Famous Male Teachers
List of famous male teachers, listed by their level of prominence with photos when available. This greatest male teachers list contains the most prominent and top males known for being teachers. There are thousand of males working as teachers in the world, but this list highlights only the most notable ones. Historic teachers have worked hard to become the best that they can be, so if you're a male aspiring to be a teacher then the people below should give you inspiration.
People include everyone from Johan Ferrier to Ruslan Sviridov.
While this isn't a list of all male teachers, it does answer the questions "Who are the most famous male teachers?" and "Who are the best male teachers?"- Gene Simmons, born Chaim Witz on August 25, 1949, rose to prominence as the bassist and co-lead singer of the legendary rock band, Kiss. Born in Haifa, Israel, Simmons immigrated to the United States with his mother at the tender age of eight. His passion for music was ignited during his teenage years, and his fascination with comic book superheroes and theatrics would later become a significant influence in his career. Simmons co-founded Kiss in the early 1970s alongside Paul Stanley. With their face paint and extravagant stage outfits, the band quickly gained a reputation for their flamboyant image and energetic performances. Their breakthrough came in 1975 with the release of the live album Alive!. Simmons, known for his demon persona, became famous for his fire-breathing and blood-spitting stage antics. He contributed significantly to the band's repertoire, penning many of their greatest hits, including "Rock and Roll All Nite" and "God of Thunder". Beyond his musical career, Simmons has been involved in various entrepreneurial and philanthropic endeavors. A savvy businessman, he has invested in a range of ventures from real estate to entertainment companies. He also established the Gene Simmons Axe Company, which manufactures bass guitars. Additionally, he is an active philanthropist, supporting numerous charitable organizations such as ChildFund and Mending Kids International. Despite his larger-than-life persona, Simmons remains grounded, attributing his success to his strong work ethic and determination, qualities he inherited from his mother, a Holocaust survivor.
- Birthplace: Tirat Carmel, Israel
- Rupert Boneham (born January 27, 1964) is an American mentor for troubled teens, who became known to reality television audiences in 2003 as a contestant on Survivor: Pearl Islands where he placed eighth. He later appeared on the All Stars, Heroes vs. Villains, and Blood vs. Water seasons of Survivor, placing fourth, sixth, and 20th, respectively. He was ultimately a fan favorite among Survivor viewers, who voted him a million-dollar winner on Survivor: America's Tribal Council, a special episode of Survivor: All-Stars. The prize was awarded after a nationwide popular vote in which Boneham received 85% of the votes cast. Boneham and his wife Laura later competed on the 31st season of The Amazing Race and were the second team eliminated. Boneham was the 2012 Libertarian nominee for governor of Indiana, losing to Republican nominee, and future Vice President, Mike Pence.
- Birthplace: Michigan, USA, Detroit
- Pope Benedict XVI (April 16, 1927 – December 31, 2022) was a retired prelate of the Catholic Church who served as head of the Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2005 until his resignation in 2013. Benedict's election as pope occurred in the 2005 papal conclave that followed the death of Pope John Paul II. Benedict chose to be known by the title "pope emeritus" upon his resignation. He was described as "the main intellectual force in the Church" since the mid-1980s. In 2013, Benedict unexpectedly announced his resignation in a speech in Latin before the cardinals, citing a "lack of strength of mind and body" due to his advanced age. He is the first pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415, and the first to do so on his own initiative since Celestine V in 1294. He was succeeded by Pope Francis, and moved into the newly renovated Mater Ecclesiae Monastery for his retirement. In his retirement, Benedict XVI made occasional public appearances alongside Francis.
- Birthplace: Marktl, Germany
- Thomas Jefferson, one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States, was born on April 13, 1743, in Shadwell, Virginia. Raised in a well-to-do family with six sisters and one brother, he was afforded an excellent education, studying under notable figures like Reverend James Maury and William Small. His intellectual curiosity drove him to explore a wide variety of subjects, from philosophy and mathematics to horticulture and mechanics. This love for learning paved the way for his future roles as a statesman, architect, and inventor. Jefferson's political career began in earnest when he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1769. He made his mark early on as a fervent advocate for colonial rights, gaining recognition for his articulate arguments against British taxation. However, it was his role in drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776 that truly solidified his place in American history. As the primary author of this pivotal document, Jefferson articulated the fundamental principles that would guide the emerging nation, emphasizing the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Outside of politics, Jefferson was a man of many talents. He had a passion for architecture, designing his own home, Monticello, as well as the University of Virginia. His love for horticulture was evident in the extensive gardens he cultivated at Monticello, where he experimented with a variety of plants and crops. Moreover, as an inventor, he devised practical solutions to everyday problems, creating devices like the dumbwaiter and the plow moldboard of least resistance. Despite his many accomplishments, Jefferson remained a humble and dedicated public servant until his death on July 4, 1826. His enduring legacy continues to shape the American landscape, reflecting his profound impact on the nation's founding principles and cultural fabric.
- Birthplace: Shadwell, Colony of Virginia, British America
- Renowned globally for his distinctive voice and evocative songwriting, Sting, born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner in 1951, has left an unmistakable mark on the world of music. Born and raised in Wallsend, Northumberland, England, he spent his early years as a teacher, a construction worker, and a tax officer before finding his true calling as a musician. The name "Sting" was bestowed upon him because of a black and yellow striped sweater he often wore during performances, making him resemble a wasp. In the late 1970s, Sting formed the rock band The Police with Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers. They rose to fame quickly, producing five chart-topping albums, winning six Grammy awards, and becoming one of the world's best-selling bands of all time. In 1985, Sting embarked on a solo career following The Police's disbandment, further amplifying his success and prestige in the music industry. His solo work, a blend of rock, jazz and world music, has won him an additional 11 Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe, an Emmy, and several Oscar nominations for Best Original Song. Outside of music, Sting is a passionate philanthropist and environmental activist. He co-founded the Rainforest Foundation Fund with his wife Trudie Styler in 1989, which aims to protect rainforests and their indigenous populations around the world. His commitment to social causes, combined with his enduring musical impact, have cemented Sting's legacy as not just a talented musician, but also a dedicated humanitarian. Despite his many accomplishments, Sting remains committed to his craft, continually evolving his sound and pushing the boundaries of musical genres.
- Birthplace: Wallsend, United Kingdom
- Tony Danza is a multi-talented personality in the realms of acting, dancing, and teaching. Born Antonio Salvatore Iadanza on April 21, 1951, in Brooklyn, New York, Danza grew up in a blue-collar family. A stellar athlete in his youth, he initially embarked on a professional boxing career under the moniker "Dangerous" Tony Danza. Danza's life took an unexpected turn when he was discovered at a boxing gym by a television producer, which led to his first acting role as Tony Banta in the classic sitcom Taxi (1978-1983). This marked the beginning of a successful acting career that spanned over four decades, with notable performances in shows such as Who's the Boss? (1984-1992), and The Tony Danza Show (2004-2006). Despite his fame, Danza remained grounded, often citing his humble beginnings as the driving force behind his work ethic. Beyond the glamour of Hollywood, Danza harbored a passion for education. This led him to take a hiatus from acting to teach English at Northeast High School in Philadelphia, an experience that was documented in the reality show Teach: Tony Danza (2010). His dedication to teaching and his advocacy for education reform underscore his multifaceted persona. Whether it's throwing punches in the ring, delivering punchlines on set, or educating young minds in the classroom, Tony Danza continues to inspire with his diverse talents and steadfast dedication to his craft.
- Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Born on August 25, 1918, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Leonard Bernstein grew to become one of the most influential figures in classical music. A prodigy by any measure, Bernstein's prowess extended beyond his roles as a conductor and pianist, establishing him as an esteemed composer, author, and lecturer as well. His musical genius shone brightly in the orchestral and theatrical worlds, with legendary compositions like West Side Story. Bernstein's journey toward becoming an eminent musician began at Boston Latin School, where he first discovered an affinity for music. His talent was further nurtured and honed when he attended Harvard University, studying music theory and composition. Upon graduation, his passion led him to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied conducting. Bernstein then joined the ranks of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra as an assistant conductor in 1943, ultimately becoming its music director in 1958. Over the span of an illustrious career, Bernstein composed music for opera, ballet, orchestral performances, choruses, piano, and even film scores. Works like Candide, On the Town, and Chichester Psalms exhibit the range of his compositional skills. Beyond his musical accomplishments, Bernstein was known for his charismatic persona and prodigious ability to educate and inspire others about music. His contributions to television series like Omnibus and Young People's Concerts are testaments to his enduring legacy as both a musician and educator. Despite his passing on October 14, 1990, Bernstein's influence continues to resonate in the world of music, serving as an inspiration for generations of musicians and music lovers alike.
- Birthplace: Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA
- Lyndon B. Johnson, often referred to by his initials LBJ, is recognized as an influential figure who significantly impacted America during the mid-twentieth century. Born in Texas in 1908, Johnson journeyed from a modest rural upbringing to become the 36th President of the United States. His life trajectory was marked by his dedication to public service, his political acumen, and his commitment to civil rights. Johnson's political career began when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas in 1937. He proved himself a skilled legislator and tactician, rising quickly through the ranks to become the youngest Minority Leader in Senate history by 1953. This rapid ascent continued when he was chosen as John F. Kennedy's Vice-Presidential running mate in 1960. Following Kennedy's assassination in 1963, Johnson was swiftly sworn in as President. His sudden ascension to the highest office was a turning point in American history, with his Presidency marked by significant domestic and international events. As President, Johnson's most noted accomplishments were in the realm of civil rights. He successfully advocated for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, landmark pieces of legislation that outlawed racial segregation and protected voting rights for racial minorities. His vision for a "Great Society" also led to the creation of various social welfare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. However, his Presidency was also marred by the escalation of the Vietnam War. Despite the controversy, Johnson's impact on America is clear. His legacy as a champion of civil rights and social reform continues to resonate today.
- Birthplace: Stonewall, Texas, United States of America
- Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (; German: [ˈluːtvɪç ˈvɪtgənˌʃtaɪn]; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language.From 1929 to 1947, Wittgenstein taught at the University of Cambridge. During his lifetime he published just one slim book, the 75-page Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), one article, one book review and a children's dictionary. His voluminous manuscripts were edited and published posthumously. Philosophical Investigations appeared as a book in 1953, and has since come to be recognised as one of the most important works of philosophy in the 20th century. His teacher, Bertrand Russell, described Wittgenstein as "perhaps the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived; passionate, profound, intense, and dominating".Born in Vienna into one of Europe's richest families, he inherited a fortune from his father in 1913. He initially made some donations to artists and writers, and then, in a period of severe personal depression after the First World War, he gave away his entire fortune to his brothers and sisters. Three of his four brothers committed suicide, which Wittgenstein had also contemplated. He left academia several times—serving as an officer on the front line during World War I, where he was decorated a number of times for his courage; teaching in schools in remote Austrian villages where he encountered controversy for hitting children when they made mistakes in mathematics; and working as a hospital porter during World War II in London, where he told patients not to take the drugs they were prescribed while largely managing to keep secret the fact that he was one of the world's most famous philosophers. He described philosophy as "the only work that gives me real satisfaction".His philosophy is often divided into an early period, exemplified by the Tractatus, and a later period, articulated in the Philosophical Investigations. "Early Wittgenstein" was concerned with the logical relationship between propositions and the world and he believed that by providing an account of the logic underlying this relationship, he had solved all philosophical problems. "Late Wittgenstein," however, rejected many of the assumptions of the Tractatus, arguing that the meaning of words is best understood as their use within a given language-game. His mentor Bertrand Russell was likely the first to coin this distinction in Wittgenstein's work. A survey among American university and college teachers ranked the Investigations as the most important book of 20th-century philosophy, standing out as "the one crossover masterpiece in twentieth-century philosophy, appealing across diverse specializations and philosophical orientations." The Investigations also ranked 54th on a list of most influential twentieth-century works in cognitive science prepared by the University of Minnesota's Center for Cognitive Sciences. However, in the words of his friend Georg Henrik von Wright, he believed "his ideas were generally misunderstood and distorted even by those who professed to be his disciples. He doubted he would be better understood in the future. He once said he felt as though he was writing for people who would think in a different way, breathe a different air of life, from that of present-day men."
- Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
- Thích Nhất Hạnh (October 11, 1926 – January 22, 2022) was a Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk, peace activist, and founder of the Plum Village Tradition, historically recognized as the main inspiration for engaged Buddhism. Nhất Hạnh spent most of his later life at the Plum Village Monastery in southwest France near Thénac, travelling internationally to give retreats and talks. He coined the term "Engaged Buddhism" in his book Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire. After a 39-year exile, he was permitted to visit Vietnam in 2005. In November 2018, he returned to Vietnam to his "root temple", Từ Hiếu Temple, near Huế, where he died on January 22, 2022, at the age of 95.
- Birthplace: Vietnam
- Brendan Gleeson, an accomplished Irish actor and film director, made his mark in the entertainment industry with a distinctive blend of on-screen charisma and versatile talent. Born in Dublin, Ireland, on March 29, 1955, he was initially trained as a teacher before he found his true calling in acting. His career began in the mid-1980s, but he truly emerged as an international star in the 1990s and has since left an indelible imprint on both Hollywood and the global film industry. Gleeson's first major breakthrough came in 1995 when he starred in Mel Gibson's historical drama Braveheart, where he portrayed the character of Hamish Campbell. However, it was the 2008 crime-comedy film In Bruges that won him universal acclaim and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor. Notably, his body of work ranges across genres, from dramatic roles in films like The General and Cold Mountain to his memorable portrayal of Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody in the Harry Potter series. Aside from his acting prowess, Gleeson also ventured into film direction. He directed the critically acclaimed short film Psychic, which premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh in 2018. Despite his success in film, Gleeson never abandoned his love for the stage and continued to perform in theater productions throughout his career, exhibiting an artistic versatility that sets him apart in the entertainment industry.
- Birthplace: Dublin, Ireland
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- Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer. He was prolific in many genres, writing dozens of novels, short stories, and works of social commentary, history, satire, biography, and autobiography, and even including two books on recreational war games. He is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is often called the "father of science fiction", along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback.During his own lifetime, however, he was most prominent as a forward-looking, even prophetic social critic who devoted his literary talents to the development of a progressive vision on a global scale. A futurist, he wrote a number of utopian works and foresaw the advent of aircraft, tanks, space travel, nuclear weapons, satellite television and something resembling the World Wide Web. His science fiction imagined time travel, alien invasion, invisibility, and biological engineering. Brian Aldiss referred to Wells as the "Shakespeare of science fiction". Wells rendered his works convincing by instilling commonplace detail alongside a single extraordinary assumption – dubbed “Wells’s law” – leading Joseph Conrad to hail him in 1898 as "O Realist of the Fantastic!". His most notable science fiction works include The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898) and the military science fiction The War in the Air (1907). Wells was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times.Wells's earliest specialised training was in biology, and his thinking on ethical matters took place in a specifically and fundamentally Darwinian context. He was also from an early date an outspoken socialist, often (but not always, as at the beginning of the First World War) sympathising with pacifist views. His later works became increasingly political and didactic, and he wrote little science fiction, while he sometimes indicated on official documents that his profession was that of journalist. Novels such as Kipps and The History of Mr Polly, which describe lower-middle-class life, led to the suggestion that he was a worthy successor to Charles Dickens, but Wells described a range of social strata and even attempted, in Tono-Bungay (1909), a diagnosis of English society as a whole. Wells was a diabetic and co-founded the charity The Diabetic Association (known today as Diabetes UK) in 1934.
- Birthplace: Bromley, United Kingdom
- Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922 – January 27, 2010) was an American historian, playwright, and socialist thinker. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a political science professor at Boston University. Zinn wrote over twenty books, including his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United States. In 2007, he published a version of it for younger readers, A Young People's History of the United States.Zinn described himself as "something of an anarchist, something of a socialist. Maybe a democratic socialist." He wrote extensively about the Civil Rights Movement and anti-war movement, and labor history of the United States. His memoir, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train (Beacon Press, 2002), was also the title of a 2004 documentary about Zinn's life and work. Zinn died of a heart attack in 2010, at age 87.
- Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
- While many TV viewers will recall Charles Nelson Reilly and his zany humor from numerous appearances as a panelist on game-shows. most particularly "The Match Game." more than a few may not be aware of his distinguished stage career as both actor and director. The Bronx-born, Connecticut-raised performer got his start in summer theater in 1950. Honing his craft in numerous productions and under the tutelage of Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen, Reilly was more than prepared when he made his NYC in a 1956 revival of the musical "Best Foot Forward." In 1960, he was featured in the Jerry Herman revue "Parade" and later went on to understudy both Dick Van Dyke and Paul Lynde in the hit musical "Bye Bye Birdie." The following year, Reilly had his breakthrough musical role, earning a Tony Award as Bud Frump, the insidious nephew of a corporate head (Rudy Vallee) in the Pulitzer-winning "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." Now an established Broadway player, he was cast as the ambitious office clerk Cornelius Hackl in the Jerry Herman musical "Hello, Dolly!" (1964), for which he picked up a Tony nomination. While Reilly has been vocal about the problems of the production (particularly with director Gower Champion and star Carol Channing), he did have the benefit of playing opposite Eileen Brennan with whom he performed a cabaret act. After the quick closing of the ill-fated musical "Skyscraper" (which introduced him to star Julie Harris), Reilly more or less abandoned the stage for the small screen.
- Birthplace: Bronx, New York, USA
- Robby Benson (born Robin David Segal; January 21, 1956), is an American actor, singer, musician, director, producer, writer, composer and educator. He is best known as the voice of Beast in the Disney animated film Beauty and the Beast and its numerous sequels and spin-offs, and directed six episodes of the sitcom Friends.
- Birthplace: Dallas, Texas, USA
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- Erich Segal was an American writer and actor who was best known for writing "Love Story" and "Yellow Submarine." Segal was nominated for an Academy Award in 1971 for the first project.
- Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Dmitri Shostakovich, a luminary in the sphere of 20th-century classical music, was born on September 25, 1906, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. An only child in his family, Shostakovich displayed an early affinity for music, with his mother introducing him to piano lessons at the tender age of nine. His exceptional aptitude for music paved the way for his admission into Petrograd Conservatory in 1919, where he honed his craft under the tutelage of esteemed musicians like Alexander Glazunov and Maximilian Steinberg. Shostakovich first garnered international acclaim following the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 in 1926, which he composed as part of his graduation project at the conservatory. Despite the widespread socio-political unrest in Soviet Russia, Shostakovich's genius shone through in his wide-ranging body of work that included fifteen symphonies, six concerti, two operas, and a wealth of chamber music. His compositions often reflected the turmoil of his times, oscillating between expressions of fear, irony, and profound melancholy. Throughout his illustrious career, Shostakovich grappled with the stringent state control over artistic expression in the Soviet Union. He faced severe criticism from government authorities for his allegedly "formalist" style, particularly following the premiere of his opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. However, despite these challenges, Shostakovich remained unswervingly committed to his artistic vision. His resilience is perhaps most evident in his Symphony No. 5, which was met with tremendous public acclaim despite its covertly subversive undertones. Shostakovich passed away on August 9, 1975, leaving behind a legacy that continues to inspire musicians worldwide.
- Birthplace: St. Petersburg, Russian Empire
- One of the most popular and prolific figures in jazz music for more than four decades, trumpeter and songwriter Wynton Marsalis sought to define, often in controversial terms, the boundaries of the genre through the prism of American history with such works as his Pulitzer Prize-wining album Blood on the Fields (1997) and tributes to music giants like Ray Charles, Thelonious Monk and Willie Nelson. Born October 18, 1961 in New Orleans, Louisiana, he was raised in a musical family: his father, Ellis Marsalis, was a pianist, while brothers Branford, Delfeayo and Jason all pursued careers in jazz. Wynton received his first trumpet at the age of six from Al Hirt, with whom his father played; he was soon performing with local school and church groups before graduating to jazz and funk bands. At 17, he was admitted to the Berkshire Music Center, where he trained with Woody Shaw before joining Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in 1980. His tenure there, along with tours with Herbie Hancock and performances with major figures like Dizzy Gillespie and Sarah Vaughn, led to a record contract with Columbia, which issued his debut LP in 1981. The following year, he teamed with his brother, Branford, for a formidable quintet that included Kenny Kirkland and Jeff "Tain" Watts, while also recording albums of classical trumpet. Both outlets helped to boost Marsalis to the forefront of the jazz and classical worlds, before Marsalis brought the group to a close in 1985. He subsequently launched a second group, a septet with four horns and pianist Marcus Roberts that allowed him to explore more complex songwriting and arrangements. During this period, he was also involved in numerous projects, including the PBS series "Marsalis on Music," which explored the jazz and classical worlds. More significantly, he launched the Jazz at Lincoln Center venue in 1987, which provided a world-class performance and education space for year-round jazz and classical concerts. In 1995, he disbanded his septet to work on a sprawling oratorio, Blood on the Fields (1997), which became the first jazz-related work to win a Pulitzer Prize. Though his opinions on what constituted "jazz" were often controversial - he was dismissive of free jazz, fusion and most other trends after the 1950s - Marsalis remained one of the form's most prolific and enthusiastic supporters, through a dizzying array of published works, concerts, documentaries like Ken Burns' "Jazz" (2005) and most importantly, his recorded work. Marsalis paid tribute to figures and moments of historic and social significance with an exhaustive series of releases in 1999, from the iconic pianist Thelonious Monk with Standard Time, Vol. 4: Marsalis Plays Monk and singer Pearl Brown on Goin' Down Home. He followed these with explorations of America's conflicted soul in From the Plantation to the Penitentiary (2007), the music of Willie Nelson on Two Men with the Blues (2008) and Ray Charles on Here We Go Again (2011). Marsalis also recorded with Eric Clapton on the concert album Play the Blues: Live from Jazz at Lincoln Center (2011) and took the Center's Orchestra to Cuba for a two-disc concert recording in 2015. The following year, Marsalis honored the 200th anniversary of Harlem's Abyssinian Church with The Abyssinian Mass (2016) while also finding time to oversee Julliard's Jazz program.
- Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
- Thomas Andrew Lehrer (born April 9, 1928) is a retired American musician, singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater. He is best known for the pithy, humorous songs that he recorded in the 1950s and 1960s. His songs often parodied popular musical forms, though he usually created original melodies when doing so. A notable exception is "The Elements", where he set the names of the chemical elements to the tune of the "Major-General's Song" from Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance. Lehrer's early work typically dealt with non-topical subject matter and was noted for its black humor in songs such as "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park". In the 1960s, he produced a number of songs that dealt with social and political issues of the day, particularly when he wrote for the U.S. version of the television show That Was the Week That Was. The popularity of these songs has endured their topical subjects and references. Lehrer quoted a friend's explanation: "Always predict the worst and you'll be hailed as a prophet." In the early 1970s, Lehrer largely retired from public performances to devote his time to teaching mathematics and music theater at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
- Birthplace: New York City, New York, USA
- Rafe Judkins is an American writer, actor, and producer who is known for writing "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," "The Wheel of Time," and "Chuck."
- Birthplace: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
- Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, music theorist, pianist, teacher, publisher, and impresario. His contribution to the world of music was summed up by Virgil Thomson, writing in the early 1950s: Henry Cowell's music covers a wider range in both expression and technique than that of any other living composer. His experiments begun three decades ago in rhythm, in harmony, and in instrumental sonorities were considered then by many to be wild. Today they are the Bible of the young and still, to the conservatives, "advanced."... No other composer of our time has produced a body of works so radical and so normal, so penetrating and so comprehensive. Add to this massive production his long and influential career as a pedagogue, and Henry Cowell's achievement becomes impressive indeed. There is no other quite like it. To be both fecund and right is given to few.
- Birthplace: Menlo Park, California
- Francis McCourt (August 19, 1930 – July 19, 2009) was an Irish-American teacher and writer. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his book Angela's Ashes, a tragicomic memoir of the misery and squalor of his childhood.
- Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the complexity of stabilization policy. With George Stigler and others, Friedman was among the intellectual leaders of the second generation of Chicago school of economics, a methodological movement at the University of Chicago's Department of Economics, Law School and Graduate School of Business from the 1940s onward. Several students and young professors who were recruited or mentored by Friedman at Chicago went on to become leading economists, including Gary Becker, Robert Fogel, Thomas Sowell and Robert Lucas Jr.Friedman's challenges to what he later called "naive Keynesian" theory began with his 1950s reinterpretation of the consumption function. In the 1960s, he became the main advocate opposing Keynesian government policies and described his approach (along with mainstream economics) as using "Keynesian language and apparatus" yet rejecting its "initial" conclusions. He theorized that there existed a "natural" rate of unemployment and argued that unemployment below this rate would cause inflation to accelerate. He argued that the Phillips curve was in the long run vertical at the "natural rate" and predicted what would come to be known as stagflation. Friedman promoted an alternative macroeconomic viewpoint known as "monetarism" and argued that a steady, small expansion of the money supply was the preferred policy. His ideas concerning monetary policy, taxation, privatization and deregulation influenced government policies, especially during the 1980s. His monetary theory influenced the Federal Reserve's response to the global financial crisis of 2007–2008.Friedman was an advisor to Republican President Ronald Reagan and Conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. His political philosophy extolled the virtues of a free market economic system with minimal intervention. He once stated that his role in eliminating conscription in the United States was his proudest accomplishment. In his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman advocated policies such as a volunteer military, freely floating exchange rates, abolition of medical licenses, a negative income tax and school vouchers and opposed the war on drugs. His support for school choice led him to found the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, later renamed EdChoice.Friedman's works include monographs, books, scholarly articles, papers, magazine columns, television programs and lectures and cover a broad range of economic topics and public policy issues. His books and essays have had global influence, including in former communist states. A survey of economists ranked Friedman as the second-most popular economist of the 20th century following only John Maynard Keynes and The Economist described him as "the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century ... possibly of all of it".
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
Lennie Moore is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator of music for video games, film, TV, and Multi-media.- Birthplace: Hanford, California
- Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz (; Russian: Владимир Самойлович Горовиц; Ukrainian: Володимир Самійлович Горовиць; Yiddish: וולאדימיר סאַמוילאָוויטש האָראָוויץ; October 1 [O.S. September 18] 1903 – November 5, 1989) was an American classical pianist and composer born in the Russian Empire. He was acclaimed for his virtuoso technique, his tone color, and the excitement engendered by his playing. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time.
- Birthplace: Kiev, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
- Robert Hayden (August 4, 1913 – February 25, 1980) was an American poet, essayist, and educator. He served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1976 to 1978, a role today known as US Poet Laureate. He was the first African-American writer to hold the office.
- Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan
- Itzhak Perlman (Hebrew: יצחק פרלמן; born 31 August 1945) is an Israeli-American violinist, conductor, and music teacher. Over the course of his career, Perlman has performed worldwide, and throughout the United States, in venues that have included a State Dinner at the White House honoring Queen Elizabeth II, and at the Presidential Inauguration of President Obama, and he has conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the Westchester Philharmonic. In 2015, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- Birthplace: Tel Aviv, Palestine
- Geoffrey Canada (born January 13, 1952) is an American educator, social activist and author. Since 1990, Canada has been president of the Harlem Children's Zone in Harlem, New York, an organization that states its goal is to increase high school and college graduation rates among students in Harlem. This initiative serves a 97-block area of Harlem replete with at-risk children. Canada serves as the chairman of Children's Defense Fund's board of directors. He was a member of the board of directors of The After-School Corporation, a nonprofit organization that aims to expand educational opportunities for all students. Canada's recommendation for educational reform is to start early using wide-ranging strategies and never give up.
- Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
- Sathyan (born Cheruvilakathu Veettil Manuel Sathyaneshan Nadar; 9 November 1912 – 15 June 1971) was an Indian film actor known for his work in Malayalam cinema. Noted for his natural style and versatility, Sathyan won two Kerala State Film Awards for Best Actor. He was also popularly referred to as Sathyan Master. Sathyan served as an officer in the British Indian Army during World War II. After the war, he joined the Travancore State Police as an inspector in the late-1940s. During this time he got interested in acting and acted in amateur stage plays. Sathyan made his acting debut in the 1952 film Athmasakhi. He rose to stardom with the critical and commercial success of Neelakkuyil (1954). Sathyan dominated the industry throughout the 1950s and 1960s along with Prem Nazir. He's remembered for his performances in Nairu Pidicha Pulivalu (1958), Bhagyajathakam (1962), Thacholi Othenan (1964), Odayil Ninnu (1965), Chemmeen (1965), Yakshi (1968), Kadalpalam (1969), Vaazhve Mayam (1970), Anubhavangal Paalichakal (1971), and Karakanakadal (1971). Sathyan won the Best Actor Award at the 1st Kerala State Film Awards for his double role in Kadalpalam. He won the Kerala State Award for Best Actor again for his performance in the 1971 film Karakanakadal. Sathyan died due to leukemia on 15 June 1971 at the age of 59.
- Birthplace: India, Nagercoil
- Kenji Miyazawa (宮沢 賢治 or 宮澤 賢治, Miyazawa Kenji, 27 August 1896 – 21 September 1933) was a Japanese poet and author of children's literature from Hanamaki, Iwate, in the late Taishō and early Shōwa periods. He was also known as an agricultural science teacher, a vegetarian, cellist, devout Buddhist, and utopian social activist.Some of his major works include Night on the Galactic Railroad, Kaze no Matasaburō, Gauche the Cellist, and The Night of Taneyamagahara. Kenji converted to Nichiren Buddhism after reading the Lotus Sutra, and joined the Kokuchūkai, a Nichiren Buddhist organization. His religious and social beliefs created a rift between him and his wealthy family, especially his father, though after his death his family eventually followed him in converting to Nichiren Buddhism. Kenji founded the Rasu Farmers Association to improve the lives of peasants in Iwate Prefecture. He was also a speaker of Esperanto and translated some of his poems into that language. He died of pneumonia in 1933. Almost totally unknown as a poet in his lifetime, Kenji's work gained its reputation posthumously, and enjoyed a boom by the mid-1990s on his centenary. A museum dedicated to his life and works was opened in 1982 in his hometown. Many of his children's stories have been adapted as anime, most notably Night on the Galactic Railroad. Many of his tanka and free verse poetry, translated into many languages, are still popular today.
- Birthplace: Hanamaki, Japan
- Randall William Rhoads (December 6, 1956 – March 19, 1982) was an American heavy metal guitarist who played with Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osbourne. A devoted student of classical guitar, Rhoads combined his classical music influences with his own heavy metal style. He died in a plane accident while on tour with Osbourne in Florida in 1982. Despite his short career, Rhoads, who was a major influence on neoclassical metal, is cited as an influence by many guitarists. Rhoads is included in several "Greatest Guitarist" lists.
- Birthplace: Santa Monica, California
- Robert Crowley (born February 25, 1951) is a former teacher and reality TV personality, known for winning Survivor: Gabon, the seventeenth season of the American TV series Survivor. In addition to his million dollar prize, Crowley also won $100,000 from the "player of the season" poll. At 57, he is the oldest winner in the history of US Survivor to date.
- Birthplace: South Portland, Maine, USA
- Daniel Tammet (born 31 January 1979) is an English essayist, novelist, poet, translator, and autistic savant. His 2006 memoir, Born on a Blue Day, about his life with Asperger syndrome and savant syndrome, was named a "Best Book for Young Adults" in 2008 by the American Library Association Young Adult Library Services magazine. His second book, Embracing the Wide Sky, was one of France's best-selling books of 2009. His third book, Thinking in Numbers, was published on 16 August 2012 by Hodder & Stoughton in the United Kingdom and on 30 July 2013 by Little, Brown and Company in the United States and Canada. Mishenka, his first novel, was published in France and Quebec in 2016. His books have been published in over 20 languages. He was elected in 2012 to serve as a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Thomas Johannes Gottschalk (born 18 May 1950) is a German radio and television host, entertainer and actor. He is best known for hosting Wetten, dass..?, for many years Europe's biggest television show, which he led to a huge success in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and South Tyrol between 1987 and 2011. Until 2015 he was also the testimonial personality in television advertisements for Haribo confectionery.
- Birthplace: Bamberg, Germany
- Charles Rozell "Chuck" Swindoll is an evangelical Christian pastor, author, educator, and radio preacher. He founded Insight for Living, headquartered in Plano, Texas, which airs a radio program of the same name on more than 2,000 stations around the world in 15 languages. He is currently senior pastor at Stonebriar Community Church, in Frisco, Texas.
- Birthplace: El Campo, Texas
- Grover Dale (born July 22, 1935) is an American actor, dancer, choreographer, and theater director.
- Birthplace: USA, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
- Mark Pellegrino became a cult TV favorite starring in a succession of sci-fi, horror and fantasy shows. However he also spent many years playing bit parts in various movies, often playing street thugs and tough guys. For example he was cast as a 'punk' twice in 1987 (in "LA Law" (NBC 1986-1994), his screen acting debut, and "Death Wish 4: The Crack Down" (1987), his first feature), then again in 1990 in HBO's horror anthology "Tales From the Crypt" (1989-1996). Pellegrino mixed TV work with some big Hollywood projects including "Lethal Weapon 3" (1992), "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" (1997) and a small but memorable role as one of the heavies who assaults Jeff Bridges' iconic character Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski in the Coen brothers' "The Big Lebowski" (1998). He later picked up a regular role in the short-lived ABC show "The Beast" (2001), which was cancelled after just six episodes.
- Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, USA
- Michael Tilson Thomas worked on a variety of projects during his entertainment career. Thomas worked on a variety of projects during his early entertainment career, including "Aaron Copland: A Self-Portrait" (PBS, 1985-86), "Celebrating Gershwin" (PBS, 1987-88) and "Dancers" with Mikhail Baryshnikov (1987). He also contributed to "George Gershwin Remembered" (PBS, 1986-87), "Manhattan" with Woody Allen (1979) and "Steve Reich: A New Musical Language" (PBS, 1986-87). He also contributed to a variety of television specials, including "Bernstein at 70" (1988-89), "Michael Tilson Thomas Conducts Miami's New World Symphony" (PBS, 1989-1990) and "Leonard Bernstein's 75th" (1993-94). He also appeared in "On the Town in Concert" (PBS, 1993-94). Additionally, he could be seen on a variety of television specials like "Carnegie Hall Opening Night 1998" (1998-99), "Leonard Bernstein: Reaching For the Note" (PBS, 1998-99) and "New World Symphony: Beethoven Alive!" (PBS, 1998-99). He also appeared in "The Rhythm of Life" (PBS, 1999-2000). Most recently, Thomas appeared on "Rehearsing a Dream" (2006).
- Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, USA
- Richard Russell Riordan Jr. (; born June 5, 1964) is an American author. He is known for writing the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, about a twelve-year-old Percy Jackson who discovers he is a son of Greek God Poseidon. His books have been translated into 42 languages and sold more than 30 million copies in the US. 20th Century Fox has adapted the first two books of his Percy Jackson series as part of a series of films. His books have spawned related media, such as graphic novels and short story collections. Riordan's first full-length novel was Big Red Tequila, which became the first book in the Tres Navarre series. His big breakthrough was The Lightning Thief (2005), the first novel in the five-volume Percy Jackson series, which placed a group of adolescents in a Greco-Roman mythological setting. Since then, Riordan has written The Kane Chronicles trilogy and The Heroes of Olympus series. The Kane Chronicles (2010-2012) focused on Egyptian mythology; The Heroes of Olympus was the sequel to the Percy Jackson series. Riordan also helped Scholastic Press develop The 39 Clues series and its spinoffs, and penned its first book, The Maze of Bones (2008). His most recent publications are three books in the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series, based on Norse mythology. The first book of his The Trials of Apollo series based on Greek mythology, The Hidden Oracle, was released in May 2016.
- Birthplace: San Antonio, Texas
- Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈβiktoɾ ˈliðjo ˈxaɾa maɾˈtines]; 28 September 1932 – 16 September 1973) was a Chilean teacher, theater director, poet, singer-songwriter and communist political activist tortured and killed during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. He developed Chilean theater by directing a broad array of works, ranging from locally produced plays to world classics, as well as the experimental work of playwrights such as Ann Jellicoe. He also played a pivotal role among neo-folkloric musicians who established the Nueva Canción Chilena (New Chilean Song) movement. This led to an uprising of new sounds in popular music during the administration of President Salvador Allende. Jara was arrested shortly after the Chilean coup of 11 September 1973, which overthrew Allende. He was tortured during interrogations and ultimately shot dead, and his body was thrown out on the street of a shantytown in Santiago. The contrast between the themes of his songs—which focused on love, peace, and social justice—and the brutal way in which he was murdered transformed Jara into a "potent symbol of struggle for human rights and justice" for those killed during the Pinochet regime. His preponderant role as an open admirer and propagandist for Che Guevara and Allende's government, under he served as a cultural ambassador through the late 60's and until the early 70's crisis that ended in Allende's Coup, marked him for death. In June 2016, a Florida jury found former Chilean Army officer Pedro Barrientos liable for Jara's murder. In July 2018, eight retired Chilean military officers were sentenced to 18 years and a day in prison for Jara's murder.
- Birthplace: Chile
- Steven De Groote was a South African classical pianist. Steven De Groote was born in Johannesburg, South Africa into a Belgian family in which, for three generations, almost every member had been a professional musician. His grandmother was a recipient of the Prix de Rome in Belgium, and his father the conductor of the Cape Town University Symphony. As a youngster, De Groote toured South Africa performing trios with his father on violin and brother on cello.
- Birthplace: Johannesburg, South Africa
- Raymond Murray Schafer, CC is a Canadian composer, writer, music educator and environmentalist perhaps best known for his World Soundscape Project, concern for acoustic ecology, and his book The Tuning of the World. He was notably the first recipient of the Jules Léger Prize in 1978.
- Birthplace: Sarnia, Canada
- Gary Burton (born January 23, 1943) is an American jazz vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused him to be heralded as an innovator, and his sound and technique are widely imitated. He is also known for pioneering fusion jazz and popularizing the duet format in jazz, as well as being a major figure in music education from his 30 years at the Berklee College of Music.
- Birthplace: USA, Indiana, Anderson
- James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881 until his death by assassination six and a half months later. He was the first sitting member of Congress to be elected to the presidency, and remains the only sitting House member to gain the White House.Garfield entered politics as a Republican in 1857. He served as a member of the Ohio State Senate from 1859 to 1861. Garfield opposed Confederate secession, served as a major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and fought in the battles of Middle Creek, Shiloh, and Chickamauga. He was first elected to Congress in 1862 to represent Ohio's 19th District. Throughout Garfield's extended congressional service after the Civil War, he firmly supported the gold standard and gained a reputation as a skilled orator. Garfield initially agreed with Radical Republican views regarding Reconstruction, but later favored a moderate approach for civil rights enforcement for freedmen. At the 1880 Republican National Convention, Senator-elect Garfield attended as campaign manager for Secretary of the Treasury John Sherman, and gave the presidential nomination speech for him. When neither Sherman nor his rivals – Ulysses S. Grant and James G. Blaine – could get enough votes to secure the nomination, delegates chose Garfield as a compromise on the 36th ballot. In the 1880 presidential election, Garfield conducted a low-key front porch campaign and narrowly defeated Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock. Garfield's accomplishments as president included a resurgence of presidential authority against senatorial courtesy in executive appointments, purging corruption in the Post Office, and appointing a U.S. Supreme Court justice. He enhanced the powers of the presidency when he defied the powerful New York senator Roscoe Conkling by appointing William H. Robertson to the lucrative post of Collector of the Port of New York, starting a fracas that ended with Robertson's confirmation and Conkling's resignation from the Senate. Garfield advocated agricultural technology, an educated electorate, and civil rights for African Americans. He also proposed substantial civil service reforms; those reforms were eventually passed by Congress in 1883 and signed into law by his successor, Chester A. Arthur, as the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. On July 2, 1881, Garfield was shot at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington D.C. by Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed and delusional office seeker. The wound was not immediately fatal for Garfield, but a team of doctors, who were preoccupied with finding the bullet, probed the wound with dirty, unsterilized fingers and instruments in vain. Garfield ultimately succumbed on September 19, 1881, from infections caused by his doctors. Guiteau was executed for the murder of Garfield in June 1882.
- Birthplace: Moreland Hills, Ohio, United States of America
- John C. Morris (born December 16, 1978; nicknamed "Johnny Mo") is a Canadian curler, and two-time Olympic gold medallist from Canmore, Alberta. Morris played third for the Kevin Martin team until April 24, 2013. Morris, author of the book Fit to Curl, is the son of Maureen and Earle Morris, inventor of the "Stabilizer" curling broom. Morris grew up in Gloucester, Ontario (now part of Ottawa) and at the age of five began curling at the Navy Curling Club.
- Birthplace: Winnipeg, Canada
- Eduardo Oscar Machado (born June 11, 1953) is a Cuban playwright living in the United States. Notable plays by Machado include Broken Eggs, Havana is Waiting and The Cook. Many of his plays are autobiographical or deal with Cuba in some way. Machado teaches playwriting at New York University. He has served as the Artistic Director of the INTAR Theatre in New York City since 2004. He is openly gay.
- Birthplace: Havana, Cuba
- Kwame Malik Kilpatrick (born June 8, 1970) is an American former politician, having served as a Democratic Michigan state representative and mayor of Detroit from 2002 to 2008. Kilpatrick resigned as mayor in September 2008 after being convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to four months in jail and was released on probation after serving 99 days. On May 25, 2010, Kilpatrick was sentenced to eighteen months to five years in state prison for violating his probation, and served time at the Oaks Correctional Facility in northwest Michigan. On March 11, 2013, he was convicted on 24 federal felony counts, including mail fraud, wire fraud, and racketeering. On October 10 of that year, Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison.
- Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan, USA
- Maxim Alexandrovich Vengerov (Russian: Максим Александрович Венгеров, pronounced [mɐkˈsʲim ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ vʲɪnˈɡʲɛrəf]) (born 20 August 1974 in Novosibirsk) is a Russian-born Israeli violinist, violist, and conductor.
- Birthplace: Novosibirsk, Russia
- George Saunders (born December 2, 1958) is an American writer of short stories, essays, novellas, children's books, and novels. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, McSweeney's, and GQ. He also contributed a weekly column, American Psyche, to the weekend magazine of The Guardian between 2006 and 2008.A professor at Syracuse University, Saunders won the National Magazine Award for fiction in 1994, 1996, 2000, and 2004, and second prize in the O. Henry Awards in 1997. His first story collection, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, was a finalist for the 1996 PEN/Hemingway Award. In 2006 Saunders received a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2006 he won the World Fantasy Award for his short story "CommComm".His story collection In Persuasion Nation was a finalist for the Story Prize in 2007. In 2013, he won the PEN/Malamud Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Saunders's Tenth of December: Stories won the 2013 Story Prize for short-story collections and the inaugural (2014) Folio Prize. His novel Lincoln in the Bardo (Bloomsbury Publishing) won the 2017 Man Booker Prize.
- Birthplace: Amarillo, Texas, USA
- The "sit-down" comedy of Shelley Berman - so named for his frequent position on stage, perched on a stool as he reeled off anxious, neurotic monologues that embodied the minor tragedies of everyday life - was a major force in transforming the tone and focus of comedy in the mid-1950s from broad slapstick and joke-driven material to humor drawn from character foibles and all-too-real scenarios. Born Sheldon Leonard Berman on February 3, 1925 in Chicago, Illinois, he intended to become a serious actor, studying at Chicago's Goodman Theatre after serving in World War II. He married fellow student Sarah Herman in 1947, and the couple headed east to New York City, where Berman contributed sketches to "The Steve Allen Show" (NBC/ABC/syndicated, 1956-1964). The Bermans then returned to Chicago, where he began performing with Mike Nichols and Elaine May in the Compass Players, an improvisational troupe that would become the famed Second City. During his tenure, he began to develop solo routines in which he would portray one half of a telephone conversation. The monologues took off, and Berman was soon an in-demand comic on the Chicago and national club circuit. These led to a contract with Verve Records and a comedy album, Inside Shelley Berman, which landed at the No. 2 spot on the Billboard album chart for five weeks and earned him the first Grammy Award for a spoken comedy record. Berman was soon appearing on television, both as a comic performer and actor, most notably on "The Twilight Zone" (CBS, 1959-1963), and would record six more albums for Verve. But a 1963 segment on "The DuPont Show of the Week" (NBC, 1961-64) would derail his career for decades; the documentary episode, which observed Berman's life and career both on and offstage, captured a moment in which he was provoked into a rage by a phone that rang during one of his performances. He was soon dogged by negative press, which portrayed him as difficult and tempermental - a notion underscored by his belief that Bob Newhart had plagiarized his telephone routines for his own act - and Berman would maintain a low profile as a guest performer on episodic television and the occasional stage production for much of the next three decades. He also wrote several books and television pilots and served as a lecturer in the University of Southern California's masters program for professional writing, and taught performance at the Improv Olympics. The death of his son, Joshua, from a brain tumor at the age of 12 in 1977 further limited his visibility, but by the late 1980s, Berman began to resurface: he had his own one-man show, "Insideoutsideandallaround with Shelley Berman," in 1980, and became a regular presence in guest roles on television, most notably as Hollywood producer Ben Flicker on "L.A. Law" (NBC, 1986-1994) and as a judge on "Boston Legal" (ABC, 2004-08). Berman mounted a terrific comeback in 2002 when he was cast as Larry David's irascible father on "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (HBO, 2000- ), for which he received an Emmy nomination in 2008. The exposure afforded by the show led to appearances in films like "Meet the Fockers" (2004) and "You Don't Mess with the Zohan" (2008), and several more comedy albums, including To Laughter with Questions in 2013. Berman logged his last screen appearance on a 2012 episode of "Hawaii 5-0" (CBS, 2010- ); he died from complications related to Alzheimer's disease at his home in Bell Canyon, California on September 1, 2017 at the age of 92.
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Joseph Michael "Joe" Acabá (born May 17, 1967) is an American educator, hydrogeologist, and NASA astronaut. In May 2004 he became the first person of Puerto Rican heritage to be named as a NASA astronaut candidate, when he was selected as a member of NASA Astronaut Training Group 19. He completed his training on February 10, 2006 and was assigned to STS-119, which flew from March 15 to March 28, 2009 to deliver the final set of solar arrays to the International Space Station. Acabá served as a Flight Engineer aboard the International Space Station, having launched on May 15, 2012. He arrived at the space station on May 17 and returned to Earth on September 17, 2012. Acaba returned to the International Space Station in 2017 as a member of Expedition 53/54.
- Birthplace: Inglewood, Los Angeles, California
- Jonathan Kozol (born September 5, 1936) is an American writer, educator, and activist, best known for his books on public education in the United States.
- Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
- This article is about the American filmmaker. For the American publisher and writer, see Larry N. Jordan. Lawrence Jordan (born 1934 ) is an American independent filmmaker who is most widely known for his animated collage films. In 1970 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship to make Sacred Art of Tibet.
- Birthplace: USA, Denver, Colorado
- Salman “Sal” Khan (born October 11, 1976) is an American educator and mathematician who founded Khan Academy, a free online education platform and an organization with which he has produced over 6,500 video lessons teaching a wide spectrum of academic subjects, originally focusing on mathematics and sciences. He is also the founder of Khan Lab School, a brick-and-mortar school associated with Khan Academy.As of June 2019, the Khan Academy channel on YouTube has more than 4.8 million subscribers and the Khan Academy videos have been viewed more than 1.6 billion times. In 2012, Time named Salman Khan in its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In the same year, Forbes magazine featured Khan on its cover, with the story "$1 Trillion Opportunity."
- Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana
- Amiri Baraka (born Everett LeRoi Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism. He was the author of numerous books of poetry and taught at several universities, including the State University of New York at Buffalo and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He received the PEN/Beyond Margins Award, in 2008 for Tales of the Out and the Gone.Baraka's career spanned nearly 50 years, and his themes range from black liberation to white racism. Some poems that are always associated with him are "The Music: Reflection on Jazz and Blues", "The Book of Monk", and "New Music, New Poetry", works that draw on topics from the worlds of society, music, and literature. Baraka's poetry and writing have attracted both high praise and condemnation. In the African-American community, some compare Baraka to James Baldwin and recognize him as one of the most respected and most widely published black writers of his generation. Others have said his work is an expression of violence, misogyny, and homophobia. Regardless of viewpoint, Baraka's plays, poetry, and essays have been defining texts for African-American culture.Baraka's brief tenure as Poet Laureate of New Jersey (2002–2003) involved controversy over a public reading of his poem "Somebody Blew Up America?", which resulted in accusations of anti-Semitism and negative attention from critics and politicians.
- Birthplace: USA, Newark, New Jersey
- Carlos Eugenio Restrepo Restrepo (September 12, 1867 – July 6, 1937) was a Colombian lawyer, writer, and statesman, who was elected President of Colombia in 1910. During his administration he worked towards making political reconciliation among the Conservative and Liberals. He appointed members of the Liberal Party to his Cabinet, and to the dismay of some of his own party, adopted a neutral stand on all issues. He later served as Minister of Government and Ambassador to the Vatican City State.
- Birthplace: Medellín, Colombia
Jon Davis
Age: 73Jon Davis is an American poet. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut and received a B.A. in English and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Montana, where he was editor of the literary journal, CutBank. He has served as Writing Program Coordinator for The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, edited the literary journals Shankpainter and Countermeasures: A Magazine of Poetry & Ideas, and taught at the University of Montana, College of Santa Fe, and Salisbury State University. He is currently a professor at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Jon Davis is the author of three chapbooks and three full-length collections of poetry. He has received numerous awards for his poetry, including a Lannan Literary Award, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and the Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American Poets. He wrote the screenplay for the short film The Burden Carriers, which was screened at ImagineNative Film Festival in Toronto and at the Santa Fe Film Festival, and for The Hand Drum, a National Geographic All Roads Festival selection.- Manmohan Singh (Punjabi: [mənˈmoːɦən ˈsɪ́ŋɡ] (listen); born 26 September 1932) is an Indian economist and politician who served as the Prime Minister of India from 2004 to 2014. The first Sikh in office, Singh was also the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term. Born in Gah (now in Punjab, Pakistan), Singh's family migrated to India during its partition in 1947. After obtaining his doctorate in economics from Oxford, Singh worked for the United Nations during 1966–69. He subsequently began his bureaucratic career when Lalit Narayan Mishra hired him as an advisor in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Over the 70s and 80s, Singh held several key posts in the Government of India, such as Chief Economic Advisor (1972–76), governor of the Reserve Bank (1982–85) and head of the Planning Commission (1985–87). In 1991, as India faced a severe economic crisis, newly elected Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao surprisingly inducted the apolitical Singh into his cabinet as Finance Minister. Over the next few years, despite strong opposition, he as a Finance Minister carried out several structural reforms that liberalised India's economy. Although these measures proved successful in averting the crisis, and enhanced Singh's reputation globally as a leading reform-minded economist, the incumbent Congress party fared poorly in the 1996 general election. Subsequently, Singh served as Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of Parliament of India) during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government of 1998–2004. In 2004, when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) came to power, its chairperson Sonia Gandhi unexpectedly relinquished the premiership to Manmohan Singh. Singh's first ministry executed several key legislations and projects, including the Rural Health Mission, Unique Identification Authority, Rural Employment Guarantee scheme and Right to Information Act. In 2008, opposition to a historic civil nuclear agreement with the United States nearly caused Singh's government to fall after Left Front parties withdrew their support. Although India's economy grew rapidly under UPA I, its security was threatened by several terrorist incidents (including the 2008 Mumbai attacks) and the continuing Maoist insurgency. The 2009 general election saw the UPA return with an increased mandate, with Singh retaining the office of Prime Minister. Over the next few years, Singh's second ministry government faced a number of corruption charges—over the organisation of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2G spectrum allocation case and the allocation of coal blocks. After his term ended in 2014 he opted out from the race to the office of the Prime Minister of India during 2014 Indian general election. Singh was never a member of the Lok Sabha but served as a member of the Parliament of India, representing the state of Assam in the Rajya Sabha for five terms from 1991 to 2019. In August 2019, Singh filed nomination as a Congress candidate to Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan after the death of sitting MP Madan Lal Saini.
- Birthplace: Gah, Pakistan, Pakistan
- Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, (22 April 1916 – 12 March 1999) was an American-born violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. He played the Soil Stradivarius considered one of the finest violins made by Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari.
- Birthplace: New York City, New York, USA
- James Lafayette Dickey (February 2, 1923 – January 19, 1997) was an American poet and novelist. He was appointed the eighteenth United States Poet Laureate in 1966. He also received the Order of the South award. Dickey was best known for his novel Deliverance (1970) which was adapted into an acclaimed film of the same name.
- Birthplace: Buckhead, Georgia, USA
- Sheikh Hassan Ahmed Abdel Rahman Muhammed al-Banna (Arabic: حسن أحمد عبد الرحمن محمد البنا; 14 October 1906 – 12 February 1949), known as Hassan al-Banna, was an Egyptian schoolteacher and imam, best known for founding the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the largest and most influential Islamic revivalist organizations.Al-Banna's writings marked a watershed in Islamic intellectual history by presenting a modern ideology based on Islam. Al-Banna considered Islam to be a comprehensive system of life, with the Quran as the only acceptable constitution. He called for Islamization of the state, the economy, and society. He declared that establishing a just society required development of institutions and progressive taxation, and elaborated an Islamic fiscal theory where zakat would be reserved for social expenditure in order to reduce inequality. Al-Banna's ideology involved criticism of Western materialism, British imperialism, and the traditionalism of the Egyptian ulema. He appealed to Egyptian and pan-Arab patriotism but rejected Arab nationalism and regarded all Muslims as members of a single nation-community.The Muslim Brotherhood advocated gradualist moral reform and had no plans for a violent takeover of power. The "Jihad of the spirit"―self-initatied productive work aimed at bettering the conditions of the Islamic community―was a significant part of their ideology. Under al-Banna's leadership, the organization embarked on a wide-ranging campaign of social engagement; they especially emphasized public health improvements. Following the abolition of the caliphate in 1924, al-Banna called on Muslims to prepare for armed struggle against colonial rule; he warned Muslims against the "widespread belief" that "jihad of the heart" was more important than "jihad of the sword". He allowed the formation of a secret military wing within the Muslim Brotherhood, which took part in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Al-Banna generally encouraged Egyptians to abandon Western customs; he argued that the state should enforce Islamic public morality through censorship and application of hudud corporal punishment. Nonetheless, his thought was open to Western ideas and some of his writings quote European authors instead of Islamic sources.Al-Banna was assassinated by the Egyptian secret police in 1949. His son-in-law Said Ramadan emerged as a major leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s.
- Birthplace: Mahmoudiyah, Egypt
- Gordon Muir Campbell, (born January 12, 1948) is a retired Canadian diplomat and politician who was the 35th mayor of Vancouver from 1986 to 1993 and the 34th premier of British Columbia from 2001 to 2011. He was the leader of the British Columbia Liberal Party from 1993 to 2011. From 2011 to 2016, he was Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Canada's representative to the Ismaili Imamat from 2014 to 2016.
- Birthplace: Vancouver, Canada
- William Emanuel Cobham Jr. (born May 16, 1944) is a Panamanian-American jazz drummer who came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. According to AllMusic's reviewer, Cobham is "generally acclaimed as fusion's greatest drummer".He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2013.
- Birthplace: Panama
- George Herbert Leigh Mallory (18 June 1886 – 8 or 9 June 1924) was an English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest, in the early 1920s. During the 1924 British Mount Everest expedition, Mallory and his climbing partner, Andrew "Sandy" Irvine, disappeared on the north-east ridge during their attempt to make the first ascent of the world's highest mountain. The pair were last seen when they were about 800 vertical feet (245 m) from the summit. Mallory's ultimate fate was unknown for 75 years, until his body was discovered on 1 May 1999 by an expedition that had set out to search for the climbers' remains. Whether Mallory and Irvine had reached the summit before they died remains a subject of speculation and continuing research.
- Birthplace: Mobberley, England
- Khachatur Abovian (or Abovyan; Armenian: Խաչատուր Աբովյան; October 15, 1809 is an Armenian writer and national public figure of the early 19th century who mysteriously vanished in 1848 and was eventually presumed dead. He is an educator, poet and an advocate of modernization. Reputed as the father of modern Armenian literature, he is best remembered for his novel Wounds of Armenia. Written in 1841 and published posthumously in 1858, it was the first novel published in the modern Armenian language using Eastern Armenian based on the Yerevan dialect instead of Classical Armenian.Abovian was far ahead of his time and virtually none of his works was published during his lifetime. Only after the establishment of the Armenian SSR was Abovian accorded the recognition and stature he merited. Abovian is regarded as one of the foremost figures not just in Armenian literature but Armenian history at large. Abovian's influence on Western Armenian literature was not as strong as it was on Eastern Armenian, particularly in its formative years.
- Birthplace: Kanaker, Yerevan, Armenia
- Jean Marie Maurice Schérer or Maurice Henri Joseph Schérer, known as Éric Rohmer (French: [eʁik ʁomɛʁ], 21 March 1920 – 11 January 2010), was a French film director, film critic, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and teacher. Rohmer was the last of the post-World War II French New Wave directors to become established. He edited the influential film journal, Cahiers du cinéma, from 1957 to 1963, while most of his colleagues—among them Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut—were making the transition from film critics to filmmakers and gaining international attention. Rohmer gained international acclaim around 1969 when his film My Night at Maud's was nominated at the Academy Awards. He won the San Sebastián International Film Festival with Claire's Knee in 1971 and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for The Green Ray in 1986. Rohmer went on to receive the Venice Film Festival's Career Golden Lion in 2001. After Rohmer's death in 2010, his obituary in The Daily Telegraph described him as "the most durable filmmaker of the French New Wave", outlasting his peers and "still making movies the public wanted to see" late in his career.
- Birthplace: Tulle, France
- Jascha Heifetz (; February 2 [O.S. January 20] 1901 – December 10, 1987) was a Russian-American violinist. Many consider him to be the greatest violinist of all time. Born in Vilna (Vilnius), he moved as a teenager to the United States, where his Carnegie Hall debut was rapturously received. He was a virtuoso since childhood—Fritz Kreisler, another leading violinist of the twentieth century, said on hearing Heifetz's debut, "We might as well take our fiddles and break them across our knees."He had a long and successful performing career; however, after an injury to his right (bowing) arm, he switched his focus to teaching.Late in life, Heifetz became a dedicated teacher and a champion of socio-political causes. He publicly advocated to establish 911 as an emergency phone number, and crusaded for clean air. He and his students at the University of Southern California protested smog by wearing gas masks, and in 1967 he converted his Renault passenger car into an electric vehicle.
- Birthplace: Vilnius, Lithuania
- Julius Streicher (12 February 1885 – 16 October 1946) was a prominent member of the Nazi Party. He was the founder and publisher of the virulently antisemitic newspaper Der Stürmer, which became a central element of the Nazi propaganda machine. His publishing firm also released three antisemitic books for children, including the 1938 Der Giftpilz (translated into English as The Toadstool or The Poisonous Mushroom), one of the most widespread pieces of propaganda, which warned about the supposed dangers Jews posed by using the metaphor of an attractive yet deadly mushroom. The publishing firm was financially very successful and made Streicher a multi-millionaire. At the end of the war, Streicher was convicted of crimes against humanity in the Nuremberg trials and was executed.
- Birthplace: Fleinhausen, Germany
- Robert Budd Dwyer (November 21, 1939 – January 22, 1987) was the 30th State Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He served from 1971 to 1981 as a Republican member of the Pennsylvania State Senate representing the state's 50th district. He then served as the 30th Treasurer of Pennsylvania from January 20, 1981, until his death by suicide during a press conference. In the early 1980s, Pennsylvania discovered its state workers had overpaid federal taxes due to errors in state withholding. Many accounting firms competed for a multimillion-dollar contract to determine compensation to each employee. In 1986, Dwyer was convicted of receiving a bribe from the California firm that ultimately won the contract. He was scheduled to be sentenced on those charges on January 23, 1987. On January 22, 1987, Dwyer called a news conference in the Pennsylvania state capital of Harrisburg where he killed himself in front of the gathered reporters, by shooting himself in the mouth with a .357 Magnum revolver. Dwyer's suicide was broadcast later that day to a wide television audience across Pennsylvania. Throughout Dwyer's trial and after his conviction, he maintained that he was not guilty of the charges levied against him, and that he had been framed. Decades later, the prosecution's primary witness, William Trickett Smith, whose testimony was largely used to obtain Dwyer's conviction, stated in the documentary Honest Man: The Life of R. Budd Dwyer, as he did at Dwyer's trial, that he offered Dwyer a bribe and that Dwyer accepted it. He expressed regret for the decision to offer Dwyer a bribe and for the role it played in Dwyer's death. James J. West, the former acting United States Attorney who prosecuted Dwyer, affirmed Dwyer's guilt in 2010.
- Birthplace: Saint Charles, Missouri, USA
- Henry "Harry" Hay Jr. (April 7, 1912 – October 24, 2002) was a prominent American gay rights activist, communist, and labor advocate. He was a founder of the Mattachine Society, the first sustained gay rights group in the United States, as well as the Radical Faeries, a loosely affiliated gay spiritual movement. Born to an upper middle class family in England, Hay was raised in Chile and California. From an early age he acknowledged his same-sex sexual attraction, and came under the influence of Marxism. Briefly studying at Stanford University, he subsequently became a professional actor in Los Angeles, where he joined the Communist Party USA, becoming a committed activist in left-wing labor and anti-racist campaigns. As a result of societal pressure, he attempted to become heterosexual by marrying a female Party activist in 1938, with whom he adopted two children. Recognizing that he remained homosexual, his marriage ended and in 1950 he founded the Mattachine Society. Although involved in campaigns for gay rights, he resigned from the Society in 1953. Hay's developing belief in the cultural minority status of homosexuals led him to take a stand against the assimilationism advocated by the majority of gay rights campaigners. He subsequently became a co-founder of the Los Angeles chapter of the Gay Liberation Front in 1969, although in 1970 he moved to New Mexico with his longtime partner John Burnside. Hay's ongoing interest in American Indian religion led the couple to co-found the Radical Faeries in 1979 with Don Kilhefner and Mitchell L. Walker. Returning to Los Angeles, Hay remained involved in an array of activist causes throughout his life, and became a well-known, albeit controversial, elder statesman within the country's gay community. Hay has been described as "the Founder of the Modern Gay Movement" and "the father of gay liberation".Controversially, Hay was an active supporter of the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), a pedophile advocacy organization. He protested the group being banned from Pride parades, wearing a sign protesting the banning during the 1986 Los Angeles Pride, and boycotting New York Pride in 1994 for their refusal to include NAMBLA. He spoke out in support of relationships between adult men and boys as young as thirteen, and spoke at several NAMBLA meetings, including panels in 1984 and 1986, and another in 1994 about helping the group strategize a name change to help with their public image.
- Birthplace: England, Worthing
- Wang Gungwu, CBE is a prominent Australian historian of Asia. He has studied and written about the Chinese diaspora, although he has objected to the use of the word diaspora to describe the migration of Chinese from China, because it is inaccurate and has been used to perpetuate fears of a "Chinese threat". He was born in Surabaya, Indonesia, and grew up in Ipoh, Malaysia. He completed his secondary education in Anderson School, Ipoh before going to the university. Wang studied history in the University of Malaya, Singapore, where he received both his Bachelor and Masters degrees. He holds a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London for his thesis on The structure of power in North China during the Five Dynasties. He taught at the University of Malaya before going to Canberra in 1968 to become Professor of Far Eastern History in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at Australian National University. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong from 1986 to 1995. In 2007, Wang became the third person to be named University Professor by the National University of Singapore.
- Birthplace: Surabaya, Indonesia
- Pinchas Zukerman (Hebrew: פנחס צוקרמן, born 16 July 1948) is an Israeli-American violinist, violist and conductor.
- Birthplace: Tel Aviv, Israel
- Long before he had become the musician of choice to score Walter Hill films, as well as a frequent collaborator of German director Wim Wenders, Ry Cooder had established himself as a virtuoso of fretted instruments (i.e., banjo, Mexican tiple, Middle Eastern saz), backing the likes of Gordon Lightfoot, the Rolling Stones, Randy Newman and Neil Young. Particularly renowned for his blues-flavored slide guitar he allegedly inspired Duane Allman, resulting in the distinctive sound of the early Allman Brothers albums. As much a musicologist as a musician, with interests and expertise that run a wide gamut of musical history and genres, Cooder has sought out and championed such local styles as calypso, Hawaiian "slack-key" guitar (recording with Gabby Pahinui), Tex-Mex, gospel, country, jazz and the bedrock Cuban rhythm 'son', among others, in a diversified series of albums beginning with "Ry Cooder," his 1970 solo debut.
- Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, USA
- Hemming Andreas Carlgren (born 8 July 1958) is a Swedish Centre Party politician, and a former Minister for the Environment in the Swedish government.
- Birthplace: Upplands-Bro Municipality, Sweden
- George M. Duke (January 12, 1946 – August 5, 2013) was an American keyboardist, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer. He worked with numerous artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and as a professor of music. He first made a name for himself with the album The Jean-Luc Ponty Experience with the George Duke Trio. He was known primarily for thirty-odd solo albums, of which A Brazilian Love Affair from 1979 was his most popular, as well as for his collaborations with other musicians, particularly Frank Zappa.
- Birthplace: USA, San Rafael, California
- Pandit Dr. Lakshminarayana Subramaniam (born 23 July 1947) is an acclaimed Indian violinist, composer and conductor, trained in the classical Carnatic music tradition and Western classical music, and renowned for his virtuoso playing techniques and compositions in orchestral fusion.
- Birthplace: Chennai, India
- Benjamin Rush (January 4, 1746 [O.S. December 24, 1745] – April 19, 1813) was a signer of the Declaration of Independence (U.S.) and a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, social reformer, humanitarian, and educator as well as the founder of Dickinson College. Rush attended the Continental Congress. His later self-description there was: "He aimed right." He served as Surgeon General of the Continental Army and became a professor of chemistry, medical theory, and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania.Rush was a leader of the American Enlightenment and an enthusiastic supporter of the American Revolution. He was a leader in Pennsylvania's ratification of the Constitution in 1788. He was prominent in many reforms, especially in the areas of medicine and education. He opposed slavery, advocated free public schools, and sought improved education for women and a more enlightened penal system. As a leading physician, Rush had a major impact on the emerging medical profession. As an Enlightenment intellectual, he was committed to organizing all medical knowledge around explanatory theories, rather than rely on empirical methods. Rush argued that illness was the result of imbalances in the body's physical system and was caused by malfunctions in the brain. His approach prepared the way for later medical research, but Rush himself undertook none of it. He promoted public health by advocating clean environment and stressing the importance of personal and military hygiene. His study of mental disorder made him one of the founders of American psychiatry.
- Birthplace: Byberry, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- George Ivanovich Gurdjieff, also commonly referred to as Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff and G. I. Gurdjieff, was an influential spiritual teacher of the early to mid-20th century who taught that most humans live their lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep", but that it is possible to transcend to a higher state of consciousness and achieve full human potential. Gurdjieff developed a method for doing so, calling his discipline "The Work" or "the Method". According to his principles and instructions, Gurdjieff's method for awakening one's consciousness is different from that of the fakir, monk or yogi, so his discipline is also called the "Fourth Way". At one point, he described his teaching as being "esoteric Christianity". At different times in his life, Gurdjieff formed and closed various schools around the world to teach The Work. He claimed that the teachings he brought to the West from his own experiences and early travels expressed the truth found in ancient religions and wisdom teachings relating to self-awareness in people's daily lives and humanity's place in the universe.
- Birthplace: Gyumri, Armenia
- Robert Sanford Brustein (born April 21, 1927) is an American theatrical critic, producer, playwright, writer and educator. He founded both the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, and the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he remains a creative consultant, and was the theatre critic for The New Republic. He comments on politics for the Huffington Post. Brustein is a senior research fellow at Harvard University and a distinguished scholar in residence at Suffolk University in Boston. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999 and in 2002 was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. In 2003 he served as a senior fellow with the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University, and in 2004 and 2005 was a senior fellow at the National Endowment for the Arts Arts Journalism Institute in Theatre and Musical Theatre at the University of Southern California. In 2010, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Dennis Lehane (born August 4, 1965) is an American author. He has published more than a dozen novels; the first several were a series of mysteries featuring a couple of protagonists and other recurring characters, including A Drink Before the War. Of these, his fourth, Gone, Baby, Gone, was adapted as a 2007 film of the same name. Lehane's novels adapted as films included Mystic River (2001), with a 2003 film by the same name, directed by Clint Eastwood, which won several awards. Shutter Island was adapted as a 2010 film directed by Martin Scorsese.
- Birthplace: Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts
- Judson Crews was an American poet, bookseller and small press publisher. Crews was born and raised in Waco, Texas. He first opened his Motive Bookshop and issued his first Motive Press publications in Waco. In 1947 he moved both concerns to Taos, New Mexico and married Taos photographer Mildred Tolbert. In addition to writing poetry, his activities in Taos over several decades included editing the poetry magazines Suck-egg Mule, The Deer and Dachshund, The Flying Fish, Motive, Vers Libre, Poetry Taos and The Naked Ear; and issuing chapbooks of his own poetry and poetry by his friends Wendell Anderson and Carol Bergé. Crews was a frequent contributor to Poetry Magazine, among many other literary journals. Besides operating his bookshop and press, he worked in newspaper production, as a teacher, and as a social worker and counselor, until his retirement. He died on May 17, 2010 in Taos, NM and is buried in Tres Orejas, NM.
- Birthplace: Waco, Texas
- John Dean "Jeff" Cooper was a United States Marine, the creator of the "modern technique" of handgun shooting, and an expert on the use and history of small arms.
- Birthplace: Los Angeles, California
- James Lloyd Morrison AM (born 11 November 1962) is an Australian jazz musician. Although his main instrument is trumpet, he has also performed on trombone, tuba, euphonium, flugelhorn, saxophone, clarinet, double bass, guitar, and piano. He is a composer, writing jazz charts for ensembles of various sizes and proficiency levels. He composed and performed the opening fanfare at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. In 2009, he joined Steve Pizzati and Warren Brown as a presenter on Top Gear Australia. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2010 Morrison and a cappella group, The Idea of North, won Best Jazz Album, for their collaboration on Feels Like Spring. In 2012 Morrison was appointed as Artistic Director of the Queensland Music Festival for the 2013 and 2015 festivals. He was inducted into the Graeme Bell Hall of Fame 2013 at the Australian Jazz Bell Awards. In July 2013 he conducted the World's Largest Orchestra in Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium, consisting of 7,224 musicians. In March 2015 Morrison opened the James Morrison Academy of Music in Mount Gambier, South Australia – a tertiary level, dedicated jazz school offering a degree in jazz performance.
- Birthplace: Boorowa, Australia
- Myung-whun Chung (born 22 January 1953, Seoul) is a South Korean conductor and pianist. A student of Olivier Messiaen, he is particularly known for his interpretations of the French composer's works.
- Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea
- John Wesley Hardin (May 26, 1853 – August 19, 1895) was an American Old West outlaw, gunfighter, and controversial folk icon. The son of a Methodist preacher, Hardin got into trouble with the law from an early age. He killed his first man at age 14; he claimed it was in self-defense. Pursued by lawmen for most of his life, he was sentenced in 1877 at age 23 to 24 years in prison for murder. When he was sentenced, Hardin claimed to have killed 42 men but contemporary newspaper accounts attributed only 27 deaths to him. While in prison, Hardin studied law and wrote an autobiography. He was well known for wildly exaggerating or completely making up stories about his life. He claimed credit for many murders that cannot be corroborated.Within a year of his release in 1894, Hardin was killed by John Selman in an El Paso saloon.
- Birthplace: Bonham, Texas
- Vincent Thomas Buckley (1925–1988) was an Australian poet, teacher, editor, essayist and critic.
- Birthplace: Romsey, Australia
Chanakya
Dec. at 87 (369 BC-282 BC)Chanakya (IAST: Cāṇakya, pronunciation ) was an ancient Indian teacher, philosopher, economist, jurist and royal advisor. He is traditionally identified as Kauṭilya or Vishnugupta, who authored the ancient Indian political treatise, the Arthashastra, a text dated to roughly between the 2nd century BCE and the 3rd century CE. As such, he is considered the pioneer of the field of political science and economics in India, and his work is thought of as an important precursor to classical economics. His works were lost near the end of the Gupta Empire and not rediscovered until the early twentieth century.Chanakya assisted the first Mauryan emperor Chandragupta in his rise to power. He is widely credited for having played an important role in the establishment of the Maurya Empire. Chanakya served as the chief advisor to both emperors Chandragupta and his son Bindusara.- Birthplace: India
- Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko (Russian: Евгений Александрович Евтушенко; 18 July 1933 – 1 April 2017) was a Soviet and Russian poet. He was also a novelist, essayist, dramatist, screenwriter, publisher, actor, editor and director of several films.
- Birthplace: Zima, Russia
- Kai Wessel is a German countertenor and teacher at the Hochschule für Musik Köln.
- Birthplace: Hamburg, Germany
- Donald Harrison Jr. (born June 23, 1960) is a jazz saxophonist from New Orleans, Louisiana. He is married to Mary Alicė Spears-Harrison and the father of Victoria Harrison.
- Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana
- János Arany (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈjaːnoʃ ˈɒrɒɲ]; archaic English: John Arany; 2 March 1817—22 October 1882) was a Hungarian journalist, writer, poet, and translator. He is often said to be the "Shakespeare of ballads" – he wrote more than 102 ballads been translated into over 50 languages, as well as the Toldi trilogy, to mention his most famous works.
- Birthplace: Salonta, Romania
- Éamon de Valera (; Irish pronunciation: [ˈeːmˠən̻ˠ dʲɛ ˈvˠalʲəɾʲə]; first registered as George de Valero; changed some time before 1901 to Edward de Valera; 14 October 1882 – 29 August 1975) was a prominent statesman and political leader in 20th-century Ireland. His political career spanned over half a century, from 1917 to 1973; he served several terms as head of government and head of state. He also led the introduction of the Constitution of Ireland.Prior to de Valera's political career, he was a Commandant at Boland's Mill during the 1916 Easter Rising, an Irish revolution that eventually contributed to Irish independence. He was arrested, sentenced to death but released for a variety of reasons, including the public response to the British execution of Rising leaders. He returned to Ireland after being jailed in England and became one of the leading political figures of the War of Independence. After the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, de Valera served as the political leader of Anti-Treaty Sinn Fein until 1926, when he, along with many supporters, left the party to set up Fianna Fáil, a new political party which abandoned the policy of abstentionism from Dáil Éireann. From there, de Valera went on to be at the forefront of Irish politics until the turn of the 1960s. He took over as President of the Executive Council from W. T. Cosgrave and later Taoiseach, with the passing of Bunreacht Na hEireann (Irish constitution) in 1937. He served as Taoiseach on 3 occasions; from 1937 to 1948, from 1951 to 1954 and finally from 1957 to 1959. He remains the longest serving Taoiseach by total days served in the post. He resigned in 1959 upon his election as President of Ireland. By then, he had been Leader of Fianna Fáil for 33 years, and he, along with older founding members, began to take a less prominent role relative to newer ministers such as Jack Lynch, Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney. He would serve as President from 1959 to 1973, two full terms in office. De Valera's political beliefs evolved from militant Irish republicanism to strong social, cultural and economic conservatism. He has been characterised by a stern, unbending, devious demeanour. His roles in the Civil War have also portrayed him as a divisive figure in Irish history. Biographer Tim Pat Coogan sees his time in power as being characterised by economic and cultural stagnation, while Diarmaid Ferriter argues that the stereotype of de Valera as an austere, cold and even backward figure was largely manufactured in the 1960s and is misguided.
- Birthplace: New York City, New York, USA
- Steve Jordan (January 14, 1957) is an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer who has spent much of his career as a studio musician. During the 1970s and '80s, he was a member of the bands for the television shows Saturday Night Live and Late Night With David Letterman. In the early 80's Steve Jordan was a member of the Steve Khan band, along with Anthony Jackson on bass, and Manolo Badrena on percussion. In 2005, he became a member of the John Mayer Trio.
- Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
- Philip James Selway (born 23 May 1967) is an English musician, singer, and songwriter best known as the drummer of English rock group Radiohead. In addition to drums, he provides backing vocals, synthesizers, along with occasional guitar and lead vocals, for 7 Worlds Collide. Selway is well known for his precision and proficiency in various styles and unusual time signatures, being named the 26th greatest drummer of all time by Gigwise in 2008. He has worked with Samaritans since 1991. Selway has released two solo albums: Familial (2010) and Weatherhouse (2014).
- Birthplace: Abingdon, United Kingdom
- Sergiu Celibidache (Romanian: [ˈserdʒju tʃelibiˈdake]; 11 July [O.S. 28 June] 1912, Roman, Romania – 14 August 1996, La Neuville-sur-Essonne, France) was a Romanian conductor, composer, musical theorist, and teacher. Educated in his native Romania, and later in Paris and Berlin, Celibidache's career in music spanned over five decades, including tenures as principal conductor for the Munich Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Sicilian Symphony Orchestra and several European orchestras. Later in life, he taught at Mainz University in Germany and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Celibidache frequently refused to release his performances on commercial recordings during his lifetime, claiming that a listener could not obtain a "transcendental experience" outside the concert hall. Many of the recordings of his performances were released posthumously. He has nonetheless earned international acclaim for celebrated interpretations of the classical music repertoire and was known for a spirited performance style informed by his study and experiences in Zen Buddhism. He is regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century.
- Birthplace: Roman, Romania
- Birthplace: Cebu
- Born Charles Alexander on April 2, 1958, in Boston, Massachusetts, Prince Charles Alexander is a Grammy Award–winning American producer, audio engineer, recording artist and educator. "Prince Charles and the City Beat Band" recorded three albums on Virgin Records from the early to mid 80's, and achieved their biggest successes on the European charts. Charles fronted the group as the lead singer and multi instrumentalist. The futuristic wind synthesizer called the "Lyricon" was the instrument that made his brand of next generation p-funk unique, and the group's sound incorporated many of the devices that would propel rap music to the forefront of the American music scene. With the emergence of rap as the dominant reflection of street culture, Prince Charles disbanded his funk group and began focusing on audio engineering. After the switch, "Prince Charles Alexander" became a multi-platinum recording engineer, mixing engineer and producer for a large client base including Mary J. Blige, the Notorious B.I.G., Puff Daddy, Usher, Boyz II Men, Brandy, Babyface, Sting, Aretha Franklin and many more.
- Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
- John Horne Burns (October 7, 1916 – August 11, 1953) was a United States writer, the author of three novels. The first, The Gallery (1947), is his best known work, which was very well received when published and has been reissued several times.
- Birthplace: Andover, Massachusetts
- Ernest Everett Just (August 14, 1883 – October 27, 1941) was a pioneering African-American biologist, academic and science writer. Just's primary legacy is his recognition of the fundamental role of the cell surface in the development of organisms. In his work within marine biology, cytology and parthenogenesis, he advocated the study of whole cells under normal conditions, rather than simply breaking them apart in a laboratory setting.
- Birthplace: Charleston, South Carolina
- Richard Jay "Rich" Franklin II (born October 5, 1974) is an American retired mixed martial artist who competed in Ultimate Fighting Championship. He is a former UFC Middleweight Champion. As of June 2014, Franklin has been the Vice President of Asian Mixed Martial Arts company ONE Championship.
- Birthplace: USA, Cincinnati, Ohio
- Claudio Arrau León (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈklau̯ðjo aˈrau̯]; February 6, 1903 – June 9, 1991) was a Chilean pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning the baroque to 20th-century composers, especially Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century.
- Birthplace: Chile, Chillán
- Colin Tilney (born 31 October 1933) is a harpsichordist, fortepianist and teacher.
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Joseph Albert Morello (July 17, 1928 – March 12, 2011) was a jazz drummer best known for his work with the Dave Brubeck Quartet. He was particularly noted for playing in the unusual time signatures employed by that group in such pieces as "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo à la Turk". Popular for its work on college campuses during the 1950s, Brubeck's group reached new heights with Morello. In June 1959, Morello participated in a recording session with the quartet — completed by the alto saxophonist Paul Desmond and the bassist Eugene Wright — that yielded "Kathy's Waltz" and "Three to Get Ready," both of which intermingled 3/4 and 4/4 time signatures.
- Birthplace: USA, Massachusetts, Springfield
- Athol Fugard is a South African writer, actor, and director who is known for writing "Tsotsi" and "Boesman and Lena." Fugard won a Tony Award in 2011.
- Birthplace: Middletown, Cape Province, South Africa
- Luis Miguel Valdez (born June 26, 1940) is an American playwright, actor, writer and film director. Regarded as the father of Chicano theater in the United States, Valdez is best known for his play Zoot Suit, his movie La Bamba, and his creation of El Teatro Campesino. A pioneer in the Chicano Movement, Valdez broadened the scope of theatre and arts of the Chicano community.
- Birthplace: USA, Delano, California
- Paul Silverberg (November 18, 1927 – June 2, 2008), better known as Paul Sills, was an American director and improvisation teacher, and the original director of Chicago's The Second City.
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
- Uzeyir bey Abdul Huseyn oglu Hajibeyov (Azerbaijani: Üzeyir bəy Əbdülhüseyn oğlu Hacıbəyov, az[yzeˈjiɾ hɑdʒɯˈbæjov] / عزیر حاجیبیوو; Russian: Узеир Абдул-Гусейн оглы Гаджибеков; September 18, 1885 – November 23, 1948) was a Soviet composer, conductor, publicist, playwright, teacher, translator, and social figure of Azerbaijani origin. He is recognized as the father of Azerbaijani composed classical music and opera. Uzeyir Hajibeyov composed the music of the national anthem of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (which was re-adopted after Azerbaijan regained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991). He also composed the anthem used by Azerbaijan during the Soviet period. He was the first composer of an opera in the Islamic world.
- Birthplace: Ağcabədi, Azerbaijan
- Seyyed Mir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh is an Iranian reformist politician, artist and architect who served as the seventy-ninth and last Prime Minister of Iran from 1981 to 1989. He was a reformist candidate for the 2009 presidential election and eventually the leader of the opposition in the post-election unrest. Mousavi served as the president of the Iranian Academy of Arts until 2009, when Conservative authorities removed him. In the early years of the revolution, Mousavi was the editor-in-chief of Jomhouri-e Eslami, the official newspaper of the Islamic Republican Party, before being elevated to Minister of Foreign Affairs and eventually the post of Prime Minister. He was the last Prime Minister in Iran before the 1989 constitutional changes which removed the post of prime minister; he then went into semi-retirement for the next 20 years. He remains a member of the Expediency Discernment Council and the High Council of Cultural Revolution. However, he has not participated in their meetings for years, which is interpreted by political analysts and commentators as a sign of his disapproval.
- Birthplace: Khamaneh, Iran
- F. Bill Goodwin (born Los Angeles, California, January 8, 1942) is an American jazz drummer.
- Birthplace: Los Angeles, California
- Mark Johnston is an Australian historian, teacher and author. Johnston is currently the Head of History at the Scotch College in Melbourne and has also taught at the University of Melbourne, where he obtained his doctorate. He has written several publications about Australian history.
- Herbert Holden Thorp (born August 16, 1964) is an American chemist, inventor, musician, professor, and entrepreneur. He served as the tenth chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Thorp assumed the position of chancellor on July 1, 2008, succeeding James Moeser, and, at age 43, was noted at the time as being among the youngest leaders of a university in the United States. At the time of his selection as chancellor, Thorp was the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a Kenan Professor of chemistry at the university. Thorp is a 1986 graduate of UNC; he later earned a Ph.D in chemistry from California Institute of Technology, and was a postdoctoral associate at Yale University.In September 2012, Thorp announced his intention to resign effective 30 June 2013, and to return to teaching in the Chemistry department at UNC, following a scandal involving the NCAA. Shortly thereafter, in February 2013, he announced his decision to leave the University and take up the job of provost at Washington University in St. Louis. Thorp took over as provost on July 1, 2013, replacing Dr. Edward Macias who had served in that role for 25 years. On Monday, August 19th Thorp was announced as the new editor-in-chief of the renowned Science Magazine.
- Birthplace: Fayetteville, North Carolina
- Harry 'Doc' Kloor is an American scientist, film producer, director, writer, and entrepreneur. Kloor was first to be awarded two PhDs simultaneously in two distinct academic disciplines (i.e. Physics and Chemistry) both earned at Purdue University. In recognition of this achievement he was named ABC person on the week in August 1994.
- Raúl Ruiz or Raul Ruiz may refer to: Raúl Ruiz (director) (1941–2011), Chilean filmmaker Raul Ruiz (journalist), American journalist and Chicano activist Raul Ruiz (politician) (born 1972), United States congressman Raúl Ruiz Matarín (born 1990), Spanish footballer
- Birthplace: Puerto Montt, Chile
- William H 'Doc' Eason (born July 22, 1947) is an American magician who specializes in bar magic. For 27 years, he was the featured entertainer at John Denver's World Famous Tower Comedy/ Magic Bar in Snowmass Village, CO. (1977–2004). He is also a corporate entertainer, lecturer, public speaker, author, teacher, consultant and recently was involved in the Fox TV show "Masters of Illusion". He talks to corporate and association groups about "The Therapy of Laughter" and connecting with customers. Widely recognized as one of the premier bar magicians of our time, he has lectured on the subject all over the US as well as Australia, Canada, England, Scotland, Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway and most recently Japan. Eason credits magician Bob Sheets as one of his significant influences. He also names Steve Spill, J. C. Wagner, Eddie Houlihan, Eddie Goldstein, and Bob Read as influences.
- Birthplace: Naugatuck, Connecticut
- Effectively cast as both amiable heroes and imposing figures of evil, Italian-born actor Nick Mancuso established himself as a new and valuable performer on stage in productions put on by the Stratford Festival and the Toronto Free Theater. He made his Hollywood motion picture debut in the horror outing "Nightwing" (1979), which proved to be a failure, but Mancuso quickly bounced back with one of his finest performances in "Ticket to Heaven" (1981) as a downtrodden man seduced into joining a cult. From that point onward, he alternated between working in the United States and Canada, including the fondly remembered "Stingray" (NBC, 1985) and its short-lived series offshoot, and such major studio pictures as "Under Siege" (1992) and "Rapid Fire" (1992). Moving back and forth from lead roles to more character-oriented assignments, Mancuso's dark good looks and multilingual abilities also made him the perfect choice to play different ethnicities. Although he was rarely at a loss for employment, Mancuso launched a new career path later in life as an enthusiastic advocate for healthy life choices and homeopathic alternatives to conventional medication. While never a bona fide star by Hollywood standards, Mancuso commanded a great deal respect amongst both his peers and the public for an impressively lengthy and varied acting history in three mediums.
- Birthplace: Mammola, Calabria, Italy
- Thomas Edward "Tom" Watson (September 5, 1856 – September 26, 1922) was an American politician, attorney, newspaper editor and writer from Georgia. In the 1890s Watson championed poor farmers as a leader of the Populist Party, articulating an agrarian political viewpoint while attacking business, bankers, railroads, Democratic President Grover Cleveland, and the Democratic Party. He was the nominee for vice president with Democrat William Jennings Bryan in 1896 on the Populist ticket. Elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1890, Watson pushed through legislation mandating Rural Free Delivery, called the "biggest and most expensive endeavor" ever instituted by the U.S. postal service. Politically he was a leader on the left in the 1890s, calling on poor whites and poor blacks to unite against the elites. After 1900, however, he shifted to nativist attacks on blacks and Catholics (and after 1914 on Jews). Two years before his death, he was elected to the United States Senate; however, he died while still in office.
- Birthplace: Thomson, Georgia, USA
- William Harris Crawford (February 24, 1772 – September 15, 1834) was an American politician and judge during the early 19th century. He served as United States Secretary of War and United States Secretary of the Treasury before running for president in the 1824 election. Born in Virginia, Crawford moved to Georgia at a young age. After studying law, Crawford won election to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1803. He aligned with the Democratic-Republican Party and U.S. Senator James Jackson. In 1807, the Georgia legislature elected Crawford to the United States Senate. After the death of Vice President George Clinton, Crawford's position as president pro tempore of the Senate made him first in the presidential line of succession from April 1812 to March 1813. In 1813, President James Madison appointed Crawford as the U.S. minister to France, and Crawford held that post for the remainder of the War of 1812. After the war, Madison appointed him to the position of Secretary of War. In October 1816, Madison chose Crawford for the position of Secretary of the Treasury, and Crawford would remain in that office for the remainder of Madison's presidency and for the duration of James Monroe's presidency. Crawford suffered a severe stroke in 1823, but nonetheless sought to succeed Monroe in the 1824 election. The Democratic-Republican Party splintered into factions as several others also sought the presidency. No candidate won a majority of the electoral vote, so the United States House of Representatives chose the president in a contingent election. Under the terms of the Constitution, the House selected from the three candidates who received the most electoral votes, leaving Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and Crawford in the running. The House selected Adams, who asked Crawford to remain at Treasury. Refusing Adams's offer, Crawford accepted appointment to the Georgia state superior court. He considered running in the 1832 presidential election, either for the presidency or the vice presidency, but ultimately chose not to run.
- Birthplace: Virginia, USA
- Del P. Close (March 9, 1934 – March 4, 1999) was an American actor, writer, and teacher who coached many of the best-known comedians and comic actors of the late twentieth century. In addition to an acting career in television and film, he was a premier influence on modern improvisational theater. Close co-authored the book Truth in Comedy, which outlines techniques now common in longform improvisation, and describes the overall structure of "Harold", which remains a common frame for longer improvisational scenes.
- Birthplace: USA, Kansas, Manhattan
- Tom Mooney (September 12, 1954 – December 3, 2006) was an American labor leader and public school teacher.
- Cai Yuanpei (Chinese: 蔡元培; pinyin: Cài Yuánpéi; 11 January 1868 – 5 March 1940) was a Chinese educator, Esperantist, president of Peking University, and founder of the Academia Sinica. He was known for his critical evaluation of Chinese culture and synthesis of Chinese and Western thinking, including anarchism. At Peking University he assembled influential figures in the New Culture and May Fourth Movements.
- Birthplace: Shaoxing, China
