Stampe, Danish footballer and coach (born 1957) John Stampe Møller was a Danish football player and coach. Read more
29 Jul 2010: Charles E. Wicks, American chemist and academic (born 1925) Charles Edward Wicks was an American chemical engineer. He was a professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at Oregon State University. His focus was mass transfer, which was the subject of the textbook he coauthored, Fundamentals of Momentum, Heat, and Mass Transfer. Read more
29 Jul 2008: Bruce Edward Ivins, American scientist and bio-defense researcher (born 1946) Bruce Edwards Ivins was an American microbiologist, vaccinologist, senior biodefense researcher at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), Fort Detrick, Maryland, and the person identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as the perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax attacks. Ivins died on July 29, 2008, of an overdose of acetaminophen mixed with codeine in an apparent suicide after learning that criminal charges were likely to be filed against him by the FBI for an alleged criminal connection to the attacks. Read more
29 Jul 2007: Mike Reid, English comedian, actor, and author (born 1940) Michael Reid was an English comedian, actor, author and occasional television presenter. He played the role of Frank Butcher in the soap opera EastEnders and hosted the children's game show Runaround. He was known for his gravelly voice and strong London accent. Read more
29 Jul 2007: Michel Serrault, French actor (born 1928) Michel Serrault was a French stage and film actor who appeared from 1954 until 2007 in more than 130 films. Read more
29 Jul 2007: Tom Snyder, American journalist and talk show host (born 1936) Thomas James Snyder was an American television personality, news anchor, and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows Tomorrow, on NBC in the 1970s and 1980s, and The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder, on CBS in the 1990s. Snyder was also the pioneer anchor of the prime time NBC News Update, in the 1970s and early 1980s, which was a one-minute capsule of news updates. Read more
29 Jul 2007: Marvin Zindler, American journalist (born 1921) Marvin Harold Zindler was a news reporter for television station KTRK-TV in Houston, Texas, United States. His investigative journalism, through which he mostly represented the city's elderly and working class, made him one of the city's most influential and well-known media personalities. Read more
29 Jul 2004: Rena Vlahopoulou, Greek actress and singer (born 1923) Irene "Rena" Vlahopoulou was a Greek actress and singer. She starred in theatre, musical and Greek cinema productions, including The Gambler and The Countess of Corfu. Read more
29 Jul 2003: Foday Sankoh, Sierra Leonean soldier, founded the Revolutionary United Front (born 1937) Foday Saybana Sankoh was a Sierra Leonean rebel leader who was the founder and commander of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group, which was supported by the Charles Taylor-led NPFL in the 11-year-long Sierra Leone Civil War, starting in 1991 and ending in 2002. An estimated 50,000 people were killed during the war, and over 500,000 people were displaced into neighboring countries. Read more
29 Jul 2001: Edward Gierek, Polish soldier and politician (born 1913) Edward Gierek was a Polish communist politician who served as the de facto leader of the Polish People's Republic between 1970 and 1980. Gierek replaced Władysław Gomułka as the First Secretary of the ruling Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). Read more
29 Jul 2001: Wau Holland, German computer scientist, co-founded Chaos Computer Club (born 1951) Herwart Holland-Moritz, known as Wau Holland, was a German computer security activist and journalist who in 1981 cofounded the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), one of the world's oldest hacking clubs. Read more
29 Jul 1998: Jerome Robbins, American director, producer, and choreographer (born 1918) Jerome Robbins was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Read more
29 Jul 1996: Ric Nordman, Canadian businessman and politician (born 1919) Rurik (Ric) Nordman was a businessman and politician in Manitoba, Canada. Read more
29 Jul 1996: Marcel-Paul Schützenberger, French mathematician and theorist (born 1920) Marcel-Paul "Marco" Schützenberger was a French mathematician and Doctor of Medicine. He worked in the fields of formal language, combinatorics, and information theory. In addition to his formal results in mathematics, he was "deeply involved in [a] struggle against the votaries of [neo-]Darwinism", a stance which has resulted in some mixed reactions from his peers and from critics of his stance on evolution. Several notable theorems and objects in mathematics as well as computer science bear his name. Paul Schützenberger was his great-grandfather. Read more
29 Jul 1996: Jason Thirsk, American singer and bass player (born 1967) Jason Matthew Thirsk was an American musician who was the bass player of the California punk rock band Pennywise from 1988 through his death in 1996. He grew up in Hermosa Beach, California. Read more
29 Jul 1995: Les Elgart, American trumpet player and bandleader (born 1917) Lester Elliott Elgart was an American swing jazz bandleader and trumpeter. Read more
29 Jul 1994: John Britton, American physician (born 1925) John Bayard Britton was an American physician. He was assassinated in Pensacola, Florida, by anti-abortion extremist Paul Jennings Hill. Britton's death was the second assassination of a Pensacola abortion provider in under a year and a half; he had replaced Dr. David Gunn after the latter's 1993 murder by another anti-abortionist. Read more
29 Jul 1994: Dorothy Hodgkin, Egyptian-English biochemist and biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1910) Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin was an English chemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules, which became essential for structural biology. She received the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and is the only British woman scientist to have been awarded a Nobel Prize. Read more
29 Jul 1992: Michel Larocque, Canadian ice hockey player and manager (born 1952) Michel Raymond "Bunny" Larocque was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played for the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Philadelphia Flyers and St. Louis Blues in the National Hockey League. He was a four-time Stanley Cup winner with the Montreal Canadiens. Read more
29 Jul 1991: Christian de Castries, French general (born 1902) Christian Marie Ferdinand de la Croix de Castries was a French general and the commander of forces at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Read more
29 Jul 1990: Bruno Kreisky, Austrian academic and politician, 22nd Chancellor of Austria (born 1911) Bruno Kreisky was an Austrian social democratic politician who served as foreign minister from 1959 to 1966 and as chancellor from 1970 to 1983. Aged 72, he was the oldest chancellor after World War II. Read more
29 Jul 1987: Bibhutibhushan Mukhopadhyay, Indian author, poet, and playwright (born 1894) Bibhutibhushan Mukhopadhyay was an Indian Bengali language author. Read more
29 Jul 1984: Fred Waring, American television host and bandleader (born 1900) Fredrick Malcolm Waring Sr. was an American musician, bandleader, choral director, and radio and television personality, sometimes referred to as "America's Singing Master" and "The Man Who Taught America How to Sing". He was also a promoter, financial backer and eponym of the Waring Blendor, the first modern electric food blender on the market. Read more
29 Jul 1983: Luis Buñuel, Spanish actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1900) Luis Buñuel Portolés was a Spanish and Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. Buñuel's works are known for their avant-garde surrealism which was also infused with political commentary. Read more
29 Jul 1983: Raymond Massey, Canadian-American actor and screenwriter (born 1896) Raymond Hart Massey was a Canadian and American actor. Known for his commanding stage-trained voice, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the title role in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), a role he later reprised on television and in the film How the West Was Won (1962). Among his other well-known roles were Dr. Gillespie on the NBC television series Dr. Kildare (1961–66), John Brown in Santa Fe Trail (1940) and Seven Angry Men (1955), Abraham Farlan in A Matter of Life and Death (1946), and Jonathan Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944). Read more
29 Jul 1983: David Niven, English military officer and actor (born 1910) James David Graham Niven was an English actor, soldier, raconteur, memoirist and novelist. Niven was known as a handsome and debonair leading man in classic Hollywood films. His accolades include an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards in addition to nominations for a BAFTA Award and two Emmy Awards. Read more
29 Jul 1982: Harold Sakata, American wrestler and actor (born 1920) Toshiyuki Sakata , known as Harold Sakata, was an American Olympic weightlifter, professional wrestler, and film actor. He won a silver medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London in weightlifting, and later became a popular professional wrestler under the ring name Tosh Togo, wrestling primarily for various National Wrestling Alliance territories as a tag team with Great Togo. Read more
29 Jul 1982: Vladimir K. Zworykin, Russian-American engineer, invented the Iconoscope (born 1889) Vladimir Kosma Zworykin was a Russian-American inventor, engineer, and pioneer of television technology. Zworykin invented a television transmitting and receiving system employing cathode-ray tubes. He played a role in the practical development of television from the early thirties, including charge storage-type tubes, infrared image tubes and the electron microscope. Read more
29 Jul 1981: Robert Moses, American urban planner, designed the Northern State Parkway and Southern State Parkway (born 1888) Robert Moses was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid-20th century. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influential people in the history of New York City and New York state. Moses' construction projects transformed the New York area and revolutionized the way urban areas across the United States were designed and built. His philosophy of urban development influenced a generation of engineers, architects, and urban planners across the United States. Read more
29 Jul 1981: Sydney Kyte, British bandleader (born 1896) Sydney Bernard Kyte was a British dance band leader and violinist who became known in the 1930s, when he led the resident band at The Piccadilly Hotel in London's West End. Kyte made numerous recordings, and remained active into the 1950s. Read more
29 Jul 1979: Herbert Marcuse, German sociologist and philosopher (born 1898) Herbert Marcuse was a German and American philosopher, social critic, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Born in Berlin, Marcuse studied at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin and then at the University of Freiburg, where he received his PhD under the supervision of Martin Heidegger. He was a prominent figure in the Frankfurt-based Institute for Social Research, which later became known as the Frankfurt School. In his written works, he criticized capitalism, modern technology, Soviet Communism, and popular culture, arguing that they represent new forms of social control. Read more
29 Jul 1979: Bill Todman, American screenwriter and producer (born 1916) William Selden Todman was an American television producer and personality born in New York City. He produced many of television's longest-running shows with business partner Mark Goodson, with whom he created Goodson-Todman Productions. Read more
29 Jul 1978: Andrzej Bogucki, Polish actor, operetta singer, and songwriter (born 1904) Andrzej Bogucki was a Polish television, stage and film actor, as well as operetta singer and songwriter, sometimes referred to as "The Polish Chevalier". Read more
29 Jul 1976: Mickey Cohen, American gangster (born 1913) Meyer Harris "Mickey" Cohen was an American mobster based in Los Angeles and boss of the Cohen crime family during the mid-20th century. Read more
29 Jul 1974: Cass Elliot, American singer (born 1941) Ellen Naomi Cohen, known professionally by the stage name Cass Elliot, was an American singer-songwriter, actress, comedian, and television personality. A member of the singing group The Mamas & the Papas (1965–1968), she was also known as "Mama Cass", a name she stated she disliked. After the group broke up, Elliot released five solo albums. She received the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary (R&R) Performance for "Monday, Monday" (1967). In 1998, she was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her work with The Mamas & the Papas. Read more
29 Jul 1974: Erich Kästner, German author and poet (born 1899) Emil Erich Kästner was a German writer, poet, screenwriter and satirist, known primarily for his humorous, socially astute poems and for children's books including Emil and the Detectives and Lisa and Lottie. He received the international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1960 for his autobiography When I Was a Little Boy. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in eight separate years. Read more
29 Jul 1973: Norm Smith, Australian footballer and coach (born 1915) Norman Walter Smith was an Australian rules football player and coach in the Victorian Football League (VFL). After more than 200 games as a player with Melbourne and Fitzroy, Smith began a twenty-year coaching career, including a fifteen-year stint at Melbourne. Read more
29 Jul 1973: Roger Williamson, English race car driver (born 1948) Roger Williamson was a British racing driver and a two time British Formula 3 champion, who died during his second Formula One race, the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort Circuit in the Netherlands. Read more
29 Jul 1970: John Barbirolli, English cellist and conductor (born 1899) Sir John Barbirolli was a British conductor and cellist. He is remembered above all as conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, which he helped save from dissolution in 1943 and conducted for the rest of his life. Earlier in his career he was Arturo Toscanini's successor as music director of the New York Philharmonic, serving from 1936 to 1943. He was also chief conductor of the Houston Symphony from 1961 to 1967, and was a guest conductor of many other orchestras, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic, with all of which he made recordings. Read more
29 Jul 1966: Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, Nigerian general and politician, 2nd Head of State of Nigeria (born 1924) Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi was a Nigerian military officer who served as the first military dictator and head of state of Nigeria. He seized power during the ensuing chaos after the 15 January 1966 military coup. Ironsi ruled from 16 January, until his assassination on 29 July 1966 during the July counter-coup. He was assassinated by a group of military officers from the Northern Region led by Murtala Muhammed. Read more
29 Jul 1966: Adekunle Fajuyi, Nigerian colonel (born 1926) Francis Adekunle Fajuyi was a Nigerian soldier of Yoruba origin and the first military governor of the former Western Region, Nigeria. Read more
29 Jul 1964: Vean Gregg, American baseball player (born 1885) Sylveanus Augustus "Vean" Gregg was an American professional baseball player. A pitcher, Gregg played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Naps, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Athletics, and Washington Senators from 1911 through 1925. Read more
29 Jul 1962: Ronald Fisher, English biologist and statistician (born 1890) Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher was a British polymath who was active as a mathematician, statistician, biologist, geneticist, and academic. He has been described as "a genius who almost single-handedly created the foundations for modern statistical science" and "the single most important figure in 20th century statistics". In genetics, Fisher was the one to most comprehensively combine the ideas of Gregor Mendel and Charles Darwin, as his work used mathematics to combine Mendelian genetics and natural selection; this contributed to the revival of Darwinism in the early 20th-century revision of the theory of evolution known as the modern synthesis. For his contributions to biology, Richard Dawkins declared Fisher to be the greatest of Darwin's successors. He is also considered one of the founding fathers of Neo-Darwinism. According to statistician Jeffrey T. Leek, Fisher is the most influential scientist of all time on the basis of the number of citations of his contributions. Read more
29 Jul 1962: Leonardo De Lorenzo, Italian-American flute player and educator (born 1875) Leonardo De Lorenzo was an Italian virtuoso flautist and music educator. He served as the principal flautist at the New York Philharmonic under Gustav Mahler. Included among his pupils at the Eastman School of Music was the flautist Julius Baker. Read more
29 Jul 1960: Hasan Saka, Turkish politician, 7th Prime Minister of Turkey (born 1885) Hasan Hüsnü Saka was a Turkish politician, minister of foreign affairs, and prime minister of Turkey. Read more
29 Jul 1954: Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater (born 1879) Coen de Koning was a speed skater and cyclist. He started his sports career as a cyclist, but switched to speed skating and became the second Dutch speed skater to win a world title, in 1905. He finished second in 500 m, and won the 1500, 5000 and 10,000 m events. De Koning won the national all-around title in 1903, 1905 and 1912, and set national records in the 500 m and 10,000 m in 1905; these records stood until 1926 and 1929. De Koning also set a world record in one-hour skating, at 32,370 m in 1906, and won the Elfstedentocht in 1912 and 1917. Read more
29 Jul 1951: Ali Sami Yen, Turkish footballer and manager, founded Galatasaray S.K. (born 1886) Ali Sami Yen, born Ali Sami Frashëri was a Turkish Albanian sports official best known as the founder of the Galatasaray Sports Club. Read more
29 Jul 1950: Joe Fry, English race car driver (born 1915) Joseph Gibson Fry was a British racing driver. He became the primary driver for the Shelsley Special "Freikaiserwagen", created by his cousin David Fry and Hugh Dunsterville, with help from Dick Caesar. The original car was built in Bristol in 1936 and featured an Anzani engine which was replaced in 1937 by a Blackburne engine. Joe set a number of hill records during the late 1930s including an unofficial outright record at Prescott when he climbed in 47.62 seconds in the 1,100 c.c. Freikaiserwagen, on 27 August 1938. At the outbreak of World War Two he held both the blown and unblown 1,100 c.c. records at Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb in 41.52 and 42.58 seconds respectively. Read more
29 Jul 1938: Nikolai Krylenko, Russian lawyer, jurist, and politician, Prosecutor General of the Russian SFSR (born 1885) Nikolai Vasilyevich Krylenko was an Old Bolshevik and Soviet politician, military commander, and jurist. Krylenko served in a variety of posts in the Soviet legal system, rising to become People's Commissar for Justice and Prosecutor General of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. He was executed during the Great Purge. Read more
29 Jul 1934: Didier Pitre, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1883) Joseph George Didier "Cannonball" Pitre was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Nicknamed "Cannonball," he was renowned for having one of the hardest shots during his playing career. One of the first players to join the Montreal Canadiens, Pitre and his teammates' French-Canadian heritage led to the team being nicknamed The Flying Frenchmen. His teammates on the Canadiens included Jack Laviolette and Newsy Lalonde. Read more
29 Jul 1924: Sotirios Krokidas, Greek educator and politician, 110th Prime Minister of Greece (born 1852) Sotirios G. Krokidas was an interim Prime Minister of Greece in 1922. He was a law professor in Athens. Read more
29 Jul 1918: Ernest William Christmas, Australian-American painter (born 1863) Ernest William Christmas was an Australian painter, known primarily for his landscapes. Much of his later, most familiar work was done outside of Australia: in Europe, South America and, finally, Hawaii. Read more
29 Jul 1913: Tobias Asser, Dutch lawyer and jurist, Nobel Prize Laureate (born 1838) Tobias Michael Carel Asser was a Dutch lawyer and legal scholar.
In 1911, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the establishment of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the First Hague Peace Conference in 1899 and for his achievements in establishing the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH). Read more
29 Jul 1908: Marie Adam-Doerrer, Swiss women's rights activist and unionist (born 1838) Marie Adam-Doerrer was a Swiss women's rights activist and unionist. Read more
29 Jul 1900: Umberto I of Italy (born 1844) Umberto I was King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his assassination in 1900. His reign saw the creation of the Italian colonial empire and the formation of the Triple Alliance among Italy, Germany, and Austria-Hungary. Read more
29 Jul 1895: Floriano Peixoto, Brazilian general and politician, 2nd President of Brazil (born 1839) Floriano Vieira Peixoto was a Brazilian military officer and politician. A veteran of the Paraguayan War and several other conflicts in Brazil, he served as the second president of Brazil from 1891 to 1894, and previously as the country's first vice president in 1891. Born in Ipioca and nicknamed the Iron Marshal, he was the first vice president of Brazil to have succeeded the president mid-term. Read more
29 Jul 1890: Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter and illustrator (born 1853) Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. His suicide at 37 followed years of mental illness and poverty. Read more
29 Jul 1887: Agostino Depretis, Italian politician, 9th Prime Minister of Italy (born 1813) Agostino Depretis was an Italian statesman and politician. He served as Prime Minister of Italy for several stretches between 1876 and 1887, and was leader of the Historical Left parliamentary group for more than a decade. He is the fourth-longest-serving prime minister in Italian history, after Benito Mussolini, Giovanni Giolitti and Silvio Berlusconi, and at the time of his death he was the longest-served. Depretis is widely considered one of the most powerful and important politicians in Italian history, having enacted numerous reforms that modernized Italy, such as expanding male suffrage and free education. Read more
29 Jul 1857: Thomas Dick, Scottish minister, astronomer, and author (born 1774) Reverend Thomas Dick, was a British church minister, science teacher and writer, known for his works on astronomy and practical philosophy, combining science and Christianity, and arguing for a harmony between the two. Read more
29 Jul 1856: Robert Schumann, German composer and critic (born 1810) Robert Schumann was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber groups, orchestra, choir and the opera. His works typify the spirit of the Romantic era in German music. Read more
29 Jul 1844: Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Austrian pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1791) Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, also known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Jr., was the youngest child of six born to composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his wife Constanze and the younger of his parents' two surviving children. He was a composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher of the late classical period whose musical style was of an early Romanticism, heavily influenced by his father's mature style. He knew Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann, both of whom held him in high esteem. Read more
29 Jul 1839: Gaspard de Prony, French mathematician and engineer (born 1755) Baron Gaspard Clair François Marie Riche de Prony was a French mathematician and engineer, who worked on hydraulics. He was born at Chamelet, Beaujolais, France and died in Asnières-sur-Seine, France. Read more
29 Jul 1833: William Wilberforce, English philanthropist and politician (born 1759) William Wilberforce was a British politician, philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the Atlantic slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, and became an independent Member of Parliament (MP) for Yorkshire (1784–1812). In 1785, he underwent a conversion experience and became an evangelical Anglican, which resulted in major changes to his lifestyle and a lifelong concern for reform. Read more
29 Jul 1813: Jean-Andoche Junot, French general (born 1771) Jean-Andoche Junot, Duke of Abrantès was a French military officer who served in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He is best known for leading the French invasion of Portugal in 1807. Read more

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