Who was born on December 14?
December 14 is packed with notable birthdays. Explore 115 famous birthdays, sorted by recent English Wikipedia pageviews. Top ranked names include Abraham Hochmuth, Alan Kulwicki, Alexander Nelke, Amber Chia, Ann Cryer. Filter by actor, musician, athlete, and more — or open any other calendar day.
December 14
115 people
-
Abraham Hochmuth
Abraham Hochmuth (December 14, 1816 at Bán, Hungary – June 10, 1889 at Veszprém) was a Hungarian rabbi. While attending the Charles University in Prague, he pursued the study of the Talmud with S. L. Rapoport. In 1846 he was appointed principal of the newly founded Jewish school at Miskolcz, where in 1850 he opened a private school. In 1852 he was called to the rabbinate of Kula; in 1860, to that of Veszprim. He was a prominent member of the Hungarian Jewish Congress and, later, of the board of the rabbinical seminary in Budapest. He was a contributor to "Ben Chananja," "Neuzeit," and other periodicals. His works include: "Die Jüdische Schule in Ungarn, Wie Sie Ist und Wie Sie Sein Soll," Miskolcz, 1851; "Leopold Löw als Theologe, Historiker und Publicist, Gewürdigt," Leipsic, 1871; "Gotteserkenntniss und Gottesverehrung auf Grundlage der Heiligen Schrift und Späterer Quellen, Bearbeitet als Lehr- und Handbuch zum Religionsunterricht" (also in Hungarian), Budapest, 1882.
-
Alan Kulwicki
Alan Dennis Kulwicki (December 14, 1954 – April 1, 1993), nicknamed "Special K" and "the Polish Prince", was an American auto racing driver and team owner with Polish origin. He started racing at local short tracks in Wisconsin before moving up to regional stock car touring series. Kulwicki arrived at NASCAR, the highest and most expensive level of stock car racing in the United States, with no sponsor, a limited budget and only a racecar and a borrowed pickup truck. Despite starting with meager equipment and finances, he earned the 1986 NASCAR Rookie of the Year award over drivers racing for well-funded teams. After Kulwicki won his first race at Phoenix International Raceway, he debuted what would become his trademark "Polish victory lap". Kulwicki won the 1992 Winston Cup Championship by what was then the closest margin in NASCAR history. He died early in 1993 in a light aircraft accident and therefore never defended his championship. He has been inducted into numerous racing halls of fame and was named one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers. Despite 5 wins in the Cup Series and the 1992 Championship, Kulwicki never won a Daytona 500. Kulwicki was known for being a perfectionist and doing things his own way. An engineer by trade, his scientific approach to NASCAR racing inspired the way teams are now run. Despite lucrative offers from top car owners, he insisted on driving for his own race team, AK Racing, during most of his NASCAR career. Described by his publicist as "a real hard type of person to get to know", he remained a bachelor throughout his life.
-
Alexander Nelke
Sergei Alexander Nelke (December 14, 1894 – August 14, 1974) was an Estonian-American artist in the mid to late 20th century. He is primarily known as marine and landscape artist specializing in square rigged sailing vessels.
-
Amber Chia
Amber Chia (simplified Chinese: 谢丽萍; traditional Chinese: 謝麗萍; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chiā Lê-phêng, pinyin: Xiè Lìpíng; born 14 December 1981) is a Malaysian model, actress, TV host and brand ambassador. She was born in Teluk Intan, Malaysia but grew up in the town of Tawau in Sabah, East Malaysia. Chia started her own company called Amber Creations in mid-2009 and a modelling school Amber Chia Academy in August 2010.
-
Ann Cryer
Constance Ann Cryer JP (née Place; born 14 December 1939) is a British former politician who was the Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Keighley from the 1997 general election up until she stood down at the 2010 general election.
-
Anna Maria Jopek
Anna Maria Jopek (born 14 December 1970) is a Polish vocalist, songwriter, and improviser. She represented Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997, with the song "Ale jestem" and finished 11th out of 25 participating acts; and in 2002, she collaborated on an album with jazz guitarist Pat Metheny. She has received numerous awards for her music, including Michel Legrand's Personal Award in Vitebsk in 1994, as well as all of the awards for music in Poland, together with gold and platinum records.
-
Anne Conway
Anne Conway (also known as Viscountess Conway; née Finch; 14 December 1631 – 23 February 1679) was an English philosopher of the seventeenth century, whose work was in the tradition of the Cambridge Platonists. Conway's thought is a deeply original form of rationalist philosophy. Conway rejected Cartesian substance dualism and instead, argued that nature is constituted by one substance. Against the mechanists, she argued that matter is not passive, but has self-motion, perception, and life.
-
Antonio Giovinazzi
Antonio Maria Giovinazzi (Italian pronunciation: [anˈtɔːnjo dʒoviˈnattsi]; born 14 December 1993) is an Italian racing driver who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Ferrari. Giovinazzi competed in Formula One between 2017 and 2021. In endurance racing, Giovinazzi won the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2025 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023, both with Ferrari. Born in Martina Franca, Giovinazzi began competitive kart racing aged six, winning several national and international titles. Graduating to junior formulae in 2012, he won his first championship at the Formula Pilota China that year. After finishing runner-up to Jordan King in the 2013 British Formula 3 International Series, Giovinazzi moved to the FIA Formula 3 European Championship in 2014, finishing runner-up to Felix Rosenqvist the following season and winning the Masters of Formula 3. Giovinazzi then debuted in sportscar racing, contesting select rounds of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, the Asian Le Mans Series and the European Le Mans Series. Giovinazzi progressed to the GP2 Series in 2016, finishing runner-up to Pierre Gasly in his rookie season with Prema. A reserve driver for Sauber, Ferrari and Haas in 2017, Giovinazzi made his Formula One debut for the former at the Australian Grand Prix, replacing an injured Pascal Wehrlein for the opening two rounds of the season. Following another season as a reserve driver for Sauber and Ferrari in 2018, Giovinazzi signed for Sauber—re-branded as Alfa Romeo—as a full-time driver for the 2019 season. He scored his maiden points finish at the Austrian Grand Prix, with a career-best fifth in Brazil. Giovinazzi remained at Alfa Romeo for his 2020 campaign, scoring several points finishes throughout the season. Retaining his seat for 2021, he scored further points in Monaco and Saudi Arabia, before being dropped by Alfa Romeo at the conclusion of the season. Giovinazzi has since remained a reserve driver for Ferrari, a role he has held continuously since 2017. Giovinazzi moved to Formula E for the 2021–22 season driving for Dragon, leaving the series after being the only non-scoring driver that season. Joining the Ferrari 499P Hypercar project in its inaugural 2023 season, Giovinazzi won the 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi.
-
Antony Beevor
Sir Antony James Beevor FRSL FRHistS (born 14 December 1946) is a British military historian and author. He has published several popular historical works, mainly on the Second World War, the Spanish Civil War, and most recently the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War. Educated at Abberley Hall School, Winchester College, and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Beevor commanded a troop of tanks in the 11th Hussars in Germany before deciding in 1970 to leave the British Army and become a writer. He became a visiting professor at Birkbeck, University of London, and the University of Kent. His best-selling books, Stalingrad (1998) and Berlin: The Downfall 1945 (2002), have been acclaimed for their detailed coverage of the battles between the Soviet Union and Germany, and their focus on the experiences of ordinary people. Berlin proved very controversial in Russia because of the information it contained from former Soviet archives about the mass rapes carried out by the Red Army in 1945. Beevor's works have been translated into many languages and have sold millions of copies. He has lectured at numerous military headquarters, staff colleges and establishments in Britain, the United States, Europe and Australia. He has also written for many major newspapers.
-
Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn (; bapt. 14 December 1640 – 16 April 1689) was an English playwright, poet, prose writer and translator from the Restoration era. As one of the first English women to earn her living by her writing, she broke cultural barriers and served as a literary role model for later generations of women authors. Rising from obscurity, she came to the notice of Charles II, who employed her as a spy in Antwerp. Upon her return to London and a probable brief stay in debtors' prison, she began writing for the stage. She belonged to a coterie of poets and famous libertines such as John Wilmot, Lord Rochester. Behn wrote under the pastoral pseudonym Astrea. During the turbulent political times of the Exclusion Crisis, she wrote an epilogue and prologue that brought her legal trouble; she thereafter devoted most of her writing to prose genres and translations. A staunch supporter of the Stuart line, Behn declined an invitation from Bishop Burnet to write a welcoming poem to the new king William III. She died shortly after. She is remembered in Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own: "All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn which is, most scandalously but rather appropriately, in Westminster Abbey, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds." Her grave is not included in the Poets' Corner but lies in the East Cloister near the steps to the church. Her best-known works are Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave, sometimes described as an early novel, and the play The Rover.
-
Autumn Durald Arkapaw
Autumn Cheyenne Durald Arkapaw (née Durald; born December 14, 1979) is an American cinematographer. For her work on the film Sinners (2025), she became the first woman of color to be nominated, and the first woman and first Black person to win, an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. On television, she received a nomination at the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards for Outstanding Cinematography for her work on the Loki episode "Lamentis" (2021).
-
Barbie Ferreira
Barbara "Barbie" Seppe Ferreira (Brazilian Portuguese: [feˈʁejɾɐ]; born December 14, 1996) is an American actress and model. She is best known for her role as Kat Hernandez in the HBO series Euphoria.
-
Barthélemy d'Herbelot
Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville (14 December 1625 – 8 December 1695) was a French Orientalist.
-
Ben Henry
Ben Henry is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who represented New Zealand and played for the New Zealand Warriors in the National Rugby League competition. Henry was a utility player who could fill in at lock, second-row, centre and hooker.
-
Bill Buckner
William Joseph Buckner (December 14, 1949 – May 27, 2019) was an American first baseman and left fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for five teams from 1969 through 1990, most notably the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Boston Red Sox. Beginning his career as an outfielder with the Dodgers, Buckner helped the team to the 1974 pennant with a .314 batting average, but a serious ankle injury the next year led to his trade to the Cubs before the 1977 season. The Cubs moved him to first base, and he won the National League (NL) batting title with a .324 mark in 1980. He was named to the All-Star team the following year as he led the major leagues in doubles. After setting a major league record for first basemen with 159 assists in 1982, Buckner surpassed that total with 161 in 1983 while again leading the NL in doubles. Feuds with team management over a loss of playing time resulted in him being traded to the Red Sox in the middle of the 1984 season. During the 1985 season, Buckner started all 162 games and shattered his own record with 184 assists. Toward the end of the 1986 season, he was hobbled by leg injuries and struggled throughout the playoffs. His tenth-inning error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series against the New York Mets remains one of the most memorable plays in baseball history; it was long considered part of a curse on the Red Sox that kept them from winning the World Series for 86 years, and led to years of fan anger and public mockery that Buckner handled graciously before being embraced by Red Sox fans again after their 2004 World Series victory. After spending his last few seasons with the California Angels, Kansas City Royals, and Red Sox, Buckner became the 21st player in major league history to play in four decades. He ended his career with 2,715 hits and 498 doubles, having batted over .300 seven times with three seasons of 100 runs batted in (RBI). Buckner led his league in assists four times, with his 1985 mark remaining the American League (AL) record. He retired with the fourth-most assists by a first baseman (1,351) in major league history despite not playing the position regularly until he was 27 years old. After retiring as a player, Buckner became a real estate developer in Idaho. He coached a number of Minor League Baseball (MiLB) teams before leaving baseball in 2014.
-
Billy Koch
William Christopher Koch (born December 14, 1974) is an American former Major League Baseball relief pitcher. He was born in Rockville Centre, New York and went to West Babylon High School. He debuted in the majors with the Toronto Blue Jays and last pitched in MLB with the Florida Marlins in 2004.
-
Bob Paris
Robert Clark Paris (born December 14, 1959) is an American writer, actor, public speaker, civil rights activist, and former professional bodybuilder. Paris was the 1983 NPC American National and IFBB World Bodybuilding Champion. In 1989, he came out as gay in the media while still an active competitor in his sport.
-
Brendan Nash
Brendan Paul Nash (born 14 December 1977) is a Jamaican Australian former professional cricketer who played Test and One Day International cricket for West Indies. He played first-class cricket for Jamaica, Queensland and Kent.
-
Britt Allcroft
Britt Allcroft (14 December 1943 – 25 December 2024) was an English screenwriter, producer, director, and voice actress. She adapted Wilbert Awdry's The Railway Series in the form of the children's television series Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends (later retitled Thomas & Friends). She created Shining Time Station (with Rick Siggelkow), Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales, and Magic Adventures of Mumfie. She also wrote, co-produced, and directed the film Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000).
-
C.-H. Hermansson
Carl-Henrik "C.-H." Hermansson (14 December 1917 – 26 July 2016) was a Swedish politician who served as chairman of the Communist Party of Sweden (during his leadership renamed the Left Party – Communists) from 1964 to 1975 and member of parliament from 1963 to 1985. He was a major force in redirecting Left Party policies away from Moscow loyalism towards Eurocommunism and Scandinavian Popular Socialism. He wrote several books regarding capitalism and the owners of the large corporations, as well as on communists and the policies of the left. At the time of Joseph Stalin's death in 1953, Hermansson praised Stalin as a brilliant scientist and a great leader. He subsequently regretted this and referred to his own words about Stalin as reprehensible.
-
Capel Bond
Capel Bond (14 December 1730 – 14 February 1790) was an English organist and composer.
-
Charles Berkeley, 2nd Viscount Fitzhardinge
Charles Berkeley, 2nd Viscount Fitzhardinge (14 December 1599 – 12 June 1668) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1621 and 1668. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War. He succeeded by special remainder to the peerage of his son who predeceased him. Berkeley was the son of Sir Maurice Berkeley of Bruton, Somerset, of the Bruton branch of the Berkeley family, and his wife Elizabeth Killigrew, daughter of Sir William Killigrew (Chamberlain of the Exchequer) of Hanworth, Middlesex. He was educated at Eton College in 1613 and matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford on 3 November 1615 aged 15. In 1621 Berkeley was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Somerset. He was knighted in 1623. He was elected MP for Bodmin in 1624 and for Heytesbury in 1625, 1626 and 1628. He sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years. In April 1640, Berkeley was elected MP for Bath in the Short Parliament. He helped to organise the local resistance to ship-money, but was a Royalist during the Civil War executing a Commission of Array in 1642. Following the Restoration, Berkeley was elected MP for Heytesbury and Bath in 1661 for the Cavalier Parliament. He was involved in a double returns in both seats but was returned at a by-election for Heytesbury after the election had been declared void and sat until his death. Before his death Berkeley succeeded, by special remainder to the title Viscount Fitzhardinge on the death of his second son Charles who was killed at the Battle of Lowestoft, a naval engagement with the Dutch, on 3 June 1665. Berkeley died of apoplexy at the age of 68 and was buried at Bruton, in the Church of St Mary, Bruton. Berkeley married Penelope Godolphin, daughter of Sir William Godolphin of Godolphin, Cornwall, and Thomasine Sydney, and had four sons. He was succeeded in the viscountcy by his eldest surviving son Maurice. His third son, William, became an admiral in the Royal Navy and was also killed fighting the Dutch, in the Four Days' Battle in 1666. Berkeley's brother John was a Royalist soldier and his brother William served as royal governor of the colony of Virginia.
-
Charles Wolfe
Charles Wolfe (14 December 1791 – 21 February 1823) was an Irish poet, chiefly remembered for "The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna" which achieved popularity in 19th century poetry anthologies.
-
Chris Brunt
Christopher Colin Brunt (born 14 December 1984) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He is currently the loan player manager of EFL Championship club West Bromwich Albion. A versatile player, Brunt featured primarily as a left winger, but could also be deployed as a left-back or attacking midfielder. Brunt started his career with Middlesbrough but did not manage to make an appearance for the first team. He joined Sheffield Wednesday in 2004 and amassed 153 appearances for the club before joining West Bromwich Albion in 2007, where he went on to feature in over 400 matches. He would later depart the latter at the end of the 2019–20 season, joining Bristol City, before his subsequent departure from Bristol in January 2021. Later that year in May, he retired from football. Brunt earned 65 caps for the Northern Ireland national team between 2004 and 2017. He also represented his country at various youth levels.
-
Chris Harris
Chris Harris (14 December 1942 – 30 April 2014) was an English actor, director and writer. He appeared in several UK TV series including Into the Labyrinth and Hey Look That's Me. He also built a successful career in pantomime, acting as a pantomime dame, as well as being a director and writer at the Bristol Old Vic and the Theatre Royal, Bath. He lived in Portishead in North Somerset.
-
Christopher Parkening
Christopher William Parkening (born December 14, 1947) is an American classical guitarist. He holds the Chair of Classical Guitar at Pepperdine University under the title Distinguished Professor of Music.
-
Clark Terry
Clark Virgil Terry Jr. (December 14, 1920 – February 21, 2015) was an American swing and bebop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, and a composer and educator. He played with Charlie Barnet (1947), Count Basie (1948–51), Duke Ellington (1951–59), Quincy Jones (1960), and Oscar Peterson (1964–96). He was with The Tonight Show Band on The Tonight Show from 1962 to 1972. His career in jazz spanned more than 70 years, during which he became one of the most recorded jazz musicians, appearing on over 900 recordings. Terry also mentored Quincy Jones, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Pat Metheny, Dianne Reeves, and Terri Lyne Carrington.
-
Craig Biggio
Craig Alan Biggio (; born December 14, 1965) is an American former professional baseball second baseman, outfielder, and catcher who played 20 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Houston Astros, from 1988 to 2007. A seven-time National League (NL) All-Star often regarded as the greatest all-around player in Astros history, he is the only player ever to be named an All-Star and to be awarded Silver Slugger Award at both catcher and second base. With longtime teammates Jeff Bagwell and Lance Berkman, he formed the core of the "Killer B's" who led Houston to six playoff appearances from 1997 to 2005, culminating in the franchise's first World Series appearance in 2005. At the end of his career, he ranked sixth in NL history in games played (2,850), fifth in at bats (10,876), 21st in hits (3,060), and seventh in runs scored (1,844). His 668 career doubles ranked sixth in major league history, and are the second-most ever by a right-handed hitter; his 56 doubles in 1999 were the most in the major leagues in 63 years. Biggio, who batted .300 four times and scored 100 runs eight times, holds Astros franchise records for most career games, at bats, hits, runs scored, doubles, total bases (4,711) and extra base hits (1,014), and ranks second in runs batted in (1,175), walks (1,160) and stolen bases (414). He also holds the NL record for most times leading off a game with a home run (53), and is one of only five players with 250 home runs and 400 steals. A four-time Gold Glove Award winner who led NL second basemen in assists six times and putouts five times, he retired ranking fourth in NL history in games at second base (1,989), sixth in assists (5,448) and fielding percentage (.984), seventh in putouts (3,992) and double plays (1,153), and eighth in total chances (9,596). He was the ninth player in the 3,000 hit club to collect all his hits with one team. Biggio also led the NL in times hit by pitch five times, with his career total of 285 trailing only Hughie Jennings' 287 in major league history. One of the most admired players of his generation, Biggio received the 2005 Hutch Award for perseverance through adversity and the 2007 Roberto Clemente Award for sportsmanship and community service. The Astros retired the number 7 in his honor the year following his retirement. Since 2008, Biggio has served as special assistant to the general manager of the Astros. In 2015, Biggio was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, becoming the first member of the Hall to be depicted in an Astros uniform on his plaque.
-
DK Metcalf
DeKaylin Zecharius Metcalf (born December 14, 1997) is an American professional football wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Ole Miss Rebels and was selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the second round of the 2019 NFL draft. After six seasons with the Seahawks, Metcalf was traded to the Steelers in 2025. He has one All-Pro selection and has been named to the Pro Bowl twice.
-
Dan Dailey
Daniel James Dailey Jr. (December 14, 1915 – October 16, 1978) was an American actor and dancer. He is best remembered for a series of popular musicals he made at 20th Century Fox such as Mother Wore Tights (1947).
-
Daniel De Leon
Daniel De Leon (; December 14, 1852 – May 11, 1914), alternatively spelled Daniel de León, was a Curaçao-born American socialist newspaper editor, politician, Marxist theoretician, and trade union organizer. He is regarded as the forefather of the idea of revolutionary industrial unionism and was the leading figure in the Socialist Labor Party of America from 1890 until the time of his death. De Leon was a co-founder of the Industrial Workers of the World and much of his ideas and philosophy contributed to the creations of Socialist Labor parties across the English-speaking world, including: Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance.
-
Daniel H. Reynolds
Daniel Harris Reynolds (December 14, 1832 – March 14, 1902) was a Confederate States Army brigadier general during the American Civil War. He was born at Centerburg, Ohio, but moved to Iowa, Tennessee, and finally to Arkansas before the Civil War. He was a lawyer in Arkansas before the war. After the war, Reynolds resumed his practice of law and was a member of the Arkansas Senate for one term.
-
Daniel Neal
Daniel Neal (14 December 1678 – 4 April 1743) was an English historian.
-
DeFord Bailey
DeFord Bailey (December 14, 1899 – July 2, 1982) was an American old-time musician and songwriter considered to be the first African American country music star. He started his career in the 1920s and was one of the first performers to be introduced on Nashville radio station WSM's Grand Ole Opry, and becoming, alongside Uncle Dave Macon, one of the program's most famous performers. He was the first African-American performer to appear on the show, and the first performer to record his music in Nashville. Bailey played several instruments in his career but is best known for playing the harmonica, often being referred to as a "harmonica wizard". Bailey was born and raised in Tennessee, all his family played "black hillbilly" country and blues music and he learned how to play the harmonica and mandolin while recuperating from polio as a young child. He moved from New York to Nashville with relatives in his late teens and was a significant early contributor to Nashville's burgeoning music industry. Among the first generation of entertainers to perform live on the radio, his recorded compositions were well-known and popular. Bailey toured and performed with Roy Acuff and many well-known country artists during the 1930s. But as a result of the 1941 royalties disagreement between Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) and American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), he was fired by WSM and stopped making his living as an entertainer. Afterwards, he supported himself and his family by opening a shoe shining company and renting out rooms in his home. He returned to sporadic public performances in 1974 when he was invited to participate in the Opry's first Old-Timers show and in 2005 was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
-
Dean Brogan
Dean Scott Brogan (born 14 December 1978) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Port Adelaide Football Club and Greater Western Sydney Giants in the Australian Football League (AFL). He also played basketball professionally in the National Basketball League (NBL) and won an NBL championship with his hometown Adelaide 36ers in 1998.
-
Dino Stamatopoulos
Konstantinos Pollux Alexandros "Dino" Stamatopoulos (born December 14, 1964) is an American writer, producer, and actor. He has worked on TV programs such as Mr. Show, TV Funhouse, Mad TV, The Dana Carvey Show, Late Show with David Letterman, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien, as well as the Charlie Kaufman film Anomalisa. He has also created multiple animated TV series such as Moral Orel, Mary Shelley's Frankenhole, and High School USA!. As an actor, he is best known for his recurring role as the character Alex "Star-Burns" Osbourne on the NBC comedy series Community, on which he also worked as a producer, a consulting writer, and wrote two animated episodes.
-
Du Pré Alexander, 2nd Earl of Caledon
Colonel Du Pré Alexander, 2nd Earl of Caledon (14 December 1777 – 8 April 1839), styled The Honourable Du Pré Alexander from 1790 to 1800 and Viscount Alexander from 1800 to 1802, was an Irish politician, militia officer and colonial administrator who was the second child and only son of James Alexander, 1st Earl of Caledon.
-
Edward Lawrie Tatum
Edward Lawrie Tatum (December 14, 1909 – November 5, 1975) was an American geneticist. He shared half of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1958 with George Beadle for showing that genes control individual steps in metabolism. The other half of that year's award went to Joshua Lederberg. Tatum was an elected member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
-
Emperor Go-Suzaku
Emperor Go-Suzaku (後朱雀天皇, Go-Suzaku-tennō; December 14, 1009 – February 7, 1045) was the 69th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Go-Suzaku's reign spanned the years from 1036 through 1045. This 11th-century sovereign was named after the 10th-century Emperor Suzaku and go- (後), translates literally as "later;" and thus, he is sometimes called the "Later Emperor Suzaku". The Japanese word "go" has also been translated to mean the "second one;" and in some older sources, this emperor may be identified as "Suzaku, the second" or as "Suzaku II."
-
Erastus Corning
Erastus Corning (December 14, 1794 – April 9, 1872) was an American businessman and politician from Albany, New York. A Democrat, he was most notable for his service as mayor of Albany from 1834 to 1837, in the New York State Senate from 1842 to 1845, and two nonconsecutive terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1857 to 1859, and from 1861 to 1863. Corning was a delegate to the 1860 Democratic National Convention and to the Peace Conference of 1861, which attempted to prevent the American Civil War. Though he was a Democrat and President Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, once the war started, Corning supported the Union while also criticizing what he viewed as the Lincoln administration's excesses.
-
Ewa Białołęcka
Ewa Białołęcka (born 14 December 1967 in Elbląg) is a Polish fantasy writer. She currently lives in Gdańsk. Her literary debut was her short story Wariatka (Madwoman), published in 1993. Since then she has written more than a dozen short stories, two of which, Tkacz Iluzji (Weaver of Illusions) (1994) and Błękit Maga (Magician's Blue) (1997), were awarded with the Janusz A. Zajdel Award, and another, Nocny śpiewak (The Night Singer), nominated for this award. She also published Piołun i miód (Wormwood and Honey), all of which are part of the Kroniki Drugiego Kręgu (The Chronicles of the Second Circle) series. In 2005, she published Naznaczeni błękitem (Marked with Blue), which is a new version of the Tkacz Iluzji short story collection, made more consistent with the other two novels. Białołęcka also creates stained glass works.
-
Fabrizio Giovanardi
Fabrizio "Piedone" Giovanardi (born 14 December 1966 in Sassuolo) is an Italian racing driver. During his career he has won ten touring car titles, including European and British crowns making him the most successful touring car driver worldwide. He has spent the majority of his career racing for Alfa Romeo and Vauxhall.
-
Falk Balzer
Falk Balzer (born 14 December 1973 in Leipzig) is a former German hurdler and the son of former East German hurdler Karin Balzer. He is best known for winning the silver medal at the 1998 European Championships in Budapest, Hungary and the bronze medal at the 1999 World Indoor Championships. He represented his native country at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Falk Balzer is the German national record holder in the 60 m hurdles with a time of 7.41 s.
-
Frances Bavier
Frances Elizabeth Bavier (December 14, 1902 – December 6, 1989) was an American stage and television actress. Originally from New York theatre, she worked in film and television from the 1950s until the 1970s. She is widely known for her role as Aunt Bee on The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry R.F.D. from 1960 to 1970. Aunt Bee logged more Mayberry years (ten) than any other character. She won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Comedy Actress for the role in 1967. Bavier was also known for playing Amy Morgan on It's a Great Life (1954–1956).
-
Francisco Conceição
Francisco "Chico" Fernandes da Conceição (Portuguese pronunciation: [fɾɐ̃ˈsiʃku kõsɐjˈsɐ̃w̃]; born 14 December 2002) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a right winger for Serie A club Juventus and the Portugal national team. Coming through Porto's youth system, Conceição was promoted to the first-team in 2021, winning a domestic double of the Primeira Liga and Taça de Portugal in 2022. In July 2022, he moved to Eredivisie side Ajax, before returning to Porto in September 2023, on an initial one-year loan deal which was made permanent at the end of the season. He joined Juventus in August 2024 on an initial one-year loan deal which was made permanent at the end of the season. Conceição is a former Portugal youth international, representing his country at various youth levels, being part of under-21 teams that finished as runners-up in the 2021 European Under-21 Championship. He made his senior international debut in 2024, representing Portugal at UEFA Euro 2024 and the 2026 FIFA World Cup. He was also part of the squad that won the UEFA Nations League in 2025.
-
Frederick III, Landgrave of Thuringia
Frederick III the Strict (German: Friedrich III. der Strenge; 14 December 1332 – 21 May 1381) was Landgrave of Thuringia and Margrave of Meissen. A member of the House of Wettin, he strengthened the dynastic territories in central Germany during the mid-fourteenth century. Born in Dresden, he assumed leadership in 1349 following the death of his father, Frederick II, Margrave of Meissen. He initially governed on behalf of his brothers, William, Balthasar, and Louis (Bishop of Bamberg). In 1350, the emperor confirmed the Margraviate of Meissen as a joint possession of the four brothers. From 1368 onward, they ruled collectively, with the exercise of authority rotating every two years. Their lands were permanently divided in 1379. After Frederick's death in Altenburg in 1381, Meissen was partitioned among his three sons, while Thuringia passed to his brothers. It later went to his nephew Frederick IV, Landgrave of Thuringia, son of Balthasar, and was eventually inherited by Frederick's grandson, Frederick II, Elector of Saxony.
-
George Furth
George Furth (born George Schweinfurth; December 14, 1932 – August 11, 2008) was an American librettist, playwright, and actor.
-
Gerard Reve
Gerard Kornelis van het Reve (14 December 1923 – 8 April 2006) was a Dutch writer. He started writing as Simon Gerard van het Reve and adopted the shorter Gerard Reve (Dutch: [ˈɣeːrɑrt ˈreːvə]) in 1973. Together with Willem Frederik Hermans and Harry Mulisch, he is considered one of the "Great Three" (De Grote Drie) of Dutch post-war literature. His 1981 novel De vierde man (The Fourth Man) was the basis for Paul Verhoeven's 1983 film. Reve was one of the first homosexual authors to come out in the Netherlands. He often wrote explicitly about erotic attraction, sexual relations and intercourse between men, which many readers considered shocking. However, he did this in an ironic, humorous and recognizable way, which contributed to making homosexuality acceptable for many of his readers. Another main theme, often in combination with eroticism, was religion. Reve himself declared that the primary message in all of his work was salvation from the material world we live in. Gerard Reve was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and was the brother of the Slavicist and essayist Karel van het Reve, who became a staunch anti-communist in his own way; the personal rapport between the brothers was not good. They broke off relations altogether in the 1980s.
-
Graham Kirkham, Baron Kirkham
Graham Kirkham, Baron Kirkham, (born 14 December 1944) is an English businessman, founder of Northern Upholstery, and chairman of sofa retailer DFS. Previously executive chairman of DFS Furniture Company Ltd, Kirkham is a strong political and financial supporter of the Conservative Party, and is one of South Yorkshire's richest men, with a personal fortune estimated at £1 billion. After selling DFS in April 2010 he now has a large share in Iceland supermarkets. He is also now involved in fish and chip shops having bought the Whitby chain.
-
Greg Abbott
Gregory Stephen Abbott (born 14 December 1963) is an English football coach and former player who is a youth coach at Harrogate Town. He played as a right back or midfielder. Abbott was the manager of Carlisle United from December 2008 until September 2013. Born in Coventry, Abbott started his career with his hometown team Coventry City. He was released without playing a game but recommended to Bradford City, where he won the Division Three title in the 1984–85 season and went on to play more than 300 games. He had spells with Halifax Town and non-league Guiseley before he returned to The Football League with former manager Terry Dolan at Hull City. He spent four seasons with Hull playing another 100 games to take his career total to in excess of 500 first team matches. After retiring, he went into coaching. He spent a decade at Leeds United coaching a number of junior and reserve sides, before he was appointed assistant manager of Carlisle United in 2006. He spent a brief spell as caretaker manager in 2007. He was given the job full-time in December 2008, after the dismissal of John Ward.
-
Henri Cochet
Henri Jean Cochet (French: [ɑ̃ʁi ʒɑ̃ ˈkɔʃɛ]; 14 December 1901 – 1 April 1987) was a French tennis player. He was a world No. 1 ranked player, and a member of the famous "Four Musketeers" from France who dominated tennis in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Born in Villeurbanne, Rhône, Cochet won a total 22 majors including seven Grand Slam singles, five doubles and three mixed doubles. In addition he won three singles, two doubles and one mixed doubles ILTF majors. He also won one professional major in singles. During his major career, he won singles and doubles titles on three different surfaces: clay, grass and wood. He was ranked as world No. 1 player for four consecutive years, 1928 through 1931 by A. Wallis Myers. Cochet turned professional in 1933, but after a less than stellar pro career, he was reinstated as an amateur in 1945 after the end of World War II. The Four Musketeers were inducted simultaneously into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island in 1976. Cochet died in 1987 in Paris at age 85.
-
Ivan Barbashev
Ivan Dmitrievich Barbashev (Russian: Иван Дмитриевич Барбашёв; born 14 December 1995) is a Russian professional ice hockey player who is a forward for the Vegas Golden Knights of the National Hockey League (NHL). Barbashev was selected by the St. Louis Blues in the second round, 33rd overall, of the 2014 NHL entry draft. Born and raised in Russia, Barbashev started playing hockey there before moving to North America in 2012, where he joined the Moncton Wildcats of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). He spent three seasons in the QMJHL before making his professional debut in the AHL, and made his NHL debut in 2017. Internationally, Barbashev has played for the Russian national junior team at several tournaments, winning a silver and bronze medal in consecutive World Junior Championships. Barbashev is a two-time Stanley Cup champion, winning with the Blues in 2019 and the Golden Knights in 2023.
-
Jakub Błaszczykowski
Jakub "Kuba" Błaszczykowski (Polish pronunciation: [ˈjakup ˈkuba bwaʂt͡ʂɨˈkɔfskʲi] ; born 14 December 1985) is a Polish businessman and former professional footballer who played as a winger. He is a part owner of Polish football club Wisła Kraków, where he began his professional career and established himself at a young age. In 2007, he joined Borussia Dortmund, where he spent the majority of his career, making over 250 appearances and winning two Bundesliga titles, two DFL-Supercups, and one DFB-Pokal. Błaszczykowski was twice named Polish Footballer of the Year in 2008 and 2010. With 109 appearances, he is the second-most capped player of the Poland national team, and captained them as they co-hosted UEFA Euro 2012, while also appearing at UEFA Euro 2016 and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
-
James Comey
James Brien Comey Jr. (; born December 14, 1960) is an American lawyer who was the seventh director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2013 until his termination in May 2017. During the presidential administration of George W. Bush, Comey was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York from January 2002 to December 2003 and later the United States deputy attorney general from December 2003 to August 2005. In August 2005, Comey left the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to become a senior vice president of Lockheed Martin as general counsel. In 2010, he became general counsel at Bridgewater Associates. In early 2013, he left Bridgewater to become a senior research scholar and Hertog fellow on national security law at Columbia Law School. He served on the board of directors of HSBC Holdings until July 2013. In September 2013, Barack Obama appointed Comey to the position of Director of the FBI. During his tenure, Comey oversaw the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server for official communications while serving as Secretary of State, some of which contained information later determined to be classified. His handling of the investigation, particularly his public statements and decision to reopen the investigation shortly before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, became a major source of controversy. On June 14, 2018, DOJ Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz released his report on the FBI's handling of the Clinton email investigation, which criticized Comey's actions during the 2016 election. On May 9, 2017, Comey was fired by Donald Trump upon recommendation of the Department of Justice, which stated that Comey had mishandled the Clinton email investigation. Statements from Trump and the White House suggested that Comey had also been fired to ease the "pressure" Trump was under due to the Mueller investigation. Later that month, Comey allegedly arranged for a friend to leak to the press a memo he had written after a private meeting with the president; Comey denies wrongdoing. The memo said Trump had asked him to end the FBI's investigation into Michael Flynn, the former national security advisor. Comey's firing, and various memos detailing meetings with Trump, along with Comey's subsequent Congressional testimony in June that same year, were interpreted by some commentators as evidence of obstruction of justice on Trump's part, and became part of the Mueller investigation. Horowitz found that Comey violated FBI policy with the leaked memos but saw no evidence he or his lawyers shared classified information, so the Department of Justice declined to prosecute him. In August 2019, the Office of the Inspector General found Comey's retention, handling, and dissemination of the memos violated DOJ policies, FBI policies, and his FBI employment agreement. In December 2019, Horowitz released a report finding no political bias against Trump by Comey or other FBI officials in their Russia probe, although other DOJ officials criticized that conclusion. In September 2025, Comey was indicted by a federal grand jury on one charge of making false statements and one charge of obstruction. He pleaded not guilty. On November 24, 2025, the case was dismissed by a federal judge. Comey was indicted again and surrendered in April 2026 over an Instagram post he briefly made which allegedly made a veiled call for Trump's assassination.
-
James T. Aubrey
James Thomas Aubrey Jr. (December 14, 1918 – September 3, 1994) was an American television and film executive. As president of the CBS television network from 1959 to 1965, he produced some of television's most enduring series on the air, including Gilligan's Island and The Beverly Hillbillies. Under Aubrey's leadership, CBS dominated American television, leading the other networks NBC and ABC, by nine points and seeing its profits rise from $25 million in 1959 to $49 million in 1964. The New York Times Magazine in 1964 called Aubrey "a master of programming whose divinations led to successes that are breathtaking". Aubrey had replaced CBS Television president Louis G. Cowan, who was dismissed after the quiz-show scandals. Aubrey's tough decision-making earned him the nickname "Smiling Cobra" during his tenure. Despite his success in television, Aubrey's abrasive personality and ego led to his firing from CBS, amid charges of misconduct. Aubrey offered no explanation following his dismissal, nor did CBS President Frank Stanton or Board Chairman William Paley. "The circumstances rivaled the best of CBS adventure or mystery shows," declared The New York Times in its front-page story on his firing, which came on "the sunniest Sunday in February" 1965. After four years as an independent producer, Aubrey was hired by financier Kirk Kerkorian in 1969 to preside over Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's (MGM) near-total shutdown, during which he cut the budget and alienated producers and directors, but brought profits to a company that had suffered huge losses. In 1973, Aubrey resigned from MGM, declaring his job was done, and then kept a low profile for the last two decades of his life.
-
Jan Antonín Koželuh
Jan Antonín Koželuh (also Johann Antonin Kozeluch, Koscheluch, Jan Evangelista Antonín Tomáš; 14 December 1738 – 3 February 1814) was a Czech composer.
-
Jane Cowl
Jane Cowl (December 14, 1883 – June 22, 1950) was an American film and stage actress and playwright who was, in the words of author Anthony Slide, "notorious for playing lachrymose parts". Actress Jane Russell was named in Cowl's honor.
-
Jane Crafter
Jane Crafter (born 14 December 1955) is an Australian professional golfer.
-
Jerzy Iwanow-Szajnowicz
Jerzy Iwanow-Szajnowicz (Greek: Γεώργιος Ιβάνωφ-Σαϊνόβιτς, Georgios Ivanof-Sainovits; 14 December 1911 – 4 January 1943) was a Polish athlete who was active as a secret agent in Greece and was collaborating with the Greek Resistance during World War II before his execution by the Germans.
-
Jimmy Doolittle
James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle (December 14, 1896 – September 27, 1993) was an American military general and aviation pioneer who received the Medal of Honor for his raid on Japan during World War II, known as the Doolittle Raid in his honor. He made early coast-to-coast flights and record-breaking speed flights, won many flying races, and helped develop and flight-test instrument flying. According to the FAA, he was the first pilot ever to perform a successful instrument flight. Doolittle grew up in Nome, Alaska. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1922. That year, he made the first cross-country flight in an Airco DH.4, and in 1925, was awarded a doctorate in aeronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the first such doctorate degree issued in the United States. In 1927, he performed the first outside loop, thought at the time to be a fatal aerobatic maneuver, and two years later, in 1929, pioneered the use of "blind flying", where a pilot relies on flight instruments alone, which later won him the Harmon Trophy and made all-weather airline operations practical. Doolittle was a flying instructor during World War I and a reserve officer in the United States Army Air Corps, but was recalled to active duty during World War II. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for personal valor and leadership as commander of the Doolittle Raid, a bold long-range retaliatory air raid on some of the Japanese main islands on April 18, 1942, four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The raid used 16 North American B-25B Mitchell medium bombers with reduced armament to decrease weight and increase range, each with a crew of five and no escort fighter aircraft. It was a major morale booster for the United States and Doolittle was celebrated as a hero, making him one of the most important national figures of the war. Doolittle was promoted to lieutenant general and commanded the Twelfth Air Force over North Africa, the Fifteenth Air Force over the Mediterranean, and the Eighth Air Force over Europe. He retired from the Air Force in 1959 but remained active in many technical fields. Doolittle was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1967, eight years after retirement and only five years after the Hall was founded. He was eventually promoted to general in 1985, presented to him by President Ronald Reagan 43 years after the Doolittle Raid. In 2003, he topped Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine's list of the greatest pilots of all time, and ten years later, Flying magazine ranked Doolittle sixth on its list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation. He died in 1993 at the age of 96, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
-
John Brown
John Young Brown (born December 14, 1951) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A forward, he played college basketball for the Missouri Tigers. He was a graduate of Dixon High School in Dixon, Missouri. Brown was selected for the 1972 Olympic team, but due to injury did not compete in the games. Brown was selected tenth overall in the 1973 NBA draft by the Atlanta Hawks, and was named to the 1974 NBA All-Rookie Team. His final season was split between the Hawks and the Utah Jazz in 1979–80. Brown also played for the Chicago Bulls for one season and several years in Italy after leaving the NBA. He was also drafted by the Dallas Chaparrals in the second round of the 1973 American Basketball Association special circumstances draft as the final draft pick made under that franchise's old name; months after making that selection, the team would become the San Antonio Spurs ever since then. On March 10, 2019, the University of Missouri retired Brown's number 50 jersey in a ceremony at halftime of their final home game of the 2018–19 season.
-
John Kemény
János Kemény (14 December 1607 in Magyarbükkös – 23 January 1662 in Szásznagyszőllős) was a Hungarian aristocrat, writer and prince of Transylvania. János Kemény, offspring of a Transylvanian family of Hungarian aristocrats, held various political and military positions in the Principality of Transylvania, during the reign of princes Gábor Bethlen and George I Rákóczi. As he writes, the family descends from Kemeny Simon, who disguised himself as Hunyadi János and was killed by the Turks instead of his master. The story is recorded by Heltai Gaspar's work, Magyar Cronica, a Hungarian translation/rewriting of the Latin of Antonio Bonfini published in 1560s. Under George II Rákóczi, he became the chief advisor of the prince, and leader of the military campaigns to Moldavia in 1653 and Poland in 1657, the latter being aimed at obtaining the Polish crown for Rákóczi. The Turks were strongly opposed to Rákóczi's Polish ambitions and prohibited any military action. In the face of Turkish prohibition, Kemény also objected to the prince's ill-conceived Polish undertaking, and unwillingly took the leadership of the campaign that ended in disaster; Kemény's army, deserted by the Swedish allies, was captured by the Crimean Tatar allies of the Turks. Kemény was held captive by the Tatars until August 1659, when he was released for a huge ransom. During his captivity in Bakhchisaray he wrote his autobiography (in Hungarian), one of the masterpieces of the Transylvanian memoirist literature of the 17th century. When he returned to Transylvania, he found a country torn by the ambitions of George II Rákóczi, unwilling to resign, a number of would-be princes, and a Turkish Porte vengeful for the unauthorized military campaign. The Sublime Porte now openly disregarded the Transylvanian Estates' right to elect the prince; Kemény saw this, and the successional invasions of Transylvania by the Turks and their Crimean Tatar allies, as an end of Transylvania's autonomy, which he thought could be prevented only with reliance on Habsburg help. Kemény was elected prince by the Transylvanian Diet on 1 January 1661, after Ákos Barcsay, backed by the Turks, was forced to resign. In April 1661, the Transylvanian Diet, led by Kemény, proclaimed the secession of Transylvania from the Ottoman Empire and called on help from Vienna. In turn, an overwhelming Turkish and Tatar army attacked Transylvania in June, defeating Kemény's army and driving him to Royal Hungary. The Turks installed Mihály Apafi as prince; Kemény, initially supported by Austrian general Montecuccoli returned to Transylvania in early September. However, the Austrian army soon deserted him, and Kemény was killed by the Turks in the battle of Nagyszőllős. His renaissance family castle is now in half-ruin, due to neglect, in Aranyosmeggyes - visible from the main road Cluj-Napoca-Turda.
-
John Lurie
John Lurie (born December 14, 1952) is an American musician, painter, actor, director, and producer. He co-founded the Lounge Lizards jazz ensemble; has acted in 19 films, including Stranger than Paradise and Down by Law; has composed and performed music for 20 television and film works; and he produced, directed, and starred in the Fishing with John television series. In 1996 his soundtrack for Get Shorty was nominated for a Grammy Award, and his album The Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits has been praised by critics and fellow musicians. Since 2000, he has suffered from symptoms attributed to chronic Lyme disease and has focused his attention on painting. His art has been shown in galleries and museums around the world. His primitivist painting Bear Surprise became an internet meme in Russia in 2006. His television series, Painting with John, debuted on HBO in January 2021 and ran for three seasons before being cancelled. Lurie's 1980s NYC memoir, The History of Bones, was published by Penguin Random House in August 2021.
-
Jon Elia
Syed Hussain Sibt-e-Asghar Naqvi (19 October 1931 – 8 November 2002), commonly known by his pen name Jaun Elia, was a Pakistani poet. One of the most prominent modern Urdu poets of ghazals (amatory poems), popular for his unconventional ways, he "acquired knowledge of philosophy, logic, Islamic history, the Muslim Sufi tradition, Muslim religious sciences, Western literature, and Kabbala". He was fluent in Urdu, Arabic, Sindhi, English and Persian. Elia was the younger brother of poet Rais Amrohvi.
-
Josh Fields
Joshua Dean Fields (born December 14, 1982) is an American former professional baseball infielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yomiuri Giants.
-
Joshua Rush
Joshua Nisenson (born December 14, 2001), also known as Joshua Rush, is an American actor and political activist. He is known for playing Cyrus Goodman on the Disney Channel series Andi Mack (2017–2019), the first openly-gay character on the network. Rush earned significant praise and media coverage for his performance, as well as a Young Entertainer Award in 2019. Rush began his career as a child actor, appearing in short films and commercials, and the series Heroes (2009). For his role as Turner in the feature film Parental Guidance (2012), he received two Young Artist Award nominations. His voice roles includes Breehn on the Cartoon Network series Clarence (2014–2016), Bunga on the Disney Junior series The Lion Guard (2016–2019) and the titular character on the DreamWorks series Where's Waldo? (2019–2021).
-
Justin Furstenfeld
Justin Steward Furstenfeld (born December 14, 1975) is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and lyricist of the rock band Blue October. He is also a member of the band Harvard of the South.
-
Justus Möser
Justus Möser (14 December 1720 – 8 January 1794) was a German jurist, social theorist, and conservative commentator best known for his innovative history of Osnabrück which stressed social and cultural themes. Möser is generally seen as the founder of German Conservatism.
-
Karan Armstrong
Karan Armstrong (December 14, 1941 – September 28, 2021) was an American operatic soprano, who was celebrated as a singing actress. After winning the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1966, she was given small roles at the Metropolitan Opera, and appeared in leading roles at the New York City Opera from 1969, including Conceptión in Ravel's L'heure espagnol, Blonde in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and the title roles in Verdi's La traviata, Offenbach's La belle Hélène and Puccini's La fanciulla del West. After she performed in Europe from 1974, first as Micaëla in Bizet's Carmen, and then as a sensational Salome at the Opéra du Rhin, she enjoyed a career at major opera houses, appearing in several opera recordings and films. Armstrong was for decades a leading soprano at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where her husband Götz Friedrich was director. She appeared in world premieres, including Gottfried von Einem's Jesu Hochzeit, Luciano Berio's Un re in ascolto and York Höller's Der Meister und Margarita. She was awarded the title Kammersängerin twice.
-
Karl Carstens
Karl Carstens (German: [kaʁl ˈkaʁstn̩s] ; 14 December 1914 – 30 May 1992) was a German politician. He served as the president of West Germany from 1979 to 1984.
-
Karl Renner
Karl Renner (14 December 1870 – 31 December 1950) was an Austrian politician and jurist of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria. He is often referred to as the "Father of the Republics" because he led the first government of the Republic of German-Austria and the First Austrian Republic in 1919 and 1920, and was once again decisive in establishing the present Second Republic after the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, becoming its first President after World War II (and fourth overall).
-
Katherine MacDonald
Katherine Agnew MacDonald (December 14, 1891 – June 4, 1956) was an American stage and film actress, film producer, and model. She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and was the older sister of actresses Miriam MacDonald and Mary MacLaren.
-
Kelley Armstrong
Kelley Armstrong (born 14 December 1968) is a Canadian writer, primarily of fantasy novels since 2001. She has published thirty-one fantasy novels to date, thirteen in her Women of the Otherworld series, five in her Cainsville series, six in her Rockton series, three in her Darkest Powers series, three in her Darkness Rising trilogy and three in the Age of Legends series, and three stand-alone teen thrillers. She has also published three middle-grade fantasy novels in the Blackwell Pages trilogy, with co-author Melissa Marr. As well, she is the author of three crime novels, the Nadia Stafford trilogy. She has also written several serial novellas and short stories for the Otherworld series, some of which are available free from her website. Starting in 2014, a Canadian television series based on the Women of the Otherworld, called Bitten, aired for 3 seasons on Space, and SyFy.
-
Kenneth Medwood
Kenneth Nathaniel Medwood (born December 14, 1987) is a Belizean track and field athlete, specializing in the 400 metres hurdles. He competed in the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Athletics and was his nation's flagbearer in the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics.
-
Kuldeep Yadav
Kuldeep Yadav (born 14 December 1994) is an Indian international cricketer. A left-arm unorthodox spinner, he plays for Uttar Pradesh in domestic cricket and Lucknow Super Giants in the Indian Premier League. He was a member of the Indian team that won the 2024 and 2026 T20 World Cups and the 2025 Champions Trophy. Yadav has played for the Indian Under-19 cricket team and played in the 2014 U19 Cricket World Cup. On 18 December 2019, against the West Indies, he became the first bowler for India to take two hat-tricks in international cricket. On 17 January 2020, in the second ODI against Australia, Yadav became the fastest spin bowler for India, in terms of innings, to take 100 wickets in ODI cricket, in his 58th innings. He helped his national team to win the 2018 Asia Cup as he took the most wickets during the tournament at 10 along with Rashid Khan and Mustafizur Rahman, and being the highest wicket taker for India. He made his international test debut against Australia in Dharamshala on 25 March 2017.
-
Kurt Schuschnigg
Kurt Alois Josef Johann von Schuschnigg (German: [ˈkʊʁt ˈʃʊʃnɪk]; 14 December 1897 – 18 November 1977) was a Slovene-Austrian politician who was the Chancellor of the Federal State of Austria from the 1934 assassination of his predecessor Engelbert Dollfuss until the 1938 Anschluss with Nazi Germany. Although Schuschnigg considered Austria a "German state" and Austrians to be Germans, he was strongly opposed to Adolf Hitler's goal to absorb Austria into the Third Reich and wished for it to remain independent. When Schuschnigg's efforts to keep Austria independent had failed, he resigned his office. After the Anschluss he was arrested, kept in solitary confinement, and eventually interned in various concentration camps. He was liberated in 1945 by the advancing US Army and spent most of the rest of his life in academia in the United States. Schuschnigg gained American citizenship in 1956.
-
Leanne Mitchell
Leanne Mitchell (born 14 December 1983) is an English pop singer, best known for winning the first series of The Voice UK on 2 June 2012. Mitchell released her debut solo single "Run to You" on 3 June 2012. Her debut self-titled album was released in May 2013 and was described as a "huge flop", managing to get to only 134 in the album chart. She was dropped from her label in 2014.
-
Leonardo Boff
Leonardo Boff (Portuguese: [leoˈnaʁdu ˈbɔf]; born Genézio Darci Boff, pronounced [ʒeˈnɛzju daʁˈsi ˈbɔf]; 14 December 1938) is a Brazilian Catholic theologian, philosopher writer, and former Catholic priest known for his active support for Latin American liberation theology. He is professor emeritus of ethics, philosophy of religion, and ecology at the Rio de Janeiro State University. In 2001, he received the Right Livelihood Award for "his inspiring insights and practical work to help people realise the links between human spirituality, social justice and environmental stewardship".
-
Lester Bangs
Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs (December 14, 1948 – April 30, 1982) was an American music journalist and critic. He wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines and was also a performing musician. The music critic Jim DeRogatis called him "America's greatest rock critic".
-
Lewis Arquette
Lewis Michael Arquette ( ar-KET; December 14, 1935 – February 10, 2001) was an American actor who worked in film and television. He played J.D. Pickett on the television series, The Waltons from 1978 to 1981, and appeared in several supporting roles throughout his career.
-
Lex Gold
Lex Gold CBE (born 14 December 1940) is a Scottish administrator and former footballer who was a director of Caledonian MacBrayne as of 2012. Gold was born in Lanark, and played professional football as a teenager, including an 18-month spell with Rangers. He was a civil servant for over thirty years. Gold was chairman of Hibernian until he resigned after the club was relegated in 1998. In 1998, he was invited to deliver the Marlow (Scotland) Lecture to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. Gold was also on the boards of NHS Lanarkshire, Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Chamber of Commerce and the Confederation of British Industry in Scotland. Until October 2009 Gold was the executive chairman of the SPL.
-
Linda Fabiani
Linda Fabiani (born 14 December 1956) HonFRIAS OSSI FCIH is a Scottish politician who served as a Deputy Presiding Officer in the Scottish Parliament from 2016 to 2021. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), she was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the East Kilbride constituency from 2011 until her retirement in 2021. She was previously a regional member of the Scottish Parliament for the Central Scotland region from 1999 until 2011.
-
Lonnie Walker IV
Lonnie Terrence Walker IV (born December 14, 1998) is an American professional basketball player for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). high school, he was named Mr. Pennsylvania Basketball and earned McDonald's All-American honors. Walker played college basketball for the Miami Hurricanes. After being named to the all-freshman team in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), he was selected in the first round of the 2018 NBA draft by the San Antonio Spurs with the 18th overall pick. He played four seasons with the Spurs before signing with the Los Angeles Lakers. He has also played for the Brooklyn Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers.
-
Louis Marshall
Louis Marshall (December 14, 1856 – September 11, 1929) was an American corporate, constitutional and civil rights lawyer as well as a mediator and Jewish community leader who worked to secure religious, political, and cultural freedom for all minority groups. Among the founders of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), he defended Jewish and minority rights. He was also a conservationist, and the force behind re-establishing the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University, which evolved into today's State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF).
-
Manolis Kalomiris
Manolis Kalomiris (Greek: Μανώλης Καλομοίρης; December 14, 1883 – April 3, 1962) was a Greek classical composer. He was the founder of the Greek National School of Music.
-
Margaret Bakkes
Margaret Bakkes (14 December 1931 – 29 June 2016) was a South African writer. She was married to historian Cas Bakkes, and was the mother of four children: C. Johan Bakkes, Marius, Matilde, and Christiaan Bakkes, two of whom—Johannes and Christiaan—also became writers.
-
Maria Szymanowska
Maria Szymanowska (Polish pronunciation: [ˈmarja ʂɨmaˈnɔfska]; born Marianna Agata Wołowska; Warsaw, 14 December 1789 – 25 July 1831, Saint Petersburg, Russia) was a Polish composer and one of the first professional virtuoso pianists of the 19th century. She toured extensively throughout Europe, especially in the 1820s, before settling permanently in Saint Petersburg. In the Russian imperial capital, she composed for the court, gave concerts, taught music, and ran an influential salon. The salons in 18th-century France were intellectual gatherings held at home by educated women. In 1837, the composer and music critic Robert Schumann defined salon music as elegant light music and stated that this type of social music should sound beautiful, delicate, and fashionable. Szymanowska was highly praised by Schumann for her salon music works, especially her etudes. Her compositions—largely piano pieces, songs, and other small chamber works, as well as the first piano concert etudes and nocturnes in Poland—typify the stile brillant of the era preceding Frédéric Chopin. She was the mother of Celina Szymanowska, who married the Polish Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz.
-
Mary Tappan Wright
Mary Tappan Wright (December 14, 1851 – August 25, 1916) was an American novelist and short story writer best known for her acute characterizations and depictions of academic life. She was the wife of classical scholar John Henry Wright and the mother of legal scholar and utopian novelist Austin Tappan Wright and geographer John Kirtland Wright.
-
Michaela Watkins
Michaela Watkins (born December 14, 1971) is an American actress and comedian. After several years performing with the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings, Watkins achieved widespread attention for her brief stint as a featured player on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live during its 34th season between 2008 and 2009. Since leaving SNL, she has starred on the Hulu series Casual and on the short-lived sitcoms The Unicorn and Trophy Wife. Watkins has also had recurring roles on other television series, such as The New Adventures of Old Christine, Catastrophe, Enlightened and Search Party and appeared in films such as The Back-up Plan (2010), Wanderlust (2012), Enough Said (2013), Sword of Trust (2019), and Suze (2023).
-
Mike Scott
Michael Scott (born 14 December 1958) is a Scottish singer, songwriter, and musician. He is the founding member, lead singer, guitarist, songwriter and only constant member of rock band The Waterboys. He has also produced two solo albums, Bring 'Em All In and Still Burning. Scott is a vocalist, guitarist and pianist, and has played a large range of other instruments, including the bouzouki, drums, and Hammond organ on his albums. Scott is also a published writer, having released his autobiography, Adventures of a Waterboy, in 2012. Having begun a musical career in the 1970s, Scott has been making music professionally since the 1980s and is well known for his radical changes in music genres throughout what he refers to as his "allegedly unorthodox" career. Scott lives in Dublin, Ireland.
-
Miranda Hart
Miranda Katherine Hart Dyke (born 14 December 1972), is an English actress, comedian and writer. She has won three Royal Television Society awards, four British Comedy Awards and four BAFTA nominations for her self-driven semi-autobiographical BBC sitcom Miranda (2009–2015). Before her own series was commissioned, Hart made appearances in various BBC sitcoms, including The Vicar of Dibley (2005), Hyperdrive (2006–2007) and Not Going Out (2006–2009). She appeared as Camilla "Chummy" Fortescue-Cholmondeley-Browne in the BBC drama series Call the Midwife (2012–2015) and made her Hollywood debut in the action comedy film Spy (2015). Hart has written several books. In 2017, Hart presented the Royal Variety Performance in the presence of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, making her the first solo female presenter in 105 years.
-
Morey Amsterdam
Moritz "Morey" Amsterdam (December 14, 1908 – October 28, 1996) was an American actor, comedian, writer and producer. Between 1948 and 1950, he hosted his own TV sitcom The Morey Amsterdam Show. He played Buddy Sorrell on CBS's The Dick Van Dyke Show from 1961 to 1966.
-
Nicolas Batum
Nicolas Madelin Victor Andre Batum ( NEE-koh-lə bə-TOOM; born 14 December 1988) is a French professional basketball player who last played for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is also a member of the French national team and earned a silver medal in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
-
Nikolay Basov
Nikolay Gennadiyevich Basov (Russian: Николай Геннадиевич Басов; 14 December 1922 – 1 July 2001) was a Soviet physicist and educator. For his fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics that led to the development of laser and maser, Basov shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics with Alexander Prokhorov and Charles Hard Townes.
-
Patrik Sundström
Olof Patric Waldemar Sundström (born 14 December 1961) is a Swedish former professional ice hockey player. He played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 10 seasons.
-
Pedro Botelho
Pedro Roberto da Silva Botelho (born 14 December 1989) is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays for Rio Branco. Mainly a left back, he can also play as a left midfielder. He was bought by Arsenal before his 18th birthday but never appeared competitively for the club, playing in Spain for the duration of his contract and being released in 2012.
-
Philander Chase
Philander Chase (December 14, 1775 – September 20, 1852) was an Episcopal Church bishop, educator, pioneer of the United States western frontier, especially in Ohio and Illinois, and founder of Kenyon College.
-
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (French pronunciation: [pjɛʁ pyvi də ʃavan]; 14 December 1824 – 24 October 1898) was a French painter known for his mural painting, who came to be known as "the painter for France". He became the co-founder and president of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and his work influenced many other artists, notably Robert Genin, and he aided medallists by designs and suggestions for their works. Puvis de Chavannes was a prominent painter in the early Third Republic. Émile Zola described his work as "an art made of reason, passion, and will".
-
Raj Kapoor
Ranbir Raj Kapoor (pronounced [raːdʒ kəˈpuːɾ]; born Shrishti Nath Kapoor; 14 December 1924 – 2 June 1988), popularly known as Raj Kapoor was an Indian actor and filmmaker who worked in Hindi cinema. He is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential actors and filmmakers in the history of Indian cinema. He has been referred to as The Greatest Showman of Indian Cinema as well as The Charlie Chaplin of Indian Cinema. Born in Peshawar as the eldest son of Prithviraj Kapoor of the Kapoor family, Raj Kapoor starred in and produced many films for which he received multiple accolades, including three National Film Awards and 11 Filmfare Awards in India. He was inspired by Charlie Chaplin and played characters based on The Tramp in films, such as Awāra (1951), Shree 420 (1955) and Mera Naam Joker (1970). His performance in Awāra was ranked as one of the "Top-Ten Greatest Performances of All Time in World Cinema" by Time magazine in 2005. His films Awāra (1951) and Boot Polish (1954) competed for the Palme d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1951 and 1955. His films were global commercial successes in parts of Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Africa, and the Soviet bloc. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 1971 for his contributions to the arts. India's highest award in cinema, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, was bestowed to him in 1988 by the Government of India.
-
Richard Cassilly
Richard Cassilly (December 14, 1927 – January 30, 1998) was an American operatic tenor who had a major international opera career between 1954–90. Cassilly "was a mainstay in the heldentenor repertory in opera houses around the world for 30 years", and particularly excelled in Wagnerian roles like Tristan, Siegmund and Tannhäuser, and in dramatic parts that required both stamina and vocal weight, such as Giuseppe Verdi's Otello and Camille Saint-Saëns's Samson. He was an admired Don José in Carmen and sang almost all of the leading Puccini tenor roles. Standing at 6'3" and possessing a 250-pound frame The New York Times described him as "a burly tenor with a bright ping on the top notes who had a supple lyric quality [to his voice]", and "was known to bring a musical intelligence and uncommonly clear diction to his work." Cassilly spent the early years of his opera career singing primarily with the New York City Opera between 1955–1966, often portraying roles in obscure and contemporary operas. During these years he also traveled frequently throughout North America, appearing with most of the major opera companies in the United States and Canada. In 1965 he launched a major international opera career when he portrayed the title role in a critically acclaimed production of Heinrich Sutermeister's Raskolnikoff at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. This performance earned him a contract with the Hamburg State Opera as their leading in-house dramatic tenor, a position he held from 1965 to 1978. Engagements with other major companies soon followed, and by 1973 Cassilly had sung leading roles with almost every major opera house in Europe, including La Scala, the Opéra National de Paris, the Vienna State Opera, and the Bavarian State Opera. Cassilly also forged a strong collaborative partnership with the Royal Opera in London, appearing in that house almost every year from 1968 to 1982. In 1978 he joined the roster of principal tenors at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, where he spent the majority of his time until his retirement in 1990.
-
Robert Covington
Robert Covington (born December 14, 1990) is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Tennessee State Tigers, and, in 2018, he was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team.
-
Roger Fry
Roger Eliot Fry (14 December 1866 – 9 September 1934) was an English painter and critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent developments in French painting, to which he gave the name Post-Impressionism. He was an early figure to raise public awareness of modern art in Britain, and he emphasised the formal properties of paintings over the "associated ideas" conjured in the viewer by their representational content. He was described by the art historian Kenneth Clark as "incomparably the greatest influence on taste since Ruskin ... In so far as taste can be changed by one man, it was changed by Roger Fry". The taste Fry influenced was primarily that of the Anglophone world, and his success lay largely in alerting an educated public to a compelling version of recent artistic developments of the Parisian avant-garde.
-
Ron Jarden
Ronald Alexander Jarden (born 14 December 1929, Lower Hutt, New Zealand and died 18 February 1977, Lower Hutt), better known as Ron Jarden, was a New Zealand rugby union footballer, businessman, and sharebroker.
-
Scott Hatteberg
Scott Allen Hatteberg (born December 14, 1969) is an American former professional first baseman and catcher. From 1995 through 2008, he played in Major League Baseball for the Boston Red Sox, Oakland Athletics, and Cincinnati Reds. Hatteberg attended Washington State University, where he played college baseball for the Cougars.
-
Shirley Jackson
Shirley Hardie Jackson (December 14, 1916 – August 8, 1965) was an American writer known primarily for her works of horror and mystery. Her writing career spanned over two decades, during which she composed six novels, two memoirs, and more than 200 short stories. Born in San Francisco, California, Jackson attended Syracuse University in New York, where she became involved with the university's literary magazine and met her future husband Stanley Edgar Hyman. After they graduated, the couple moved to New York City and began contributing to The New Yorker, with Jackson as a fiction writer and Hyman as a contributor to "Talk of the Town". The couple settled in North Bennington, Vermont, in 1945, after the birth of their first child, when Hyman joined the faculty of Bennington College. After publishing her debut novel, The Road Through the Wall (1948), a semi-autobiographical account of her childhood in California, Jackson gained significant public attention for her short story "The Lottery", which presents the sinister underside of a bucolic American village. She continued to publish numerous short stories in literary journals and magazines throughout the 1950s, some of which were assembled and reissued in her 1953 memoir Life Among the Savages. In 1959, she published The Haunting of Hill House, a supernatural horror novel widely considered to be one of the best ghost stories ever written. Jackson's final work, the 1962 novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, is a Gothic psychological horror novel that has been described as her masterpiece. By the 1960s, Jackson's health began to deteriorate significantly, ultimately leading to her death due to a heart condition in 1965 at the age of 48.
-
Shyam Benegal
Shyam Benegal (14 December 1934 – 23 December 2024) was an Indian film director, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. Often regarded as a pioneer of parallel cinema, he is considered as one of the greatest filmmakers post 1970s. He has received several accolades, including eighteen National Film Awards, a Filmfare Award and a Nandi Award. In 2005, he was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest award in the field of cinema. In 1976, he was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian honour of the country, and in 1991, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour for his contributions in the field of arts. He died on 23 December 2024, aged 90, at Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai, where he was receiving treatment for chronic kidney disease. Benegal was born in Hyderabad to Sridhar B. Benegal, who was prominent in the field of photography. Starting his career as a copywriter, he made his first Documentary film in Gujarati, Gher Betha Ganga (Ganges at the Doorstep) in 1962. Benegal's first four feature films – Ankur (1973), Nishant (1975), Manthan (1976) and Bhumika (1977) – made him a pioneer of the new wave film movement of that period. Benegal's "Muslim Women Trilogy" films Mammo (1994), Sardari Begum (1996), and Zubeidaa (2001) all won National Film Awards for Best Feature Film in Hindi. Benegal has won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi seven times. He was awarded the V. Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.
-
Tammy Blanchard
Tammy Jean Blanchard (born December 14, 1976) is an American actress. She rose to prominence for her role as teenage Judy Garland in the critically acclaimed television film Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001), for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination and a Primetime Emmy Award. Her other notable film roles were in The Good Shepherd (2006), Sybil (2007), Into the Woods (2014) and The Invitation (2015). Blanchard has been nominated for two Tony Awards: one for her role as Louise in the 2003 Broadway revival of the musical Gypsy, and the other as Hedy LaRue in the 2011 Broadway revival of the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
-
Thed Björk
Thed Björk Bang-Melchior (born 14 December 1980) is a Swedish racing driver, and 2017 World Touring Car Champion. Other notable titles include the 2006 Swedish Touring Car Championship and the 2013, 2014 and 2015 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship. He also finished second in 2005 and 2009, and third in the 2008 STCC and the 2012 TTA – Racing Elite League.
-
Tori Kelly
Victoria Loren "Tori" Kelly (born December 14, 1992) is an American singer-songwriter. She first gained recognition on YouTube before making it through to Hollywood week on the ninth season of American Idol in 2010 and eventually releasing her debut EP, Handmade Songs (2012). In 2013, Kelly signed with Capitol Records and released her first major-label EP Foreword (2013) which reached top 20 on the US Billboard 200. She followed with her debut studio album Unbreakable Smile (2015), which peaked at number two and garnered the singles "Nobody Love", "Should've Been Us" and "Hollow" which marked her first three appearances on the Billboard Hot 100. Kelly released her second studio album, Hiding Place (2018), to critical acclaim and won two Grammy Awards for Best Gospel Album and Best Gospel Performance/Song. She followed with Inspired by True Events (2019), A Tori Kelly Christmas (2020), and later signed to Epic Records and released Tori (2024) and God Must Really Love Me (2026). Outside of music, Kelly has voiced Meena in the Sing franchise and competed on The Masked Singer. She has received numerous accolades including a BET Award, two Billboard Music Awards, three Grammy Awards overall, and a GMA Dove Award.
-
Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe ( TY-koh BRAH-(h)ee, - BRAH(-hə); Danish: [ˈtsʰykʰo ˈpʁɑːə] ; born Tyge Ottesen Brahe, Danish: [ˈtsʰyːjə ˈʌtəsn̩ ˈpʁɑːə]; 14 December 1546 – 24 October 1601), generally called Tycho for short, was a Danish astronomer known for his comprehensive and unprecedentedly accurate astronomical observations which helped to turn astronomy into the first modern science and launch the Scientific Revolution. He was known during his lifetime as an astronomer, astrologer, and alchemist. He was the last major astronomer before the invention of the telescope and has been described as the greatest pre-telescopic astronomer. In 1572, Tycho noticed a completely new star that was brighter than any star or planet. Astonished by the existence of a star that ought not to have been there, he devoted himself to the creation of ever more accurate instruments of measurement over the next fifteen years (1576–1591). King Frederick II granted Tycho an estate on the island of Hven and the money to build Uraniborg, the first large observatory in Christian Europe. He later worked underground at Stjerneborg, where he realised that his instruments in Uraniborg were not sufficiently steady. An heir to several noble families, Tycho was well educated. He worked to combine what he saw as the geometrical benefits of Copernican heliocentrism with the philosophical benefits of the Ptolemaic system, and devised the Tychonic system, his own version of a model of the Universe, with the Sun orbiting the Earth, and the planets as orbiting the Sun. In De nova stella (1573), he refuted the Aristotelian belief in an unchanging celestial realm. His measurements indicated that "new stars", stellae novae, now called supernovae, moved beyond the Moon, and he was able to show that comets were not atmospheric phenomena, as was previously thought. In 1597, Tycho was forced by the new king, Christian IV, to leave Denmark. He was invited to Prague, where he became the official imperial astronomer, and built an observatory at Benátky nad Jizerou. Before his death in 1601, he was assisted for a year by Johannes Kepler, who went on to use Tycho's data to develop his own three laws of planetary motion.
-
Vijay Amritraj
Vijay Amritraj (Tamil pronunciation: [ˈʋɪdʒaɪ amrit̪ˈɾaːdʒ]; born 14 December 1953) is an Indian retired professional tennis player, sports commentator and actor from Madras. He was awarded the Padma Shri (India's fourth-highest civilian honour), in 1983, and the Padma Bhushan (India's third-highest civilian honour) in 2026. In 2022, he was honored for his contributions to tennis in London by the International Tennis Hall of Fame and International Tennis Federation. On July 20, 2024 he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island.
-
Virgil Madgearu
Virgil Traian N. Madgearu (Romanian pronunciation: [virˈd͡ʒil maˈd͡ʒe̯aru]; December 14, 1887 – November 27, 1940) was a Romanian economist, sociologist, and left-wing politician, prominent member and main theorist of the Peasants' Party and of its successor, the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ). He had an important activity as an essayist and journalist, being for long a member on the editorial board for the influential Viața Românească. Madgearu was a prominent opponent of the National Liberal Party for much of his life, developing an original theory that challenged both Liberal tenets and Marxian economics, proposing measures to enhance the political and economic roles of Romanian peasants. In his later years, he was involved in anti-fascist causes, and was one of several politicians to be assassinated by the Iron Guard.
-
Virginia Coffey
Virginia Coffey (1904–2003), was an American social reformer and civil rights activist who worked for improved race relations in and around Cincinnati, Ohio. She advised and directed several organisations during her career, including a variety of boards and committees.
-
Walter Rangeley
Walter Rangeley (14 December 1903 – 16 March 1982) was an English athlete who competed mainly in the sprints.
-
Xul Solar
Xul Solar was the adopted name of Oscar Agustín Alejandro Schulz Solari (14 December 1887 – 9 April 1963), an Argentine painter, sculptor, writer, and inventor of imaginary languages.
Who's birthday is it today? — FAQ
Who's birthday is it today?
You're viewing December 14 (not today). See who's birthday it is today.
How are famous birthdays ranked?
Each person gets a popularity index from recent English Wikipedia pageviews. Higher visits means they appear higher in the “who birthday today” list.
Can I check another date?
Yes — use the day picker above, or open clean URLs like /birthday/december-14. Every calendar day has its own page for famous birthdays.
Where does the data come from?
Birth lists are scraped from English Wikipedia on-this-day pages. Gender and living status come from Wikidata when available.
Is there an API for apps and AI assistants?
Yes. Use /api/today for today's ranked birthdays (JSON), /api/birthdays for any date, /openapi.json for the schema, and /llms.txt for LLM-oriented site instructions.